NASA

The Space Shuttle prototype Enterprise flies free after being released from NASA's 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft.

The Solar X-ray radiation satellite, Vanguard satellite SLV-2, is being checked out at Cape Canaveral.

This is the first "Zero" that came into Allied hands during World War II.

The JATO team watches as Dr. Theodore von Karman sketches out a plan.

At the Electronics Resource Center's Space Optics Laboratory, a laser is checked during operation.

A celebration erupts at Mission Control after a successful splashdown of the Apollo 13 Odyssey.

The plane is mounted in the 30 x 60 Full Scale Tunnel in 1934, prepared for testing.

This picture shows the static test firing of the DM-2 for the Solid Rocket Booster.

Commander David R. Scoot works at Rover near the Hadley-Apennine landing site in the third EVA of the Apollo 15 mission.

Replicas of the communication satellites used to broadcast the 19th Olympic Games from Mexico City to Japan and Europe.

The Lockheed C-141 model is in the Transonic Dynamics Tunnel, the world's first aeroelastic testing tunnel.

The OMEGA trains astronauts in zero-g on a horizontal plane.

A photograph of the Apollo 16 lunar module known as Orion as seen by the Lunar Module pilot.

The Apollo 16 command module shown before splashdown after completing a lunar landing mission.

Mission commander Alan Shepard Jr. is shown during an EVA.

Shelia Scott served as governor of the British section of the Ninety-Nines.

A lunar panorama shows Geologist-Astronaut Harrison H. Schmitt working at the Lunar Roving Vehicle during the second Apollo 17 extravehicular activity.

Gemini 6 view of Gemini 7 during rendezvous maneuvers.

NASA scientists use this plexiglass space station airlock test model to train astronauts for operations in space.

Technicians prepare Pioneer F spacecraft for testing in the Space Simulation Chamber.

Two astronauts test the SAFER system during a shared spacewalk.

The U.S.N.S. Kingsport was the first satellite communication ship.

The Space Shuttle Atlantis returns after mission STS-30, landing at Edwards Air Force Base.

The Lunar Module known as Spider shown still attached to the Saturn IVB stage in earth orbit prior to docking with Apollo 9's Command/Service module known as Gumdrop.

In space during the joint Russian/American docking mission known as the ASTP the Apollo Commander and the Soyuz Commander make their historic handshake.