A Photo Of Saturn. Took By Cassini With COISS On May 30, 2008 At 11:52:37. Detail Page On OPUS Database.

T-2 hours - JASON-3 and Falcon 9 stand tall on the west coast. For the second time in its history, a SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket stands at Vandenberg Air Force Base’s SLC-4E ready for launch. The 224 foot tall rocket will carry the joint NASA/NOAA JASON-3 satellite to study Earth’s oceans. Of the 20 flights of the Falcon 9 to date, all but one has occurred from Cape Canaveral’s SLC-40. The inaugural flight of Falcon 9 v1.1, Cassiope in September 2013, was also the debut of the vehicle on the west coast. The JASON-3 mission will see the final v1.1 Falcon 9 performing the vehicle’s second west coast flight. Liftoff will occur in the middle of a 30-second launch window, at 1:42 pm EST (10:42 am PST). NASA TV coverage started at 11 am EST. Watch the launch live here. p/c: SpaceX/NASA

This is Kjell Lindgren. He’s a NASA astronaut who just got back from 5 months on the International Space Station. There are two reasons why this picture is hilarious:

His wife is flawless and makes bad space puns to make him do household chores.

I have that shirt. Thousands of people have that shirt. That shirt is available at Target. Which means actual astronaut Kjell Lindgren, with his wardrobe already full of NASA-issued and logo-emblazoned clothes, was at Target, saw a NASA shirt, and was like, “Yes, I am buying this because this is what I want to spend my actual astronaut salary on.”

 tl;dr NASA employs a bunch of fucking nerds

Jupiter’s moon, Callisto.

Tilt Shift filters applied to Hubble Space Telescope photos.

Tilt Shift filters make the foreground and background of images more blurred, changing the depth of field of these images. 

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Shuttle Plume Shadow Points to the Moon

In early 2001 during a launch of Atlantis, the Sun, Earth, Moon, and rocket were all properly aligned for this photogenic coincidence. First, for the space shuttle’s plume to cast a long shadow, the time of day must be either near sunrise or sunset. Only then will the shadow be its longest and extend all the way to the horizon. Finally, during a Full Moon, the Sun and Moon are on opposite sides of the sky. Just after sunset, for example, the Sun is slightly below the horizon, and, in the other direction, the Moon is slightly above the horizon. Therefore, as Atlantis blasted off, just after sunset, its shadow projected away from the Sun toward the opposite horizon, where the Full Moon just happened to be.

Image Credit: Pat McCracken, NASA

(via NASA)

“We used to look up at the sky and wonder at our place in the stars. Now we just look down, and worry about our place in the dirt.”

5 Signs You Might Be Ready to Apply to be an Astronaut

Did you hear? Astronaut applications are open! Here are a few signs that might mean you’re ready to apply:

1. You Don’t Mind Having Roommates

When you’re an astronaut, you have to work and live with your crew mates for extended periods of time. It’s important to the mission and your safety that everyone can collaborate and work together.

2. You LOVE Space

If the Milky Way, planets and space travel doesn’t excite you then this might not be the perfect job for you. But if you love galaxies, space station research and deep space exploration, then maybe you should take a look at our application.

3. Adventure Doesn’t Scare You

Being an astronaut means that you get to take part in adventures that most people will never experience. Imagine: sitting on the launch pad in the Orion spacecraft, atop a rocket that’s getting ready to launch. You’ll travel farther into space than any other humans have been and help push the boundaries of technology in the proving ground of deep space lunar orbits, leading the way for future missions to Mars.

4. You Want to be on the Cutting Edge of Science

Not only do astronauts get to travel to space, but they also get to conduct really cool research in microgravity. Did you know that right now they’re growing Zinnia flowers on the International Space Station? This research could help with our future deep space exploration and could teach us a few things about growing plants on Earth. Learn more about all the awesome research on the space station HERE.

5. You’re Not Afraid of Heights

One of the coolest things about being an astronaut, is that you get to go to SPACE! At the very least, you’ll travel to the International Space Station, which is 250 miles above Earth. Or, you could be one of the first astronauts to travel to a distant asteroid or even Mars!

Interested in applying to become an astronaut? You’re in luck, applications open Dec. 14! Learn about some common myths about becoming an astronaut HERE.

Apply to be one of our astronauts HERE.

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Picture of the Day: Messier 9 Star Cluster

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has taken this incredible picture of Messier 9, a globular star cluster located near the center of our galaxy. The cluster, located some 25,000 light years away, is too faint to be seen with the naked eye, but Hubble has captured more than 250,000 individual stars there. Globular clusters are believed to have emerged when the galaxy was quite young, and the stars that make up Messier 9 are calculated to be around twice as old as our sun.

A photo of Jupiter. Took by Voyager with VGISS on February 01, 1979 at 23:13:23. Detail page on OPUS database.