A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket carrying NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 12:06 p.m. EDT on Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. After launch, the spacecraft plans to fly by Mars in February 2025, then back by Earth in December 2026, using the gravity of each planet to increase its momentum. With help of these “gravity assists,” Europa Clipper will achieve the velocity needed to reach Jupiter in April 2030.

Image Credit: SpaceX

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) was about 44 million miles away from Earth in this photograph from the International Space Station as it orbited 272 miles above the South Pacific Ocean southeast of New Zealand just before sunrise on Sept. 28, 2024.

Image Credit: NASA/Matthew Dominick

On New Zealand’s North Island, a conical snow-capped volcano ringed by dark green forest rises above dairy pasture. The often-snowcapped peak of Mount Taranaki is the centerpiece of Egmont National Park. A circular piece of land—with a 9.6-kilometer (6-mile) radius from the volcano’s summit—was first formally protected as a forest reserve in 1881. With some subsequent additions, it became New Zealand’s second national park in 1900.

Image Credit: NASA/Wanmei Liang, USGS

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"It took years but it felt like all of the sudden, I was here and everything, the entire time, was preparing me for my role on the OSIRIS-REx mission. Now, I share a place in history next to a Curation team full of the most talented, intelligent and hard-working individuals in the world and all that we have accomplished is, and will be, a part of NASA forever." —Salvador Martinez III, Lead Astromaterial Curation Engineer, Jacobs Technology, NASA's Johnson Space Center

Image Credit: NASA/James Blair

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NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, left, and Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, Sant Director, Kirk Johnson, preview the Earth Information Center at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, in Washington, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. The exhibit includes a video wall displaying Earth science data visualizations and videos, an interpretive panel showing Earth’s connected systems, information on our changing world, and an overview of how NASA and the Smithsonian study our home planet.

Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

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Flying aboard Voyagers 1 and 2 are identical "golden" records, carrying the story of Earth far into deep space. This gold aluminum cover was designed to protect the gold-plated records from micrometeorite bombardment, but also serves a double purpose in providing the finder a key to playing the record.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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An astronaut aboard the International Space Station shot this photo of large meanders of the Alabama River while orbiting over the southern United States. The river’s smooth water surface reflects sunlight back toward the astronaut’s camera, producing an optical phenomenon known as sunglint.

Image Credit: NASA/Woody Hoburg

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Chirag Parikh, Deputy Assistant to the President and Executive Secretary of the National Space Council, left, and NASA Astronauts Frank Rubio, center, and Marcos Berrios, right, speak at a staff engagement event that took place during a White House Hispanic Heritage month on Sept. 30, 2024.

Image Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani

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"This is why [Aubrey Gemignani] and I started Faces of NASA: We wanted to make that connection. It's not just rockets, astronauts, and telescopes. Hundreds of thousands of people come together to make these missions possible, and that's the part that's really interesting for me." – Thalia Patrinos, Communications Strategist, PCI Productions, NASA Headquarters

Image Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani

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Earlier this year, the Florida Panthers won their first NHL championship and brought victory to the state of Florida. As part of its championship tour, the Stanley Cup made a visit to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday Sept. 17, 2024.

Image Credit: NASA/Cory S Huston

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The inaugural murals for the relaunched NASA Art Program appear side-by-side at 350 Hudson Street, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in New York City. The murals, titled “To the Moon, and Back,” were created by New York-based artist team Geraluz and WERC and use geometrical patterns to invite deeper reflection on the exploration, creativity, and connection with the cosmos.

Image Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

STS-128 mission specialist José Hernández waits his turn to enter space shuttle Discovery at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. In the background are mission specialists Patrick Forrester (left) and Christer Fuglesang (back to camera).

Image Credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann

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NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson is seen smiling and holding a gifted matryoshka doll outside the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft after she landed with Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Monday, Sept. 23, 2024. Dyson is returning to Earth after logging 184 days in space as a member of Expeditions 70-71 aboard the International Space Station and Chub and Kononenko return after having spent the last 374 days in space.

Image Credit: NASA/GCTC/Pavel Shvets

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Joylette Hylick, left, and Katherine Moore, daughters of Katherine Johnson, accept the Congressional Gold Medal on behalf of Katherine Johnson from Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) during a ceremony recognizing NASA’s Hidden Figures, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024.

Image Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

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This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the spiral galaxy IC 4709 located around 240 million light-years away in the southern constellation Telescopium. Hubble beautifully captures its faint halo and swirling disk filled with stars and dust bands.

Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Koss, A, Barth

"I would say family and part of that 'first-gen experience' [shaped me]...It shaped me to be a hard worker and to aspire to large things because not only was it my goal at this point, but it was also my parents' aspiration." – Zaida Hernandez, Engineer, Lunar Architecture Team, NASA's Johnson Space Center

Image Credit: NASA/Bill Stafford

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An astronaut aboard the International Space Station shot this photo of peak fall colors around Ottawa, the capital of Canada. West of downtown Ottawa lies Gatineau Park, where sugar maple leaves turn orange-red and hickories turn golden-bronze during the season, known regionally as “the Fall Rhapsody.”

Image Credit: NASA

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