The first image released from the Gravity Recovery and Climate
Experiment (GRACE), a joint NASA-German Aerospace Center mission,
graphically illustrates the sensitivity of the mission’s twin spacecraft
to changes in Earth’s gravity
In October 2013, NASA’s Juno spacecraft flew past the Earth to steal some energy for a ride to Jupiter. Along the way, it also stole some glimpses of home.
Twin satellites detect tiny changes in Earth’s gravity field, which can tell us a lot about the mass of a mountain range and the movement of the ice on top of it.
After waiting out a thunderstorm, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite rocketed off the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 5:32 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on June 18, 2009. This photograph captures the pair of spacecraft as they were lifting off.
From 31 million miles away, how could you tell that there was life on Earth? Scientists used the remote vantage point of NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft to shoot a sequence of images that will help to help answer that question.
The Deep Space Climate Observatory captured a unique view of the Moon as it passed between the spacecraft and Earth. The Artemis mission will soon take us back for closeups.