Photos: Amazing NASA photos through the years

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Photos: Amazing NASA photos through the years

Here is a look at some moments in NASA history

View of America's first satellite, Explorer 1, as it launches from Cape Canaveral, Florida, January 31, 1958. (Photo by NASA/Interim Archives/Getty Images)

American journalist and anchorman Walter Cronkite uses models to explain America's Explorer 1 mission to viewers on the CBS television network, 1958. Explorer 1, officially called Satellite 1958 Alpha, was the first artificial satellite successfully put into orbit by the United States. Launched on January 31, 1958 the module discovered the Van Allen radiation belts around the Earth and eventually plummeted to Earth on March 31, 1970. The launch pre-dated the establishment of NASA by five months. (Photo by CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images)

The Mercury Seven astronauts, 1959. A group photo in spacesuits of the seven test pilots chosen in April 1959 to participate in Project Mercury, NASA's manned space project. The astronauts are: (front row, left to right) Walter Schirra, Donald Slayton, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, (back row, left to right) Alan Shepard, Virgil Grissom and Gordon Cooper. (Photo by Oxford Science Archive/Print Collector/Getty Images)

AT SEA - JANUARY 31: In this handout from NASA, Ham, a chimpanzee astronaut that flew aboard the Mercury-Redstone 2 spacecraft, is greeted Commander Ralph A. Brackett on the USS Donner after being recovered after a flight January 31, 1961 at sea. (Photo by NASA via Getty Images)

US astronauts Alan Shepard is photographed with chimpanzee Ham who preceded him in space with a 16' 39'' seconds sub-orbital flight performed aboard the Mercury Redstone rocket on January 31, 1961. Ham's mission paved the way for the successful launch of America's first human astronaut, Alan B. Shepard, Jr., on May 5, 1961. AFP PHOTO NASA (Photo credit should read -/AFP/Getty Images)

UNITED STATES - APRIL 11: This mission, designated MR3 Freedom 7, took place on 5th May 1961, and was the first manned launch of the Mercury spacecraft. The rocket carried Shepard, America's first man in space, on a suborbital hop which lasted 15 minutes 22 seconds, during which Shepard was weightless for about 5 minutes. Begun in 1958, Project Mercury was NASA?s first manned spaceflight programme. (Photo by SSPL/Getty Images)

1962: Nasa's Mission Control room, Houston, Texas in operation during the second day of the Gemini V spaceflight. (Photo by Evans/Three Lions/Getty Images)

German-born American rocket scientist Werner von Braun (1912 - 1977) (center left) and US President John F. Kennedy (1917 - 1963) tour Cape Canaveral, Florida, November 16, 1963. (Photo by NASA/Interim Archives/Getty Images)

23rd March 1965: American astronauts John W. Young (L) and Virgil 'Gus' Grissom (1926-1967) sitting in the GT-3 spacecraft just before the hatches were closed, in the Gemini flight successfully launched at 9:24 a.m., Cape Kennedy, Florida. Grissom was the command pilot for the three-orbit mission. (Photo by NASA/Getty Images)

View from the Apollo 7 spacecraft (during its 134th revolution of the Earth) of the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean as they reflect the sun, October 20, 1968. (Photo by NASA/PhotoQuest/Getty Images)

30Th Anniversary Of Apollo 11 Landing On The Moon (9 Of 20): Astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., Lunar Module Pilot, Is Photographed Walking Near The Lunar Module During The Apollo 11 Extravehicular Activity. Man's First Landing On The Moon Occurred Today At 4:17 P.M. July 20, 1969 As Lunar Module "Eagle" Touched Down Gently On The Sea Of Tranquility On The East Side Of The Moon. The Lm (Lunar Module) Landed On The Moon On July 20, 1969 And Returned To The Command Module On July 21. The Command Module Left Lunar Orbit On July 22 And Returned To Earth On July 24, 1969. Apollo 11 Splashed Down In The Pacific Ocean On 24 July 1969 At 12:50:35 P.M. Edt After A Mission Elapsed Time Of 195 Hrs, 18 Mins, 35 Secs. (Photo By Nasa/Getty Images)

UNITED STATES - APRIL 22: Apollo 16 astronauts Charles Duke, John Young and Thomas Mattingly, dressed in spacesuits with their Lunar Rover during a training exercise before their mission. Apollo 16, launched on 16th April 1972, was the fifth successful manned Moon landing mission and Young and Duke became the ninth and tenth men to walk on the Moon. The Lunar Rover, first used on the Apollo 15 mission, was a battery powered vehicle which considerably increased the distance that astronauts could cover while exploring the lunar surface. The Apollo 16 astronauts achieved speeds of 18 kilometres per hour in the vehicle on the Moon. (Photo by SSPL/Getty Images)

April 1972: American astronaut John W Young drives a Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) on the moon's surface during the Apollo 16 mission to the Descartes Highlands. This constitutes EVA-3, the third period of Apollo 16's extra-vehicular activity. A still from a 16mm film taken by astronaut Charles M Duke Jnr. (Photo by Charles M. Duke Jnr/MPI/Getty Images)

The launch of Skylab 2, Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA, 1973. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Skylab Space Station, The U.S, Skylab Space Station In Orbit Over A Cloud-Covered Earth, Photographed February 8, 1974, By The Departing Third Crew Of Astronauts From Their Skylab 4 Command Module. (Photo By Encyclopaedia Britannica/UIG Via Getty Images)

UNITED STATES - MAY 13: This view of the clouds of Venus was taken by the Pioneer Venus spacecraft through an ultraviolet filter to enhance the visibility of the formations. Launched in 1978, Pioneer Venus returned over 1000 such cloud pictures within two years and was still operating after 10 years in orbit. Although similar in size and internal structure to Earth, Venus is a very different world. It has a thick atmosphere of mainly carbon dioxide with clouds of sulphuric acid, creating a runaway greenhouse effect with surface temperatures of 485 degrees Celsius and atmospheric pressure 90 times that at sea level on Earth. The impenetrable clouds meant that nothing was known about the planet?s surface until the Soviet Venera probe landed and was briefly able to transmit images in 1975. (Photo by SSPL/Getty Images)

UNSPECIFIED - JULY 03: Global mosaic of 102 Viking 1 Orbiter images of Mars taken on orbit 1,334, on 22 February 1980. The images are projected into point perspective, representing what a viewer would see from a spacecraft at an altitude of 2,500 km. At the centre is Valles Marineris, over 3000 km long and up to 8 km deep. At upper right are the channels running up (north) from the central and eastern portions of Valles Marineris to the dark area, Acidalic Planitia. At left are the three Tharsis volcanoes and to the south is ancient, heavily impacted terrain. (Photo by SSPL/Getty Images)

UNSPECIFIED LOCATION - NOVEMBER 11: (FILE PHOTO) Space Shuttle Challenger crew members gather for an official portrait November 11, 1985 in an unspecified location. (Back, L-R) Mission Specialist Ellison S. Onizuka, Teacher-in-Space participant Sharon Christa McAuliffe, Payload Specialist Greg Jarvis and mission specialist Judy Resnick. (Front, L-R) Pilot Mike Smith, commander Dick Scobee and mission specialist Ron McNair. The Challenger and its seven member crew were lost seventy three seconds after launch when a booster rocket failed. (Photo by NASA/Getty Images)

Deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope, 1990. The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was put into orbit from the Space Shuttle Discovery, mission STS-31 on 24 April 1990. HST, still in the grip of the shuttle's robot arm, is backdropped against Cuba and the Bahamas. HST was designed to see seven times further into space than had been possible before, without the distortion caused by the earth's atmosphere. Problems with its giant mirror meant that it did not initially work as well as expected. Corrective optics were installed in 1993, greatly improving the telescope's performance, enabling it to view the Universe in unprecedented detail. (Photo by Oxford Science Archive/Print Collector/Getty Images)

1st April 1995: An image taken via Hubble telescope entitled Pillars of Creation, depicting gaseous pillars in M16, the Eagle Nebula. These columns of hydrogen and dust act as incubators for new stars. (Photo by Space Frontiers/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

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View of America's first satellite, Explorer 1, as it launches from Cape Canaveral, Florida, January 31, 1958. (Photo by NASA/Interim Archives/Getty Images)

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