Spaceflight Gallery

Saturn V rocket launch, artwork

Saturn V rocket launch, artwork. The Saturn V was the launch vehicle for NASA's Apollo program of manned missions to the Moon. The Apollo program took place between 1961 and 1975. The Saturn V was one of the most powerful rockets ever made. Fully fuelled, the 110-metre high rocket weighed over 3000 tonnes. Five F-1 engines, burning a mixture of liquid oxygen and rocket fuel (kerosene) were used in the rocket's first stage, the stage used during take-off. The first stage burned for 2 minutes 41 seconds, lifting the rocket to an altitude of 68 kilometres. A second and third stage boosted the spacecraft to its parking orbit

© RICHARD BIZLEY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe

The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, also known as WMAP, is designed to make fundamental measurements of cosmology, the study of the properties of our universe as a whole. The spacecraft reveals conditions as they existed in the early universe by measuring the properties of the cosmic microwave background radiation over the full sky.
WMAP's data helped produce a new standard model of the properties of our universe. It pinpointed the age of our universe at 13.73 billion years old to within 1 percent and captured an image of the afterglow of the Big Bang

© Stocktrek Images

The Apollo 10 Command and Service Modules in lunar orbit

May 22, 1969 - The Apollo 10 Command and Service Modules (CSM) are photographed from the Lunar Module (LM) after CSM/LM separation in lunar orbit. The CSM was about 175 statute miles east of Smyth's Sea and was above the rough terrain which is typical of the lunar farside. The eastward oblique view of the lunar surface is centered near 105 degrees east longitude and 1 degree north latitude. The horizon is approximately 600 kilometers (374 statute miles) away. Numerous bright craters and the absence of shadows show that the sun was almost directly overhead when this photograph was taken

© Stocktrek Images