NASA has been gaining momentum in recent years as investment into space has ramped up in the US. In 2022, missions dealt with the farthest, closest, hottest and coldest conditions in the universe.
Artist’s impression of Starship cruising past the Moon.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp./SpaceX Flickr
A year on since the historic launch of the most powerful infrared telescope in human history, we admire and explore some of the best images it delivered in 2022.
The James Webb Space Telescope is providing astronomers with images and data that reveal secrets from the earliest era of the universe.
NASA/STScI
It has been one year since the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope and six months since the first pictures were released. Astronomers are already learning unexpected things about the early universe.
An artist’s concept of Canadarm3, Canada’s smart robotic system, on the exterior of the Lunar Gateway.
(Canadian Space Agency, NASA)
Canadian space technologies and innovations play a significant role in the Artemis missions, and our involvement reflects our growing role in this new era of lunar exploration.
Blue Marble is the last photograph of the whole Earth taken by an actual human using analogue film: developed in a darkroom when the crew returned to Earth.
Going to space requires more than just rocket science.
John Lamb via Getty Images
Spacecraft are just a small part of what it takes for humans to become an interplanetary species. A political science professor explains how there is much more to creating a spacefaring society.
NASA astronaut Winston E. Scott on an EVA in 1996.
NASA JSC
Artemis-1 is on its way back to Earth, successfully completing its maiden flight.
NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2) satellite can make precise measurements of global atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) from space.
(NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Vincent Costes, Centre national d’études spatiales (CNES)
If you see something mystifying happening in Europe’s skies, get in touch with France’s Study and Information Group on Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena. They could well have a rational explanation for you.
The space shuttle Atlantis was one of the last major launches aboard a NASA rocket.
NASA
After its fourth delay, the Artemis 1 launch is now scheduled for Nov. 16, 2022. NASA has a history of missing launch deadlines, but the private sector is slowly making launches more reliable.
Concept illustration for research robots that could bring samples of Mars rocks to Earth-based labs.
(NASA/JPL-Caltech)
The Double Asteroid Redirection Test successfully showed that it is possible to crash a spacecraft into a small asteroid and change its orbit. This technique could save Earth from asteroids in the future.