NASA--New Heights of 2015

In 2015, NASA explored the expanse of our solar system and beyond, and the complex processes of our home planet, while also advancing the technologies for our journey to Mars, and new aviation systems as the agency reached new milestones aboard the International Space Station.

“It was a fantastic year that brought us even closer to Mars,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. “Our space program welcomed advances from commercial partners who will soon launch astronauts from the United States to the International Space Station, and progress on new technologies and missions to take us into deep space, improve aviation and explore our universe and home planet.”
Solar System & Beyond

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft captured this image of Pluto on July 14, 2015.

Unprocessed view of Saturn's moon Enceladus acquired by NASA's Cassini spacecraft during a close flyby of the icy moon on Oct. 28, 2015.

The sparkling centerpiece of Hubble’s anniversary fireworks is a giant cluster of about 3,000 stars called Westerlund 2, named for Swedish astronomer Bengt Westerlund who discovered the grouping in the 1960s.

Journey to Mars

This composite image of Earth and Mars was created to allow viewers to gain a better understanding of the relative sizes of the two planets.

Dark, narrow streaks on Martian slopes such as these at Hale Crater are inferred to be formed by seasonal flow of water on contemporary Mars.

Dark narrow streaks called recurring slope lineae emanating out of the walls of Garni crater on Mars. The dark streaks here are up to few hundred meters in length. They are hypothesized to be formed by flow of briny liquid water on Mars. The image is produced by draping an orthorectified (RED) image

NASA Tests Crew Exit Strategy for Orion

At the Promontory, Utah test facility of Orbital ATK, the booster for NASA’s Space Launch System rocket was fired for a two minute test on March 11, 2015.

Orion Spacecraft

NASA astronaut Suni Williams exits a test version of the Orion spacecraft in the agency’s Neutral Buoyancy Lab in Houston. 

Engineers participate in testing to evaluate procedures to recover crews from Orion after splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on future missions. .

Credits: NASA

International Space Station(ISS)

Working outside the International Space Station on the second spacewalk of Expedition 45, Nov. 6, 2015.

Credits: NASA

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly is seen inside a Soyuz simulator at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, March 4, 2015 in Star City, Russia.

Credits: NASA/Bill Ingalls

NASA astronauts Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren take their first taste of food that's grown, harvested and eaten in space.

Credits: NASA

Meals Ready to Eat: Expedition 44 Crew Members Sample Leafy Greens Grown on Space Station

The astronauts who will train for the first Commercial Crew Program flight tests are Doug Hurley, Eric Boe, Bob Behnken and Sunita "Suni" Williams.

Earth

The Americas, as captured on Oct. 15, 2015 by NASA’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) on the NASA/NOAA Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR).

Technology

NASA's Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator hangs from a launch tower at U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii.

Two members of the U.S. Navy's Mobile Diving Salvage Unit (MDSU) 1 Explosive Ordnance Detachment work on recovering the test vehicle for NASA's Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) project.

Credits: U.S. Navy

NASA Announces New Public-Private Partnerships to Advance ‘Tipping Point,’ Emerging Space Capabilities

NASA’s two Nodes small satellites hitched a ride to the International Space Station on the fourth Orbital ATK cargo mission.

Aeronautics

In this photo taken from a chase plane, the Boeing ecoDemonstrator 757 flight test airplane --with NASA's Active Flow Control technology installed on the tail -- makes a final approach to King County Boeing Field in Seattle, Washington.

Credits: Boeing/John D. Parker

Public Engagement

Astronaut Cady Coleman speaks to a group of fifty fourth-grade Girl Scouts about her time in space, at the first-ever White House Campout, hosted by the First Lady as part of the Let's Move! 

Citizen Science, Prizes and Challenges

NASA provided in 2015 several avenues for public participation in the agency’s missions to explore and discover with citizen science activities and challenges posted to NASA Solve, including the agency’s first micro-tasking challenges through the NASA Tournament Lab. The agency also hosted the first Cube Quest Challenge Ground Tournament, students designed 3-D printed containers for the International Space Station and volunteers reached a milestone one million classifications of potential debris disks that might indicate developing planets around other stars.

STEM Education Collaboration

NASA continued its work with other federal agencies, industry partners and academia to provide to students and teachers throughout the United States unique and compelling opportunities in science, technology, engineering and math education. In addition to funding research at minority serving institutions, NASA’s Space Grant program supported science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs in schools in every state.

The agency also brought real space exploration experts from NASA and cast members of the movie “The Martian” together during a record-breaking NASA Digital Learning Network event called So You Want to Be a Martian, watched by more than 10,000 students and teachers.

The work NASA does, and will continue in 2016, helps the United States maintain its world leadership in space exploration and scientific discovery. The agency will continue investing in its journey to Mars, returning human spaceflight launches from American soil, fostering ground breaking technology development etc.


For more about NASA’s missions, research and discoveries, visit:


http://www.nasa.gov
Ref:https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-reaches-new-heights-in-2015