Posted by SpaceSightSeer on January 28, 2009 under Collections, Deep Space Imagery, Manned Spaceflight, Spacecraft, Unmanned Missions | 
Planetary Photojournal
This site provides easy access to the publicly released images from NASA’s various Solar System exploration programs. The site includes an excellent variety of images with intuitive navigation. There’s a bit of everything, spacecraft, deep space images, and views of the planets as well as the panoramic Marscapes sent back by the rovers. New images are added just about every day.
Posted by SpaceSightSeer on January 25, 2009 under Spacecraft |
Silver Dart
Canadian Arrow
PlanetSpace’s Canadian Arrow was among the top competitors for the Ansari X-Prize. Once the prize was won by the Scaled Composites team in 2004, PlanetSpace hoped to complete the craft and begin offering suborbital flights to space tourists. The company is also continuing to develop an eight-man lifting body spacecraft known as Silver Dart. It was expected that this craft would be used for crew and cargo flights to the International Space Station. The links above conain both press release images and artists renderings of the two spacecraft.
Posted by SpaceSightSeer on January 22, 2009 under Manned Spaceflight |
The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth
There’s no denying it - the view of earth from space is spectacular! From the earliest days of the Mercury program to the present crew of the International Space Station, space travelers can’t resist the view. This site boasts the best collection of astronaut photography looking back at earth from space. Images are downloaded from the space station and added daily so there’s always something new to see. There is a complex variety of search tools, but the casual visitor can bypass these by clicking on a world map to find a specific view.
Posted by SpaceSightSeer on January 19, 2009 under Unmanned Missions |
Cassini-Huygens Multimedia Gallery
Folllowing a seven-year voyage, Cassini entered Saturn’s orbit in 2004. With it’s mysterious rings and 34 moons, Saturn is rich with opportunity for study. In 2005, the Huygens probe entered the atmosphere of Titan - the first-ever visit to a moon with an atmosphere. The images and data from this mission are incredible, raising as many new questions as answers about the nature of our solar system.
Related: Where is Cassini Now?
Posted by SpaceSightSeer on January 17, 2009 under Manned Spaceflight |
NASA Human Spaceflight Gallery
This site does better with current events over historical photos, though some historical photos are included. NASA has created a system of quick menus to allow the visitor to jump to collections of images organized by mission. The past few years are fairly complete with images from the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle. Older materials are included, but appear to be only selectively included.
Tags: apollo, constellation, gemini, human spaceflight, images, mercury, NASA, photos, pictures, shuttle, skylab, space station
Posted by SpaceSightSeer on January 14, 2009 under Deep Space Imagery |
2Mass Showcase
Headlines were made when the 2 Micron All Sky Survey released over 4 million images of the night sky. Accessing this vast quantity of imagery is not for the faint-of-heart. It requires knowledge of object names and coordinates in order to use the search tools provided by the Infrared Science Archive. Fortunately the 2Mass site also includes several galleries for the casual observer such as a 2Mass Showcase and the 2MASSier Object Gallery.
Posted by SpaceSightSeer on January 13, 2009 under Unmanned Missions |
Clementine Lunar Image Browser
A joint mission between NASA and the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, the Clementine probe returned roughly 1.8 million images of the moon’s surface. This site includes a selection of those images. Visitors can zoom in to a specific location through a graphical interface or enter coordinates to find a specific location.
Posted by SpaceSightSeer on January 11, 2009 under Celestial Events |
Comet Hyakutake Image Archive
On January 30, 1996, Yuji Hyakutake in Japan discovered a new comet using 25×150 binoculars. The comet was designated Comet C/1996 B2 (Hyakutake). The comet became a bright object visible to the naked eye later that year and made one of the closest approaches to earth in the past 200 years. This page contains an archive of Comet Hyakutake images - the “Great Comet” of 1996. Enjoy them while you can - Comet Hyakutake will not pass this way again for 70 to 100 thousand years!
Posted by SpaceSightSeer on January 7, 2009 under Celestial Events |
MrEclipse.com
The total solar eclipse represents one of the most awesome phenomenon of our solar system. These events are entwined in the great myths and legends of human history. Even today, thousands gather in the path of an eclipse to witness these events. MrEclipse.com has archived images going back to March 7, 1970 to the most recent event on March 29, 2006. The site also contains photos of lunar eclipses, comet and meteor sightings as well.
Posted by SpaceSightSeer on January 4, 2009 under Unmanned Missions |
Mars Express Image Browser
The European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter completed its primary mission and remains in orbit around the red planet viewing the martian surface with a variety of instruments. Although the Beagle 2 - it’s partner lander - was lost, Mars Express has continued to function well, returning useful images and data. The flash-based interface on this site allows visitors to click on interesting features of the martian surface to view some of the best pictures. A traditional image gallery for the mission is also available.
