Spacecraft 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

Convair F-106B-31-CO Delta Dart 57-2507

Convair NF-106B-31-CO Delta Dart 57-2507 (msn 8-27-01) at NASA Lewis Research Center, Lewis Field, Cleveland, OH., registered as NASA 607 Built April 1958, 2507 was allocated to the Air Force Flight Test Centre at Edwards AFB, CA., where it was heavily damaged during a taxi-test to gather information on the cause of nose shimmy which happened on some aircraft. The left main tire blew and caused a brake fire. The aircraft slewed off the runway onto the lake bed. Scheduled as number 35 Upgrade with Integrated Instrument Display (IID), the Upgrade cancelled and it was assigned to NASA Lewis Research Center, Lewis Field, Cleveland, OH., registered as NASA 607 Redesignated NF-106B and used as chase support for NASA 616 but also as an ejection seat test aircraft, including the final qualification tests for Gemini spacesuit and spacecraft escape system. Later used for solar cell calibration tasks and for air sample collection. After assignment to NASA Langley Research Center, Langley Field, VA., on12 May 1981 the airframe was cut in half lengthwise for wind tunnel tests and scrapped on 24 February 1984. Date: 1960s

© The Peter Butt Aviation Collection / Mary Evans Picture Library