Astronaut Randy Bresnik conducts a spacewalk on October 5. via NASA http://ift.tt/2y0CIR2

Members of the National Space Council are seen during the council’s first meeting on Oct. 5 at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. The council, chaired by Vice President Mike Pence heard testimony from representatives from civil space, commercial space, and national security space industry representatives. via NASA http://ift.tt/2yrxjWh

History changed on Oct. 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The world’s first artificial satellite was about the size of a beach ball, about 23 inches in diameter and weighing less than 190 pounds. via NASA http://ift.tt/2hNf1Yq

It’s planting season on the International Space Station! NASA astronaut Joe Acaba prepared the Veggie facility for three different kinds of lettuce seeds as part of the VEG-03-D investigation. This is the first time seeds from multiple kinds of plants are being grown in the facility all at the same time. via NASA http://ift.tt/2yVNLLC

Stunning views like this image of Saturn’s night side are only possible thanks to our robotic emissaries like Cassini. via NASA http://ift.tt/2hHltR0

This sequence of color-enhanced images shows how quickly the viewing geometry changes for NASA’s Juno spacecraft as it swoops by Jupiter. via NASA http://ift.tt/2yMOui7

This week in 1973, the second crewed Skylab mission splashed down in the Pacific Ocean following a successful 59-day mission in the orbiting laboratory. via NASA http://ift.tt/2wWUaUt

A new iceberg calved from Pine Island Glacier—one of the main outlets where ice from the interior of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet flows into the ocean. The Operational Land Imager (OLI) on the Landsat 8 satellite captured this natural-color image on September 21, 2017, just before the break. via NASA http://ift.tt/2yGFCud

A color composite image of Earth was taken on Sept. 22, 2017, by the MapCam camera on NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. via NASA http://ift.tt/2xD7UHx

The brightly lit limb of a crescent Enceladus looks ethereal against the blackness of space. This image is a composite of images taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 29, 2017, using filters that allow infrared, green, and ultraviolet light. via NASA http://ift.tt/2y49TX6