Vice President Mike Pence addresses NASA employees, Thursday, July 6, 2017, at the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral, Florida. via NASA http://ift.tt/2sRRqpn

This week in 1966, the AS-203 rocket launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The Apollo AS-203 mission was an uncrewed test of the vehicle’s second stage, the S-IVB stage, and the instrument unit of the Saturn V to obtain flight information under orbital conditions. via NASA http://ift.tt/2sFZqP6

NASA astronauts Jack Fischer and Peggy Whitson celebrated the Fourth of July from over 250 miles above Earth on the International Space Station. Fischer shared this photo on social media and said, “We sometimes have issues standing up straight, but we have no problems at all showing our American pride-Happy 4th!” via NASA http://ift.tt/2umrzrV

NASA astronaut Jack Fischer photographed the SpaceX Dragon capsule as it reentered Earth’s atmosphere before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean west of Baja California at 8:12 a.m. EDT, July 3, 2017. Fischer commented, “Beautiful expanse of stars-but the “long” orange one is SpaceX-11 reentering!” via NASA http://ift.tt/2t9KQy8

JunoCam images aren’t just for art and science – sometimes they are processed to bring a chuckle. via NASA http://ift.tt/2u6EApm

Expedition 52 Flight Engineer Jack Fischer of NASA photographed the glowing nighttime lights of an aurora from his vantage point in the International Space Station’s cupola module on June 19, 2017. Part of the station’s solar array is also visible. via NASA http://ift.tt/2s5Udf4

Various researchers are often pre-occupied with the quest for flowing water on Mars. via NASA http://ift.tt/2shuEvD

Hot summer days in Southern California’s Antelope Valley force many aircraft operations to start early in the morning before the sun rises. On a back ramp at Armstrong Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base, a NASA Global Hawk goes through testing of its communication components and satellite connection links in preparation for flight. via NASA http://ift.tt/2sX9zUG

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft peers toward a sliver of Saturn’s sunlit atmosphere while the icy rings stretch across the foreground as a dark band. via NASA http://ift.tt/2sIzUaw

By combining the power of a “natural lens” in space with the capability of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers made a surprising discovery—the first example of a compact yet massive, fast-spinning, disk-shaped galaxy that stopped making stars only a few billion years after the big bang. via NASA http://ift.tt/2t2PLCd