NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center engineers are working on an increasingly complex aircraft called the Preliminary Research Aerodynamic Design to Lower Drag, or Prandtl-D. The aircraft features a new method for determining the shape of the wing with a twist that could lead to an 11-percent reduction in fuel consumption. via NASA http://ift.tt/1KZyJBw

Tropical Cyclone Chapala made landfall on mainland Yemen early on November 3, 2015, dumping torrential rains across the arid landscape. via NASA http://ift.tt/1Ne2j85

NASA is developing and demonstrating technologies to service and repair satellites in distant orbits. This photo looks closely at one of the tools that could be used for satellite servicing in the future: the Visual Inspection Poseable Invertebrate Robot (VIPIR), a robotic, articulating borescope equipped with a second motorized, zoom-lens camera. via NASA http://ift.tt/1Hp7lwo

On Nov. 2, 2000, the Expedition 1 crew – Commander William M. (Bill) Shepherd of NASA and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev and Soyuz Commander Yuri Gidzenko of Roscosmos – arrived at the International Space Station, marking the start of an uninterrupted human presence on the orbiting laboratory. via NASA http://ift.tt/1RpwUTP

This unprocessed “raw” image of Saturn’s icy, geologically active moon Enceladus was acquired by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft during its dramatic Oct. 28, 2015 flyby in which the probe passed about 30 miles (49 kilometers) above the moon’s south polar region. via NASA http://ift.tt/1MxNoLy

Expedition 45 Commander Scott Kelly took this photograph during a spacewalk on Oct. 28, 2015. Sharing the image on social media, Kelly wrote, “#SpaceWalkSelfie Back on the grid! Great first spacewalk yesterday. Now on to the next one next week. #YearInSpace” via NASA http://ift.tt/1kefVc5

Damaging heavy rains fell on South Carolina in the southeastern United States at the beginning of October 2015. Much of that water had, by mid-October, flowed into the Atlantic Ocean bringing with it heavy loads of sediment, nutrients, and dissolved organic material. The above VIIRS image shows the runoff as it interacts with ocean currents. via NASA http://ift.tt/1HbbVhG

Expedition 45 Commander Scott Kelly tries on his spacesuit for a fit check inside the U.S. Quest airlock of the International Space Station. Kelly and Flight Engineer Kjell Lindgren will venture outside the station for a pair of spacewalks on Wednesday, Oct. 28 and Friday, Nov. 6. via NASA http://ift.tt/1P2HJfa

Enceladus is a world divided. To the north, the terrain is covered in impact craters, much like other icy moons. via NASA http://ift.tt/1P0XcfT

This image shows the galaxy Messier 94, which lies in the small northern constellation of the Hunting Dogs, about 16 million light-years away. via NASA http://ift.tt/203ss2Y