Stuck the landing! Three years ago today, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft released a sample capsule at the edge of Earth’s atmosphere to land perfectly upright in the Utah desert. The capsule held a record amount of pristinely captured rocks and dust from asteroid Bennu. Scientists have studied the extraterrestrial sample, learning it contains all the ingredients key to life.

Whoomp there it is! After two astronomers, Urbain Le Verrier and John Couch Adams, independently calculated its predicted location, Johann Gottfried Galle found the planet Neptune 180 years ago on Sept 23, 1846. In 1989 when Voyager 2 became the first—and so far only—spacecraft to visit Neptune, it took thousands of images of Neptune, its rings, and its moons, including this one.

Frank Culbertson, Expedition 3 Commander aboard the @Space_Station, captured this photo as smoke rose from the Twin Towers in New York City 25 years ago today. We pause to reflect on that terrible day and pay tribute to the victims, survivors, and heroes of the 9/11 attacks.

The Hubble Space Telescope mission, now over 36 years old, is a story of triumphs and near disasters. In June, historians, scientists, engineers, and program leaders gathered to reflect on Hubble's legacy and the lessons that could help shape NASA's next great telescopes. Read their comments in the newly released transcript:

Voyager 2's journey into space began 49 years ago today with its launch from @NASAKennedy on a Titan/Centaur vehicle. Taking advantage of a rare planetary alignment, this long-lasting planetary explorer and its twin, Voyager 1, have each made a "Grand Tour" of the outer solar system and today continue their missions of discovery in interstellar space! Voyager 2 is still our only spacecraft to have visited Neptune and Uranus.

Today we remember Neil Armstrong, the first astronaut to walk on the Moon, on his birthday! 🎉 Did you know that Armstrong celebrated his 39th birthday while still in quarantine after Apollo 11's return?

Testing Galileo's law of motion on the Moon! 55 years ago today, Apollo 15 astronaut David Scott performed his feather and hammer experiment on the Moon, demonstrating that without air resistance all objects fall at the same rate.

The final space shuttle mission touched down 15 years ago today, marking the end of NASA's 30-year Space Shuttle program. As the world's first reusable spacecraft, the shuttles accomplished so much over 135 missions. From building and supporting the @Space_Station, to launching and servicing missions a variety of commercial and scientific satellites such as @NASAHubble, to conducting groundbreaking research, it left an enduring legacy as a platform for exploration, science, and international cooperation.

"Before I saw the posting for an archival intern, I didn’t realize there were opportunities at NASA for individuals outside of STEM fields." Meet Nina Paris, our summer intern working at the NASA Headquarters archives in Washington, D.C.! Nina, an art history major at Smith College, is processing a collection donated by James Acker, who contributed to NASA’s ocean color initiatives. This project uses radiometers and satellite technology to study the ocean’s carbon cycle, detect harmful algal blooms, and assess overall ocean health. In processing this collection, Nina is helping preserve NASA’s history and make these materials accessible for future researchers. Two of the images from the collection Nina is working on are shown here, including a group of NASA scientists and an unidentified woman standing next to the Coastal Zone Color Scanner (or variation of it) flown on Nimbus satellites in the 1970s.

May 18, 1969: Tom Stafford, John Young, and Gene Cernan begin the second crewed mission to the Moon. Apollo 10 was the final critical test flight before Apollo 11's lunar landing, just 2 months later.

Today would have been Dr. Roman’s 101st birthday! 🎉 We are honored to have @NASA’s next space telescope, launching later this year, named after such an inspiration who understood the importance of leaving Earth's atmosphere to better understand our universe. Learn more:

"Liftoff for the final launch of Endeavour!" 15 years ago today, Endeavour launched into space for its 25th and final time. STS-134, the penultimate mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program, delivered the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2 and critical supplies to the space station.

America's first space station—and the last Saturn V—take flight! 🚀 Launched OTD in 1973, the main structure of Skylab—its Orbital Workshop—was built from a converted Saturn S-IVB rocket stage roughly 22.8 feet (6.7 m) in diameter.

"Tower, this is Ghost Rider requesting a flyby." During his service with the Navy, astronaut Scott "Scooter" Altman doubled for Tom Cruise and other actors in F-14 flight scenes for the original Top Gun movie, released 40 years ago this week! Altman didn't just buzz the traffic control tower once, he did it nine times to get the right take for the movie!

Wind tunnel testing? We’ve been at it for decades. 💁 Seen here in the ‘60s is an Apollo Command Module model being tested in our Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel. Generations of air and spacecraft have had their critical safety checks here to ensure they’re ready to take to the skies to fly. Explore more:

55 years ago, the Apollo 15 spacecraft was on the move. The 363-foot-tall vehicle left the Vehicle Assembly Building on May 11, 1971, for its slow 8-hour trip to Pad 39A at @NASAKennedy. Apollo 15, the fourth Apollo lunar landing mission, was scheduled to lift off on July 26.

Today we wish Vance Brand a very happy 95th birthday! Selected as an astronaut 60 years ago, Brand's first spaceflight, the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, was followed by three shuttle missions and various administrative positions. He retired from NASA in 2008.

A little love for our OG mom, Earth. 💙🌍 Happy Mother’s Day weekend. At NASA’s Johnson Space Center, teams work every day to better understand and protect our home planet — a fitting reminder to celebrate the world that cares for us, and the mothers, caregivers, and communities who do the same.

The new kid on the block takes flight OTD in 1992, Space Shuttle Endeavour, the fifth and final operational orbiter to be built, was launched into space for its first mission: STS-49. Endeavour made 25 flights over 19 years, completing its final flight 15 years ago this month!

Astronaut Neil Armstrong was forced to eject moments before the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle 1 (LLRV-1) crashed in a fiery blaze. On May 6, 1968, Armstrong was five minutes into his 22nd flight of the LLRV when it suddenly went out of control. An investigation later revealed what had gone wrong, and a few months later training flights resumed with the LLRV's successor, the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle (LLTV). Astronaut training in both the LLRV and the LLTV were essential to the success of the Apollo lunar landings.