MOMichele Ostovar

1. Article · Aug 20, 2026 · Michele Ostovar

   The View from Above: The Gemini Visual Acuity Experiments - NASA (opens the original)

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   NASA astronaut L. Gordon Cooper, Jr. took 29 color photographs of the Earth with a 70mm camera as he orbited our planet during the Mercury-Atlas 9 mission in May 1963. Cooper’s view from the window of his Faith 7 spacecraft was spectacular, and he reported that he could see vehicles motoring on dirt roads, smoke-belching trains, and the tops of houses. Researchers and members of the public had their doubts. Could Cooper actually see objects on the Earth’s surface in such fine detail while orbiti

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2. Article · Jul 20, 2026 · Michele Ostovar

   Our First View of the Surface of Mars - NASA (opens the original)

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   “Touchdown, we have touchdown!” At 5:12 a.m. PDT, July 20, 1976, mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory erupted in cheers as they learned that the Viking 1 lander had survived its descent through the thin Martian atmosphere. Forty minutes later, the lander’s first image began to appear on their monitors, slowly forming line by line from left to right. For the first time, humans were able to see Mars’s rocky terrain from its surface. Dr. Thomas Mutch, leader of the Viking lander

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