NASA Astronauts in the space















Fifty years after the former Soviet Union launched Sputnik on Oct. 4, 1957, a spirit of cooperation has led to the International Space Station and a renewed effort to explore the moon. Shown here in its current state as of Summer 2007, the half-built station is the product of more than 16 nations, including the U.S., Russia, Canada, Japan, Brazil and the member states of the European Space Agency. The Genesis Spacecraft was launched on August 8, 2001.The purpose of the mission was to have the Genesis Spacecraft return small, but precious amount of samples leading to data that is crucial to our knowledge of the Sun and the formation of our solar system The science collection began November 30, 2001, with the opening of the spacecraft’s science canister and the extension of special collector arrays to catch atoms from the solar wind, and concluded on April 1, 2004. Genesis is the agency’s first sample return mission since the last Apollo mission in 1972, and the first ever to return material collected beyond the Moon.

Source: NASA