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The Space Shuttle Discovery, attached to a modified aircraft used for shuttle transport, flies over Washington, DC.

Space Shuttle Discovery over Washington, DC

The Space Shuttle Discovery is lifted and ready to be placed on top of an aircraft designed to carry space shuttles.

Discovery Readied to Mate to Shuttle Carrier Aircraft

The Space Shuttle Discovery sits prior to being secured onto an aircraft via a large securing object known as a mate-demate device.

Discovery Ready For Mate-Demate Device

The Space Shuttle Discovery is placed under a securing device known as a mate-demate device prior to its arrival to the Udvar-Hazy Center.

Discovery Ready For Mate-Demate Device

A lifting sling is placed on the Space Shuttle Discovery prior to the mate-demate device lifting the spacecraft onto a shuttle carrier aircraft.

Sling Attached to Discovery

View of Venus as a waning crescent during daytime hours.

Venus on April 6, 2012

Video

Bringing Spaceflight Down to Earth

April 04, 2012
Video

To Infinity and Beyond: Buzz Lightyear's Journey to the Smithsonian

March 29, 2012
Felix Baumgartner, a white man, wearing a high-altitude flight suit.

Red Bull Stratos - Felix Baumgartner

Partial disk view of the Sun highlighting a sunspot which has transformed into a solar flare.

Sun in white light - March 7, 2012

A large dust devil above the surface of Mars.

Mars Dust Devil

View of moon in waxing gibbous phase.

Gibbous Moon - Mar 1, 2012

An African-American child has an African-American male member of the Pennsylvania Air Force National Guard place a helmet on his head.

African American Pioneers in Aviation Family Day

Partial disk view of the Sun featuring a sunspot on the right side of the Sun and a filament of plasma floating above the surface of the Sun.

Sun - February 22, 2012

Disk view of the Sun with multiple sunspot clusters and filaments and prominences of plasma floating away from the surface of the Sun.

Sun, February 15, 2012

Disk view of the Sun's atmosphere. One sunspot cluster is visible as a dark spot on the Sun surrounded by lighter clouds called phages on the right side of the disk.

The Sun - February 3, 2012