Mars Rover "Curiosity"

In this image, two engineers are dwarfed by NASA's Mars Science Laboratory's parachute, which holds more air than a 3,000-square-foot house and is designed to survive loads in excess of 36,000 kilograms (80,000 pounds). The parachute, built by Pioneer Aerospace, South Windsor, Conn., has 80 suspension lines, measures more than 65 feet in length, and opens to a diameter of nearly 55 feet. It is the largest disk-gap-band parachute ever built and is shown here inflated in the test section with only about 12.5 feet of clearance to both the floor and ceiling of the world’s largest wind tunnel at National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex. The parachute is attached to a launch arm mounted on a swivel-base that allows the test item to pitch and yaw under simulated conditions of subsonic entry into the Martian atmosphere. (Photo courtesy of NASA/JPL and Pioneer Aerospace Corp.)

Mars Rover "Curiosity"

Aerospace Testing Alliance Instrumentation Technician Doyle Jones performs a continuity check on the instrumentation inside the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle heat shield material candidate model prior to a test run in Arnold Engineering Development Center's H2 test facility. (Photo by Rick Goodfriend)

Liftoff marks the 50th Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle mission

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket blasts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., June 20, 2012, with a national security payload for the National Reconnaissance Office. This is the 61st launch for ULA and marks the 50th successful launch of an Atlas V and Delta IV Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle. (United Launch Alliance photo/Pat Corkery)

Minuteman III

A Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile configured with a National Nuclear Security Administration joint test assembly launches May 22, 2008, from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The 50th Space Communications Squadron recently completed upgrades to ballistic missile warning sensors communications systems around the world. (U.S. Air Force photo)

Space shuttle Discovery's last trip

A crowd watches as the space shuttle Discovery, sitting on top of a modified NASA Boeing 747 aircraft, taxis on the runway at Washington Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Va., April 17, 2012. The Discovery made its final voyage to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum annex in Virginia. (U.S. Air Force photo by Val Gempis)

Space shuttle Discovery's last trip

The space shuttle Discovery, sitting on top of a modified NASA Boeing 747 aircraft, flies over Washington Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Va., April 17, 2012. The Discovery made its final voyage to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum annex in Virginia. (U.S. Air Force photo by Val Gempis)