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Best Aviation Week Space Covers Of All Time

March 09, 2016

TV Satellite Weather Map

Harry Wexler, who was director of meteorological research at the U.S. Weather Bureau, created this concept of a weather map of North America as it would be transmitted by television from a satellite 4,000 mi. over Amarillo, Texas. 

See the Feb. 3, 1958, cover

Rocketdyne Engines for the Atlas 8

The propulsion system for the U.S. Air Force Atlas B intercontinental ballistic missile undergoes a full-power test at the main plant of Rocketdyne, a division of North American Aviation Inc., in Canoga Park, California.

See the Aug. 4, 1958, cover 

NASA Apollo Mock-Up

A mock-up of the Apollo command module at NASA Ames Research Center was used primarily to determine instrument layouts for the three-man crew.

See the May 7, 1962, cover 

L-T-V Space Pack Test

Ling-Temco-Vought engineers test the company's back-mounted Space Maneuvering Unit aboard a U.S. Air Force Boeing KC-135 flying Keplerian trajectories over Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. The unit used pressurized nitrogen gas for the tests rather than hydrogen peroxide, as would be done in space for safety. 

See the Aug. 13, 1962, cover 

Telestar 2 Environmental Test

Bell Telephone's Telstar 2 is prepared for environmental testing in company's space chamber. Three solar lamps behind satellite directed light arcs into the chamber through Pyrex windows, producing visible and invisible radiation simulating sunlight in space. 

See the Nov. 19, 1962, cover 

Sperry Rand Laser Gyro

A laser gyro is a radically different type of angular rotation sensor with no moving parts. It measures Doppler shift in frequency of two contra-rotating laser beams circulating in an optical ring made up of four (or more) lasers and reflecting mirrors.

See the Feb. 11, 1963, cover 

Gemini 6 and Gemini 7 Orbital Rendezvous

A Gemini 6 astronaut photographed the Gemini 7 spacecraft during the orbital rendezvous in December 1965. 

See the Jan. 3, 1966, cover

Gemini 8 and Agena First Docking in Space

Astronaut David R.Scott photographed the Agena target vehicle as Gemini 8 approached to within 45 ft. before docking in space. 

See the April 4, 1966, cover 

Surveyor 1's Footprint on the Moon

The flexing of Surveyor 1's landing legs during its lunar touchdown scooped out a small part of the lunar surface, leaving a small depression when the leg retracted to its normal length.

See the cover June 13, 1966, cover 

NASA/Northrop M2/F2 Lifting Body Vehicle

The Northrop/Norair M2/F2 manned litfting-body research vehicle pictured during its second flight.

See the Aug. 8, 1966, cover

Lunar Module Adapter Separates from Saturn 5 Apollo Spacecraft

The Saturn 5 launch vehicle flown during the Apollo 6 mission carried more cameras than any previous Saturn.

See the June 10, 1968, cover

 

Earthrise

Earth, with north at the right and the sunset terminator cutting through Africa, rises above the Moon's horizon as the Apollo 8 spacecraft emerges from behind the far side of the Moon for the first time Dec, 24, 1968, after the successful burn for lunar orbit insertion. 

See the Jan. 13, 1969, cover

Buzz Aldrin Descends to the Moon

Astronaut Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr., stretches his left foot toward the landing pad of Apollo 11 as he descends to the Moon, July 20, 1969. Note the extensive thermal blanket on the lunar module's descent stage and landing probe bent along the surface between Aldrin's feet. Photo by Apollo 11 Cmdr. Neil A. Armstrong.

See the Aug. 11, 1969, cover

Microwave Image of Mount Rainier

A passive microwave image of Mount Rainier taken with an Aerojet General radiometer in the U.S. Geological Survey Program shows dry snow near the summit with cold return, snow melting on slopes and the high microwave temperature of frosted valleys indicated by yellows and greens. North is at right.

See the March 30, 1970, cover

Falcon Ascent Stage Lifts Off From Moon

Pieces of insulation fly off the lunar module as the Apollo 15 ascent stage lifts off the descent stage to rejoin the orbiting command module. 

See the Aug. 9, 1971, cover 

Pioneer 10 Rectified Image of Jupiter and its Moon Io

Pioneer 10's view of Jupiter from a distance of 1.58 million mi. includes the great red spot, white cellular structures and turbulence in some cloud belts and zones. The "beauty mark" is the shadow of Io, innermost of Jupiter's Galilean moons.

See the Dec. 17, 1973, cover

 

Final Skylab Flyaround

A twin-pole sunshade, erected by the second Skylab crew, covers the solar parasol installed by the first Skylab astronauts during the final flyaround of the workshop after the third manned visit.

See the March 18, 1973, cover 

 

Skylab 4 Infrared Image

This Skylab 4 infrared photo is an example of growing and sometimes surprising oceanographic detail returned from satellite imagery.

See the July 1, 1974, cover

 

Soyuz View from Apollo

A Soviet Soyuz iviewed from an Apollo spacecraft during preparations for ASTP ultraviolet absorption experiment maneuvers. 

See the Sept. 8, 1975, cover 

 

First Space Shuttle Engine Tested

The first space shuttle main engine undergoes a 45-sec., 76%-power-level firing test at NASA's National Space Technologies Laboratories, Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Note the Mach diamond in the flame.

See the July 5, 1976, cover 

Viking Color View of Mars, With Calibration Test Strip

Color balancing of Viking 1 lander imagery with aid of a test strip centered on a spacecraft-mounted color chart produced what experimenters consider authentic rust-red Martian surface and peach-colored sky.

See the August 9, 1976, cover

Orbiter Lowered From Test Stand

The space shuttle Enterprise is lowered from the Marshall Space Flight Center dynamic test stand after completing the first phase of ground vibration testing with a shuttle external propellant tank. 

See the Aug. 28, 1978, cover 

Space Shuttle First Launch

The space shuttle Columbia, attached to its external liquid hyrdogen/oxygen fuel tank and twin solid rocket boosters, accelerates away from Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, following lift off on its first test mission, April 12, 1981. 

See the April 20, 1981, cover 

Voyager 2 False Color of Saturn

Voyager 2 images of Saturn taken through ultraviolet, violet and green filters were combined to make this photograph of the planet from a distance of 27 million miles.  

See the Aug. 24, 1981, cover

Challenger Viewed in Orbit From SPAS-01

The shuttle Challenger photographed from the German Space Shuttle Palette Satellite 01 (SPAS-01). Visible are the OSTA-2 materials processing palette and communications satellite sunshields in the payload bay and the manipulator arm parked in the form of a 7.

See the July 11, 1983, cover

Flying the Martin Marietta Manned Maneuvering Unit in Orbit

Astronaut Navy Capt. Bruce McCandless flies the Martin Marietta Manned Maneuvering Unit untethered away from the shuttle Challenger while orbiting the Earth at an altitude of 150 nm and a speed of 17,500 mph. during STS-41B.

See the Feb. 20, 1984, cover 

Shuttle Close Up at Mir

In a close encounter of a new kind, Dr. Valery Polyakov peers out of a window of the Mir core module as Discovery approaches within 37 ft.

See the February 20, cover 

Missions to Mir: Prelude to International Space Station Era

See the Nov. 27, 1995, cover

Mars Exploration in a New Era

Sojourner, the first vehicle to travel over the surface of another planet, sits in its predeployment configuration on a petal of the Mars Pathfinder shortly after landing in Ares Vallis of Mars on July 4, 1997.

See the July 14, 1997, cover

International Space Station Era Begins

The International Space Station orbiting at 245 mi. altitude, viewed from the space shuttle Endeavour. 

See the Jan. 4, 1999, cover 

A New Era in Satellite Imaging

Space Imaging's Ikonos, the first of several new high-resolution commercial satellites to reach orbit, shot this 1-meter-resolution panchromatic image of London in October 1999.

See the Jan. 31, 2000, cover

The Columbia Tragedy

The space shuttle Columbia passes over the Owens Valley Radio Observatory as it reenters the atmosphere on its final flight. Small parts are probably coming off the orbiter in this picture, which was taken 1-2 min. after telemetry measurements began to fail. 

See the Feb. 10, 2003, cover

SpaceShipOne's Flight to Victory

Scaled Composites pilot Brian Binnie took this photo from SpaceShipOne near the 367,000-ft. apogee of the Oct. 4, 2004, flight that won the Ansari X Prize. 

See the Oct. 11, 2004, cover 

Son of Blackbird

Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works takes the wraps off its proposed SR-72, Mach-6 successor to its long-retired SR-71 Blackbird spy plane. 

See the Nov. 4, 2013, cover 

Hubble Telescope Checkout

The Hubble Telescope checked out well initially, but weeks of work remained to focus the space telescope after the space shuttle Endeavour crew's record-setting five days of extravehicular activity.

See the Jan. 3, 1994, cover

Shuttle at 15: A Look Back, a Look Ahead

After 15 years of operations, the space shuttle was safer and less expensive. Though it never met early goals, the shuttle was moving toward its original vision and was expected to fly until at least 2010.

See the April 8, 1996, cover

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From the entirety of Aviation Week's 100-year archive, our editors have selected the covers featured in this gallery as among the most striking depicting space-related events. See what makes each cover 'memorable' and click here to vote for your favorite.

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