A long-exposure photograph of the night sky over Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard. Credit: Chris Pirner
<ul><li>For a month’s time, Ny-Ålesund will be home to the rocket team behind NASA’s VISIONS-2 mission, short for Visualizing Ion Outflow via Neutral Atom Sensing-2. They have ventured to this extreme place for an up-close look at atmospheric escape, the process whereby Earth is slowly leaking its atmosphere into space. Understanding atmospheric escape on Earth has applications all over the universe — from predicting which far off planets might be habitable, to piecing together how Mars became the desolate, exposed landscape it is today. VISIONS-2 is scheduled to launch no earlier than Dec. 4, 2018.</li>
<li>Led by Doug Rowland of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, VISIONS-2 is a sounding rocket mission, a type of suborbital rocket that makes brief, targeted flights into space before falling back to Earth just a few minutes later. Sounding rockets are unique among scientific spacecraft for their superior dexterity: They can be carted to remote locations, where they are aimed and shot into short-lived events — like the sudden formation of the aurora borealis — at a moment’s notice.</li></ul><dl><dd><dl><dd>Read more: <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://go.nasa.gov/2DUW1R7">go.nasa.gov/2DUW1R7</a></dd></dl></dd></dl><dl><dd><dl><dd><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelines.html">NASA image use policy</a>.</dd></dl></dd></dl><dl><dd><dl><dd><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a> enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.</dd></dl></dd></dl><dl><dd><dl><dd>Follow us on <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://twitter.com/NASAGoddardPix">Twitter</a></dd></dl></dd></dl><dl><dd><dl><dd>Like us on <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Greenbelt-MD/NASA-Goddard/395013845897?ref=tsd">Facebook</a></dd></dl></dd></dl><dl><dd><dl><dd>Find us on <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.instagram.com/nasagoddard/?vm=grid">Instagram</a></dd></dl></dd></dl>
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/people/24662369@N07">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a> from Greenbelt, MD, USA
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<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/45414074544/">Night Sky Over Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard</a>