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Best of Space Station Science Images 2024

Crew members on the International Space Station conducted hundreds of experiments during 2024, ranging from human research to Earth science and technology demonstrations. Enjoy this image gallery showcasing a few of these experiments.

NASA astronaut Nick Hague processes samples for the Rhodium Biomanufacturing 03 experiment. The investigation explores how microgravity affects biomanufacturing engineered...
NASA astronaut Nick Hague is inside the International Space Station performs a scientific experiment. The astronaut, wearing a black T-shirt and beige pants, is handling equipment, including a metal grid container and a cylindrical device. The interior of the space station is cluttered with various wires, devices, and control panels, reflecting the complexity of the environment. Bright lighting illuminates the space, highlighting the astronaut's focused activity.
NASA Astronaut Suni Williams supervises Astrobee’s new tentacle-like attachments during the REACCH investigation. This was one of four sessions to...
NASA Astronaut Suni Williams floats inside the International Space Station with her hair extending outward due to microgravity. She is interacting with the Astrobee robotic assistant featuring two articulated blue robotic arms attached to a cube-shaped device. The background shows an intricate array of scientific equipment, wiring, and monitors, capturing the high-tech environment of the space station.
Each circle represents a different material used in the Euro Material Ageing investigation. This experiment exposes samples to the harsh...
Close-up view of an experimental setup featuring an array of circular material samples mounted in a black panel with metal screws. The samples include various reflective, metallic, and translucent materials, such as silver, gold, and transparent surfaces. This experiment is designed to test material durability and properties in the harsh space conditions.
iss070e091759 (Feb. 12, 2024) NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara works on MABL-A, a study of how microgravity affects cells that help...
O’Hara smiles at the camera through the glass of a glovebox. Her arms are inside the glovebox sleeves, and she wears blue latex gloves. A clear, rectangular sample plate floats between her hands.
iss070e073612 (Jan. 18, 2024) NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli smiles next to the Advanced Plant Habitat, where multiple tomato plants grow...
Moghbeli, wearing a dark blue hooded sweatshirt, smiles at the camera. Next to her is an open, cube-shaped plant growth facility, with small tomato seedlings growing in multiple rows on the bottom. Multiple hoses and cords are visible on the back and sides of the facility, which is brightly lit.
iss072e011142 (Oct. 2, 2024) NASA astronaut Suni Williams works on StemCellEX-H1, a technology for in-space production of human stem cells...
A view from above shows Williams, wearing a black t-shirt, khaki pants, and white latex gloves, floating next to the Life Sciences Glovebox. The box, the size of a dorm refrigerator, has a silver metal base and glass sides above it. There are arm holes on its top and white sleeves visible inside of it.
jsc2024e038397 (June 5, 2024) This image shows space-grown lysozyme crystals after their return to Earth. ADSEP-PIL-02 examined how microgravity affects...
About twelve boxy, clear, three-dimensional crystals are bathed in an orange light in this image taken through a microscope.
iss072e097446 (Oct. 24, 2024) As the space station soared some 250 miles above Lake Michigan, NASA astronaut Don Pettit captured...
The top third shows part of the space station in focus. The bottom two thirds show the Earth with long streaks of white light against the blue of Earth captured using long-exposure photography. To the left is a green and red aurora.
iss071e522127 (Aug. 21, 2024) NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps prints samples of stainless steel to demonstrate microgravity operation of the Metal...
Epps is wearing a long-sleeved black top and pants, a black headband, goggles, and blue latex gloves and has a tablet attached by Velcro to her pants. In her right hand she holds a small metal disk with six 3D printed posts of different shapes and lengths protruding from it.
iss071e092807 (May 20, 2024) NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson works on Gaucho Lung, which studies the delivery of drugs in...
Dyson faces away from the camera at a worktable, using both hands to hold a device attached to an adjustable arm on the table. The device has a clear orange box about the size of a bar of soap, with a plunger on one end and a tube on top of it with a plastic bag at the end. A clear hose coming out of the tube has several clamps on it. Dyson is connecting the other end of the hose to another part of the device.
iss071e485832 (Aug. 15, 2024) NASA astronaut Suni Williams installs hardware for the Packed Bed Reactor Experiment. In a packed bed...
Williams, wearing a black t-shirt and blue latex gloves, smiles at the camera and gestures toward hardware for the experiment. To her left are several metal boxes across the bottom with multiple black and silver hoses and cords attaching the boxes to the hardware. There is a white control panel across the top with multiple labels and switches.
iss071e019819 (April 22, 2024) NASA astronaut Mike Barratt processes brain organoid samples made from the neural cells of patients with...
Barratt is wearing blue latex gloves, a navy shirt, glasses, and a headset and has his arms inside the white sleeves of a large glovebox. He is holding sample syringes in each hand. The back side and work surface of the box are shiny silver and the top of it is a slanted piece of clear plastic.
iss072e027484 (Sept. 28, 2024) Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) is roughly 44 million miles away from Earth in this photo from...
A black background of sky with stars melts into a bright blue horizon color at the top of the image. A comet with a blue trail pictured from the International Space Station as it orbited over 250 miles above the South Atlantic Ocean.
iss070e102490 (Feb. 27, 2024) JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) is testing whether this free-flying robotic camera, known as the JEM...
The spherical camera floats in the space station. It is white and black with two large camera lenses on the front that are black with a blue ring around them and look like large eyes and has JAXA in small lettering near the top.
iss070e097708 (Feb. 21, 2024) Robotic Surgery Tech Demo tested techniques for using a miniature robot remotely controlled from Earth to...
O’Hara is wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and smiling at the camera, as she holds the robotic hardware with both hands. The miniature robot is narrow, about the size of an adult’s forearm, with a gray handle, up and down arrow buttons, and two bent “arms” on its end. One of the arms has a metal spatula and the other a set of clippers.
iss072e069593 (Oct. 19, 2024) Science doesn’t always have to be serious on the International Space Station. NASA astronaut Don Pettit...
iss072e069593 (Oct. 19, 2024) Science doesn’t always have to be serious on the International Space Station. NASA astronaut Don Pettit has a little fun in microgravity, adding food coloring to a bubble of water to create a miniature Jupiter. Credit: NASA ALT Text: A spherical drop of water with swirls of orange and blue food coloring looks like a tiny planet floating aboard the space station.
iss071e195867 (June 17, 2024) NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps works on the Materials Science Laboratory. This research facility is used to...
NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps, wearing a black long-sleeved shirt and headband, smiles as she works on a research facility. Epps’s right arm is extended as she lines up a long, silver rod to install a laboratory along a wall of station.
iss071e329978 (July 12, 2024) Northrop Grumman's Cygnus spacecraft is attached to the leading end effector of the 57.7-foot-long Canadarm2 robotic...
Northop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft is center of the image with two large gold solar panels, one in the top right and one in the bottom left corners. A large white metal arm is attached to the body of the spacecraft. Earth is visible in the background.
iss071e439784 (Aug. 5, 2024) NASA astronaut Mike Barratt replaces components inside the space station’s Combustion Integrated Rack. This facility is...
Barratt, wearing a long-sleeved blue shirt, glasses, a headlamp, and blue latex gloves, peers into the open round hatch of the combustion rack, using his right hand to pull out a device with two long metal protrusions and multiple cords connecting it to the rack.
iss071e462520 (Aug. 12, 2024) NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick holds a bag of simulated lunar soil and other materials mixed with...
Dominick, wearing a red short-sleeved t-shirt and a black ball cap, smiles at the camera and holds up in both his hands a sandwich-sized plastic zipper bag containing a black powder.
iss071e356678 (July 16, 2024) Microgravity affects how water and nutrients are delivered to plants. NASA astronaut Suni Williams works on...
Williams, wearing a long-sleeved blue shirt and glasses, looks at the camera and holds a large plastic syringe in both hands. In front of her is a worktable holding a large orange panel that has two clear chambers of red liquid and multiple connecting hoses. A camera mounted on the worktable faces the panel.
iss071e523308 (Aug. 21, 2024) NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore checks configurations of CubeSats packed inside the J-SSOD, a unique satellite deployer....
NASA Astronaut Butch Wilmore works on a large silver box in front of him using a screwdriver. Wilmore has his feet under two blue bars on the floor to prevent him from floating aware. He is earing khaki pants and a navy long-sleeve shirt.
iss070E110532 (March 8, 2024) The Flawless Space Fibers-1 investigation manufactured more than seven miles of optical fiber in one month,...
O’Hara, wearing a blue t-shirt with her hair in a ponytail, smiles at the camera and with her right hand reaches toward the Flawless Fibers hardware. Its large silver front panel has two windows, with a reel visible through the one on the left and controls through the one on the right.
iss071e321342 (July 11, 2024) Expedition 71 is ready for science! This team portrait inside the vestibule between station’s Unity module...
Clockwise from bottom, NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Jeanette Epps, Suni Williams, Mike Barratt, Tracy C. Dyson, and Butch Wilmore, pose for a team portrait inside the vestibule between the Unity module and the Cygnus space freighter from Northrop Grumman. Dyson holds a photograph of NASA astronaut Patrica Hilliard for whom the Cygnus spacecraft, S.S. Patricia “Patty” Hilliard Robertson, is named after.
iss071e170351 (June 3, 2024) NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick captured red sprites from space station. The bright red flashes in the...
A line of bright blue lightning storms shines against a black background. Above the largest storm small wisps of red sprites stretch up. Along the left side, small yellow lights shine from an illuminated city.
iss071e414653 (Aug. 1, 2024) NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps stows blood and saliva samples from the Immunity Assay experiment in a...
NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps has her left arm extended towards the camera. Epps holds a syringe in her right hand. Epps is looking at the camera with a slight smile, wearing a black t-shirt, black pants with Velcro strips, and a black headband.
iss070e129454 (March 23, 2024) The SpaceX Dragon cargo craft, on NASA's 30th Commercial Resupply Services mission, approaches the International Space...
The SpaceX Dragon cargo craft approaches the International Space Station for a docking to the Harmony module's space-facing port. The spacecraft is a stark white against the black background of space, with its nosecone open and ready to dock.
iss070e129908 (March 26, 2024) Five NASA astronauts, from left to right, Jeanette Epps, Tracy C. Dyson, Mike Barratt, Loral O’Hara,...
Five NASA astronauts, three women and two men, pose for a photo together while wearing eclipse glasses. The eclipse glasses are rectangular and have two dark lenses.
iss070e132878 (March 31, 2024) Expedition 70 NASA Astronauts (from left) Mike Barratt, Matthew Dominick, and Loral O'Hara take photos of...
Expedition 70 Flight Engineers (from left) Mike Barratt, Matthew Dominick, and Loral O'Hara take photos of the Earth from inside the cupola. Barratt and O’Hara hold large lens cameras, pointing towards the cupola window facing the Earth. Dominick floats behind them also looking up at cupola window. The photo is taken with a fisheye lense causing the photo a circular appearance.
iss071-E-003390 (April 8, 2024) A total solar eclipse passes over Mexico, the United States, and Canada. Millions of people witnessed...
The image above, taken as the space station orbited over 250 miles above the North Atlantic, shows the eclipse’s dark shadow from the Moon on Earth’s surface surrounded by white clouds. Along the top edge of the planet, Earth’s bright horizon shines at the boundary between the atmosphere and space.
iss071e046270 (May 1, 2024) NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson performs a tech demonstration with an Astrobee as part of Zero...
NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson, wearing a long-sleeved red shirt and khaki pants, is touching an Astrobee floating just above her left shoulder with her right hand and holding a microphone in her left hand. The robot has a blue panel on each side, black panels inside those, and a white and silver center with two camera lenses and multiple buttons on the front of it.
Iss071e67226-stk (May 10, 2024) NASA astronaut Matt Dominick aboard space station captured this waxing lunar crescent illuminated by the Sun....
the Moon is in a waxing crescent phase, with only a small sliver of the Sun-illuminated side visible on its right side. The rest of the Moon glows, albeit less brightly, by the light of the Sun after it has been reflected off of the Earth. Below the Moon, Earth’s bright horizon arcs across the bottom of the image. It shows a cross-section of the planet’s atmospheric layers including the orange troposphere and the light-blue stratosphere.
iss072e031339 (Oct. 9, 2024) NASA astronaut Nick Hague works out wearing T-mini, a headband with a thermosensor that tracks core...
NASA Astronaut Nick Hague is wearing a gray t-shirt and gray shorts, holding a white towel in his left hand. He is facing away from the camera and smiling.
iss071e040194 (April 24, 2024) This sample plate contains bacteria collected on the space station. The GEARS investigation uses genetic analysis...
Two gloved fingers hold a clear rectangular sample plate on which dozens of tiny, fuzzy gray circles grow. A white label at one end of the plate reads “Media Plate S/N 1013 Location 5-1.”
iss070e100775 (Feb. 25, 2024) NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli runs on the T2 treadmill system on space station. Daily exercise is...
NASA Astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli runs on a treadmill while wearing a bungee harness that prevents her from floating away. Moghbeli seems focused while her hair floats above her. Several cords are near the ceiling.
Iss072e096196 and iss072e098100 (Oct. 23, 2024) NASA astronaut Don Pettit merges science and art by turning water into thin wafers...
LEFT: Colorful fragments of crystals cluster at the end of white ice columns, created from thin wafers of frozen water. Petit used a blank, white laptop display and a polarizing filter to create the image. RIGHT: Pettit, wearing a black t-shirt and khaki cargo pants. sets up an experiment, to the right, with a DSLR camera facing rectangular piece of glass, rectangular ice blocks, and an extended computer screen.
iss072e034791 (Oct. 11, 2024) As the space station orbits 259 miles above Austria, NASA astronaut Nick Hague poses in the...
Hague, wearing a gray t-shirt and smiling at the camera, is inside the cupola with hardware for the Rhodium Plant LIFE investigation. To his right floats the hardware, a shiny gold box that holds six glass sample tubes with a white sticker that says “Rhodium.” Earth is visible through the cupola windows in the background.
iss071e000901 (April 6, 2024) and jsc2024e038395 (June 5, 2024) NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps works on BFF-Cardiac, an investigation that used...
On the right, Epps, wearing a dark blue t-shirt, a headlamp, and a headset, smiles at the camera. Her arms are in the plastic sleeves of a portable glovebag the size of a large suitcase. On the left, a cylindrical glass flask holds a red liquid. In the bottom of it sits a palm-sized white cellular structure under a spotlight.
jsc2024e041215 (Feb 10, 2024) Dr. Dmitry Oleynikov, at a console in Lincoln, Nebraska, teleoperates a surgical robot aboard the International...
Oleynikov, wearing a blue shirt and pants, sits in a padded chair facing a computer screen on a large stand and holding in each hand controllers at the end of maneuvering arms attached to the stand. The image on the screen is projected on a larger screen on the wall.
jsc2024e021222 (March 21, 2024) A flame curves along a sphere of solid fuel as part of the SoFIE-GEL investigation, which...