Goddard Engineering and Technology Directorate

A colorful image of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope's element assembly wheel.

Engineering and
Technology Directorate

Capturing ETD

An engineering photography collection of the past, present and future.

NASA Thermal Coatings Engineer Nithin Abraham removes samples treated with a patent-pending adsorber from specimen-storage cabinets at the Smithsonian’s Museum Support Center in Suitland, Maryland
NASA Thermal Coatings Engineer Nithin Abraham removes samples treated with a patent-pending adsorber from specimen-storage cabinets at the Smithsonian’s Museum Support Center in Suitland, Maryland, a sprawling storage facility that holds more than 54 million collection items. Credits: NASA/Goddard/Chris Gunn.
Technicians move the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem (PACE) observatory inside the Electromagnetic Interference Testing Facility at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland on January 30, 2023.
Technicians move the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem (PACE) observatory inside the Electromagnetic Interference Testing Facility at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland on January 30, 2023.
NASA Engineer Samelys Rodriguez, Code 553, wirebonding the compact assembly for evaluation of prototype x-ray microcalorimeters and multiplexed, cryogenic amplifiers for ATHENA X-IFU (the Advanced Telescope for High Energy Astrophysics X-ray Integral Field Unit). Credit: NASA/Nicholas Costen
NASA Engineer Samelys Rodriguez, Code 553, wirebonding the compact assembly for evaluation of prototype x-ray microcalorimeters and multiplexed, cryogenic amplifiers for ATHENA X-IFU (the Advanced Telescope for High Energy Astrophysics X-ray Integral Field Unit). Credit: NASA/Nicholas Costen
NASA Engineer Melissa Harris, Code 597, orbital welding for Roman Space Telescope propulsion subsystem. Credit: NASA/Melissa Harris
NASA Engineer Melissa Harris, Code 597, orbital welding for Roman Space Telescope propulsion subsystem. Credit: NASA/Melissa Harris
NASA Engineer Ryan McClelland, Code 550, examines structures designed by an AI for various missions. Most products are milled out of solid blocks of aluminum though others have been produced by 3D printing titanium. Credit: NASA/Denny Henry
NASA Engineer Ryan McClelland, Code 550, examines structures designed by an AI for various missions. Most products are milled out of solid blocks of aluminum (center) though others have been produced by 3D printing titanium (darker structures). Credit: NASA/Denny Henry
OSIRIS-REx Structure Lift and Installation Over Propellant Tank.
OSIRIS-REx Structure lift and installation over Propellant Tank at a Lockheed Martin clean room.
Engineer conducts an inspection on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.
Engineer conducts an inspection on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in the clean room at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. (Credit: Chris Gunn / NASA)
The Ocean Color Instrument (OCI) pushed by the team into the Thermal Vacuum Chamber (TVAC) for environmental testing.
The Ocean Color Instrument (OCI) is PACE’s primary sensor and is a highly advanced optical spectrometer that will be used to measure light properties over the electromagnetic spectrum.
The Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit Satellite (GTOSat) flight build.
The Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit Satellite (GTOSat) is a GSFC 6U CubeSat.
A fully functional, 1/6th scale model of the James Webb Space Telescope mirror in an optics test bed.
The JWST Test Bed Telescope (TBT) is a 1:6 scale model of JWST’s telescope with the full sensing capabilities and control authority, located at Ball Aerospace.
Europa Clipper propulsion subsystem in B11.
Wanyi Ng is a propulsion engineer in Code 597 at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). She is pictured in front of the Europa Clipper propulsion subsystem. The photo was taken in the building 11 clean room at the end of her team’s integration and test campaign at GSFC right before the subsystem’s delivery to the Applied Physics Laboratory for further integration. Photo Credit: NASA / Denny Henry
Three-unit (3U) CubeSats orbit above the Earth.
Three-unit (3U) CubeSats. At about a foot in length and four inches wide, these are similar in design to IceCube and the five selected heliophysics CubeSats. Credits: NASA
Electrical Engineer Works On A Sub-Payload Canister at Wallops Flight Facility.
Electrical engineer Scott Hesh works on a sub-payload canister at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility near Chincoteague, Virginia. Photo Credit: NASA/Berit Bland
An engineer attaches components to ICESat-2's beryllium telescope, before it is attached to the satellite's ATLAS instrument.
An engineer attaches components to ICESat-2’s beryllium telescope, before it is attached to the satellite’s ATLAS instrument.