Photo Gallery

A packed auditorium at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) gives a thumbs-up for the successful launch of NuSTAR.

To celebrate the one year anniversary of the successful launch of NuSTAR into orbit, scientists, friends and their families of the mission gathered at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) for a birthday party. In its first year NuSTAR already produced spectacular images of the hard X-ray sky and enhanced our understanding of the hot and energetic universe.

A holiday sweater party for HEAG postdocs and significant others to celebrate the holiday season of 2021.

A large portion of the NuSTAR team gather in front of the Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics before a team meeting in November of 2021.

Some team members celebrate Murray's birthday (also a pseudo-Halloween party) in November of 2021.

A handful of team members attend Murray's wedding in Malibu, in September 2017.

Group dinner in Sun Valley, Idaho, after attending the High Energy Astrophysics Division (HEAD) meeting and watching the eclipse in August of 2017.

Postdoc Marianne Heida brings a group of SURF and WAVE students to the Palomar Observatory.

Team photos looked a little different when we all had to work from home!

Marianne and her SURF and WAVE students demonstrate the scale of the Palomar Observatory.

Former WAVE student Andrew Sosanya presents a poster, serving as a capstone for his period as a SURF student with the HEAG.

Nikita Kamraj successfully conducts her PhD defense in Fall 2021

The HEAG conducts a meeting out to lunch after observing a solar eclipse

A group of HEAG members enjoy a wonderful celebration at the scenic Athenaeum at Caltech.

Team members gather for a photo during the Space Radiation Laboratory's annual Christmas party in 2019.

A subset of Summer 2022's SURF students with Daniel Stern at Palomar for a night of observing in July 2022.

Group members and summer 2022 SURF students gathered for dinner in Dabney Gardens to celebrate this year's graduations and new positions.

Group members went for dinner in while attending the HEAD 20 conference in Hawai'i.

The Pegasus rocket carrying NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) can be seen at the belly of its carrier plane, the "Stargazer," as it lands on Kwajalein Atoll. The plane lifted the rocket and its precious cargo to its airborne launch site above the Pacific Ocean on June 13, 2012.

All eyes are fixed in anticipation on the monitor showing the NuSTARs launch rocket under the belly of the L-1011 carrier plane.

NuSTAR saw first light on June 28th, 2012, observing the Galactic black-hole Cygnus X-1. This poster commemorates that event and was signed by the NuSTAR scientists working at University of California, Berkeley (UCB). UCB also hosts the Mission Operations Center, from which the launch and in-orbit check-out was coordinated.

The final pre-launch deployment of the NuSTAR articulated mast occurred on in late 2010. The mast was launched in a compressed state, expanding to 10 meter (33 feet) when deployed. This provided a compact, low weight, stable platform to separate the NuSTAR optics modules from the detectors at the focal plane. The mast was designed and built by ATK Goleta, and has significant flight heritage, including the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) which flew on the Space Shuttle Endeavor in February 2000 and made high-resolution elevation (topographic) maps of most of our planet. In the foreground is the deployed NuSTAR mast, with key NuSTAR people in the background. The next time the mast extended like this was one week after launch, in low Earth orbit.

The payload transporter carrying the environmentally controlled shipping container enclosing NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) is parked in the airlock at Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) in California.

In the airlock of processing facility 1555 at Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) in California, workers secure NuSTAR onto a handling dolly. NuSTAR was integrated into its Pegaus launch rocket at VAFB.

An Orbital Sciences technician completes final checks of NuSTAR, inside the Orbital Sciences processing facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California before the Pegasus payload fairing is secured around it. At this stage, NuSTAR was already mated to its Pegasus XL rocket, which is positioned behind the spacecraft outside the environmental enclosure. Encapsulation of NuSTAR in its fairing was a significant pre-launch milestone. The fairing protected the spacecraft from the heat and aerodynamic pressure generated during ascent to orbit.