Posted on by Ken Kremer

NASA Stars at 2013 Presidential Inaugural Parade with Orion and Curiosity – Photos and Video

Image caption: Orion deep space crew capsule float passes in front of the White House at the Presidential Inaugural parade on Jan 21, 2013 in Washington, DC. Credit: NASA

NASA’s new Orion deep space crew capsule and sensational Curiosity Mars rover had starring roles at the 2013 Presidential Inaugural Parade held on Monday, Jan 21, 2013 in Washington D.C.

NASA photographers captured stunning photos and video (above and below) as Orion and Curiosity passed in front of the White House and the official reviewing stand – with President Obama & VP Joe Biden and their families and numerous dignitaries smiling and waving.

Beautiful weather shined though out the entire day’s festivities and into the early evening as full size models of Orion and Curiosity made their way thought the capitol streets to participate in the 2013 Inaugural parade.

NASA’s floats prominently placed near the front of the parade and seen on Live TV about 530 PM EDT as well as by about a million spectators on hand.

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Image caption: Curiosity Mars rover float passes in front of the White House and reviewing stand at the Presidential Inaugural parade on Jan 21, 2013 in Washington, DC. Credit: NASA

The fantastically successful Curiosity rover is discovering widespread evidence for the ancient flow of liquid water on Mars.

The Orion multi-purpose capsule will take our astronauts back to the Moon and farther into deep space than ever before.

NASA is the ONLY federal agency asked to be in the inaugural parade. Curiosity led the way followed by Orion.


Video of full-size models of the Curiosity Mars rover and Orion, the multi-purpose capsule that will take our astronauts farther into space than ever, as they appeared in the Washington, D.C. parade on Jan. 21.

Accompanying the NASA vehicles were members of the Curiosity team from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and current and former astronauts Alvin Drew, Serena Aunon, Kate Rubins, Mike Massimino, Lee Morin and Kjell Lindgren, as well as Leland Melvin, NASA’s associate administrator for Education, and John Grunsfeld, NASA’s associate administrator for Science.

Be sure to check out NASA’s Flickr stream for many photos from the 2013 Inaugural Day festivities and parade – here and here

See my preview story – here

Ken Kremer

13 Replies to “NASA Stars at 2013 Presidential Inaugural Parade with Orion and Curiosity – Photos and Video”

    1. Ya, so true…. SCREW the future! The USA should remain in the past behind all of the other first world nations and be PROUD OF IT! SCREW Metric..! To HELL with guaranteed paid for health and education for everyone..! We DEMAND to lag at the back of the global pack, while they GROVEL at our FEET for entertainment media and bad food!!

      1. Idiot. Guarenteed paid health and education? Who do think pays for that? And if those same people aren’t working because businesses can no longer do business and make money because of the rising taxes, fees and other nonsense this corrept administration has come up with so they can pay for the millions of people on food stamps, welfare and oh, by-the-way free contraception and abortions to people that can’t afford it has ruined this country. So just go and join the other sheep… Hitler had his sheep too until people woke up and realized what they had done.

      2. Whoa there Bill! Try to keep up, who pays for the Affordable health care act? the people buying more affordable insurance through new pools of buyers that includes young folks who need it less, but will benefit from it also in the event of an accident, or later in life. New taxes? what, on folks who make more than 400k a year (and only on the money above that level) Oh heavens! shut down the plant, we cant do business what with having to pay a few percentage points after we put well over a quarter of a mil in the bank!!! Oh, and there is no free contraception in the bill, just a rule that the companies collecting premiums from the insured cant refuse to pay for contraceptives, which by the way mean less abortions and expensive pregnancies for those who prefer to plan when to have kids! How any birth control could have been responsible for “ruining this country” is beyond me, and if you cant make your poorly thought out posts without invoking Hitler, you should probably refrain from posting.
        “better to hold ones tongue and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt!” And you have the nerve to call others Idiot?

  3. This same non-science item was posted only three items before…yesterday!
    (IMHO, I don’t think some NASA floats makes it a science affair.)

    Was it re-posted simply because there are more pictures?
    Will there be another one tomorrow?

  4. I heard most of the inauguration speech, and I just read it all – twice.

    No mention of NASA, space, exploration, or astronomy.

    One mention of the word, “science”, but in the context of they need more math and science teachers to create more jobs.

    Surely, Obama isn’t getting credit for the NASA missions depicted in the floats?!

  7. So people UPVOTED the asshole who said this story is Nonsense and DOWNVOTED my sarcastic reply in defense of this article then everyone got off on a tangent about my brief comment on socialized education and healthcare that EVERY OTHER FIRST WORLD NATION ON EARTH employ… Blow me……….

  8. Eat me, Bill…… Backwards thinking conservative a-holes like you deserve the beer, pussy, football only lives you hold so dear while the rest of the world flourishes. Why even come to this site if all you’re going to do is show off your ignorance on the topics and grand-stand points of view that are quickly dwindling like racism and warmongering? BTW, I’m gay, so now you can call me a faggot too……

  9. It IS a science item in as much as it shows that the Obama admin is at least thinking about NASA, ie Space Science in general… Behind the scenes is as important as nitty-gritty hands-on articles….

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