“The Lockheed SR-71 “Blackbird” was an advanced, long-range, Mach 3+ strategic reconnaissance aircraft. It was developed as a black project from the Lockheed A-12 reconnaissance aircraft in the 1960s by the Lockheed Skunk Works. Clarence “Kelly” Johnson was responsible for many of the design's innovative concepts. During reconnaissance missions the SR-71 operated at high speeds and altitudes to allow it to outrace threats. If a surface-to-air missile launch was detected, the standard evasive action was simply to accelerate and outrun the missile”. – Wikipedia

Photo: A U.S. Air Force SR-71A, also known as the “Blackbird”, is put through it's paces during a test flight over Beale Air Force Base in California. The aircraft is a strategic reconnaissance plane by Lockheed and is the world's fastest and highest flying operational aircraft. (Photo by Getty Images)

“NASA's Mars rover Opportunity just celebrated its ninth anniversary on Mars – a mission that was originally meant to last just 90 days...” – The Atlantic. Photo: NASA's rover Opportunity visits Victoria Crater, viewed from orbit by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in october of 2006. Opportunity is a small dot on the crater's lip, at top right. Opportunity first reached the crater's rim on September 27, 2006. (Photo by NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona via The Atlantic)

Colombia' s Caterine Ibarguen competes in the women' s long jump during the 2018 IAAF Birmingham Diamond League athletics meeting at Alexander Stadium in Birmingham on August 18, 2018. (Photo by Peter Cziborra/Action Images via Reuters)

Subway passengers walk past bronze sculptures representing the Soviet people at the Ploshchad Revolyutsii metro station in Moscow, on November 14, 2012. The station was opened in 1938. (Photo by Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP Photo)

The launch of a rocket into space is projected on Dubai's Burj Khalifa on February 9, 2021 as the UAE's “Al-Amal” – Arabic for “Hope” – probe's to Mars carries out a tricky manoeuvre to enter the Red Planet's orbit. A tense half-hour today will determine the fate of “Hope”. If successful, the probe which is designed to reveal the secrets of Martian weather, will become the first of three spacecraft to arrive at the Red Planet this month. (Photo by Giuseppe Cacace/AFP Photo)

Farmer Tom Spilman harvests some of the 125,000 pumpkins at Spilman's Pumpkin Farm in Sessay, near Thirsk, North Yorkshire, UK on Monday, September 25, 2023, ahead of the opening of Pumpkin Fest 2023 on Saturday. (Photo by Danny Lawson/PA Images via Getty Images)

Heartlyn Rae duo (Alexis Driscoll and Julia Frys) poses for a picture in Barbie's Space Center during the World of Barbie immersive experience preview in Santa Monica, California, U.S., April 12, 2023. (Photo by Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)

Children play in the Crown Fountain at Millennium Park in Chicago, Wednesday, June 29, 2022. (Photo by Nam Y. Huh/AP Photo)