Category: Space

NASA has chosen a group of contractors to supply multiple agency facilities with liquid and gaseous helium for at least the next two years. The NASA Agency-wide Supply of Liquid and Gaseous Helium contract is a fixed-price indefinite-delivery requirements contract with firm-fixed-price delivery orders. The awards have a total estimated value of approximately $105.1 million. The performance period begins Wednesday, Oct. 1, to Sept. 30, 2027, with three one-year option periods that could extend the contract to Sept. 30, 2030. The awardees include: Messer, LLC in Bridgewater, New Jersey Linde, Inc. in Danbury, Connecticut Airgas USA, LLC in Tulsa,…

NASA and SpaceX are targeting 2:45 a.m. EDT, Sunday, Aug. 24, for the next launch to deliver science investigations, supplies, and equipment to the International Space Station. This is the 33rd SpaceX commercial resupply services mission to the orbital laboratory for NASA. Filled with more than 5,000 pounds of supplies, a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket will lift off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Dragon will dock autonomously about 7:30 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 25, to the forward port of the space station’s Harmony module. Watch agency launch…

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features a galaxy that’s hard to categorize. The galaxy in question is NGC 2775, which lies 67 million light-years away in the constellation Cancer (the Crab). NGC 2775 sports a smooth, featureless center that is devoid of gas, resembling an elliptical galaxy. It also has a dusty ring with patchy star clusters, like a spiral galaxy. Which is it: spiral or elliptical — or neither? Because we can only view NGC 2775 from one angle, it’s difficult to say for sure. Some researchers classify NGC 2775 as a spiral galaxy because of its…

Omar Baez: We’ve had people that have gotten sick. Derrol Nail: The NASA Kennedy Launch team has persevered through a global pandemic to get a Mars Rover named Perseverance to the launch pad on time. Omar Baez: But yeah, Perseverance, what a perfect name. Derrol Nail: The cloud of doubt the virus cast over the Mars mission and how NASA overcame it, next on the Rocket Ranch. Launch Countdown Sequence:EGS program chief engineer. Verifying no constraints to launch. Three, two, one, and liftoff. Welcome to space. Derrol Nail: The Mars Rover, Perseverance came to the Kennedy Space Center from…

The Invisible Network theme music. A collage of historical plays overtop. PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY We choose to go to the Moon… NEIL ARMSTRONG(Apollo 11) That’s one small step for man… COMMENTATOR(Voyager Launch) We have ignition, and we have lift off! CHILD FROM VOYAGER GOLDEN RECORDS Hello from the children of planet earth… COMMENTATOR(Cassini Launch) Three… two… one… and liftoff, of the Cassini spacecraft… COMMENTATOR(Perseverance Landing) Touchdown confirmed, Perseverance safely on the surface of Mars… Theme music fades. NARRATOR Apollo. Voyager. Galileo. Journeys to Venus and Mars. The Deep Space Network has been critical to so many missions throughout…

In this episode streamed on Dec. 20, 2018, we get into the holiday spirit with a special holiday unboxing episode, where we showcase some of the amazing gifts NASA’s Ames Research Center has contributed to the agency’s mission of exploration and scientific discovery. Plus, we celebrate the 79th anniversary of the center’s founding with a look back at its history. Video with captions: Source link

An ice shelf collapsed in East Antarctica in March 2022, concerning scientists who track melting glaciers, sea level rise, and other effects of climate change. Catherine Walker, a visiting scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, uses NASA satellite data to look at the progression of events like this one to understand how large ice structures collapse. She is also looking at Jupiter’s moon Europa and what kind of life might be able to survive under the ice there. Learn about her Antarctica adventures and her scientific journey on this episode of Gravity Assist. Jim Green:On Earth Day, we’re…

[Música: Currents por Ben Niblett y Jon Cotton] HOST NOELIA GONZÁLEZ: La cuenta regresiva ha comenzado… ¡para la segunda temporada de Universo curioso de la NASA!  Sube a bordo de la astronave que nos llevará en un viaje poético hacia la misteriosa luna helada de Júpiter, Europa. Repasa las hazañas científicas de nuestro telescopio espacial James Webb. Súmate a una charla de otro mundo con nuestra directora de vuelo Diana Trujillo. Y prepárate para despegar rumbo a las estrellas junto al astronauta boricua Marcos Berríos.  Marcos Berríos: El pódcast se llama Universo curioso y me encanta la palabra “curioso”.…

Transcript [0:00] (music) At first glance, the Mars rover Curiosity, a six-wheeled vehicle that weighs nearly a ton, looks like a mash-up between a dune buggy and a space-age robot. But in many ways, Curiosity has been made in our image, with camera eyes that gaze out from a head supported by a neck, and an arm and “hand” that can scoop things up and dig into rocks and dirt. The rover also has a kind of mouth, nose, throat, and stomach. These allow Curiosity to take Mars into itself, breathing in the air and eating the rocks and…

Episode description:  With the James Webb Space Telescope, we are seeing the early universe like never before. Webb produces beautiful images and detailed scientific data that leave astronomers in awe. In this episode, Mic Bagley, a NASA scientist on the Webb team, guides us through new discoveries made possible by Webb. Mic tells the story of a remarkable galaxy discovered in the early days of Webb’s science mission and explains why Webb is teaching us “everything” about how galaxies form and evolve.  [Music: Curiosity by SYSTEM Sounds]   JACOB PINTER: You’re listening to NASA’s Curious Universe. I’m your host, Jacob…

From Earth orbit to the Moon and Mars, explore the world of human spaceflight with NASA each week on the official podcast of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Listen to in-depth conversations with the astronauts, scientists and engineers who make it possible. On episode 396, NASA project scientists Maria Banks and Sue Lederer revisit recent Commercial Lunar Payload Services missions and discuss research on the Moon. This episode was recorded July 17, 2025. Transcript Gary Jordan Houston, We Have a Podcast. Welcome to the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center, Episode 396: Lunar Surface Research.…

NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station have the opportunity to vote in general elections through absentee ballots or early voting in coordination with the county clerk’s office where they live.   So, how is voting from space possible? Through NASA’s Space Communication and Navigation (SCaN) Program.  Similar to most data transmitted between the space station and the Mission Control Center at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, votes cast in space travel through the agency’s Near Space Network, managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The network connects missions within 1.2 million miles of Earth with…

NASA has selected ARES Technical Services of McLean, Virginia, to provide safety and mission assurance services at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The Safety and Mission Assurance Services III contract is a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract with an estimated total value of $226 million. The contract will have a five-year effective ordering period starting on June 1, 2025, with an optional six-month extension period. Under the contract, the vendor will provide support to the agency’s Safety and Mission Assurance Directorate at NASA Goddard. This includes performing independent surveillance, audits, reviews, and assessments…

General Dynamics delivered one of its Atlas rockets to Plum Brook Station (today, Armstrong Test Facility) on July 31, 1963 for a series of structural tests in the Dynamics Stand. The company created a special 64-foot long trailer to transport the missile from its plant in San Diego to Ohio. The journey required a police escort and additional drivers on the trailer itself. Tight turns were impossible, and most bridges, underpasses, and urban areas had to be avoided.  In October 1963, NASA engineers subjected the vehicle to the maximum force it would encounter during a launch. The testing lifted the flight restraint…

From across the Atlantic Ocean and through the Gulf of Mexico, two ships converged, delivering key spacecraft and rocket components of NASA’s Artemis campaign to the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. On Sept. 3, ESA (European Space Agency) marked a milestone in the Artemis III mission as its European-built service module for NASA’s Orion spacecraft completed a transatlantic journey from Bremen, Germany, to Port Canaveral, Florida, where technicians moved it to nearby NASA Kennedy. Transported aboard the Canopée cargo ship, the European Service Module—assembled by Airbus with components from 10 European countries and the U.S.—provides propulsion, thermal control,…

NASA’s Independent Verification & Validation (IV&V) Program Education Resource Center (ERC) partnered with WVU Tech to host a STEM celebration and tournament in Charleston recently, which was geared toward recruiting young women to participate in competitive robotics teams. The Competition of VEX Educational Robotics to Advance Girls Education (COVERAGE) event, held on Tuesday, May 24,  inspired and supported female middle and high school students to pursue STEM careers in West Virginia. The event was funded by the Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation (GKVF) and the NASA WV Space Grant Consortium. “Our all-girls VEX scrimmage was a major success with dozens of…

More than 100 scientists will participate in a field campaign involving a research vessel and two aircraft this month to verify the accuracy of data collected by NASA’s new PACE satellite: the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem mission. The process of data validation includes researchers comparing PACE data with data collected by similar, Earth-based instruments to ensure the measurements match up. Since the mission’s Feb. 8, 2024 launch, scientists around the world have successfully completed several data validation campaigns; the September deployment — PACE-PAX — is its largest. From sea to sky to orbit, a range of vantage points allow…

NASA Stennis Space Center Director John Bailey and Deputy Director Christine Powell presented NASA Honor Awards to employees during an onsite ceremony Aug. 13. One NASA Stennis employee received NASA’s Outstanding Leadership Medal. The medal is awarded to government employees for notable leadership accomplishments that have significantly influenced the NASA mission. Marvin Horne of Fulton, Maryland, received the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal for his work in the Office of Procurement that has resulted in significant cost savings for the agency. Among his accomplishments, Horne designed, implemented, and led an integrated contract management office between NASA Stennis, NASA’s Michoud Assembly…

Sea surface height data from the Sentinel-6B satellite, led by NASA and ESA, will help with the development of marine weather forecasts, alerting ships to possible dangers. Because most global trade travels by ship, accurate, timely ocean forecasts are essential. These forecasts provide crucial information about storms, high winds, and rough water, and they depend on measurements provided by instruments in the ocean and by satellites including Sentinel-6B, a joint mission led by NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) that will provide essential sea level and other ocean data after it launches this November. The satellite will eventually take…

NASA astronauts Michael Fincke and Zena Cardman will connect with students in Ohio as they answer prerecorded science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) questions aboard the International Space Station. The Earth-to-space call will begin at 10:15 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, Aug. 27, and will stream live on the agency’s Learn With NASA YouTube channel. Media interested in covering the event must RSVP by 5 p.m., Monday, Aug. 25, to Mary Beddell at: 330-492-3500 or at beddellm@plainlocal.org. The STEM Academy at Glen Oak High School will host this event in Canton, Ohio for high school students. The goal of this…

Join observers from around the world on Saturday, Oct. 4, for NASA’s International Observe the Moon Night. This annual event offers an opportunity for earthlings to celebrate the inspiring bond between Earth and the Moon, and, this year, to share in the excitement of NASA’s preparations for Artemis II. Launching in early 2026, the mission will send four astronauts on a nearly 10-day flight past the Moon and back. On Saturday, the Moon will be in a waxing gibbous phase, with most of its face lit up by the Sun. Given these lighting conditions, viewers will be able to…

The advanced air mobility industry is currently working to produce novel aircraft ranging from air taxis to autonomous cargo drones, and all of those designs will require extensive testing – which is why NASA is working to give them a head-start by studying a special kind of model wing. The wing is a scale model of a design used in a type of aircraft called a “tiltwing,” which can swing its wing and rotors from vertical to horizontal. This allows the aircraft to take off, hover, and land like a helicopter, or fly like a fixed-wing airplane. This design…

Derrol Nail: He performed in space, entertaining millions back on Earth. Chris Hadfield: Ground control to major Tom. Derrol Nail: Now, talented astronaut Chris Hadfield returns to the Rocket Ranch. Chris Hadfield: It’s one of my favorite places on Earth. Derrol Nail: But he wants us to go back to the moon. Chris Hadfield: We are at the moment in history right now where our technology is good enough that we can start to settle the moon. Derrol Nail: And we’re going to Mars. But Chris cares about why we want to go. Chris Hadfield: If it’s just as…

SUZANNE DODD It started here in California, and it started as an Army antenna that was – in the late 50s – transferred to NASA when NASA was established. BRAD ARNOLD The DSN, it harkens back to, the very first spaceflight:…Explorer One, our first satellite that followed on the heels of Sputnik… PHILIP BALDWIN When you talk NASA… Deep Space Network has been there from the beginning… They carry that legacy and that history of NASA with them. SUZANNE DODD We have over 50 missions ­– either that we’re supporting, or are committed missions for us to support –…