Category: Space

By Jill Dunbar Of the many roads leading to successful Artemis missions, one is paved with high-tech computing chips called superchips. Along the way, a partnership between NASA wind tunnel engineers, data visualization scientists, and software developers verified a quick, cost-effective solution to improve NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for the upcoming Artemis II mission. This will be the first crewed flight of the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft, on an approximately 10-day journey around the Moon.   A high-speed network connection between high-end computing resources at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing facility and the Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel,…

Marie Lewis: From the women whose calculations helped land the first man on the Moon, to the first Black astronaut to live aboard the International Space Station for an extended stay, NASA has stretched the limits of what humankind can achieve due in no small part to the contributions of Black Americans. Sheldon Lauderdale: There have been a number of people who have helped me a great deal throughout my career here at NASA. And they feel like family members to me. Marie Lewis: The Rocket Ranch welcomes Sheldon Lauderdale, Program Analyst for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which last…

Audio collage begins. KATHLEEN HARMON We have an amazing telecom department with experts in radio science. STEVE LEVIN We had a lot of science we had in mind when we got there. And our picture of course has changed when we got data and saw Jupiter different in a thousand ways from what was expected. LANCE BENNER We’re really at the forefront of planetary exploration by observing one asteroid at a time. And quite often we’re the first people in the world to see what these small worlds look like, and it’s tremendously exciting. JOE LAZIO We turn the…

In this episode streamed on August 29, 2019, we talk about how we design and build robots to work with humans in space. Source link

Uranus and Neptune are two of the many exciting and mysterious objects in our universe that the James Webb Space Telescope will soon begin to explore. Temperature and pressure conditions are so extreme on these planets that carbon atoms could be crushed into diamonds in their atmospheres. And did you know that Uranus orbits on its side? Learn more about these planets and the Webb telescope’s upcoming observations from astrophysicist Naomi Rowe-Gurney, our guest on this week’s Gravity Assist. Jim Green:We have two ice giant planets in our solar system, Uranus and Neptune. What will we find out about…

Lunar exploration runs in the family for the Petros. NASA lunar scientist Noah Petro interviews his father, Denis, about his work as an Apollo program engineer. In a heartfelt conversation, Noah and his dad examine the human impact of the momentous Apollo 11 mission and their shared passion for science and learning. Ginny from Danville, Kentucky, tells a story about celebrating the Moon landing with her childhood friends and a secret lemonade stand. [MUSIC: ROSEVERE / “INTERVENTION”] NOAH: You helped design how astronauts would stay alive and comfortable while working on the Moon. DENIS: Science is something you test,…

Audio de archivo [lanzamiento del telescopio espacial James Webb] Anuncio de despegue: Trois, deux, unité. Top! A llumage deux EAPs. Décollage! [Música: Violetta por Robert Bennett] BEGOÑA VILA: Es increíble. Creo que expreso la emoción que tenemos todos los que hemos trabajado en este proyecto tanto tiempo. Allí va Webb camino a su lugar final. HOST NOELIA GONZÁLEZ: Bienvenidos a Universo curioso de la NASA, en donde te invitamos a explorar el cosmos en tu idioma. Soy Noelia González y, en este pódcast, ¡la NASA es tu guía turística a las estrellas! Hoy volvemos a las raíces con este…

Transcript (music) NASA Launch Control:T-minus 15 seconds… Narrator: When a Mars rover is on top of a rocket, ready to leave Earth, it is not simply a rover. Nestled within a space capsule, its computer mind is focused on interplanetary flight, not on driving. In this moment, the rover is an “astronaut” aiming for the Red Planet. NASA Launch Control: T-minus ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, main engine start, zero, and lift-off! Narrator: The rocket ignites and climbs high into the sky, and when its fuel is spent, the rocket falls back down into…

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 400, acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy joins us for our milestone 400th episode to share his journey and vision for advancing NASA into the future. This episode was recorded August 18, 2025. Transcript Gary Jordan Houston We Have a Podcast. Welcome to the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center Episode 400:…

Read this press release in English here. Ya está abierto el plazo de acreditación de medios de comunicación para el lanzamiento de la primera misión lunar tripulada de la campaña Artemis de la NASA. Con un lanzamiento previsto para principios de 2026, el vuelo de prueba Artemis II enviará a los astronautas de la NASA Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover y Christina Koch y al astronauta de la CSA (Agencia Espacial Canadiense) Jeremy Hansen en un viaje de aproximadamente 10 días alrededor de la Luna y de regreso. La tripulación despegará desde el Centro Espacial Kennedy de la agencia en Florida,…

NASA astronaut Jonny Kim took this photo on July 23, 2025, as the International Space Station orbited 259 miles above a cloudy Pacific Ocean southwest of Mexico. Visible in the image is the 57.7-foot-long Canadarm2 robotic arm, which extends from a data grapple fixture on the International Space Station’s Harmony module. Attached to its latching end effector is Dextre, the station’s fine-tuned robotic hand designed for delicate external maintenance tasks. Station crew use Canadarm2 to perform maintenance tasks, capture visiting spacecraft, and move supplies, equipment, and even astronauts. On Nov. 2, 2025, the space station reached 25 years of…

Through an ongoing collaboration, NASA and the Department of War are working to advance the future of modern drones to support long distance cargo transportation that could increase efficiency, reduce human workload, and enhance safety.   Researchers from NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley recently participated in a live flight demonstration showcasing how drones can successfully fly without their operators being able to see them, a concept known as beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS).   Cargo drones, a type of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), carried various payloads more than 75 miles across North Dakota, between Grand Forks…

In the summer of 2024, people across North America were amazed when auroras lit up the night sky across their hometowns, but the same solar activity that makes auroras can cause disruptions to satellites that are essential to systems on Earth. The solution to predicting these solar events and warning satellite operators may come through artificial intelligence.  The Frontier Development Lab of Mountain View, California, is an ongoing partnership between NASA and commercial AI firms to apply advanced machine learning to problems that matter to the agency and beyond. Since 2016, the Frontier Development Lab has applied AI on behalf of…

Long before joining NASA’s Test and Evaluation Support Team contract in October 2024, Angel Saenz was already an engineer at heart. A STEM education program at his high school helped unlock that passion, setting him on a path that would eventually lead to NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The program – FIRST Robotics Competition – is run by global nonprofit, FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology). It was the brainchild of prolific inventor Dean Kamen, best known for creating the Segway. In what the organization calls “the ultimate sport for the…

From Sunday, June 22 to Wednesday, July 2, two research aircraft will make a series of low-altitude atmospheric research flights near Philadelphia, Baltimore, and some Virginia cities, including Richmond, as well as over the Los Angeles Basin, Salton Sea, and Central Valley in California. Pilots will operate the aircraft at altitudes lower than typical commercial flights, executing specialized maneuvers such as vertical spirals between 1,000 and 10,000 feet, circling above power plants, landfills, and urban areas. The flights will also include occasional missed approaches at local airports and low-altitude flybys along runways to collect air samples near the surface.…

From Florida to the Moon and back, NASA’s Orion spacecraft is still making moves. The crew module that flew more than 1.4 million miles during the agency’s historic Artemis I mission is getting ready for its next destination – NASA’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio.   Technicians inside NASA’s Multi-Payload Processing Facility at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, use a crane to lift the Artemis I spacecraft – now called an environmental test article – into the crew module transportation fixture in preparation for its departure. Engineers will use it in qualification tests to better understand…

Media are invited to visit NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans between Tuesday, Feb. 4, and Thursday, Feb. 6, ahead of Super Bowl LIX for an inside look at America’s rocket factory, as well as interview agency experts. During this behind-the-scenes visit, media will tour NASA’s location for the manufacturing and production of large-scale space structures and see hardware that will carry astronauts back to the Moon as part of the Artemis campaign. Registered members of the media will have the opportunity to: Capture images and video of hardware NASA Michoud is building for the SLS (Space Launch…

FAIRMONT – The NASA Independent Verification & Validation Program’s Orion Team received an award for their contributions to the Artemis I Mission during a ceremony hosted at the I-79 Technology Park, in Fairmont. The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Space Flight Awareness (SFA) Award Ceremony is an annual event recognizing employees and teams who have made strides in their role in promoting astronaut safety and mission success. Members of the IV&V Orion Team took home the team award for significant contributions “to improving the quality, reliability, and safety of the Orion Program’s safety and mission critical software in support…

Climate researchers from NASA and NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) will release their annual assessments of global temperatures and discuss the major climate trends of 2024 during a media briefing at 12 p.m. EST Friday, Jan. 10. NASA will share the briefing on the agency’s website at: https://www.nasa.gov/live. Participants will include: Gavin Schmidt, director, NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies Russ Vose, chief, Monitoring and Assessment Branch, NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information Media interested in participating must RSVP to NOAA by the time of the event. NASA and NOAA are stewards of global temperature data and independently…

NASA Stennis Buffer Zone NASA / Stennis NASA’s Stennis Space Center is widely known for rocket propulsion testing, especially to support the NASA Artemis program to send astronauts to the Moon to prepare for future human exploration of Mars. What may not be so widely known is that the site also is a unique federal city, home to more than 50 federal, state, academic, and commercial tenants and serving as both a model of government efficiency and a powerful economic engine for its region. “NASA Stennis is a remarkable story of vision and innovation,” Center Director John Bailey said.…

NASA’s 2026 Human Lander Challenge is seeking ideas from college and university students to help evolve and transform technologies for life support and environmental control systems. These systems are critical for sustainable, long-duration human spaceflight missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. The Human Lander Challenge supports NASA’s efforts to foster innovative solutions to a variety of areas for NASA’s long-duration human spaceflight plans at the Moon under the Artemis campaign. The Human Lander Challenge is sponsored by the Human Landing System Program within the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate. The 2026 competition invites undergraduate and graduate-level teams based…

Alyssa Yockey supports the International Space Station from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston as a flight lead at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory. The Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory is one of the world’s largest indoor pools where astronauts and support teams conduct trainings and other large-scale operations, both in the water and on the pool deck.  In this role, Yockey guides teams through integration efforts, including test readiness reviews to ensure all requirements are met, and helps prepare for suited or other testing events. She ensures smooth planning and execution of each mission-focused activity. Yockey also serves as a safety…

The project has exceeded all of its technical goals after two years, setting up the foundations of high-speed communications for NASA’s future human missions to Mars. NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications technology successfully showed that data encoded in lasers could be reliably transmitted, received, and decoded after traveling millions of miles from Earth at distances comparable to Mars. Nearly two years after launching aboard the agency’s Psyche mission in 2023, the technology demonstration recently completed its 65th and final pass, sending a laser signal to Psyche and receiving the return signal, from 218 million miles away.  “NASA is setting…

Led by acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy, an agency delegation will participate in the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Sydney, Australia, from Sunday, Sept. 28 to Friday, Oct. 3. The IAC, organized by the International Astronautical Federation (IAF), is hosted this year by the Space Industry Association of Australia. During the congress, NASA will highlight America’s leadership in human exploration to the Moon and Mars, responsible exploration under the Artemis Accords, and support for the commercial space sector in the Golden Age of innovation and exploration. To view select events, visit the IAF YouTube channel, onsite at International Convention…