Category: Space

When wildfires scorch a landscape, the flames are just the beginning. NASA is helping communities across the nation foresee and prepare for what can follow: mudslides, flash flooding, and contaminated surface water supplies. A new online tool called HydroFlame, built with support from NASA’s Earth Science Division, relies on satellite data, hydrologic modeling, and artificial intelligence to predict how wildfires could affect water resources, from tap water to the rivers and streams where people fish. The project is being developed with the University of Texas at Arlington, Purdue University, the U.S. Geological Survey, and other partners. For now, the…

The NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) Earth-observing radar satellite’s first images of our planet’s surface are in, and they offer a glimpse of things to come as the joint mission between NASA and ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) approaches full science operations later this year. “Launched under President Trump in conjunction with India, NISAR’s first images are a testament to what can be achieved when we unite around a shared vision of innovation and discovery,” said acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy. “This is only the beginning. NASA will continue to build upon the incredible scientific advancements of the past…

Astronomers have revolutionized our understanding of a collection of stars in the northern sky called the Pleiades. They used data from NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) and other observatories as NASA explores the secrets of the universe for the benefit of all, from the Moon to Mars and beyond. By examining the rotation, chemistry, and orbit around the Milky Way of members of several different nearby stellar groups, the scientists identified a continuum of more than 3,000 stars arcing across 1,900 light-years. This Greater Pleiades Complex triples the number of stars associated with the Pleiades and opens new…

3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Since April 1999, the AeroSpace Frontiers (AF) newsletter has shared information monthly on NASA Glenn Research Center’s people, projects, and progress. If you were looking for news on any of these topics, there was a good chance you could read all about them in AF each month.  The newsletter has evolved in the last 26 years, changing with the times, to improve how and when we communicate with our audiences. From updating the hard copy layout to offering the issue online, we adjusted and enhanced AF to meet…

NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, is building a new subscale aircraft to support increasingly complex flight research, offering a more flexible and cost-effective alternative to crewed missions. The aircraft is being built by Justin Hall, chief pilot at NASA Armstrong’s Dale Reed Subscale Flight Research Laboratory, and Justin Link, a small uncrewed aircraft pilot. The duo is replacing the center’s aging MicroCub subscale aircraft with a more capable platform that will save time and reduce costs. The new aircraft spans about 14 feet from wingtip to wingtip, measures nine-and-a-half feet long, and weighs about 60 pounds.…

Editor’s Note: This article was updated on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, to correct that the signed contract is an unfunded Space Act Agreement, rather than a reimbursable Space Act Agreement. NASA is continuing the Astrobee mission through a collaboration with Arkisys, Inc., of Los Alamitos, California, who was awarded an unfunded Space Act Agreement to sustain and maintain the robotic platform aboard the International Space Station. As the agency returns astronauts to the Moon, robotic helpers like Astrobee could one day take over routine maintenance tasks and support future spacecraft at the Moon and Mars without relying on humans for…

Derrol Nail: The spotlights came on in the predawn hours of April 12th 1981, illuminating a spacecraft like no other, the space shuttle. Just before liftoff, Columbia’s crew climbed inside for the very first test flight into space. Today, we recall the amazing story of that first mission and listen to rarely-heard details from Columbia pilot Bob Crippen, next on the Rocket Ranch. Launch Countdown Sequence: EGS Program Chief Engineer, verify no constraints to launch. Three, two, one, and lift off. Welcome to space. Derrol Nail: Bob Crippen, was a rookie astronaut in 1978, when NASA assigned him and…

Audio collage begins. PHILIP BALDWIN One of our biggest challenges is always going to be capacity, right? JEFF BERNER Always there is the push to get higher data rates because the instruments they put on spacecraft… they always can dump more data than the communication link can support. AMY SMITH You know, we’re going to continue to explore space. We’re going to continue to launch more and more missions. And we’re going to need more and more apertures. PHILIP BALDWIN We have to make sure that we have enough capacity… to support not only our sustained presence [at] the…

In this episode streamed on Oct. 24, 2019, we host our second annual NASA-themed Halloween costume and cosplay contest! Source link

The James Webb Space Telescope awed the world on July 12 with its first images and data. And it’s just getting started with its exploration of the cosmos. Dr. John Mather, the observatory’s senior project scientist, has been working toward this milestone for more than 25 years. Before Webb, he worked on a spacecraft that delivered a groundbreaking baby picture of the universe and offered the best evidence yet that the universe began with a rapid expansion we call the big bang. Dr. Mather describes some of the first images and explains the mysteries that Webb will tackle. Jim…

What happened to the lost data from the Apollo era? Get to know the “data detectives” who are tracking it down. The science experiments the Apollo astronauts conducted from the surface of the Moon provide a long-term data record that’s crucial to understanding our Moon as a complete system. Today’s scientists are looking forward to future human exploration of the Moon and the discoveries to follow. Ketan from Sugarland, Texas, tells us about his childhood in Mumbai, India, and how his father made sure his children got a firsthand look at the Moon landing. [MUSIC: ROSEVERE / “INTERVENTION”] PAT:…

[Música Violetta, por Bennett] NOELIA GONZÁLEZ: ¡Hola, exploradores espaciales! Están escuchando Universo curioso de la NASA. Gracias por estar aquí. Si esta es tu primera vez con nosotros, ¡bienvenidos! NOELIA GONZÁLEZ: Soy Noelia González y, en este pódcast, la NASA es tu guía turística a las estrellas. Hoy, te invitamos a un recorrido único: el tras bastidores de una de las misiones espaciales más emblemáticas de la historia.  NOELIA GONZÁLEZ: ¿Cómo se controla un telescopio que está a cientos de kilómetros sobre la Tierra? Nuestro copresentador Andrés Almeida ha trazado el itinerario de esta excursión cósmica. ANDRÉS ALMEIDA: ¡Hola,…

Transcript Apollo 15 astronaut Dave Scott: Okay, Joe. I’m picking up the drill now.Mission Control (Joe Allen): Roger, Dave. Narrator:Apollo astronauts conducted the first deep-drilling operation on the Moon in 1971. Dave Scott: It works!Mission Control (Joe Allen): Beautiful. And, for goodness sakes, hang on to it there. Don’t throw it.Dave Scott: Yeah, man. You’d better believe. (music) Narrator:Previous robotic missions had burrowed into the lunar surface – NASA’s Surveyors 3 and 7 dug shallow trenches with a scoop in the late 1960s, and in 1970 the Soviet Luna 16 lander drilled a hole about a foot deep. The…

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 402, NASA’s all-American 2025 astronaut candidates share a little about themselves by playing a fun icebreaker game. This episode was recorded September 19, 2025. Transcript Nilufar Ramji (Host) Houston We Have a Podcast. Welcome to the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center Episode 402: On a Desert Island with Our New…

As 2026 nears, NASA continues moving forward to launching and flying Artemis II, the first crewed mission under the Artemis campaign, no later than April next year. NASA’s Orion spacecraft, complete with its launch abort system escape tower, is now integrated with the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Following Orion stacking, teams completed testing critical communications systems between SLS and Orion, and confirmed the interfaces function properly between the rocket, Orion, and the ground systems, including end-to-end testing with the Near Space Network and Deep…

NASA astronaut Chris Williams will launch aboard the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft to the International Space Station on Thursday, Nov. 27, accompanied by cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev, where they will join the Expedition 73 crew advancing scientific research. Williams, Kud-Sverchkov, and Mikaev will lift off at 4:27 a.m. EST (2:27 p.m. Baikonur time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Live launch and docking coverage will be available on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and the agency’s YouTube channel. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media. After a two-orbit, three-hour trip to the…

Recent airborne science flights to Greenland are improving NASA’s understanding of space weather by measuring radiation exposure to air travelers and validating global radiation maps used in flight path planning. This unique data also has value beyond the Earth as a celestial roadmap for using the same instrumentation to monitor radiation levels for travelers entering Mars’ atmosphere and for upcoming lunar exploration. NASA’s Space Weather Aviation Radiation (SWXRAD) aircraft flight campaign took place August 25-28 and conducted two five-hour flights in Nuuk, Greenland. Based out of NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, the mission gathered dosimetry measurements, or…

One of the biggest goals for companies in the field of artificial intelligence is developing “agentic” or autonomous systems. These metaphorical agents can perform tasks without a guiding human hand. This parallels the goals of the emerging urban air mobility industry, which hopes to bring autonomous flying vehicles to cities around the world. One company got a head start on doing both with some help from NASA. Autonomy Association International Inc. (AAI) is a public benefit corporation based in Mountain View, California, near NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley. In 2022, AAI signed a Space Act Agreement with…

NASA’s Europa Clipper captured this image of a starfield — and the planet Uranus — on Nov. 5, 2025, while experimenting with one of its two stellar reference units. These star-tracking cameras are used for maintaining spacecraft orientation. Within the camera’s field of view — representing 0.1% of the full sky around the spacecraft — Uranus is visible as a larger dot near the left side of the image. At the time the images were taken, Europa Clipper was about 2 billion miles (3.2 billion kilometers) from Uranus. The spacecraft is currently en route to the Jupiter system to…

As an administrative assistant in the Safety and Mission Assurance Office at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico, Juliana Barajas approaches her work with one clear mission: to help others succeed.   Juliana Barajas Administrative Assistant For over two decades, she has supported NASA’s mission with a career grounded in service, perseverance, and gratitude. Whether coordinating tasks, solving problems, or lending a listening ear, Barajas plays a vital role in helping her team maintain safety and excellence.   “When I was young, I never imagined working at NASA,” said Barajas “I dreamed of studying mechanical engineering but…

Magic is in the air. No wait… MAGEQ is in the air, featuring scientists from NASA centers across the country who teamed up with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the University of Maryland Baltimore County, and several other university and government partners and collaborators. This summer, six planes collectively flew more than 400 hours over the mid-Atlantic United States with a goal of gathering data on a range of objectives, including air quality, forestry, and fire management. This was part of an effort called MAGEQ, short for Mid-Atlantic Gas Emissions Quantification. Rather than one mission, MAGEQ consists…

The phases of the lunar eclipse are visible in this time-lapse image of the Moon above the Space Environments Complex at NASA’s Glenn Research Center at NASA’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, OH on March 14, 2025. Toward the middle of the Moon’s track through the sky, it appears red – this is the Blood Moon. One meaning of a “Blood Moon” is based on its red glow. This blood moon occurs during a total lunar eclipse. During a total lunar eclipse, Earth lines up between the Moon and the Sun, hiding the Moon from sunlight. When this happens,…

NASA has earned a spot on The Webby 30, a curated list celebrating 30 companies and organizations that have shaped the digital landscape. “This honor reflects the talent of NASA’s communications professionals who bring our story to life,” said Will Boyington, associate administrator for the Office of Communications at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Being recognized shows that America’s leadership in space and NASA’s innovative messaging resonate with the public as we share our missions that inspire the world.” The Webby awards recognize companies across technology, media, entertainment, and social media that have consistently demonstrated creativity and innovation on their…

What does the future of space exploration look like? At the 2025 FIRST Robotics World Championship in Houston, NASA gave student robotics teams and industry leaders a first-hand look—complete with lunar rovers, robotic arms, and real conversations about shaping the next era of discovery.  NASA engaged directly with the Artemis Generation, connecting with more than 55,000 students and 75,000 parents and mentors. Through interactive exhibits and discussions, students explored the agency’s robotic technologies, learned about STEM career paths and internships, and gained insight into NASA’s bold vision for the future. Many expressed interest in internships—and dreams of one day…