Category: Space

The latest edition of NASA’s Spinoff publication, which highlights the successful transfer of agency technology to the commercial sector, is now available online. For nearly 25 years, NASA has supported crew working in low Earth orbit to learn about the space environment and perform research to advance deep space exploration. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have learned a wealth of lessons and tried out a host of new technologies. This work leads to ongoing innovations benefiting people on Earth that are featured in NASA’s annual publication.   “The work we do in space has resulted in navigational technologies, lifesaving…

Huy Nguyen grew up hearing about rocket engines and space flight around the family table. His parents worked for NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, and those early conversations eventually started his path to NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. “They both created a household that allowed me to be curious and to be a problem solver,” Nguyen said. The dinner conversations have come full circle as the New Orleans native finds himself applying that same curiosity and problem-solving mindset at NASA Stennis. Nguyen is currently the electrical controls engineer for propulsion testing support areas,…

Listen to this audio excerpt from Ethan Jacobs, a helicopter pilot and member of the Colorado Army National Guard developing a foundational flight training course for Artemis astronauts: Your browser does not support the audio element. High above the Rocky Mountains, Ethan Jacobs is helping NASA preparing to land people on the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years. NASA will send astronauts to the lunar South Pole during the Artemis III mission and beyond. As part of their journeys, crew will travel in a human landing system that will safely transport them from lunar orbit…

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 feathery ring…

NASA named astronaut Scott Tingle as chief of the Astronaut Office at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, effective Nov. 10. A decorated spaceflight veteran and former captain in the United States Navy, Tingle has logged more than 4,500 flight hours in 51 different aircraft and served as a flight engineer aboard the International Space Station. As chief astronaut, Tingle is responsible for managing astronaut resources and operations. He also will help develop astronaut flight crew operations and make crew assignments for future human spaceflight missions, including Artemis missions to the Moon. “Our Johnson Space Center team congratulates…

About the size of a full-size pickup truck, a newly launched satellite by NASA and its partners will provide ocean and atmospheric information to improve hurricane forecasts, help protect infrastructure, and benefit commercial activities, such as shipping. The Sentinel-6B satellite lifted off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in central California at 9:21 p.m. PST on Nov. 16. Contact between the satellite and a ground station in northern Canada occurred about 1 hour and 30 minutes later at 10:54 p.m. All systems are functioning normally. “Understanding tidal patterns down…

NASA will provide live coverage of prelaunch and launch activities for Sentinel-6B, an international mission delivering critical sea level and ocean data to protect coastal infrastructure, improve weather forecasting, and support commercial activities at sea. Launch is targeted at 12:21 a.m. EST, Monday, Nov. 17 (9:21 p.m. PST, Sunday, Nov. 16) aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Watch coverage beginning at 11:30 p.m. EST (8:30 p.m. PST) on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and more. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social…

Today’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the spiral galaxy NGC 4535, which is situated about 50 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo (the Maiden). Through a small telescope, this galaxy appears extremely faint, giving it the nickname ‘Lost Galaxy’. With a mirror spanning nearly eight feet (2.4 meters) across and its location above Earth’s light-obscuring atmosphere, Hubble can easily observe dim galaxies like NGC 4535 and pick out features like its massive spiral arms and central bar of stars. This image features NGC 4535’s young star clusters, which dot the galaxy’s spiral arms. Glowing-pink clouds surround many…

Ohio Space Week, Sept. 8–13, highlighted the state’s aerospace legacy and the role NASA’s Glenn Research Center has in advancing space technology.  The week kicked off with the American Astronautical Society’s Glenn Space Technology Symposium, Sept. 8–10, hosted by Case Western Reserve University. Experts, students, and industry leaders gathered to discuss emerging space technologies. NASA Glenn Director Dr. Jimmy Kenyon delivered opening remarks, and astronaut Doug “Wheels” Wheelock gave a keynote on his spaceflight experience.  On Sept. 11, Team NEO hosted the Sixth Annual Ohio Space Forum at NASA Glenn, bringing together leaders from aerospace, government, academia, and research.…

After years of design, development, and testing, NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft took to the skies for the first time Oct. 28, marking a historic moment for the field of aeronautics research and the agency’s Quesst mission. The X-59, designed to fly at supersonic speeds and reduce the sound of loud sonic booms to quieter sonic thumps, took off at 11:14 a.m. EDT and flew for 67 minutes. The flight represents a major step toward quiet supersonic flight over land. “Once again, NASA and America are leading the way for the future of flight,” said acting NASA Administrator…

NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft took off for its historic first flight on Oct. 28 at 11:14 a.m. EDT from Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, California. The one-of-a-kind aircraft flew for 67 minutes before landing and taxiing to NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. NASA test pilot Nils Larson flew the X-59 up to an altitude of about 12,000 feet and an approximate top speed of 230 mph, precisely as planned. The plane’s landing gear remained down during the entire flight, a common practice for experimental aircraft flying for the first time. Now that the…

Marie Lewis: 2020 was a banner year for NASA’s commercial crew program, restoring the nation’s capability to launch astronauts into orbit from American soil, all while working through a pandemic and managing a colossal balancing act between work and family. Now, NASA is on the cusp of launching the next crew rotation mission to the international space station, known as Crew-2. The Rocket Ranch welcomes Dana Hutcherson, deputy manager for the program. She’ll talk about the mission ahead, reflect on the program’s 10-year anniversary and share her personal journey from supporting the space shuttle program to the new commercial…

NARRATOR To close out our Deep Space Network-focused season of NASA’s The Invisible Network podcast, we solicited your questions about the network with the hashtag #AskSCaN on social media. We really appreciate all the great input we received! In this bonus episode, we’re going to answer four fun questions from our listeners, pairing them with a subject matter expert who can provide the context we need to better understand the contributions that network capabilities provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation program offer deep space missions! I’m Danny Baird, this is “The Invisible Network.”…

In this episode streamed on Dec. 19, 2019, we talk about air taxis and the future of flight. Source link

On the Gravity Assist podcast we have interviewed dozens of scientists, engineers, and others dedicated to the mission of NASA space exploration. After five years, the show is coming to a close. Here are some final thoughts and episode highlights from the podcast team. In the space exploration world, we talk about a “gravity assist” as a maneuver past a planet that increases a spacecraft’s speed. The spacecraft steals a tiny bit of energy from the planet, which is much more massive and has a lot more gravity than the spacecraft. Through the magic of physics, the spacecraft speeds…

Various Voices: Hello! Hello, NASA. Hi NASA, it’s me! The day was one of the ones that stand out in my life– 50 years later. We told each other, can you believe we’re seeing this? We could just make out the grainy images on our little black-and-white television. It was just amazing to think that there were people on that Moon up there that we could see. I had just turned five and we got to stay up late to watch it on television. It was July 20, 1969. Narrator: Welcome to NASA Explorers: Apollo… The bonus episode! Throughout…

[Música: Return to the Moon, por Dehlinger] HOST NOELIA GONZÁLEZ: Era agosto de 1972. Solo unos años atrás, la humanidad había pisado la superficie lunar por primera vez.   [Audio de archivo del astronauta Neil Armstrong: “Este es un pequeño paso para un hombre, un gran salto para la humanidad”]  HOST NOELIA GONZÁLEZ: Pocos meses antes de que la NASA lanzara Apolo 17, la misión que cerraría la era de vuelos tripulados a la Luna por décadas, algo ocurría en el Sol.   [Sonido de llamaradas solares]  HOST NOELIA GONZÁLEZ: A 150 millones de kilómetros, nuestra estrella estaba repleta de manchas…

Andres Almeida (Host): There’s a program at NASA that taps into the power of the public to solve some of the toughest problems in space exploration. It’s called Centennial Challenges, a prize competition that has awarded more than $24 million to hundreds of people ranging from academics, startup founders, small business owners, and independent inventors from across the U.S. and 86 countries.  For 20 years, these prize competitions have opened the door for teams to bring bold ideas to NASA. In some cases, these ideas spin off into real technologies shaping missions today, like 3D-printed habitats, robotics, and sustainable…

Transcript CBS news report:CBS television presents a special report on Sputnik 1, the Soviet space satellite. Douglas Edwards reporting… [0:09] Narrator:The space race between the United States and the Soviet Union began with Sputnik 1, the first satellite to orbit the Earth, in October 1957. The U.S. quickly responded with the satellite Explorer 1. News Announcer:Meanwhile, far across the country at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a sprawling 80-acre research and development complex in Pasadena California, scientists and engineers were racing toward the same deadline, 90 days to put a satellite into orbit… Narrator:Just a few years later, in 1961,…

Episode description:   In the space between stars, dark clouds of gas, dust, and ice mingle in a chemical laboratory unlike any on Earth. Ewine van Dishoeck, an astronomer who studies molecules in space and who helped develop an instrument aboard NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, explains how Webb is revealing new details about the formation of stars and planets. This research could help unlock a key question about Earth: how did our planet end up with water and the ingredients for life?   [Music: Curiosity by SYSTEM Sounds]  HOST 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 403, NASA astronaut Chris Williams shares his journey exploring the early universe, cancer treatment techniques, and astronaut training before his first mission to the International Space Station. This episode was recorded July 8, 2025. Transcript Dane Turner (Host) Houston We Have a Podcast. Welcome to the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space…

October marked the fifth anniversary of NASA and the original founders signing the Artemis Accords, as well as the recognition of Hungary, Malaysia and the Philippines joining the expanding coalition dedicated to the peaceful exploration of space. The number of countries involved now totals 59. “NASA welcomes the newest signatories, whose participation strengthens the global commitment to responsible exploration,” said acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy. “Their decision to sign the Artemis Accords affirms a shared commitment to safe, transparent, and peaceful exploration — at a time when others seek to weaponize the final frontier. Together we are building the…

November marks 25 years of human presence aboard the International Space Station, a testament to international collaboration and human ingenuity. Since the first crew arrived on Nov. 2, 2000, NASA and its partners have conducted thousands of research investigations and technology demonstrations to advance exploration of the Moon and Mars and benefit life on Earth. Researchers have taken advantage of the unique microgravity environment to conduct experiments impossible to replicate on Earth, transforming research across disciplines. More than 4,000 experiments have pushed the boundaries of science, sparked discoveries, and driven scientific breakthroughs. “25 years ago, Expedition 1 became the…

NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft took off for its historic first flight on Oct. 28, 2025, at 11:14 a.m. EDT from Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, California. The one-of-a-kind aircraft flew for 67 minutes before landing and taxiing to NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. NASA test pilot Nils Larson flew the X-59 up to an altitude of about 12,000 feet and an approximate top speed of 230 mph, precisely as planned. The plane’s landing gear remained down during the entire flight, a common practice for experimental aircraft flying for the first time. Now that…