The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket performs a brief static fire test at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida before the launch of the Crew-9 mission. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber As one crew on Earth prepares to launch to the International Space Station another crew is getting ready to depart the orbital outpost. In the [...]
Manufacturing equipment that will be used to build components for NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for future Artemis missions is being installed at the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Louisiana. The tooling will be used to produce the SLS rocket’s advanced exploration upper stage, or EUS, in the factory’s new manufacturing [...]
3 Min Read NASA’s Record-Breaking Laser Demo Completes Mission An artist's concept animation of NASA's TeraByte InfraRed Delivery (TBIRD) payload sending data to Earth over laser communications links. Credits: NASA NASA’s TBIRD (TeraByte InfraRed Delivery) demonstration and its host spacecraft — the PTD-3 (Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator-3) — have completed their technology demonstration. The TBIRD [...]
NASA’s HERA (Human Exploration Research Analog) crew members enjoy their first glimpse of the outside after a 45-day stay inside the analog environment. From left to right: Sergii Iakymov, Sarah Elizabeth McCandless, Erin Anderson, and Brandon Kent.NASA/Bill Stafford An all-volunteer crew on a simulated trip to Mars “returned” to Earth on Sept. 23, 2024, after being [...]
Wildfires cast an orange haze over the Sierra Blanca mountain range in Ruidoso, New Mexico, on June 20, 2024. Image courtesy of James Herrera Ruidoso, New Mexico lay in an unusual hush on June 20, 2024. During any normal summer day, the village in the southern part of the state lives up to the Spanish [...]
5 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Pacific Island nations such as Kiribati — a low-lying country in the southern Pacific Ocean — are preparing now for a future of higher sea levels.NASA Earth Observatory Climate change is rapidly reshaping a region of the world that’s home to millions of people. [...]
4 Min Read Robotic Moving ‘Crew’ Preps for Work on Moon The LANDO system works by using onboard sensors to scan encoded markers (similar to a QR code) on a payload, which will reveal critical information about its position and orientation relative to the LSMS. This information is used to calculate where the robotic [...]
4 Min Read In Odd Galaxy, NASA’s Webb Finds Potential Missing Link to First Stars What appears as a faint dot in this James Webb Space Telescope image may actually be a groundbreaking discovery. Full image and details below. Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Alex Cameron (Oxford) Looking deep into the early universe with [...]
Photo of the Day Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS is now visible in the early morning sky. Diving into the inner Solar System at an odd angle, this large dirty iceberg will pass its closest to the Sun -- between the orbits of Mercury and Venus -- in just two days. Long camera exposures are now capturing [...]
4 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Lori Arnett approaches her work at NASA with a simple motto: think big, start small, act fast. As the Associate Director for Digital Transformation for the Aerosciences Evaluation and Test Capabilities (AETC) within the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD), she helps manage the capability [...]
