NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Klaus Pontoppidan (NASA-JPL), Joel Green (STScI); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI) The NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured the actively forming protostar EC 53 (circled at left) in the Serpens Nebula in this image released on Jan. 21, 2026. Astronomers have long sought evidence to explain why comets at [...]

4 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Research from NASA and GE Aerospace led to the successful testing of a jet engine at the company’s Peebles Test Operation site in Ohio in December. The hybrid engine is a modified version of a GE Aerospace Passport.GE Aerospace To an untrained eye, the aircraft [...]

Credit: NASA The Sultanate of Oman signed the Artemis Accords during a ceremony in Muscat attended by NASA on Monday, becoming the 61st nation to commit to responsible space exploration for the benefit of all humanity. “Oman’s accession to the Artemis Accords sets an important example about the value of responsible behavior and shared pursuit [...]

Spinoff 2026 marks the publication’s 50th year documenting commercial uses of NASA technology. This edition’s cover features NASA astronaut Alan Bean holding an environmental sample container filled with lunar soil during the Apollo 12 mission of November 1969. NASA astronaut Charles Conrad Jr., who took this picture, is reflected in Bean’s helmet visor. Credit: NASA [...]

Detergent bottles and other litter can travel thousands of miles across the ocean before washing up on the remote Island of Kaho’olawe in Hawaii. JPL remote-sensing technology recently showed that it can spot plastic pollution on land, but doing so in the sea presents challenges.NOAA Space-based technology could help track plastic and other flotsam by [...]

4 Min Read NASA Selects Participants to Track Artemis II Mission A visual representation of NASA’s Artemis I mission. Credits: NASA NASA has selected 34 global volunteers to track the Orion spacecraft during the crewed Artemis II mission’s journey around the Moon. The Artemis II test flight will launch NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) [...]

3 Min Read I Am Artemis: Dustin Gohmert Dustin Gohmert, Orion Crew Survival System (OCSS) manager, sits in the OCSS Lab at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Credits: NASA/Rad Sinyak Listen to this audio excerpt from Dustin Gohmert, Orion Crew Survival System (OCSS) manager: 0:00 / 0:00 Your browser does not support the [...]

NASA/Chris Williams A green and red aurora streams across Earth’s horizon above the city lights of Europe in this Jan. 19, 2026, photograph, which looks north across Italy toward Germany. The International Space Station was orbiting 262 miles above the Mediterranean Sea at approximately 10:02 p.m. local time when the image was captured. Also known [...]

4 min read NASA Finds Lunar Regolith Limits Meteorites as Source of Earth’s Water A close-up view of a portion of a “relatively fresh” crater, looking southeast, as photographed during the third Apollo 15 lunar surface moonwalk. Credit: NASA A new NASA study of its Apollo lunar soils clarifies the Moon’s record of meteorite [...]

5 Min Read NASA’s Chandra Releases Deep Cut From Catalog of Cosmic Recordings Like a recording artist who has had a long career, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has a “back catalog” of cosmic recordings that is impossible to replicate. To access these X-ray tracks, or observations, the ultimate compendium has been developed: the Chandra Source Catalog (CSC). The [...]