NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and space research.
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NASA astronaut Joe Acaba with one of the Microbial Air Samplers, devices that monitor microbes in the air of the space station.NASA Wherever there are humans, there are microbes, too. Bacteria and fungi live all around us, in our homes, offices, industrial areas, the outdoors – even in space. People literally could not live without these tiny organisms, many of which are beneficial. The trick is limiting potentially harmful ones, particularly in a contained environment such as a spacecraft. So from the launch of the very first module of the International Space Station, NASA has monitored its microbial community. Because the station is an enclosed system, the onl…
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In October 1968, the American human spaceflight program took significant steps toward achieving President John F. Kennedy’s goal of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth before the end of the decade. American astronauts returned to space after a 23-month hiatus. The success of the 11-day Apollo 7 mission heralded well for NASA to decide to send the next mission, Apollo 8, to orbit the Moon in December. The Saturn V rocket for that flight rolled out to its seaside launch pad two days before Apollo 7 lifted off. Preparations for later missions to test the Lunar Module (LM) in Earth orbit and around the Moon continued in parallel, as did work in ant…
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The maps above show sea levels in the Pacific Ocean during early October of 1997, 2015, and 2023, in the run up to El Niño events. Higher-than-average ocean heights appear red and white, and lower-than-average heights are in blue and purple. Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich is the latest satellite contributing to a 30-year sea level record that researchers are using to compare this year’s El Niño with those of the past. Not all El Niño events are created equal. Their impacts vary widely, and satellites like the U.S.-European Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich help anticipate those impacts on a global scale by tracking changes in sea surface height in the Pacific Ocean. Wat…
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Scott Bellamy, left, and Brian Key, right, received the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals. Bellamy and Key accepted on behalf of the entire DART team during a ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington on Oct. 17.Allison Shelley for the Partnership for Public Service NASA’s Brian Key and Scott Bellamy accepted the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal on behalf of a mission team for the first planetary defense test during a ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington on Oct. 17. The awards program for career federal employees, known as the Sammies, aims to highlight key accomplishments that bene…
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NASA / Jasmin Moghbeli While aboard the International Space Station, astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli took this picture of the Moon passing in front of the Sun during the annular solar eclipse on Oct. 14, 2023. As the space station orbits Earth, astronauts take images of the planet below and phenomena in space. Visible in parts of the United States, Mexico, and many countries in South and Central America, millions of people in the Western Hemisphere experienced this eclipse. If you weren’t in the path of the annular eclipse, or you want to relive this exciting event, watch our coverage of the 2023 annular solar eclipse. Image credit: NASA/Jasmin Moghbeli View the full…
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A team of engineers from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and Honeybee Robotics in Altadena, California inspect TRIDENT – short for The Regolith Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain – shortly after its arrival at the integration and test facility.NASA/Robert Markowitz A team of engineers from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and Honeybee Robotics in Altadena, California, inspect TRIDENT – short for The Regolith Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain – shortly after its arrival at the integration and test facility. In the coming months, the team will integrate the drill into NASA’s first robotic Moon rover, VIPER – short for the Volatiles Investigating Polar Expl…
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2 min read NASA Conducts 1st Hot Fire of New RS-25 Certification Test Series NASA conducted the first hot fire of a new RS-25 test series Oct. 17, beginning the final round of certification testing ahead of production of an updated set of the engines for the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket. The engines will help power future Artemis missions to the Moon and beyond. NASA completed a full duration, 550-second hot fire of the RS-25 certification engine Oct. 17, beginning a critical test series to support future SLS (Space Launch System) missions to deep space as NASA explores the secrets of the universe for the benefit of all. NASA / Danny Nowlin…
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6 min read Mercury’s Strange Hollows Enigmatic depressions on the surface have puzzled scientists since the 1970s NASA’s MESSENGER probe has discovered a surprise on Mercury: Something is digging “hollows” in the surface of the innermost planet. NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft discovered strange hollows on the surface of Mercury. Images taken from orbit revealed thousands of mysterious depressions, pitted and uneven, in areas all across the planet, up to a half-mile (800 meters) across and 120 feet (37 meters) deep. This mosaic view of the Raditladi impact basin includes individual frames capturing areas about 12 miles (20 km) wide, which merged high-resolution monoch…
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6 min read Lynn Bassford Prioritizes Learning as a Hubble Mission Manager Name: Lynn Bassford Title: Hubble Space Telescope Mission Flight Operations Manager Formal Job Classification: Multifunctional Engineering and Science Manager Organization: Astrophysics Project Division, Hubble Space Telescope Operations Project, Code 441 Lynn Bassford’s long career enables her to keep learning. “It’s just a fact of my life to learn something new every day until the day I die,” she says. “I’m not happy being stagnant.”NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Tim Childers What do you do and what is most interesting about your role here at Goddard? How do you…
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3 min read NASA Makes It Easier to Find Assistive Technologies for Licensing Alter-G Inc. licensed NASA technology in 2005 and commercialized it through an “anti-gravity” treadmill that is now used by a variety of patients, including professional and collegiate athletes, people learning to walk again after injury or surgery and people suffering from other stresses on the joints such as arthritis or obesity. Alter-G Inc. NASA develops a variety of technologies to explore space and beyond for the benefit of humanity. One measure of its success is the impact on the daily lives of millions of people with injuries and disabilities who are assisted with innovati…
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NASA The crew of the International Space Station saw this view of the north coast of the Mexican state of Baja California Sur as the space station orbited 258 miles above on Oct. 14, 2023. In 24 hours, the space station makes 16 orbits of Earth, traveling through 16 sunrises and sunsets. The station’s orbital path takes it over 90 percent of the Earth’s population, with astronauts taking millions of images of the planet below. See more photos of our planet here. Image credit: NASA View the full article
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On Oct. 17, 1963, NASA announced the selection of its third group of astronauts. Chosen from 720 military and civilian applicants, the newest group of 14 astronauts comprised the best educated class up to that time. Seven represented the U.S. Air Force, four the U.S. Navy, one the U.S. Marine Corps, and two were civilians. NASA selected them to fly the two-seat Gemini spacecraft designed to test techniques for the Apollo Moon landing program as well as the Apollo missions themselves. Tragically, four of their members died before making their first spaceflight. The 10 surviving members of the group flew 18 important missions in the Gemini and Apollo programs, with seven tr…
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iss070e003079 (Oct. 12, 2023) — As the International Space Station orbited 260 miles above, two high saline lakes Uvs (left) and Khyargas (right) located in the Northwestern region of Mongolia were photographed. Both basins are nestled amongst mountain regions home to many different ecosystems.View the full article
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iss070e000668 (Sept. 30, 2023) — NASA astronaut and Expedition 70 Flight Engineer Loral O’Hara poses for a photo after receiving her first haircut in microgravity.NASAView the full article
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iss070e001602 (Oct. 2, 2023) — NASA astronaut and Expedition 70 Flight Engineer Jasmin Moghbeli works with the Advanced Resistive Exercise Device, or ARED, removing and replacing cables. The device uses adjustable resistive mechanisms to provide crew members a weight load while exercising to maintain muscle strength and mass in microgravity.NASAView the full article
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4 min read More than Grants: Perspectives from Past NASA-funded Researchers Monique McClain inspects the print quality of surrogate propellants that were 3D-printed in her laboratory.Credits: Jared Pike/Purdue University Each year, researchers nationwide embark on journeys of discovery facilitated by funding from NASA’s Space Technology Research Grants (STRG) program. They uncover innovations that benefit future research and their careers after graduation. In 2023, STRG hit a significant milestone, making its thousandth award through the most recent cohort of NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunity (NSTRGO) selections. The STR…
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1 min read Near-Earth Asteroids as of August 31, 2023 Near-Earth objects (NEOs) are asteroids and comets that orbit the Sun like the planets with orbits that come within 30 million miles of Earth’s orbit. NASA established the Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) to manage the agency’s ongoing efforts in Planetary Defense, which is the “applied planetary science” to address the NEO impact hazard. One key element of the PDCO is NASA’s NEO Observations program, which is composed of projects to find, track, and characterize NEOs. Here’s what we’ve found so far. This page is updated monthly with the most up-to-date numbers. Facebook logo…
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iss070e003846 (Oct. 14, 2023) — The north coast of the Mexican state of Baja California Sur on the Pacific Ocean is pictured from the International Space Station as it orbited 258 miles above.NASAView the full article
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iss070e003785 (Oct. 14, 2023) — The Moon passes in front of the sun casting its shadow, or umbra, and darkening a portion of the Earth’s surface during the annular solar eclipse. The International Space Station was soaring 260 miles above the U.S.-Canadian border as this picture was taken pointing southward toward Texas.NASAView the full article
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iss070e003409 (Oct. 14, 2023) — The Moon passes in front of the sun during the annular solar eclipse in this photograph taken by Expedition 70 Flight Engineer Jasmin Moghbeli aboard the International Space Station.NASAView the full article
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1 min read Double Asteroid Redirection Test Post-Impact Image Gallery After 10 months flying in space, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) – the world’s first planetary defense technology demonstration – successfully impacted its asteroid target on Monday, September 26 at 7:14 p.m. EDT. as the world’s first attempt to move an asteroid in space. Over the coming weeks, ground based observatories around the world will characterize the ejecta produced by DART’s impact and precisely measure Dimorphos’ orbital change to determine how effectively DART deflected the asteroid. Below you will find a gallery that will continue to be updated as new image…
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2 min read Celebrate International Observe the Moon Night at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center The public is invited to celebrate International Observe the Moon Night on Saturday, Oct. 21, from 6 to 9 p.m. EDT rain or shine at NASA Goddard’s Visitor Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. International Observe the Moon Night occurs annually in September or October, when the Moon is around first quarter – a great phase for evening observing. NASA/Vi Nguyen International Observe the Moon Night is a time to come together with fellow Moon enthusiasts and curious people around the world. The public is invited to learn about lunar science and exploration, take part …
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Aerial view of NASA’s Ames Research Center, NASA Research Park, and Moffett Field in California’s Silicon ValleyNASA NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley today hosted an announcement by the University of California Berkeley and San Francisco-based developer SKS Partners of a proposed new campus and innovation hub for research and advancements in astronautics, aeronautics, quantum computing, climate studies, social sciences, and more. The new campus, called Berkeley Space Center, aims to offer lab, office, and educational spaces along with student and faculty housing, a conference center, and retail space on 36 acres within the NASA Research Park (NRP) at Ames. …
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NASA / Aubrey Gemignani NASA’s Psyche spacecraft launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This image captures the beginning of the spacecraft’s journey to a metal-rich asteroid of the same name. The body of the Psyche spacecraft is about the size of a small van, and it’s powered by solar electric propulsion. It has a magnetometer, a gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer, and a multispectral imager to study asteroid Psyche’s composition. The spacecraft will start sending images to Earth as soon as it spots the asteroid. See more photos from the launch. Image Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani …
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The third TechLeap Prize challenges applicants to make it easier to integrate diverse technology payloads onto various commercial suborbital vehicles, orbital flight platforms, and planetary landers. Pictured here is Arizona State University’s CubeSounder payload integration at the World View facility for an October 2021 high-altitude balloon flight supported by NASA’s Flight Opportunities program. Arizona State University NASA is calling on innovators to help solve some of the challenges in rapidly testing technology payloads across a wide range of commercial flight vehicles and test environments. As NASA explores the unknown in air and space, the agency is making incr…
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