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By European Space Agency
In a world first, ESA and Telesat have successfully connected a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite to the ground using 5G Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) technology in the Ka-band frequency range, marking a crucial step towards making space-based connections as simple as using a mobile phone.
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By NASA
2024 Year in Review – Highlights from NASA in Silicon Valley
by Tiffany Blake
As NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley enters its 85th year since its founding, join us as we take a look back at some of our highlights of science, engineering, research, and innovation from 2024.
Ames Arc Jets Play Key Role in Artemis I Orion Spacecraft Heat Shield Findings
A block of Avcoat undergoes testing inside an arc jet test chamber at NASA Ames. The test article, configured with both permeable (upper) and non-permeable (lower) Avcoat sections for comparison, helped to confirm understanding of the root cause of the loss of charred Avcoat material that engineers saw on the Orion spacecraft after the Artemis I test flight beyond the Moon. photo credit: NASA Researchers at Ames were part of the team tasked to better understand and identify the root cause of the unexpected char loss across the Artemis I Orion spacecraft’s heat shield. Using Avcoat material response data from Artemis I, the investigation team was able to replicate the Artemis I entry trajectory environment — a key part of understanding the cause of the issue — inside the arc jet facilities at NASA Ames.
Starling Swarm Completes Primary Mission
The four CubeSat spacecraft that make up the Starling swarm have demonstrated success in autonomous operations, completing all key mission objectives. Image credit: NASA After ten months in orbit, the Starling spacecraft swarm successfully demonstrated its primary mission’s key objectives, representing significant achievements in the capability of swarm configurations in low Earth orbit, including distributing and sharing important information and autonomous decision making.
Another Step Forward for BioNutrients
Research scientists Sandra Vu, left, Natalie Ball, center, and Hiromi Kagawa, right, process BioNutrients production packs.Image credit: NASA NASA’s BioNutrients entered its fifth year in its mission to investigate how microorganisms can produce on-demand nutrients for astronauts during long-duration space missions. Keeping astronauts healthy is critical and as the project comes to a close, researchers have processed production packs on Earth on the same day astronauts processed production packs in space on the International Space Station to demonstrate that NASA can produce nutrients after at least five years in space, providing confidence it will be capable of supporting crewed missions to Mars.
Hyperwall Upgrade Helps Scientists Interpret Big Data
The newly upgraded hyperwall visualization system provides four times the resolution of the previous system. Image credit: NASA/Brandon Torres Navarrete Ames upgraded its powerful hyperwall system, a 300-square foot wall of LCD screens with over a billion pixels to display supercomputer-scale visualizations of the very large datasets produced by NASA supercomputers and instruments. The hyperwall is just one way researchers can utilize NASA’s high-end computing technology to better understand their data and advance the agency’s missions and research.
Ames Contributions to NASA Artificial Intelligence Efforts
This landscape of “mountains” and “valleys” speckled with glittering stars is actually the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. Captured in infrared light by NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals for the first time previously invisible areas of star birth.Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls Ames contributes to the agency’s artificial intelligence work through ongoing research and development, agencywide collaboration, and communications efforts. This year, NASA announced David Salvagnini as its inaugural chief artificial intelligence officer and held the first agencywide town hall on artificial intelligence sharing how the agency is safely using and developing artificial intelligence to advance missions and research.
Advanced Composite Solar Sail System Successfully Launches, Deploys Sail
Illustration: NASA NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System successfully launched from Māhia, New Zealand, in April, and successfully deployed its sail in August to begin mission operations. The small satellite represents a new future in solar sailing, using lightweight composite booms to support a reflective polymer sail that uses the pressure of sunlight as propulsion.
Understanding Our Planet
Samuel Suleiman, an instructor on NASA’s OCEANOS student training program, gathers loose corals to place around an endangered coral species to help attract fish and other wildlife, giving the endangered coral a better chance of survivalphoto credit: NASA/Milan Loiacono In 2024, Ames researchers studied Earth’s oceans and waterways from multiple angles – from supporting NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem, or PACE, mission to bringing students in Puerto Rico experiences in oceanography and the preservation of coral reefs. Working with multiple partners, our scientists and engineers helped inform ecosystem management by joining satellite measurements of Earth with animal tracking data. In collaboration with the U.S. Geological Survey, a NASA team continued testing a specialized instrument package to stay in-the-know about changes in river flow rates.
Revealing the Mysteries of Asteroids in Our Solar System
Image credit: NASA Ames researchers used a series of supercomputer simulations to reveal a potential new explanation for how the moons of Mars may have formed: The first step, the findings say, may have involved the destruction of an asteroid.
Using NASA’s powerful James Webb Space Telescope, another Ames scientist helped reveal the smallest asteroids ever found in the main asteroid belt.
Ames Helps Emerging Space Companies ‘Take the Heat’
A heat shield made by NASA is visible on the blunt, upward-facing side of a space capsule after its landing in the Utah desert.Image credit: Varda Space Industries/John Kraus A heat shield material invented and made at Ames helped to safely return a spacecraft containing the first product processed on an autonomous, free-flying, in-space manufacturing platform. February’s re-entry of the spacecraft from Varda Space Industries of El Segundo, California, in partnership with Rocket Lab USA of Long Beach, California, marked the first time a NASA-manufactured thermal protection material, called C-PICA (Conformal Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator), ever returned from space.
Team Continues to Move Forward with Mission to Learn More about Our Star
This illustration lays a depiction of the sun’s magnetic fields over an image captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory on March 12, 2016.Image credit: NASA/SDO/AIA/LMSAL HelioSwarm’s swarm of nine spacecraft will provide deeper insights into our universe and offer critical information to help protect astronauts, satellites, and communications signals such as GPS. The mission team continues to work toward launching in 2029.
CAPSTONE Continues to Chart a New Path Around the Moon
CAPSTONE revealed in lunar Sunrise: CAPSTONE will fly in cislunar space – the orbital space near and around the Moon. The mission will demonstrate an innovative spacecraft-to-spacecraft navigation solution at the Moon from a near rectilinear halo orbit slated for Artemis’ Gateway.Illustration credit: NASA Ames/Daniel Rutter The microwave sized CubeSat, CAPSTONE, continues to fly in a cis-lunar near rectilinear halo orbit after launching in 2022. Flying in this unique orbit continues to pave the way for future spacecraft and Gateway, a Moon-orbiting outpost that is part of NASA’s Artemis campaign, as the team continues to collect data.
NASA Moves Drone Package Delivery Industry Closer to Reality
A drone is shown flying during a test of Unmanned Aircraft Systems Traffic Management (UTM) technical capability Level 2 (TCL2) at Reno-Stead Airport, Nevada in 2016. During the test, five drones simultaneously crossed paths, separated by different altitudes. Two drones flew beyond visual line of sight and three flew within line-of-sight of their operators. More UTM research followed, and it continues today. Image credit: NASA Ames/Dominic Hart NASA’s uncrewed aircraft system traffic management concepts paved the way for newly-approved package delivery drone flights in the Dallas area.
NASA’s uncrewed aircraft system traffic management concepts paved the way for newly-approved package delivery drone flights in the Dallas area.
NASA Technologies Streamline Air Traffic Management Systems
This image shows an aviation version of a smartphone navigation app that makes suggestions for an aircraft to fly an alternate, more efficient route. The new trajectories are based on information available from NASA’s Digital Information Platform and processed by the Collaborative Departure Digital Rerouting tool.Illustration credit: NASA Managing our busy airspace is a complex and important issue, ensuring reliable and efficient movement of commercial and public air traffic as well as autonomous vehicles. NASA, in partnership with AeroVironment and Aerostar, demonstrated a first-of-its-kind air traffic management concept that could pave the way for aircraft to safely operate at higher altitudes. The agency also saw continued fuel savings and reduction in commercial flight delays at Dallas Fort-Worth Airport, thanks to a NASA-developed tool that allows flight coordinators to identify more efficient, alternative takeoff routes.
Small Spacecraft Gathers Big Solar Storm Data from Deep Space
Illustration of NASA’s BioSentinel spacecraft as it enters a heliocentric orbit.Illustration credit: NASA Ames/Daniel Rutter BioSentinel – a small satellite about the size of a cereal box – is currently more than 30 million miles from Earth, orbiting our Sun. After launching aboard NASA’s Artemis I more than two years ago, BioSentinel continues to collect valuable information for scientists trying to understand how solar radiation storms move through space and where their effects – and potential impacts on life beyond Earth – are most intense. In May 2024, the satellite was exposed to a coronal mass ejection without the protection of our planet’s magnetic field and gathered measurements of hazardous solar particles in deep space during a solar storm.
NASA, FAA Partner to Develop New Wildland Fire Technologies
Artist’s rendering of remotely piloted aircraft providing fire suppression, monitoring and communications capabilities during a wildland fire. Illustration credit: NASA NASA researchers continued to develop and test airspace management technologies to enable remotely-piloted aircraft to fight and monitor wildland fires 24 hours a day.
The Advanced Capabilities for Emergency Response Operations (ACERO) project seeks to use drones and advanced aviation technologies to improve wildland fire coordination and operations.
NASA and Forest Service Use Balloon to Help Firefighters Communicate
The Aerostar Thunderhead balloon carries the STRATO payload into the sky to reach the stratosphere for flight testing. The balloon appears deflated because it will expand as it rises to higher altitudes where pressures are lower.Image credit: Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control Center of Excellence for Advanced Technology Aerial Firefighting/Austin Buttlar The Strategic Tactical Radio and Tactical Overwatch (STRATO) technology is a collaborative effort to use high-altitude balloons to improve real-time communications among firefighters battling wildland fires. Providing cellular communication from above can improve firefighter safety and firefighting efficiency.
A Fully Reimagined Visitor Center
The NASA Ames Visitor Center includes exhibits and activities, sharing the work of NASA in Silicon Valley with the public.Image credit: NASA Ames/Don RIchey The NASA Ames Visitor Center at Chabot Space & Science Center in Oakland, California includes a fully reimagined 360-degree experience, featuring new exhibits, models, and more. An interactive exhibit puts visitors in the shoes of a NASA Ames scientist, designing and testing rovers, planes, and robots for space exploration.
Ames Collaborations in the Community
Former NASA astronauts Yvonne Cagle and Kenneth Cockrell pose with Eli Toribio and Rhydian Daniels at the University of California, San Francisco Bakar Cancer Hospital. Patients gathered to meet the astronauts and learn more about human spaceflight and NASA’s cancer research effortsImage credit: NASA Ames/Brandon Torres Navarrete NASA astronauts, scientists, and researchers, and leadership from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) met with cancer patients and gathered in a discussion about potential research opportunities and collaborations as part of President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden’s Cancer Moonshot initiative on Oct. 4. During the visit with patients, NASA astronaut Yvonne Cagle and former astronaut Kenneth Cockrell answered questions about spaceflight and life in space.
Ames and the University of California, Berkeley, expanded their partnership, organizing workshops to exchange on their areas of technical expertise, including in Advanced Air Mobility, and to develop ideas for the Berkeley Space Center, an innovation hub proposed for development at Ames’ NASA Research Park. Under a new agreement, NASA also will host supercomputing resources for UC Berkeley, supporting the development of novel computing algorithms and software for a wide variety of scientific and technology areas.
NASA’s Ames Research Center Celebrates 85 Years of Innovation
by Rachel Hoover
Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley pre-dates a lot of things. The center existed before NASA – the very space and aeronautics agency it’s a critical part of today. And of all the marvelous advancements in science and technology that have fundamentally changed our lives over the last 85 years since its founding, one aspect has remained steadfast; an enduring commitment to what’s known by some on-center simply as, “an atmosphere of freedom.”
The NACA Ames laboratory in 1944.Image credit: NASA Years before breaking ground at the site that would one day become home to the world’s preeminent wind tunnels, supercomputers, simulators, and brightest minds solving some of the world’s toughest challenges, Joseph Sweetman Ames, the center’s namesake, described a sentiment that would guide decades of innovation and research:
“My hope is that you have learned or are learning a love of freedom of thought and are convinced that life is worthwhile only in such an atmosphere,” he said in an address to the graduates of Johns Hopkins University in June 1935.
That spirit and the people it attracted and retained are a crucial part of how Ames, along with other N.A.C.A. research centers, ultimately made technological breakthroughs that enabled humanity’s first steps on the Moon, the safe return of spacecraft through Earth’s atmosphere, and many other discoveries that benefit our day-to-day lives.
Russell Robinson momentarily looks to the camera while supervising the first excavation at what would become Ames Research Center.Image credit: NACA “In the context of my work, an atmosphere of freedom means the freedom to pursue high-risk, high-reward, innovative ideas that may take time to fully develop and — most importantly — the opportunity to put them into practice for the benefit of all,” said Edward Balaban, a researcher at Ames specializing in artificial intelligence, robotics, and advanced mission concepts.
Balaban’s career at Ames has involved a variety of projects at different stages of development – from early concept to flight-ready – including experimenting with different ways to create super-sized space telescopes in space and using artificial intelligence to help guide the path a rover might take to maximize off-world science results. Like many Ames researchers over the years, Balaban shared that his experience has involved deep collaborations across science and engineering disciplines with colleagues all over the center, as well as commercial and academic partners in Silicon Valley where Ames is nestled and beyond. This is a tradition that runs deep at Ames and has helped lead to entirely new fields of study and seeded many companies and spinoffs.
Before NASA, Before Silicon Valley: The 1939 Founding of Ames Aeronautical Laboratory “In the fields of aeronautics and space exploration the cost of entry can be quite high. For commercial enterprises and universities pursuing longer term ideas and putting them into practice often means partnering up with an organization such as NASA that has the scale and multi-disciplinary expertise to mature these ideas for real-world applications,” added Balaban.
“Certainly, the topics of inquiry, the academic freedom, and the benefit to the public good are what has kept me at Ames,” reflected Ross Beyer, a planetary scientist with the SETI Institute at Ames. “There’s not a lot of commercial incentive to study other planets, for example, but maybe there will be soon. In the meantime, only with government funding and agencies like NASA can we develop missions to explore the unknown in order to make important fundamental science discoveries and broadly share them.”
For Beyer, his boundary-breaking moment came when he searched – and found – software engineers at Ames capable and passionate about open-source software to generate accurate, high-resolution, texture-mapped, 3D terrain models from stereo image pairs. He and other teams of NASA scientists have since applied that software to study and better understand everything from changes in snow and ice characteristics on Earth, as well as features like craters, mountains, and caves on Mars or the Moon. This capability is part of the Artemis campaign, through which NASA will establish a long-term presence at the Moon for scientific exploration with commercial and international partners. The mission is to learn how to live and work away from home, promote the peaceful use of space, and prepare for future human exploration of Mars.
“As NASA and private companies send missions to the Moon, they need to plan landing sites and understand the local environment, and our software is freely available for anyone to use,” Beyer said. “Years ago, our management could easily have said ‘No, let’s keep this software to ourselves; it gives us a competitive advantage.’ They didn’t, and I believe that NASA writ large allows you to work on things and share those things and not hold them back.”
When looking forward to what the next 85 years might bring, researchers shared a belief that advancements in technology and opportunities to innovate are as expansive as space itself, but like all living things, they need a healthy atmosphere to thrive. Balaban offered, “This freedom to innovate is precious and cannot be taken for granted. It can easily fall victim if left unprotected. It is absolutely critical to retain it going forward, to ensure our nation’s continuing vitality and the strength of the other freedoms we enjoy.”
Ames Aeronautical Laboratory.Image credit: NACA Today Marks the Retirement of the Astrogram Newsletter
by Astrid Albaugh
For 66 years, the Astrogram has told the story of NASA’s Ames Research Center. Over those six-plus decades, the newsletter has documented hundreds of missions led by Ames, the progression of Hangar One’s reclamation, space shuttle launches with Ames’ payloads aboard them, countless VIP visits, and everything in between.
Ames published the first edition of the Astrogram in October 1958, coinciding with the transition of the center from its original incarnation as the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics Ames Aeronautical Laboratory to a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) research center.
The newsletter has evolved over time, alongside the center. From October 1958 through January 2016, the Astrogram was published in print, before a digital edition was developed. In January 2016, the Astrogram transitioned to a digital-only format. Below are examples of some of the Astrogram issues from over the years. More are forthcoming from 1998 and prior once they are retrieved from the archives.
October 2014 Astrogram September 2010 Astrogram I have served as the editor of the Astrogram since February 1998. Over the past quarter century, it has been an interesting, and sometimes quite challenging, task for me to capture the breadth and depth of Ames’s story and ensure that we always published the newsletter on time. I still remember trekking over to the center’s imaging office to review the physical negatives and images that the Ames photographers had taken of events onsite and select the most compelling photos. I used a very early version of visual design software to craft the layout. When the paper was completed, I’d file it onto a CD and then hand it to the courier who would drive from the San Francisco printshop to pick it up from me. Once and awhile, someone would request to have an additional feature added, requiring multiple trips up the 101 and back. Sometimes I’d come in on the weekends to work on the paper, due to late submissions, much to the chagrin of my kids.
July 2007 Astrogram It has been a pleasure serving as the editor over the past quarter century, almost as many years as my kids are old. A person once asked me if I had changed my name to Astrid since it’s so like the word Astrogram. Any relationship between the newsletter and my name is simply serendipity. I have enjoyed being behind the scenes, mostly working diligently at my computer. Many at Ames know my name because of the newsletter but may have never met me in person. It’s been amusing sometimes when I encounter someone who can’t put a finger as to why they knew my name but didn’t recognize me standing in front of them. Their usual response when they realized why they know me was, “Ah, Astrid of the Astrogram.”
March 20, 1998 Astrogram Just as NASA innovates, the content of the Astrogram has to innovate as well. Many of the stories that you used to read in the Astrogram, you can now find on our NASA Ames web page here. If you would like to access past, archived issues of the Astrogram, going back to 1958, please consult the Ames Research Center Archives. I will continue to help tell Ames’s story, just using new platforms.
Whether this is your first issue or you have been an Astrogram supporter for decades, thank you for reading!
– Astrid of the Astrogram officially signing off
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By NASA
NASA Goddard MODIS Rapid Response Team During the morning of March 20, 2015, a total solar eclipse was visible from parts of Europe, and a partial solar eclipse from northern Africa and northern Asia. NASA’s Terra satellite passed over the Arctic Ocean on March 20 at 10:45 UTC (6:45 a.m. EDT) and captured the eclipse’s shadow over the clouds in the Arctic Ocean.
Terra launched 25 years ago on Dec. 18, 1999. Approximately the size of a small school bus, the Terra satellite carries five instruments that take coincident measurements of the Earth system: Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER), Clouds and Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES), Multi-angle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR), Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT), and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS).
On Nov. 28, 2024, one of Terra’s power-transmitting shunt units failed. A response team reviewed Terra’s status and discussed potential impacts and options. Consequently, the team placed ASTER into Safe Mode. As a result, ASTER data are not currently being collected. All other instruments continue uninterrupted.
Image Credit: NASA Goddard MODIS Rapid Response Team
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By NASA
This article is for students grades 5-8.
The Sun is the star of our solar system. Its gravity holds Earth and our planetary neighbors in its orbit. At 865,000 miles (1.4 million km) in diameter, it’s the largest object in our solar system. On Earth, its influence is felt in our weather, seasons, climate, and more. Let’s learn about our dynamic star and its connections to life on Earth.
What is the Sun, and what is it made of?
The Sun is a yellow dwarf star. It is approximately 4.5 billion years old and is in its “main sequence” phase. This means it is partway through its lifecycle with a few billion more years ahead of it.
The Sun is made of hydrogen and helium gases. At its core, hydrogen is fused to form helium. This nuclear reaction creates the Sun’s heat and light. That energy moves outward through the Sun’s radiative zone and convective zone. It then reaches the Sun’s visible surface and lower atmosphere, called the photosphere. Above the photosphere lies the chromosphere, which forms the Sun’s middle atmosphere, and beyond that is the corona, the Sun’s outermost atmosphere.
The Sun is a yellow dwarf star with a complex series of layers and features.NASA What is the solar cycle?
The Sun goes through a pattern of magnetic activity known as the solar cycle. During each cycle, the Sun experiences a very active period called “solar maximum” and a less active period called “solar minimum.”
During solar maximum, increased magnetic activity creates sunspots. These appear as darker, cooler spots on the Sun’s surface. The more sunspots we can see, the more active the Sun is.
The solar cycle begins at solar minimum, peaks at solar maximum, and then returns to solar minimum. This cycle is driven by the Sun’s magnetic polarity, which flips – north becomes south, and vice versa – every 11 years. It takes two cycles – or 22 years – to complete the full magnetic cycle where the poles return to their original positions.
The Sun’s level of magnetic activity changes throughout its 11-year solar cycle. During each cycle, the Sun experiences a less-active period called “solar minimum” (left) and a very active period called “solar maximum” (right).NASA Wait. The Sun’s magnetic poles can flip??
Yes! Like Earth, the Sun has north and south magnetic poles. But unlike Earth, the Sun’s poles flip regularly. Each 11-year solar cycle is marked by the flipping of the Sun’s poles. The increased magnetic activity during solar maximum makes the north and south poles less defined. As the cycle moves back to solar minimum, the polarization of the poles returns – with flipped polarity.
Unlike Earth, the Sun’s poles regularly flip with each 11-year solar cycle.NASA What is space weather?
Space weather includes phenomena such as solar wind, solar storms, and solar flares. When space weather conditions are calm, there may be little noticeable effect on Earth. But when the Sun is more active, space weather has real impacts on Earth and in space.
Let’s explore these phenomena and how they affect our planet.
Periods of increased solar activity can cause noticeable effects on Earth and in space.NASA What is solar wind?
Solar wind is a stream of charged particles that flow outward from the Sun’s corona. It extends far beyond the orbit of the planets in our solar system. When solar wind reaches Earth, its charged particles interact with Earth’s magnetic field. This causes colorful streams of moving light at Earth’s north and south poles called aurora.
Earth’s magnetic field protects our planet from the charged solar particles of the solar wind.NASA What are solar storms, solar flares, and coronal mass ejections?
The Sun’s magnetic fields are a tangle of constant motion. These fields twist and stretch to the point that they snap and reconnect. When this magnetic reconnection occurs, it releases a burst of energy that can cause a solar storm.
Solar storms can include phenomena such as solar flares or coronal mass ejections. They happen more frequently around the solar maximum of the Sun’s cycle. A solar flare is an intense burst of light and energy from the Sun’s surface. Solar flares tend to happen near sunspots where the Sun’s magnetic fields are strongest. A coronal mass ejection is a massive cloud of material flowing outward from the Sun. These can occur on their own or along with solar flares.
The Sun’s magnetic field is strongest near sunspots. These active regions of the Sun’s surface release energy in the form of solar flares and coronal mass ejections like these.NASA How do these phenomena affect Earth?
When a solar storm erupts towards Earth, our atmosphere and magnetic field protect us from significant harm. However, some impacts are possible, both on Earth and in space. For example, strong solar storms can cause power outages and radio blackouts. GPS signals can be disrupted. Satellite electronics can be affected. And astronauts working outside of the International Space Station could be exposed to dangerous radiation. NASA monitors and forecasts space weather to protect the safety and health of astronauts and spacecraft.
When charged particles from intense solar storms interact with Earth’s magnetic fields, colorful auroras like this one captured in Saskatchewan, Canada, can occur.NASA Learn more about the Sun
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe launched in 2018 on the first-ever mission to fly into the Sun’s corona. Since its first pass through the corona in 2021, every orbit has brought it closer to the Sun. On Dec. 24, 2024, it makes the first of its three final, closest solar approaches of its primary mission. Test your knowledge with NASA’s new quiz, Kahoot! Parker Solar Probe trivia.
Visit these resources for more details about the Sun:
https://science.nasa.gov/sun/facts/ https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/all-about-the-sun/en/ https://science.nasa.gov/exoplanets/stars/ Explore More For Students Grades 5-8 View the full article
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By NASA
Photographers at NASA capture the sunset on Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2024, near the headquarters building of the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.NASA/Ben Smegelsky As NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida wraps up a year that will see more than 90 government, commercial, and private missions launch from Florida’s Space Coast, a look to 2025 shows the missions, partnerships, projects, and programs at the agency’s main launch site will continue innovating, inspiring, and pushing the boundaries of exploration for the benefit of humanity.
“The next year promises to be another exciting one at Earth’s premier spaceport,” said Kennedy Center Director Janet Petro. “We have an amazing workforce, and when we join forces with industry and our other government partners, even the sky is no limit to what we can accomplish.”
New Year, New Missions to Space Station
NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP), based out of Kennedy, and its commercial partner SpaceX plan two crew rotation missions to the International Space Station: NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 and Crew-11. This also means the return of the Crew-9 mission and later Crew-10 during 2025. CCP continues working with Boeing toward NASA certification of the company’s Starliner system for future crew rotations to the orbiting laboratory.
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 members stand between Falcon 9 first-stage boosters at SpaceX’s HangarX facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. From left are Mission Specialist Kirill Peskov of Roscosmos, Mission Specialist Takuya Onishi of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), along with NASA astronauts Commander Anne McClain and Pilot Nichole Ayers. SpaceX “Operations in 2025 are a testament to NASA’s workforce carefully planning and preparing to safely execute a vital string of missions that the agency can depend on,” said Dana Hutcherson, CCP deputy program manager. “This is the 25th year of crewed operations for the space station, and we know that with every launch, we are sustaining a critical national asset and enabling groundbreaking research.”
NASA also plans several Commercial Resupply Services missions, utilizing SpaceX’s Dragon cargo spacecraft, Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft, and the inaugural flight of Sierra Space’s cargo spaceplane, Dream Chaser. The missions will ferry thousands of pounds of supplies, equipment, and science investigations to the crew aboard the orbiting laboratory from NASA Kennedy and nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon spacecraft lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, Nov. 4, on the company’s 31st commercial resupply services mission for the agency to the International Space Station. Liftoff was at 9:29 p.m. EST. SpaceX In addition to the agency’s crewed flights, Axiom Space’s fourth crewed private spaceflight mission, Axiom Mission 4 – organized in collaboration with NASA through the International Space Station Program and operated by SpaceX – will launch to the orbital outpost.
Reestablishing Humanity’s Lunar Presence
Preparations for NASA’s Artemis II test flight mission are ramping up, with all major components for the SLS (Space Launch System) hardware undergoing processing at Kennedy, including the twin solid rocket boosters and 212-foot-tall core stage. Teams with EGS (Exploration Ground Systems) will continue stacking the booster segments inside the spaceport’s VAB (Vehicle Assembly Building). Subsequent integration and testing of the rocket’s hardware and Orion spacecraft will continue not only for the Artemis II mission, but for Artemis III and IV. Technicians also continue building mobile launcher 2, which will serve as the launch and integration platform for the SLS Block 1B configuration starting with Artemis IV.
Teams with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems transport the agency’s 212-foot-tall SLS (Space Launch System) core stage into High Bay 2 at the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. The one-of-a kind lifting beam is designed to lift the core stage from the transfer aisle to High Bay 2 where it will remain while teams stack the two solid rocket boosters on top of mobile launcher 1 for the SLS core stage.NASA/Kim Shiflett “Looking ahead to 2025, teams will embark on a transformative year as we integrate the flight hardware for Artemis II, while simultaneously developing the foundation for future Artemis missions that will reestablish humanity’s presence on the Moon,” said Shawn Quinn, EGS program manager.
A key part of the Artemis campaign, NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative will continue leveraging commercial partnerships to quickly land scientific instruments and technology demonstrations on the Moon. Firefly Aerospace’s first lunar CLPS flight, Blue Ghost Mission 1, will carry 10 NASA science and technology instruments to the lunar surface, including the Electrodynamic Dust Shield, a technology built by Kennedy engineers. Intuitive Machines, meanwhile, will embark on its second CLPS flight to the Moon. Providing the first in-situ resource utilization demonstration on the lunar surface, IM-2 will carry the Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1), which features The Regolith and Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain from Honeybee Robotics, as well as the Mass Spectrometer Observing Lunar Operations built by Kennedy. Both flights are targeted to lift off from Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A during the first quarter of 2025.
As part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis campaign, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission One lander will carry 10 NASA science and technology instruments to the Moon’s near side.Firefly Aerospace In development for Artemis IV and beyond, Gateway will be a critical platform for developing a sustained human presence beyond low Earth orbit. Deep Space Logistics (DSL) is the Gateway Program project office at Kennedy responsible for leading the development of a commercial supply chain in deep space. In 2025, DSL will continue developing the framework for the DSL-1 mission and working with commercial provider SpaceX to mature spacecraft design. Upcoming milestones include a system requirements review and preliminary design review to determine the program’s readiness to proceed with the detailed design phase supporting the agency’s Gateway Program and Artemis IV mission objectives.
Science Missions Studying Our Solar System and Beyond
NASA’s Launch Services Program (LSP), based at Kennedy, is working to launch three ambitious missions. Launching early in the year on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer) is a space telescope to survey the universe using visible and near-infrared light, observing more colors than ever before and allowing astronomers to piece together a three-dimensional map of the universe with stunning accuracy. Launching with SPHEREx, NASA’s PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) mission will study how the mass and energy of the Sun’s corona transition into the solar wind.
NASA’s SPHEREx space observatory was photographed at BAE Systems in Boulder, Colorado, in November 2024 after completing environmental testing. The spacecraft’s three concentric cones help direct heat and light away from the telescope and other components, keeping them cool. BAE Systems IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe), scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral in late 2025, will help map out thethe heliosphere – the magnetic environment surrounding and protecting our solar system. Carrying 10 instruments to make its observations, the IMAP mission is targeting the L1 Lagrange Point, an area between Earth and the Sun that is easy for spacecraft to maintain orbit, along with two Sun observing rideshare missions – NASA’s Carruthers Geocorona Observatory and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s SWFO-L1 (Space Weather Follow-On at L1). Also launching in late 2025 on a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg is the second of two identical satellites, Sentinel-6B, which will monitor global sea levels with unprecedented precision. Its predecessor, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, has been delivering crucial data since it launched in 2020, and Sentinel-6B will ensure the continuation of this mission through 2030.
“Our missions launching next year will include groundbreaking technologies to help us learn more about the universe than ever before and provide new data for researchers that will have positive benefits here on Earth,” said LSP’s Deputy Program Manager Jenny Lyons.
NASA’s ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) identical dual spacecraft are inspected and processed on dollies in a high bay of the Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024. As the first multi-spacecraft orbital science mission to Mars, ESCAPADE’s twin orbiters will take simultaneous observations from different locations around the planet and reveal the real-time response to space weather and how the Martian magnetosphere changes over time.NASA/Kim Shiflett The program’s support for small satellite missions next year includes several missions to monitor the Sun, collect climate data, and more. NASA’s ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) mission to explore Mars’ magnetosphere will lift off from Cape Canaveral’s Launch Complex 36 on NASA’s inaugural flight of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket. Some of these small satellite missions are part of NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative, which offers the next generation of scientists, engineers, and technologists a unique opportunity to conduct scientific research and develop and demonstrate novel technologies in space.
Building the Spaceport’s Future
Teams expect a busy year of construction projects to accommodate new missions, hardware, and milestones. In preparation for Artemis IV, mobile launcher 2 construction and modifications in the VAB’s High Bays 3 and 4 for the larger SLS Block 1B configuration will ramp up. Teams also will upgrade the spaceport’s Converter Compressor Facility (CCF) to meet the helium needs of its commercial launch partners and the Artemis campaign, increasing efficiency, reliability, and speed of pumping helium to rockets. Upgrades to the CCF’s internal infrastructure are also part of Kennedy’s plan to earn the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification, joining nine other Kennedy facilities in achieving that rating.
Photographers at NASA capture the sunset on Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2024, near Vehicle Assembly Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The iconic Vehicle Assembly Building, currently used for assembly of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket for Artemis missions, remains the only building in which rockets were assembled that carried humans to the surface of another world. NASA/Ben Smegelsky “Kennedy’s spaceport will continue to see its launch cadence grow, and we have to meet our program and commercial partner needs in the most efficient way possible,” said Sasha Sims, deputy director of Kennedy’s Spaceport Integration and Services Directorate. “Process improvements and integrated approaches should improve the speed at which government and commercial construction takes place while also improving Kennedy’s infrastructure so that it’s robust, sustainable, and able to support America’s future in space.”
Driving down acquisition costs, increasing competition, and using innovative contracting mechanisms for construction are just some of the initiatives to maximize efficiency and reliability in 2025. The center’s “Critical Day” policy prohibits certain types of work during launches requiring full flight range support but will no longer apply to commercial launches where minimal flight range support is required, training events, static fires, exercises, tests, rehearsals, nor other activities leading up to or supporting launches. This policy change is expected to create more flexibility and free up over 150 days annually for construction, maintenance, and other essential work needed to keep the spaceport running smoothly.
Finally, Kennedy will continue carrying Apollo’s legacy through Artemis. Seeds that traveled aboard the Orion spacecraft during the Artemis I mission will be planted at the spaceport, honoring the legacy of the original Moon Trees that grew from seeds flown on Apollo 14. The Florida spaceport will become one of the select locations across the country where the “new generation” of Moon Trees will take root and provide living testimony to the agency’s continuing legacy of lunar exploration.
“With so many missions and initiatives on the horizon, I’m looking forward to another banner year at Kennedy Space Center,” Petro said. “We truly are launching humanity’s future.”
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