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By NASA
2 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
This ultra high-definition video featuring an orange tabby cat named Taters, was streamed from nearly 19 million miles away via laser by NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment, marking a historic milestone for space communications.Jet Propulsion Laboratory Since it began in 1958, NASA has been charged by law with spreading the word about its work to the widest extent practicable. From typewritten press releases to analog photos and film, the agency has effectively moved into social media and other online communications. NASA’s broad reach across digital platforms has been recognized by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS), with 10 nominations across multiple categories for the academy’s 29th annual Webby Awards.
The 2025 Webby nominations demonstrate NASA's dedication to sharing the wonders of space through digital platforms. We believe in the power of digital storytelling to inspire the next generation of explorers.
Michelle R. Jones
Acting Associate Administrator for Communications
Public Voting Opportunities
Voting for the Webby People’s Voice Awards—chosen by the public—is open now through Thursday, April 17. Voting links for each category are listed below.
29th Annual Webby Award Nominees
AI, Immersive & Games
NASA’s Snap It! An Eclipse Photo Adventure
NASA
Kids and Family
Social
NASA Instagram
NASA
Education and Science
Matt Dominick’s X Account: A Visual Journey from Space
NASA, Leidos
Best Photography & Design
NASA’s 2024 Total Solar Eclipse Campaign
NASA
Events and Live streams
NASA’s Webb Telescope: Unfolding a Universe of Wonders
NASA Goddard
Education and Science
Video & Film
2024 Total Solar Eclipse: Through the Eyes of NASA
NASA, Leidos
Events and Live
NASA Streams Historic Cat Video From Deep Space
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Events and Live streams
Websites & Mobile Sites
NASA Website
NASA
Government & Associations
NASA+ Streaming Service
NASA
Television, Film & Streaming
NASA Newsletter
NASA
Business, News and Technology
About the Webby Awards
Established in 1996 during the web’s infancy, The Webbys is presented by the IADAS—a 3000+ member judging body. The Academy is comprised of Executive Members—leading Internet experts, business figures, luminaries, visionaries, and creative celebrities—and associate members who are former Webby winners, nominees and other internet professionals.
The Webby Awards presents two honors in every category—the Webby Award and the Webby People’s Voice Award. Members of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS) select the nominees for both awards in each category, as well as the winners of the Webby Awards. In the spirit of the open web, the Webby People’s Voice is chosen by the voting public, and garners millions of votes from all over the world.
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By NASA
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA’s SPHEREx, which will map millions of galaxies across the entire sky, captured one of its first exposures March 27. The observatory’s six detectors each captured one of these uncalibrated images, to which visible-light colors have been added to represent infrared wavelengths. SPHEREx’s complete field of view spans the top three images; the same area of the sky is also captured in the bottom three images. NASA/JPL-Caltech Processed with rainbow hues to represent a range of infrared wavelengths, the new pictures indicate the astrophysics space observatory is working as expected.
NASA’s SPHEREx (short for Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) has turned on its detectors for the first time in space. Initial images from the observatory, which launched March 11, confirm that all systems are working as expected.
Although the new images are uncalibrated and not yet ready to use for science, they give a tantalizing look at SPHEREx’s wide view of the sky. Each bright spot is a source of light, like a star or galaxy, and each image is expected to contain more than 100,000 detected sources.
There are six images in every SPHEREx exposure — one for each detector. The top three images show the same area of sky as the bottom three images. This is the observatory’s full field of view, a rectangular area about 20 times wider than the full Moon. When SPHEREx begins routine science operations in late April, it will take approximately 600 exposures every day.
Each image in this uncalibrated SPHEREx exposure contains about 100,000 light sources, including stars and galaxies. The two insets at right zoom in on sections of one image, showcasing the telescope’s ability to capture faint, distant galaxies. These sections are processed in grayscale rather than visible-light color for ease of viewing.NASA/JPL-Caltech “Our spacecraft has opened its eyes on the universe,” said Olivier Doré, SPHEREx project scientist at Caltech and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, both in Southern California. “It’s performing just as it was designed to.”
The SPHEREx observatory detects infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye. To make these first images, science team members assigned a visible color to every infrared wavelength captured by the observatory. Each of the six SPHEREx detectors has 17 unique wavelength bands, for a total of 102 hues in every six-image exposure.
Breaking down color this way can reveal the composition of an object or the distance to a galaxy. With that data, scientists can study topics ranging from the physics that governed the universe less than a second after its birth to the origins of water in our galaxy.
“This is the high point of spacecraft checkout; it’s the thing we wait for,” said Beth Fabinsky, SPHEREx deputy project manager at JPL. “There’s still work to do, but this is the big payoff. And wow! Just wow!”
During the past two weeks, scientists and engineers at JPL, which manages the mission for NASA, have executed a series of spacecraft checks that show all is well so far. In addition, SPHEREx’s detectors and other hardware have been cooling down to their final temperature of around minus 350 degrees Fahrenheit (about minus 210 degrees Celsius). This is necessary because heat can overwhelm the telescope’s ability to detect infrared light, which is sometimes called heat radiation. The new images also show that the telescope is focused correctly. Focusing is done entirely before launch and cannot be adjusted in space.
“Based on the images we are seeing, we can now say that the instrument team nailed it,” said Jamie Bock, SPHEREx’s principal investigator at Caltech and JPL.
How It Works
Where telescopes like NASA’s Hubble and James Webb space telescopes were designed to target small areas of space in detail, SPHEREx is a survey telescope and takes a broad view. Combining its results with those of targeted telescopes will give scientists a more robust understanding of our universe.
The observatory will map the entire celestial sky four times during its two-year prime mission. Using a technique called spectroscopy, SPHEREx will collect the light from hundreds of millions of stars and galaxies in more wavelengths any other all-sky survey telescope.
Track the real-time location of NASA’s SPHEREx space observatory using the agency’s 3D visualization tool, Eyes on the Solar System. When light enters SPHEREx’s telescope, it’s directed down two paths that each lead to a row of three detectors. The observatory’s detectors are like eyes, and set on top of them are color filters, which are like color-tinted glasses. While a standard color filter blocks all wavelengths but one, like yellow- or rose-tinted glasses, the SPHEREx filters are more like rainbow-tinted glasses: The wavelengths they block change gradually from the top of the filter to the bottom.
“I’m rendered speechless,” said Jim Fanson, SPHEREx project manager at JPL. “There was an incredible human effort to make this possible, and our engineering team did an amazing job getting us to this point.”
More About SPHEREx
The SPHEREx mission is managed by JPL for the agency’s Astrophysics Division within the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. BAE Systems (formerly Ball Aerospace) built the telescope and the spacecraft bus. The science analysis of the SPHEREx data will be conducted by a team of scientists located at 10 institutions in the U.S., two in South Korea, and one in Taiwan. Caltech managed and integrated the instrument. Data will be processed and archived at IPAC at Caltech. The mission’s principal investigator is based at Caltech with a joint JPL appointment. The SPHEREx dataset will be publicly available at the NASA-IPAC Infrared Science Archive. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.
For more about SPHEREx, visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/spherex/
News Media Contact
Calla Cofield
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
626-808-2469
calla.e.cofield@jpl.nasa.gov
2025-045
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Last Updated Apr 01, 2025 Related Terms
SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe and Ices Explorer) Astrophysics Galaxies Origin & Evolution of the Universe The Search for Life The Universe Explore More
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By NASA
NASA/Jordan Cochran Thomas Ozoroski, a researcher at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, takes icing accretion measurements in October 2024 as part of transonic truss-braced wing concept research.
In the future, aircraft with long, thin wings supported by aerodynamic braces could help airlines save on fuel costs – but those same wings could be susceptible to ice buildup. In the historic Icing Research Tunnel at NASA Glenn, scientists and engineers are testing a concept for a transonic truss-braced wing. Their goal: to collect important data to inform the design of these potential efficient aircraft of the future.
NASA Glenn can simulate icing conditions in its Icing Research Tunnel to identify potential challenges for new aircraft designs. These tests provide valuable information about how ice builds up on wings and can help identify the most critical icing conditions for safety.
Read more about icing testing at NASA Glenn.
Image credit: NASA/Jordan Cochran
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By NASA
Skywatching Science Skywatching What’s Up: April 2025… Skywatching Home What’s Up What to See Tonight Meteor Showers Eclipses Moon Guide More Tips & Guides Skywatching FAQ Night Sky Network April (Meteor) Showers and See a City of Stars!
Enjoy observing planets in the morning and evening sky, look for Lyrid meteors, and hunt for the “faint fuzzy” wonder that is the distant and ancient city of stars known as globular cluster M3.
Skywatching Highlights
All Month – Planet Visibility:
Mercury: Visible for a few days in the second half of April, extremely low in the east before sunrise. Venus: Rising low in the east in the hour before dawn. Mars: Bright and easy to view after dark all month. Setting a couple of hours after midnight. Jupiter: Bright and easy to spot in the west after dark, setting a couple of hours after sunset. Saturn: Visible low in the east below Venus, before dawn in the last two weeks of April. Daily Highlights:
April 1 & 30 – Jupiter & Crescent Moon: Find the charming pair in the west as the sky darkens, setting about 3 hours after sunset.
April 4 & 5 – Mars & Moon: The Moon, around its first quarter phase, appears near Mars in the sky for two nights.
April 24-25 – Grouping of the Moon & Three Planets: Find Venus, Saturn, and the crescent moon gathered low in the east as dawn warms the morning sky. Mercury is also visible below them for those with a clear view to the horizon.
All month – Venus: Earth’s hothouse twin planet has made the shift from an evening object to a morning sight. You’ll notice it rising low in the east before dawn, looking a little higher each morning through the month.
All month – Mars: Looking bright and reddish in color, Mars is visible high overhead after dark all month. At the start of the month it lies along a line with bright stars Procyon and Pollux, but you’ll notice it moves noticeably over the course of April (~12 degrees or the width of your outstretched fist at arm’s length).
Transcript
What’s Up for April? Planets at dusk and dawn, April showers, and observing a distant city of stars.
Sky chart showing Jupiter and the crescent Moon on April 1. A similar scene repeats on April 30, but with the Moon appearing above Jupiter. NASA/JPL-Caltech First up, in the evening sky, we begin and end the month with Jupiter and the crescent Moon shining brightly together in the western sky as sunset fades. On both April 1st and 30th, you can find the charming pair about half an hour after sunset, setting about 3 hours later.
Mars is high overhead in the south on April evenings. At the start of the month, it’s directly in between bright stars Procyon and Pollux, but it moves noticeably during the month. You’ll find the first-quarter moon right next to Mars on April 4th and 5th.
Moving to the morning sky, Venus has now made the switch from an evening object to a morning one. You may start to notice it rising low in the east before dawn, looking a little higher each morning through the month.
Sky chart showing the eastern sky 45 minutes before sunrise on April 24, with Venus, Saturn and the crescent Moon forming a grouping low in the sky. Mercury might also be visible for those with a completely clear view to the horizon. NASA/JPL-Caltech Around April 24th and 25th, you’ll find Venus, Saturn, and the crescent moon gathered low in the east as dawn warms up the morning sky. Those with a clear view to the horizon might also pick out Mercury looking bright, but very low in the sky.
April brings shooting stars as Earth passes through one the streams of comet dust that create our annual meteor showers. The Lyrids are a modest meteor shower that peaks overnight on April 21st and into the morning of the 22nd. You can expect up to 15 meteors per hour near the peak under dark skies.
The Lyrids are best observed from the Northern Hemisphere, but can be seen from south of the equator as well. View them after about 10:30pm local time until dawn, with the best viewing around 5 a.m. The waning crescent moon will rise around 3:30am, but at only 27% full, it shouldn’t interfere too much with your meteor watching. For the best experience, face roughly toward the east, lie down in a safe, dark place away from bright lights, and look straight overhead. Meteors can appear anywhere in the sky, and some Lyrids can leave bright trails that last for a few seconds after they’ve passed.
NASA studies meteors from the ground, in the air, and from orbit to forecast meteor activity and protect spacecraft, and to understand the composition of comets and asteroids throughout our solar system.
Sky chart facing east around 9pm in April 2025 showing the location of globular cluster M3. The chart depicts the cluster’s position relative to the Big Dipper and bright stars Arcturus and Cor Caroli. The Big Dipper star Megrez serves as an indicator for the brightness of Cor Caroli. For easy visibility, M3 is depicted brighter and larger than its actual appearance. NASA/JPL-Caltech April offers a chance to observe a truly distant wonder – a globular cluster known as “M3.” It’s a vast collection of stars that lies 34,000 light-years from Earth in our galaxy’s outer reaches. Astronomer Charles Messier discovered this object in 1764, while searching for new comets. Realizing it wasn’t one, he added it to his list of interesting objects that were not comets, which today we know as Messier’s catalog.
Through binoculars, Messier 3, or M3, appears as a small, fuzzy, star-like patch of light. With a small telescope, you’ll see a more defined glow with a slightly grainy texture. And with telescopes 8 inches or larger, the cluster begins to resolve into hundreds of individual stars.
Now, globular clusters contain some of the oldest stars in the universe, often over 10 billion years old. Unlike open clusters like the Pleiades, which sit within the Milky Way’s spiral arms, globular clusters are found in the galaxy’s halo, orbiting far above and below the Milky Way’s disk. Our galaxy has around 150 confirmed globular clusters. M3 itself is probably 11 to 13 billion years old and contains around half a million stars. And it’s relatively easy to spot in April under dark skies with binoculars or a small telescope.
Finding M3 starts with the Big Dipper. Facing east, use the Dipper’s handle to “arc to Arcturus,” the fourth-brightest star in the night sky. From there, look higher in the sky to find the star Cor Caroli located here to the west of the Dipper’s handle. It’s about as bright as this star in the Dipper’s cup. M3 is located roughly a third of the way from Arcturus to Cor Caroli. With binoculars or a finder scope, sweep within this area until you spot a faint, round glow.
M3 is an excellent target for beginners and seasoned observers alike. Whether using binoculars or a telescope, you’ll be rewarded with a view of one of the oldest objects in our galaxy.
The phases of the Moon for April 2025. NASA/JPL-Caltech Above are the phases of the Moon for April.
Stay up to date on all of NASA’s missions exploring the solar system and beyond at NASA Science. I’m Preston Dyches from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and that’s What’s Up for this month.
Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA
Skywatching
Planets
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By NASA
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
The NASA History Office brings you the new Spring 2025 issue of NASA History News & Notes reflecting on some of the transitional periods in NASA’s history, as well as the legacies of past programs. Topics include NASA’s 1967 class of astronauts, historic experiments in airborne astronomy, NASA’s aircraft consolidation efforts in the 1990s, lightning observations from space, the founding of the NACA, the DC-8 airborne science laboratory, and more!
Volume 42, Number 1
Spring 2025
Featured Articles
From the Chief Historian
By Brian Odom
In the first few months of 2025, NASA will celebrate several significant anniversaries, including the 110th anniversary of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) (March 3), the 55th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 13 (April 11), and the 35th anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope (April 24). Celebrating these important milestones is a way for us as an agency and for the public to reflect upon where we have been and what we have accomplished and to think about what we might accomplish next. Continue Reading
The XS-11 and the Transition Away from Mandatory Jet Pilot Training for NASA Astronauts
By Jennifer Ross-Nazzal
Flying in space has been associated with pilots ever since 1959, when NASA announced its first class of astronauts, known as the Mercury 7. Part of being a professional astronaut meant you were a certified jet pilot. Even the scientist-astronauts, so named to differentiate them from the astronauts assigned to the Mercury and Gemini missions, selected in 1965 and in 1967, received pilot training. Until NASA better understood the impact of weightlessness on the human body, Robert R. Gilruth, head of the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) in Houston, believed all astronauts should meet this qualification. But when five scientist-astronauts from the 1967 class had a rocky transition, leading them to resign—due to their disinterest in flying at the cost of their scientific training and no spaceflight opportunities—it eventually led NASA to rethink their idea of having all astronauts become jet pilots. Continue Reading
Portrait of NASA’s 1967 group of astronauts. Seated at the table, left to right, are Philip K. Chapman, Robert A. R. Parker, William E. Thornton, and John A. Llewellyn. Standing, left to right, are Joseph P. Allen IV, Karl G. Henize, Anthony W. England, Donald L. Holmquest, Story Musgrave, William B. Lenoir, and Brian T. O’Leary.NASA The High-Flying Legacy of Airborne Observation: How Experimental Aircraft Contributed to Astronomy at NASA
By Lois Rosson
In June 2011, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) chased down Pluto’s occultation of a far-away star. … SOFIA’s 2011 observation of Pluto followed up on a historic 1988 observation made by the airborne Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO) that proved that Pluto had an atmosphere at all. The technical versatility of both flights, conducted from aircraft hurtling stabilized telescopes through the air, speaks to the legacy of airborne astronomical observation at NASA. But how did this idiosyncratic format emerge in the first place? Airborne astronomy, in which astronomical observations are made from a moving aircraft, was attempted almost as soon as airplanes themselves were developed. Continue Reading
NASA’s Tortuous Effort to Consolidate its Aircraft
By Robert Arrighi
Thirty years ago, on January 6, 1995, NASA Administrator Dan Goldin announced, “We’ve started a revolution at NASA. It’s real. We have a road map for change. We’ve already begun.” Thus began one of the agency’s most daunting endeavors, a top-to-bottom reassessment of NASA’s processes, programmatic assignments, and staffing levels. One of the most controversial aspects of this effort was the proposal to transfer nearly all of the agency’s research aircraft to Dryden Flight Research Center (today known as Armstrong). Continue Reading
Three ER-2 Aircraft in formation over Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, CA on their final flight out of NASA Ames Research Center before redeployment to NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center, now known as NASA Armstrong.NASA/Eric James The Space Between: Mesoscale Lightning Observations and Weather Forecasting, 1965–82
By Brad Massey
Skylab astronaut Edward G. Gibson looked down at Earth often during his 84 days on NASA’s first space station. From his orbital vantage point, Gibson took in the breathtaking views of our planet’s diverse landscapes. He also noted the interesting behavior of the planet’s most powerful electrical force: lightning. … Gibson’s words were of great interest to the lightning researchers affiliated with NASA’s Severe Storms and Local Research Program and others who believed observing Earth’s lightning from low Earth orbit generated valuable data that meteorologists could use to better forecast dangerous storm characteristics and behavior. With these motivations in mind, researchers created new Earth- and space-based experiments from the mid-1960s to the first Space Shuttle missions in the early 1980s that observed lightning on a regional level. Continue Reading
Adding Color to the Moon: Jack Kinzler’s Oral History Interviews
By Sandra Johnson
Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) Director Robert R. Gilruth placed a call to Jack Kinzler less than four months before the Apollo 11 launch. Gilruth asked him to attend a meeting with a high-level group of individuals from both MSC and NASA Headquarters to discuss ideas for celebrating the first lunar landing. Kinzler, in his capacity as the chief of the Technical Services Division, arrived ready to present his suggestions for commemorating the achievement. Continue Reading
Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin Jr. poses for a photograph beside the deployed United States flag during the mission’s extravehicular activity (EVA) on the lunar surface.NASA The Founding of the NACA
By James Anderson
One hundred ten years ago this month, NASA’s predecessor organization, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), was founded. The date of the anniversary marks the passage of a rider to a naval appropriations bill that established the NACA for the modest sum of $5,000 annually. Telling the story of the NACA’s founding in this manner—using March 3, 1915, as the moment in time to represent the NACA’s beginning—is true, but it overlooks two crucial aspects of the founding. The founding was both a culmination and a turning point for science and aeronautics in the United States. Continue Reading
Remembering the DC-8 Airborne Science Laboratory at NASA
By Bradley Lynn Coleman
The NASA History Office and NASA Earth Science Division cohosted a workshop on the recently retired NASA DC-8 Airborne Science Laboratory (1986–2024) at the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters Building in Washington, DC, October 24 and 25, 2024. The workshop celebrated the history of the legendary aircraft; documented DC-8–enabled scientific, engineering, education, and outreach activities; and captured lessons of the past for future operators. Continue Reading
The DC-8 in flight near Lone Pine, California. NASA/Jim Ross Download the Spring 2025 Edition More Issues of NASA History News and Notes Share
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Last Updated Apr 01, 2025 Related Terms
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