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By NASA
James Gentile always wanted to fly. As he prepared for an appointment to the U.S. Air Force Academy to become a pilot, life threw him an unexpected curve: a diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes. His appointment was rescinded.
With his dream grounded, Gentile had two choices—give up or chart a new course. He chose the latter, pivoting to aerospace engineering. If he could not be a pilot, he would design the flight simulations that trained those who could.
Official portrait of James Gentile. NASA/Robert Markowitz As a human space vehicle simulation architect at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Gentile leads the Integrated Simulation team, which supports the Crew Compartment Office within the Simulation and Graphics Branch. He oversees high-fidelity graphical simulations that support both engineering analysis and flight crew training for the Artemis campaign.
His team provides critical insight into human landing system vendor designs, ensuring compliance with NASA’s standards. They also develop human-in-the-loop simulations to familiarize teams with the challenges of returning humans to the lunar surface, optimizing design and safety for future space missions.
“I take great pride in what I have helped to build, knowing that some of the simulations I developed have influenced decisions for the Artemis campaign,” Gentile said.
One of the projects he is most proud of is the Human Landing System CrewCo Lander Simulation, which helps engineers and astronauts tackle the complexities of lunar descent, ascent, and rendezvous. He worked his way up from a developer to managing and leading the project, transforming a basic lunar lander simulation into a critical tool for the Artemis campaign.
What began as a simple model in 2020 is now a key training asset used in multiple facilities at Johnson. The simulation evaluates guidance systems and provides hands-on piloting experience for lunar landers.
James Gentile in the Simulation Exploration and Analysis Lab during a visit with Apollo 16 Lunar Module Pilot Charlie Duke. From left to right: Katie Tooher, Charlie Duke, Steve Carothers, Mark Updegrove, and James Gentile. NASA/James Blair Before joining Johnson as a contractor in 2018, Gentile worked in the aviation industry developing flight simulations for pilot training. Transitioning to the space sector was challenging at first, particularly working alongside seasoned professionals who had been part of the space program for years.
“I believe my experience in the private sector has benefited my career,” he said. “I’ve been able to bring a different perspective and approach to problem-solving that has helped me advance at Johnson.”
Gentile attributes his success to never being afraid to speak up and ask questions. “You don’t always have to be the smartest person in the room to make an impact,” he said. “I’ve been able to show my value through my work and by continuously teaching myself new skills.”
As he helps train the Artemis Generation, Gentile hopes to pass on his passion for aerospace and simulation development, inspiring others to persevere through obstacles and embrace unexpected opportunities.
“The most important lessons I’ve learned in my career are to build and maintain relationships with your coworkers and not to be afraid to step out of your comfort zone,” he said.
James Gentile with his son at NASA’s Johnson Space Center during the 2024 Bring Youth to Work Day. His journey did not go as planned, but in the end, it led him exactly where he was meant to be—helping humanity take its next giant leap.
“I’ve learned that the path to your goals may not always be clear-cut, but you should never give up on your dreams,” Gentile said.
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By NASA
Explore Hubble Hubble Home Overview About Hubble The History of Hubble Hubble Timeline Why Have a Telescope in Space? Hubble by the Numbers At the Museum FAQs Impact & Benefits Hubble’s Impact & Benefits Science Impacts Cultural Impact Technology Benefits Impact on Human Spaceflight Astro Community Impacts Science Hubble Science Science Themes Science Highlights Science Behind Discoveries Hubble’s Partners in Science Universe Uncovered Explore the Night Sky Observatory Hubble Observatory Hubble Design Mission Operations Missions to Hubble Hubble vs Webb Team Hubble Team Career Aspirations Hubble Astronauts News Hubble News Hubble News Archive Social Media Media Resources Multimedia Multimedia Images Videos Sonifications Podcasts e-Books Online Activities Lithographs Fact Sheets Posters Hubble on the NASA App Glossary More 35th Anniversary Online Activities 3 min read
Hubble Jams With A Cosmic Guitar
Elliptical galaxy NGC 3561B (upper left) and spiral galaxy NGC 3561A (lower right) form a shimmering guitar shape in the ongoing merger known collectively as Arp 105. NASA, ESA and M. West (Lowell Observatory); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America) Arp 105 is a dazzling ongoing merger between an elliptical galaxy and a spiral galaxy drawn together by gravity, characterized by a long, drawn out tidal tail of stars and gas more than 362,000 light-years long. The immense tail, which extends beyond this image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, was pulled from the two galaxies by their gravitational interactions and is embedded with star clusters and dwarf galaxies. The distinctively shaped arrangement of galaxies and tail gives the grouping its nickname: The Guitar.
The gravitational dance between elliptical galaxy NGC 3561B and spiral galaxy NGC 3561A creates a wealth of fascinating colliding galaxy features. A long lane of dark dust emerging from the elliptical galaxy ends in, and may be feeding, a bright blue area of star formation on the base of the guitar known as Ambartsumian’s Knot. Ambartsumian’s Knot is a tidal dwarf galaxy, a type of star-forming system that develops from the debris in tidal arms of interacting galaxies.
Two more bright blue areas of star formation are obvious in the Hubble image at the edges of the distorted spiral galaxy. The region to the left in the spiral galaxy is likely very similar to Ambartsumian’s Knot, a knot of intense star formation triggered by the merger. The region to the right is still under investigation ― it could be part of the collision, but its velocity and spectral data (indicating distance) are different from the rest of the system, so it may be a foreground galaxy.
Thin, faint tendrils of gas and dust are just barely visible stretching between and connecting the two galaxies. These tendrils are particularly interesting to astronomers since they may help define the timescale of the evolution of this collision.
A multitude of more-distant background galaxies are visible around and even through this merging duo. The bright blue blob of stars to the left of Ambartsumian’s Knot may be a particularly bright background galaxy.
Arp 105 is one of the brightest objects in the crowded galaxy cluster Abell 1185 in the constellation Ursa Major. Abell 1185, located around 400 million light-years away, is a chaotic cluster of at least 82 galaxies, many of which are interacting, as well as a number of wandering globular clusters that are not gravitationally attached to any particular galaxy. This Hubble image was taken as part of a study of the ongoing creation of galactic and intergalactic stellar populations in Abell 1185.
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Last Updated Mar 08, 2025 Editor NASA Hubble Mission Team Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
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Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.
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By NASA
6 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Ahead of launch, NASA’s SPHEREx is enclosed in a payload fairing at Vandenberg Space Force Base on March 2. The observatory is stacked atop the four small satellites that make up the agency’s PUNCH mission.NASA/BAE Systems/Benjamin Fry NASA’s latest space observatory is targeting a March 8 liftoff, and the agency’s PUNCH heliophysics mission is sharing a ride. Here’s what to expect during launch and beyond.
In a little over a day, NASA’s SPHEREx space telescope is slated to launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The observatory will map the entire celestial sky four times in two years, creating a 3D map of over 450 million galaxies. In doing so, the mission will provide insight into what happened a fraction of a second after the big bang, in addition to searching interstellar dust for the ingredients of life, and measuring the collective glow from all galaxies, including ones that other telescopes cannot easily detect.
The launch window opens at 7:09:56 p.m. PST on Saturday, March 8, with a target launch time of 7:10:12 p.m. PST. Additional opportunities occur in the following days.
Launching together into low Earth orbit, NASA’s SPHEREx and PUNCH missions will study a range of topics from the early universe to our nearest star. NASA/JPL-Caltech Sharing a ride with SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) is NASA’s PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere), a constellation of four small satellites that will map the region where the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona, transitions to the solar wind, the constant outflow of material from the Sun.
For the latest on PUNCH, visit the blog:
https://blogs.nasa.gov/punch
What SPHEREx Will Do
The SPHEREx observatory detects infrared light — wavelengths slightly longer than what the human eye can see that are emitted by warm objects including stars and galaxies. Using a technique called spectroscopy, SPHEREx will separate the infrared light emitted by hundreds of millions of stars and galaxies into 102 individual colors — the same way a prism splits sunlight into a rainbow. Observing those colors separately can reveal various properties of objects, including their composition and, in the case of galaxies, their distance from Earth. No other all-sky survey has performed spectroscopy in so many wavelengths and on so many sources.
The mission’s all-sky spectroscopic map can be used for a wide variety of science investigations. In particular, SPHEREx has its sights set on a phenomenon called inflation, which caused the universe to expand a trillion-trillionfold in a fraction of a second after the big bang. This nearly instantaneous event left an impression on the large-scale distribution of matter in the universe. The mission will map the distribution of more than 450 million galaxies to improve scientists’ understanding of the physics behind this extreme cosmic event.
SPHEREx Fact Sheet Additionally, the space telescope will measure the total glow from all galaxies, including ones that other telescopes cannot easily detect. When combined with studies of individual galaxies by other telescopes, the measurement of this overall glow will provide a more complete picture of how the light output from galaxies has changed over the universe’s history.
At the same time, spectroscopy will allow SPHEREx to seek out frozen water, carbon dioxide, and other key ingredients for life. The mission will provide an unprecedented survey of the location and abundance of these icy compounds in our galaxy, giving researchers better insight into the interstellar chemistry that set the stage for life.
Launch Sequence
But, first, SPHEREx has to get into space. Prelaunch testing is complete on the spacecraft’s various systems, and it’s been encapsulated in the protective nose cone, or payload fairing, atop the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that will get it there from Vandenberg’s Space Launch Complex-4 East.
NASA’s SPHEREx mission will lift off from Space Launch Complex-4 East at Vanden-berg Space Force Base in California aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, just as the Sur-face Water and Ocean Topography mission, shown here, did in December 2022. NASA/Keegan Barber A little more than two minutes after the Falcon 9 lifts off, the main engine will cut off. Shortly after, the rocket’s first and second stages will separate, followed by second-stage engine start. The reusable first stage will then begin its automated boost-back burn to the launch site for a propulsive landing.
Once the rocket is out of Earth’s atmosphere, about three minutes after launch, the payload fairing that surrounds the spacecraft will separate into two halves and fall back to Earth, landing in the ocean. Roughly 41 minutes after launch, SPHEREx will separate from the rocket and start its internal systems so that it can point its solar panel to the Sun. After this happens, the spacecraft can establish communications with ground controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which manages the mission for the agency. This milestone, called acquisition of signal, should happen about three minutes after separation.
About 52 minutes after liftoff, PUNCH should separate as well from the Falcon 9.
Both spacecraft will be in a Sun-synchronous low Earth orbit, where their position relative to the Sun remains the same throughout the year. Each approximately 98-minute orbit allows the SPHEREx telescope to view a 360-degree strip of the celestial sky. As Earth’s orbit around the Sun progresses, that strip slowly advances, enabling SPHEREx to image almost the entire sky in six months. For PUNCH, the orbit provides a clear view in all directions around the Sun.
About four days after launch, SPHEREx should eject the protective cover over its telescope lens. The observatory will begin science operations a little over a month after launch, once the telescope has cooled down to its operating temperature and the mission team has completed a series of checks.
NASA’s Launch Services Program, based out of the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is providing the launch service for SPHEREx and PUNCH.
For more information about the SPHEREx mission, visit:
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/spherex
More About SPHEREx
SPHEREx is managed by NASA JPL for the agency’s Astrophysics Division within the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. 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. Data will be processed and archived at IPAC at Caltech, which manages JPL for NASA. 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.
Get the SPHEREx Press Kit How to Watch March 8 SPHEREx Launch 6 Things to Know About SPHEREx Why NASA’s SPHEREx Will Make ‘Most Colorful’ Cosmic Map Ever NASA’s SPHEREX Space Telescope Will Seek Life’s Ingredients News Media Contacts
Karen Fox / Alise Fisher
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600 / 202-358-2546
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov
Calla Cofield, SPHEREx
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
626-808-2469
calla.e.cofield@jpl.nasa.gov
Sarah Frazier, PUNCH
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
202-853-7191
sarah.frazier@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Mar 07, 2025 Related Terms
SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe and Ices Explorer) Astrophysics Exoplanets Galaxies Heliophysics Jet Propulsion Laboratory Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) The Big Bang The Milky Way The Search for Life The Sun The Universe Explore More
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By NASA
Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 captured an image March 6, 2025, after landing in a crater from the Moon’s South Pole. The lunar lander is on its side about 820 feet from the intended landing site, Mons Mouton. In the center of the image between the two lander legs is the Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment 1 suite, which shows the drill deployed.Credit: Intuitive Machines Shortly after touching down inside a crater on the Moon, carrying NASA technology and science on its IM-2 mission, Intuitive Machines collected some data for the agency before calling an early end of mission at 12:15 a.m. CST Friday.
As part of the company’s second Moon delivery for NASA under the agency’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis campaign, the IM-2 mission included a drill to bring lunar soil to the surface and a mass spectrometer to look for the presence of volatiles, or gases, that could one day help provide fuel or breathable oxygen to future Artemis explorers.
Planned to land at Mons Mouton, IM-2 touched down at approximately 11:30 a.m. March 6, more than 1,300 feet (400 meters) from its intended landing site. Intuitive Machines said images collected later confirmed the lander was on its side, preventing it from fully operating the drill and other instruments before its batteries were depleted.
The IM-2 mission landed closer to the lunar South Pole than any previous lander.
“Our targeted landing site near the lunar South Pole is one of the most scientifically interesting, and geographically challenging locations, on the Moon,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Each success and setback are opportunities to learn and grow, and we will use this lesson to propel our efforts to advance science, exploration, and commercial development as we get ready for human exploration of Mars.”
The Nova-C lander, named Athena, captured and transmitted images of the landing site before activating the technology and science instruments. Among the data collected, NASA’s PRIME-1 (Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment 1) suite, which includes the lunar drill known as TRIDENT (The Regolith and Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain), successfully demonstrated the hardware’s full range of motion in the harsh environment of space. The Mass Spectrometer Observing Lunar Operations (MSOLO) as part of the PRIME-1 suite of instruments, detected elements likely due to the gases emitted from the lander’s propulsion system.
“While this mission didn’t achieve all of its objectives for NASA, the work that went into the payload development is already informing other agency and commercial efforts,” said Clayton Turner, associate administrator for space technology, NASA Headquarters. “As we continue developing new technologies to support exploration of the Moon and Mars, testing technologies in-situ is crucial to informing future missions. The CLPS initiative remains an instrumental method for achieving this.”
Despite the lander’s configuration, Intuitive Machines, which was responsible for launch, delivery, and surface operations under its CLPS contract, was able to complete some instrument checkouts and collect 250 megabytes of data for NASA.
“Empowering American companies to deliver science and tech to the Moon on behalf of NASA both produces scientific results and continues development of a lunar economy,” said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for Exploration in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. “While we’re disappointed in the outcome of the IM-2 mission, we remain committed to supporting our commercial vendors as they navigate the very difficult task of landing and operating on the Moon.”
NASA’s Laser Retroreflector Array, a passive instrument meant to provide a reference point on the lunar surface and does not power on, will remain affixed to the top deck of the lander. Although Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C Hopper and Nokia’s 4G/LTE Tipping Point technologies, funded in part by NASA, were only able to complete some objectives, they provided insight into maturing technologies ready for infusion into a commercial space application including some checkouts in flight and on the surface.
Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 mission launched at 6:16 p.m., Feb. 26, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Intuitive Machines has two more deliveries on the books for NASA in the future, with its IM-3 mission slated for 2026, and IM-4 mission in 2027.
To date, five vendors have been awarded a total of 11 lunar deliveries under CLPS and are sending more than 50 instruments to various locations on the Moon, including the Moon’s far side and South Pole region. CLPS contracts are indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts with a cumulative maximum contract value of $2.6 billion through 2028.
Learn more about NASA’s CLPS initiative at:
https://www.nasa.gov/clps
-end-
Cheryl Warner / Jasmine Hopkins
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
cheryl.m.warner@nasa.gov / jasmine.s.hopkins@nasa.gov
Natalia Riusech / Nilufar Ramji
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
nataila.s.riusech@nasa.gov / nilufar.ramji@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Mar 07, 2025 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) Artemis Earth's Moon Science & Research Science Mission Directorate Space Technology Mission Directorate View the full article
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By European Space Agency
Europe’s newest rocket, Ariane 6, took flight for the second time from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana at 13:24 local time on 6 March (16:24 GMT, 17:24 CET). This was the first commercial flight for Ariane 6, flight VA263, delivering the CSO-3 satellite to orbit. Arianespace was the operator and launch service provider for the French Procurement agency (DGA) and France’s space agency CNES on behalf of the French Air and Space Force’s Space Command (CDE).
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