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By NASA
Credit: NASA NASA has selected Firefly Aerospace Inc. of Cedar Park, Texas, to provide the launch service for the agency’s Investigation of Convective Updrafts (INCUS) mission, which aims to understand why, when, and where tropical convective storms form, and why some storms produce extreme weather. The mission will launch on the company’s Alpha rocket from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
The selection is part of NASA’s Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) launch services contract. This contract allows the agency to make fixed-price indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity awards during VADR’s five-year ordering period, with a maximum total value of $300 million across all contracts.
The INCUS mission, comprised of three SmallSats flying in tight coordination, will investigate the evolution of the vertical transport of air and water by convective storms. These storms form when rapidly rising water vapor and air create towering clouds capable of producing rain, hail, and lightning. The more air and water that rise, the greater the risk of extreme weather. Convective storms are a primary source of precipitation and cause of the most severe weather on Earth.
Each satellite will have a high frequency precipitation radar that observes rapid changes in convective cloud depth and intensities. One of the three satellites also will carry a microwave radiometer to provide the spatial content of the larger scale weather observed by the radars. By flying so closely together, the satellites will use the slight differences in when they make observations to apply a novel time-differencing approach to estimate the vertical transport of convective mass.
NASA selected the INCUS mission through the agency’s Earth Venture Mission-3 solicitation and Earth System Science Pathfinder program. The principal investigator for INCUS is Susan van den Heever at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Several NASA centers support the mission, including Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Key satellite system components will be provided by Blue Canyon Technologies and Tendeg LLC, both in Colorado. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, manages the VADR contract.
To learn more about NASA’s INCUS mission, visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/incus
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Tiernan Doyle
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
tiernan.doyle@nasa.gov
Patti Bielling
Kennedy Space Center, Florida
321-501-7575
patricia.a.bielling@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Mar 04, 2025 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
Investigation of Convective Updrafts (INCUS) Earth Science Planetary Science Division Science & Research Science Mission Directorate SmallSats Program Wallops Flight Facility View the full article
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By NASA
Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 mission lunar lander, Athena, entering lunar orbit on Monday, March 3. Credit: Intuitive Machines Carrying NASA technology demonstrations and science investigations, Intuitive Machines is targeting their Moon landing no earlier than 12:32 p.m. EST on Thursday, March 6. The company’s Nova-C lunar lander is slated to land in Mons Mouton, a lunar plateau near the Moon’s South Pole, as part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis campaign to establish a long-term lunar presence.
Watch live landing coverage of the Intuitive Machines 2 (IM-2) landing, hosted by NASA and Intuitive Machines, on NASA+ starting no earlier than 11:30 a.m., approximately 60 minutes before touchdown. Beginning at 11 a.m. the agency will share blog updates as landing milestones occur.
Following the Moon landing, NASA and Intuitive Machines will host a news conference from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to discuss the mission, technology demonstrations, and science opportunities that lie ahead as lunar surface operations. begin.
U.S. media interested in participating in person must request accreditation by 4 p.m. Wednesday, March 5, by contacting the NASA Johnson newsroom at 281-483-5111 or jsccommu@mail.nasa.gov. A copy of NASA’s media accreditation policy is online. To ask questions via phone, all media must RSVP by 4 p.m. March 5 to the NASA Johnson Newsroom, and dial in at least 15 minutes before the briefing begins.
Full coverage of the IM-2 mission includes (all times Eastern):
Thursday, March 6
11:30 a.m. – Landing coverage begins on NASA+ 12:32 p.m. – Landing 4 p.m. – Post-landing news conference on NASA+ After landing, NASA and Intuitive Machines leaders will participate in the news conference:
Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters Clayton Turner, associate administrator, Space Technology Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters Steve Altemus, CEO, Intuitive Machines Tim Crain, chief growth officer, Intuitive Machines The IM-2 mission launched at 7:16 p.m. Feb. 26 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The lander is carrying NASA technology that will measure the potential presence of resources from lunar soil that could be extracted and used by future explorers to produce fuel or breathable oxygen.
In addition, a passive Laser Retroreflector Array on the top deck of the lander will bounce laser light back at any orbiting or incoming spacecraft to give future spacecraft a permanent reference point on the lunar surface. Other technologies on this delivery will demonstrate a robust cellular network to help future astronauts communicate and deploy a propulsive drone that can hop across the lunar surface to navigate its challenging terrain.
NASA continues to work with multiple American companies to deliver technology and science to the lunar surface through the agency’s CLPS initiative. This pool of companies may bid on contracts for end-to-end lunar delivery services, including payload integration and operations, launching from Earth, and landing on the surface of the Moon. NASA’s CLPS contracts are indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts with a cumulative maximum value of $2.6 billion through 2028. The agency awarded Intuitive Machines the contract to send NASA science investigations and technology demonstrations to the Moon using its American-designed and -manufactured lunar lander for approximately $62.5 million.
Through the Artemis campaign, commercial robotic deliveries will test technologies, perform science experiments, and demonstrate capabilities on and around the Moon to help NASA explore in advance of Artemis Generation astronaut missions to the lunar surface, and ultimately crewed missions to Mars.
Learn how to watch NASA content on various platforms, including social media, and follow all events at:
https://www.plus.nasa.gov
Let people know you’re following the mission on X, Facebook, and Instagram by using the hashtag #Artemis. You can also stay connected by following and tagging these accounts:
X: @NASA, @NASA_Johnson, @NASAArtemis, @NASAMoon, @NASA_Technology
Facebook: NASA, NASAJohnsonSpaceCenter, NASAArtemis, NASATechnology
Instagram: @NASA, @NASAJohnson, @NASAArtemis
For more information about the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative:
https://www.nasa.gov/clps
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Karen Fox / Jasmine Hopkins
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / jasmine.s.hopkins@nasa.gov
Natalia Riusech / Nilufar Ramji
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
natalia.s.riusech@nasa.gov / nilufar.ramji@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Mar 04, 2025 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) Artemis Earth's Moon Johnson Space Center Science Mission Directorate View the full article
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By NASA
3 Min Read NASA Successfully Acquires GPS Signals on Moon
An artist's concept of the Blue Ghost lunar lander receiving GNSS signals from Earth. Credits: NASA/Dave Ryan NASA and the Italian Space Agency made history on March 3, when the Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE) became the first technology demonstration to acquire and track Earth-based navigation signals on the Moon’s surface.
The LuGRE payload’s success in lunar orbit and on the surface indicates that signals from the GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) can be received and tracked at the Moon. These results mean NASA’s Artemis missions, or other exploration missions, could benefit from these signals to accurately and autonomously determine their position, velocity, and time. This represents a steppingstone to advanced navigation systems and services for the Moon and Mars.
An artist’s concept of the LuGRE payload on Blue Ghost and its three main records in transit to the Moon, in lunar orbit and on the Moon’s surface.NASA/Dave Ryan “On Earth we can use GNSS signals to navigate in everything from smartphones to airplanes,” said Kevin Coggins, deputy associate administrator for NASA’s SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation) Program. “Now, LuGRE shows us that we can successfully acquire and track GNSS signals at the Moon. This is a very exciting discovery for lunar navigation, and we hope to leverage this capability for future missions.”
This is a very exciting discovery for lunar navigation, and we hope to leverage this capability for future missions.
Kevin Coggins
Deputy Associate Administrator for NASA SCaN
The road to the historic milestone began on March 2 when the Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander touched down on the Moon and delivered LuGRE, one of 10 NASA payloads intended to advance lunar science. Soon after landing, LuGRE payload operators at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, began conducting their first science operation on the lunar surface.
Members from NASA and Italian Space Agency watching the Blue Ghost lunar lander touch down on the Moon. NASA With the receiver data flowing in, anticipation mounted. Could a Moon-based mission acquire and track signals from two GNSS constellations, GPS and Galileo, and use those signals for navigation on the lunar surface?
Then, at 2 a.m. EST on March 3, it was official: LuGRE acquired and tracked signals on the lunar surface for the first time ever and achieved a navigation fix — approximately 225,000 miles away from Earth.
Now that Blue Ghost is on the Moon, the mission will operate for 14 days providing NASA and the Italian Space Agency the opportunity to collect data in a near-continuous mode, leading to additional GNSS milestones. In addition to this record-setting achievement, LuGRE is the first Italian Space Agency developed hardware on the Moon, a milestone for the organization.
The LuGRE payload also broke GNSS records on its journey to the Moon. On Jan. 21, LuGRE surpassed the highest altitude GNSS signal acquisition ever recorded at 209,900 miles from Earth, a record formerly held by NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission. Its altitude record continued to climb as LuGRE reached lunar orbit on Feb. 20 — 243,000 miles from Earth. This means that missions in cislunar space, the area of space between Earth and the Moon, could also rely on GNSS signals for navigation fixes.
Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander captured its first sunrise on the Moon, marking the beginning of the lunar day and the start of surface operations in its new home. Firefly Aerospace Traditionally, NASA engineers track spacecraft by using a combination of measurements, including onboard sensors and signals from Earth-based tracking stations. The LuGRE payload demonstrates that using GNSS signals for navigation can reduce reliance on human operators because these signals can be picked up and used autonomously by the spacecraft, even as far away as the Moon.
The LuGRE payload is a collaborative effort between NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland and the Italian Space Agency. Funding and oversight for the LuGRE payload comes from NASA’s SCaN Program office. It was chosen by NASA as one of 10 funded research and technology demonstrations for delivery to the lunar surface by Firefly Aerospace Inc., a flight under the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative.
Learn more about LuGRE: https://go.nasa.gov/41qwwQN
The joint NASA and Italian Space Agency LuGRE team at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center NASA About the Author
Katherine Schauer
Katherine Schauer is a writer for the Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program office and covers emerging technologies, commercialization efforts, exploration activities, and more.
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Last Updated Mar 04, 2025 EditorGoddard Digital TeamContactKatherine Schauerkatherine.s.schauer@nasa.govLocationNASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
General Artemis Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) Communicating and Navigating with Missions Space Communications & Navigation Program Explore More
5 min read NASA and Italian Space Agency Test Future Lunar Navigation Technology
Article 2 months ago 3 min read NASA Delivers Hardware for Commercial Lunar Payload Mission
Article 2 years ago 5 min read NASA Moon Mission Set to Break Record in Navigation Signal Test
Article 3 years ago View the full article
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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 6 Min Read NASA’s Hubble Finds Kuiper Belt Duo May Be Trio
This artist’s concept depicts one of the possible scenarios for the 148780 Altjira system in the solar system’s Kuiper Belt. Credits:
NASA, ESA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI) The puzzle of predicting how three gravitationally bound bodies move in space has challenged mathematicians for centuries, and has most recently been popularized in the novel and television show “3 Body Problem.” There’s no problem, however, with what a team of researchers say is likely a stable trio of icy space rocks in the solar system’s Kuiper Belt, found using data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and the ground-based W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii.
If confirmed as the second such three-body system found in the region, the 148780 Altjira system suggests there could be similar triples waiting to be discovered, which would support a particular theory of our solar system’s history and the formation of Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs).
“The universe is filled with a range of three-body systems, including the closest stars to Earth, the Alpha Centauri star system, and we’re finding that the Kuiper Belt may be no exception,” said the study’s lead author Maia Nelsen, a physics and astronomy graduate of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.
Known since 1992, KBOs are primitive icy remnants from the early solar system found beyond the orbit of Neptune. To date, over 3,000 KBOs have been cataloged, and scientists estimate there could be several hundred thousand more that measure over 10 miles in diameter. The largest KBO is dwarf planet Pluto.
The Hubble finding is crucial support for a KBO formation theory, in which three small rocky bodies would not be the result of collision in a busy Kuiper Belt, but instead form as a trio directly from the gravitational collapse of matter in the disk of material surrounding the newly formed Sun, around 4.5 billion years ago. It’s well known that stars form by gravitational collapse of gas, commonly as pairs or triples, but that idea that cosmic objects like those in the Kuiper Belt form in a similar way is still under investigation.
This artist’s concept depicts one of the possible scenarios for the 148780 Altjira system in the solar system’s Kuiper Belt. It is likely a hierarchical triple formation, in which two very close companions are orbited by a third member at a greater distance. The inner bodies are too close together to be resolved by the Hubble Space Telescope. But Hubble observations of the orbit of the outermost object were used to determine that the central body is not a single spherical object. Other possibilities are that the inner object is a contact binary, where two separate bodies become so close they touch each other. Another idea is that the central body is oddly flat, like a pancake. Of the 40 identified binary objects in the Kuiper Belt, another system, Lempo, has been found to be a triple. The Altjira system is located in the outer reaches of the solar system, 3.7 billion miles away, or 44 times the distance between Earth and the Sun. In this artist’s concept, our Sun is in the constellation Sagittarius, with the Milky Way in the background. The bright red star Antares appears at the top center. Dust in the plane of our solar system glows as zodiacal light. NASA, ESA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI) The Altjira system is located in the outer reaches of the solar system, 3.7 billion miles away, or 44 times the distance between Earth and the Sun. Hubble images show two KBOs located about 4,700 miles (7,600 kilometers) apart. However, researchers say that repeated observations of the objects’ unique co-orbital motion indicate the inner object is actually two bodies that are so close together they can’t be distinguished at such a great distance.
“With objects this small and far away, the separation between the two inner members of the system is a fraction of a pixel on Hubble’s camera, so you have to use non-imaging methods to discover that it’s a triple,” said Nelsen.
This takes time and patience, Nelsen explained. Scientists have gathered a 17-year observational baseline of data from Hubble and the Keck Observatory, watching the orbit of the Altjira system’s outer object.
“Over time, we saw the orientation of the outer object’s orbit change, indicating that the inner object was either very elongated or actually two separate objects,” said Darin Ragozzine, also of Brigham Young University, a co-author of the Altjira study.
“A triple system was the best fit when we put the Hubble data into different modeling scenarios,” said Nelsen. “Other possibilities are that the inner object is a contact binary, where two separate bodies become so close they touch each other, or something that actually is oddly flat, like a pancake.”
Currently, there are about 40 identified binary objects in the Kuiper Belt. Now, with two of these systems likely triples, the researchers say it is more likely they are looking not at an oddball, but instead a population of three-body systems, formed by the same circumstances. However, building up that evidence takes time and repeated observations.
Recent research using data from the Keck Observatory and NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has revealed a potential three-body system in the Kuiper Belt, known as the Altjira system. This discovery challenges traditional collision theories by suggesting that these triple systems might form directly from the gravitational collapse of material in the early solar disk.
Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Center; Producer: Paul Morris The only Kuiper Belt objects that have been explored in detail are Pluto and the smaller object Arrokoth, which NASA’s New Horizons mission visited in 2015 and 2019, respectively. New Horizons showed that Arrokoth is a contact binary, which for KBOs means that two objects that have moved closer and closer to one another are now touching and/or have merged, often resulting in a peanut shape. Ragozzine describes Altjira as a “cousin” of Arrokoth, a member of the same group of Kuiper Belt objects. They estimate Altjira is 10 times larger than Arrokoth, however, at 124 miles (200 kilometers) wide.
While there is no mission planned to fly by Altjira to get Arrokoth-level detail, Nelsen said there is a different upcoming opportunity for further study of the intriguing system. “Altjira has entered an eclipsing season, where the outer body passes in front of the central body. This will last for the next ten years, giving scientists a great opportunity to learn more about it,” Nelsen said. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is also joining in on the study of Altjira as it will check if the components look the same in its upcoming Cycle 3 observations.
The Hubble study is published in The Planetary Science Journal.
The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, Colorado, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.
Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubble Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli (claire.andreoli@nasa.gov)
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland
Leah Ramsay
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Maryland
Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Maryland
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Last Updated Mar 04, 2025 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
Hubble Space Telescope Astrophysics Division Goddard Space Flight Center Planetary Science The Kuiper Belt Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From Hubble
Hubble Space Telescope
Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.
Uncovering Icy Objects in the Kuiper Belt
Hubble’s Night Sky Challenge
Reshaping Our Cosmic View: Hubble Science Highlights
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