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By NASA
5 Min Read NASA’s X-59 Moves Toward First Flight at Speed of Safety
NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft is seen at dawn with firetrucks and safety personnel nearby during a hydrazine safety check at U.S. Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, on Aug. 18, 2025. The operation highlights the extensive precautions built into the aircraft’s safety procedures for a system that serves as a critical safeguard, ensuring the engine can be restarted in flight as the X-59 prepares for its first flight. Credits: Lockheed Martin As NASA’s one-of-a-kind X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft approaches first flight, its team is mapping every step from taxi and takeoff to cruising and landing – and their decision-making is guided by safety.
First flight will be a lower-altitude loop at about 240 mph to check system integration, kicking off a phase of flight testing focused on verifying the aircraft’s airworthiness and safety. During subsequent test flights, the X-59 will go higher and faster, eventually exceeding the speed of sound. The aircraft is designed to fly supersonic while generating a quiet thump rather than a loud sonic boom.
To help ensure that first flight – and every flight after that – will begin and end safely, engineers have layered protection into the aircraft.
The X-59’s Flight Test Instrumentation System (FTIS) serves as one of its primary record keepers, collecting and transmitting audio, video, data from onboard sensors, and avionics information – all of which NASA will track across the life of the aircraft.
“We record 60 different streams of data with over 20,000 parameters on board,” said Shedrick Bessent, NASA X-59 instrumentation engineer. “Before we even take off, it’s reassuring to know the system has already seen more than 200 days of work.”
Through ground tests and system evaluations, the system has already generated more than 8,000 files over 237 days of recording. That record provides a detailed history that helps engineers verify the aircraft’s readiness for flight.
Maintainers perform a hydrazine safety check on the agency’s quiet supersonic X-59 aircraft at U.S. Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, on Aug. 18, 2025. Hydrazine is a highly toxic chemical, but it serves as a critical backup to restart the engine in flight, if necessary, and is one of several safety features being validated ahead of the aircraft’s first flight.Credits: Lockheed Martin “There’s just so much new technology on this aircraft, and if a system like FTIS can offer a bit of relief by showing us what’s working – with reliability and consistency – that reduces stress and uncertainty,” Bessent said. “I think that helps the project just as much as it helps our team.”
The aircraft also uses a digital fly-by-wire system that will keep the aircraft stable and limit unsafe maneuvers. First developed in the 1970s at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, digital fly-by-wire replaced how aircraft were flown, moving away from traditional cables and pulleys to computerized flight controls and actuators.
On the X-59, the pilot’s inputs – such as movement of the stick or throttle – are translated into electronic signals and decoded by a computer. Those signals are then sent through fiber-optic wires to the aircraft’s surfaces, like its wings and tail.
Additionally, the aircraft uses multiple computers that back each other up and keep the system operating. If one fails, another takes over. The same goes for electrical and hydraulic systems, which also have independent backup systems to ensure the aircraft can fly safely.
Onboard batteries back up the X-59’s hydraulic and electrical systems, with thermal batteries driving the electric pump that powers hydraulics. Backing up the engine is an emergency restart system that uses hydrazine, a highly reactive liquid fuel. In the unlikely event of a loss of power, the hydrazine system would restart the engine in flight. The system would help restore power so the pilot could stabilize or recover the aircraft.
Maintainers perform a hydrazine safety check on NASA’s quiet supersonic X-59 aircraft at U.S. Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, on Aug. 18, 2025. Hydrazine is a highly toxic chemical, but it serves as a critical backup to restart the engine in flight, if necessary, which is one of several safety features being validated ahead of the aircraft’s first flight. Credits: Lockheed Martin Protective Measures
Behind each of these systems is a team of engineers, technicians, safety and quality assurance experts, and others. The team includes a crew chief responsible for maintenance on the aircraft and ensuring the aircraft is ready for flight.
“I try to always walk up and shake the crew chief’s hand,” said Nils Larson, NASA X-59 lead test pilot. “Because it’s not your airplane – it’s the crew chief’s airplane – and they’re trusting you with it. You’re just borrowing it for an hour or two, then bringing it back and handing it over.”
Larson, set to serve as pilot for first flight, may only be borrowing the aircraft from the X-59’s crew chiefs – Matt Arnold from X-59 contractor Lockheed Martin and Juan Salazar from NASA – but plenty of the aircraft’s safety systems were designed specifically to protect the pilot in flight.
The X-59’s life support system is designed to deliver oxygen through the pilot’s mask to compensate for the decreased atmospheric pressure at the aircraft’s cruising altitude of 55,000 feet – altitudes more than twice as high as that of a typical airliner. In order to withstand high-altitude flight, Larson will also wear a counter-pressure garment, or g-suit, similar to what fighter pilots wear.
In the unlikely event it’s needed, the X-59 also features an ejection seat and canopy adapted from a U.S. Air Force T-38 trainer, which comes equipped with essentials like a first aid kit, radio, and water. Due to the design, build, and test rigor put into the X-59, the ejection seat is a safety measure.
All these systems form a network of safety, adding confidence to the pilot and engineers as they approach to the next milestone – first flight.
“There’s a lot of trust that goes into flying something new,” Larson said. “You’re trusting the engineers, the maintainers, the designers – everyone who has touched the aircraft. And if I’m not comfortable, I’m not getting in. But if they trust the aircraft, and they trust me in it, then I’m all in.”
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Last Updated Sep 12, 2025 EditorDede DiniusContactNicolas Cholulanicolas.h.cholula@nasa.govLocationArmstrong Flight Research Center Related Terms
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5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
A ship plows through rough seas in the Bering Sea in the aftermath of Typhoon Tip, one of the largest hurricanes on record. The Sentinel-6B satellite will provide data crucial to forecasting sea states, information that can help ships avoid danger. CC BY 2.0 NOAA/Commander Richard Behn Sea surface height data from the Sentinel-6B satellite, led by NASA and ESA, will help with the development of marine weather forecasts, alerting ships to possible dangers.
Because most global trade travels by ship, accurate, timely ocean forecasts are essential. These forecasts provide crucial information about storms, high winds, and rough water, and they depend on measurements provided by instruments in the ocean and by satellites including Sentinel-6B, a joint mission led by NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) that will provide essential sea level and other ocean data after it launches this November.
The satellite will eventually take over from its twin, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, which launched in 2020. Both satellites have an altimeter instrument that measures sea levels, wind speeds, and wave heights, among other characteristics, which meteorologists feed into models that produce marine weather forecasts. Those forecasts provide information on the state of the ocean as well as the changing locations of large currents like the Gulf Stream. Dangerous conditions can result when waves interact with such currents, putting ships at risk.
“Building on NASA’s long legacy of satellite altimetry data and its real-world impact on shipping operations, Sentinel-6B will soon take on the vital task of improving ocean and weather forecasts to help keep ships, their crews, and cargo safe”, said Nadya Vinogradova Shiffer, lead program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich and Sentinel-6B are part of the Sentinel-6/Jason-CS (Continuity of Service) mission, the latest in a series of ocean-observing radar altimetry missions that have monitored Earth’s changing seas since the early 1990s. Sentinel-6/Jason-CS is a collaboration between NASA, ESA, the European Union, EUMETSAT (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites), and NOAA (U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). The European Commission provided funding support, and the French space agency CNES (Centre National d’Études Spatiales) contributed technical support.
Keeping current
“The ocean is getting busier, but it’s also getting more dangerous,” said Avichal Mehra, deputy director of the Ocean Prediction Center at the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland. He and his colleagues produce marine weather forecasts using data from ocean-based instruments as well as complementary measurements from five satellites, including Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich. Among those measurements: sea level, wave height, and wind speed. The forecasters derive the location of large currents from changes in sea level.
One of the planet’s major currents, the Gulf Stream is located off the southeastern coast of the United States, but its exact position varies. “Ships will actually change course depending on where the Gulf Stream is and the direction of the waves,” said Mehra. “There have been instances where, in calm conditions, waves interacting with the Gulf Stream have caused damage or the loss of cargo containers on ships.”
Large, warm currents like the Gulf Stream can have relatively sharp boundaries since they are generally higher than their surroundings. Water expands as it warms, so warm seawater is taller than cooler water. If waves interact with these currents in a certain way, seas can become extremely rough, presenting a hazard to even the largest ships.
“Satellite altimeters are the only reliable measurement we have of where these big currents can be,” said Deirdre Byrne, sea surface height team lead at NOAA in College Park.
There are hundreds of floating sensors scattered about the ocean that could pick up parts of where such currents are located, but these instruments are widely dispersed and limited in the area they measure at any one time. Satellites like Sentinel-6B offer greater spatial coverage, measuring areas that aren’t regularly monitored and providing essential information for the forecasts that ships need.
Consistency is key
Sentinel-6B won’t just help marine weather forecasts through its near-real-time data, though. It will also extend a long-term dataset featuring more than 30 years of sea level measurements, just as Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich does today.
“Since 1992, we have launched a series of satellites that have provided consistent sea level observations from the same orbit in space. This continuity allows each new mission to be calibrated against its predecessors, providing measurements with centimeter-level accuracy that don’t drift over time,” said Severine Fournier, Sentinel-6B deputy project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
This long-running, repeated measurement has turned this dataset into the gold standard sea level measurement from space — a reference against which data from other sea level satellites is checked. It also serves as a baseline, giving forecasters a way to tell what ocean conditions have looked like over time and how they are changing now. “This kind of data can’t be easily replaced,” said Mehra.
More about Sentinel-6B
Sentinel-6/Jason-CS was jointly developed by ESA, EUMETSAT, NASA, and NOAA, with funding support from the European Commission and technical support from CNES.
A division of Caltech in Pasadena, JPL contributed three science instruments for each Sentinel-6 satellite: the Advanced Microwave Radiometer, the Global Navigation Satellite System – Radio Occultation, and the Laser Retroreflector Array. NASA is also contributing launch services, ground systems supporting operation of the NASA science instruments, the science data processors for two of these instruments, and support for the U.S. members of the international Ocean Surface Topography and Sentinel-6 science teams.
For more about Sentinel-6/Jason-CS, visit:
https://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/jason-cs-sentinel-6
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Jane J. Lee / Andrew Wang
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
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jane.j.lee@jpl.nasa.gov / andrew.wang@jpl.nasa.gov
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Last Updated Sep 11, 2025 Related Terms
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By NASA
Artemis II NASA astronauts (left to right) Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen stand in the white room on the crew access arm of the mobile launcher at Launch Pad 39B as part of an integrated ground systems test at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. The test ensures the ground systems team is ready to support the crew timeline on launch day.NASA/Frank Michaux With Artemis II, NASA is taking the science of living and working in space beyond low Earth orbit. While the test flight will help confirm the systems and hardware needed for human deep space exploration, the crew also will be serving as both scientists and volunteer research subjects, completing a suite of experiments that will allow NASA to better understand how human health may change in deep space environments. Results will help the agency build future interventions, protocols, and preventative measures to best protect astronauts on future missions to the lunar surface and to Mars.
Science on Artemis II will include seven main research areas:
ARCHeR: Artemis Research for Crew Health and Readiness
NASA’s Artemis II mission provides an opportunity to explore how deep space travel affects sleep, stress, cognition, and teamwork — key factors in astronaut health and performance. While these effects are well-documented in low Earth orbit, they’ve never been fully studied during lunar missions.
Artemis II astronauts will wear wristband devices that continuously monitor movement and sleep patterns throughout the mission. The data will be used for real-time health monitoring and safety assessments, while pre- and post-flight evaluations will provide deeper insights into cognition, behavior, sleep quality, and teamwork in the unique environment of deep space and the Orion spacecraft.
The findings from the test flight will inform future mission planning and crew support systems, helping NASA optimize human performance for the next era of exploration on the Moon and Mars.
Immune Biomarkers
Saliva provides a unique window into how the human immune system functions in a deep space environment. Tracing changes in astronauts’ saliva from before, during, and after the mission will enable researchers to investigate how the human body responds to deep space in unprecedented ways.
Dry saliva will be collected before, during, and after the mission. It will be blotted onto specialized paper in pocket-sized booklets since equipment needed to preserve wet spit samples in space – including refrigeration – will not be available due to volume constraints. To augment that information, liquid saliva and blood samples will be collected before and after the mission.
NASA Astronaut Randy Bresnik prepares to collect a dry saliva sample aboard the International Space Station. The process, which helps scientists investigate how the immune system is affected by spaceflight and will be part of the Artemis II mission, involves blotting saliva onto special paper that’s stored in pocket-sized booklets.Credit: NASA With these wet and dry saliva samples, scientists will gain insights into how the astronauts’ immune systems are affected by the increased stresses of radiation, isolation, and distance from Earth during their deep space flight. They also will examine whether otherwise dormant viruses are reactivated in space, as has been seen previously on the International Space Station with viruses that can cause chickenpox and shingles.
The information gathered from this study, when combined with data from other missions, will help researchers develop ways to keep crew members safe and healthy as we explore farther and travel for longer periods on deep space missions.
AVATAR: A Virtual Astronaut Tissue Analog Response
AVATAR is another important component of NASA’s strategy to gain a holistic understanding of how the deep space environment affects humans. Scientists plan to use organ-on-a-chip technology during Artemis II, marking the first time these devices will be used beyond the Van Allen belts.
Roughly the size of a USB thumb drive, the chips will measure how individual astronauts respond to deep space stressors, including extreme radiation and microgravity. The organ chips will contain cells developed from preflight blood donations provided by crew members to create miniature stand-ins, or “avatars,” of their bone marrow. Bone marrow plays a vital role in the immune system and is particularly sensitive to radiation, which is why scientists selected it for this study.
An organ chip for conducting bone marrow experiments in space. Credit: Emulate
A key goal for this research is to validate whether organ chips can serve as accurate tools for measuring and predicting human responses to stressors. To evaluate this, scientists will compare AVATAR data with space station findings, as well as with samples taken from the crew before and after flight.
AVATAR could inform measures to ensure crew health on future deep space missions, including personalizing medical kits to each astronaut. For citizens on Earth, it could lead to advancements in individualized treatments for diseases such as cancer.
AVATAR is a demonstration of the power of public-private partnerships. It’s a collaboration between government agencies and commercial space companies: NASA, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences within the National Institutes of Health, Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, Space Tango, and Emulate.
Artemis II Standard Measures
The crew also will become the first astronauts in deep space to participate in the Spaceflight Standard Measures study, an investigation that’s been collecting data from participating crew members aboard the space station and elsewhere since 2018. The study aims to collect a comprehensive snapshot of astronauts’ bodies and minds by gathering a consistent set of core measurements of physiological response.
The crew will provide biological samples including blood, urine, and saliva for evaluating nutritional status, cardiovascular health, and immunological function starting about six months before their launch. The crew also will participate in tests and surveys evaluating balance, vestibular function, muscle performance, changes in their microbiome, as well as ocular and brain health. While in space, data gathering will include an assessment of motion sickness symptoms. After landing, there will be additional tests of head, eye, and body movements, among other functional performance tasks. Data collection will continue for a month after their return.
All this information will be available for scientists interested in studying the effects of spaceflight via request to NASA’s Life Sciences Data Archive. The results from this work could lead to future interventions, technologies, and studies that help predict the adaptability of crews on a Mars mission.
Radiation Sensors Inside Orion
During the uncrewed Artemis I mission, Orion was blanketed in 5,600 passive and 34 active radiation sensors. The information they gathered assured researchers Orion’s design can provide protection for crew members from hazardous radiation levels during lunar missions. That doesn’t mean that scientists don’t want more information, however.
Similar to Artemis I, six active radiation sensors, collectively called the Hybrid Electronic Radiation Assessors, will be deployed at various locations inside the Orion crew module. Crew also will wear dosimeters in their pockets. These sensors will provide warnings of hazardous radiation levels caused by space weather events made by the Sun. If necessary, this data will be used by mission control to drive decisions for the crew to build a shelter to protect from radiation exposure due to space weather.
Additionally, NASA has again partnered the German Space Agency DLR for an updated model of their M-42 sensor – an M-42 EXT – for Artemis II. The new version offers six times more resolution to distinguish between different types of energy, compared to the Artemis I version. This will allow it to accurately measure the radiation exposure from heavy ions which are thought to be particularly hazardous for radiation risk. Artemis II will carry four of the monitors, affixed at points around the cabin by the crew.
Collectively, sensor data will paint a full picture of radiation exposures inside Orion and provide context for interpreting the results of the ARCHeR, AVATAR, Artemis II Standard Measures, and Immune Biomarkers experiments.
Lunar Observations Campaign
The Artemis II crew will take advantage of their location to explore the Moon from above. As the first humans to see the lunar surface up close since 1972, they’ll document their observations through photographs and audio recordings to inform scientists’ understanding of the Moon and share their experience of being far from Earth. It’s possible the crew could be the first humans to see certain areas of the Moon’s far side, though this will depend on the time and date of launch, which will affect which areas of the Moon will be illuminated and therefore visible when the spacecraft flies by.
Spacecraft such as NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter have been surveying and mapping the Moon for decades, but Artemis II provides a unique opportunity for humans to evaluate the lunar surface from above. Human eyes and brains are highly sensitive to subtle changes in color, texture, and other surface characteristics. Having the crew observe the lunar surface directly – equipped with questions that scientists didn’t even know to ask during Apollo missions – could form the basis for future scientific investigations into the Moon’s geological history, the lunar environment, or new impact sites.
This visualization simulates what the crew of Artemis II might see out the Orion windows on the day of their closest approach to the Moon. It compresses 36 hours into a little more than a minute as it flies the virtual camera on a realistic trajectory that swings the spacecraft around the Moon’s far side. This sample trajectory is timed so that the far side is fully illuminated when the astronauts fly by, but other lighting conditions are possible depending on the exact Artemis II launch date. The launch is scheduled for no later than April of 2026. NASA Goddard/Ernie Wright
It will also offer the first opportunity for an Artemis mission to integrate science flight control operations. From their console in the flight control room in mission control, a science officer will consult with a team of scientists with expertise in impact cratering, volcanism, tectonism, and lunar ice, to provide real-time data analysis and guidance to the Artemis II crew in space. During the mission, the lunar science team will be located in mission control’s Science Evaluation Room at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Lessons learned during Artemis II will pave the way for lunar science operations on future missions.
CubeSats
Several additional experiments are hitching a ride to space onboard Artemis II in the form of CubeSats – shoe-box-sized technology demonstrations and scientific experiments. Though separate from the objectives of the Artemis II mission, they may enhance understanding of the space environment.
Technicians install the Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA) K-Rad Cube within the Orion stage adapter inside the Multi-Payload Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025. The K-Rad Cube, about the size of a shoebox, is one of the CubeSats slated to fly on NASA’s Artemis II test flight in 2026. Credit: NASA Four international space agencies have signed agreements to send CubeSats into space aboard the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket, each with their own objectives. All will be released from an adapter on the SLS upper stage into a high-Earth orbit, where they will conduct an orbital maneuver to reach their desired orbit.
ATENEA – Argentina’s Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales will collect data on radiation doses across various shielding methods, measure the radiation spectrum around Earth, collect GPS data to help optimize future mission design, and validate a long-range communications link.
K-Rad Cube – The Korea Aerospace Administration will use a dosimeter made of material designed to mimic human tissue to measure space radiation and assess biological effects at various altitudes across the Van Allen radiation belt.
Space Weather CubeSat – The Saudi Space Agency will measure aspects of space weather, including radiation, solar X-rays, solar energetic particles, and magnetic fields, at a range of distances from Earth.
TACHELES – The Germany Space Agency DLR will collect measurements on the effects of the space environment on electrical components to inform technologies for lunar vehicles.
Together, these research areas will inform plans for future missions within NASA’s Artemis campaign. Through Artemis, NASA will send astronauts to explore the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and build the foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars.
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By NASA
Explore Webb Science James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) NASA’s Webb Observes Immense… Webb News Latest News Latest Images Webb’s Blog Awards X (offsite – login reqd) Instagram (offsite – login reqd) Facebook (offsite- login reqd) Youtube (offsite) Overview About Who is James Webb? Fact Sheet Impacts+Benefits FAQ Webb Timeline Science Overview and Goals Early Universe Galaxies Over Time Star Lifecycle Other Worlds Science Explainers Observatory Overview Launch Deployment Orbit Mirrors Sunshield Instrument: NIRCam Instrument: MIRI Instrument: NIRSpec Instrument: FGS/NIRISS Optical Telescope Element Backplane Spacecraft Bus Instrument Module Multimedia About Webb Images Images Videos What is Webb Observing? 3d Webb in 3d Solar System Podcasts Webb Image Sonifications Webb’s First Images Team International Team People Of Webb More For the Media For Scientists For Educators For Fun/Learning 6 Min Read NASA’s Webb Observes Immense Stellar Jet on Outskirts of Our Milky Way
Webb’s image of the enormous stellar jet in Sh2-284 provides evidence that protostellar jets scale with the mass of their parent stars—the more massive the stellar engine driving the plasma, the larger the resulting jet. Full image shown below. Credits:
Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Yu Cheng (NAOJ); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI) A blowtorch of seething gasses erupting from a volcanically growing monster star has been captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Stretching across 8 light-years, the length of the stellar eruption is approximately twice the distance between our Sun and the next nearest stars, the Alpha Centauri system. The size and strength of this particular stellar jet, located in a nebula known as Sharpless 2-284 (Sh2-284 for short), qualifies it as rare, say researchers.
Streaking across space at hundreds of thousands of miles per hour, the outflow resembles a double-bladed dueling lightsaber from the Star Wars films. The central protostar, weighing as much as ten of our Suns, is located 15,000 light-years away in the outer reaches of our galaxy.
The Webb discovery was serendipitous. “We didn’t really know there was a massive star with this kind of super-jet out there before the observation. Such a spectacular outflow of molecular hydrogen from a massive star is rare in other regions of our galaxy,” said lead author Yu Cheng of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.
Image A: Stellar Jet in Sh2-284 (NIRCam Image)
Webb’s image of the enormous stellar jet in Sh2-284 provides evidence that protostellar jets scale with the mass of their parent stars—the more massive the stellar engine driving the plasma, the larger the resulting jet. Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Yu Cheng (NAOJ); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI) This unique class of stellar fireworks are highly collimated jets of plasma shooting out from newly forming stars. Such jetted outflows are a star’s spectacular “birth announcement” to the universe. Some of the infalling gas building up around the central star is blasted along the star’s spin axis, likely under the influence of magnetic fields.
Today, while hundreds of protostellar jets have been observed, these are mainly from low-mass stars. These spindle-like jets offer clues into the nature of newly forming stars. The energetics, narrowness, and evolutionary time scales of protostellar jets all serve to constrain models of the environment and physical properties of the young star powering the outflow.
“I was really surprised at the order, symmetry, and size of the jet when we first looked at it,” said co-author Jonathan Tan of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Its detection offers evidence that protostellar jets must scale up with the mass of the star powering them. The more massive the stellar engine propelling the plasma, the larger the gusher’s size.
The jet’s detailed filamentary structure, captured by Webb’s crisp resolution in infrared light, is evidence the jet is plowing into interstellar dust and gas. This creates separate knots, bow shocks, and linear chains.
The tips of the jet, lying in opposite directions, encapsulate the history of the star’s formation. “Originally the material was close into the star, but over 100,000 years the tips were propagating out, and then the stuff behind is a younger outflow,” said Tan.
Outlier
At nearly twice the distance from the galactic center as our Sun, the host proto-cluster that’s home to the voracious jet is on the periphery of our Milky Way galaxy.
Within the cluster, a few hundred stars are still forming. Being in the galactic hinterlands means the stars are deficient in heavier elements beyond hydrogen and helium. This is measured as metallicity, which gradually increases over cosmic time as each passing stellar generation expels end products of nuclear fusion through winds and supernovae. The low metallicity of Sh2-284 is a reflection of its relatively pristine nature, making it a local analog for the environments in the early universe that were also deficient in heavier elements.
“Massive stars, like the one found inside this cluster, have very important influences on the evolution of galaxies. Our discovery is shedding light on the formation mechanism of massive stars in low metallicity environments, so we can use this massive star as a laboratory to study what was going on in earlier cosmic history,” said Cheng.
Unrolling Stellar Tapestry
Stellar jets, which are powered by the gravitational energy released as a star grows in mass, encode the formation history of the protostar.
“Webb’s new images are telling us that the formation of massive stars in such environments could proceed via a relatively stable disk around the star that is expected in theoretical models of star formation known as core accretion,” said Tan. “Once we found a massive star launching these jets, we realized we could use the Webb observations to test theories of massive star formation. We developed new theoretical core accretion models that were fit to the data, to basically tell us what kind of star is in the center. These models imply that the star is about 10 times the mass of the Sun and is still growing and has been powering this outflow.”
For more than 30 years, astronomers have disagreed about how massive stars form. Some think a massive star requires a very chaotic process, called competitive accretion.
In the competitive accretion model, material falls in from many different directions so that the orientation of the disk changes over time. The outflow is launched perpendicularly, above and below the disk, and so would also appear to twist and turn in different directions.
“However, what we’ve seen here, because we’ve got the whole history – a tapestry of the story – is that the opposite sides of the jets are nearly 180 degrees apart from each other. That tells us that this central disk is held steady and validates a prediction of the core accretion theory,” said Tan.
Where there’s one massive star, there could be others in this outer frontier of the Milky Way. Other massive stars may not yet have reached the point of firing off Roman-candle-style outflows. Data from the Atacama Large Millimeter Array in Chile, also presented in this study, has found another dense stellar core that could be in an earlier stage of construction.
The paper has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
To learn more about Webb, visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/webb
Related Information
View more: Webb images of other protostar outflows – HH 49/50, L483, HH 46/47, and HH 211
View more: Data visualization of protostar outflows – HH 49/50
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Related Images & Videos
Stellar Jet in Sh2-284 (NIRCam Image)
Webb’s image of the enormous stellar jet in Sh2-284 provides evidence that protostellar jets scale with the mass of their parent stars–the more massive the stellar engine driving the plasma, the larger the resulting jet.
Stellar Jet in Sh2-284 (NIRCam Compass Image)
This image of the stellar jet in Sh2-284, captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera), shows compass arrows, scale bar, and color key for reference.
Immense Stellar Jet in Sh2-284
This video shows the relative size of two different protostellar jets imaged by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. The first image shown is an extremely large protostellar jet located in Sh2-284, 15,000 light-years away from Earth. The outflows from the massive central prot…
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Last Updated Sep 10, 2025 Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Contact Media Laura Betz
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
laura.e.betz@nasa.gov
Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute
Baltimore, Maryland
Christine Pulliam
Space Telescope Science Institute
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By NASA
NASA Stennis Buffer ZoneNASA / Stennis NASA’s Stennis Space Center is widely known for rocket propulsion testing, especially to support the NASA Artemis program to send astronauts to the Moon to prepare for future human exploration of Mars.
What may not be so widely known is that the site also is a unique federal city, home to more than 50 federal, state, academic, and commercial tenants and serving as both a model of government efficiency and a powerful economic engine for its region.
“NASA Stennis is a remarkable story of vision and innovation,” Center Director John Bailey said. “That was the case 55 years ago when the NASA Stennis federal city was born, and it remains the case today as we collaborate and grow to meet the needs of a changing aerospace world.”
Apollo Years
Nearly four years after its first Saturn V stage test, NASA’s Stennis Space Center faced a crossroads to the future. Indeed, despite its frontline role in supporting NASA’s Apollo lunar effort, it was not at all certain a viable future awaited the young rocket propulsion test site.
In 1961, NASA announced plans to build a sprawling propulsion test site in south Mississippi to support Apollo missions to the Moon. The news was a significant development for the sparsely populated Gulf Coast area.
The new site, located near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, conducted its first hot fire of a Saturn V rocket stage in April 1966. Saturn V testing progressed steadily during the next years. In fall 1969, however, NASA announced an end to Apollo-related testing, leading to an existential crisis for the young test site.
What was to become of NASA Stennis?
An Expanded Vision
Some observers speculated the location would close or be reduced to caretaker status, with minimal staffing. Either scenario would deliver a serious blow to the families who had re-located to make way for the site and the local communities who had heavily invested in municipal projects to support the influx of workforce personnel.
Such outcomes also would run counter to assurances provided by leaders that the new test site would benefit its surrounding region and involve area residents in “something great.”
For NASA Stennis manager Jackson Balch and others, such a result was unacceptable. Anticipating the crisis, Balch had been working behind the scenes to communicate – and realize – the vision of a multiagency site supporting a range of scientific and technological tenants and missions.
A Pivotal Year
The months following the Saturn V testing announcement were filled with discussions and planning to ensure the future of NASA Stennis. The efforts began to come to fruition in 1970 with key developments:
In early 1970, NASA Administrator Thomas Paine proposed locating a regional environmental center at NASA Stennis. U.S. Sen. John C. Stennis (Mississippi) responded with a message of the president, “urgently requesting” that a National Earth Resources and Environmental Data Program be established at the site. In May 1970, President Richard Nixon offered assurances that an Earth Resources Laboratory would be established at NASA Stennis and that at least two agencies are preparing to locate operations at the site. U.S. congressional leaders earmarked $10 million to enable the location of an Earth Resources Laboratory at NASA Stennis. On July 9, 1970, the U.S. Coast Guard’s National Data Buoy Project (now the National Data Buoy Center) announced it was relocating to NASA Stennis, making it the first federal city tenant. The project arrived onsite two months later on September 9. On Sept. 9, 1970, NASA officially announced establishment of an Earth Resources Laboratory at NASA Stennis. Time to Grow
By the end of 1970, Balch’s vision was taking shape, but it needed time to grow. The final Saturn V test had been conducted in October – with no new campaign scheduled.
A possibility was on the horizon, however. NASA was building a reusable space shuttle vehicle. It would be powered by the most sophisticated rocket engine ever designed – and the agency needed a place to conduct developmental and flight testing expected to last for decades.
Three sites vied for the assignment. Following presentations and evaluations, NASA announced its selection on March 1, 1971. Space shuttle engine testing would be conducted at NASA Stennis, providing time for the location to grow.
A Collaborative Model
By the spring of 1973, preparations for the space shuttle test campaign were progressing and NASA Stennis was on its way to realizing the federal city vision. Sixteen agencies and universities were now located at NASA Stennis.
The resident tenants followed a shared model in which they shared in the cost of basic site services, such as medical, security, and fire protection. The shared model freed up more funding for the tenants to apply towards innovation and assigned mission work. It was a model of government collaboration and efficiency.
As the site grew, leaders then began to call for it to be granted independent status within NASA, a development not long in coming. On June 14, 1974, just more than a decade after site construction began, NASA Administrator James Fletcher announced the south Mississippi location would be renamed National Space Technology Laboratories and would enjoy equal, independent status alongside other NASA centers.
“Something Great”
For NASA Stennis leaders and supporters, independent status represented a milestone moment in their effort to ensure NASA Stennis delivered on its promise of greatness.
There still were many developments to come, including the first space shuttle main engine test and the subsequent 34-year test campaign, the arrival and growth of the U.S. Navy into the predominant resident presence onsite, the renaming of the center to NASA Stennis, and the continued growth of the federal city.
No one could have imagined it all at the time. However, even in this period of early development, one thing was clear – the future lay ahead, and NASA Stennis was on its way.
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Last Updated Sep 09, 2025 EditorNASA Stennis CommunicationsContactC. Lacy Thompsoncalvin.l.thompson@nasa.gov / (228) 688-3333LocationStennis Space Center Related Terms
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