BREAKING NEWS
NASA to Cover Two Spacewalks, Hold Preview News Conference
Two NASA astronauts will venture outside the International Space Station, conducting U.S. spacewalk 91 on Thursday, Jan. 16, and U.S. spacewalk 92 on Thursday, Jan. 23, to complete station upgrades.
NASA also will discuss the pair of upcoming spacewalks during a news conference at 2 p.m. EST Friday, Jan. 10, on NASA+ from the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Participants in the news conference from NASA Johnson include:
- Bill Spetch, operations integration manager
- Nicole McElroy, spacewalk flight director
The first spacewalk is scheduled to begin at 7 a.m. on Jan. 16, and last about six and a half hours. NASA will provide live coverage beginning at 5:30 a.m. on NASA+.
NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Suni Williams will replace a rate gyro assembly that helps provide orientation control for the station, install patches to cover damaged areas of light filters for an X-ray telescope called NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer), and replace a reflector device used for navigational data on one of the international docking adapters. Additionally, the pair will check access areas and connector tools that will be used for future maintenance work on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer.
Hague will serve as spacewalk crew member 1 and will wear a suit with red stripes. Williams will serve as spacewalk crew member 2 and will wear an unmarked suit. This will be the fourth for Hague and the eighth for Williams. It will be the 273rd spacewalk in support of space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.
The second spacewalk is scheduled to begin at 7 a.m. on Jan. 23, and last about six and a half hours. NASA will provide live coverage beginning at 5:30 a.m. on NASA+.
Astronauts will remove a radio frequency group antenna assembly from the station’s truss, collect samples of surface material for analysis from the Destiny laboratory and the Quest airlock to see whether microorganisms may exist on the exterior of the orbital complex, and prepare a spare elbow joint for the Canadarm2 robotic arm in the event it is needed for a replacement.
Following completion of U.S. spacewalk 91, NASA will name the participating crew members for U.S. spacewalk 92. It will be the 274th spacewalk in support of space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.
NASA Ames Astrogram- highlights from NASA Ames Research Center in 2024
December 20th, 2024
As NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley enters its 85th year since its founding, join us as we take a look back at some of our highlights of science, engineering, research, and innovation from 2024.
Ames Arc Jets Play Key Role in Artemis I Orion Spacecraft Heat Shield Findings
Researchers at Ames were part of the team tasked to better understand and identify the root cause of the unexpected char loss across the Artemis I Orion spacecraft’s heat shield. Using Avcoat material response data from Artemis I, the investigation team was able to replicate the Artemis I entry trajectory environment — a key part of understanding the cause of the issue — inside the arc jet facilities at NASA Ames.
Starling Swarm Completes Primary Mission
After ten months in orbit, the Starling spacecraft swarm successfully demonstrated its primary mission’s key objectives, representing significant achievements in the capability of swarm configurations in low Earth orbit, including distributing and sharing important information and autonomous decision making.
Another Step Forward for BioNutrients
NASA’s BioNutrients entered its fifth year in its mission to investigate how microorganisms can produce on-demand nutrients for astronauts during long-duration space missions. Keeping astronauts healthy is critical and as the project comes to a close, researchers have processed production packs on Earth on the same day astronauts processed production packs in space on the International Space Station to demonstrate that NASA can produce nutrients after at least five years in space, providing confidence it will be capable of supporting crewed missions to Mars.
Hyperwall Upgrade Helps Scientists Interpret Big Data
Ames upgraded its powerful hyperwall system, a 300-square foot wall of LCD screens with over a billion pixels to display supercomputer-scale visualizations of the very large datasets produced by NASA supercomputers and instruments. The hyperwall is just one-way researchers can utilize NASA’s high-end computing technology to better understand their data and advance the agency’s missions and research.
Ames Contributions to NASA Artificial Intelligence Efforts
Ames contributes to the agency’s artificial intelligence work through ongoing research and development, agencywide collaboration, and communications efforts. This year, NASA announced David Salvagnini as its inaugural chief artificial intelligence officer and held the first agencywide town hall on artificial intelligence sharing how the agency is safely using and developing artificial intelligence to advance missions and research.
Advanced Composite Solar Sail System Successfully Launches, Deploys Sail
NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System successfully launched from Māhia, New Zealand, in April, and successfully deployed its sail in August to begin mission operations. The small satellite represents a new future in solar sailing, using lightweight composite booms to support a reflective polymer sail that uses the pressure of sunlight as propulsion.
Understanding Our Planet
In 2024, Ames researchers studied Earth’s oceans and waterways from multiple angles – from supporting NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem, or PACE, mission to bringing students in Puerto Rico experiences in oceanography and the preservation of coral reefs. Working with multiple partners, our scientists and engineers helped inform ecosystem management by joining satellite measurements of Earth with animal tracking data. In collaboration with the U.S. Geological Survey, a NASA team continued testing a specialized instrument package to stay in-the-know about changes in river flow rates.
Revealing the Mysteries of Asteroids in Our Solar System
Ames researchers used a series of supercomputer simulations to reveal a potential new explanation for how the moons of Mars may have formed: The first step, the findings say, may have involved the destruction of an asteroid.
Using NASA’s powerful James Webb Space Telescope, another Ames scientist helped reveal the smallest asteroids ever found in the main asteroid belt.
Ames Helps Emerging Space Companies ‘Take the Heat’
A heat shield material invented and made at Ames helped to safely return a spacecraft containing the first product processed on an autonomous, free-flying, in-space manufacturing platform. February’s re-entry of the spacecraft from Varda Space Industries of El Segundo, California, in partnership with Rocket Lab USA of Long Beach, California, marked the first time a NASA-manufactured thermal protection material, called C-PICA (Conformal Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator), ever returned from space.
Team Continues to Move Forward with Mission to Learn More about Our Star
HelioSwarm’s swarm of nine spacecraft will provide deeper insights into our universe and offer critical information to help protect astronauts, satellites, and communications signals such as GPS. The mission team continues to work toward launching in 2029.
CAPSTONE Continues to Chart a New Path Around the Moon
The microwave sized CubeSat, CAPSTONE, continues to fly in a cis-lunar near rectilinear halo orbit after launching in 2022. Flying in this unique orbit continues to pave the way for future spacecraft and Gateway, a Moon-orbiting outpost that is part of NASA’s Artemis campaign, as the team continues to collect data.
NASA Moves Drone Package Delivery Industry Closer to Reality
NASA’s uncrewed aircraft system traffic management concepts paved the way for newly-approved package delivery drone flights in the Dallas area.
NASA’s uncrewed aircraft system traffic management concepts paved the way for newly-approved package delivery drone flights in the Dallas area.
NASA Technologies Streamline Air Traffic Management Systems
Managing our busy airspace is a complex and important issue, ensuring reliable and efficient movement of commercial and public air traffic as well as autonomous vehicles. NASA, in partnership with AeroVironment and Aerostar, demonstrated a first-of-its-kind air traffic management concept that could pave the way for aircraft to safely operate at higher altitudes. The agency also saw continued fuel savings and reduction in commercial flight delays at Dallas Fort-Worth Airport, thanks to a NASA-developed tool that allows flight coordinators to identify more efficient, alternative takeoff routes.
Small Spacecraft Gathers Big Solar Storm Data from Deep Space
BioSentinel – a small satellite about the size of a cereal box – is currently more than 30 million miles from Earth, orbiting our Sun. After launching aboard NASA’s Artemis I more than two years ago, BioSentinel continues to collect valuable information for scientists trying to understand how solar radiation storms move through space and where their effects – and potential impacts on life beyond Earth – are most intense. In May 2024, the satellite was exposed to a coronal mass ejection without the protection of our planet’s magnetic field and gathered measurements of hazardous solar particles in deep space during a solar storm.
NASA, FAA Partner to Develop New Wildland Fire Technologies
NASA researchers continued to develop and test airspace management technologies to enable remotely-piloted aircraft to fight and monitor wildland fires 24 hours a day.
The Advanced Capabilities for Emergency Response Operations (ACERO) project seeks to use drones and advanced aviation technologies to improve wildland fire coordination and operations.
NASA and Forest Service Use Balloon to Help Firefighters Communicate
The Strategic Tactical Radio and Tactical Overwatch (STRATO) technology is a collaborative effort to use high-altitude balloons to improve real-time communications among firefighters battling wildland fires. Providing cellular communication from above can improve firefighter safety and firefighting efficiency.
A Fully Reimagined Visitor Center
The NASA Ames Visitor Center at Chabot Space & Science Center in Oakland, California includes a fully reimagined 360-degree experience, featuring new exhibits, models, and more. An interactive exhibit puts visitors in the shoes of a NASA Ames scientist, designing and testing rovers, planes, and robots for space exploration.
Ames Collaborations in the Community
NASA astronauts, scientists, and researchers, and leadership from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) met with cancer patients and gathered in a discussion about potential research opportunities and collaborations as part of President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden’s Cancer Moonshot initiative on Oct. 4. During the visit with patients, NASA astronaut Yvonne Cagle and former astronaut Kenneth Cockrell answered questions about spaceflight and life in space.
Ames and the University of California, Berkeley, expanded their partnership, organizing workshops to exchange on their areas of technical expertise, including in Advanced Air Mobility, and to develop ideas for the Berkeley Space Center, an innovation hub proposed for development at Ames’ NASA Research Park. Under a new agreement, NASA also will host supercomputing resources for UC Berkeley, supporting the development of novel computing algorithms and software for a wide variety of scientific and technology areas.
NASA’s Ames Research Center Celebrates 85 Years of Innovation
by Rachel Hoover
Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley pre-dates a lot of things. The center existed before NASA – the very space and aeronautics agency it’s a critical part of today. And of all the marvelous advancements in science and technology that have fundamentally changed our lives over the last 85 years since its founding, one aspect has remained steadfast; an enduring commitment to what’s known by some on-center simply as, “an atmosphere of freedom.”
NASA’s Webb Finds Planet-Forming Disks Lived Longer in Early Universe
December 16th, 2024
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope just solved a conundrum by proving a controversial finding made with the agency’s Hubble Space Telescope more than 20 years ago.
In 2003, Hubble provided evidence of a massive planet around a very old star, almost as old as the universe. Such stars possess only small amounts of heavier elements that are the building blocks of planets. This implied that some planet formation happened when our universe was very young, and those planets had time to form and grow big inside their primordial disks, even bigger than Jupiter. But how? This was puzzling.
To answer this question, researchers used Webb to study stars in a nearby galaxy that, much like the early universe, lacks large amounts of heavy elements. They found that not only do some stars there have planet-forming disks, but that those disks are longer-lived than those seen around young stars in our Milky Way galaxy.
“With Webb, we have a really strong confirmation of what we saw with Hubble, and we must rethink how we model planet formation and early evolution in the young universe,” said study leader Guido De Marchi of the European Space Research and Technology Centre in Noordwijk, Netherlands.
A Different Environment in Early Times
In the early universe, stars formed from mostly hydrogen and helium, and very few heavier elements such as carbon and iron, which came later through supernova explosions.
“Current models predict that with so few heavier elements, the disks around stars have a short lifetime, so short in fact that planets cannot grow big,” said the Webb study’s co-investigator Elena Sabbi, chief scientist for Gemini Observatory at the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab in Tucson. "But Hubble did see those planets, so what if the models were not correct and disks could live longer?"
To test this idea, scientists trained Webb on the Small Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy that is one of the Milky Way’s nearest neighbors. In particular, they examined the massive, star-forming cluster NGC 346, which also has a relative lack of heavier elements. The cluster served as a nearby proxy for studying stellar environments with similar conditions in the early, distant universe.
Hubble observations of NGC 346 from the mid 2000s revealed many stars about 20 to 30 million years old that seemed to still have planet-forming disks around them. This went against the conventional belief that such disks would dissipate after 2 or 3 million years.
“The Hubble findings were controversial, going against not only empirical evidence in our galaxy but also against the current models,” said De Marchi. “This was intriguing, but without a way to obtain spectra of those stars, we could not really establish whether we were witnessing genuine accretion and the presence of disks, or just some artificial effects.”
Now, thanks to Webb’s sensitivity and resolution, scientists have the first-ever spectra of forming, Sun-like stars and their immediate environments in a nearby galaxy.
“We see that these stars are indeed surrounded by disks and are still in the process of gobbling material, even at the relatively old age of 20 or 30 million years,” said De Marchi. “This also implies that planets have more time to form and grow around these stars than in nearby star-forming regions in our own galaxy.”
Image B: Protoplanetary Disks in NGC 346 Spectra (NIRSpec)
On the right is the comparison of the top and bottom lines. This comparison shows a large peak in the cold molecular hydrogen coming from the star but not its nebular environment. Also, atomic hydrogen shows a larger peak from the star. This indicates the presence of a protoplanetary disk immediately surrounding the star. The data was taken with the microshutter array on the James Webb Space Telescope's NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrometer) instrument.
A New Way of Thinking
This finding refutes previous theoretical predictions that when there are very few heavier elements in the gas around the disk, the star would very quickly blow away the disk. So the disk’s life would be very short, even less than a million years. But if a disk doesn't stay around the star long enough for the dust grains to stick together and pebbles to form and become the core of a planet, how can planets form?
The researchers explained that there could be two distinct mechanisms, or even a combination, for planet-forming disks to persist in environments scarce in heavier elements.
First, to be able to blow away the disk, the star applies radiation pressure. For this pressure to be effective, elements heavier than hydrogen and helium would have to reside in the gas. But the massive star cluster NGC 346 only has about ten percent of the heavier elements that are present in the chemical composition of our Sun. Perhaps it simply takes longer for a star in this cluster to disperse its disk.
The second possibility is that, for a Sun-like star to form when there are few heavier elements, it would have to start from a larger cloud of gas. A bigger gas cloud will produce a bigger disk. So there is more mass in the disk and therefore it would take longer to blow the disk away, even if the radiation pressure were working in the same way.
“With more matter around the stars, the accretion lasts for a longer time,” said Sabbi. "The disks take ten times longer to disappear. This has implications for how you form a planet, and the type of system architecture that you can have in these different environments. This is so exciting.”
The science team’s paper appears in the Dec. 16 issue of The Astrophysical Journal.
NASA Accelerates Space Exploration, Earth Science for All in 2024
December 6th, 2024
With a look back at 2024, NASA is celebrating its many innovative and inspiring accomplishments this year including for the first time, landing new science and technology on the Moon with an American company, pushing the boundaries of exploration by launching a new mission to study Jupiter’s icy moon Europa; maintaining 24 years of continuous human exploration off the Earth aboard the International Space Station, and unveiling the first look at its supersonic quiet aircraft for the benefit of humanity.
The agency also shared the wonder of a total eclipse with millions of Americans, conducted the final flight of its Ingenuity helicopter on the Red Planet, demonstrated the first laser communications capability in deep space, tested the next generation solar sail in space, made new scientific discoveries with its James Webb Space Telescope, completed a year-long Mars simulation on Earth with crew, announced the newest class of Artemis Generation astronauts, and much more.
“In 2024, NASA made leap after giant leap to explore, discover, and inspire – all while bringing real, tangible, and substantial benefits to the American people and to all of humanity,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “We deepened the commercial and international partnerships that will help NASA lead humanity back to the Moon and then to the red sands of Mars. We launched new missions to study our solar system and our universe in captivating new ways. We observed our changing Earth through our eyes in the sky – our ever-growing fleet of satellites and instruments – and shared that data with all of humanity. And we opened the doors to new possibilities in aviation, new breakthroughs on the International Space Station, and new wonders in space travel.”
Through its Moon to Mars exploration approach, the agency continued moving forward with its Artemis campaign, including progress toward its first mission around the Moon with crew in more than 50 years and advancing plans to explore more of the Moon than ever before. So far in 2024, 15 countries signed the Artemis Accords, committing to the safe, transparent, and responsible exploration of space with the United States.
As part of efforts to monitor climate change, the agency launched multiple satellites to study our changing planet and opened its second Earth Information Center to provide data to a wider audience.
With the release of its latest Economic Impact Report, NASA underscored the agency’s $75.6 billion impact on the U.S. economy, value to society, and return on investment for taxpayers.
“To invest in NASA is to invest in American workers, American innovation, the American economy, and American economic competitiveness. Through continued investments in our workforce and our infrastructure, NASA will continue to propel American leadership on Earth, in the skies, and in the stars,” said Nelson.
Key 2024 agency highlights across its mission areas include:
Preparing for Moon, Mars
This year, NASA made strides toward the Artemis Generation of scientific discovery at the Moon while validating operations and systems to prepare for human missions to Mars. The agency advanced toward Artemis II, the first crewed flight under Artemis:
- NASA announced results of its Orion heat shield investigation and updated its timelines for Artemis II and III.
- Teams delivered the core stage and launch vehicle stage adapter of the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and began stacking the rocket’s booster segments.
- Engineers carried out a series of tests of the mobile launcher and systems at NASA Kennedy’s Launch Pad 39B ahead of the test flight and added an emergency egress system to keep crew and other personnel at the launch pad safe in the case of an emergency.
- NASA performed key integrated testing of the Orion spacecraft that will send four astronauts around the Moon and bring them home, including testing inside an altitude chamber simulating the vacuum conditions of deep space.
- The crew and other teams performed key training activities to prepare for flight, including practicing recovery operations at sea, as well as launch countdown and mission simulations.
- In February, the first Moon landing through the agency’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative brought NASA science to the lunar surface on Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander successfully capturing data that will help us better understand the Moon’s environment and improve landing precision and safety.
- In August, NASA announced that a new set of NASA science experiments and technology demonstrations will arrive at the lunar South Pole in 2027 following the agency’s latest CLPS initiative delivery award.
- To return valuable samples from Mars to Earth, NASA sought innovative designs and announced a new strategy review team to assess various design studies to reduce cost, risk, and complexity.
- NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) spacecraft celebrated 10 years of exploration of the Red Planet’s upper atmosphere.
- After three years, NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter ended its mission in January, with dozens more flights than planned.
- In September, the NASA Space Communications and Navigation team awarded a contract to Intuitive Machines to support the agency’s lunar relay systems as part of the Near Space Network, operated by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
- NASA identified an updated set of nine potential landing regions near the lunar South Pole for its Artemis III mission.
- Capturing the current state of the Moon to Mars architecture, NASA released the second revision of its Architecture Definition Document.
- NASA formalized two international agreements for key Artemis elements, including with the United Arab Emirates for the Gateway airlock module, and with Japan to provide a pressurized rover for the lunar surface.
- Astronauts, scientists, and engineers took part in testing key technologies and evaluating hardware needed to work at the Moon, including simulating moonwalks in geologically Moon-like areas of Arizona, practiced integration between the crew and mission controllers, participated in human factors testing for Gateway, and evaluated the developmental hardware.
- NASA worked collaboratively with SpaceX and Blue Origin on their human lunar landers for Artemis missions, exercising an option under existing contracts to develop cargo variants of their human landers.
- In August, as part of its commitment to a robust, sustainable lunar exploration program for the benefit of all, NASA announced it issued a Request for Information to seek interest from American companies and institutions in conducting a mission using the agency’s VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) Moon rover.
- The agency selected three companies to advance capabilities for a lunar terrain vehicle that Artemis astronauts will use to travel around the lunar surface.
- NASA completed a critical design review on the second mobile launcher, which will launch the more powerful Block 1B version of the SLS rocket.
- Engineers at NASA Kennedy continued outfitting the Artemis III and IV Orion crew modules and received the European-built Orion service module for Artemis III; they also received several sections of the Artemis III and IV SLS core stages and upgraded High Bay 2 in the Vehicle Assembly Building.
- NASA completed its second RS-25 certification test series at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, setting the stage for production of new engines to help power future Artemis missions to the Moon and beyond.
- The CHAPEA (Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog) 1 crew completed a 378-day mission in a ground-based Mars habitat at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Sombrero Galaxy Dazzles in New Image
November 25th, 2024
In a new image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, a galaxy named for its resemblance to a broad-brimmed Mexican hat appears more like an archery target.
In Webb’s mid-infrared view of the Sombrero galaxy, also known as Messier 104 (M104), the signature, glowing core seen in visible-light images does not shine, and instead a smooth inner disk is revealed. The sharp resolution of Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) also brings into focus details of the galaxy’s outer ring, providing insights into how the dust, an essential building block for astronomical objects in the universe, is distributed. The galaxy’s outer ring, which appeared smooth like a blanket in imaging from NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope, shows intricate clumps in the infrared for the first time.
A total solar eclipse and a 'ring of fire' make 2023 special for eclipse-chasers
February 14th, 2023
Have you ever seen a total solar eclipse? If you have, it's likely that you uttered the same thing as everyone else say after the experience — when's the next one?
Unfortunately, the last few total solar eclipses have been incredibly difficult to get to and were witnessed by relatively few eclipse-chasers. Not only is that set to change this year, but 2023 will have two very special solar eclipses. While the first solar eclipse is incredibly rare, the second is easily accessible to millions of North Americans.
Here's why 2023 is set to be an exciting one for anyone interested in solar eclipses.
A sight for sore eyes
The last time a total solar eclipse was experienced by whoever wanted to make the journey into the path of totality was on July 2, 2019, when a stunning eclipse was observed low in the late afternoon sky from northern Chile and Argentina. The long path of totality was mainly across the Pacific Ocean, only briefly crossing land just before sunset. The weather forecast had been very poor for the event, something that had persuaded many eclipse-chasers to wait until the following eclipse. That was a big mistake. As it turned out, the 2019 total solar eclipse was almost perfectly clear skies across South America with onlookers witnessing a dramatic totality low in the sky.
Sadly, particularly for those that stayed away, the 2019 total solar eclipse was the last time eclipse-chasers got to see the solar corona and Baily's beads—the two spectacular phenomena that make total solar eclipses so unique—for a few years.
The specter of COVID and its related stringent travel restrictions meant that the last two total solar eclipses were witnessed largely by domestic eclipse-chasers. On Dec. 14, 2020, many travel plans were axed and only local people — this time in southern Chile and Argentina — got to experience totality. Exactly a lunar year later on Dec. 4, 2021, only a few thousand people, mainly in cruise ships in Antarctica and some in a special eclipse flight — got to experience totality … as well as a few thousand Emperor penguins.
What about 2022? Sadly, there were no total solar eclipses for anyone to travel to — just a couple of partial solar eclipses observed (again) in Chile and Argentina on April 30, 2022 then in Europe on October 25, 2022.
US shoots down UFOs over Lake Huron and Canada
February 14th, 2023
The U.S. shot down a UFO over Lake Huron on Sunday, while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the U.S. shot down an unidentified flying object over the Yukon, Canada at his request.
An unidentified flying object (UFO) was shot down over Lake Huron in Michigan on Sunday (Feb. 12) — the fourth such object detected over the U.S. in a little over a week.
The flying object, which reports suggest was octagonal in shape and had strings hanging off of it, was first spotted over Montana on Saturday (Feb. 11) and then on Sunday, it migrated across the skies of Wisconsin before an F-16 shot it down over the lake in Michigan, officials said.
Just a day earlier, a fighter jet with the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), which is run by both the U.S. and Canada, shot down the strange object at the behest of Canada, Trudeau said, according to The New York Times(opens in new tab).
"I ordered the take down of an unidentified object that violated Canadian airspace," Trudeau wrote on Twitter(opens in new tab).
Canada is now in the process of recovering the wreckage to determine its origin and nature. Reports suggest it was cylindrical in shape and unlikely to be a balloon, according to The New York Times(opens in new tab).
This is the third time in a few days that a strange object has been shot down after entering U.S. airspace. Another object was detected entering U.S. airspace around 9 p.m. Alaska time on Thursday (Feb. 9) and the U.S. government subsequently sent a surveillance plane to track it. The object was flying between 20 and 40 mph (32 and 64 km/h) at an altitude used by civilian aircraft.
It crisscrossed land over Alaska before heading out to sea. It was flying toward the North Pole when it was shot down over the Arctic Ocean off the coast of Canada, John F. Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said in a news briefing on Friday (Feb. 10). Thus far, the U.S. does not see evidence that that object posed a military threat, officials said.
NASA water-hunting moon cubesat ready to launch with SpaceX
November 15th, 2022
The spacecraft was originally booked to fly on NASA's Artemis 1 mission.
NASA is going all in on the moon, and an upcoming mission called Lunar Flashlight will add lasers to the party.
During the mission, a small satellite (SmallSat), roughly the size of a briefcase, will skim the moon's surface and use lasers to peer into lunar craters, searching for water ice in places we haven't been able to explore yet. Lunar Flashlight will launch no earlier than Nov. 22 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket rideshare, joining Japan's Hakuto-R lander and the United Arab Emirates' Rashid 1 rover.
"We are going to make definitive surface water ice measurements in permanently shadowed regions for the first time," Barbara Cohen, Lunar Flashlight principal investigator at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said in a statement. "We will be able to correlate Lunar Flashlight's observations with other lunar missions to understand how extensive that water is and whether it could be used as a resource by future explorers."
Lunar Flashlight was originally due to ride along on NASA's Artemis 1 mission, flying on a massive Space Launch System (SLS) rocket currently targeting launch early on Wednesday (Nov. 16). However, the satellite missed the deadline for integration onto that spacecraft, prompting a search for a new launch vehicle.
Once launched, Lunar Flashlight will take approximately three months to reach the moon. Then, it will enter a near-rectilinear halo orbit, which is far less fuel-intensive than other orbits; because of the SmallSat's diminutive size, it cannot carry much propellant. (NASA's CAPSTONE mission, which arrived at the moon Sunday, Nov. 13, will use the same type of orbit for the same reason.) At the farthest point in its orbit, Lunar Flashlight will be 42,000 miles (68,000 kilometers) from the moon and, at its closest, just 9 miles (14 km) above the lunar surface.
The SmallSat will be the first satellite to use a new type of propellant: a more environmentally friendly monopropellant called Advanced Spacecraft Energetic Non-Toxic (ASCENT) that uses a catalyst rather than an oxidizer to burn. ASCENT is safer to store and transport than the more commonly used propellant hydrazine, which is extremely toxic to humans and can cause severe damage to the body.
"This is an exciting time for lunar exploration," Roger Hunter, Small Spacecraft Technology program manager at NASA's Ames Research Center in California, said in the statement. "The launch of Lunar Flashlight, along with the many small satellite missions aboard Artemis 1, may form the foundations for science discoveries as well as support future missions to the moon's surface."
Most powerful gamma ray burst ever seen could help reveal how black holes are born
October 17th, 2022
"We're just really in awe of this event and feeling very lucky to be able to study it."
All eyes are on the source of the record-breaking gamma ray burst that lit up the sky last week.
On Oct. 9, a beam of light more energetic than astronomers had ever seen zipped past our planet, temporarily blinding detectors on several NASA satellites. The beam came from a gamma ray burst, the most energetic type of explosion known to occur in the universe (apart from the Big Bang), which is believed to accompany the birth of some black holes.
Within hours, dozens of telescopes all over the world were pointing in the direction of the burst's source, confirming that this, indeed, was one for the books. The event, officially named GRB221009A, has since earned the nickname BOAT ("brightest of all time"), and astronomers hope it will help shed light on the mind-boggling physics behind these cataclysmic phenomena.
"It's a once in a century event, maybe once in 1,000 years," Brendan O'Connor, an astronomer at the University of Maryland and George Washington University, told Space.com. "We're just really in awe of this event and feeling very lucky to be able to study it."
How to watch NASA's Artemis 1 moon mission briefings and Megarocket rollout this week
August 15th, 2022
Three NASA Artemis 1 teleconferences and a megarocket rollout webcast will showcase the moon mission from Aug. 15 to Aug. 18.
NASA's Artemis 1 moon mission is poised to launch a new era of U.S. lunar exploration this month. You can learn the science behind the flight (and watch its towering rocket head to the launch pad) in a series of webcasts this week.
Artemis 1 is an uncrewed test flight of massive Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket and its Orion spacecraft, which NASA will use for crewed flights to the moon later this decade.
The planned launch date for Artemis 1 is Aug. 29, with Sept. 2 and Sept. 5 as backup days. The rocket will roll to its pad on Tuesday (Aug. 16), which you'll be able to watch online for free on this page, as well as via NASA's website(opens in new tab), NASA TV and the NASA app(opens in new tab).
NASA's Artemis 1 moon megarocket faces final test before rolling out for launch
August 15th, 2022
NASA engineers are testing the Space Launch System moon rocket's flight termination system ahead of rollout.
Engineers are testing a system designed to destroy NASA's massive Space Launch System moon rocket in case of problems with its impending launch.
Last week, NASA worked to certify the critical flight termination system (FTS) on the Space Launch System rocket, or SLS, which marks the final test before the megarocket rolls out to the pad later on Tuesday night (Aug. 16) Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, according to a NASA update(opens in new tab).
The FTS test is required by Space Launch Delta 45, a U.S. Space Force unit that operates the Eastern Range(opens in new tab). The system would be used to terminate the flight if necessary for safety reasons.
The Space Launch System rocket is due to send an uncrewed Orion spacecraft around the moon and back on what is the Artemis 1 mission. The first launch window is scheduled for Aug. 29. Backup launch windows are set for Sept. 2 and 5. N
Artemis 1 is an uncrewed test flight designed to test the Orion space capsule and SLS rocket for eventual crewed flights to the moon. If all goes well, NASA will follow it with a crewed Artemis 2 flight around the moon in 2024 and the crewed Artemis 3 moon landing mission around 2025, agency officials have said. The project is part of NASA's Artemis program to return humans to the moon and eventually aim for Mars.
But first, the Artemis 1 SLS needs to complete its FTS certification so it can launch. NASA received an extension from Space Launch Delta 45 on Aug. 12 for the certification of the FTS to cover 25 days instead of 20. This means the FTS certification—required by the Eastern Range to be tested 15 days before launch—will now also cover the Sept. 5 window.
