Top Prize Awarded in Lunar Autonomy Challenge

Top Prize Awarded in Lunar Autonomy Challenge

NASA named Stanford University of California winner of the Lunar Autonomy Challenge, a six-month competition for U.S. college and university student teams to virtually map and explore using a digital twin of NASA’s In-Situ Resource Utilization Pilot Excavator (IPEx).  The winning team successfully demonstrated the design and functionality of their autonomous agent, or software that performs … Read more

NASA Awards Launch Service Task Order for Aspera’s Galaxy Mission – NASA

NASA Awards Launch Service Task Order for Aspera’s Galaxy Mission – NASA

NASA has selected Rocket Lab USA Inc. of Long Beach, California, to launch the agency’s Aspera mission, a SmallSat to study galaxy formation and evolution, providing new insights into how the universe works. The selection is part of NASA’s Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) launch services contract. This contract allows the agency to … Read more

NASA Kennedy Breathes Life into Moon Soil Testing – NASA

NASA Kennedy Breathes Life into Moon Soil Testing – NASA

As NASA works to establish a long-term presence on the Moon, researchers have reached a breakthrough by extracting oxygen at a commercial scale from simulated lunar soil at Swamp Works at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The achievement moves NASA one step closer to its goal of utilizing resources on the Moon and beyond … Read more

NASA Harvests Lettuce for Space Station Study – NASA

NASA Harvests Lettuce for Space Station Study – NASA

Inside a laboratory in the Space Systems Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a payload implementation team member harvests ‘Outredgeous’ romaine lettuce growing in the Advanced Plant Habitat ground unit on Thursday, April 24, 2025. The harvest is part of the ground control work supporting Plant Habitat-07, which launched to the International … Read more

Robots, Rovers, and Regolith: NASA Brings Exploration to FIRST Robotics 2025  – NASA

Robots, Rovers, and Regolith: NASA Brings Exploration to FIRST Robotics 2025  – NASA

What does the future of space exploration look like? At the 2025 FIRST Robotics World Championship in Houston, NASA gave student robotics teams and industry leaders a first-hand look—complete with lunar rovers, robotic arms, and real conversations about shaping the next era of discovery.  NASA engaged directly with the Artemis Generation, connecting with more than … Read more

NASA’s Lunar Drill Technology Passes Tests on the Moon – NASA

NASA’s Lunar Drill Technology Passes Tests on the Moon – NASA

Editor’s note: This article was updated on April 29, 2025, to correct the amount of data collected during Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 mission. NASA’s PRIME-1 (Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment 1) mission was designed to demonstrate technologies to help scientists better understand lunar resources ahead of crewed Artemis missions to the Moon. During the short-lived mission … Read more

NASA Moon Observing Instrument to Get Another Shot at Lunar Ops – NASA

NASA Moon Observing Instrument to Get Another Shot at Lunar Ops – NASA

A NASA-developed technology that recently proved its capabilities in the harsh environment of space will soon head back to the Moon to search for gases trapped under the lunar surface thanks to a new Cooperative Research and Development Agreement between NASA and commercial company Magna Petra Corp. The Mass Spectrometer Observing Lunar Operations (MSOLO) successfully … Read more

Animal That Once Lived With Dinosaurs Helps Keep NASA Kennedy In Balance – NASA

Animal That Once Lived With Dinosaurs Helps Keep NASA Kennedy In Balance – NASA

They’re known as “living fossils”. For over 450 million years, horseshoe crabs have been an ecologically vital part of our planet. They’re one of the few surviving species on Earth dating back to the dinosaurs. At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the American horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus) is one of more than 1,500 types … Read more

NASA Science, Cargo Launch on 32nd SpaceX Resupply Station Mission – NASA

NASA Science, Cargo Launch on 32nd SpaceX Resupply Station Mission – NASA

Following the successful launch of NASA’s SpaceX 32nd Commercial Resupply Services mission, new scientific experiments and supplies are bound for the International Space Station. The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, carrying approximately 6,700 pounds of cargo to the orbiting laboratory for NASA, lifted off at 4:15 a.m. EDT Monday, on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket from Launch … Read more