NASA has taken a big step forward in how engineers will assemble and stack future SLS (Space Launch System) rockets for Artemis Moon missions inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The VAB’s High Bay 2 has been outfitted with new tooling to facilitate the vertical integration of … Read more
Earth’s nearest neighboring body in the solar system is its Moon, yet to date humans have physically explored just 5% of its surface. It wasn’t until 2023 – building on Apollo-era data and more detailed studies made in 2011-2012 by NASA’s automated GRAIL (Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory) mission – that researchers conclusively determined that … Read more
Since antiquity, wreaths have symbolized the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. It is fitting then that one of the best places for astronomers to learn more about the stellar lifecycle resembles a giant holiday wreath itself. The star cluster NGC 602 lies on the outskirts of the Small Magellanic Cloud, which is one of the closest … Read more
NASA has selected FedSync-BFS, LLC of Alexandria, Virginia, to provide administrative services for multiple NASA centers. The Multi-Center Administrative Support Services Contract is a firm-fixed-price and indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with a value not to exceed $200 million during a five-year ordering period. The performance period begins April 1, 2025. Contracted work will take place in six … Read more
NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) Moon rocket core stage is vertical in High Bay 2 on Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024, inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The core stage arrived on July 23 to NASA Kennedy, where it remained horizontal inside the facility’s transfer aisle. With the move to … Read more
Even matter ejected by black holes can run into objects in the dark. Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have found an unusual mark from a giant black hole’s powerful jet striking an unidentified object in its path. The discovery was made in a galaxy called Centaurus A (Cen A), located about 12 million light-years … Read more
NASA has selected Nova Space Solutions, LLC of Anchorage, Alaska, to provide operations, services, maintenance, and infrastructure support for NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, and NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The Combined Operations, Services, Maintenance, and Infrastructure Contract is a cost-plus-incentive-fee, firm-fixed-price, and indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract that has a value … Read more
NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) has helped astronomers better understand the shapes of structures essential to a black hole – specifically, the disk of material swirling around it, and the shifting plasma region called the corona. The stellar-mass black hole, part of the binary system Swift J1727.8-1613, was discovered in the summer of 2023 … Read more
SERVIR, NASA’s flagship partnership with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), launched a new regional center, or hub, in Central America on Dec. 3. The new hub is in partnership with the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center in Turrialba, Costa Rica, and is supported by the USAID Central America and Mexico Regional … Read more
Mike Lauer, an engineer who works for the Aerojet Rocketdyne segment of L3Harris Technologies, found his career inspiration in science fiction, but for the perspective it takes to execute complex space programs, he draws on real-world experience. Growing up, Lauer spent many cold winter nights in the basement of his Sioux Falls, South Dakota, home, … Read more