One year on, NASA scientists are still making huge discoveries about the largest geomagnetic storm to hit Earth in two decades, the Gannon storm. The findings are helping us better understand and prepare for the ways in which the Sun’s activity can affect us. On May 10, 2024, the first G5 or “severe” geomagnetic storm … Read more
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
Flying high above the clouds and moon-gazing may sound like a scene from a timeless romance, but NASA did just that in the name of Earth science research. In March 2025 pilots took the agency’s ER-2 science aircraft on a series of night flights over NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, as the … Read more
One year ago today, a total solar eclipse swept across the United States. The event was a cornerstone moment in the Heliophysics Big Year, a global celebration of the Sun’s influence on Earth and the entire solar system. From October 2023 to December 2024 — a period encompassing two solar eclipses across the U.S., two … Read more
NASA has awarded SpaceX of Starbase, Texas, a modification under the NASA Launch Services (NLS) II contract to add Starship to their existing Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch service offerings. The NLS II contracts provide a broad range of commercial launch services for NASA’s planetary, Earth-observing, exploration, and scientific satellites. These high-priority, low and … Read more
NASA’s Electrodynamic Dust Shield (EDS) successfully demonstrated its ability to remove regolith, or lunar dust and dirt, from its various surfaces on the Moon during Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1, which concluded on March 16. Lunar dust is extremely abrasive and electrostatic, which means it clings to anything that carries a charge. It can … Read more
Researchers analyzing pulverized rock onboard NASA’s Curiosity rover have found the largest organic compounds on the Red Planet to date. The finding, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests prebiotic chemistry may have advanced further on Mars than previously observed. Scientists probed an existing rock sample inside Curiosity’s Sample Analysis … Read more
NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) welcomed a community of government, industry, and international partners to explore current technology needs around natural resources – both on Earth and “off world.” During a workshop held in February at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, participants discussed technologies that will improve the ability to … Read more
NASA acting Administrator Janet Petro announced Monday Vanessa Wyche will serve as the acting associate administrator for the agency at NASA Headquarters in Washington, effective immediately. Wyche, who had been the director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, is detailed as Petro’s senior advisor leading the agency’s center directors and mission directorate associate administrators. … Read more
Jorge Chong is helping shape the future of human spaceflight, one calculation at a time. As a project manager for TRON (Tracking and Ranging via Optical Navigation) and a guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) test engineer in the Aeroscience and Flight Mechanics Division, he is leading efforts to ensure the Orion spacecraft can navigate deep … Read more