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Use this page to stay up-to-date with the latest news about NASA's Research and Technology Mission Directorate (RTMD).

NASA Selects University Teams to Help Advance Aviation Research
4 min read

NASA has selected four university teams to help the agency transform the future of aviation through projects ranging from high-supersonic…

August 20, 2026
Article
NASA Student Aviation Challenge Focuses on Nation’s Infrastructure
3 min read

NASA’s next Gateways to Blue Skies competition invites collegiate teams to imagine innovative new ways aircraft could inspect land-based infrastructure,…

August 18, 2026
Article
NASA Competition Invites Students to Help Imagine a Future Enabled by Lunar Technologies 
3 min read

NASA is asking U.S.-based collegiate teams to submit bold, original concepts to the 2027 edition of a student challenge focused on aerospace…

August 14, 2026
Article
NASA X-59 Explainer: Science of Sonic Booms 
4 min read

The most common misconception about sonic booms is that they’re just the sound created at the moment when an aircraft “breaks the sound barrier.” In reality, a sonic boom is continuous, the audible evidence of invisible pressure waves forming as an aircraft travels faster than sound. As these waves travel…

Blog
NASA Delivers Navigation System for Commercial Lunar Relay
4 min read

NASA delivered the NavCube3-mini payload on July 13 to Intuitive Machines for integration into Altus-1, the company’s first lunar relay satellite, marking an important milestone in the development…

August 3, 2026
Article
NASA Opens New Flight Dynamics Research Facility in Virginia
5 min read

NASA opened its newest wind tunnel, the Flight Dynamics Research Facility, Friday, providing a critical resource for the agency and…

News Release
NASA Awards 2026 Innovative Technology Concepts
5 min read

The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program has created 18 new awards to support visionary ideas to improve aerospace technologies…

News Release
Meet NASA’s New X-59 Test Pilot 
3 min read

NASA added a new X-59 test pilot to support the agency’s Quesst mission: Mike Lippert, a research test pilot based at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California.   “This fulfills a…

Blog
NASA Announces New Spacecraft Technology Demonstration Mission at Moon    
4 min read

NASA is working with industry to advance the next phase of cislunar infrastructure for the agency’s Artemis program and Moon…

July 24, 2026
Article
NIAC 2026 Selections
2 min read

Phase I Saptarshi BandyopadhyayDimming the Sun (DimSun) Using Controllable Dust Cloud to Reduce Solar InsolationNASA Jet Propulsion LaboratoryPasadena, CA 91109-80012026…

July 21, 2026
Article
Precision Astrometry Using Optically Independent Spacecraft for Graviational Wave Detection
1 min read

Paul StankusBrookhaven Science Associates  The scientific goal is to enable a new method for observing gravitational waves at low frequencies,…

July 21, 2026
Article
Mapping Alien Continents: Achieving Optical VLBI for Exoplanet Imaging 
1 min read

Paul StankusBrookhaven Science Associates The scientific goal of the proposed work will be reconstructing the image, ie resolving surface features, of…

July 21, 2026
Article
Interworld Slingshot Resource Surveys
3 min read

Pablo Sobron SanchezSETI Institute This proposal explores a new class of reconnaissance spacecraft that map minerals from orbit using Raman…

July 21, 2026
Article
Robotically Assembled Electromagnetic Metamaterials for Long-Range Space Situational Awareness 
3 min read

David SmithDuke University  The increasing population of spacefaring vehicles and satellites motivates increasingly powerful technologies for space situational awareness (SSA). While…

July 21, 2026
Article
Photophoretic Tracers for Near-Space Remote Sensing at 30-100 km Altitudes 
3 min read

Benjamin SchaferRarefied Technologies, Inc. We propose a new approach to atmospheric sensing at 30-100 km altitudes using photophoretically levitating tracers. These…

July 21, 2026
Article
Actively Steerable Femtosat Constellations for In-situ Exploration of Saturn’s Rings, Atmosphere, and Magnetosphere
1 min read

Michael RubensteinNorthwestern University, Chicago We propose a mission to use ~10,000 actively steerable femtosats to map the ring composition, atmospheric…

July 21, 2026
Article
PRAXIS: Planetary Rings Autonomous EXploration with In-situ Sampling
3 min read

Marco QuadrelliNASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Humanity has never touched the particles of a planetary ring, but if we were able to…

July 21, 2026
Article
ECLIPSE – Efficient variable Conductivity Lunar Insulator for Passive Surveyor Environmental control
2 min read

Austin Phoenix Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State A disaggregated lunar infrastructure requires novel thermal management methods to enable future lunar operations.…

July 21, 2026
Article
Plasmon-Enhanced Radioisotope Thermophotovoltaic (PRTPV) Power Generation for Interstellar Missions
2 min read

Keunhan ParkUniversity of Utah This proposal seeks to develop a transformative energy system — the plasmon-enhanced radioisotope Thermophotovoltaic (PRTPV) generator…

July 21, 2026
Article
Quantum Wind Lidar Applications for Planetary and Earth Science Missions 
2 min read

Zhaoyan Liu NASA Ames Research Center This concept proposes a revolutionary approach to wind measurement using compact photonic integrated chips…

July 21, 2026
Article
Power-over-Fiber to Enable a Lunar Underground eXplorer (LUX) 
3 min read

Gilly Elor Stone Aerospace, Inc. Lava tubes are one of the most interesting and entirely uncharted targets for lunar science…

July 21, 2026
Article
Solid-state Propulsion for Autonomous Reconnaissance of Karst (SPARK) 
2 min read

Daniel Drew University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI While karst terrain and subsurface caves are sites of immense scientific value on bodies…

July 21, 2026
Article
EARENDIL: Extended Astronaut Radioisotope-EVA in Nighttime and Deep-space Icy Landscapes
2 min read

A.C. Charania Zeno Power Systems, Inc.  EARENDIL addresses a critical barrier to sustained human operations on the lunar surface: the…

July 21, 2026
Article
Coilable Stacked Solar Sails for Very High delta-V Missions
2 min read

Artur Davoyan University of California, Los Angeles The goal of the proposed program is to enable the next generation of…

July 21, 2026
Article
Combinatory Architecture offering Neomobility, on-Venus Adaptability, and Survivability (CANVAS) 
3 min read

David Bugby NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory INNOVATION: Venus surface missions have typically targeted short stays in fixed locations due to the…

July 21, 2026
Article
Dimming the Sun (DimSun) Using Controllable Dust Cloud to Reduce Solar Insolation
1 min read

Saptarshi BandyopadhyayNASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory DimSun mission concept focuses on geoengineering using space-based solar radiation management. DimSun will reduce solar…

July 21, 2026
Article
NASA, GE Aerospace Work Enables Hybrid-Electric Flight Demonstration
4 min read

An aircraft powered by a megawatt-class hybrid-electric engine developed in collaboration with NASA and built by GE Aerospace, demonstrated flight…

July 20, 2026
Article
NASA Taps SpaceX’s Starlink to Deliver Artemis III Imagery from Orion
2 min read

NASA has selected SpaceX to deliver laser communications capabilities for next year’s Artemis III mission, enabling the agency to provide a front row seat for viewers from the Orion spacecraft as four…

Blog
ARMD Research Solicitations (Updated June 23)
9 min read

THIS PAGE WAS UPDATED ON JUNE 23, 2026 This Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) solicitations page compiles the opportunities to…

June 23, 2026
Article
Department of Health and Human Services Digital Stockpile & Manufacturing Response Network Challenge
2 min read

NASA’s Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation (CoECI) assists in the use of crowdsourcing across the federal government. CoECI’s NASA…

June 16, 2026
Article
Elements of NASA's Research and Technology Mission Directorate (RTMD) are seen in this artist concept featuring a large satellite dish, two airplanes, a satellite in space, and a scene of a future lunar base.
Elements of NASA’s Research and Technology Mission Directorate (RTMD) are seen in this artist concept featuring a Deep Space Network satellite dish, X-59 quiet supersonic technology demonstrator, the Space Reactor-1 Freedom, and a scene from a future base at the Moon’s south pole.
NASA / Lillian Gipson