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  • NASA X-59 Explainer: Science of Sonic Booms 

    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 toward the ground, they can merge, creating an explosive bang heard by everyone the aircraft passes over.  Sonic booms have been a problem since aircraft first began exceeding the speed of sound, or Mach 1, so disturbing to people below that for decades U.S. and international regulations banned commercial supersonic flight over […]

  • Space Station Crew Wraps Busy Week, Plans New Date for US Spacewalk 97

    NASA astronaut Jessica Meir shared a pictured of herself during a spacewalk taken by NASA astronaut Anil Menon on her Instagram page.

    On Aug. 6, NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Anil Menon concluded a 6-hour, 27-minute spacewalk outside the International Space Station. Meir and Menon successfully completed their primary objective of preparing the 3B power channel for the future installation of a roll out solar array. Toward the end of the spacewalk, a carbon dioxide sensor on Menon’s spacesuit indicated an unexpected data reading. Menon reported no other issues during the spacewalk.

  • NASA’s IMAP Mission Releases New Data From 7 Science Instruments

    Science data from NASA’s IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) mission is now available. After its successful launch on Sept. 24, 2025, IMAP’s prime mission began a few months later, on Feb. 1.  All 10 instruments on IMAP have been successfully collecting data. While data from three of the instruments are not yet ready for […]

  • NASA Tests Featherweight Radar Antenna for SkyFall Mars Helicopters

    When the trio of NASA’s SkyFall helicopters takes to the Martian skies, one of their tasks will be to hunt for frozen water — a critical resource for future astronauts — using ground-penetrating radar. For that radar to work, each rotorcraft will carry a flexible, fabric-based antenna that will need to extend below the aircraft […]