On Wednesday, Nov. 17, NASA Headquarters held its final review for the mission prior to launch. A week later, on Nov. 24, a review committee approved Webb’s transition to the next stage in its preparations for launch. This week we’ve asked NASA’s Randy Kimble, Webb’s integration, test, and commissioning project scientist, to tell us how …
Earth’s Interface to Space Welcome to Earth’s upper atmosphere, where things get weird. Home to: Earth’s hottest (4,500 degrees F) AND coldest (-120 degrees F) temperatures 50 tons of incoming meteors, daily Air that is literally electric Satellite communications The ionosphere Lucky for us, the Sun’s most harmful rays don’t reach the ground. Instead they’re …
A Total Solar Eclipse in Antarctica! Early this morning, there was a total solar eclipse across Antarctica! During a total solar eclipse, the Moon blocks out the Sun, creating the illusion of night during the day and a breathtaking sight in our sky. Join NASA Edge at 1:30 p.m. EST on NASA TV to see …
Greetings from Earth! Our solar tour begins on Earth. From here, one star shines brighter than all the rest. It’s the closest star and the center of our solar system: our Sun. Earth is in the Goldilocks zone, just the right distance from the Sun to be habitable. A mission to touch the Sun We …
ISS Deboost: On Wednesday, US tracking sources identified a debris conjunction of concern with Object 39915 with a Time of Closest Approach (TCA) of 337/10:33 GMT. Due to this risk, this morning ISS performed a 0.3 m/s retrograde Predetermined Debris Avoidance Maneuver (PDAM) at 07:58 GMT. This conjunction remained at actionable levels since initial notification, …
The Geospace Dynamics Constellation mission – or GDC – is a team of satellites that will study Earth’s upper atmosphere and provide the first direct global measurements of our planet’s dynamic and complex interface with the space environment. This boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and space is called the ionosphere-thermosphere (I-T) system.
NASA’s Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) spacecraft recently eclipsed multiple key milestones at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Following a series of “aliveness” tests to verify the health of the spacecraft, teams mated the structure to the payload adapter – a ring that interfaces between the spacecraft and the top of the rocket. …
At 1:58 a.m. CST, 2:58 a.m. EST this morning, the Russian Progress 79, attached to the space station, fired its thrusters for 2 minutes and 41 seconds to slightly lower the station’s orbit. This maneuver provided a healthy margin of separation from a fragment of Pegasus rocket debris (object 39915) that ballistics specialists have been …
A team of NASA and Northrop Grumman engineers fired a 2-foot-diameter, subscale solid rocket booster on Dec. 2, 2021, at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. This test, conducted in Marshall’s East Test Area, was the second of three tests supporting the Booster Obsolescence and Life Extension (BOLE) program, which will have an …
Flight controllers and orbital debris experts in Houston are assessing the potential risk of a piece of orbital debris from a Pegasus rocket that may pass close to the International Space Station early Friday morning. Mission Control is working with NASA’s international partners to prepare for a possible debris avoidance maneuver. The closest pass is …
