Teams working on NASA’s INCUS (Investigation of Convective Updrafts) mission, the first space-based survey of the dynamics of tropical convective storms, have completed assembly and tested two of the mission’s small satellites, or SmallSats. Testing continues on the third SmallSat and is scheduled for completion no earlier than September in advance of a 2027 launch. […]
NASA’s Polylingual Experimental Terminal (PExT), designed to enable interoperability between satellite relay networks, has completed its planned technology demonstration. Given the primary mission’s success and the flexibility of the technology, NASA has extended operations to pursue new partnership opportunities and additional capability demonstrations. The terminal launched July 23, 2025, aboard York Space Systems’ BARD spacecraft […]
Editor’s note: The article has been updated to reflect who developed AEPEX Several NASA science and technology payloads launched in the early morning hours on March 30 to test new thermal protection methods, improve in‑space communications, and study Earth’s atmosphere, advancing future innovation and exploration. The missions launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from […]
Editor’s Note: This post was updated April 21, 2026, to reflect mission funding by the U.S. National Science Foundation. NASA’s latest small satellite mission is now in orbit studying how natural and human-made radio waves travel from Earth’s surface into space, helping scientists better understand and predict changes in the near‑Earth space environment. The Climatology […]
NASA’s Arcstone instrument, designed to improve the accuracy of lunar calibration, successfully completed its technology demonstration, and now begins extended operations. Arcstone launched on June 23 on a SpaceX Transporter-14 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, on a six-month mission to measure light reflected by the Moon, which is a stable and potentially highly-accurate calibration source, for satellite sensors. The mission, led by NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, uses a specially designed spectrometer system and is the first on-orbit instrument solely dedicated […]
NASA’s Pandora satellite mission controllers received full acquisition of signal from the spacecraft on Jan. 11 on the first ground pass after liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Pandora will study planets outside our solar system – called exoplanets – discovered by other missions to gain information […]
NASA’s Pandora space telescope satellite is in sun-synchronous orbit, preparing to study planets and their respective host stars beyond our solar system. Pandora will spend the next year conducting detailed observations of 20 exoplanets to determine whether any of their atmospheres contain water vapor, hazes, and clouds. It will simultaneously study their stars to discover […]
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying NASA’s Pandora small satellite lifted off at 5:44 a.m. PST Sunday, Jan. 11, from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base located on California’s central coast. In addition to Pandora, the rocket carried dozens of satellites, including two CubeSats sponsored by NASA, SPARCS (Star-Planet Activity Research […]
Editor’s Note: This media advisory was updated Jan. 12, 2026 to correct the description of the SPARCS CubeSat. NASA’s Pandora small satellite is preparing to launch to low Earth orbit, where it will study exoplanet atmospheres and their stars. Pandora is part of the Twilight rideshare mission with SpaceX and is set to launch aboard […]
SpaceX is targeting a 57-minute launch window that opens at 8:19 a.m. EST (5:19 a.m. PST) Sunday, Jan. 11, from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California for launch of its Twilight commercial rideshare mission that includes NASA’s Pandora small satellite. A live webcast of this mission will begin about […]
