NASA Names Companies to Develop Human Landers for Artemis Moon Missions
NASA has selected three U.S. companies to design and develop human landing systems for the agency’s Artemis program, one of which will land the first woman and next man on the surface of the Moon by 2024. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Human Landing System Program for the agency.
Star Survives Close Call with Black Hole
Astronomers may have discovered a new kind of survival story: a star that had a brush with a giant black hole and lived to tell the tale through exclamations of X-rays. Data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton uncovered the account that began with a red giant star wandering too close to a supermassive black hole in a galaxy about 250 million light-years from Earth. Marshall manages the Chandra program.
Alabama High School Student Names NASA’s Mars Helicopter
Destined to become the first aircraft to attempt powered flight on another planet, NASA’s Mars Helicopter officially has a new name: Ingenuity. Vaneeza Rupani, a junior at Tuscaloosa County High School in Northport, Alabama, came up with the name and the motivation behind it during NASA’s “Name the Rover” essay contest.
Hubble Marks 30 Years in Space With Tapestry of Blazing Starbirth
NASA celebrated the Hubble Space Telescope’s 30 years of unlocking the beauty and mystery of space by unveiling a stunning new portrait of a firestorm of starbirth in a neighboring galaxy. Marshall was responsible for Hubble’s overall design, development and construction.
Female Space Science Heroes Featured in New Interactive App
Now anyone can virtually “meet” women who have blazed trails in space and related science fields in a new app released through a collaboration between the Smithsonian and NASA. The new project, “Reach Across the Stars: A Universe of Explorers,” is a free augmented reality app that allows users to explore the universe and unlock the often-overlooked stories of women and their contributions to space exploration and science.
For more information or to learn about other happenings at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, visit NASA Marshall. For past issues of the ICYMI newsletter, click here.