As astronaut Bruce McCandless II flew the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) out of the space shuttle Challenger’s payload bay for the first time on February 7, 1984, many in the agency were fearful about the use of a self-propelled and…

A total solar eclipse is a captivating experience – evoking feelings of awe and wonder that are sometimes best expressed through art. Inspired by the upcoming total solar eclipse of April 8, 2024, artists Tyler Nordgren and Kristen Perrin have…

Students from California and Massachusetts will have separate opportunities next week to hear from NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station. The two Earth-to-space calls will air live Monday, Feb. 5, and Friday, Feb. 9, on NASA+ and agency’s website. Learn…

Editor’s Note, Feb. 3, 2024: NASA, Axiom Space, and SpaceX now are targeting no earlier than Monday, Feb. 5, for the undocking of Axiom Mission 3 from the International Space Station. Teams are standing down from the Saturday, Feb. 3, undocking…

NASA's history-making Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, the first aircraft to fly within another planet's atmosphere, has ended its mission. Honored to play a small part in the technology demonstrator's success, NASA's aeronautical innovators congratulates its agency colleagues and offers this special…

NASA is hosting virtual activities ahead of the launch of the PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) mission and invites you to share in the fun. The PACE mission will help us better understand how the ocean and atmosphere exchange…

Maybe you read about them in the papers–amateur astronomers in Japan, Russia, France, Finland, and the United States have been pulling all-nighters to spot extraordinary exoplanets, planets orbiting stars other than the Sun.  NASA’s UNITE project holds these planetary stakeouts several…

On Feb. 3, 1994, space shuttle Discovery took off on its 18th flight, STS-60. Its six-person crew of Commander Charles F. Bolden, Pilot Kenneth S. Reightler, and Mission Specialists N. Jan Davis, Ronald M. Sega, Franklin R. Chang-Díaz, who served…

This new NASA Hubble Space Telescope image shows ESO 185-IG013, a luminous blue compact galaxy (BCG). BCGs are nearby galaxies that show an intense burst of star formation. They are unusually blue in visible light, which sets them apart from other high-starburst…

Say cheese, Moon. We’re coming in for a close-up. As Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander descends toward the Moon, four tiny NASA cameras will be trained on the lunar surface, collecting imagery of how the surface changes from interactions with the…

This image of the softly luminous spiral galaxy UGC 11105 is from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. It lies about 110 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Hercules. Astronomers have different ways of quantifying how bright celestial objects are.…

This new NASA Hubble Space Telescope image shows ESO 185-IG013, a luminous blue compact galaxy (BCG). BCGs are nearby galaxies that show an intense burst of star formation. They are unusually blue in visible light, which sets them apart from…

Clouds of white vapor pile up at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, during a full-duration, 500-second hot fire of an RS-25 certification engine Jan. 17, 2024. This test series is critical for future flights of NASA’s…

As the world looks for sustainable solutions, a system tapping into NASA satellite data for water management has passed a critical test. Called OpenET, the system uses an ensemble of six satellite-driven models that harness publicly available data from the…

By Savannah Bullard NASA has selected Alabama A&M University’s Agribition Center in Huntsville, Alabama, to host the final level of the agency’s Break the Ice Lunar Challenge, using indoor and outdoor space to ground test the finalists’ solutions. The challenge…

Jennifer Kunz, associate director technical of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, released the following statement after speaking Thursday at the SpaceCom / 50th Space Congress in Orlando, Florida. “NASA’s Moon to Mars strategy rests on three pillars: pursuing science…

Explore the February 2024 edition featuring: Gator Speaks There are two reasons why the last Thursday in January and the month of February are important at NASA moving ahead as the Artemis Generation. Having been around for decades as the…

In February 2024, Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 mission will launch to the Moon’s South Polar region, as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS, initiative. This mission is part of CLPS’ ongoing effort to bring down the cost for…

Long-term space exploration exposes humans to radiation that can damage deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA, which carries the genetic information for our development and functioning. Conditions in space also affect the way the body repairs such damage, potentially compounding the risk.…

As NASA innovates for the benefit of all, what the agency develops for exploration has the potential to evolve into other technologies with broader use here on Earth. Many of those examples are highlighted in NASA’s annual Spinoff book including…

NASA inspires as it explores secrets of the universe for the benefit of all – just ask Tony Goretski, the senior employee in the Office of Procurement at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Goretski felt the…

In honor of Black History Month, we recognize the contributions of Black astronauts to our nation’s space programs. Coming to NASA from a variety of backgrounds as military pilots, engineers, scientists, and physicians, these astronauts have made history-making contributions participating…

One thing has remained constant throughout Maury Vander’s career with NASA – the satisfaction of being part of a team working to innovate and benefit the agency and the aerospace industry at large. As chief of the Test Operations Division…

UGC 3912 is classified as a spiral galaxy … but you wouldn’t know it from this detailed NASA Hubble Space Telescope image. UGC 3912’s distorted shape is typically indicative of a gravitational encounter with another galaxy. When galaxies interact –…

Some constellations can be as familiar as old friends. Learn about three of them in February’s Night Sky Notes!