2 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) An automated fiber placement machine on an industrial robot is seen at Fives Machining Systems Inc. Fives is one of the new partners joining a NASA project that explores ways to speed up the production of composite aircraft.Fives Machining Systems Inc. Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation [...]

3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Idaho State University class of 2025 poses with their new hands-on learning tool, the DC-8 aircraft, after it was retired from NASA in May 2024 and arrived in Pocatello, Idaho. The university will use the aircraft to provide a hands-on learning experience for [...]

5 min read NASA’s EXCITE Mission Prepared for Scientific Balloon Flight Scientists and engineers are ready to fly an infrared mission called EXCITE (EXoplanet Climate Infrared TElescope) to the edge of space.  EXCITE is designed to study atmospheres around exoplanets, or worlds beyond our solar system, during circumpolar long-duration scientific balloon flights. But first, it must [...]

Credit: NASA NASA has selected three additional companies to provide launch services for future agency missions through its VADR (Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare) contract. The companies awarded are: Arrow Science and Technology LLC of Webster, Texas Impulse Space Inc. of Redondo Beach, California Momentus Space LLC of San Jose, California The VADR contract [...]

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft that launched NASA’s Crew Flight Test astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station is pictured docked to the Harmony module’s forward port. (Credit: NASA) NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and leadership will hold an internal Agency Test Flight Readiness Review on Saturday, Aug. 24, for NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight [...]

The International Space Station was orbiting on a northeast track 261 miles above the Pacific Ocean when this photograph captured the first rays of an orbital sunrise illuminating Earth’s atmosphere.NASA/Matthew Dominick NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick captured the start of this orbital sunrise on Aug. 15, 2024, while aboard the International Space Station. Crew members aboard [...]

Crews moved the cone-shaped launch vehicle stage adapter out of NASA Marshall’s Building 4708 to the agency’s Pegasus barge on August 21. The barge will ferry the adapter first to NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility, where it will pick up additional SLS hardware for future Artemis missions, and then travel to NASA Kennedy. In Florida, teams [...]

Earth Observer Earth Home Earth Observer Home Editor’s Corner Feature Articles Meeting Summaries News Science in the News Calendars In Memoriam More Archives 9 min read Looking Back on Looking Up: The 2024 Total Solar Eclipse Credit: NASA’s Glenn Research Center (GRC) Introduction First as a bite, then a half Moon, until crescent-shaped shadows [...]

2 min read Hubble Finds Structure in an Unstructured Galaxy NASA, ESA, A. del Pino Molina (CEFCA), K. Gilbert and R. van der Marel (STScI), A. Cole (University of Tasmania); Image Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America) This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image features the nearby dwarf irregular galaxy Leo A, located some [...]

29 Min Read The Marshall Star for August 21, 2024 Hundreds Honored at Marshall, NASA Awards Ceremony NASA Chief Financial Officer Margaret Vo Schaus speaks to audience members and honorees Aug. 15 during the 2023 Agency/Center Honor Awards at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Activities Building 4316. In all, 332 Marshall team members [...]