5 Min Read NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Makes History With Closest Pass to Sun An artist’s concept showing Parker Solar Probe. Credits: NASA/APL Operations teams have confirmed NASA’s mission to “touch” the Sun survived its record-breaking closest approach to the solar surface on Dec. 24, 2024. Breaking its previous record by flying just 3.8 [...]

The NESC Mechanical Systems TDT provides broad support across NASA’s mission directorates. We are a diverse group representing a variety of sub-disciplines including bearings, gears, metrology, lubrication and tribology, mechanism design, analysis and testing, fastening systems, valve engineering, actuator engineering, pyrotechnics, mechatronics, and motor controls. In addition to providing technical support, the TDT owns and [...]

NASA’s uncrewed Artemis I mission launched from KSC on November 16, 2022. After a successful mission that included orbiting the Moon, the Orion spacecraft returned to Earth splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on December 11, 2022. While the spacecraft made a safe return to Earth, postflight inspection of Orion’s thermal protection indicated that the [...]

X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: Clow, M.; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare and K. Arcand This new view of the “Christmas tree cluster” NGC 2264, released on Dec. 17, 2024, combines data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and optical data from astrophotographer Michael Clow’s telescope in Arizona. Chandra data is represented in red, purple, blue, and white, while [...]

NASA has a strong need for advanced materials and processes (M&P) across the realms of robotic- and crewed-spaceflight, as well as aeronautics, particularly when one acknowledges that all craft must be made of something. To meet that need, the materials discipline relies on collaboration—both between centers and across disciplines. Reaching the Agency’s Moon-to-Mars objectives will [...]

Humans are returning to the Moon—this time, to stay. Because our presence will be more permanent, NASA has selected a location that maximizes line-of-sight communication with Earth, solar visibility, and access to water ice: the Lunar South Pole (LSP). While the Sun is in the lunar sky more consistently at the poles, it never rises [...]

ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti pictured aboard the International Space Station on Dec. 20, 2014, during Expedition 42 (Credits: NASA). Crew members aboard the International Space Station celebrate the holiday season in a unique way while living and working at the orbiting laboratory. Each crew member, including the current Expedition 72, spends time [...]

Through NASA’s Artemis campaign, astronauts will land on the lunar surface and use a new generation of spacesuits and rovers as they live, work, and conduct science in the Moon’s South Pole region, exploring more of the lunar surface than ever before. Recently, the agency completed the first round of testing on three commercially owned [...]

Ken Freeman (center) receives the ATCA Award for ATM-X Digital Information Platform (DIP) from Rachel Jackson, Chair ATCA Board of Directors (left) and Carey Fagan, President and CEO ATCA (right).NASA Air Traffic Control Association (ATCA) Award to the NASA ATM-X Digital Information Platform (DIP) Team In November 2024, the Digital Information Platform (DIP) team received the prestigious [...]

More than 30,000 scientists gathered in Washington, D.C. during the second week of December – many to show off the work of NASA’s science volunteers! The American Geophysical Union held its annual meeting of professionals this month – the world’s largest gathering of Earth and Space Scientists. Here’s what they were talking about. Eighteen NASA-sponsored [...]