2 min read NASA’s TESS Returns to Science Operations NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) has returned to work after science observations were suspended on April 8, when the spacecraft entered into safe mode. All instruments are powered on and, following the successful download of previously collected science data stored in the mission’s recorder, [...]
Voyager Project Scientist Ed Stone and other mission team members gave a framed copy of an iconic Voyager 1 solar system image that includes Earth as a “Pale Blue Dot” to President George H.W. Bush on June 7, 1990. The presentation was made at the White House in the Oval Office. White House [...]
18 Min Read The Marshall Star for April 17, 2024 The Full Experience: NASA, Marshall, and Arkansas Celebrate Total Solar Eclipse By Celine Smith More than 100,000 people from across the world gathered April 8 in Russellville, Arkansas, to witness an astronomical syzygy – the alignment of the Sun, Moon, and Earth – creating [...]
The PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) mission has delivered its first operational data back to researchers, a feat made possible in part by innovative, data-storing technology from NASA’s Near Space Network, which introduced two key enhancements for PACE and other upcoming science missions. As a satellite orbits in space, its systems generate critical data [...]
2 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA research pilot Nils Larson and photographer Jim Ross complete aerobatic maneuvers in a NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California owned T-34C aircraft during a proficiency flight. NASA/Jim Ross Riding in the back seat of a car can be boring. Riding in the back [...]
An artist’s concept of NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System spacecraft in orbit with the Sun behind.NASA/Aero Animation/Ben Schweighart A NASA mission testing a new way of navigating our solar system is ready to hoist its sail into space – not to catch the wind, but the propulsive power of sunlight. The Advanced Composite Solar [...]
The winners of NASA’s 2024 Power to Explore Student Challenge are: 9-year-old Raine Lin, left, 12-year-old Aadya Karthik, and 18-year-old Thomas Liu. Credit: NASA/Dave Lam NASA announced the winners on Wednesday of the third annual Power to Explore Challenge, a national writing competition designed to teach K-12 students about the power of radioisotopes for space [...]
For a media briefing in advance of Earth Day, NASA will share info about next steps for its Earth research program, as well as highlight our newest Earth-observing satellite PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem). This image from PACE shows two different communities of phytoplankton in the ocean off the coast of South Africa on [...]
2 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) This natural-color image of mountains of central Pennsylvania taken by Landsat 8 shows the colors of changing leaves and the unique topography of the region. Thanks to more than 50 years of planetary observation from low-Earth orbit, it’s possible to see natural changes and [...]
4 min read Astronauts To Patch Up NASA’s NICER Telescope NASA is planning to repair NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer), an X-ray telescope on the International Space Station, during a spacewalk later this year. It will be the fourth science observatory in orbit serviced by astronauts. In May 2023, scientists discovered that NICER [...]
