A portrait of Dorothy Vaughan, a mathematician, computer programmer, and NASA’s first Black manager.Credit: NASA NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston will recognize legendary human computer Dorothy Vaughan and the women of Apollo with activities marking their achievements, including a renaming and ribbon-cutting ceremony at the center’s “Building 12,” on Friday, July 19, the eve [...]

1 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Next Generation Science Standards: Engineering Design (MS-PS4-1, MS-ETS1) Grades 5+ In this activity, students will create an “antenna” or “receiver” out of re-used materials. After construction is complete, the students test their design by throwing “data” (in this case, ping pong balls) across the room [...]

On July 15, 2009, space shuttle Endeavour began its 23rd trip into space, on the 2JA mission to the International Space Station, the 29th shuttle flight to the orbiting lab. During the 16-day mission, the seven-member STS-127 crew, working with Expedition 20, the first six-person crew aboard the station, completed the primary objectives of the [...]

2 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) HyAxiom’s 440-kilowatt phosphoric acid fuel cell is now its flagship product, and it still builds on technical know-how developed under the Apollo and space shuttle programs.Credit: HyAxiom Inc. NASA’s investment in fuel cells dates to the 1960s when most of the world was still [...]

From left, team members Annie Meier, Malay Shah, and Jamie Toro assemble the flight hardware for NASA’s Orbital Syngas Commodity Augmentation Reactor, or OSCAR, on Oct. 10, 2019, in the Space Station Processing Facility at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. OSCAR began as an Early Career Initiative project at the spaceport that studies [...]

3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) This illustration of the large Quetzalpetlatl Corona located in Venus’ southern hemisphere depicts active volcanism and a subduction zone, where the foreground crust plunges into the planet’s interior. A new study suggests coronae reveal locations where active geology is shaping Venus’ surface. The stars [...]

Painters work on the official NASA insignia, nicknamed “the meatball,” on the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 29, 2020.NASA/Kim Shiflett NASA’s official logo, nicknamed the “meatball,” turned 65 on July 15, 2024. The insignia dates back to 1959, when the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA) metamorphosed into an agency [...]

6 Min Read NASA’s Webb Investigates Eternal Sunrises, Sunsets on Distant World Artists concept of WASP-39 b (full image below). Near-infrared spectral analysis of terminator confirms differences in morning and evening atmosphere Researchers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have finally confirmed what models have previously predicted: An exoplanet has differences between its eternal [...]

Buzzing with bees, baby birds, and wildflowers, the rooftop garden atop building 12 at Johnson Space Center in Houston reflects NASA’s commitment to environmental stewardship. Originally constructed in 1963, the facility was transformed in 2012, incorporating energy-efficient features that earned it LEED Gold certification. The certification is a globally recognized symbol of sustainability achievement and [...]

4 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) This image shows an aviation version of a smartphone navigation app that makes suggestions for an aircraft to fly an alternate, more efficient route. The new trajectories are based on information available from NASA’s Digital Information Platform and processed by the Collaborative Departure Digital [...]