Milestones
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced Dr. Nicola Fox will serve as the associate administrator for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “As the director of our Heliophysics Division, Nicky was instrumental in expanding the impacts and awareness of NASA’s solar exploration missions and I look forward to working with her as […]
NASA has appointed veteran astronaut Joe Acaba as chief of the Astronaut Office at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. A decorated veteran of multiple spaceflights, as well as a former U.S. Marine and former educator, Acaba is the first person of Hispanic heritage selected to lead the office. Acaba takes the place of […]
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has named Dr. Makenzie Lystrup director of the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, effective immediately. She will make history as the first female center director at Goddard. Lystrup succeeds Dave Mitchell, who has served as Goddard’s acting center director since January 2023, and now resumes his duties as the agency’s […]
Kathryn Lueders, the associate administrator of NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate, announced she will retire from the agency at the end of April. Lueders’ current deputy and astronaut, Ken Bowersox, will become the new head of Space Operations, effective Monday, May 1. During her 31 years with the agency, Lueders provided strategic guidance for NASA’s […]
NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) announced the four astronauts who will venture around the Moon on Artemis II, the first crewed mission on NASA’s path to establishing a long-term presence at the Moon for science and exploration through Artemis. “The Artemis II crew represents thousands of people working tirelessly to bring us to […]
The Biden-Harris Administration released the President’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2024, and it will allow NASA to continue exploring the secrets of the universe for the benefit of all through Artemis, the Mars Sample Return mission, and other efforts. The budget allows NASA to monitor and protect the planet, advance sustainable aviation, better support orbital […]
NASA has established the new Moon to Mars Program Office at NASA Headquarters in Washington to carry out the agency’s human exploration activities at the Moon and Mars for the benefit of humanity. Amit Kshatriya will serve as the agency’s first head of the office, effective immediately. This new office resides within the Exploration Systems Development […]
To carry multiple payloads to the far side of the Moon, including a satellite to orbit that area, NASA has selected Firefly Aerospace of Cedar Park, Texas. The commercial lander will deliver two agency payloads, as well as a communication and data relay satellite for lunar orbit, which is a European Space Agency (ESA) collaboration […]
NASA has awarded Blue Origin, LLC of Kent, Washington, a task order to provide launch service for the agency’s Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) mission as part of the agency’s Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) launch services contract. ESCAPADE will launch on Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket from Space Launch […]
Cliffsides, impact craters, and dust devil tracks are captured in mesmerizing detail in a new mosaic of the Red Planet composed of 110,000 images from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Taken by the veteran spacecraft’s black-and-white Context Camera, or CTX, the images cover nearly 25 square meters (270 square feet) of surface per pixel. That […]
The last time NASA sent a spacecraft to the Moon that was built to carry people, the internet didn’t exist. Its predecessor was a small network that connected a handful of servers at universities and military bases. That was 1972, and the system had only just developed the capability to send what people were calling […]