Milestones
NASA has named Holly Ridings its new chief flight director, making her the first woman to lead the elite group that directs human spaceflight missions from the Mission Control Center at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Director of Flight Operations, Brian Kelly, selected Ridings to replace Norm Knight, who has held the position since […]
James Morhard was nominated by President Trump and confirmed to be NASA’s 14th Deputy Administrator. He was sworn in on October 17, 2018. Jim helps provide overall leadership, planning, and policy direction. He performs duties and exercises powers delegated by the Administrator, assists him in making final agency decisions, and acts in his absence to […]
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has named Jody Singer director of the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Singer has been the center’s deputy director since February 2016, and has been serving as acting director since the retirement of Todd May as center director in July. She is the first woman appointed to the […]
UC Davis Professor of Earth and Plantary Sciences Sarah T. Stewart won a MacArthur Fellowship for her work on how random collisions in the early stages of solar system formation give birth to planets and their natural satellites, like the Earth and Moon. Sarah Stewart is a planetary scientist shedding light on planet formation and evolution. Through a combination […]
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Interactive Program for its coverage of the Cassini mission’s Grand Finale at Saturn. The award was presented Saturday, Sept. 8, at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards in Los Angeles by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Accepting the award were members of […]
NASA has selected six women and men to join the elite corps of flight directors who will lead mission control for a variety of new operations at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The new flight directors will begin extensive training on flight control and vehicle systems, as well as operational leadership and risk […]
The team of scientists behind the European Space Agency’s Planck mission has been awarded the prestigious 2018 Gruber Cosmology Prize. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, played a key role in the design and construction of the Planck instrument, and in the scientific analysis of the mission’s data. The Gruber International Prize Program is […]
The Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature of the International Astronomical Union has officially approved the naming of two craters on the Moon to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 8 mission. The names are Anders’ Earthrise and 8 Homeward. The newly named craters are visible in the foreground of the iconic Earthrise colour […]
In 2011, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine published the report, Vision and Voyages for Planetary Science in the Decade 2013–2022, generally referred to as the planetary science decadal survey. In 2016, NASA requested that the National Academies conduct a midterm study to assess NASA’s progress toward achieving the decadal survey goals. “Since the […]
A new series of videos introduces some of the people leading NASA’s InSight, the agency’s next mission to Mars. “Behind the Spacecraft” profiles the men and women working on the first mission ever dedicated to studying Mars’ deep interior. The InSight spacecraft is on its way to a November 26 landing on the Red Planet. […]
Initially scheduled for a minimum 2.5-year primary mission, NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has gone far beyond its expected lifetime — and is still going strong after 15 years. Launched into a solar orbit on Aug. 25, 2003, Spitzer was the final of NASA’s four Great Observatories to reach space. The space telescope has illuminated some […]
NASA’s Opportunity rover has been silent since June 10, when a planet-encircling dust storm cut off solar power for the nearly-15-year-old rover. Now that scientists think the global dust storm is “decaying” — meaning more dust is falling out of the atmosphere than is being raised back into it — skies might soon clear enough […]
NASA has signed an agreement with the Israel Space Agency (ISA) to cooperatively utilize the Israeli nonprofit SpaceIL’s commercial lunar mission, expected to land on the Moon in 2019. NASA will contribute a laser retroreflector array to aid with ground tracking and Deep Space Network support to aid in mission communication. ISA and SpaceIL will […]
While NASA’s policy of free and open remote-sensing data has long benefited the scientific community, other government agencies and nonprofit organizations, it has significant untapped potential for commercialization. NASA’s Technology Transfer program has created an online resource to promote commercial use of this data and the software tools needed to work with it. With the […]
The universe is at your fingertips with two new digital products from NASA. The NASA Selfies app and NASA’s Exoplanet Excursions virtual reality app were created to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the launch of NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. Spitzer’s incredible discoveries and amazing images are at the center of these new products. NASA Selfies […]
A mixed-reality software that allows scientists and engineers to virtually walk on Mars recently received NASA’s 2018 Software of the Year Award. OnSight uses imagery from NASA’s Curiosity rover to create an immersive 3D terrain model, allowing users to wander the actual dunes and valleys explored by the robot. The goal of the software, a […]
There’s a new way for people to learn about NASA’s exciting missions and thought-provoking discoveries. The agency now has a channel for Roku digital media streaming devices. Users can install the app for free to access NASA content. This channel, a version of the NASA app, is similar to previous versions of the app […]