Goddard Space Flight Center

In the early history of our solar system, scientists theorize that a Mars-sized object called Theia smashed into the infant Earth, vaporizing massive amounts of rock and blasting it into space. Some of that material coalesced into the Moon, where NASA’s Artemis program is returning humans, preparing for Mars, and shaping the future of space […]

Posted October 1, 2026

Moon Base

Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS)

Goddard Space Flight Center

Missions

NASA Adds New Science Investigations for Moon Base

Editor’s note: This release was updated on Sept. 30, 2026, to correct the name of the DISCO payload. NASA selected three new scientific investigations and their payload suites to advance our knowledge of the Moon and help pave the way for building humanity’s first lunar outpost, Moon Base. The suite of science instruments and technologies […]

Posted October 1, 2026

Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA Awards Orbital Safety Analysis Support Services Contract

NASA has awarded a contract to Omitron Inc. for the acquisition of orbital safety analysis services, which provide for critical protection of NASA spaceflight assets and astronaut lives.

Posted September 30, 2026

Astrophysics

Black Holes

Galaxies

Gamma Rays

Gamma-Ray Bursts

Goddard Space Flight Center

Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory

Swift Boost Mission

The Universe

Wallops Flight Facility

NASA Highlights Lessons Learned From Swift Boost Mission

A commercial mission to boost NASA’s Swift observatory concluded without raising the spacecraft’s orbit, but the agency and industry vendor gained valuable experience that will benefit future in-space servicing programs.

Posted September 28, 2026

Earth Observatory

Earth Visualization & Mapping

Goddard Space Flight Center

Ice & Glaciers

ICESat-2 (Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2)

Topography

Uncovering the Valleys Hidden Below Greenland’s Ice

A new map of the terrain beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet links hundreds of valleys that previous maps missed or left fragmented.

Posted September 28, 2026

Astrophysics

Astrophysics Division

Goddard Space Flight Center

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Marshall Space Flight Center

Science Mission Directorate

NASA Selects Far-Infrared Telescope as First in New Mission Class

NASA announced Wednesday a mission to explore the history and evolution of the universe, PRIMA (PRobe far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics), is advancing to the next phase of development. This space telescope is the first in a new class of NASA astrophysics missions, called Probe Explorers, within the agency’s longstanding Explorers Program.

Posted September 23, 2026

Astrophysics

Astrophysics Division

Galaxies

Goddard Space Flight Center

Hubble Space Telescope

The Universe

NASA’s Hubble Seeks Lensed Supernova, Marks 200,000 Orbits

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope completed its 200,000th orbit around Earth on Sept. 19, marking another new milestone for an observatory that continues to transform our understanding of the universe. Hubble has traveled more than 5 billion miles around Earth over its 36-year lifetime, exceeding 1.7 million total observations.

Posted September 23, 2026

Astrophysics

Electromagnetic Spectrum

Goddard Space Flight Center

Neutron Stars

Pulsars

Stars

The Universe

X-ray Astronomy

X-ray Binaries

XRISM (X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission)

NASA-JAXA XRISM Mission Sees Pulsar Gathering Companion’s ‘Wind’

Using data from the Japan-led XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) observatory, astronomers have directly observed a giant star’s outflow, called a stellar wind, being captured by its compact companion and providing the power source for strong X-ray flares.

Posted September 18, 2026

Astrophysics

Astrophysics Division

Galaxies

Goddard Space Flight Center

Hubble Space Telescope

Spiral Galaxies

The Universe

Uncategorized

NASA’s Hubble Spots an Out-of-Sync Galaxy

Though the spiral galaxy in this new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope seems serene, it hides a chaotic secret. This galaxy is NGC 4698, and it lies about 55 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. It’s one of over a thousand galaxies in the Virgo Cluster, the nearest large cluster of galaxies bound together by […]

Posted September 18, 2026

Asteroids

Craters

Earth's Moon

Goddard Space Flight Center

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)

Lunar Science

Missions

NASA Centers & Facilities

NASA Directorates

Planetary Environments & Atmospheres

Planetary Science

Planetary Science Division

Science & Research

Science Mission Directorate

The Solar System

NASA’s Moon Orbiter Spots New, ‘Once-in-Century’ Moon Crater

It started as a routine data-quality check. But as Robert Wagner, a scientist with NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), scanned a giant Moon map on his computer screen, an unusually large bright spot circled by a dark halo caught his eye, as it implied that surface material in that area had been shaken up. “I […]

Posted September 16, 2026