Marshall Space Flight Center

NASA Solar Sail Technology Passes Crucial Deployment Test

By Wayne Smith In his youth, NASA technologist Les Johnson was riveted by the 1974 novel “The Mote in God’s Eye,” by Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven, in which an alien spacecraft propelled by solar sails visits humanity. Today, Johnson and a NASA team are preparing to test a similar technology. NASA continues to unfurl […]

Posted February 12, 2024

Marshall Space Flight Center

NASA Marshall Invites Media to Meet New Center Director

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center will host a media day at 9 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 15, in the first-floor lobby of Building 4221 on Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, to introduce new Center Director Joseph Pelfrey. Media are invited to meet and speak with Pelfrey about his role. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson named Pelfrey […]

Posted February 12, 2024

Marshall Space Flight Center

Rahul Ramachandran Essay Published on NASA’s EarthData

January 29, 2024 / Earth Science Rahul Ramachandran (ST11) wrote his American Geophysical Union (AGU) Leptoukh lecture as an essay titled “From petabytes to Insights: Tackling Earth Science’s Scaling Problem ”.

Posted February 9, 2024

Black Holes

Chandra X-Ray Observatory

Galaxies

Marshall Space Flight Center

Telescopes Show the Milky Way’s Black Hole is Ready for a Kick

This artist’s illustration depicts the findings of a new study about the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy called Sagittarius A* (abbreviated as Sgr A*). As reported in our latest press release, this result found that Sgr A* is spinning so quickly that it is warping spacetime — that is, time and the three dimensions of space […]

Posted February 8, 2024

Marshall Space Flight Center

The Marshall Star for February 7, 2024

NASA Administrator Announces New Marshall Space Flight Center Director NASA Administrator Bill Nelson on Feb. 5 named Joseph Pelfrey director of the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center, effective immediately. Pelfrey has served as acting center director since July 2023.

Posted February 7, 2024

Marshall Space Flight Center

Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS)

NASA to Demonstrate Autonomous Navigation System on Moon

When the second CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) delivery is launched to the Moon in mid-February, its NASA payloads will include an experiment that could change how human explorers, rovers, and spacecraft independently track their precise location on the Moon and in cis-lunar space.

Posted February 7, 2024

Marshall Space Flight Center

People of NASA

NASA Administrator Announces New Marshall Space Flight Center Director

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson on Monday named Joseph Pelfrey director of the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, effective immediately. Pelfrey has served as acting center director since July 2023. “Joseph is a respected leader who shares the passion for innovation and exploration at NASA Marshall.

Posted February 5, 2024

Centennial Challenges

Marshall Space Flight Center

NASA Taps Alabama A&M University to Host Break the Ice Lunar Challenge

By Savannah Bullard NASA has selected Alabama A&M University’s Agribition Center in Huntsville, Alabama, to host the final level of the agency’s Break the Ice Lunar Challenge, using indoor and outdoor space to ground test the finalists’ solutions.

Posted February 1, 2024

Marshall Space Flight Center

SimLabs

The Marshall Star for January 31, 2024

Marshall Commemorates NASA’s Day of Remembrance By Celine Smith Team members across NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center congregated Jan. 25 in the lobby of Building 4221 to observe NASA’s Day of Remembrance. Each January, the agency pauses to honor members of the NASA family who lost their lives while furthering the cause of exploration and […]

Posted January 31, 2024

Stennis Space Center

Marshall Space Flight Center

Space Launch System (SLS)

NASA Marks Halfway Point for Artemis Moon Rocket Engine Certification Series

NASA completed the sixth of 12 scheduled RS-25 engine certification tests in a critical series for future flights of the agency’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket as engineers conducted a full-duration hot fire Jan. 27 at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.

Posted January 29, 2024