Space Technology Mission Directorate

NASA Awards Contracts for Flight, Payload Integration Services

NASA has selected 15 companies to provide flight and payload integration services to advance technologies and procedures for operating in space, including testing in high-altitude, reduced gravity, or other relevant environments. Examples of payloads include NASA science instruments or technology demonstrations.

Posted March 4, 2024

Small Spacecraft Technology Program

Ames Research Center

Space Technology Mission Directorate

NASA to Demonstrate Miniature CubeSat Swarm Technology

Preparations are underway for a new, small spacecraft technology demonstration that will test cost-efficient swarm capabilities – the ability for multiple spacecraft to communicate and perform coordinated actions. The PY4 mission’s four CubeSats are slated to launch Monday March 4, 2:05 p.m.

Posted March 4, 2024

Space Technology Mission Directorate

Game Changing Development Program

General

Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium

Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative

NASA Directorates

Student Teams to Help Fill the Inflatable Void with Latest Student Challenge

This year will be a “BIG” year for several college and university teams as they research, design, and demonstrate novel inflatable systems configured for future lunar operations through a NASA-sponsored engineering competition.

Posted February 29, 2024

Spinoffs

Space Technology Mission Directorate

Technology Transfer

Technology Transfer & Spinoffs

Seeing is Communicating

Eye-tracking technology supported by NASA makes ‘talking’ possible for people who can’t.

Posted February 20, 2024

Marshall Space Flight Center

Space Technology Mission Directorate

Technology Demonstration

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

Deep Space Network

Space Communications & Navigation Program

Space Communications Technology

Space Operations Mission Directorate

Space Technology Mission Directorate

Technology Demonstration

Technology Demonstration Missions Program

NASA’s New Experimental Antenna Tracks Deep Space Laser

Capable of receiving both radio frequency and optical signals, the DSN’s hybrid antenna has tracked and decoded the downlink laser from DSOC, aboard NASA’s Psyche mission. An experimental antenna has received both radio frequency and near-infrared laser signals from NASA’s Psyche spacecraft as it travels through deep space.

Posted February 8, 2024

Glenn Research Center

Fission Surface Power (FSP)

Space Technology Mission Directorate

NASA’s Fission Surface Power Project Energizes Lunar Exploration

NASA is wrapping up the initial phase of its Fission Surface Power Project, which focused on developing concept designs for a small, electricity-generating nuclear fission reactor that could be used during a future demonstration on the Moon and to inform future designs for Mars.

Posted January 31, 2024

General

Ames Research Center

Space Technology Mission Directorate

BioNutrients: A Five-Year Experiment in Space Nears Completion

NASA’s bio-manufacturing experiment called BioNutrients is testing a way to use microorganisms to produce on-demand nutrients that will be critical for human health during future long-duration space missions.

Posted January 30, 2024

Space Technology Mission Directorate

International Space Station (ISS)

ISS Research

Spinoffs

Technology Transfer

Technology Transfer & Spinoffs

NASA Space Tech Spinoffs Benefit Earth Medicine, Moon to Mars Tools

As NASA innovates for the benefit of all, what the agency develops for exploration has the potential to evolve into other technologies with broader use here on Earth. Many of those examples are highlighted in NASA’s annual Spinoff book including dozens of NASA-enabled medical innovations, as well other advancements.

Posted January 29, 2024

Armstrong Flight Research Center

Flight Opportunities Program

Game Changing Development Program

Space Technology Mission Directorate

NASA Selects Winners of Third TechRise Student Challenge

NASA is announcing 60 winning teams for its third TechRise Student Challenge, a nationwide contest to engage students in technology, science, and space exploration. The student teams will work together to turn their proposed science and technology experiments into reality ahead of NASA-sponsored suborbital flight tests this summer.

Posted January 24, 2024