Space Technology Mission Directorate

NASA’s public competitions can catalyze big changes – not just for the agency but also for participants. Bronco Space, the CubeSat laboratory at California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, California, matured more than just space technology as a result of winning funds from NASA’s TechLeap Prize competition.

Posted June 28, 2024

Armstrong Flight Research Center

Ames Research Center

Glenn Research Center

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Langley Research Center

Space Technology Mission Directorate

NASA Parachute Sensor Testing Could Make EPIC Mars Landings

Landing rovers and helicopters on Mars is a challenge. It’s an even bigger challenge when you don’t have enough information about how the parachutes are enduring strain during the descent to the surface.

Posted June 27, 2024

Space Technology Mission Directorate

NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program

Science & Research

NASA Advances Research to Grow Habitats in Space from Fungi

As NASA prepares for long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars for the benefit of all, a habitat-growing concept selected Wednesday by the agency could help “grow” homes using fungi for future explorers.

Posted June 26, 2024

Goddard Technology

Goddard Space Flight Center

Space Technology Mission Directorate

Technology

Augmented Reality Speeds Spacecraft Construction at NASA Goddard

Technicians armed with advanced measuring equipment, augmented reality headsets, and QR codes virtually checked the fit of some Roman Space Telescope structures before building or moving them through facilities at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Posted June 20, 2024

Game Changing Development Program

Flight Opportunities Program

Space Technology Mission Directorate

Next Generation NASA Technologies Tested in Flight

Teams of NASA researchers put their next-generation technologies to the microgravity test in a series of parabolic flights that aim to advance innovations supporting the agency’s space exploration goals.

Posted June 20, 2024

Langley Research Center

Space Technology Mission Directorate

NASA’s RASC-AL Competition Selects 2024 Winners

Out of 14 finalist teams that encompassed collegiate and university representation from across the globe, the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University team with their concept, “Project Draupnir,” in the AI-Powered Self-Replicating Probe theme, took home top prize in NASA’s Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts – Academic Linkage (RASC

Posted June 13, 2024

Space Technology Mission Directorate

NASA Directorates

SBIR STTR

NASA Selects 2024 Small Business, Research Teams for Tech Development

NASA will award funding to nearly 250 small business teams to develop new technologies to address agency priorities, such as carbon neutrality and energy storage for various applications in space and on Earth.

Posted June 12, 2024

Armstrong Flight Research Center

Flight Opportunities Program

Space Technology Mission Directorate

NASA Program Sends University Payloads to Space

NASA’s Flight Opportunities program sent two university payloads on suborbital flight tests onboard Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity on June 8 when it launched from Spaceport America in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Posted June 11, 2024

NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program

Space Technology Mission Directorate

Winners Named in NASA Space Tech Art Challenge

Space technology might look a bit different decades from now. The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program studies innovative, technically credible, advanced projects that could one day “change the possible” in aerospace.

Posted May 31, 2024

Space Technology Mission Directorate

Ames Research Center

CubeSats

Game Changing Development Program

General

Small Satellite Missions

Small Spacecraft Technology Program

Tech Demo Missions

Swarming for Success: Starling Completes Primary Mission

After ten months in orbit, the Starling spacecraft swarm successfully demonstrated its primary mission’s key objectives, representing significant achievements in the capability of swarm configurations. Swarms of satellites may one day be used in deep space exploration.

Posted May 29, 2024