Blog

Spinoffs

In the 80 years since the shocking collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington, engineers have designed suspended structures to minimize their universal weakness: resonance. If not designed to deal with oscillations caused by forces like wind, the frequency of these forces would cause tensions to build and inevitably break the structure.

Posted March 12, 2024

General

Communications Services Project

Overview NASA’s Communications Services Project, known as CSP, is pioneering a new era of space communications by partnering with industry to provide commercial space relay communications services for NASA missions near Earth. CSP’s goal is to validate and deliver these commercial communication services to the Near Space Network by 2030.

Posted March 12, 2024

Astronauts

Commercial Crew

Expedition 70

Humans in Space

International Space Station (ISS)

Jasmin Moghbeli

Loral O'Hara

Space Technology Mission Directorate

NASA Astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara Read “First Woman”

In this image from Jan. 12, 2024, NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli (left) and Loral O’Hara pose with a copy of “First Woman”, NASA’s first graphic novel, inside the International Space Station’s cupola. The interactive graphic novel chronicles the adventures of fictional astronaut Callie Rodriguez, the first woman to explore the Moon.

Posted March 12, 2024

Europa

Europa Clipper

Jupiter

Kennedy Space Center

Launch Services Program

Missions

NASA’s Europa Clipper Solar Arrays Successfully Deploy at Kennedy Space Center

On March 6, technicians working inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida unfolded and fully extended the first of two five-panel solar arrays for the agency’s Europa Clipper spacecraft. Each solar array measures 46.5 feet in length.

Posted March 12, 2024

Biological & Physical Sciences

ISS Research

Science-enabling Technology

Technology Highlights

Zero-Boil-Off Tank Experiments to Enable Long-Duration Space Exploration

Do we have enough fuel to get to our destination? This is probably one of the first questions that comes to mind whenever your family gets ready to embark on a road trip. If the trip is long, you will need to visit gas stations along your route to refuel during your travel.

Posted March 12, 2024

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope

Galaxies

Galaxies, Stars, & Black Holes

Goddard Space Flight Center

Hubble Space Telescope

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)

Missions

Spitzer Space Telescope

Stars

The Milky Way

The Universe

NASA’s Roman Team Selects Survey to Map Our Galaxy’s Far Side

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team has announced plans for an unprecedented survey of the plane of our Milky Way galaxy. It will peer deeper into this region than any other survey, mapping more of our galaxy’s stars than all previous observations combined. “There’s a really broad range of science we can explore with […]

Posted March 12, 2024

NASA Engineering and Safety Center

Understanding Risk, Artificial Intelligence, and Improving Software Quality

The software discipline has broad involvement across each of the NASA Mission Directorates. Some recent discipline focus and development areas are highlighted below, along with a look at the Software Technical Discipline Team’s (TDT) approach to evolving discipline best practices toward the future.

Posted March 12, 2024

International Space Station (ISS)

Humans in Space

ISS Research

Missions

Splashdown! NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 Finishes Mission, Returns to Earth

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 completed the agency’s seventh commercial crew rotation mission to the International Space Station on Tuesday after splashing down safely in a Dragon spacecraft off the coast of Pensacola, Florida. The international crew of four spent 199 days in orbit.

Posted March 12, 2024

NASA Engineering and Safety Center

The Next Accident: How Do We Prevent It?

By Andrew Chaikin, Independent Space Historian and member of the NESC Human Factors Technical Discipline Team I recently watched NESC Deputy Director Mike Kirsch stand before a roomful of engineers at the Langley Research Center and tell them that with every passing day, NASA breaks a record: the longest stretch without a major accident in […]

Posted March 12, 2024

NASA Engineering and Safety Center

Operational Modal Analysis of the Artemis I Dynamic Rollout Test

Operational modal analysis (OMA) techniques have been used to identify the modal characteristics of the Artemis I launch vehicle during the Dynamic Rollout Test (DRT) and Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR) configuration prior to launch. Forces induced during rollout and on the launch pad are not directly measurable, thus necessitating a unique approach.

Posted March 12, 2024