Blog

Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS)

NASA Sets Coverage for ULA, Astrobotic Artemis Robotic Moon Launch

As part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis program, United Launch Alliance (ULA) and Astrobotic are targeting 2:18 a.m. EST Monday, Jan. 8, for the first commercial robotic launch to the Moon’s surface.

Posted December 28, 2023

Juno

Europa

Goddard Space Flight Center

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Jupiter

Jupiter Moons

Rings of Jupiter

The Solar System

NASA’s Juno to Get Close Look at Jupiter’s Volcanic Moon Io on Dec. 30

The orbiter has performed 56 flybys of Jupiter and documented close encounters with three of the gas giant’s four largest moons. NASA’s Juno spacecraft will on Saturday, Dec. 30, make the closest flyby of Jupiter’s moon Io that any spacecraft has made in over 20 years. Coming within roughly 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) from the […]

Posted December 27, 2023

Office of Technology, Policy and Strategy (OTPS)

NASA’s Agency Chief Technologist presents their first annual year-in-review for 2023

OTPS shares an annual letter from the Agency Chief Technologist (ACT), updates on various studies in the technology domain within OTPS, overviews of the center chief technologists, and vignettes of various technology projects across the agency. Read the full report, A Year in Review 2023 from NASA’s Agency Chief Technologist.

Posted December 27, 2023

Office of Technology, Policy and Strategy (OTPS)

OTPS Releases its 2023 Annual Report

NASA’s Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy, shares highlights from the office in 2023, including key accomplishments and collaborations that support the NASA mission. Read the full report, NASA’s OTPS: A Year in Review 2023

Posted December 27, 2023

International Space Station (ISS)

For Researchers

ISS Research

Studying Combustion and Fire Safety

Research on the International Space Station is helping scientists to understand how fire spreads and behaves in different environments and learn how to prevent and extinguish fires in space.

Posted December 26, 2023

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)

Planets

The Solar System

Uranus

Uranus Moons

Ringing in the Holidays

The ice giant Uranus and its rings steal the show in this Dec. 18, 2023, image from the James Webb Space Telescope. The telescope captured new images of Uranus, revealing detailed features of the planet’s rings and seasonal north polar cap, as well as bright storms near and below the southern border of the cap. […]

Posted December 26, 2023

Deep Space Network

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA History

Space Communications & Navigation Program

NASA’s Deep Space Network Turns 60 and Prepares for the Future

Editor’s Note: Text regarding the name of JPL’s first ground stations was updated on Dec. 27, 2023. The agency’s DSN provides critical communications and navigation services to dozens of space missions, and it’s being modernized to support dozens more. NASA’s Deep Space Network marks its 60th year on Dec. 24.

Posted December 22, 2023

BARREL (Balloon Array for Radiation-belt Relativistic Electron Losses)

Scientific Balloons

On Cupid! On, Donner and BARREL!

In this image from Dec. 8, 2017, four reindeer walk past the Balloon Array for Radiation-belt Relativistic Electron Losses, or BARREL, payload on the launch pad at Esrange Space Center near Kiruna, Sweden. BARREL primarily measured X-rays in Earth’s atmosphere near the North and South Poles. These X-rays are caused by electrons that rain down, […]

Posted December 22, 2023

General

Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO)

NASA Issues New Space Security Best Practices Guide

As space missions and technologies grow increasingly interconnected, NASA has released the first iteration of its Space Security Best Practices Guide to bolster mission cybersecurity efforts for both public sector and private sector space activities.

Posted December 22, 2023

Astrophysics

Goddard Space Flight Center

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)

Missions

Science & Research

A Look Through Time with NASA’s Lead Photographer for the James Webb Space Telescope

Nearly two years ago in the early morning hours of Dec. 25, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope successfully took flight from the jungle-encircled ELA-3 launch complex at Europe’s Spaceport near Kourou, French Guiana.

Posted December 22, 2023