Blog

NASA Stennis Flashback: Learning About Rocket Engine Smoke for Safe Space Travel

NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, is widely known as the nation’s largest rocket propulsion test site. More than 35 years ago, it also served as a hands-on classroom for NASA engineers seeking to improve the efficiency of space shuttle main engines. From 1988 to the mid-1990’s, NASA Stennis engineers operated a […]

Posted February 26, 2025

Blogs

Sols 4461-4463: Salty Salton Sea?

Earth planning date: Friday, Feb. 21, 2025 Since first encountering the sulfate-bearing unit around Sol 3540, we have detected minerals and elemental concentrations consistent with the presence of various salts and a general drying out of Mars climate (read ”NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover Reaches Long-Awaited Salty Region”).

Posted February 26, 2025

Johnson Space Center

General

NASA Names Stephen Koerner as Acting Director of Johnson Space Center

NASA has selected Stephen Koerner as acting director of Johnson Space Center. Koerner previously served as Johnson’s deputy director. “It is an honor to accept my new role as acting director for Johnson,” Koerner said. “Our employees are key to our nation’s human spaceflight goals.

Posted February 26, 2025

Armstrong Flight Research Center

Aeronautics

Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate

Langley Research Center

Low Boom Flight Demonstrator

Quesst (X-59)

Quesst: The Vehicle

Supersonic Flight

NASA’s X-59 Completes Electromagnetic Testing

NASA’s quiet supersonic X-59 research aircraft has cleared electromagnetic testing, confirming its systems will work together safely, without interference across a range of scenarios. “Reaching this phase shows that the aircraft integration is advancing,” said Yohan Lin, NASA’s X-59 avionics lead.

Posted February 26, 2025

Auroras

EZIE (Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer)

Goddard Space Flight Center

Heliophysics

Missions

Small Satellite Missions

The Sun

NASA’s EZIE Launching to Study Magnetic Fingerprints of Earth’s Aurora

High above Earth’s poles, intense electrical currents called electrojets flow through the upper atmosphere when auroras glow in the sky. These auroral electrojets push about a million amps of electrical charge around the poles every second.

Posted February 25, 2025

Goddard Space Flight Center

Lucy

Planetary Science

The Solar System

Trojan Asteroids

NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Takes Its 1st Images of Asteroid Donaldjohanson

NASA’s Lucy spacecraft has its next flyby target, the small main belt asteroid Donaldjohanson, in its sights. By blinking between images captured by Lucy on Feb. 20 and 22, this animation shows the perceived motion of Donaldjohanson relative to the background stars as the spacecraft rapidly approaches the asteroid.

Posted February 25, 2025

General

Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS)

Johnson Space Center

Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 Mission

Posted February 25, 2025

Earth Science

AGU 2024: NASA Science on Display in the Nation’s Capital

Introduction The American Geophysical Union (AGU) returned to the nation’s capital in 2024, hosting its annual meeting at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC from December 9–14, 2024.

Posted February 25, 2025

Opportunities For Educators to Get Involved

Planetary Science

Science Activation

Sharing PLANETS Curriculum with Out-of-School Time Educators

Out of school time (OST) educators work with youth in afterschool, community, and camp programs. Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) learning in OST can be challenging for multiple reasons, including lack of materials and support for educators.

Posted February 25, 2025

Quesst (X-59)

Diamonds from NASA’s X-59

NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft took another successful step toward flight with the conclusion of a series of engine performance tests.

Posted February 25, 2025