Blogs

After about a month in transit to the Moon, Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander successfully completed a four-minute lunar orbit insertion burn Thursday – the longest and most challenging burn conducted to date by the lander’s main engine and reaction control system thrusters. Now that the lander is in lunar trajectory, over the next 16 …

Human research, the series of ongoing investigations to understand how an astronaut’s body adapts to living long-term in space, was the main science topic aboard the International Space Station on Thursday. The Expedition 72 residents also continued packing a cargo craft for its upcoming departure and conducted an emergency drill to stay familiar with response, communication, and coordination procedures.

Trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) are icy bodies ranging in size from Pluto and Eris (dwarf planets with diameters of about 1,500 miles) down to tens of miles (Arrokoth) and even smaller. TNOs are on orbits comparable in size, or even much larger than, that of Neptune. The existence of TNOs was postulated by Kenneth Edgeworth, and …

The Expedition 72 crew continued its research on Wednesday to better understand space-caused eye pressure changes and ensure crew members stay healthy on future missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. The orbital residents also kept up the continuous operations of critical science gear and life support systems on the International Space Station.

Editor’s note: This blog was updated on Feb. 12, 2025, to add the target launch time. NASA and SpaceX are accelerating the target launch and return dates for the upcoming crew rotation missions to and from the International Space Station. The agency’s Crew-10 launch now is targeting 7:48 p.m. EDT, Wednesday, March 12, pending mission …

Tuesday’s International Space Station research objectives included learning how to grow crops on spacecraft and produce vitamins and nutrients in space to sustain crews farther away from Earth. The Expedition 72 crewmates also explored how the human body orients itself in weightlessness and serviced a pair of docked spacecraft.702

On Feb. 6, NASA’s NEO Surveyor (Near-Earth Object Surveyor) passed its critical design review, or CDR, at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, where the project is managed. Capping three days of presentations, a NASA Standing Review Board determined that the mission meets all technical performance measures and requirements. The project will now …

Fieldwork in Panama is underway, as scientists began collecting airborne and ground-based data to aid studies of the region’s tropical ecosystems.

In our continuing endeavor to make SAGE III data more accessible and to increase its utilization, the SAGE III/ISS team at NASA Langley Research Center launched enhancements and new features to the Quicklook and Expedited website for data visualization products. Some highlights of the changes made include easier navigation and display on mobile devices, as […]