Blogs

The most common misconception about sonic booms is that they’re just the sound created at the moment when an aircraft “breaks the sound barrier.” In reality, a sonic boom is continuous, the audible evidence of invisible pressure waves forming as an aircraft travels faster than sound. As these waves travel toward the ground, they can merge, creating an explosive bang heard by everyone the aircraft passes over.  Sonic booms have been a problem since aircraft first began exceeding the speed of sound, or Mach 1, so disturbing to people below that for decades U.S. and international regulations banned commercial supersonic flight over […]

On Aug. 6, NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Anil Menon concluded a 6-hour, 27-minute spacewalk outside the International Space Station. Meir and Menon successfully completed their primary objective of preparing the 3B power channel for the future installation of a roll out solar array. Toward the end of the spacewalk, a carbon dioxide sensor on Menon’s spacesuit indicated an unexpected data reading. Menon reported no other issues during the spacewalk.

Science data from NASA’s IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) mission is now available. After its successful launch on Sept. 24, 2025, IMAP’s prime mission began a few months later, on Feb. 1.  All 10 instruments on IMAP have been successfully collecting data. While data from three of the instruments are not yet ready for […]

NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Anil Menon concluded their spacewalk outside the International Space Station at 3 p.m. EDT. It was Menon’s first spacewalk and Meir’s sixth.

When the trio of NASA’s SkyFall helicopters takes to the Martian skies, one of their tasks will be to hunt for frozen water — a critical resource for future astronauts — using ground-penetrating radar. For that radar to work, each rotorcraft will carry a flexible, fabric-based antenna that will need to extend below the aircraft […]

Teams have successfully reduced the spin of Katalyst Space’s LINK, which is designed to boost NASA’s Swift to a higher orbital altitude. 

Preparing for the NASA Lucy spacecraft’s first Trojan asteroid encounters, mission scientists have begun instructing the spacecraft to turn its cameras toward its future targets. From hundreds of millions of miles away, the asteroids appear as pinpricks of light. Yet, these early observations will help the team select the best camera settings for Lucy’s upcoming […]

NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Anil Menon began a spacewalk at 8:33 a.m. EDT outside the International Space Station to prepare the 3B power channel for the future installation of new roll-out solar arrays. Once installed, the arrays will provide additional power to support critical station operations, including its safe and controlled deorbit.

NASA is streaming live coverage as two NASA astronauts prepare for a spacewalk outside the International Space Station. The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at approximately 8:35 a.m. EDT and last about six and a half hours. Watch online at: https://www.nasa.gov/live