NASA's Atmospheric Waves Experiment, or AWE, is set to launch in November 2023. From its perch aboard the International Space Station 250 miles above Earth, AWE will study atmospheric gravity waves to better understand how they transport energy into Earth's upper atmosphere and affect space weather.
Air pollution is an existential threat to millions of Americans with asthma and other health issues. Responding to that threat, NASA and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory are innovating to improve observations of air quality in North America. Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) is an ultraviolet and visible spectrometer that will be hosted on Intelsat …
NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) is fully operational after the mission team successfully reset the spacecraft on March 2. To take the spacecraft out of a contingency mode it entered last month, the mission team performed a firecode reset (which is an external reset of the spacecraft) instead of waiting for the spacecraft to perform …
The Sun emitted a strong (X-class) solar flare, peaking at 12:52 p.m. EST on March 3, 2023. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the Sun constantly, captured an image of the event. Solar flares are powerful bursts of energy. Flares and solar eruptions can impact high-frequency (HF) radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals, and …
NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) experienced a flight computer reset during a planned contact and the spacecraft went into contingency mode on Feb. 18. While fight computer resets have happened before, this time the team lost the ability to command the spacecraft during the subsequent reset recovery. The team also was unsuccessful in regaining command …
After launching in December 2022, the international Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission started commissioning activities – the six-month checkout period before the scientific mission begins. Commissioning has included turning on all the science instruments, among them the main science instrument, the Ka-band Radar Interferometer (KaRIn), which engineers fully powered on in mid-January 2023. …
Editor's Note: This post highlights data from Webb science in progress, which has not yet been through the peer-review process. On June 20, 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope spent just over one hour staring at Messier 92 (M92), a globular cluster 27,000 light-years away in the Milky Way halo. The observation – among the …
The Sun emitted a strong solar flare, peaking at 3:16 p.m. ET on Feb. 17, 2023. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the Sun constantly, captured an image of the event. Solar flares are powerful bursts of energy. Flares and solar eruptions can impact radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals, and pose risks to …
An instrument on NASA's Parker Solar Probe was powered off by the spacecraft autonomy system on Feb. 12, 2023.
On Feb. 15, 2013, the people of Chelyabinsk, Russia, experienced a shocking event, and yet it was a small fraction of the devastation an asteroid on a collision course with Earth could yield. As NASA's Planetary Defense experts reflect on the Chelyabinsk impact 10 years ago, they also look forward to the future and all …
