ICESat Stories

Bente Eegholm is an optical engineer working to ensure missions like the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope have stellar vision. When it launches by May 2027, the Roman mission will shed light on many astrophysics topics, like dark energy, which…

Editor’s note, Jan. 14, 2021: This feature has been corrected to show that the data used came from the ICESat satellite, not ICESat-2 as originally published. High-resolution NASA satellite data have made it possible for scientists to develop maps showing the…

By Bob Granath NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Florida NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida is counting down to support Santa Claus during his annual mission to deliver toys and other presents to children around the world. Once again, the agency…

By Bob Granath NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Florida Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana recently spoke to spaceport employees about plans for 2018. The coming year will be highlighted by NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP) partners preparing to launch test…

Arctic sea ice appeared to have reached its annual lowest extent on Sept. 10, NASA and the NASA-supported National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado at Boulder reported today. An analysis of satellite data showed…

Operation IceBridge, NASA’s airborne survey of polar ice, completed its first Greenland research flight of 2016 on April 19, kicking off its eighth spring Arctic campaign. This year’s science flights over Arctic sea and land ice will continue until May…

Before beaming 300 miles to Earth’s surface, bouncing off the ground and travelling another 300 miles back into space, the laser photons on NASA’s Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite-2 first have to complete a 7½-foot obstacle course inside the…

Sea ice in summer looks dramatically different than sea ice in winter, even in the polar Arctic. Summer snowmelt, pools of water on thinning ice and exposed ocean replace vast winter expanses of white snow-covered ice – and this weekend…