Category: Space Exploration

Source: NASA

Fifty years ago, NASA’s Viking 1 and 2 landers made the first successful landings on Mars, opening a new era in planetary exploration. Behind that achievement was a team at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, whose steady leadership and technical expertise helped turn an ambitious idea into a mission that reshaped how we explore other worlds.
Building the Blueprint for Mars
NASA selected Langley in 1968 to lead the massive Viking project, the first U.S. mission designed to land safely on Mars and search for signs of life. Project Manager James S. Martin Jr. set the tone from the start. He wanted clear priorities, tough engineering reviews, and the discipline to test every system until the team was confident it would perform on Mars.

Entry, Descent, and Landing
Langley engineers faced a challenge unlike anything attempted before: slowing a spacecraft plunging into the Martian atmosphere at more than 10,000 miles per hour. So they leaned into their expertise in atmospheric entry aerodynamics, heat shielding, and parachute technology. Their work produced the protective aeroshell and heat shield, as well as the supersonic parachute. These systems didn’t come from theory alone — they were shaped by years of wind‑tunnel tests, analysis, and problem‑solving. Langley still excels at entry, descent, and landing systems today.
Science and Safety, Hand in Hand
Langley also helped create a new approach to finding safe landing sites. Teams combined images from Viking’s orbiters with radar data from Earth‑based observatories to identify regions that balanced scientific value with engineering safety — a method now standard for Mars missions.
Viking also changed how mission teams operated. Engineers and scientists adopted the sol — a Martian day slightly longer than 24 hours — to keep daily work aligned with local time on Mars, a practice still used for surface missions.

A Mission Reborn: From Voyager to Viking
Viking grew out of a pivotal program shift. The earlier Voyager Mars lander concept was canceled because it was too costly and risky, relying on two large landers stacked on a single Saturn V rocket. Langley helped chart a more realistic path forward, pairing each lander with its own orbiter and using Titan IIIE‑Centaur rockets instead. The new design preserved scientific ambition while making the mission achievable.
A Legacy That Endures
Viking provided an early model for how NASA could explore the solar system: scout with orbiters, certify landing sites with real data, and land only with systems tested well beyond their limits. That “planetary playbook,” shaped heavily by Langley, provided a guide for future Mars missions like Curiosity and Perseverance.
The two landers returned thousands of images and groundbreaking data, revealing Mars as a world with weather, geologic history, and complexity that scientists are still studying today. And while no human has ever set foot on the Martian surface, Viking proved that reaching another planet — and working on it ­­— was within reach.
As the 50th anniversary of those landings arrives, Langley’s influence is unmistakable. The center continues to advance new entry, descent, and landing technologies, and explore concepts that will support future human explorers. The same spirit that guided Viking still drives the work happening in Hampton today — steady, curious, and always looking toward the next horizon.

Source: NASA

“Touchdown, we have touchdown!” At 5:12 a.m. PDT, July 20, 1976, mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory erupted in cheers as they learned that the Viking 1 lander had survived its descent through the thin Martian atmosphere. Forty minutes later, the lander’s first image began to appear on their monitors, slowly forming line by line from left to right. For the first time, humans were able to see Mars’s rocky terrain from its surface.
Dr. Thomas Mutch, leader of the Viking lander imaging team, described the moment: “I studied the black screen, waiting for that narrow strip that will signal the first few lines of the first picture. And it appeared. A sliver of electronic magic. Areas of brightness and darkness. The picture begins to fill the screen. Rocks and sand are visible and — finally at the far right — one of the spacecraft foot pads, a symbolic artifact that stamps our accomplishment with the sign of reality. Time and time again I repeat, ‘It’s incredible.’”
Fifty years ago today, the Viking 1 lander became NASA’s first robot to explore Mars’s surface and begin the search for signs of life in our solar system. Viking 1 was joined six weeks later by its twin lander, Viking 2, which explored a different region of Mars, while two mission orbiters that delivered the landers to the Red Planet continued to collect data from space and helped relay communications to Earth.
Learn more about what Viking found and NASA’s legacy of discovery on Mars at Viking: 50 Years on Mars.
Image credit: NASA/JPL

Source: NASA

Landslides in Alaska. Air quality in Atlanta. Fire clouds out West. From the Arctic fringes to farm country, NASA’s newest class of suborbital Earth Venture missions is gearing up to deliver science that will benefit communities in the United States and beyond. 
The six projects will mobilize hundreds of scientists and pilots from NASA, the U.S. Navy, universities, and other institutions over the next several years. While the investigations range across topics, a defining feature of suborbital missions is the use of sensors mounted on aircraft. 
Airborne remote sensing serves as a bridge between ground-based instruments and satellites. Data collected via planes, helicopters, drones, and balloons can fill in gaps in computer models used by weather forecasters, city planners, and others.  

The first project to take wing this summer is Injected Smoke and PYRocumulonimbus Experiment (INSPYRE), led by the Naval Research Laboratory. From mission headquarters in Colorado, the team will chase one of the least understood forms of severe weather on Earth: towering “fire clouds” generated when extreme wildfires burn hot enough to brew their own thunderstorms.  

Smoky and crackling with lightning, these unique storms can create blind spots for aviators above and spark new blazes below. Measuring and mapping the dangerous storms as they develop in real-time will help scientists forecast them in the future. Several aircraft, including NASA’s high-altitude ER-2, flying out of Montana, will carry a large suite of instruments over wildfire-generated storm systems. Among them will be two state-of-the-art infrared wildfire trackers, which were developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California and will be flying as part of the agency’s FireSense program.  

Agricultural emissions represent an important and understudied part of Earth’s land and atmosphere systems. The FarmFlux mission, which kicks off this year, will deploy more than a dozen sensors to measure ozone, methane, ammonia, particulates, and other pollutants rising from agricultural lands and animal farms stretching from the Midwest to California’s Central Valley. These emissions affect human health, global climate, and stratospheric ozone. The mission is led by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, along with Colorado State University, and Boston University. 

Two North American cities with air quality concerns are Atlanta and Mexico City. But the causes differ, with weather and terrain playing a role. To explore these differences, the Hemispheric Airborne Measurements of Air Quality (HAMAQ) mission will investigate areas of poor air in the two capitals and test how satellite information can help forecasting and mitigation efforts. The team will deploy two aircraft at different altitudes: NASA’s P-3B will fly close to the surface, directly measuring fine particle and gaseous pollutants, while the recently acquired 777 science jet will soar high above, mapping pollution with remote sensors.  NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, is leading the mission. 

As the Arctic warms at least twice as fast as the rest of Earth, data collected today can help guide communities on the front lines of change.  

The Snow4Flow campaign, led by the University of Arizona, seeks to measure and model how far and fast glaciers are retreating in the far north. Traversing remote icescapes across Alaska, the Yukon, Arctic Canada, Greenland, and Svalbard, Norway, they’ll sound both the near-surface and frozen depths of hundreds of glaciers while flying over in a modernized WWII-era aircraft outfitted with a scanning laser altimeter and two custom radars. Their observations, combined with satellite data and advanced models of snowfall and glacier flow, will advance our understanding of how glaciers behave in different regions of the Arctic. The mission seeks to uncover not just what these glaciers look like beneath the surface today, but the processes that will drive changes in the future. 
As permafrost thaws, rivers on the doorstep of the Arctic become conveyor belts of carbon and sediment. NASA Goddard, and the City College of New York lead a multidisciplinary team studying how rivers, lagoons, and estuaries across Alaska’s North Slope interact with the Arctic Ocean. The project, called Frontlines of Rapidly Transforming Ecosystems (FORTE) will combine optical and radar measurements from satellites, planes, high-tech research vessels, drones, and underwater autonomous systems to track microscopic marine life, water flow, and chemistry. The team will collaborate with local and tribal communities to sustain observations over time and apply NASA assets to address emerging local needs and decision-making priorities.  

When a slow-moving landslide in California suddenly collapsed and buried a section of coastal highway in 2017, scientists at NASA JPL wanted to know how precipitation swings played a role. JPL studies how water infiltrates and destabilizes hillslopes all over the world. The Landslide Change Characterization Experiment (LACCE) project will combine airborne synthetic aperture radar with land-based sensors to track how slopes in California are responding to a world of intensifying droughts and downpours. The project also takes aim at emerging landslide hazards in Alaska, where rapidly retreating glaciers are accelerating slope movements that have the potential to create mega-tsunamis.  

NASA’s Earth Venture Suborbital program, designed to be nimble and high impact, was established following a recommendation by the National Research Council in 2007. In the decades since, teams have studied phenomena, including blizzards, coral reefs, and ocean whirlpools.  

Source: NASA

An aircraft powered by a megawatt-class hybrid-electric engine developed in collaboration with NASA and built by GE Aerospace, demonstrated flight of an innovation that can inform new generations of fuel-saving aircraft power systems.
Mounted to a Saab 340B aircraft, the engine flew at Farnborough International Air Show in the United Kingdom. It was the public debut of a system that has in recent months made historic test flights, becoming the first hybrid electric-powered aircraft to fly above 30,000 feet and making the longest hybrid electric flight of over two hours.
“This achievement reflects what NASA does best in aeronautics: we explore bold possibilities, validate them through rigorous research and testing, and work with industry to turn breakthrough ideas into technologies that bring real value for the American people,” said Laurie Grindle, director of the Aeronautics Division within the agency’s Research and Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
The testing leveraged work done through NASA’s former Electrified Powertrain Flight Demonstration project and the agency’s ongoing Subsonic Vehicle Technologies and Tools project – years of collaborative research that included key testing at NASA test facilities. 
The engine integrates electric motors, a gas turbine, and energy storage capabilities. It was designed to demonstrate the capacity to power an aircraft around the size of a regional-class jet, reducing fuel burn and costs without sacrificing performance. The unit’s technology and designs are expected to be used to help develop future hybrid systems that could lower airline operating costs. 
The demonstration flight came after years of rapid development for the technology. For NASA, it also validates work that stretches back to a time when hybrid aviation propulsion seemed almost beyond the horizon of possibility.

LAURIE A. GRINDLE
Director of the Aeronautics Division within the agency’s Research and Technology Mission Directorate

“This is the culmination of more than 15 years of work, and we did that because it’s going to have an impact for aircraft that will help reduce energy use and help U.S. companies and the public,” said Ralph Jansen, aerospace engineer at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. “It’s about having a vision that no one believes can happen and then doing the work to define and execute the research and development needed to make it happen.”  
This accomplishment was possible because of the collaborative effort of hundreds of people working on Electrified Powertrain Flight Demonstration and Subsonic Vehicle Technologies and Tools projects across NASA centers, in conjunction with GE Aerospace and its partner companies.
In recent years, aviation has seen a boom in small aircraft and drones powered by electrical systems drawing from batteries. But large passenger and cargo planes require complex engines capable of supplying massive amounts of power. So more than a decade ago when NASA began contemplating hybrid systems, just the possibility of using electric motors to supplement some energy was a daunting engineering challenge. 
NASA spent about seven years performing preliminary research, working with small businesses and other partners to consider technological obstacles and the potential commercial viability of hybrid systems. During that time, the agency addressed several barriers to implementation including the power, thermal, and battery technology, and the integration of the power system, engine, and aircraft.
Through the agency’s Electrified Powertrain Flight Demonstration award, GE Aerospace and NASA worked with researchers to develop lighter and more efficient power systems and shrink key components – sometimes dramatically. 
NASA and GE Aerospace also leveraged agency facilities and resources to further their research. In 2022, GE Aerospace tested an integrated version of its propulsion system at NASA’s Electric Aircraft Testbed at the agency’s Neil A. Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio. Testing allowed the system to operate in conditions simulating 45,000 feet in altitude, the range in which commercial single-aisle aircraft fly. 
The team added components, including electric motors, power converters, propellers, and a GE Aerospace commercial engine, followed by more ground tests and eventual flight tests. For the researchers who’d spent years on the concept, seeing the engine powering an aircraft in flight was a major step in a long journey.
“I’ve got to say, I was pretty touched seeing it fly. It was just awesome,” Jansen said.  “It’s just like a regular plane, which is probably the best thing of all.”
NASA’s current support for this research is through the Aeronautics Division of its Research and Technology Mission Directorate.

Source: NASA

This composite image, released on July 9, 2026, shows the region around a pulsar – a neutron star with a strong magnetic field that spins incredibly fast – within the Lighthouse nebula. The image contains X-ray data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory in purple, X-rays from NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) in blue, and radio emission captured by the Australia Compact Telescope Array in green.
Scientists used IXPE – for the first time ever – to directly measure the magnetic fields of the pulsar. The results provide new insight into the structure of some of the most extreme objects in the cosmos, as NASA continues to explore the secrets of how the universe works. A paper describing the results published July 9 in the Astrophysical Journal.
Read more about this novel use of IXPE.
Image credit: X-ray: Chandra: NASA/CXC/Stanford Univ./J. Dinsmore et al.; IXPE: NASA/MSFC/J. Dinsmore et al., Radio: CSIRO/ATNF/ATCA; Optical: 2MASS/UMass/IPAC-Caltech/NASA/NSF; Image processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare

Source: NASA

CONTRACT RELEASE
NASA has selected Chugach Intelligence Solutions LLC to provide comprehensive operations, maintenance, and repair services for NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. 
The Ames Facilities Support Services II contract ensures that the center’s historic and specialized facilities are properly maintained, fully operational, and capable of supporting the agency’s missions and tenant partners in the NASA Research Park. 
The hybrid contract has a five-year period of performance, consisting of a 12-month base period and four 12-month option periods, with the possibility of a six-month extension. The performance period is expected to begin Thursday, Aug. 13. The contract includes cost-plus-award-fee core requirements, firm-fixed-price phase-in, and indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity task orders, providing flexibility to address both routine and emergent facility needs. The award has a maximum potential value of approximately $158 million, inclusive of all options and total indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity ceiling value. 
For more information about NASA and its missions, visit: 

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Jeanne NealAmes Research Center, Silicon Valley, Calif.650-604-4789jeanne.c.neal@nasa.gov

Source: NASA

In April 2026, NASA’s Office of the Chief Health and Medical Officer (OCHMO) initiated a working group to review updated VTE case information, additional data gathered revealing altered blood flow status within a cohort of astronauts, and discuss progress of research and clinical activities intended to mitigate the risk of VTE during spaceflight with new evidence-based clinical practice recommendations.

The following is a summary of the working group’s recommendations:

The working group’s conclusions emphasized that stasis in the left internal jugular vein (IJV) is consistently viewed as a dominant risk factor for VTE in microgravity, though there is active debate regarding the relative contributions of slow qualitative flow, endothelial factors and/or retrograde flow.
Limitations of current in-flight ultrasound capabilities to accurately measure stasis/slow flow was cited as a concern, especially if using only stasis as a factor for indicating the need for prophylaxis.
Additional review of assessing stasis with ultrasound in-flight was recommended.
After reviewing the risk factors, additional discussions following the working group led to the majority of the panel agreeing that stasis and retrograde flow warranted use of prophylaxis.
The working group also recommended assessing all other risk factors other than stasis to also determine when prophylaxis is warranted.
Based on a literature review and summary of the panel contributions, a VTE Risk Score for Astronauts Algorithm was developed, which includes providing anticoagulation prophylaxis for stasis alone, or a combination of other thrombosis risk factors that are weighted by terrestrial literature.

NASA initially formed a working group in October 2024 after diagnosing venous thromboembolisms (VTEs) in astronauts during ISS missions. Experts reviewed case data, updated Clinical Practice Guidelines, and examined possible causes.

Source: NASA

The Growing Crescent of Mars as NASA’s Psyche Mission Approaches

This composite of images taken by NASA’s Psyche mission shows the crescent of Mars grow as the spacecraft approached the planet for a gravity assist from May 2 to May 15, 2026. The series begins with the smallest crescent at the center of the of the image as Mars is farthest from the spacecraft, and progressively grows as the spacecraft gets closer. After these views were captured by the spacecraft’s multispectral imager instrument, Mars began to overfill the field of view as Psyche made close approach with the planet and captured a series of high-resolution images of the surface.
Because Psyche approached Mars from a high phase angle, the planet appeared as a thin crescent in the days running up to the close approach, lit by sunlight reflecting off its surface. Using these views of the approach, close approach, and departure from Mars, the Psyche team compiled a stunning time-lapse of its entire Mars encounter.
For more information about NASA’s Psyche mission, visit:

Psyche

Source: NASA

NASA researchers recently put a new wing design, appearing long and thin with a lightweight structural design, through a series of grueling tests to find its structural limits. What they found left them encouraged about the wing’s potential, even when they pushed it past its intended limits.
The 15-foot Structural Wing Experiment Evaluating Truss-bracing (SWEET-15) test article is part of NASA’s research to develop future ultra-efficient aircraft. The design incorporates a long wing supported by an aerodynamic strut, based on NASA’s earlier Transonic Truss‑Braced Wing concept.
The research team is working to understand whether SWEET-15’s design and its new lightweight structural designs could help commercial airliners save fuel. But first, they need to understand how it behaves under the kinds of force wings experience in flight.

The SWEET-15 design originated with combining five different advanced composite manufacturing and assembly technologies that enabled the novel structural design. The 15-foot-long test article was then designed and fabricated at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, before traveling to NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, for testing.
Over several months, NASA engineers intentionally bent the test wing in the Flight Loads Laboratory at NASA Armstrong. Numerous strain and load sensors, including fiber-optic strain sensors, were placed throughout the structure to track how the wing responded as forces increased.
The data from the sensors confirmed the predictions made by NASA’s computer models. According to initial findings, the wing withstood the anticipated in-flight forces without issue. The results provided the team with confidence in the new manufacturing approaches and methods for connecting wing parts used in SWEET-15, which could support future efficient aircraft designs. The manufacturing approach, developed at NASA Langley used the Integrated Structural Assembly of Advanced Composites robot, aims to produce lighter and stronger composite structures for aerospace vehicles.

The test concluded with a deliberate test-to-failure, where engineers increased loads beyond the wing’s design limits to determine how and where it would fail. The structure ultimately failed at roughly 127% of its design limit load, with visible damage appearing near the back edge of the wing and in the upper wing cover. This element of testing provided valuable insight into how the joints connecting the wing to its main strut and a secondary one, called a jury strut, behave under forces beyond the expected flight envelope.
This marks the first time a representative composite truss-braced wing configuration has undergone this type of structural evaluation.  It was made possible only through NASA collaboration across centers and projects, with researchers utilizing agency resources such as the Fiber Optic Sensing System developed to gather data on both aircraft and spacecraft.

To prepare for the testing, engineers at NASA Langley designed, analyzed, and manufactured the wing and completed safety preparations and lab setup.
Researchers will now analyze the data collected during testing to inform future airframe designs and support NASA’s ongoing efforts to develop more efficient aviation technologies.
The work is being conducted through NASA’s Subsonic Flight Demonstrator project in the agency’s Research Technology Mission Directorate. The successful testing of multiple innovative components marks a milestone in NASA’s aeronautics research.
To learn more, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/aeronautics/

Source: NASA

The Republic of Mauritius has officially joined the global coalition committed to responsible space exploration, becoming the newest signatory and seventh African country to join the Artemis Accords. NASA’s Deputy Administrator Matt Anderson contributed video remarks for a signing ceremony on Friday, in the island nation’s city of Ébène.
“We are honored to welcome Mauritius to the Artemis Accords community and look forward to working together in the years ahead,” said Anderson. “Together, we are creating the foundation for future exploration while ensuring that space remains peaceful, accessible, and beneficial for all. America will return to the Moon and ignite the Golden Age of exploration and discovery. That work requires capable partners and a shared commitment to responsible exploration.”
Mauritius’ Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Tertiary Education, Science and Research Navindsing Jugmohunsing signed the Artemis Accords on behalf of the country. U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Sarah Troutman and U.S. Chargé d’Affaires to Mauritius Craig Halbmaier were present to witness the signing.
“The accession of Mauritius to the Artemis Accords marks a defining chapter in our New Space journey,” said Jugmohunsing. “As a Small Island Developing State in the Indian Ocean, we are committed to ensuring that space serves humanity by protecting our oceans and coastlines and amplifying the voices of nations like ours. Mauritius stands ready to help shape the future of space governance while unlocking new opportunities for innovation and partnership.”
NASA first engaged with Mauritius through its early global mapping efforts, owing to the nation’s strategic location. Between 1965 and 1980, NASA used several satellite missions to collect global measurements of Earth’s size and shape. As part of that work, NASA sent teams to Mauritius and other international tracking stations that supported satellite photography for geodetic analysis. Their observations strengthened the navigation technologies used from Apollo to Artemis and helped lay the foundation for the partnership reaffirmed today by the Artemis Accords.
In 2020, NASA and the Department of State joined with seven other founding nations to establish the Artemis Accords, responding to the growing interest in lunar activities by both governments and private companies. They introduced the first set of practical principles aimed at enhancing the safety and coordination between like-minded nations as they explore the Moon, Mars, and beyond, committing nations to: 

explore peaceably and transparently 
render aid to those in need 
enable access to scientific data  
ensure activities do not interfere with those of others 
preserve historically significant sites and artifacts by developing best practices 

Five years later, President Donald J. Trump’s National Space Policy directed NASA to establish a sustained lunar outpost. With this Moon Base, NASA is putting the principles of the Artemis Accords into practice, inviting every signatory including now Mauritius to take part in the endeavor. 
More countries are expected to sign the Artemis Accords in the months and years ahead, as NASA continues its work to establish a safe, peaceful, and prosperous future in space.   
Learn more about the Artemis Accords at:  
https://www.nasa.gov/artemis-accords