NASA
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Civil Servants Sworn in at NASA Ames
New civil servants and guests pose for a group photo with NASA and center leadership in the National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex (NFAC) 80-by-120-foot test section, N221 on Aug. 24, 2026. The civil servants were sworn-in the same day in the largest swearing-in ceremony ever hosted at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley since its inception nearly 87 years ago.…
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NASA Astronaut Jonny Kim Departs Agency to Continue Military Service
After nearly a decade of service to NASA, including an eight-month science expedition aboard the International Space Station, astronaut Jonny Kim’s last day at the agency is Thursday. He will continue serving as lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy. Kim launched to the space station in April 2025 aboard the Soyuz MS‑27 spacecraft to conduct scientific research as a flight…
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NASA’s Roman Space Telescope launches with BAE Systems-built scientific instruments
BAE Systems (LON: BA) is celebrating the successful launch of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope today from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, which will support critical astrophysics discoveries as the latest flagship observatory. NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launching from Kennedy Space Center (BAE Systems). BAE Systems designed and developed the Opto-Mechanical Assembly on the Wide Field…
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NASA’s Dark Universe-Seeking Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Launches
Now on a three-month, million-mile journey to its final orbit, NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will soon reveal the universe’s darkest secrets. The mission launched at 7:26 a.m. EDT Sunday aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Roman pairs a large field of view with crisp infrared vision…
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Rare, Widespread Snow in the Atacama Desert
In August 2026, back-to-back winter storms left parts of the Atacama Desert in northern Chile covered in a rare blanket of snow. The typically arid region has seen snowfall before, notably in 2025 and before that in 2011. But one of the 2026 events was unusually widespread, stretching from the Andes to near the Pacific coast. The OLI (Operational Land Imager) on…
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A Changing World for Emperor Penguins
With their charming waddles, heat-conserving huddles, and tuxedo-like plumage, emperor penguins are among the world’s most recognizable animals. Recent satellite surveys estimate that hundreds of thousands of the flightless birds live in 66 colonies spread around Antarctica’s inaccessible, frozen coastlines. But those numbers could fall in the coming decades because emperor penguins rely on landfast (or fast) ice—a type of sea ice attached to the shoreline—to breed, raise chicks, and molt. While…
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Astronomy Picture of the Day
Colorful Aurora over Icelandic Waterfall Explanation: What a sight to behold, when a night sky became filled with colors that appeared to rain over the Skógafoss waterfall in Iceland. This image was taken in a single 5 second exposure by the photographer in April 2025. Seeing an aurora is on many people’s bucket lists. But it is not easy. It requires high solar activity, dark and…
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Roman Space Telescope Travels to SpaceX Hangar
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, encapsulated in its payload fairing, travels from the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility to the SpaceX hangar at Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026, ahead of mating to a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. Roman’s science instruments are designed to help researchers understand dark energy, the mysterious force accelerating…
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NASA Johnson Pilots Chase Moon’s Shadow for Eclipse Science
During the Aug. 12 total solar eclipse over Europe, scientists aimed to study a long-standing mystery: why the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona, is far hotter than its visible surface. Capturing the data they needed meant being in exactly the right place at the right time. Pilots from NASA’s Johnson Space Center flew the WB-57F high altitude research aircraft from Ellington Field in Houston to Iceland, their base for flying through the path…
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NASA Sets Spacewalk for Station Maintenance, Live Coverage Planned
NASA will provide coverage as two astronauts step outside the International Space Station on Tuesday, Sept. 1, to replace a spacecraft navigational aid and complete several maintenance tasks in support of space station operations. Watch live coverage beginning at 7 a.m. EDT. The spacewalk is expected to start at approximately 8:30 a.m. and last about six and a half hours.…
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