Goddard Space Flight Center
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NASA
NASA’s Roman Observatory Passes Final Major Prelaunch Tests
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team recently blasted the observatory with extreme sound, shook it, and listened to its electronic hum. Roman passed all three assessments, which aimed to confirm that the observatory will withstand launch conditions and function as expected in space. The achievement keeps the mission on track for launch as early as this fall. “All of…
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NASA
NASA Invites Media to 63rd Annual Goddard Space Science Symposium
Media are invited to attend the 63rd annual Goddard Space Science Symposium, taking place Thursday, March 12, and Friday, March 13, at the National Housing Center in Washington. The event also will be streamed online. Organized by the American Astronautical Society (AAS) in conjunction with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, the symposium gathers experts across NASA, other…
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NASA
Measuring the Big Bang with the COBE satellite
The Cosmic Background Explorer satellite (COBE) went up on a Delta rocket on Nov. 18, 1989, into a polar sun-synchronous orbit 900 km up. Our team at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Ball Aerospace, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and universities built it to look at the cosmic microwave and infrared background light that comes to us from the…
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NASA
Boreal Forests Are Shifting North
The boreal forest—the world’s largest terrestrial biome—is warming faster than any other forest type. To understand the changing dynamics of boreal forests, Feng et al., 2026 analyzed the biome from 1985 to 2020, leveraging the longest and highest-resolution satellite record of calibrated tree cover to date. The study, published in February in Biogeosciences with four co-authors from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, confirms a…
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NASA
NASA, Partners Advance LISA Prototype Hardware
Engineers and scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, completed tests this month on a second early version of a key element of the upcoming LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) mission. The LISA mission, a collaboration between ESA (the European Space Agency) and NASA, will use infrared lasers to detect gravitational waves, or ripples in the fabric of space-time. The tests…
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NASA
NASA Awards Global Modeling, Assimilation Support Contract
NASA has selected ADNET Systems, Inc. of Bethesda, Maryland, to provide global modeling and data assimilation support at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The Global Modeling and Assimilation Support contract is a single-award, cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with a maximum ordering value of approximately $84 million with a five-year period of performance beginning March 15, 2026. Under…
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NASA
Terra: The End of An Era
Introduction Launched into the night sky nearly 26 years ago, on Dec. 19, 1999, from Vandenberg Air Force Base (now Space Force Base), Terra was NASA’s first Earth Observing System (EOS) flagship mission to study Earth’s land surface from space via a coordinated series of polar-orbiting and low-inclination satellites that produce long-term global observations useful for understanding the interactions between…
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NASA
Maintaining the Gold Standard: The Future of Landsat Calibration and Validation
By Amit Angal, Senior Engineer at Goddard Space Flight Center The Landsat Calibration and Validation (Cal/Val) group helps uphold Landsat’s reputation as the gold standard of satellite imagery. They ensure that the Operational Land Imager (OLI) and the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) aboard Landsats 8 and 9 provide high-quality scientific measurements to users around the world. In 2025, the Cal/Val group contributed over 60 pages to the…
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NASA
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Completed
Two technicians look up at NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope after its inner and outer segments were connected at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland on Nov. 25, 2025. This marked the end of Roman’s construction. After final testing, the telescope will move to the launch site at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for launch preparations in summer 2026.…
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NASA
NASA Completes Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Construction
NASA’s next big eye on the cosmos is now fully assembled. On Nov. 25, technicians joined the inner and outer portions of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope in the largest clean room at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is now fully assembled following the integration of its two major…
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