NASA
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NASA
NASA Boosts Efficiency with Custom X-66 Flooring
NASA designed temporary floorboards for the MD-90 aircraft to use while it is transformed into the X-66 experimental demonstrator aircraft. These floorboards will protect the original flooring and streamline the modification process. Supporting the agency’s Sustainable Flight Demonstrator project, a small team in the Experimental Fabrication Shop at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, built temporary floorboards to…
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NASA
NASA Awards Launch Services Contract for SpaceX Starship
NASA has awarded SpaceX of Starbase, Texas, a modification under the NASA Launch Services (NLS) II contract to add Starship to their existing Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch service offerings. The NLS II contracts provide a broad range of commercial launch services for NASA’s planetary, Earth-observing, exploration, and scientific satellites. These high-priority, low and medium risk tolerant missions have…
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NASA
Visiting Mars on the Way to the Outer Solar System
Recently Mars has had a few Earthly visitors. On March 1, NASA’s Europa Clipper flew within 550 miles (884 kilometers) of the Red Planet’s surface on its way out to Jupiter. On March 12, the European Space Agency’s Hera spacecraft flew within about 3,100 miles (5,000 kilometers) of Mars, and only 300 kilometers from its moon, Deimos. Hera is on its way to study…
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NASA
Sols 4493-4494: Just Looking Around
Written by Alex Innanen, atmospheric scientist at York University Earth planning date: Wednesday, March 26, 2025 It’s my second shift of the week as the Environmental theme lead and keeper of the plan (a bit of a mouthful we shorten to ESTLK) and today started out feeling eerily similar to Monday. Once again, Curiosity is posing like a geologist, which means…
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NASA
Turning Vanes inside the Altitude Wind Tunnel
Men stand in front of turning vanes inside the Altitude Wind Tunnel (AWT) at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory in this February 1944 publicity photo. The photo was taken just weeks after the tunnel became operational. The AWT was the only wind tunnel capable of testing full-size aircraft engines in simulated altitude conditions. A large wooden drive…
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NASA
NASA Shares SpaceX Crew-11 Assignments for Space Station Mission
As part of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission, four crew members from three space agencies will launch in the coming months to the International Space Station for a long-duration science expedition aboard the orbiting laboratory. NASA astronauts Commander Zena Cardman and Pilot Mike Fincke, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Mission Specialist Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Mission Specialist Oleg Platonov will join crew…
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NASA
Understanding Cosmic Explosions: StarBurst Arrives at NASA for Testing
StarBurst, a wide-field gamma ray observatory, arrived at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, March 4 for environmental testing and final instrument integration. The instrument is designed to detect the initial emission of short gamma-ray bursts, a key electromagnetic indicator of neutron star mergers. “Gamma-ray bursts are among the most powerful explosions in the universe, and they serve as cosmic beacons that help…
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NASA
Meet the Space Ops Team: Anum Ashraf
For Anum Ashraf, Ph.D., the interconnectedness of NASA’s workforce presents the exciting opportunity to collaborate with a multitude of people and teams. With more than 11 years at the agency, Ashraf has played a fundamental role in leading efforts that actively bridge these connections and support NASA’s mission. Ashraf serves as the mission commitment lead for NASA’s SCaN (Space Communication and…
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NASA
NEO Surveyor Instrument Enclosure Inside Historic Chamber A
The instrument enclosure of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Surveyor is prepared for critical environmental tests inside the historic Chamber A at the Space Environment Simulation Laboratory at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston in December 2024. Wrapped in silver thermal blanketing, the 12-foot-long (3.7-meter-long) angular structure was subjected to the frigid, airless conditions that the spacecraft will experience when in deep space. The…
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NASA
NASA’s Dust Shield Successfully Repels Lunar Regolith on Moon
NASA’s Electrodynamic Dust Shield (EDS) successfully demonstrated its ability to remove regolith, or lunar dust and dirt, from its various surfaces on the Moon during Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1, which concluded on March 16. Lunar dust is extremely abrasive and electrostatic, which means it clings to anything that carries a charge. It can damage everything from spacesuits and…
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