NASA
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NASA
Star-Spangled City
Editor’s note: In honor of America’s 250th birthday, Earth Observatory is revisiting stories about the landscapes that helped shape U.S. history. The images and text on this page were originally published on September 14, 2014. Explore the full collection here. The song is familiar to every American, but the moment and place where it was composed are less so. On April 24,…
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NASA
NASA Tests New Device for Future In-Space Refueling Missions
For NASA’s next generation of deep space exploration missions, spacecraft may need to refuel in Earth orbit before pushing farther into the solar system. Similar to how a gas pump needs a nozzle to fit your fuel tank, future spacecraft could require a special device in order to fill up prior to departure, known as a cryocoupler. Cryocouplers would allow…
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NASA
NASA Testing Advanced Capabilities for Moon, Mars Rovers
On a bleak stretch of the Colorado Desert in Southern California, a compact four-wheeled rover recently trundled about 16 miles (26 kilometers) with minimal intervention from the team of engineers trailing it. Called ERNEST (Exploration Rover for Navigating Extreme Sloped Terrain), this prototype is being used by NASA to advance both robotic autonomy and the ability to traverse challenging landscapes.…
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NASA
Euclid Sees Heart of Milky Way
Euclid, an ESA (European Space Agency) mission with NASA contributions, took a new look at the heart of our Milky Way galaxy, seen in this image released on June 24, 2026. This observation overlaps with a region scientists will observe with NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, launching later this summer. This sneak peek gives astronomers a major jumpstart on a…
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NASA
NASA Identifies More Than 40 Space Technologies for Collaboration
NASA selected 41 proposals from 37 companies to advance technologies in support of the agency’s goals to establish a long-term presence on the Moon and enable human exploration of Mars. These American companies, picked from NASA’s 2025 Announcement of Collaboration Opportunity (ACO), will mature technologies creating solutions for space transportation, planetary surface operations, and lunar surface infrastructure. “We are empowering…
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NASA
Partners, NASA Ready for June Launch of Swift Boost Mission
Editor’s note, July 1, 2026: Wednesday’s launch was postponed due to unfavorable weather conditions. The next launch attempt is no earlier than Thursday, July 2, at 9:09 p.m. UTC+12 (5:09 a.m. EDT). Editor’s note, June 30, 2026: Tuesday’s launch was postponed due to unfavorable weather conditions. The next launch attempt is no earlier than Wednesday, July 1, at 9:43 p.m. UTC+12 (5:43 a.m. EDT).…
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NASA
Bringing Signals to NASA
Growing up on the central California coast, watching rocket launches with his father was part of Eric Fernandez’s childhood routine. Fernandez had posters of rockets on the wall, but despite being fascinated by them, he never imagined one day this would be his career. Because both of his grandparents had served at Vandenberg Air Force Base (later renamed to Vandenberg…
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NASA
NASA Announces Winners for 2026 Human Lander Challenge
NASA has announced the top student-developed solutions for environmental control and life support systems in future crewed lunar landers from participants in the 2026 Human Lander Challenge. The announcement marks the culmination of months of research by university teams working to advance technologies supporting the agency’s Artemis program that will return American astronauts to the Moon in 2028. The challenge…
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NASA
Astrobotic Awarded 2 NASA Contracts for CLPS Moon Base Missions
Astrobotic has been selected by NASA to deliver a suite of agency payloads to the lunar surface under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative in support of NASA’s Moon Base. These Moon Base task order awards will fly two Peregrine lunar landers to the Moon by the end of 2028.”Each mission has moved us closer to routine lunar access,” said…
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NASA
Hubble Spies Starry Chandelier
The subject of today’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is an ancient inhabitant of our galaxy. This sparkling scene features a globular cluster: a collection of tens of thousands to millions of stars, all tightly bound together under the influence of gravity. There are more than 150 globular clusters in our galaxy, though there may be others still undiscovered, hidden from view by dust…
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