NASA
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NASA
NASA’s SpaceX CRS-34 Dragon Returns Packed with Space Station Science
Scientists await a big splash in the Pacific Ocean as one of the most research-packed Dragon spacecraft to date returns, completing the 34th SpaceX commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station for NASA. Biological and materials samples, along with tested hardware, are heading back to research teams on Earth for further analysis, advancing NASA’s work to prepare humans for…
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NASA
NASA’s Webb Finds Clues to Ancient, Distant Origin of Comet 3I/ATLAS
As interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS began moving away from the Sun in December 2025, astronomers took the opportunity to turn NASA’s powerful James Webb Space Telescope in its direction and capture detailed measurements of its chemical components. The comet was freshly warmed from its closest pass by the Sun, and its ancient ice had been converted to a bright coma of…
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NASA
Signs of Thaw in the Bering Sea
When clouds parted in early June 2026, satellites glimpsed hints of summer’s approach in the Bering Sea off Alaska’s coast. Sea ice, broken into small fragments, took a few final spins on its way to melting completely, while rivers swollen with snowmelt washed sediment and organic material out to sea. These images, acquired with the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA’s Terra satellite…
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NASA
NASA Award Boosts Space Technology Research Capabilities
NASA is introducing a new funding opportunity to accelerate academic research and technology development. The Minority University Research and Education Project Space Technology Artemis Research (M‑STAR) application window opened Thursday and will remain open through 11:59 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, Aug. 11. The research funded through this award supports the agency’s priorities for exploring the Moon, Mars, and deep space,…
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NASA
Tropical Storm Arthur
Tropical Storm Arthur, the first named storm of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season, brought high winds and heavy rain to the U.S. Gulf Coast in mid-June. NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color image (left) at 10:30 a.m. Central Time (15:30 Universal Time) on June 17. The second image (right) depicts infrared signals known as brightness temperature, which help distinguish cooler cloud tops (white…
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NASA
NASA Awards Contract for Commercial Satellite Data Acquisition
NASA has selected eight new companies and will acquire new data products from six existing Commercial Satellite Data Acquisition contract holders to expand the range of commercial satellite data available to researchers, civil agencies, and decision-makers. Such measurements supplement NASA’s Earth satellites by contributing high-resolution and frequent observations to enhance the agency’s set of data. Leveraging commercial data demonstrates NASA’s…
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NASA
Curiosity Blog, Sols 4920-4926: Surveying the Bands
Written by William Farrand, Senior Research Scientist, Space Science Institute Earth planning date: Friday, June 12, 2026 Rather than going from stage to stage at a music festival to hear different bands playing different varieties of music, Curiosity has been ascending up Mount Sharp through physical bands of exposed rocks with textural and tonal differences. Planning for sols 4920 and…
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NASA
Desert Field Test With NASA Advanced Rover Prototype
Description A prototype four-wheel rover developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory with advanced mobility and robotic autonomy capabilities trundled across the Colorado Desert near Plaster City, California, during a field test in March 2026. Called ERNEST (Exploration Rover for Navigating Extreme Sloped Terrain), the rover served here as a testbed for autonomy software developed for a potential lunar mission requiring…
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NASA
NASA Mission to Study Space Weather Impacts of Earth’s Atmosphere
NASA selected a mission concept to research how space weather and dynamics within Earth’s atmosphere influence the space environment and help improve prediction capabilities for impacts on crucial technology, such as GPS and low Earth orbit satellites, as well as astronauts in space. The DAPHNE (Dynamic Atmosphere-Ionosphere Explorer) mission will enter Phase B of development, which includes planning and design for flight…
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Press Releases
Stages of Star Formation
This image, captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and released on June 5, 2026, shows just a small portion of one of the Orion Molecular Clouds, a long and massive filament of cold gas and dust beyond the Orion Nebula. Every stage of star formation — from the youngest stellar embryos to protoplanetary discs to newly-minted pre-main sequence stars…
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