NASA Remembers Former Johnson Director Jefferson HowellJuly 3, 2025 Jefferson Davis Howell, Jr., former director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, died July 2, in Bee Cave, Texas. He was 85 years old. Howell was a champion of the construction of the International Space Station, working on a deadline to complete the orbiting lab by 2004. He oversaw four space […]
NASA Mission Monitoring Air Quality from Space Extended Since launching in 2023, NASA’s Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution mission, or TEMPO, has been measuring the quality of the air we breathe from 22,000 miles above the ground. June 19 marked the successful completion of TEMPO’s 20-month-long initial prime mission, and based on the quality of measurements to date, the mission has been extended […]
Hubble Observations Give “Missing” Globular Cluster Time to ShineA previously unexplored globular cluster glitters with multicolored stars in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image. Globular clusters like this one, called ESO 591-12 or Palomar 8, are spherical collections of tens of thousands to millions of stars tightly bound together by gravity. Globular clusters generally form early in the galaxies’ histories in regions rich […]
NASA Advances Pressure Sensitive Paint Research CapabilityMany of us grew up using paint-by-number sets to create beautiful color pictures. For years now, NASA engineers studying aircraft and rocket designs in wind tunnels have flipped that childhood pastime, using computers to generate images from “numbers-by-paint” – pressure sensitive paint (PSP), that is. Now, advances in the use of high-speed cameras, supercomputers, and […]
Old Glory on the Red PlanetThe United States flag adorns an aluminum plate mounted at the base of the mast, or “head,” of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover. This image of the plate was taken on June 28, 2025 (the 1,548th day, or sol, of the mission), by the WATSON (Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering) camera on the […]
Discovery Alert: Scientists Spot a Planetary CarouselThe Planets KOI-134 b and KOI-134 c The Discovery A new investigation into old Kepler data has revealed that a planetary system once thought to house zero planets actually has two planets which orbit their star in a unique style, like an old-fashioned merry-go-round. Key Facts The KOI-134 system contains two planets which orbit their […]
NASA Sets Briefings for SpaceX Crew-11 Mission to Space StationNASA and its partners will discuss the upcoming crew rotation to the International Space Station during a pair of news conferences on Thursday, July 10, from the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. First is an overview news conference at 12 p.m. EDT with mission leadership discussing final launch and mission preparations on the agency’s […]
NASA Awards Simulation and Advanced Software Services II ContractNASA has awarded a contract to MacLean Engineering & Applied Technologies, LLC of Houston to provide simulation and advanced software services to the agency. The Simulation and Advanced Software Services II (SASS II) contract includes services from Oct. 1, 2025, through Sept. 30, 2030, with a maximum potential value not to exceed $150 million. The […]
How NASA’s SPHEREx Mission Will Share Its All-Sky Map With the World NASA’s newest astrophysics space telescope launched in March on a mission to create an all-sky map of the universe. Now settled into low-Earth orbit, SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer) has begun delivering its sky survey data to a public archive on a weekly basis, allowing anyone […]
What’s Up: July 2025 Skywatching Tips from NASAA.M./P.M. Planet Watching, Plus the Eagle Constellation Mars shines in the evening, and is joined briefly by Mercury. Jupiter joins Venus as the month goes on. And all month, look for Aquila the eagle. Skywatching Highlights All Month – Planet Visibility: Daily Highlights: July 1 – 7 – Mercury is relatively bright and easy to […]