NASA’s Scientific Balloon Program has returned to Wānaka, New Zealand, for two scheduled flights to test and qualify the agency’s super pressure balloon technology. These stadium-sized, heavy-lift balloons will travel the Southern Hemisphere’s mid-latitudes for planned missions of 100 days or more. Launch operations are scheduled to begin in late March from Wānaka Airport, NASA’s […]
Author: Brian Evans
NASA Expertise Helps Record all the Buzz
Airplane manufacturers running noise tests on new aircraft now have a much cheaper option than traditional wired microphone arrays. It’s also sensitive enough to help farmers with pest problems. A commercial wireless microphone array recently created with help from NASA can locate crop-threatening insects by listening for the sounds they make in fields. Since releasing […]
NASA Space Station Research Helps Power Moon Science
The International Space Station supports a wide range of scientific activities from looking out at our universe to breakthroughs in medical research, and is an active proving ground for technology for future Moon exploration missions and beyond. Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission-1 landed on the Moon on March 2, 2025, kicking off science and technology […]
Embracing the Equinox
Depending on your locale, equinoxes can be seen as harbingers of longer nights and gloomy weather, or promising beacons of nicer temperatures and more sunlight. Observing and predicting equinoxes is one of the earliest skills in humanity’s astronomical toolkit. Many ancient observatories around the world observed equinoxes along with the more pronounced solstices. These days, […]
Finalists Selected in NASA Aeronautics Agriculture-Themed Competition
Eight finalist teams participating in the 2025 NASA Gateways to Blue Skies Competition have been selected to present to a panel of judges their design concepts for aviation solutions that can help the agriculture industry. Sponsored by NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, this year’s competition asked teams of university students to research new or improved […]
NASA Atmospheric Wave-Studying Mission Releases Data from First 3,000 Orbits
Following the 3,000th orbit of NASA’s AWE (Atmospheric Waves Experiment) aboard the International Space Station, researchers publicly released the mission’s first trove of scientific data, crucial to investigate how and why subtle changes in Earth’s atmosphere cause disturbances, as well as how these atmospheric disturbances impact technological systems on the ground and in space. “We’ve […]
Meet the Johnson CLPS Team Supporting NASA’s Lunar Exploration Goals
As part of NASA’s Artemis campaign, the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, managed out of Johnson Space Center in Houston, is paving the way for conducting lunar science for the benefit of humanity. Through CLPS, NASA teams worked closely with commercial companies to develop a new model for space exploration, enabling a sustainable return […]
Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse
The phases of the lunar eclipse are visible in this time-lapse image of the Moon above the Space Environments Complex at NASA’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, OH on March 14, 2025. Toward the middle of the Moon’s track through the sky, it appears red – this is the Blood Moon. One meaning of […]
Hubble Sees a Spiral and a Star
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features a sparkling spiral galaxy paired with a prominent star, both in the constellation Virgo. While the galaxy and the star appear to be close to one another, even overlapping, they’re actually a great distance apart. The star, marked with four long diffraction spikes, is in our own galaxy. […]