Two retired U.S. Air Force F-15 jets have joined the flight research fleet at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, transitioning from military service to a new role enabling breakthrough advancements in aerospace. The F-15s will support supersonic flight research for NASA’s Flight Demonstrations and Capabilities project, including testing for the Quesst mission’s […]
Category: Ames Research Center
- Ames Research Center
- Astrophysics
- Astrophysics Pioneers
- CubeSats
- Exoplanet Science
- Exoplanet Transits
- Exoplanets
- Galaxies, Stars, & Black Holes Research
- Goddard Space Flight Center
- Infrared Light
- James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory
- Kepler / K2
- SmallSats Program
- Stars
- Studying Exoplanets
- TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite)
- The Universe
- Visible / Optical Light
NASA’s Pandora Satellite, CubeSats to Explore Exoplanets, Beyond
A new NASA spacecraft called Pandora is awaiting launch ahead of its journey to study the atmospheres of exoplanets, or worlds beyond our solar system, and their stars. Along for the ride are two shoebox-sized satellites called BlackCAT (Black Hole Coded Aperture Telescope) and SPARCS (Star-Planet Activity Research CubeSat), as NASA innovates with ambitious science […]
2025 in Review: Highlights from NASA in Silicon Valley
NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley continued to make strides in research, technology, engineering, science, and innovation this past year. Join us as we take a look back at some of the highlights from 2025. From Supercomputers to Wind Tunnels: NASA’s Road to Artemis II By combining the technologies of the NASA Advanced […]
NASA’s DiskSat Technology Demo Launches to Low Earth Orbit
NASA’s DiskSat technology demonstration mission will test the performance of a new small spacecraft platform designed to expand the capabilities of current small spacecraft. By demonstrating the advantages of a flat, disk-shaped architecture over the conventional CubeSat design, DiskSat aims to enable lower-cost space missions, broaden scientific opportunities, and increase overall access to space. At […]
NASA’s Two-in-One Satellite Propulsion Demo Begins In-Space Test
NASA is working with commercial partners to create high-performing, reliable propulsion systems that will help small spacecraft safely maneuver in orbit, reach intended destinations across the solar system, and accomplish mission operations. Two new micropropulsion technologies are being tested in space onboard a CubeSat called DUPLEX (Dual Propulsion Experiment) that deployed into low Earth orbit […]
NASA Works with Boeing, Other Collaborators Toward More Efficient Global Flights
Picture this: You’re just about done with a transoceanic flight, and the tracker in your seat-back screen shows you approaching your destination airport. And then … you notice your plane is moving away. Pretty far away. You approach again and again, only to realize you’re on a long, circling loop that can last an hour […]
Sugars, ‘Gum,’ Stardust Found in NASA’s Asteroid Bennu Samples
The asteroid Bennu continues to provide new clues to scientists’ biggest questions about the formation of the early solar system and the origins of life. As part of the ongoing study of pristine samples delivered to Earth by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer) spacecraft, three new papers published Tuesday by […]
Sugars, ‘Gum,’ Stardust Found in NASA’s Asteroid Bennu Samples
The asteroid Bennu continues to provide new clues to scientists’ biggest questions about the formation of the early solar system and the origins of life. As part of the ongoing study of pristine samples delivered to Earth by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer) spacecraft, three new papers published Tuesday by […]
What is BioSentinel?
Editor’s Note: This article was updated Nov. 21, 2025 shortly after BioSentinel’s mission marked three years of operation in deep space. Astronauts live in a pretty extreme environment aboard the International Space Station. Orbiting about 250 miles above the Earth in the weightlessness of microgravity, they rely on commercial cargo missions about every two months to deliver new […]
NASA’s Quesst Mission Marks X-59’s Historic First Flight
NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft took off for its historic first flight on Oct. 28 at 11:14 a.m. EDT from Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, California. The one-of-a-kind aircraft flew for 67 minutes before landing and taxiing to NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. NASA test pilot Nils Larson flew the […]