NASA

A.C. Charania has been appointed NASA’s new chief technologist, succeeding outgoing acting chief technologist Bhavya Lal. Charania will be responsible for aligning “agencywide technology investments with mission needs across six mission directorates” as well as overseeing technology collaborations with other federal agencies, the private sector and external stakeholders. In addition, he will advise NASA Administrator […]

Retired NASA astronaut Walter Cunningham passed away last Tuesday at the age of 90. Selected for NASA’s third astronaut class in 1963, Cunningham went to space on the Apollo 7 mission, which was noted for being the first crewed flight test of the Apollo spacecraft. Before joining NASA, he served as a fighter pilot in […]

Three Russian Cosmonauts spent Sunday relaxing and watching the World Cup finale on the International Space Station as the smart people who put them there figured out how to get them down. The station’s remote robot arm will take photos of the coolant leak that will likely make their Soyuz capsule unuseable for the trip […]

NASA has finalized a contract with Boeing to continue the manufacture of core and upper stages for Space Launch System (SLS) rockets for the agency’s Artemis missions. According to NASA, the SLS Stages Production and Evolution Contract will cover production of the core stages for the Artemis III and IV missions, procurement of core stage […]

NASA’s Mars helicopter, Ingenuity, logged its 34th successful flight last week, staying in the air for 18 seconds and reaching a maximum altitude of 5 meters. The brief flight was the helicopter’s first with its latest software update, which is expected to add capabilities including hazard avoidance during landing and the use of digital elevation […]

NASA announced this week that the engine for its X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology (QueSST) research aircraft has been installed. Installation of the engine, a F414-GE-100 from General Electric Aviation, was completed at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California. The X-59, which was designed to “reduce the sound of sonic booms … to a […]

The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) set a new endurance record on Saturday, landing at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center after spending 908 days in orbit. The uncrewed flight was the sixth for the Boeing-built vehicle, which has now traveled over 1.3 billion miles and logged 3,774 days in space. According to Boeing, the mission hosted […]

NASA has confirmed that an object discovered underwater off of the east coast of Florida is an artifact from the space shuttle Challenger. According to the agency, the artifact was located by a film crew on a dive looking for the wreckage of a World War II-era aircraft. NASA stated that it is still considering […]

NASA has awarded medals to six Northrop Grumman Corporation employees for their contributions in designing and building the James Webb Space Telescope. Webb Telescope team vice president and program manager Scott Willoughby and director and chief engineer Charlie Atkinson received NASA’s Distinguished Public Service Medal; Webb director of vehicle engineering and sunshield manager Jim Flynn […]

NASA released its second economic impact report on Thursday, noting that it generated more than $71.2 billion in total economic output during fiscal year 2021. The study found that NASA’s activities supported more than 339,600 jobs and generated almost $7.7 billion in federal, state and local taxes for the year. Conducted by the Nathalie P. […]