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NASA’s Webb Telescope Captures Rarely Seen Prelude To Supernova

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NASA’s Webb Telescope Captures Rarely Seen Prelude To Supernova

Summary

Wolf-Rayet 124: A Star in Transition

Wolf-Rayet stars are a rare prelude to the famous final act of massive stars: the supernova. In one of its first observations, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured the Wolf-Rayet star WR 124 in unprecedented detail. A distinctive halo of gas and dust frames the star and glows in the infrared light detected by Webb, displaying knotty structure and a history of episodic ejections. Despite being the scene of an impending stellar “death,” astronomers also look to Wolf-Rayet stars for insight into new beginnings. Cosmic dust is forming in the turbulent nebulas surrounding these types of stars, which is composed of the heavy-element building blocks of the modern universe, including life on Earth.  

WR 124 (NIRCam and MIRI Composite Image)

Full Article

The rare sight of a Wolf-Rayet star – among the most luminous, most massive, and most briefly-detectable stars known – was one of the first observations made by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in June 2022. Webb shows the star, WR 124, in unprecedented detail with its powerful infrared instruments. The star is 15,000 light-years away in the constellation Sagitta. 

Massive stars race through their lifecycles, and only some of them go through a brief Wolf-Rayet phase before going supernova, making Webb’s detailed observations of this rare phase valuable to astronomers. Wolf-Rayet stars are in the process of casting off their outer layers, resulting in their characteristic halos of gas and dust. The star WR 124 is 30 times the mass of the Sun and has shed 10 Suns’ worth of material—so far. As the ejected gas moves away from the star and cools, cosmic dust forms and glows in the infrared light detectable by Webb.

The origin of cosmic dust that can survive a supernova blast and contribute to the universe’s overall “dust budget” is of great interest to astronomers for multiple reasons. Dust is integral to the workings of the universe: It shelters forming stars, gathers together to help form planets, and serves as a platform for molecules to form and clump together—including the building blocks of life on Earth. Despite the many essential roles that dust plays, there is still more dust in the universe than astronomers’ current dust-formation theories can explain. The universe is operating with a dust budget surplus. 

Webb opens up new possibilities for studying details in cosmic dust, which is best observed in infrared wavelengths of light. Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) balances the brightness of WR 124’s stellar core and the knotty details in the fainter surrounding gas. The telescope’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) reveals the clumpy structure of the gas and dust nebula of the ejected material now surrounding the star. Before Webb, dust-loving astronomers simply did not have enough detailed information to explore questions of dust production in environments like WR 124, and whether the dust grains were large and bountiful enough to survive the supernova and become a significant contribution to the overall dust budget. Now those questions can be investigated with real data. 

Stars like WR 124 also serve as an analog to help astronomers understand a crucial period in the early history of the universe. Similar dying stars first seeded the young universe with heavy elements forged in their cores – elements that are now common in the current era, including on Earth. 

Webb’s detailed image of WR 124 preserves forever a brief, turbulent time of transformation, and promises future discoveries that will reveal the long-shrouded mysteries of cosmic dust.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency), and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).

Credits

MEDIA CONTACT:

Leah Ramsay
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Maryland

Christine Pulliam
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Maryland

NASA Selects 21 New Learning Projects To Engage Students In STEM

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NASA Selects 21 New Learning Projects To Engage Students In STEM

Students at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory pose for photos around the laboratory wearing their eclipse glasses.
Credits: NASA

NASA is awarding more than $3.8 million to 21 museums, science centers, and other informal education institutions for projects designed to bring the excitement of space science to communities across the nation and broaden student participation in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics).

Projects were selected for NASA’s Teams Engaging Affiliated Museums and Informal Institutions (TEAM II) program and TEAM II Community Anchor Awards. Both are funded through NASA’s Next Generation STEM (Next Gen STEM), which supports kindergarten to 12-grade students, caregivers, and formal and informal educators in engaging the Artemis Generation in the agency’s missions and discoveries. The selected projects will engage their communities in a wide variety of STEM topics, from aeronautics and Earth science to human space exploration.

TEAM II: NASA-Based Learning Opportunities

NASA’s vision for TEAM II is to enhance the capability of informal education institutions to host NASA-based learning activities while increasing the institutions’ capacity to use innovative tools and platforms to bring NASA resources to students. The agency has selected four institutions to receive approximately $3.2 million in cooperative agreements for projects they will implement during the next three years.

The selected institutions and their proposed projects are:

  • Universities Space Research Association, Columbia, Maryland
    Virtual Trips to Extreme Environments
  • Michigan Science Center, Detroit, Michigan
    Urban Skies – Equitable Universe: Using Open Space to Empower Youth to Explore Their Solar System and Beyond
  • Museum of Science, Boston, Massachusetts
    UNITED (Unveiling NASA’s Inspirational Tales of Exploration and Discovery)
  • University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
    Using a Network of Ozone Bioindicator Gardens to Engage Communities on Air Quality and NASA’s TEMPO Mission

Community Anchors: Local Connections to NASA

The designation as a Community Anchor recognizes institutions as local hubs bringing NASA STEM and space science to students and families in traditionally underserved areas. The agency has selected 17 institutions to receive more than $660,000 in grants to help make these one- to two-year projects a reality, enhancing the local impact and strengthening their ability to build sustainable connections between their communities and NASA.

The selected institutions and their proposed projects are:

  • St. Anna’s Episcopal Church, New Orleans, Louisiana
    Communicating Our Future For Education Expansion (COFFEE)
  • Frontiers of Flight Museum, Inc., Dallas, Texas
    Youth STEM Initiative – STEM Leaders in Education
  • Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
    Our Earth From Above
  • Pacific Science Center Foundation, Seattle, Washington
    Connecting Youth to the Journey of Human Space Flight
  • National Space Science & Technology Institute, Colorado Springs, Colorado
    Mobile Earth + Space Observatory Science Experiences for Engaging Rural Students
  • Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska
    Because I’m Earth it: A NebrASkA Experience
  • Pajarito Environmental Education Center, Los Alamos, New Mexico
    Exploring STEM Opportunities from New Mexico to the Solar System
  • Scienceworks Hands-On Museum, Ashland, Oregon
    ScienceWorks Robotics in Space Program
  • City of Manhattan, Kansas
    Flying Cleaner and Faster: Connecting Kansas Kids to the Future of Aviation
  • Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights, Kentucky
    Afterschool NASA Production Club
  • Utah State University, Logan, Utah
    4-H Moon to Mars Tetrathlon
  • New York Hall of Science, Queens, New York
    Connecting Communities to Real Time Astronomy Phenomena: Solar Eclipse 2024
  • Monterey Institute for Research In Astronomy, Marina, California
    MIRA la Luna: Igniting Interest in STEM for Middle School Students of the Salinas Valley
  • Infinity Science Center, Inc., Pearlington, Mississippi
    Outreach STEM Education: Bringing NASA STEM Education to local communities through local county library systems and INFINITY Science Center
  • Sierra Nevada Journeys, Reno, Nevada
    NASA Family STEM Nights
  • Union Station Kansas City, Inc., Kansas City, Missouri
    Union Station Kansas City Inc NASA Team II Proposal
  • Eugene Science Center Inc., Eugene, Oregon
    Sky’s The Limit: Access to Portable Planetarium Experiences for Rural and Title I Schools to Address Disparity in STEM Proficiency

Next Gen STEM is a project within NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement, which develops unique resources and experiences to spark student interest in STEM and build a skilled and diverse next generation workforce. For the latest NASA STEM events, activities, and news, visit:

https://stem.nasa.gov

-end-

Katherine Brown
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1288
[email protected]

By: Claire O’Shea
Originally published at NASA

Scientists Spot Possible Signs Of Active Volcanism On Venus

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Scientists Spot Possible Signs Of Active Volcanism On Venus

Scientists have, for the first time, discovered possible signs of active volcanism on Venus.

The findings confirm long-held suspicions that the planet, which is 80% covered in volcanic rock and the scars of past volcanic eruptions, is still active today.

The evidence comes from data collected by NASA’s Magellan spacecraft, which orbited Venus from 1990 to 1994. In two grainy 1991 radar images captured eight months apart, a volcanic vent morphs from a circular depression into a larger, kidney-bean shape, which researchers interpret as indicating volcanic activity at work.

The discovery, which was published in the journal Science, provides an important data point for scientists trying to piece together why Venus, a twin to our own planet, morphed from a potentially habitable world into a stifling hellscape.

“There’s a lot of big-picture scenarios about how Venus has evolved over the last billion or two billion years,” said Robert Herrick, the paper’s lead author and a research professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute. “An important boundary condition on those visions is how much activity is occurring today, what the nature of the geologic activity is that’s occurring today, and where it’s occurring today. This paper is sort of the first step in really nailing that down.”

Similar volcanic activity is likely to be detected by NASA’s upcoming VERITAS mission — a spiritual successor to Magellan that would map the entire planet in even greater detail and overlapping coverage.

Sue Smrekar, the VERITAS principal investigator who was not involved in the discovery, said the images of a volcanic event were “extremely convincing” that Venus is active.

“There’s all kinds of reasons to think that Venus should be active,” she said. “It is such a thrill to finally see proof, which also adds fuel to other lines of evidence for activity.”

Changing volcanic vent on Venus
CHANGING VOLCANIC VENT ON VENUS These two images from NASA’s Magellan spacecraft, captured eight months apart in 1991, show a volcanic vent on Venus that has changed size and shape. In the left image, captured in February, the vent has a surface area of 2.2 square kilometers (0.8 square miles). In the right image, captured in October, the vent has a surface area of 4.0 square kilometers (1.5 square miles).Image: Images from Herrick & Hensley (2023)

A needle in a haystack

Herrick’s work with Venus data dates back to his time as a grad student and then postdoc, when NASA was distributing Magellan imagery on CD-ROMs.

Most desktop computers were not powerful enough to load large, high-resolution radar images, forcing researchers to explore the Venusian surface one small slice at a time.

Equipped with modern technology and a little extra time thanks to the pandemic, Herrick went looking for changes that happened between overlapping Magellan radar passes. He likened it to “looking for a needle in a haystack, with no guarantee that there’s a needle.”

To slim down the haystack, he focused on promising locations for volcanic activity. Unfortunately, much of Magellan’s overlapping radar coverage was at different viewing angles, making it much harder to look for changes.

The authors finally hit paydirt north of Maat Mons, the tallest volcano on Venus. There, a circular volcanic vent with an area of 2.2 square kilometers (0.8 square miles) in February 1991 morphed by October 1991 into a vent with an area of 4.0 square kilometers (1.5 square miles).

The paper offers two explanations for what happened during those eight months. The most likely scenario is that lava flowed into the vent, changing its size and shape. Another possibility is that the vent collapsed as lava drained away elsewhere. The authors identified possible lava flows north of the vent, but due to differences in the Magellan image angles, they couldn’t rule out that the flows were already present.

Maat Mons persective view
MAAT MONS PERSECTIVE VIEW This 3D view of Maat Mons, the tallest volcano on Venus, was created using data from NASA’s Magellan spacecraft. The vertical scale in this perspective has been exaggerated 10 times. Maat Mons, appearing at the center, rises almost 5 kilometers (3 miles) above the surrounding terrain.Image: NASA/JPL

Future Venus exploration

The discovery that Venus is volcanically active comes amidst a continuing debate on whether phosphine, and thus possibly life, exists in the planet’s clouds. There is clearly more to explore on the planet next door.

Fortunately, four missions led by three different space agencies are headed to Venus soon: Shukrayaan, DAVINCI, VERITAS, and EnVision.

Like Magellan, VERITAS will pierce the planet’s clouds to create global radar maps. VERITAS’s maps will have a resolution of just 30 meters per pixel — a vast improvement on Magellan’s 100 to 300 meters per pixel. The spacecraft can also make topographical maps with a resolution of 250 meters in the horizontal direction, and just 5 meters in the vertical direction.

To track surface changes in extreme detail, VERITAS will use a tool called repeat-pass interferometry that compares phase differences between overlapping radar passes. This data-intensive technique can target specific areas to monitor centimeter-scale changes over hundreds of kilometers — a distinct advantage over Magellan.

“We’re planning on doing this in targeted areas, not just wherever we happen to get lucky,” said Smrekar.

Before it can study Venus, VERITAS has Earthly challenges to overcome. Last year, the mission was delayed three years to at least 2031 after a review of NASA’s Psyche mission found workforce challenges at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. NASA’s latest budget proposal only offers a trickle of funding for VERITAS through 2028. Smrekar and other VERITAS team members are working to counteract the delay.

No one knows for sure what the next generation of Venus missions will find. Herrick noted that the new volcanic activity is comparable in scale to eruptions seen on Earth’s Hawaiian islands. Similar activity may be common across Venus, just waiting to be spotted by an orbiting spacecraft.

“We now know that these upcoming missions are going to find something,” Herrick said.

Source The Planetary Society

Financial Crisis: It’s A Game & We’re All Being Played

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Financial Crisis: It’s A Game & We’re All Being Played

Barely three months into 2023 and we have seen a series of major banking crises unfold right before our eyes. Silicon Valley Bank collapsed, followed by Signature Bank and Credit Suisse is encountering turmoils that send panic across the market. All these on top of global economic crises, inflation, rising cost of living, major economies of the world facing strong headwinds, energy crisis, stock market instability, post-pandemic recovery, and the Ukraine War; we are indeed living in a time of polycrisis, chaos and panic.

One thing that many people believe is that there is a financial crisis happening right now. But is that really the case?

While this may seem counterintuitive to many who are grappling with the impact of the pandemic on the economy, the current situation is nothing more than a game, and one that is being played according to the rules of capitalism.

Our current state of affairs is exactly what capitalism is designed for – imbalance and inequality. Those who hold the reins of power, the “big people with big money,” are simply playing with people’s lives, and no one seems to care. The game is rigged in favour of the elite, and they will always come out on top.

This sentiment can be summed up in the Japanese concept of “Shu Ha Ri,” which describes the stages of mastery in a discipline. The first stage, “Shu” (守), is characterized by following the rules and imitating the actions of those who came before. The second stage, “Ha” (破), involves breaking the rules and developing a personal style. The final stage, “Ri” (離), is the point at which the rules are transcended, and mastery is achieved. For those who believe that there is no financial crisis, we are currently in the “Ri” stage of capitalism. The rules are being broken and transcended, and those with the power to do so are manipulating the markets to their advantage. They induce panic and fear and then buy when prices are low, reaping the rewards when the markets eventually stabilize.

A recent example of this can be seen in Credit Suisse’s recent announcement that Saudi Arabia will no longer lend to the bank. This news caused panic among investors, and the bank’s share price plummeted. This fear reverberated and major stock markets plunged; billions were wiped out in one day. Saudi Arabia, through Aramco, has already earned $161 billion profit for 2022, they can now exert their power as a purchaser which can induce panic in the market, only to buy later when the prices are low. It is a testament to the power of the purchaser, and the lengths to which people will go to maintain that power. This is exactly what capitalism is designed for, a system that thrives on imbalance and inequality.

Less than 24 hours after this news, the Switzerland Central Bank announced a $54 billion lifeline and rescue to Credit Suisse. The Swiss will never let Credit Suisse fall and its stocks went soaring once again.

Amidst the chaos and turmoil of the financial world, what does this mean for the rest of us, for those who do not have the power or money to play this game? It means that we are at the mercy of those who do and that we must find ways to survive and thrive despite the rigged system.

In the end, the financial crisis may indeed be just a game, but it is a game that has real consequences for real people. It is up to us to decide whether we will continue to be pawns in this game, or whether we will fight back and demand a more equitable and just society.

#

Diana Trujillo Sparks Students’ Curiosity

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Diana Trujillo Sparks Students’ Curiosity

Elementary school students eagerly raise their hands as Diana Trujillo, technical group supervisor for sequence planning and execution and tactical mission lead for the Mars Perseverance rover, speaks to them on March 13, 2023.

Born and raised in Colombia, Trujillo immigrated to the U.S. at the age of 17 to pursue her dream of working for NASA. She has held several roles for NASA and JPL, including Mars Curiosity rover mission lead, deputy project system engineer, and deputy team chief of engineering operations on Curiosity.

Trujillo has also been active in sharing the excitement and opportunities of STEM with the public. She co-created and hosted #JuntosPerseveramos, NASA’s first Spanish-language live broadcast of a planetary landing, for Perseverance’s arrival on Mars, which attracted millions of viewers worldwide.

Image Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani

By Monika Luabeya
Source NASA

The Secrets Of Jupiter’s Tiny New Moons

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The Secrets Of Jupiter’s Tiny New Moons

Having the most moons in our Solar System isn’t a contest, but if it were, Jupiter would be winning.

The gas giant now has 92 confirmed moons, pulling it ahead of Saturn, which has 83 known moons. Jupiter’s latest batch of 12 moons were validated in December 2022 by the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center, the global chronicler of Solar System worlds.

But the moon race is far from over. Both Jupiter and Saturn have more candidate moons awaiting final confirmation. Hunting these tiny worlds and confirming their orbits takes time. There’s more than just bragging rights at stake: Outer planet moons have much to teach us about how the giant planets formed, and what conditions were like in the Solar System’s early days.

Hubble Space Telescope picture of Jupiter, 2020
HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE PICTURE OF JUPITER, 2020 NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of Jupiter and its moon Europa in August 2020. Jupiter’s newly discovered outer moons are comparatively small, with distant, atypical orbits.Image: NASA, ESA, STScI, A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center), M.H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley), and the OPAL team / Edited by The Planetary Society

Meet Jupiter’s new moons

Jupiter’s new moons are not as large and flashy as the Galilean moons Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. They are instead members of the planet’s irregular satellites — comparatively small outer moons with distant, atypical orbits. Some are no wider than a kilometer.

Jupiter’s outer moons fall into two categories: prograde moons, which orbit closer to Jupiter and in the same direction as the planet’s rotation, and retrograde moons, which orbit farther from Jupiter and in the opposite direction as the planet’s rotation.

Most of these outer moons formed from collisions that chipped small fragments off of larger parent moons in the same orbit. The parent bodies of the prograde moons likely formed in place with Jupiter. That means they may contain the recipe of elements that formed the gas giant billions of years ago.

The parent bodies of the retrograde moons were likely free-flying worlds, possibly from the primitive Kuiper Belt, captured by Jupiter’s gravity long ago. That means they could be examples of small worlds from the planet’s original neighborhood.

How Jupiter captured these moons is a mystery. Just like a spacecraft approaching a planet, a moon must slow down to enter orbit. While a spacecraft uses thrusters, small moons entering Jupiter’s orbit could have relied on timely encounters with an ice giant or drag from gas left over from the planet’s formation.

The orbits of Jupiter's moons
THE ORBITS OF JUPITER’S MOONS Two views of the orbits of Jupiter’s known moons: top-down (left) and horizontal with Jupiter’s equatorial plane (right). The innermost Galilean moons are pink, while the outermost retrograde moons are red. The other orbits represent prograde moons.Image: Scott Sheppard

Right location, right time

The scientists that found the 12 new moons of Jupiter weren’t looking for them at all, in a manner of speaking.

Scott Sheppard, a faculty member at the Carnegie Institution for Science, Earth and Planets Laboratory in Washington, D.C., is part of a team looking for dwarf planets beyond Pluto. The search was conducted using the Subaru Telescope on Maunakea, Hawaiʻi, and the Víctor M. Blanco Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. These powerful telescopes have instruments that allow them to survey the sky relatively quickly, looking for dim specks moving in the darkness.

Occasionally, the portion of sky being surveyed crosses paths with Jupiter or Saturn. When that happens, the team aims for the region of space right next to the planet, to see if they can pick up any bonus moons.

“At some point during the year, the planets will be at the right location at the right time,” said Sheppard.

A new point of light moving near Jupiter does not automatically get awarded moon status. The candidate moon has to be re-observed weeks, months, and even years after its initial discovery, until its orbit is known with certainty.

For that, the team turns to the Magellan Telescopes at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. But even with a 6.5-meter (21-feet) diameter mirror enlisted for the hunt, tracking small moons next to Jupiter’s glare is a challenge. Some moons disappear until their orbits carry them to a more favorable viewing location.

“But by that time, you might not have a precise enough moon orbit known, and thus are not able to easily find them again,” Sheppard said.

Both Jupiter and Saturn have candidate moons that are discovered and cataloged, but not formally recognized. Only after a year of observations will the Minor Planet Center recognize them, and only objects wider than a kilometer will get names. Sheppard said about half of the new moons are big enough to get names.

Jupiter's known moons by year
JUPITER’S KNOWN MOONS BY YEAR The number of Jovian moons has quintupled since the year 2000, when digital imaging technology started being applied to large telescopes. Discoveries leapt forward again following the advent of wide-field survey telescopes able to image portions of the sky more than 10 times larger than Earth’s moon.Image: Data by Scott Sheppard, visualization by Jason Davis

An outer moon flyby?

Many scientists would love to get an up-close look at one of Jupiter’s outer moons. Two new spacecraft will arrive at the planet in the coming years: NASA’s Europa Clipper in 2030, and the European Space Agency’s JUICE one year later.

Both spacecraft must be injected into precise orbits that will allow them to study Jupiter’s inner moons. The only opportunity to visit an outer moon could come as the probes enter the system.

Bonnie Buratti, the deputy project scientist for Europa Clipper, said that her team was conducting an analysis to see if Clipper’s inbound trajectory could be nudged to send it past an outer moon. So far, they have not found a flyby opportunity closer than a million kilometers (620,000 miles) — more than twice the distance between the Earth and the Moon.

“I doubt we will get close to any of them, or even be able to “see” them with any instrument,” she said. “The problem is: To get closer, we would have to expend precious spacecraft fuel and redesign the tour. Would that be worth the time, money, and resources, and having to give up one or more Europa flybys? Unlikely.”

The JUICE team performed a similar analysis two years ago and could not find a flyby opportunity, said Olivier Witasse, head of ESA’s Solar System section. The team is reconsidering that assessment following the discovery of the new moons, and adjustments to JUICE’s trajectory.

“With the discovery of new moons, the new trajectory and the assessment of the launch performances, we will redo the analysis after launch to check the situation,” he said. “If we find a good opportunity and we have enough propellant, we may take the decision to do it.”

In the meantime, outer moon work will stay in the realm of telescopes. In addition to searching for moons at Jupiter and Saturn, Sheppard said his team also has a separate project looking for new moons around Uranus and Neptune.

“We just sit on those planets for long periods of time to try and find very faint things,” he said. “So that’s something that we’re working on right now.”

All four of the outer planets likely have more moons awaiting discovery. Just like the early Solar System, each planet’s number of moons is dynamic and subject to change.

Source The Planetary Society

NASA’s FY 2024 Budget

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NASA’s FY 2024 Budget

The Biden Administration proposed $27.2 billion for NASA’s 2024 fiscal year. If approved by Congress, this would represent a 7% increase over 2023 levels. The budget would grow funding for NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration program, Mars Sample Return, Earth Science, and technology research and development.

The President’s Budget Request

 2023 Enacted2024 PBR% Change
NASA$25,384$27,185+7.1%
Science$7,795$8,261+%6
↳ Planetary Science$3,200$3,383+%5.7
↳ Earth Science$2,195$2,473+12.7%
↳ Astrophysics$1,510$1,557+3%
↳ Heliophysics$805$751-6.7%
↳ Biological & Physical Science$85$97+%13.5
Exploration$7,469$7,971+6.7%
↳ Orion Crew Vehicle$1,339$1,225-8.5%
↳ SLS$2,600$2,506-3.6%
↳ Human Landing System$1,486$1,881+27%
Space Technology$1,200$1,392+16%
Space Operations$4,250$4,535+6.7%
↳ Commercial LEO Development$224$228+1.8%
Aeronautics$935$996+6.5%
STEM Engagement$143.5$157.8+10%
Safety, Security, & Mission Services$3,130$3,369+7.7%
Construction and Environmental Compliance$414.3$454+9.5%
NASA Inspector General$47.6$50.2+5.5%

All values are in millions of dollars. Directorate/top-level line-items are in boldface, divisions and major projects are in standard formatting; sub-programs are in italics. All major directorates are listed. Only selected divisions and projects are included. For further detail see the FY 2024 NASA Budget Request.

Explore this data. View historical NASA budget data, including breakdowns by fiscal year, and comparisons to total U.S. spending and GDP, on this Google Spreadsheet.

President’s Budget Request Source Documents

NASA Picks Firefly Aerospace For Robotic Delivery To Far Side Of Moon

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NASA Picks Firefly Aerospace For Robotic Delivery To Far Side Of Moon

Rendering of Firefly’s Blue Ghost transfer vehicle deploying the European Space Agency’s Lunar Pathfinder satellite to lunar orbit. ESA’s Lunar Pathfinder is designed and developed by Surrey Satellite Technology Limited. ESA collaborated with NASA for delivery through the CLPS initiative.
Credits: Firefly Aerospace

To carry multiple payloads to the far side of the Moon including a satellite to orbit that area, NASA has selected Firefly Aerospace of Cedar Park, Texas. The commercial lander will deliver two agency payloads, as well as communication and data relay satellite for lunar orbit, which is an ESA (European Space Agency) collaboration with NASA.

The contract award, for just under $112 million, is a commercial lunar delivery targeted to launch in 2026 through NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS, initiative, and part of the agency’s Artemis program.

This delivery targets a landing site on the far side of the Moon for the two payloads, a place that permanently faces away from Earth. Scientists consider this one of the best locations in the solar system for making radio observations shielded from the noise generated by our home planet. The sensitive observations need to take place during the fourteen earth-day long lunar night.

One of these payloads delivered to the lunar surface aims to take advantage of this radio-quiet zone to make low-frequency astrophysics measurements of the cosmos – focusing on a time known as the “Dark Ages,” a cosmic era that began some 370,000 years after the Big Bang and lasted until the first stars and galaxies formed. Since there is no line of sight and no direct communication with Earth from the far side of the Moon, Firefly also is required to provide communication services.

“NASA continues to look at ways to learn more about our universe,” said Nicola Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Going to the lunar far side will help scientists understand some of the fundamental physics processes that occurred during the early evolution of the universe.”

Firefly is responsible for end-to-end delivery services, including payload integration, delivery from Earth to the surface and orbit of the Moon, and NASA payload operations for the first lunar day. This is the second award to Firefly under the CLPS initiative. This award is the ninth surface delivery task award issued to a CLPS vendor, and the  second to the far side.

“We look forward to Firefly providing this CLPS delivery,” said Joel Kearns, the deputy associate administrator for exploration in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “This lunar landing should enable new scientific discoveries from the far side of the Moon during the lunar night. This particular group of payloads should not only generate new science but should be a pathfinder for future investigations exploiting this unique vantage point in our solar system.”

The three payloads slated for delivery are expected to weigh in total about 1,090 pounds (494.5 kilograms). These payloads are:

  • Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment-Night (LuSEE–Night): A pathfinder to understand the Moon’s radio environment and to potentially take a first look at a previously unobserved era in our cosmic history. It will use deployable antennas and radio receivers to observe sensitive radio waves from the Dark Ages for the first time. LuSEE-Night, is a collaboration between the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, the University of California, Berkeley, Space Science Laboratory, and NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. It is managed for NASA by the Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
  • Lunar Pathfinder: A communications and data relay satellite that will provide communication services to lunar missions via S-band and UHF links to lunar assets on the surface and in orbit around the Moon and an X-band link to Earth. ESA’s Lunar Pathfinder is designed and developed by Surrey Satellite Technology Limited. ESA collaborated with NASA for delivery through the CLPS initiative.
  • User Terminal (UT): This payload will institute a new standard for S-Band Proximity-1 space communication protocol and establish space heritage. It will be used to commission the Lunar Pathfinder and ensure its readiness to provide communications service to LuSEE-Night. It consists of software-defined radio, an antenna, a network switch, and a sample data source. UT is in development by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

Commercial deliveries to the lunar surface with several providers continue to be part of NASA’s exploration efforts. Future CLPS deliveries could include more science experiments and technology demonstrations that further support the agency’s Artemis program.

Learn more about CLPS at:

http://www.nasa.gov/CLPS

-end-

Karen Fox
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
[email protected]

Nilufar Ramji
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
[email protected]

By: Roxana Bardan
Originally published at NASA

NASA Selects Axiom Space For Third Private Astronaut Station Mission

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NASA Selects Axiom Space For Third Private Astronaut Station Mission

The SpaceX Dragon Endeavour crew ship is pictured docked to the Harmony module’s space-facing international docking adapter. Endeavour carried four Axiom Mission 1 astronauts, Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, Pilot Larry Connor, and Mission Specialists Eytan Stibbe and Mark Pathy, to the International Space Station for several days of research, education, and commercial activities.
Credits: NASA

NASA and Axiom Space have signed a mission order for the third private astronaut mission to the International Space Station, targeted to launch no earlier than November 2023 from the agency’s NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

“The diversity of currently available commercial orbital human spaceflight opportunities is truly astounding. NASA’s commercial crew flights to the space station for our government astronauts paved the way for fully private missions to space like Inspiration4 and Polaris as well as private astronaut missions to the orbiting laboratory like the one we are announcing today,” said Phil McAlister, director of commercial space at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “We are starting to see the incorporation of space into our economic sphere, and it is going to revolutionize the way people see, use, and experience space.”   

Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3) is expected to spend 14 days docked to the space station. A specific launch date is dependent on spacecraft traffic to the space station and in-orbit activity planning and constraints. NASA and Axiom Space mission planners will coordinate in-orbit activities for the private astronauts to conduct in coordination with space station crew members and flight controllers on the ground.

“Axiom Space’s selection to lead the next private astronaut mission to the International Space Station enables us to continue expanding access to nations, academia, commercial entities, and emerging industries to research, test, and demonstrate new technologies in microgravity,” said Michael Suffredini, CEO and president of Axiom Space. “As NASA’s focus shifts back to the Moon and on to Mars, we are committed to transforming low-Earth orbit into a global space marketplace, where access to space moves beyond the partners of the space station to nations, institutions and individuals with new ideas fueling a thriving human economy beyond Earth.”

Axiom Space will submit four proposed crew members and two back up crew for the Ax-3 mission to the station’s Multilateral Crew Operations Panel for review. NASA is requiring all private astronaut mission providers to select a previously flown NASA astronaut as the spacecraft commander. Following review and approval from NASA and its international partners, the prime crew members for the mission will be named.

The Ax-3 crew members will train for their flight with NASA, international partners, and SpaceX, which Axiom Space has contracted as launch provider for transportation to and from the space station and to familiarize the private astronauts with systems, procedures, and emergency preparedness for the space station and the Dragon spacecraft. Based on current mission planning, team crew training is scheduled to begin this spring.

Axiom Space is obtaining NASA services to conduct the mission via both the mission specific order and Reimbursable Space Act Agreements.

Through the mission specific order, Axiom Space is obtaining services from NASA such as crew supplies, cargo delivery to space, storage, and other in-orbit resources for daily use. The order also accommodates up to an additional contingency week aboard the space station. This mission is subject to NASA’s pricing policy for the services the agency is providing to Axiom Space for in-orbit activities that are above space station baseline capabilities.

The order also identifies capabilities NASA may obtain from Axiom Space, including the return of scientific samples that must be kept cold in transit to and from Earth, return cargo capability, and the capability to use the private astronaut mission commander’s time during the docked mission to complete NASA science or perform tasks for NASA.

Through Reimbursable Space Act Agreements, Axiom Space will reimburse NASA for services to enable the mission, such as training for crew members and use of facilities at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and Kennedy Space Center in Florida. In addition, SpaceX has a Reimbursable Space Act Agreement with Kennedy for launch services.

NASA made the selection for the third private astronaut mission from proposals received in response to its September 2022 NASA Research Announcement and evaluated the mission proposals based on the provider’s ability to execute a mission successfully, NASA’s ability to support the proposed mission, and the mission’s contribution to the agency’s goal of low-Earth orbit commercialization. NASA also solicited proposals for a fourth private astronaut mission opportunity in 2024 and will announce the mission after successful completion of negotiations results in an award.

For more than 22 years, NASA has supported a continuous U.S. human presence in low-Earth orbit. The agency’s goal is a low-Earth orbit marketplace where NASA is one of many customers, and the private sector leads the way. This strategy will provide services the government needs at a lower cost, enabling the agency to focus on its Artemis missions to the Moon and on to Mars while continuing to use low-Earth orbit as a training and proving ground for those deep space missions.

Learn more about how NASA is fostering a robust commercial low-Earth orbit economy at:

https://www.nasa.gov/leo-economy

-end-

Stephanie Schierholz / Josh Finch
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
[email protected] / [email protected]

Gary Jordan
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
[email protected]

Alexis DeJarnette
Axiom Space
850-368-9446
[email protected]

By: Roxana Bardan
Originally published at NASA

Crew-5’s Nighttime Splashdown

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Crew-5’s Nighttime Splashdown

The SpaceX Dragon Endurance spacecraft is seen as it lands with Crew-5 mission members aboard on Saturday, March 11, 2023. The crew returned in a parachute-assisted splashdown at 9:02 p.m. EST.

During the 156.5 days they spent aboard the International Space Station as part of Expedition 68, Crew-5 participated in several spacewalks to prepare the space station for solar arrays and conducted various experiments, including growing plants without soil and studying radiation exposure.

Image Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber

By Monika Luabeya
Source NASA

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