NASA News
NASA Science, Cargo Launch on 34th SpaceX Resupply Mission to Station
The 34th SpaceX commercial resupply mission under contract with NASA is headed to the International Space Station with new scientific experiments after lifting off at 6:05 p.m. EDT Friday on a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
The SpaceX spacecraft, loaded with nearly 6,500 pounds of cargo for the space station’s Expedition 74 crew, is scheduled to autonomously dock at about 7 a.m. Sunday, May 17, to the forward port of the station’s Harmony module.
Watch NASA’s live rendezvous and docking coverage beginning at 5:30 a.m. on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and the agency’s YouTube channel. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of online platforms, including social media.
In addition to cargo for the crew aboard the space station, Dragon will deliver several new experiments, including a project to determine how well Earth-based simulators mimic microgravity conditions, a bone scaffold made from wood that could produce new treatments for fragile bone conditions like osteoporosis, and equipment to help researchers evaluate how red blood cells and the spleen change in space. The Dragon spacecraft also will carry a new instrument to study charged particles around Earth that can impact power grids and satellites, an investigation that could provide a fundamental understanding of how planets form, and an instrument designed to take highly accurate measurements of sunlight reflected by Earth and the Moon.
These experiments are just a sample of the hundreds of investigations conducted aboard the orbiting laboratory in the areas of biology and biotechnology, physical sciences, and Earth and space science. For more than 25 years, people have lived and worked continuously aboard the International Space Station, advancing scientific knowledge and making research breakthroughs that aren’t possible on Earth. The space station helps NASA understand and overcome the challenges of human spaceflight, expand commercial opportunities in low Earth orbit, and build on the foundation for long-duration missions to the Moon, as part of the Artemis program, and to Mars.
The Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to remain at the station until mid-June, when it will depart and return to Earth with time-sensitive research and cargo, ahead of splashing down off the coast of California.
Learn more about International Space Station research, operations, and its crews at:
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Curiosity Shakes Loose a Pesky Rock
After NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover drilled a sample from this rock on April 25, 2026, it withdrew its robotic arm and pulled the entire rock off the surface with it. Engineers spent several days repositioning the arm and vibrating the drill to try and get the rock loose. When it finally detached on May 1, the rock broke into pieces.
This close-up image of the rock was produced by Curiosity’s Mast Camera, or Mastcam, on May 6. Nicknamed “Atacama,” the rock is estimated to be 1.5 feet in diameter at its base and 6 inches thick. It would weigh roughly 28.6 pounds on Earth (and about a third of that on Mars). The circular hole produced by Curiosity’s drill is visible in the rock.
See Atacama stuck on Curiosity’s drill.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Hubble Sights Galaxy in Transition
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Hubble Sights Galaxy in Transition This NASA Hubble Space Telescope images reveals the lenticular galaxy, NGC 1266. This enigmatic post-starburst galaxy has a bright center and a face that hints at spiral structure, yet it holds no discernable spiral arms. NASA, ESA, K. Alatalo (STScI); Image Processing: G. Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image reveals an enigmatic galaxy with a bright center and a face that hints at spiral structure, yet it holds no obvious spiral arms. Reddish-brown clumps and filaments of dust partially obscure the galaxy’s full face, while red, blue, and orange light from distant galaxies shines through its diffuse outer regions and dots the inky-black background.
NGC 1266 is a lenticular galaxy located some 100 million light-years away in the constellation Eridanus (the Celestial River). Astronomers classify lenticulars as transitional galaxies that represent an evolutionary bridge between spirals and ellipticals. Lenticulars are “lens-shaped” and have a bright central bulge and flattened disk like spirals, but they have no spiral arms and little to no star formation like ellipticals.
As interesting as this galaxy’s structure and lenticular classification are, those traits aren’t its most intriguing features. NGC 1266 is a rare post-starburst galaxy that is in transition between a galaxy that experienced a major burst of star formation and a quieter elliptical galaxy. Post-starburst galaxies have a young population of stars but few star-forming regions. Roughly one percent of the local galaxy population is a post-starburst galaxy.
Astronomers think that NGC 1266 had a minor merger with another galaxy some 500 million years ago. The merger spurred the formation of new stars and increased the mass of the galaxy’s central bulge while funneling gas into its supermassive black hole. The additional matter made the black hole much more active, creating an active galactic nucleus or AGN. The black hole’s increased activity would have generated powerful winds and jets of gas along its axis of rotation. Over time, the burst of new stars and the black hole’s powerful jets would deplete the galaxy’s reservoir of star-forming gas, while the turbulence generated in these processes suppressed new stars from forming in the gas that remained.
Observations by Hubble and other observatories reveal a strong outflow of gas from the galaxy and that the space between its stars is shocked or highly disturbed. Researchers found that any remaining stellar nurseries are in the core of the galaxy, and that very little to no star formation happens beyond that core. These observations suggest the supermassive black hole in the galaxy’s heart may be suppressing star birth by stripping or ejecting star-forming gas from the galaxy. The shockwaves from this process would create turbulence that disturbs the gas and dust between stars enough to stop any remaining matter from gravitationally condensing into infant stars.
Post-starburst galaxies like NGC 1266 are ideal subjects for astronomers to study the complex physical processes that suppress star formation. They help us better understand the evolution of galaxies and how supermassive black holes interact with their hosts.
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NASA Draws on Industry for Mars Telecommunications Network
On Thursday, NASA issued a Request for Proposal (RFP), seeking industry collaboration for the Mars Telecommunications Network.
Reliable, high bandwidth communications is necessary to relay science data, high-definition imagery, and critical information during Mars missions. The network will use high-performance Mars telecommunications orbiters at the Red Planet to support future surface, orbital, and human exploration.
This RFP builds on a draft released April 2, as well as insights gathered during the accompanying industry day at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, where commercial partners provided feedback on agency objectives for the Mars Telecommunications Network.
The request seeks responses that address both current and future operational missions. It also seeks a science payload accommodation that will be selected by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. Industry is asked to respond within 30 calendar days of the posting, and the network should be ready to operate at Mars no later than 2030.
The Mars Telecommunications Network is part of NASA’s evolving space architecture, extending continuous network services beyond Earth to the Moon and Mars. The Mars Telecommunications Network is part of NASA’s SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation) Program’s Moon to Mars strategy, and is enabled by the direction and funding provided by Congress in the Working Families Tax Cut Act.
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Share Details Last Updated May 15, 2026 LocationNASA Headquarters Related TermsNASA, Industry Prepare Cryogenic Fuel Technology Demo
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Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)NASA is collaborating with Eta Space of Rockledge, Florida, on an in‑orbit technology demonstration to advance a key capability for future deep space missions. The Liquid Oxygen Flight Demonstration, or LOXSAT, will test cryogenic fluid management technologies necessary for creating in-space propellant depots, essentially gas stations in space, that could support long-term exploration.
The LOXSAT payload is displayed inside Rocket Lab’s Spacecraft Production Complex in Long Beach, California. Rocket LabDuring a nine-month mission, LOXSAT will demonstrate 11 cryogenic fluid management technologies. Eta Space built LOXSAT as part of a NASA Tipping Point opportunity, and Rocket Lab is providing spacecraft and launch services to deliver it to low Earth orbit. The LOXSAT payload has been integrated with a Rocket Lab Photon satellite bus and will launch aboard the company’s Electron rocket from Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula no earlier than July 17.
The technologies that LOXSAT will demonstrate were selected to address the core challenges of using cryogenic, or super-cold, propellants in microgravity, including reducing boiloff, transferring propellant, maintaining tank pressure, and gauging propellant levels. Data collected from these tests will support development of future in-space propellant depots that could refuel spacecraft as they journey to the Moon, Mars, or other deep space destinations.
Members of NASA’s Cryogenic Fluid Management project tour Rocket Lab’s Spacecraft Production Complex in Long Beach, California, on Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026 . The portfolio project team had the opportunity to view the LOXSAT payload and the setup for vibration testing. CreditRocket LabNASA’s LOXSAT team is composed of members of the Cryogenic Fluid Management Portfolio Project from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, and Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The cryogenic portfolio’s work is part of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate and includes more than 20 individual technology development activities.
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Share Details Last Updated May 15, 2026 EditorLee MohonContactJoel Wallacejoel.w.wallace@nasa.govLocationMarshall Space Flight Center Related Terms Explore More 3 min read Ice to Fuel: NASA Tests Technology for Refueling Landers Article 2 months ago 4 min read Stay Cool: NASA Tests Innovative Technique for Super Cold Fuel Storage Article 10 months ago 3 min read NASA Propellant Tech Could Fuel Long-Duration Missions Article 1 year ago Keep Exploring Discover Related TopicsMissions
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Fresh Food Delivery for Space Station
NASA astronauts Jack Hathaway (bottom left), Jessica Meir (middle left), and Chris Williams (bottom right), and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sophie Adenot (top right) have some fun with food and microgravity in this April 19, 2026, photo.
Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft delivered a shipment of fresh food, including oranges, apples, onions, and peppers, to the International Space Station. Cygnus XL also brought over 2,300 pounds of new research hardware and science experiments that the space station crew will use to explore blood stem cells to treat cancers and blood disorders and study ways to protect astronaut gut health. Other gear delivered aboard Cygnus XL include an advanced exercise system from ESA, new eye-imaging hardware, oxygen and nitrogen tanks to recharge spacesuits, and more.
Image credit: NASA/Chris Williams
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NASA-Supported Space Tech Advances Earthly Construction
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Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Branch’s work outfitting a prototype of a lunar surface habitat they developed, pictured here, under a cooperative agreement with Marshall Space Flight Center, helped the company evolve its printing processes.Credit: Branch Technology Inc.An innovative 3D printing process that advanced NASA’s approach to outfitting a lunar habitat is making buildings on Earth beautiful, efficient, and strong.
Instead of building structures layer by layer, Branch Technology Inc. of Chattanooga, Tennessee, has developed a process the company calls Freeform 3D Printing, which creates shapes with lightweight lattice structures that can be filled or covered. The company uses the technique to manufacture visually interesting, modular building elements, such as wall panels and cladding.
“Our process eliminates a ton of material from something that otherwise might be printed solid all the way through,” said David Goodloe, who leads Branch Technology’s Advanced Concepts team, which manages the company’s NASA collaborations.
In 2017, the company won Phase II of NASA’s 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge, a public competition to build a habitat for deep space exploration.
Tracie Prater, a technical manager in the Habitat Systems Development Branch at NASA’s Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, served as a subject matter expert for the challenge and worked with Branch Technology on a cooperative agreement.
“With the 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge, teams were focused on how to build a large habitat structure on a planetary surface,” said Prater. “But once that structure is pressurized and ready for crew occupancy, how do you populate it with systems and supplies? That’s what Branch was looking at through the cooperative agreement — what their on-demand fabrication process enables in terms of novel designs for interior items.”
NASA’s parameters for the habitat challenge led Branch to develop its nozzles to extrude unique lattice structures as well as more traditional layers. The company uses this dual capability frequently in its wall panels where traditionally printed sections offer solid substrates for attaching fasteners.
The polymers Branch extrudes were informed by its materials science research for the 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge, which asked that print material be made of something like the dust and rocks found on the Martian surface and mission recyclables. Branch came up with a basalt fiber-reinforced plastic and from that work went on to develop an optimal loading recipe for its terrestrial “inks.”
These innovations exemplify the purpose of NASA’s Technology Transfer program within the Space Technology Mission Directorate, which uses space-based solutions to improve life on Earth. For 50 years, NASA has documented the everyday benefits of space technology through the agency’s Spinoff publication.
Read More Share Details Last Updated May 13, 2026 Related Terms Explore More 4 min read Hello Universe: NASA’s Next-Gen Space Processor Undergoes Testing Article 4 days ago 3 min read NASA Heat Shield Technology Enables Space Industry Growth Article 4 months ago 3 min read NASA, Industry Weave Data Fabric with Artificial IntelligenceAir taxis and drones navigate different flight zones with NASA-inspired system
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Rise Goes to Washington
“Rise,” the Artemis II zero gravity indicator, is seen sitting on the dais as NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen speak with congressional staff, Tuesday, May 12, 2026, in Washington.
NASA’s Artemis II mission took Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen on a nearly 10-day journey around the Moon and back to Earth in April 2026.
See more photos from the crew’s visit to the U.S. Capitol.
Image credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky
NASA Outlines Preliminary Artemis III Mission Plans
NASA is moving quickly to define next year’s Artemis III mission in Earth orbit, a crewed flight that will test rendezvous and docking capabilities between the agency’s Orion spacecraft and commercial landers from Blue Origin and SpaceX. Since a February announcement adding an Artemis mission ahead of crewed landing missions to the Moon’s South Pole region, engineers have been evaluating mission profile options and operational considerations for Artemis III to ensure the test flight helps the agency and its partners reduce risk ahead of the next Americans landing on the Moon during Artemis IV.
“While this is a mission to Earth orbit, it is an important stepping stone to successfully landing on the Moon with Artemis IV. Artemis III is one of the most highly complex missions NASA has undertaken,” said Jeremy Parsons, Moon to Mars acting assistant deputy administrator, NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate in Washington. “For the first time, NASA will coordinate a launch campaign involving multiple spacecraft integrating new capabilities into Artemis operations. We’re integrating more partners and interrelated operations into this mission by design, which will help us learn how Orion, the crew, and ground teams all interact together with hardware and teams from both lander providers before we send astronauts to the Moon’s surface and build a Moon Base there.”
The mission is planned to carry out a series of objectives designed to demonstrate critical systems needed for a future lunar landing. During the Artemis III mission, the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket will launch the Orion spacecraft from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida with four crew members. Instead of using the interim cryogenic propulsion stage as the upper stage of the rocket, NASA will use a “spacer,” a representation of the mass and overall dimensions of an upper stage but without propulsive capabilities. The spacer will maintain the same overall dimensions and interface connection points as the upper stage between the Orion stage adapter and launch vehicle stage adapter.
Design and fabrication activities for the spacer are progressing rapidly at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Material for the barrel section and the upper and lower rings is currently being machined at Marshall in preparation for upcoming welding operations.
The Artemis III core stage sits in High Bay 2 in the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA Kennedy with the core stage tank attached to its engine section on May 12, 2026.Credit: NASA/Kim ShiflettAfter the rocket delivers Orion to orbit, the spacecraft’s European-built service module will provide propulsion to circularize Orion’s orbit around the planet in low Earth orbit. This orbit increases overall mission success by allowing more launch opportunities for each element as compared to a lunar mission — SLS carrying Orion and its crew, SpaceX’s Starship human landing system pathfinder, and Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 2 human landing system pathfinder.
Informed by Blue Origin and SpaceX capabilities, NASA also is defining the concept of operations for the mission. While some decisions are yet to be determined, astronauts could potentially enter at least one lander test article.
The crew will spend more time aboard Orion than during Artemis II, further advancing the evaluation of life support systems, and for the first time will demonstrate the docking system performance. The mission will inform lander rendezvous and habitation concepts and mission operations in preparation for future surface missions. The agency also plans to test an upgraded heat shield during Orion’s return to Earth to enable more flexible and robust reentry profiles for future missions.
The Artemis III Orion service module is pictured ahead of acoustic testing in NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Operations and Checkout Facility on May 7, 2026.NASA/Jess RuffaOver the coming weeks, NASA will continue to refine specific plans for the flight, including a timeline for identifying astronauts to train for mission operations, options to evaluate Axiom’s AxEMU spacesuit lander interfaces ahead of lunar surface missions, mission duration, and potential science operations for the flight. NASA has asked for industry input on potential solutions to improve the communications with the ground during the mission since the Deep Space Network will not be used. The agency also is seeking both international and domestic interest in potentially flying CubeSats to deploy in Earth orbit, and may share other opportunities as the concept of operations for the mission is further defined.
As part of the Golden Age of innovation and exploration, NASA will send Artemis astronauts on increasingly difficult missions to explore more of the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, establish an enduring human presence on the lunar surface, and to build on our foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars.
Learn more about NASA’s Artemis program:
Share Details Last Updated May 13, 2026 LocationKennedy Space Center Related TermsStudying Pneumonia in Space for Heart Health on Earth
Expedition 74 astronauts aboard the International Space Station are uncovering how bacteria that causes pneumonia can lead to long-term damage in the heart. Researchers are leveraging the space environment to observe how stem cell derived heart tissues respond to bacterial infections, to discover new methods to manage cardiovascular health and infectious diseases.
In space, bacteria tend to be more severe and have enhanced drug resistance. Scientists are harnessing these traits to exaggerate their effect on heart cells and reveal important cellular responses that would be difficult to detect on Earth. Pinpointing the factors that make bacterial infections more severe in space could reveal targets for treatment. Dr. Palaniappan Sethu, professor of Medicine and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Alabama at Birmingham says, “By exacerbating the infection, we anticipate clear separation of the infection and control groups, making it easier to identify subtle factors that promote bacterial virulence”.
Preflight imagery of stem cell derived heart tissue models produced for the MVP Cell-09 investigation.University of Alabama at BirminghamThe Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria is the leading cause of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), an infection which causes millions of deaths each year. More than a quarter of adults hospitalized for CAP develop heart disease and patients that survive severe cases have an increased risk even after the pneumonia has been fully eradicated.
This research is also important as humans venture further into space. For over 25 years, researchers have utilized the space station to study how the human body and microbes respond to space, and deep space missions will require the strategies and knowledge we gain. “Addressing these questions is essential for ensuring human health during long duration space travel and for enabling sustainable habitation beyond Earth. Our experiments are expected to generate new insights into how space specific factors influence disease progression”, says Dr. Carlos J. Orihuela, professor of Microbiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
From left to right: Redwire Space researchers Grant Vellinger and Dr. Aaron Rogers, and University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers Dr. Vipin Chembilikand and Dr. Ian Berg prepare MVP Cell-09 ahead of launch to the space station.University of Alabama at BirminghamThe space station allows researchers from around the world to address complex human health problems on Earth and in space. Using the unique environmental factors aboard the space station allows for advanced study of disease formation, testing drugs and diagnostic tools, and more.
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NASA’s Planet-Hunting TESS Reveals Dazzling Night Sky
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NASA’s Planet-Hunting TESS Reveals Dazzling Night SkyNASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) has released its most complete view of the starry sky to date, filling in gaps from previous observations. Nearly 6,000 colored dots scattered across the image show the locations of either confirmed or candidate exoplanets — worlds beyond our solar system — identified by the mission as of September 2025 at the end of TESS’s second extended mission.
“Over the last eight years, TESS has become a fire hose of exoplanet science,” said Rebekah Hounsell, a TESS associate project scientist at the University of Maryland Baltimore County and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “It’s helped us find planets of all different sizes, from tiny Mercury-like ones to those larger than Jupiter. Some of them are even in the habitable zone, where liquid water might be possible on the surface, an important factor in our search for life beyond Earth.”
The TESS mission scans a wide swath of the sky, called a sector, for about a month at a time using its four cameras. These long stares allow the spacecraft to track the brightness changes of tens of thousands of stars, looking for variations in their light that might come from orbiting planets.
Researchers assembled an all-sky mosaic made of 96 sectors observed between April 2018, when TESS began its work, and September 2025.
This view of the whole sky was constructed from 96 TESS sectors. By the end of September 2025, when the last image of this mosaic was captured, TESS had discovered 679 exoplanets (blue dots) and 5,165 candidates (orange dots). The glowing arc running through the center is the plane of the Milky Way. The Large Magellanic Cloud can be seen along the bottom edge just left of center. Black areas within the oval indicate regions TESS has not yet imaged. NASA/MIT/TESS and Veselin Kostov (University of Maryland College Park)Download high-resolution images from NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.
The blue dots in the image mark the locations of nearly 700 confirmed planets, as of September 9. This menagerie includes worlds that may be covered by volcanoes, are being destroyed by their stars, or orbit two stars — experiencing double sunrises and sunsets each day. The orange dots represent more than 5,000 candidate planets that are awaiting verification.
To date, scientists have confirmed over 6,270 exoplanets using missions like TESS, NASA’s retired Kepler Space Telescope, and other facilities.
Also captured in the mosaic is the bright plane of our Milky Way galaxy, seen as a glowing arc through the center. The bright white ovals in the lower left are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. These satellite galaxies are located 160,000 and 200,000 light-years away, respectively.
“The more we dig into the large TESS dataset, especially using automated algorithms, the more surprises we find,” said Allison Youngblood, the TESS project scientist at NASA Goddard. “In addition to planets, TESS has helped us study rivers of young stars, observe dynamic galactic behavior, and monitor asteroids near Earth. As TESS fills in more of the night sky, there’s no knowing what it might see next.”
You could discover the next exoplanet! Join the Planet Hunters TESS citizen science project, and you’ll learn how to read light curves — plots of light data from distant stars — to find telltale signals from orbiting exoplanets.
By Jeanette Kazmierczak
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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NASA Langley Engineer Attends FAA Training
At a busy airport, every aircraft in the area shares just a handful of radio frequencies. Spectrum and time are constrained and if multiple people speak at once, both messages can get lost. Communications like “clearance delivery,” which require long transmissions and readbacks, are challenging in high-traffic areas, particularly when weather or other factors require many aircraft to communicate with controllers at once. Going digital clears that channel for urgent, time-critical calls, among other things. And it’s the current practice at some airports, where pilots can confirm clearances with the touch of a button, that the response goes directly to the controller’s screen, and the updated information loads into their flight management system.
Will Cummings-Grande, aerospace engineer with the Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate based at NASA’s Langley Research Center, is leading technical work that centers around Communications Architecture and Performance for Digital Clearance in NASA’s Air Traffic Management and Safety (ATMS) project. He’s researching the next layer of digital clearance, extending that same logic down to taxi instructions on the ground, so that pushback timing, routing, and runway assignments could also arrive digitally rather than over the radio.
He sought out the most current, ground-level knowledge about how digital clearance delivery works in practice — not in a research paper, but in a real tower, on real systems, with the people who run them every day. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) offers the training he wanted to air traffic controllers, so he reached out to the FAA Academy “on a hope and a prayer” that they might accept him as a student.
And in early April, Cummings-Grande traveled to the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center (MMAC) in Oklahoma City to complete the Tower Data Link Services (TDLS) Application Specialist training — the same two-day, hands-on course required of working controllers at the 72 U.S. airports currently equipped with digital clearance delivery capability.
Will Cummings-Grande, aerospace engineer with the Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate, based at NASA’s Langley Research CenterCredit: NASA The air traffic control tower at the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center in Oklahoma City, where Cummings-Grande visited to observe the Tower Data Link Services system in live operation. Credit: Will Cummings-Grande/NASA In the ClassroomCumming-Grande shadowed a working controller during exercises, trading off at the terminal during breaks so both got time on the system. His classmates were application specialists from Seattle, Sacramento, San Jose, and Fort Lauderdale, all controllers with day jobs managing high-traffic airspace who were there to become the designated system maintainers at their home airports. During breaks, Cummings-Grande had a luxury: time to test. “I got to bounce some of my ideas and concepts off of controllers who are out there interacting with the TDLS and all of the tools it touches in the current system,” he said. “It was great to have both — here’s what the controller-in-training gets, and here’s what I get as a researcher — kind of lumped into the same experience.”
The FAA Academy also connected him with the systems engineers responsible for developing, testing, and implementing new TDLS hardware and software versions, and arranged a visit to the OKC tower to observe the system in live operation.
What He FoundThe TDLS runs on fully air-gapped software, completely isolated from standard operating systems — a deliberate cybersecurity design that made the hands-on experience revelatory in ways a research paper couldn’t replicate. “Interacting with the system was just very eye-opening as to how different these systems are from other computers that we commonly interact with,” he said.
The more significant discovery came from the curriculum itself. Reviewing the FAA’s system architecture during training, Cummings-Grande noticed something he didn’t know to look for: a link between the TDLS and the Terminal Flight Data Manager (TFDM), which does not yet exist operationally. That gap is now the center of his research questions. “I didn’t realize I was missing this piece until I took this course,” he said.
Building on Two Decades of HomeworkThe research Cummings-Grande is pursuing connects to a long thread of NASA work on surface safety and digital communications, including the Terminal Area Productivity program, the Surface Operation Automation Research (SOAR) project, the Low Visibility Landing and Surface Operations (LVLASO) project, and Surface Trajectory Based Operations (STBO) studies. These efforts kicked off in the mid-90s to inform FAA NextGen and demonstrated digital taxi clearances in a series of simulations at multiple facilities and ultimately flight tests at the Atlanta Airport. Those findings showed meaningful workload reductions, but the cost-benefit case wasn’t there yet, and the technology wasn’t ready in the fleet or in the facilities.
What’s changed, in Cummings-Grande’s view, is the convergence of new infrastructure investments, including the rollout of systems derived from Airspace Technology Demonstration (ATD-2) technologies like the Spot and Runway Departure Advisor and the Precision Departure Release Capability through the TFDM, with renewed industry interest from a partner on the aircraft side. “We have all this homework that people have been doing for the last 20-30 years,” he said. “Can we take advantage of the renewed interest from FAA and industry to enable this safety-enhancement?”
His timeline estimate for a fully implemented system leans somewhere in the range of five to ten years. And the payoff, he says, will be tangible to anyone who flies. “This means that your flight will be safer than ever, and that your pilots will be focused on the right things during taxi. Instead of relying on pilots to write down their taxi clearance correctly or be familiar with the airport, the airplane will know and can double-check what the pilot is doing.”
A Case for PartnershipCummings-Grande isn’t aware of another NASA researcher having taken this FAA course, and he thinks the model is worth repeating. He pointed to terminal procedures design (TERPS) as another area where FAA Academy training could benefit researchers working on urban air mobility and small UAS integration. “Anytime someone needs to do a deep dive into one of the systems — understanding the current state of practice, here are the buttons you push to make this happen — I think it’d be great to have an ongoing partnership with the FAA Academy and make that possible.”
The FAA Academy team was, by all accounts, a willing partner.
Cummings-Grande extends his special thanks to the FAA’s Eric Gandrud and Carol Raiford.
Will Cummings-Grande met an unexpected security detail during his final day at MMAC — a goose standing guard over a vintage Lear Fan 2100 parked outside the Civil Aerospace Medical Institute. “I hear a hiss, and I look down, and there’s a goose who is defending their favorite airplane.”Credit: Will Cummings-Grande/NASAPerseverance Stuns in New Selfie
NASA’s Perseverance rover recently took a self-portrait against a sweeping backdrop of ancient Martian terrain at a location the science team calls “Lac de Charmes.” Assembled from 61 individual images, the selfie shows Perseverance training its mast on a rocky outcrop in the foreground after creating a circular abrasion patch, with the western rim of Jezero Crater stretching into the background. During abrading, the rover grinds down a portion of the rock’s surface, allowing the science team to analyze what’s inside. The selfie was captured on March 11, the 1,797th Martian day (or sol) of the mission, during the rover’s deepest push west beyond the crater.
Read more about Perseverance’s recent exploration.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
NASA’s Perseverance Rover Snaps Selfie in Mars’ Western Frontier
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NASA’s Perseverance looks down at a rocky outcrop nicknamed “Arathusa” and then appears to look into the camera in this animated selfie, which is composed of 61 images taken March 11, 2026, during the rover’s deepest push west beyond Jezero Crater. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSSEditor’s note: The text was updated on March 13, 2026, to correct the spelling of the outcrop nicknamed “Arathusa.”
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover recently took a self-portrait against a sweeping backdrop of ancient Martian terrain at a location the science team calls “Lac de Charmes.” Assembled from 61 individual images, the selfie shows Perseverance training its mast on a rocky outcrop on which it had just made a circular abrasion patch, with the western rim of Jezero Crater stretching into the background. The selfie was captured on March 11, the 1,797th Martian day, or sol, of the mission, during the rover’s deepest push west beyond the crater.
Perseverance is in its fifth science campaign, known as the Northern Rim Campaign, of its mission on the Red Planet. The Lac de Charmes region represents some of the most scientifically compelling terrain the rover has visited.
NASA’s Perseverance captured this enhanced-color panorama of an area nicknamed “Arbot” on April 5, the 1,882nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Made of 46 images, the panorama offers one of the richest geological vistas of the rover’s mission, revealing a windswept landscape of diverse rock textures.NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS“We took this image when the rover was in the ‘Wild West’ beyond the Jezero Crater rim — the farthest west we have been since we landed at Jezero a little over five years ago,” said Katie Stack Morgan, Perseverance’s project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “We had just abraded and analyzed the ‘Arathusa’ outcrop, and the rover was sitting in a spot that provided a great view of both the Jezero Rim and the local terrain outside of the crater.”
During abrading, the rover grinds down a portion of the rock’s surface, allowing the science team to analyze what’s inside. The technique enabled the team to determine that the Arathusa outcrop is composed of igneous minerals that likely predate the formation of Jezero Crater. Igneous rocks with large mineral crystals form underground as molten rock cools and solidifies. Perseverance acquired the selfie — its sixth since landing on Mars in 2021 — using the WATSON (Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering) camera mounted at the end of its robotic arm, which made 62 precision movements over approximately one hour to build the composite image (learn more about how selfies are made).
Significant scienceAlong with the selfie, Perseverance used Mastcam-Z, located on its mast, to capture a mosaic of the “Arbot” area in Lac de Charmes on April 5, or Sol 1882. Made of 46 images, the panorama offers one of the richest geological vistas of the mission, revealing a windswept landscape of diverse rock textures.
The image provides the team a clear road map for investigating the ridgeline and the area’s ancient rock variety, including what appear to be megabreccia — large fragments (some the size of skyscrapers) hurled by a massive meteorite impact that occurred on the plain called Isidis Planitia about 3.9 billion years ago.
“What I see in this image is excellent exposure of likely the oldest rocks we are going to investigate during this mission,” said Ken Farley, Perseverance’s deputy project scientist at Caltech in Pasadena. “There is a sharp ridgeline visible in the mosaic whose jagged, angular texture contrasts starkly with the rounded boulders in the foreground. We also see a feature that may be a volcanic dike, a vertical intrusion of magma that hardened in place and was left standing as the softer surrounding material eroded away over billions of years.”
The rock color in the mosaic offers less information to the science team than the distinctive textures, which help them differentiate the rock types. Unlike Jezero Crater’s river delta, which is composed of sedimentary rock, some rocks here appear to be extrusive igneous rocks (molten rock that reached the surface as lava flows) and impactites (rocks created or modified by a meteorite impact) believed to have formed before the crater about 4 billion years ago, offering a window into the planet’s deep early crust.
New ballgame, near-marathon distance“The rover’s study of these really ancient rocks is a whole new ballgame,” said Stack Morgan. “These rocks — especially if they’re from deep in the crust — could give us insights applicable to the entire planet, like whether there was a magma ocean on Mars and what initial conditions eventually made it a habitable planet.”
After studying Arathusa, Perseverance drove northwest to the Arbot area, where it has been analyzing other rocky outcrops. When the team is satisfied with the work accomplished there, the rover will drive south to “Gardevarri,” a site with a notably clear exposure of olivine-bearing rocks. Formed in cooling magma, these types of rocks contain information that can help scientists better understand Mars’ volcanic history and provide context for large-scale geological processes. From there, the rover is expected to head southeast toward a region the team is calling “Singing Canyon” for more insights into the planet’s early crust.
After more than five years of surface operations, Perseverance has abraded 62 rocks, collected 27 rock cores in its sample tubes (25 sealed, 2 unsealed), and traveled almost 26 miles (42 kilometers) — in other words, just shy of a marathon (26.2 miles, or 42.195 kilometers).
“Having the benefit of four previous rover missions, the Perseverance team has always known our mission was a marathon and not a sprint,” said acting Perseverance project manager Steve Lee at JPL. “We’ve almost reached marathon distance. Our selfie may show that the rover is a bit dusty, but its beauty is more than skin deep. Perseverance is in great shape as we continue our explorations and extend into ultramarathon drive distances.”
More about PerseveranceNASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed for the agency by Caltech, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover on behalf of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, as part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program portfolio. The WATSON imaging system was built by, and is operated by, Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego.
To learn more about NASA’s Perseverance:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-2020-perseverance
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DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
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agle@jpl.nasa.gov
Karen Fox / Alana Johnson
NASA Headquarters, Washington
240-285-5155 / 202-672-4780
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / alana.r.johnson@nasa.gov
2026-032
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NASA’s Perseverance Captures Panorama at ‘Arbot’
NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS Photojournal Navigation Downloads NASA’s Perseverance Captures Panorama at ‘Arbot’
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Description
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover used its Mastcam-Z camera to capture this panorama of an area nicknamed “Arbot” on April 5, 2026, the 1,882nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission, during the rover’s deepest push west beyond Jezero Crater. Made of 46 images, the panorama offers one of the richest geological vistas of the mission, revealing a windswept landscape of diverse rock textures. This is an enhanced-color version, which had its color bands processed to improve visual contrast and accentuate color differences.
Figure AFigure A is a natural-color version of the mosaic.
Figure BFigure B is a 3D anaglyph version designed for use with red-blue glasses. It is composed of 92 images collected by Mastcam-Z.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed for the agency by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover. Arizona State University leads the operations of the Mastcam-Z instrument, working in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, on the design, fabrication, testing, and operation of the cameras, and in collaboration with the Niels Bohr Institute of the University of Copenhagen on the design, fabrication, and testing of the calibration targets.
For more about Perseverance: science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-2020-perseverance/
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NASA’s Perseverance Rover Snaps Westernmost Selfie
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Description
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover took this selfie on March 11, 2026, the 1,797th Martian day, or sol, of the mission, during the rover’s deepest push west beyond Jezero Crater. Assembled from 61 individual images, the selfie shows Perseverance training its mast on the “Arethusa” rocky outcrop after creating a whitish circular abrasion patch. The crater’s western rim of Jezero Crater is visible in the background.
Figure AFigure A is a version of the selfie in which the rover appears to be looking at the camera.
Animation (.gif)Here is a GIF combining the main image and Figure A, in which the rover appears to look up and down.
The selfie is composed of images taken by the WATSON (Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering) camera on the end of the rover’s robotic arm. The images were stitched together after being sent back to Earth.
WATSON is part of an instrument called SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals). WATSON was built by Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) in San Diego and is operated jointly by MSSS and JPL.
The rover’s process for taking a selfie is explained in this video.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed for the agency by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.
For more about Perseverance:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-2020-perseverance/
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Hello Universe: NASA’s Next-Gen Space Processor Undergoes Testing
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Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Small enough to fit in the palm of a hand, NASA’s High Performance Spaceflight Computing processor packs the power of a full system-on-a-chip. This next-generation processor is made to survive deep space while delivering a massive leap in computational speed compared to current spacecraft technology.NASA/JPL-CaltechNASA’s High Performance Spaceflight Computing project aims to dramatically improve the computing power of spacecraft. Missions need processors that can withstand the harsh space environment, so they use chips developed years ago that are hardy and reliable. But upgraded chips are needed to enable the development of autonomous spacecraft, accelerate the rate of scientific discovery through faster data analysis, and support astronauts on missions to the Moon and Mars.
“Building on the legacy of previous space processors, this new multicore system is fault-tolerant, flexible, and extremely high-performing,” said Eugene Schwanbeck, program element manager in NASA’s Game Changing Development program at the agency’s Langley Research Center, in Hampton, Virginia. “NASA’s commitment to advancing spaceflight computing is a triumph of technical achievement and collaboration.”
The centerpiece of the High Performance Spaceflight Computing project is a new radiation-hardened, high-performance processor, designed to provide up to 100 times the computational capacity of current spaceflight computers while enduring a barrage of challenges in space. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California has been conducting various tests that replicate those challenges.
“We are putting these new chips through the wringer by carrying out radiation, thermal, and shock tests while also evaluating their performance through a rigorous functional test campaign,” said Jim Butler, High Performance Space Computing project manager at JPL.
The processor must endure myriad tests to prove it can survive the rigors of spaceflight, including electromagnetic radiation and extreme temperature swings, both of which can degrade electronics. High-energy particles from the Sun and interstellar space can cause errors that send a spacecraft into “safe mode,” where nonessential operations are shut down until mission operators resolve the issue.
There are also unique challenges associated with landing on planetary bodies. “To simulate real-world performance, we are using high-fidelity landing scenarios from real NASA missions that would typically require power-intensive hardware to process huge volumes of landing-sensor data,” said Butler. “This is an exciting time for us to be working on hardware that will enable NASA’s next giant leaps.”
Testing at JPL, which began in February, will continue for several months. Results have been promising: The processor is working as designed and indications show it operating at 500 times the performance of the radiation-hardened chips currently in use. In a symbolic milestone, the team sent an email at the start of testing with the subject line “Hello Universe” — a nod to the test message that was popular in early computer development.
Computing superpowersBuilt by Microchip Technology Inc., headquartered in Chandler, Arizona, the High Performance Spaceflight Computing processor is being developed by the company and JPL through a commercial partnership. Samples have been provided to early access partners in the broader defense and commercial aerospace industry. The technology will enable autonomous spacecraft to use artificial intelligence to respond in real time to complex situations and environments where human input isn’t possible. It will help deep space missions analyze, store, and transmit troves of data to Earth, accelerating the rate of science discoveries. It could also support future human missions to the Moon and Mars.
Known as a system-on-a-chip (or SoC), the processor can fit in the palm of a hand and includes all the key components of a computer, such as central processing units, computational offloads, advanced networking units, memory, and input/output interfaces. Compact and energy-efficient, SoCs are commonly found in smartphones and tablets. But only the SoCs JPL is testing are built to survive for years, millions (or even billions) of miles from the nearest repair technician, enduring conditions that even the toughest home user couldn’t replicate.
Once certified for spaceflight, NASA will incorporate the chip into the computing hardware for many of the agency’s Earth orbiters, rovers exploring planetary surfaces, crewed habitats, and deep-space missions. The technology will be adapted by Microchip for Earth-based industries too, such as aviation and automotive manufacturing. The versatility of High Performance Spaceflight Computing supports NASA’s continued advancements in space exploration while providing transformative tools for numerous fields on Earth.
The project is managed by the Space Technology Mission Directorate’s Game Changing Development (GCD) program based at NASA Langley. The GCD program and JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, led the end-to-end maturation of the High Performance Spaceflight Computing technology by developing mission requirements, funding industry studies, and guiding the project life cycle to delivery. NASA JPL selected Microchip as a partner in 2022, and the company funded its own research and development of the processor.
For more information about the High Performance Spaceflight Computing project, visit:
News Media Contacts
Ian J. O’Neill
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2026-031
Share Details Last Updated May 12, 2026 Related Terms Explore More 6 min read NASA’s Perseverance Rover Snaps Selfie in Mars’ Western Frontier Article 9 hours ago 3 min read I Am Artemis: Kathleen Harmon Article 11 hours ago 3 min read NASA, Industry Advance High Performance Spaceflight Computing Article 4 days ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics High Performance Spaceflight Computing (HPSC)HPSC develops next-generation flight computing system that addresses computational performance, energy management and fault tolerance needs of NASA missions through…
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