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NASA’s TRACERS Studies Explosive Process in Earth’s Magnetic Shield
High above us, particles from the Sun hurtle toward Earth, colliding with the upper atmosphere and creating powerful explosions in a murky process called magnetic reconnection. A single magnetic reconnection event can release as much energy as the entire United States uses in a day.
NASA’s new TRACERS (Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites) mission will study magnetic reconnection, answering key questions about how it shapes the impacts of the Sun and space weather on our daily lives.
NASA’s TRACERS mission, or the Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites, will fly in low Earth orbit through the polar cusps, funnel-shaped holes in the magnetic field, to study magnetic reconnection and its effects in Earth’s atmosphere. Download full video. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Lacey YoungThe TRACERS spacecraft are slated to launch no earlier than late July 2025 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The two TRACERS spacecraft will orbit Earth to study how the solar wind — a continuous outpouring of electrically charged particles from the Sun — interacts with Earth’s magnetic shield, the magnetosphere.
What Is Magnetic Reconnection?As solar wind flows out from the Sun, it carries the Sun’s embedded magnetic field out across the solar system. Reaching speeds over one million miles per hour, this soup of charged particles and magnetic field plows into planets in its path.
“Earth’s magnetosphere acts as a protective bubble that deflects the brunt of the solar wind’s force. You can think of it as a bar magnet that’s rotating and floating around in space,” said John Dorelli, TRACERS mission science lead at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “As the solar wind collides with Earth’s magnetic field, this interaction builds up energy that can cause the magnetic field lines to snap and explosively fling away nearby particles at high speeds — this is magnetic reconnection.”
Openings in Earth’s magnetic field at the North and South Poles, called polar cusps, act as funnels allowing charged particles to stream down towards Earth and collide with atmospheric gases. These phenomena are pieces of the space weather system that is in constant motion around our planet — whose impacts range from breathtaking auroras to disruption of communications systems and power grids. In May 2024, Earth experienced the strongest geomagnetic storm in more than 20 years, which affected high-voltage power lines and transformers, forced trans-Atlantic flights to change course, and caused GPS-guided tractors to veer off-course.
How Will TRACERS Study Magnetic Reconnection?The TRACERS mission’s twin satellites, each a bit larger than a washing machine, will fly in tandem, one behind the other, in a relatively low orbit about 360 miles above Earth. Traveling over 16,000 mph, each satellite hosts a suite of instruments to measure different aspects of extremely hot, ionized gas called plasma and how it interacts with Earth’s magnetosphere.
An artist’s concept of the twin TRACERS satellites in orbit above Earth. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight CenterThe satellites will focus where Earth’s magnetic field dips down to the ground at the North polar cusp. By placing the twin TRACERS satellites in a Sun-synchronous orbit, they always pass through Earth’s dayside polar cusp, studying thousands of reconnection events at these concentrated areas.
This will build a step-by-step picture of how magnetic reconnection changes over time and from Earth’s dayside to its nightside.
NASA’s TRICE-2 mission also studied magnetic reconnection near Earth, but with a pair of sounding rockets launched into the northern polar cusp over the Norwegian Sea in 2018.
“The TRICE mission took great data. It took a snapshot of the Earth system in one state. It proved that these instruments could make this kind of measurement and achieve this kind of science,” said David Miles, TRACERS principal investigator at the University of Iowa. “But the system’s more complicated than that. The TRACERS mission demonstrates how you can use multi-spacecraft technology to get a picture of how things are moving and evolving.”
The TRACERS mission demonstrates how you can use multi-spacecraft technology to get a picture of how things are moving and evolving.DAVID MILES
TRACERS principal investigator, University of Iowa
Because previous missions could only take one measurement of an event per launch, too many changes in the region prevented forming a full picture. Following each other closely in orbit, the twin TRACERS satellites will provide multiple snapshots of the same area in rapid succession, spaced as closely as 10 seconds apart from each other, reaching a record-breaking 3,000 measurements in one year. These snapshots will build a picture of how the whole Earth system behaves in reaction to space weather, allowing scientists to better understand how to predict space weather in the magnetosphere.
Working Across Missions in Solar HarmonyThe TRACERS mission will collaborate with other NASA heliophysics missions, which are strategically placed near Earth and across the solar system. At the Sun, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe closely observes our closest star, including magnetic reconnection there and its role in heating and accelerating the solar wind that drives the reconnection events investigated by TRACERS.
Data from recently launched NASA missions, EZIE (Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer), studying electrical currents at Earth’s nightside, and PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) studying the solar wind and interactions in Earth’s atmosphere, can be combined with observations from TRACERS. With research from these missions, scientists will be able to get a more complete understanding of how and when Earth’s protective magnetic shield can suddenly connect with solar wind, allowing the Sun’s material into Earth’s system.
“The TRACERS mission will be an important addition to NASA’s heliophysics fleet.” said Reinhard Friedel, TRACERS program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “The missions in the fleet working together increase understanding of our closest star to improve our ability to understand, predict, and prepare for space weather impacts on humans and technology in space.”
The TRACERS mission is led by David Miles at the University of Iowa with support from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. NASA’s Heliophysics Explorers Program Office at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the mission for the agency’s Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The University of Iowa, Southwest Research Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of California, Berkeley, all lead instruments on TRACERS that study changes in the magnetic field and electric field. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, manages the VADR (Venture-class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare) contract.
by Desiree Apodaca
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Header Image:
An artist’s concept of the TRACERS mission, which will help research magnetic reconnection and its effects in Earth’s atmosphere.
Credits: Andy Kale
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NASA Sees Key Progress on Starlab Commercial Space Station
As NASA continues its transition toward a commercial low Earth orbit marketplace, an agency-supported commercial space station, Starlab, recently completed five development and design milestones. Starlab’s planned design consists of a service module and a habitat that will be launched to orbit on a single flight.
The milestones, part of a NASA Space Act Agreement awarded in 2021, focused on reviews of Starlab’s preliminary design and safety, as well as spacecraft mockup and procurement plans. Each milestone provides NASA insight into the company’s development progress.
“As we work toward the future of low Earth orbit, these milestones demonstrate Starlab’s dedication to building a commercial space station that can support human life and advance scientific research,” said Angela Hart, program manager for NASA’s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “Both the insight shared by Starlab and the expertise shared by NASA are critical to future mission success.”
Starlab recently completed a preliminary design and safety review of its station’s architecture and systems. The company now will begin detailed design and hardware development, culminating in a critical design review later this year. Critical design reviews are an important step in a station’s development, assessing design maturity before proceeding with fabrication and assembly.
An artist’s concept of the Starlab commercial space station.StarlabStarlab also has begun construction of a full-scale, high-fidelity mockup of the station. The mockup, which will be housed in the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility at NASA Johnson, will be used for human-in-the-loop testing, during which participants perform day-in-the-life walkthroughs and evaluate the interior design, crew training, procedure development, hardware checks, and in-flight issue resolution.
In addition, Starlab completed reviews of the system design architecture, procurement plan, and Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft docking system design. In 2023, Northrop Grumman teamed up with Starlab to provide cargo logistics services and engineering consultation to support the commercial space station. These reviews included design configuration updates of solar arrays, docking ports, crew quarters, and more.
NASA supports the design and development of multiple commercial space stations through funded and unfunded agreements. Following the design and development phase, NASA plans to procure services from one or more companies as part of its strategy to become one of many customers for low Earth orbit stations.
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NASA Citizen Science and Your Career: Stories of Exoplanet Watch Volunteers
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NASA Citizen Science and Your Career: Stories of Exoplanet Watch VolunteersDoing NASA Science brings many rewards. But can taking part in NASA citizen science help your career? To find out, we asked participants in NASA’s Exoplanet Watch project about their experiences. In this project, amateur astronomers work together with professionals to track planets around other stars.
First, we heard from professional software programmers. Right away, one of them told us about getting a new job through connections made in the project.
“I decided to create the exoplanet plugin, [for citizen science] since it was quite a lot of manual work to check which transits were available for your location. The exoplanet plugin and its users got me in contact with the Stellar group… Through this group, I got into contact with a company called OurSky and started working for them… the point is, I created a couple of plugins for free and eventually got a job at an awesome company.”
Another participant talked about honing their skills and growing their confidence through Exoplanet Watch.
“There were a few years when I wasn’t actively coding. However, Exoplanet Watch rekindled that spark…. Participating in Exoplanet Watch even gave me the confidence to prepare again for a technical interview at Meta—despite having been thoroughly defeated the first time I tried.”
Teachers and teaching faculty told us how Exoplanet Watch gives them the ability to better convey what scientific research is all about – and how the project motivates students!
“Exoplanet Watch makes it easy for undergraduate students to gain experience in data science and Python, which are absolutely necessary for graduate school and many industry jobs.”
“Experience with this collaborative work is a vital piece of the workforce development of our students who are seeking advanced STEM-related careers or ongoing education in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics) fields after graduation… Exoplanet Watch, in this way, is directly training NASA’s STEM workforce of tomorrow by allowing CUNY (The City University of New York) students to achieve the science goals that would otherwise be much more difficult without its resources.”
One aspiring academic shared how her participation on the science team side of the project has given her research and mentorship experience that strengthens her resume.
“I ended up joining the EpW team to contribute my expertise in stellar variability… My involvement with Exoplanet Watch has provided me with invaluable experience in mentoring a broad range of astronomy enthusiasts and working in a collaborative environment with people from around the world. … Being able to train others, interact in a team environment, and work independently are all critical skills in any work environment, but these specific experiences have also been incredibly valuable towards building my portfolio as I search for faculty positions around the USA.”
There are no guarantees, of course. What you get out of NASA citizen science depends on what you put in. But there is certainly magic to be found in the Exoplanet Watch project. As one student said:
“Help will always be found at Hogwarts, to those who need it.” Exoplanet Watch was definitely Hogwarts for me in my career as an astronomer!”
For more information about NASA and your career, check out NASA’s Surprisingly STEM series highlighting exciting and unexpected jobs at NASA, or come to NASA Career Day, a virtual event for students and educators. Participants must register by September 4, 2025. The interactive platform will be open from September 15-19, with live panels and events taking place on September 18.
Exoplanet Watch volunteer Bryan Martin
Credit: Bryan Martin
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Ejection Mechanism Design for the SPEED Test Architecture Challenge
The The Stratospheric Projectile Entry Experiment on Dynamics (SPEED), a two-stage stratospheric drop test architecture, is currently under development to bridge the state-of-the-art gap that many NASA flagship missions require to reduce system risk and enable more optimized designs via margin reduction. To do this, a two-stage vehicle will drop from a high-altitude balloon and use the first stage (an LV-Haack cone aeroshell) to accelerate the sub-scale test model to supersonic conditions. The onboard avionics will then release the test model into freestream flow at the proper altitude in Earth’s atmosphere for dynamic Mach scaling to the full-scale flight trajectory. SPEED leverages low-cost methods of manufacturing such as 3D printing and laser/water-jet cutting to enable 8 or more two-stage vehicles to be dropped in a single test, making the science-to-dollar density much higher than any current ground-test facility NASA has at its disposal. The goal is to develop a robust ejection system that can reliably introduce the test models into supersonic flow with a tight variance on initial condition perturbation. The separation system must be capable of handling a range of initial angle-of-attacks, keep the test model secure in the first stage during take-off and descent, and eject the test model in such a way that it does not linger behind the first stage and be affected by the resulting wake. As current ejection system designs are conceptual, complex, and untested, NASA is looking for alternative ideas that can be incorporated into the design of their next iteration of SPEED flight vehicles to increase system reliability. We are challenging the public to design innovative concepts for a separation mechanism that can be used to assess NASA and commercial reentry vehicle stability.
Award: $7,000 in total prizes
Open Date: July 14, 2025
Close Date: September 8, 2025
For more information, visit: https://grabcad.com/challenges/ejection-mechanism-design-for-the-speed-test-architecture
NASA Funds Early Career Employee Research
Sylvie Crowell, a materials researcher at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, has received a NASA Early Career Initiative (ECI) award for a research proposal titled “Lunar Dust Reduction through Electrostatic Adhesion Mitigation (L-DREAM).” The research focuses on developing a passive lunar dust mitigation coating for solar cells and thermal control surfaces.
Operated under the NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate, the award will fund Crowell’s research in fiscal year 2026, beginning Oct. 1, 2025.
NASA’s ECI is a unique opportunity for the best and brightest of NASA’s early career researchers to lead hands-on technology development projects. The initiative aims to invigorate NASA’s technological base and best practices by partnering early career NASA leaders with external innovators.
Return to NewsletterNASA Glenn Experts Join Baseball Fans in Omaha
Thousands of baseball fans travel across the country annually to watch teams compete in Omaha, Nebraska, during the NCAA Men’s College World Series in June. This year, NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland swung for the fences to celebrate the city’s Diamond Anniversary of hosting the event and to highlight the intersections of sports and STEM.
NASA Glenn Research Center’s astronaut mascot greets visitors at the Kiewit Luminarium in Omaha, Nebraska, on Thursday, June 12, 2025, during an event at the RiverFront celebrating the city’s Diamond Anniversary hosting the NCAA Men’s College World Series. Credit: NASA/Shauntina LillyAs part of a larger outreach program across the region, NASA Glenn, the only NASA center in the Midwest, continues to meet audiences where they are to make space relatable to all.
“We brought NASA to Omaha during the College World Series to connect with a broader audience through one of the country’s most celebrated sporting events,” said NASA Glenn Public Engagement Specialist Heather Brown, who led the event. “Our goal was to spark curiosity, inspire the next generation, and demonstrate how science and exploration intersect with everyday passions — like baseball.”
Guests enjoy exploring science through an interactive kiosk in NASA Glenn Research Center’s Journey to Tomorrow traveling exhibit on Friday, June 13, 2025, during an event in Omaha, Nebraska. Credit: NASA/Shauntina LillySituated next to the Kiewit Luminarium on the Lewis and Clark Landing of Omaha’s RiverFront, NASA Glenn engaged fans with Artemis-themed displays, interactive kiosks, a Space Launch System inflatable rocket, and the 53-foot Journey to Tomorrow traveling exhibit. In addition, Omaha-born NASA Flight Director Brandon Lloyd greeted visitors and participated in an event at the Branched Oak Observatory, where a large crowd of space enthusiasts asked questions and learned more about NASA’s missions.
“This was an incredible opportunity to tell NASA’s story and showcase our work in a setting that was already energized and ready to engage,” Brown said.
Back to NewsletterOne Survey by NASA’s Roman Could Unveil 100,000 Cosmic Explosions
Scientists predict one of the major surveys by NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope may reveal around 100,000 celestial blasts, ranging from exploding stars to feeding black holes. Roman may even find evidence of some of the universe’s first stars, which are thought to completely self-destruct without leaving any remnant behind.
This simulation showcases the dynamic universe as NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope could see it over the course of its five-year primary mission. The video sparkles with synthetic supernovae from observations of the OpenUniverse simulated universe taken every five days (similar to the expected cadence of Roman’s High-Latitude Time-Domain Survey, which OpenUniverse simulates in its entirety). On top of the static sky of stars in the Milky Way and other galaxies, more than a million exploding stars flare into visibility and then slowly fade away. To highlight the dynamic physics happening and for visibility at this scale, the true brightness of each transient event has been magnified by a factor of 10,000 and no background light has been added to the simulated images. The video begins with Roman’s full field of view, which represents a single pointing of Roman’s camera, and then zooms into one square.Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and M. TroxelCosmic explosions offer clues to some of the biggest mysteries of the universe. One is the nature of dark energy, the mysterious pressure thought to be accelerating the universe’s expansion.
“Whether you want to explore dark energy, dying stars, galactic powerhouses, or probably even entirely new things we’ve never seen before, this survey will be a gold mine,” said Benjamin Rose, an assistant professor at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, who led a study about the results. The paper is published in The Astrophysical Journal.
Called the High-Latitude Time-Domain Survey, this observation program will scan the same large region of the cosmos every five days for two years. Scientists will stitch these observations together to create movies that uncover all sorts of cosmic fireworks.
Chief among them are exploding stars. The survey is largely geared toward finding a special class of supernova called type Ia. These stellar cataclysms allow scientists to measure cosmic distances and trace the universe’s expansion because they peak at about the same intrinsic brightness. Figuring out how fast the universe has ballooned during different cosmic epochs offers clues to dark energy.
This infographic describes the High-Latitude Time-Domain Survey that will be conducted by NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. The survey’s main component will cover over 18 square degrees — a region of sky as large as 90 full moons — and see supernovae that occurred up to about 8 billion years ago. Smaller areas within the survey will pierce even farther, potentially back to when the universe was around a billion years old. The survey will be split between the northern and southern hemispheres, located in regions of the sky that will be continuously visible to Roman. The bulk of the survey will consist of 30-hour observations every five days for two years in the middle of Roman’s five-year primary mission.Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight CenterIn the new study, scientists simulated Roman’s entire High-Latitude Time-Domain Survey. The results suggest Roman could see around 27,000 type Ia supernovae—about 10 times more than all previous surveys combined.
Beyond dramatically increasing our total sample of these supernovae, Roman will push the boundaries of how far back in time we can see them. While most of those detected so far occurred within approximately the last 8 billion years, Roman is expected to see vast numbers of them earlier in the universe’s history, including more than a thousand that exploded more than 10 billion years ago and potentially dozens from as far back as 11.5 billion years. That means Roman will almost certainly set a new record for the farthest type Ia supernova while profoundly expanding our view of the early universe and filling in a critical gap in our understanding of how the cosmos has evolved over time.
“Filling these data gaps could also fill in gaps in our understanding of dark energy,” Rose said. “Evidence is mounting that dark energy has changed over time, and Roman will help us understand that change by exploring cosmic history in ways other telescopes can’t.”
But type Ia supernovae will be hidden among a much bigger sample of exploding stars Roman will see once it begins science operations in 2027. The team estimates Roman will also spot about 60,000 core-collapse supernovae, which occur when a massive star runs out of fuel and collapses under its own weight.
That’s different from type Ia supernovae, which originate from binary star systems that contain at least one white dwarf — the small, hot core remnant of a Sun-like star — siphoning material from a companion star. Core-collapse supernovae aren’t as useful for dark energy studies as type Ias are, but their signals look similar from halfway across the cosmos.
“By seeing the way an object’s light changes over time and splitting it into spectra — individual colors with patterns that reveal information about the object that emitted the light—we can distinguish between all the different types of flashes Roman will see,” said Rebekah Hounsell, an assistant research scientist at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County working at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland and a co-author of the study.
“With the dataset we’ve created, scientists can train machine-learning algorithms to distinguish between different types of objects and sift through Roman’s downpour of data to find them,” Hounsell added. “While searching for type Ia supernovae, Roman is going to collect a lot of cosmic ‘bycatch’—other phenomena that aren’t useful to some scientists, but will be invaluable to others.”
Hidden Gems
Thanks to Roman’s large, deep view of space, scientists say the survey should also unearth extremely rare and elusive phenomena, including even scarcer stellar explosions and disintegrating stars.
Upon close approach to a black hole, intense gravity can shred a star in a so-called tidal disruption event. The stellar crumbs heat up as they swirl around the black hole, creating a glow astronomers can see from across vast stretches of space-time. Scientists think Roman’s survey will unveil 40 tidal disruption events, offering a chance to learn more about black hole physics.
The team also estimates Roman will find about 90 superluminous supernovae, which can be 100 times brighter than a typical supernova. They pack a punch, but scientists aren’t completely sure why. Finding more of them will help astronomers weigh different theories.
Even rarer and more powerful, Roman could also detect several kilonovae. These blasts occur when two neutron stars — extremely dense cores leftover from stars that exploded as supernovae — collide. To date, there has been only one definitive kilonova detection. The team estimates Roman could spot five more.
This artist’s concept visualizes a kilonova – an explosion that happens when two neutron stars or a neutron star and a black hole collide and merge. When these collisions happen, a fraction of the resulting debris is ejected as jets, which move near the speed of light. The remaining debris produces hot, glowing, neutron-rich clouds that forge heavy elements, like gold and platinum. Researchers will mine data from NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which will survey the same areas of the sky every few days, to identify kilonovae. Roman’s extensive data will help astronomers better identify how often these events occur, how much energy they give off, and how near or far they are.Credit: NASA, ESA, J. Olmsted (STScI)That would help astronomers learn much more about these mysterious events, potentially including their fate. As of now, scientists are unsure whether kilonovae result in a single neutron star, a black hole, or something else entirely.
Roman may even spot the detonations of some of the first stars that formed in the universe. These nuclear furnaces were giants, up to hundreds of times more massive than our Sun, and unsullied by heavy elements that hadn’t yet formed.
They were so massive that scientists think they exploded differently than modern massive stars do. Instead of reaching the point where a heavy star today would collapse, intense gamma rays inside the first stars may have turned into matter-antimatter pairs (electrons and positrons). That would drain the pressure holding the stars up until they collapsed, self-destructing in explosions so powerful they’re thought to leave nothing behind.
So far, astronomers have found about half a dozen candidates of these “pair-instability” supernovae, but none have been confirmed.
“I think Roman will make the first confirmed detection of a pair-instability supernova,” Rose said — in fact the study suggests Roman will find more than 10. “They’re incredibly far away and very rare, so you need a telescope that can survey a lot of the sky at a deep exposure level in near-infrared light, and that’s Roman.”
A future rendition of the simulation could include even more types of cosmic flashes, such as variable stars and active galaxies. Other telescopes may follow up on the rare phenomena and objects Roman discovers to view them in different wavelengths of light to study them in more detail.
“Roman’s going to find a whole bunch of weird and wonderful things out in space, including some we haven’t even thought of yet,” Hounsell said. “We’re definitely expecting the unexpected.”
For more information about the Roman Space Telescope visit www.nasa.gov/roman.
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is managed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, with participation by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California; Caltech/IPAC in Pasadena, California; the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore; and a science team comprising scientists from various research institutions. The primary industrial partners are BAE Systems Inc. in Boulder, Colorado; L3Harris Technologies in Rochester, New York; and Teledyne Scientific & Imaging in Thousand Oaks, California.
By Ashley Balzer
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Fourth NASA-Enabled Private Flight to Space Station Completes Safely
The NASA-supported fourth private astronaut mission to the International Space Station, Axiom Mission 4, completed its flight as part of the agency’s efforts to demonstrate demand and build operational knowledge for future commercial space stations.
The four-person crew safely returned to Earth, splashing down off the coast of California at 5:31 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. Teams aboard SpaceX recovery vessels retrieved the spacecraft and astronauts.
Peggy Whitson, former NASA astronaut and director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space, ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla, and ESA (European Space Agency) project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland, and Hungarian to Orbit (HUNOR) astronaut Tibor Kapu of Hungary, completed about two and a half weeks in space.
The Axiom Mission 4 crew launched at 2:31 a.m. on June 25, on a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Approximately 28 hours later, Dragon docked to the space-facing port of the space station’s Harmony module. The astronauts undocked at 7:15 a.m. on July 14, to begin the trip home.
The crew conducted microgravity research, educational outreach, and commercial activities. The spacecraft will return to Florida for inspection and processing at SpaceX’s refurbishing facilities. Throughout their mission, the astronauts conducted about 60 science experiments, and returned science, including NASA cargo, back to Earth.
A collaboration between NASA and ISRO allowed Axiom Mission 4 to deliver on a commitment highlighted by President Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to send the first ISRO astronaut to the station. The space agencies participated in five joint science investigations and two in-orbit science, technology, engineering, and mathematics demonstrations. NASA and ISRO have a long-standing relationship built on a shared vision to advance scientific knowledge and expand space collaboration.
The private mission also carried the first astronauts from Poland and Hungary to stay aboard the space station.
The International Space Station is a springboard for developing a low Earth orbit economy. NASA’s goal is to achieve a strong economy off the Earth where the agency can purchase services as one of many customers to meet its science and research objectives in microgravity. NASA’s commercial strategy for low Earth orbit provides the government with reliable and safe services at a lower cost, enabling the agency to focus on Artemis missions to the Moon in preparation for Mars while also continuing to use low Earth orbit as a training and proving ground for those deep space missions.
Learn more about NASA’s commercial space strategy at:
https://www.nasa.gov/commercial-space
News Media Contacts:
Claire O’Shea
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
claire.a.o’shea@nasa.gov
Anna Schneider
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
anna.c.schneider@nasa.gov
Melissa Harris: Shaping NASA’s Vision for a Future in Low Earth Orbit
With over 25 years of experience in human spaceflight programs, Melissa Harris has contributed to numerous programs and projects during key moments in NASA’s history. As the life cycle lead and Independent Review Team review manager for the Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program, she guides the agency through development initiatives leading to a new era of space exploration.
Harris grew up near NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and spent time exploring the center and trying on astronaut helmets. She later earned her bachelor’s degree in legal studies from the University of Houston, master and subject matter expert certifications in configuration management, and ISO 9001 Lead Auditors Certification. When the opportunity arose, she jumped at the chance to join the International Space Station Program.
Harris (right) and her twin sister, Yvonne (left), at the Artemis I launch. Image courtesy of Melissa HarrisStarting as a board specialist, Harris spent eight years supporting the space station program boards, panels, and flight reviews. Other areas of support included the International Space Station Mission Evaluation Room and the EVA Crew Systems and Robotics Division managing changes for the acquisition and building of mockups in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory and Space Vehicle Mockup Facility in Houston. She then took a leap to join the Constellation Program, developing and overseeing program and project office processes and procedures. Harris then transitioned to the Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Project Office where she was a member of the EVA 23 quality audit team tasked with reviewing data to determine the cause of an in-orbit failure. She also contributed to the Orion Program and Artemis campaign. After spending two years at Axiom Space, Harris returned to NASA and joined the commercial low Earth orbit team.
Harris said the biggest lesson she has learned during her career is that “there are always ups and downs and not everything works out, but if you just keep going and at the end of the day see that the hard work and dedication has paid off, it is always the proudest moment.”
Her dedication led to a nomination for the Stellar Award by the Rotary National Award for Space Achievement Foundation.
Harris and her son, Tyler, at the Rotary National Award Banquet in 2024.Image courtesy of Melissa HarrisHarris’ favorite part of her role at NASA is working “closely with brilliant minds” and being part of a dedicated and hard-working team that contributes to current space programs while also planning for future programs. Looking forward, she anticipates witnessing the vision and execution of a self-sustaining commercial market in low Earth orbit come to fruition.
Outside of work, Harris enjoys being with family, whether cooking on the back porch, over a campfire, or traveling both in and out of the country. She has been married for 26 years to her high school sweetheart, Steve, and has one son, Tyler. Her identical twin sister, Yvonne, also works at Johnson.
Harris and her twin sister Yvonne dressed as Mark and Scott Kelly for Halloween in 2024.Image courtesy of Melissa HarrisLearn more about NASA’s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program at:
Curiosity Blog, Sols 4595-4596: Just Another Beautiful Day on Mars
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Curiosity Blog, Sols 4595-4596: Just Another Beautiful Day on Mars NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Left Navigation Camera on July 9, 2025 — Sol 4594, or Martian day 4,594 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 11:03:48 UTC. NASA/JPL-CaltechWritten by Ashley Stroupe, Mission Operations Engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Earth planning date: Wednesday, July 9, 2025
In today’s plan, we have a little bit of everything. With it being winter still, we are taking advantage of the ability to let the rover sleep in, doing most of the activities in the afternoon when it is warmer and we need less heating. As the Systems Engineer (Engineering Uplink Lead) today, I sequenced the needed heating and some other engineering housekeeping activities.
We start off with an extensive remote science block with Mastcam imaging of a nearby trough to look for potential sand activity. There is color imaging of a displaced block, “Ouro,” near a circular depression — could this be a small crater? Mastcam also takes a look at a ridge “Volcán Peña Blanca” to look at the sedimentary structures, which may provide insights into its formation. ChemCam LIBS and Mastcam team up to look at the “Los Andes” target, which is the dark face of a nearby piece of exposed bedrock. ChemCam RMI and Mastcam check out a distant small outcrop to examine the geometry of the layers. We also throw in environmental observations, a Mastcam solar Tau and a Navcam line-of-site looking at dust in the atmosphere. After a nap, Curiosity will be doing some contact science activities on “Cataratas del Jardín” and “Rio Ivirizu” bedrock targets. Looking at two nearby targets for variability can help us understand the local geology. Cataratas del Jardín gets a brushing to clear away the dust before both targets are examined by MAHLI and APXS. Fortunately for the Arm Rover Planner, both of these targets are fairly flat and easy to reach. Before going to sleep for the night, Curiosity will stow the arm to be ready for driving on the next sol.On the second sol, there is more remote science. ChemCam LIBS and Mastcam will examine “Torotoro,” another piece of layered bedrock. ChemCam RMI will take a mosaic of “Paniri,” which is an interesting incision in the rock that is filled with another material. There are also environmental observations, a Navcam dust devil survey and a suprahorizon movie. After another nap, Curiosity is getting on the road. We’re heading southwest (direction shown in the image) about 50 meters (about 164 feet), but we need to sneak between sandy pits and skirt around some terrain that we can’t see behind. The terrain here provides pretty nice driving, though, without a lot of big boulders, steep slopes, or pointy rocks that can poke holes in our wheels. After the standard post-drive imaging for our next plan, there are some Navcam observations to look for clouds and our normal look under the rover with MARDI before Curiosity goes to sleep for the night.
For more Curiosity blog posts, visit MSL Mission Updates
Learn more about Curiosity’s science instruments
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Linking Satellite Data and Community Knowledge to Advance Alaskan Snow Science
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Linking Satellite Data and Community Knowledge to Advance Alaskan Snow ScienceSeasonal snow plays a significant role in global water and energy cycles, and billions of people worldwide rely on snowmelt for water resources needs, including water supply, hydropower, agriculture, and more. Monitoring snow water equivalent (SWE) is critical for supporting these applications and for mitigating damages caused by snowmelt flooding, avalanches, and other snow-related disasters. However, our ability to measure SWE remains a challenge, particularly in northern latitudes where in situ SWE observations are sparse and satellite observations are impacted by the boreal forest and environmental conditions. Despite limited in situ SWE measurements, local residents in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions provide a vast and valuable body of place-based knowledge and observations that are essential for understanding snowpack behavior in northern regions.
As part of a joint NASA SnowEx, NASA’s Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP) for American Indian and Alaska Native STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics) Engagement (MAIANSE), and Global Learning & Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program partnership, a team of scientists including NASA intern Julia White (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks), Carrie Vuyovich (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), Alicia Joseph (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), and Christi Buffington (University of Alaska Fairbanks, GLOBE Implementation Office) is studying snow water equivalent (SWE) across Interior Alaska. This project combines satellite-based interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data, primarily from the Sentinel-1 satellite, with ground-based observations from the Snow Telemetry (SNOTEL) network and GLOBE (Global Learning Observations to Benefit the Environment). Together, these data sources help the team investigate how SWE varies across the landscape and how it affects local ecosystems and communities. The team is also preparing for future integration of data from NASA’s upcoming NISAR (NASA ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) mission, which is expected to enhance SWE retrieval capabilities.
After a collaborative visit to the classroom of Tammie Kovalenko in November 2024, Delta Junction junior and senior high school students in vocational agriculture (Vo Ag) classes, including members of Future Farmers of America (FFA), began collecting GLOBE data on a snowdrift located just outside their classroom. As the project progressed, students developed their own research questions. One student, Fianna Rooney, took the project even further — presenting research posters at both the GLOBE International Virtual Science Symposium (IVSS) and both the FFA Regional and National Conventions. Her work highlights the growing role of Alaskan youth in science, and how student-led inquiry can enrich both education and research outcomes. (This trip was funded by the NASA Science Activation Program’s Arctic and Earth SIGNs – STEM Integrating GLOBE & NASA – project at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.)
In February 2025, the team collaborated with Delta Junction Junior High and High School students, along with the Delta Junction Trails Association, to conduct a GLOBE Intensive Observation Period (IOP), “Delta Junction Snowdrifts,” to collect Landcover photos, snow depth, and snow water equivalent data. Thanks to aligned interests and research goals at the Alaska Satellite Facility (ASF), the project was further expanded into Spring 2025. Collaborators from ASF and the Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration (ACUASI) collected high resolution airborne data over the snowdrift at the Delta Junction Junior and Senior High School. This complementary dataset helped strengthen connections between satellite observations and ground-based student measurements.
This effort, led by a NASA intern, scientists, students, and Alaskan community members, highlights the power of collaboration in advancing science and education. Next steps will include collaboration with Native Alaskan communities near Delta Junction, including the Healy Lake Tribe, whose vast, generational knowledge will be of great value to deepening our understanding of Alaskan snow dynamics.
Learn more about how NASA’s Science Activation program connects NASA science experts, real content, and experiences with community leaders to do science in ways that activate minds and promote deeper understanding of our world and beyond: https://science.nasa.gov/learn/about-science-activation/
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Image credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/Alex Parker
Chief Training Officer Teresa Sindelar Touches the Future of Human Spaceflight
Teresa Sindelar always knew she wanted to be a part of human spaceflight, but she was unsure how to make that dream a reality until a chance encounter with former NASA astronaut Tom Stafford when she was 11 years old.
The pair met in a local jewelry shop near Sindelar’s Nebraska home, where Gen. Stafford was signing autographs. In addition to his photo, Gen. Stafford gave Sindelar a valuable tip – she should check out the Kansas Cosmosphere, a space museum in Hutchinson, Kansas. “I proceeded to attend every camp the Cosmosphere offered as a student, interned during college, and worked there full time while earning my graduate degree,” Sindelar said.
Official portrait of Teresa Sindelar.NASAShe discovered a passion for teaching and mentoring young students through her work in the museum’s education department and a stint as a high school science teacher. When she began looking for opportunities at NASA, she sought a position that melded instruction with technical work. “I like pouring into others and watching them grow,” she said.
Today, Sindelar is a chief training officer (CTO) within the Flight Operations Directorate at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Along with her fellow CTOs, Sindelar oversees the correct and complete training of NASA astronauts, crew members representing international partners, and all flight controllers. “I put the pieces together,” she said. “It is my job to make sure instructors, schedulers, outside partners, facility managers, and others are all in sync.” She added that CTOs have a unique position because they see the big picture of a training flow and understand the long-term training goals and objectives.
Teresa Sindelar received a 2025 Space Flight Awareness Program Honoree Award, presented by NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik.NASA“I get to do a lot of cool things and go to a lot of cool places,” she said, noting that the training facilities at Johnson and other NASA centers, as well as facilities managed by international partners, are top-notch. While she does enjoy watching astronauts work through problems and learn new systems, she has a special fondness for flight controller training and mentoring young professionals. “What fills my cup the most is seeing a brand-new employee right out of college blossom into a confident flight controller, do their job well, and make our missions better,” she said. “I like knowing that I had something to do with that.”
Sindelar has been part of the Johnson team since 2010 and worked as an educator in what was then called the center’s Office of Education and as a crew training instructor in the Space Medicine Operations Directorate before becoming a CTO. In March 2025, Sindelar received a Space Flight Awareness Program Honoree Award for her outstanding leadership in the Private Astronaut Mission (PAM) program, which is an important component of NASA’s strategy for enabling a robust and competitive commercial economy in low Earth orbit. As the lead CTO for the third PAM, Axiom Mission 3, Sindelar managed training while identifying critical inefficiencies, enhancing mission safety and performance. She spearheaded a key stakeholder retreat to streamline operations, reorganized training resources for improved accessibility, and implemented efficiency improvements that optimized mission support. Sindelar’s work was recognized during an award ceremony at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and she got to attend the launch of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission as a special guest.
In her 15 years with the agency, she has learned the importance of leading by example. “My team needs to see that I meet the bar I set,” she said. “Leading is about motivating your people so they are committed, not just compliant.”
Teresa Sindelar (front row, third from left) and her Space Medicine Operations crew training team with the crew members of Expedition 48.NASAKeeping a team motivated and on track is particularly important to training success and safety. “We only get a matter of months to train astronauts to do the most hazardous activities that humans have done, or to train flight controllers who literally have the mission and the lives of astronauts in their hands,” Sindelar said, adding that they cannot afford to have an unfocused or indifferent team.
Sindelar observed that Johnson’s training team is acutely aware of their responsibilities. “We live and work in the same communities as the crew members,” she said. “We see them at school functions, at the grocery store, at the park. We know their families are counting on us to bring their loved ones home safely.”
She has also learned that her voice matters. “When I was a young professional, I just never felt I could be influential, but the only person holding me back was me,” she said. “I had to learn to trust in my own instincts. That was definitely outside of my comfort zone.” She credits her mentors with helping her build confidence and knowing when and how to speak up. “I have had many giants of the spaceflight community mold and shape me in my career, from my counselors at the Cosmosphere all the way to flight directors and astronauts,” she said. “It is my privilege to learn from them, and I am grateful to each of them.”
Outside of work, Sindelar uses her voice in a different way – as part of her church choir. She also plays piano, stating that she is as passionate about music and volunteerism as she is about human spaceflight. She is a member of the Friendswood Volunteer Fire Department, as well, serving on its rehab team and as the department’s chaplain
Teresa Sindelar (second from right) and her family with a Friendswood Volunteer Fire Department fire engine. Image courtesy of Teresa SindelarAs NASA prepares to return humans to the Moon and journey on to Mars, Sindelar hopes she has taught the next generation of explorers enough so they can show the world the wonders of the universe. “This next generation will see and do things my generation never even thought of,” she said, adding that it is time for them to start leading. “Use your voice. Take care of each other along the way. Reach out and help the next one in line.”
Sindelar keeps a reminder of that important message on her desk: the picture Gen. Stafford signed all those years ago.
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Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA’s Mariner 4 captured the first-ever close-up image of Mars on July 14, 1965. While waiting for the data to be processed into the image (inset at right), team members hand-colored strips of paper that the data was printed on, assigning hues to value ranges. The result is on display at JPL.NASA/JPL-CaltechSixty years ago, NASA’s Mariner 4 captured groundbreaking views of the Red Planet, leading to a steady stream of advances in the cameras used to study other worlds.
In 1965, NASA’s Mariner 4 mission brought Mars into American living rooms, where TV sets showed fuzzy black-and-white images of a cratered landscape. The spacecraft took 21 complete pictures — the first ever captured of another planet — as it flew by as close as 6,118 miles (9,846 kilometers) above the surface.
The mission team couldn’t wait to see what the camera aboard the spacecraft would return. When the actual images were delayed, they went so far as to create a color-by-numbers image, assigning hues to specific values in the data.
Their handiwork wasn’t far off, and the barren landscape Mariner 4 captured ignited the imaginations of future scientists and engineers who would go on to work on a succession of missions, each revealing Mars in a way it had never been seen before.
Millions of Mars images have been taken since then, many of which are captivating in their own way. The images that follow highlight some of the “firsts” in the way the agency has used imaging to help unlock the secrets of Mars.
Viking 1 Sets Foot on MarsJuly 20, 1976
This historic image — the first from the surface of Mars — confirmed that NASA’s Viking 1 lander had become the first spacecraft to touch down on the Red Planet on July 20, 1976. NASA/JPL-CaltechViking 1 became the first spacecraft to touch down on Mars on July 20, 1976. The first high-resolution image it sent to Earth captured a dry, rocky landscape that dashed any hope among scientists of discovering life on the surface. But the crisp images that followed from the lander’s 360-degree cylindrical scan camera underscored the scientific value of seeing Mars from the ground and generated excitement for a more ambitious visit: a robotic spacecraft that could drive across this alien world.
Portrait of Mars by Viking 1 Orbiter1980
NASA’s twin Viking landers didn’t travel alone. Two accompanying orbiters circled Mars to study it from above. The Viking 1 orbiter captured many images in 1980 that were combined to produce this view of Valles Marineris, the “Grand Canyon of Mars.”NASA/JPL-Caltech/USGSWhen the twin Viking landers arrived at Mars, each descended from an orbiter that used cameras to map Mars in a way Earth-based telescopes couldn’t. They began capturing images before the landers even touched down, continuing until 1980. That year, the Viking 1 orbiter captured images that were later stitched into a defining portrait of Valles Marineris — the “Grand Canyon of Mars.”
Sojourner Starts to ExploreJuly 5, 1997
The size of a microwave oven, NASA’s Sojourner rover was the first spacecraft to drive on Mars, as seen in this image taken by NASA’s Pathfinder lander on July 5, 1997. The rover explored the Martian surface for 83 days, well beyond its planned seven-day mission.NASA/JPL-CaltechBy the time NASA returned to the Martian surface in 1997 with the Pathfinder lander and its microwave-oven-size Sojourner rover, much had changed on Earth since Mariner 4’s images beamed to TV viewers: Now, the internet was bringing around-the-clock news to personal computers, allowing a young generation of space fans to witness the tentative first steps of a new form of planetary exploration. The panoramic images from the ground were the first since Viking and, as part of NASA’s “faster, better, cheaper” initiative, offered more detail and a comparatively lower cost.
Opportunity Spots Passing Dust DevilMarch 31, 2016
NASA’s Spirit and Opportunity rovers crossed many miles of Martian terrain, capturing stunning vistas and passing dust devils along the way. The twins far outlasted their planned mission of 90 days: Spirit traveled the Red Planet for more than six years, while Opportunity journeyed for almost 15.NASA/JPL-CaltechIn 2004, NASA’s golf-cart-size twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity set down on the Red Planet, beginning a new phase of Martian exploration. Equipped with both mast-mounted panoramic and arm-mounted microscopic imagers, the roving spacecraft let scientists, engineers, and the world discover new terrain each day. They captured colorful views of Martian vistas and revealed details of pebble-size “blueberries.” Mars was beginning to feel less like an unfamiliar world than a place with recognizable landmarks.
MRO’s HiRISE Views Victoria CraterJuly 18, 2009
More advanced orbiters have brought a different perspective of the Red Planet — especially NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which uses its HiRISE camera to see surface features that appeared blurry in earlier images. Here, HiRISE views Victoria Crater.NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of ArizonaSince Viking, a series of increasingly advanced orbiters have arrived at Mars with new science tools and cameras. Using increasingly sophisticated imagers, they have mapped the planet’s hills and valleys, identified significant minerals, and found buried glaciers. A camera that has been in operation aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter since 2006, the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) frequently captures individual dunes, boulders, and craters, as with this picture of Victoria Crater, revealing features that had been blurry in previous images. The camera has also identified landing sites and places where future rovers (perhaps even astronauts) could explore.
Curiosity, Perseverance Bring More Cameras and ColorAug. 5, 2012 and Feb. 18, 2021
Curiosity Perseverance NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA/JPL-Caltech CuriosityPerseverance NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA/JPL-Caltech Curiosity Perseverance More Cameras, More Color CurtainToggle2-Up Image Details NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance rovers each brought more cameras — and more color — to the Martian surface. One example are the hazard-avoidance cameras, which are black-and-white on Curiosity, left, and higher-resolution color on Perseverance. NASA/JPL-CaltechBoth Curiosity and Perseverance arrived at Mars (in 2012 and 2021, respectively) loaded with cameras that pack millions of pixels into their images and peer farther into the distance than Spirit or Opportunity ever could. They also feature upgraded arm-mounted cameras for studying fine details like sand particles and rock textures. Perseverance took a step beyond Curiosity in several ways, including with high-speed cameras that showed its parachute deploying and its rocket-powered jetpack flying away during entry, descent, and landing on Mars. Another advance can be seen in each vehicle’s hazard-avoidance cameras, which help rover drivers spot rocks they might bump into. As seen in the first images each rover sent back, Curiosity’s black-and-white cameras were upgraded to color and higher resolution for Perseverance, providing clearer views of the surface.
Ingenuity Spots Perseverance at Belva CraterAug. 22, 2023
NASA’s Perseverance landed along with the Ingenuity helicopter, which proved flight in Mars’ thin atmosphere was possible. This view from Ingenuity — taken from an altitude of about 40 feet (12 meters) during its 51st flight — includes the rover, visible as a whitish speck at upper left.NASA/JPL-CaltechJust as Pathfinder brought the tiny Sojourner rover to Mars, NASA’s next-generation Perseverance rover carried the Ingenuity helicopter. Along with proving flight in Mars’ thin air was possible, Ingenuity used a commercial, off-the-shelf color camera to take aerial views over the course of 72 flights. During one of those flights, Ingenuity even spotted Perseverance in the distance — another first on the Red Planet. Future Mars helicopters might be able to scout paths ahead and find scientifically interesting sites for robots and astronauts alike.
More About These MissionsNASA JPL, which is managed for the agency by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built Mariner 4, the Viking 1 and 2 orbiters, Pathfinder, Sojourner, Spirit and Opportunity, Curiosity, Perseverance, and Ingenuity. It continues to operate Curiosity and Perseverance.
Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built MRO and supports its operations, while JPL manages the mission. The University of Arizona, in Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by BAE Systems, in Boulder, Colorado.
The Viking 1 and 2 landers were built by Martin Marietta; the Viking program was managed by NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. JPL led operations for the Viking landers and orbiters.
Mariner 4 Mars Flyby 60th Anniversary Media Reel News Media ContactsAndrew Good
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-2433
andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov
Karen Fox / Molly Wasser
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov
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NASA Astronaut Shannon Walker Retires
NASA astronaut Shannon Walker retired July 10, concluding a career that spanned 38 years, including 30 years of federal service and more than 21 years as an astronaut. During two spaceflights, she spent 330 days in orbit, contributing to hundreds of scientific experiments and technology demonstrations for the benefit of humanity.
Walker served as a mission specialist during NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission to the International Space Station in 2020, the first crewed operational Dragon spacecraft flight. She also was the first woman to fly aboard a Dragon spacecraft. Once aboard the orbiting laboratory, Walker joined the Expedition 64/65 crew and briefly commanded Expedition 65, logging 167 days in space before returning to Earth in May 2021.
She spent 163 days in space during her first spaceflight in 2010 as a member of the space station’s Expedition 24/25 crew. She was the pilot of the Soyuz TMA-19, which became the first crew to dock with the station’s Rassvet module.
“Shannon’s dedication to human space exploration has left an incredible impact, not just here in Houston, but across the industry,” said Steve Koerner, acting director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “Her leadership and guidance will be missed immensely, but she leaves behind a legacy of excellence that will continue to inspire the next generation of explorers for decades to come.”
Most recently, Walker served as the deputy chief of the Astronaut Office. She also oversaw the 2021 class of astronaut candidates, supervising their training and graduation in 2024.
“Shannon and I were a part of the same astronaut class back when we first started,” said Joe Acaba, chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA Johnson. “She has been a great friend to me ever since and a great leader within the Astronaut Office. I could not imagine a better partner by my side when, nearly 20 years later, we’d become chief and deputy chief. She has undoubtedly been a positive influence on this office, and her retirement is well-deserved.”
Walker began her career as a flight controller in the Mission Control Center at NASA Johnson, supporting several shuttle missions. She next worked in the International Space Station Program Office, helping to develop, build, and integrate hardware for the space station. In the early days of the space station, she returned to mission control, leading the engineering team responsible for the space station’s technical health.
She was selected as an astronaut in 2004. After completing her initial two years of training, she served as a crew support astronaut and worked as a capsule communicator, or capcom. She also held leadership positions within the several branches of the Astronaut Office focused on International Space Station operations, crew Soyuz missions, and supporting astronauts with flight assignments. She also commanded the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations project, or NEEMO 15 underwater mission.
“I had always known I wanted to be an astronaut when I grew up, but looking back on the past 38 years, I never would have imagined how many adventures my career would take me on,” said Walker. “I feel fortunate to have been able to work with people all over the world in the pursuit of space exploration. I have seen a lot of change in the evolution of human spaceflight, and I know the future is in good hands with all the talented people we have here and the generations yet to come.”
The Houston native attended Rice University in her hometown, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in physics, followed by a master’s degree and doctorate in space physics.
Learn more about how NASA explores the unknown and innovates for the benefit of humanity at: https://www.nasa.gov/
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Chelsey Ballarte
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
Chelsey.n.ballarte@nasa.gov
Putting the X-59 to the Test
Researchers from NASA and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) recently tested a scale model of the X-59 experimental aircraft in a supersonic wind tunnel located in Chofu, Japan, to assess the noise audible underneath the aircraft. The model can be seen in the wind tunnel in this image released on July 11, 2025.
The test was an important milestone for NASA’s one-of-a-kind X-59, which is designed to fly faster than the speed of sound without causing a loud sonic boom. When the X-59 flies, sound underneath it – a result of its pressure signature – will be a critical factor for what people hear on the ground.
This marked the third round of wind tunnel tests for the X-59 model, following a previous test at JAXA and at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. The data will help researchers understand the noise level that will be created by the shock waves the X-59 produces at supersonic speeds.
Image credit: JAXA
NASA to Provide Coverage of Axiom Mission 4 Departure from Station
NASA will provide live coverage of the undocking and departure of the Axiom Mission 4 private astronaut mission from the International Space Station.
The four-member astronaut crew is scheduled to undock from the space-facing port of the station’s Harmony module aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft at approximately 7:05 a.m. EDT Monday, July 14, pending weather, to begin their return to Earth and splashdown off the coast of California.
Coverage of departure operations will begin with hatch closing at 4:30 a.m. on NASA+. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.
Peggy Whitson, former NASA astronaut and director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space, ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla, ESA (European Space Agency) project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland, and HUNOR (Hungarian to Orbit) astronaut Tibor Kapu of Hungary, will have spent about two weeks in space at the conclusion of their mission.
The Dragon spacecraft will return with more than 580 pounds of cargo, including NASA hardware and data from over 60 experiments conducted throughout the mission.
NASA’s coverage is as follows (all times Eastern and subject to change based on real-time operations):
Monday, July 14
4:30 a.m. – Hatch closing coverage begins on NASA+.
4:55 a.m. – Crew enters spacecraft followed by hatch closing.
6:45 a.m. – Undocking coverage begins on NASA+, Axiom Space, and SpaceX channels.
7:05 a.m. – Undocking
NASA’s coverage ends approximately 30 minutes after undocking when space station joint operations with Axiom Space and SpaceX conclude. Axiom Space will resume coverage of Dragon’s re-entry and splashdown on the company’s website.
A collaboration between NASA and ISRO allowed Axiom Mission 4 to deliver on a commitment highlighted by President Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to send the first ISRO astronaut to the station. The space agencies participated in five joint science investigations and two in-orbit science, technology, engineering, and mathematics demonstrations. NASA and ISRO have a long-standing relationship built on a shared vision to advance scientific knowledge and expand space collaboration.
The private mission also carried the first astronauts from Poland and Hungary to stay aboard the space station.
The International Space Station is a springboard for developing a low Earth orbit economy. NASA’s goal is to achieve a strong economy off the Earth where the agency can purchase services as one of many customers to meet its science and research objectives in microgravity. NASA’s commercial strategy for low Earth orbit provides the government with reliable and safe services at a lower cost, enabling the agency to focus on Artemis missions to the Moon in preparation for Mars while also continuing to use low Earth orbit as a training and proving ground for those deep space missions.
Learn more about NASA’s commercial space strategy at:
https://www.nasa.gov/commercial-space
-end-
Claire O’Shea
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
claire.a.o’shea@nasa.gov
Anna Schneider
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
anna.c.schneider@nasa.gov
X-59 Model Tested in Japanese Supersonic Wind Tunnel
2 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Here you see the X-59 scaled model inside the JAXA supersonic wind tunnel during critical tests related to sound predictions.JAXAResearchers from NASA and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) recently tested a scale model of the X-59 experimental aircraft in a supersonic wind tunnel located in Chofu, Japan, to assess the noise audible underneath the aircraft.
The test was an important milestone for NASA’s one-of-a-kind X-59, which is designed to fly faster than the speed of sound without causing a loud sonic boom.
When the X-59 flies, sound underneath it – a result of its pressure signature – will be a critical factor for what people hear on the ground.
The X-59 is 99.7 feet long, with a wingspan of 29.7 feet. The JAXA wind tunnel, on the other hand, is just over 3 feet long by 3 feet wide.
So, researchers used a model scaled to just 1.62% of the actual aircraft – about 19 inches nose-to-tail. They exposed it to conditions mimicking the X-plane’s planned supersonic cruising speed of Mach 1.4, or approximately 925 miles per hour.
The series of tests performed at JAXA allowed NASA researchers to gather critical experimental data to compare to their predictions derived through Computational Fluid Dynamics modeling, which include how air will flow around the aircraft.
This marked the third round of wind tunnel tests for the X-59 model, following a previous test at JAXA and at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Ohio.
The data will help researchers understand the noise level that will be created by the shock waves the X-59 produces at supersonic speeds.
The shock waves from traditional supersonic aircraft typically merge together, producing a loud sonic boom. The X-59’s unique design works to keep shock waves from merging, will result in a quieter sonic thump.
The X-59 was built in Palmdale, California at contractor Lockheed Martin Skunk Works and is undergoing final ground tests en route to its historic first flight this year.
NASA’s Quesst mission aims to help change the future of quiet supersonic travel using the X-59. The experimental aircraft allow the Quesst team to gather public feedback on acceptable sound levels for quiet supersonic flight.
Through Quesst’s development of the X-59, NASA will deliver design tools and technology for quiet supersonic airliners that will achieve the high speeds desired by commercial operators without creating disturbance to people on the ground.
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Share Details Last Updated Jul 11, 2025 EditorLillian GipsonContactJim Bankejim.banke@nasa.gov Related TermsNASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 to Support Health Studies for Deep Space Travel
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission is set to launch a four-person crew to the International Space Station later this summer. Some of the crew have volunteered to participate in a series of experiments to address health challenges astronauts may face on deep space missions during NASA’s Artemis campaign and future human expeditions to Mars.
The research during Crew-11 includes simulated lunar landings, tactics to safeguard vision, and other human physiology studies led by NASA’s Human Research Program.
Select crew members will participate in a series of simulated Moon landings, before, during, and after their flight. Using a handheld controller and multiple screens, the astronauts will fly through simulated scenarios created to resemble the lunar South Pole region that Artemis crews plan to visit. This experiment allows researchers to evaluate how different gravitational forces may disorient astronauts and affect their ability to pilot a spacecraft, like a lunar lander.
“Even though many landing tasks are automated, astronauts must still know how to monitor the controls and know when to take over to ensure a safe landing,” said Scott Wood, a neuroscientist at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston coordinating the scientific investigation. “Our study assesses exactly how changes in gravity affect spatial awareness and piloting skills that are important for navigating these scenarios.”
A ground control group completing the same tasks over a similar timeframe will help scientists better understand gravitational effects on human performance. The experiment’s results could inform the pilot training needed for future Artemis crews.
“Experiencing weightlessness for months and then feeling greater levels of gravity on a planet like Mars, for example, may increase the risk of disorientation,” said Wood. “Our goal is to help astronauts adapt to any gravitational change, whether it’s to the Moon, a new planet, or landing back on Earth.”
Other studies during the mission will explore possible ways to treat or prevent a group of eye and brain changes that can occur during long-duration space travel, called spaceflight associated neuro-ocular syndrome (SANS).
Some researchers suspect the redistribution of bodily fluids in constant weightlessness may increase pressure in the head and contribute to SANS. One study will investigate fluid pressure on the brain while another will examine how the body processes B vitamins and whether supplements can affect how astronauts respond to bodily fluid shifts. Participating crew members will test whether a daily B vitamin supplement can eliminate or ease symptoms of SANS. Specific crew members also will wear thigh cuffs to keep bodily fluids from traveling headward.
Crew members also will complete another set of experiments, called CIPHER (Complement of Integrated Protocols for Human Exploration Research), which measures how multiple systems within the human body change in space. The study includes vision assessments, MRI scans, and other medical exams to provide a complete overview of the whole body’s response to long-duration spaceflight.
Several other studies involving human health and performance are also a part of Crew-11’s science portfolio. Crew members will contribute to a core set of measurements called Spaceflight Standard Measures, which collects physical data and biological samples from astronauts and stores them for other comparative studies. Participants will supply biological samples, such as blood and urine, for a study characterizing how spaceflight alters astronauts’ genetic makeup. In addition, volunteers will test different exercise regimens to help scientists explore what activities remain essential for long-duration journeys.
After landing, participating crew members will complete surveys to track any discomfort, such as scrapes or bruises, acquired from re-entry. The data will help clarify whether mission length increases injury risks and could help NASA design landing systems on future spacecraft as NASA prepares to travel to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
NASA’s Human Research Program pursues methods and technologies to support safe, productive human space travel. Through science conducted in laboratories, ground-based analogs, and aboard the International Space Station, the program investigates how spaceflight affects human bodies and behaviors. Such research drives NASA’s quest to innovate ways that keep astronauts healthy and mission-ready.
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