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On March 23, 1965, the United States launched the Gemini III spacecraft with astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom and John Young aboard, America’s first two-person spaceflight. Grissom earned the honor as the first person to enter space twice and Young as the first member of the second group of astronauts to fly in space. During their three-orbit flight they carried out the first orbital maneuvers of a crewed spacecraft, a critical step toward demonstrating rendezvous and docking. Grissom and Young brought Gemini 3 to a safe splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean. Their ground-breaking mission led the way to nine more successful Gemini missions in less than two years to demonstrate the techniques required for a Moon landing. Gemini 3 marked the last spaceflight controlled from Cape Kennedy, that function shifting permanently to a new facility in Houston. 

In one of the first uses of the auditorium at the Manned Spacecraft Center, now NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, managers announce the prime and backup Gemini III crews. NASA NASA astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom and John Young, the Gemini III prime crew. NASA Grissom, foreground, and Young in their capsule prior to launch.NASA

On April 13, 1964, just five days after the uncrewed Gemini I mission, in the newly open auditorium at the Manned Spacecraft Center, now NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Director Robert Gilruth introduced the Gemini III crew to the press. NASA assigned Mercury 4 veteran Grissom and Group 2 astronaut Young as the prime crew, with Mercury 8 veteran Walter Schirra and Group 2 astronaut Thomas Stafford serving as their backups. The primary goals of Project Gemini included proving the techniques required for the Apollo Program to fulfil President John F. Kennedy’s goal of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth before the end of the 1960s. Demonstrating rendezvous and docking between two spacecraft ranked as a high priority for Project Gemini.  

Liftoff of Gemini III.NASA

The uncrewed Gemini I and II missions validated the spacecraft’s design, reliability, and heat shield, clearing the way to launch Gemini III with a crew. On March 23, 1965, after donning their new Gemini spacesuits, Grissom and Young rode the transfer van to Launch Pad 19 at Cape Kennedy in Florida. They rode the elevator to their Gemini spacecraft atop its Titan II rocket where technicians assisted them in climbing into the capsule. At 9:24 a.m. EST, the Titan’s first stage engines ignited, and Gemini III rose from the launch pad. 

The Mission Control Center at Cape Kennedy in Florida during Gemini III, controlling a human spaceflight for the final time.NASA The Mission Control Center at the Manned Spacecraft Center, now NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, monitoring the Gemini III mission.NASA

Five and a half minutes after launch, the Titan II’s second stage engine cut off and the spacecraft separated to begin its orbital journey. Grissom became the first human to enter space a second time. While engineers monitored the countdown from the Launch Pad 19 blockhouse, once in orbit flight controllers in the Mission Control Center at the Cape took over. Controllers in the new Mission Control Center at the Manned Spacecraft Center, now the Johnson Space Center in Houston, staffed consoles and monitored the mission in a backup capacity. Beginning with Gemini IV, control of all American human spaceflights shifted permanently to the Houston facility. 

Gemini III entered an orbit of 100 miles by 139 miles above the Earth. Near the end of the first orbit, while passing over Texas, Grissom and Young fired their spacecraft’s thrusters for one minute, 14 seconds. “They appear to be firing good,” said Young, confirming the success of the maneuver. The change in velocity adjusted their orbit to 97 miles by 105 miles. A second burn 45 minutes later altered the orbital inclination by 0.02 degrees. Another task for the crew involved testing new food and packaging developed for Gemini. As an off-the-menu item, Young had stowed a corned beef on rye sandwich in his suit pocket before flight, and both he and Grissom took a bite before stowing it away, concerned about crumbs from the sandwich floating free in the cabin.

Shortly after splashdown, Gemini III astronaut Virgil “Gus” Grissom exits the spacecraft as crewmate John Young waits in the life raft. NASA Sailors hoist the Gemini III spacecraft aboard the prime recovery ship U.S.S. Intrepid.NASA Young, left, and Grissom stand with their spacecraft aboard Intrepid. NASA

Near the end of their third revolution, Grissom and Young prepared for the retrofire burn to bring them out of orbit. They oriented Gemini III with its blunt end facing forward and completed a final orbital maneuver to lower the low point of their orbit to 45 miles, ensuring reentry even if the retrorockets failed to fire. They jettisoned the rearmost adapter section, exposing the retrorockets that fired successfully, bringing the spacecraft out of orbit. They jettisoned the retrograde section, exposing Gemini’s heat shield. Minutes later, they encountered the upper layers of Earth’s atmosphere at 400,000 feet, and he buildup of ionized gases caused a temporary loss of communication between the spacecraft and Mission Control. At 50,000 feet, Grissom deployed the drogue parachute to stabilize and slow the spacecraft, followed by the main parachute at 10,600 feet. Splashdown occurred in the Atlantic Ocean near Grand Turk Island, about 52 miles short of the planned point, after a flight of 4 hours, 52 minutes, 31 seconds. 

Gemini III astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom, left, and John Young upon their return to Cape Kennedy in Florida. NASA Grissom and Young at the postflight press conference. NASA The welcome home ceremony for Grissom and Young at the Manned Spacecraft Center, now NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.NASA

A helicopter recovered Grissom and Young and delivered them to the deck of the U.S.S. Intrepid, arriving there one hour and 12 minutes after splashdown. On board the carrier, the astronauts received a medical checkup and a telephone call from President Lyndon B. Johnson. The ship sailed to pick up the spacecraft and sailors hoisted it aboard less than three hours after landing. The day after splashdown, Grissom and Young flew to Cape Kennedy for debriefings, a continuation of the medical examinations begun on the carrier, and a press conference. Following visits to the White House, New York, and Chicago, the astronauts returned home to Houston on March 31. The next day, Gilruth welcomed them back to the Manned Spacecraft Center, where in front of the main administration building, workers raised an American flag that Grissom and Young had carried on their mission. That flag flew during every subsequent Gemini mission. 

During the Gemini III welcome home ceremony in front of the main administration building at the Manned Spacecraft Center, now NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, workers raise an American flag that the astronauts had carried on their mission. NASA

Explore More 5 min read 60 Years Ago: Gemini 1 Flies a Successful Uncrewed Test Flight Article 12 months ago 6 min read 60 Years Ago: Uncrewed Gemini 2 Paves the Way for the First Crewed Mission Article 2 months ago 6 min read Artemis I Mission Control at a Glance Article 3 years ago

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Sols 4486-4487: Ankle-Breaking Kind of Terrain! NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Front Hazard Avoidance Camera (Front Hazcam) on March 18, 2025 — sol 4484, or Martian day 4,484 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 11:54:13 UTC.NASA/JPL-Caltech

Written by Catherine O’Connell-Cooper, Planetary Geologist at University of New Brunswick

Earth planning date: Wednesday, March 19, 2025 

This terrain is a tricky drive, with rocks angled chaotically all around. One of our geologists remarked that they wouldn’t like to even walk over this without solid boots coming way up over the ankles — this is definitely the kind of terrain to result in twisted and broken ankles! So it wasn’t too unexpected that the drive we had planned on Monday cut short after 18 meters (about 59 feet). Fortunately, we ended up both at a workspace with abundant bedrock and in an orientation that allowed us to pass SRAP (our “Slip Risk Assessment Process”).  

The rover planners were quickly able to find a spot to brush, so we have a coordinated target on “Palm Grove,” one of the laminated rocks in the lower half of the accompanying image. APXS and MAHLI will look at this target on the first sol of the plan, and then ChemCam LIBS and Mastcam will look at it on the second sol. Although the bulk of the bedrock is relatively nodule free, ChemCam will look at the nodular target “Refugio” to compare to the more dominant, nodule-poor bedrock. 

On Monday, our workspace included some very interesting layers in the bedrock that might represent preserved sand ripples, but sadly, as Conor reported on Monday, we didn’t pass SRAP, which precluded any contact science. However, today we ended up near rocks that had similar layer geometry, and will acquire a MAHLI “Dog’s Eye” or mosaic image of these rocks at “Duna Vista” and two Mastcam 5×3 mosaics (“Bayside Trail” and “Oso Flaco”) on other examples.  

Mastcam is taking several other images here. A 14×3 mosaic will capture the “nearfield” or area close to the rover, and a set of four further images focus on four distinct trough features, to help us better understand ongoing modification of the surface. Further afield, the “Quartz Hill” and “Pino Alto” mosaics look at areas of fragmented bedrock which may be similar to the “Humber Park” outcrop we analyzed this past weekend. Even further from the rover, ChemCam will acquire RMI (Remote Micro Imager) images of the “Boxworks” and an almost circular depression (“Torote Bowl”) whose origin is not clear. 

The environmental theme group (ENV) planned a Mastcam tau (to look at dust in the atmosphere) and a Navcam dust-devil survey (to look for dust devils!) for the first sol of the plan. On the second sol, we fill out the movies with Navcam movies looking toward the south of the crater (suprahorizon, cloud shadow, and zenith movies) and a Mastcam sky survey.  

In between the movies on the second sol, our drive is planned to take us another 34 meters (about 112 feet)… but we will have to see how far our intrepid rover will make it on this tricky terrain. Slow and steady will win this race!

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Details Last Updated Mar 21, 2025 Related Terms

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Shocking Spherules!

Written by Alex Jones, Ph.D. candidate at Imperial College London

Last week the Perseverance Science Team were astonished by a strange rock comprised of hundreds of millimeter-sized spheres… and the team are now working hard to understand their origin. 

This image from NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover, a fusion-processed SuperCam Remote Micro Imager (RMI) mosaic, shows part of the “St. Pauls Bay” target, acquired from the lower Witch Hazel Hill area of the Jezero crater rim. The image reveals hundreds of strange, spherical-shaped objects comprising the rock. Perseverance acquired this image on March 11, 2025, or sol 1442 — Martian day 1,442 of the Mars 2020 mission.NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/IRAP.

It has now been two weeks since Perseverance arrived at Broom Point, situated at the lower slopes of the Witch Hazel Hill area, on the Jezero crater rim. Here, a series of light- and dark- toned bands were visible from orbit, and just last week the rover successfully abraded and sampled one of the light-toned beds. It was from this sampling workspace where Perseverance spied a very strange texture in a nearby rock… 

The rock, named “St. Pauls Bay” by the team, appeared to be comprised of hundreds of millimeter-sized, dark gray spheres. Some of these occurred as more elongate, elliptical shapes, while others possessed angular edges, perhaps representing broken spherule fragments. Some spheres even possessed tiny pinholes! What quirk of geology could produce these strange shapes? 

This isn’t the first time strange spheres have been spotted on Mars. In 2004, the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity spotted so-called, “Martian Blueberries” at Meridiani Planum, and since then, the Curiosity rover has observed spherules in the rocks of Yellowknife Bay at Gale crater. Just a few months ago, Perseverance itself also spied popcorn-like textures in sedimentary rocks exposed in the Jezero crater inlet channel, Neretva Vallis. In each of these cases, the spherules were interpreted as concretions, features that formed by interaction with groundwater circulating through pore spaces in the rock. Not all spherules form this way, however. They also form on Earth by rapid cooling of molten rock droplets formed in a volcanic eruption, for instance, or by the condensation of rock vaporized by a meteorite impact.  

NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image of the “St. Pauls Bay” target (the dark-toned float block in the right of the view) using its Left Mastcam-Z camera, one of a pair of cameras located high on the rover’s remote-sensing mast. Perseverance acquired this image on March 13, 2025 — sol 1444, or Martian day 1,444 of the Mars 2020 mission — at the local mean solar time of 11:57:49.NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU

Each of these formation mechanisms would have vastly different implications for the evolution of these rocks, so the team is working hard to determine their context and origin. St. Pauls Bay, however, was float rock — a term used by geologists to describe something that is not in-place. The team are now working to link the spherule-rich texture observed at St. Pauls Bay to the wider stratigraphy at Witch Hazel Hill, and initial observations have provided tantalizing indications that it could be linked to one of the dark-toned layers identified by the team from orbit. Placing these features in geologic context will be critical for understanding their origin, and determining their significance for the geological history of the Jezero crater rim and beyond! 

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Details Last Updated Mar 23, 2025 Related Terms

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Explore More 3 min read Sols 4486-4487: Ankle-Breaking Kind of Terrain! Article 1 day ago 4 min read Sols 4484-4485: Remote Sensing on a Monday Article 2 days ago 2 min read Sols 4481-4483: Humber Pie Article 4 days ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Mars

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4 min read

Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) A NASA researcher and innovation architect from the Convergent Aeronautics Solutions project Discovery team collaborating at a whiteboard during a visit to Chapel Hill, N.C. on Aug. 13, 2024.NASA / Ariella Knight

Convergent Aeronautics Solutions (CAS) Discovery identifies problems worth solving for the benefit of all.

We formulate “convergent” problems—across multiple disciplines and sectors—and build footholds toward potentially transformative opportunities in aeronautics. As aeronautics rapidly advances, it is increasingly intersecting with other sectors like energy, healthcare, emergency response, economic resilience, the space economy, and more.

CAS Discovery builds new innovation tools and methods, a workforce adept at innovation methods, and transdisciplinary teams of researchers within and beyond NASA that conduct regular “Discovery sprints”—expeditions into cross-sector topic areas that could beneficially transform aeronautics and humanity.

WHAT is Discovery? Participatory

It is difficult to understand and effectively address stakeholders’ needs & capabilities without engaging them. Discovery, in consultation with key NASA offices and other government agencies, has honed mechanisms to lawfully and respectfully engage and invite participation from stakeholders, communities, industry, NGOs and government to collaboratively formulate complex societal challenges tied to aviation. 

Convergent

Typical organizational structures limit convergence across knowledge boundaries. CAS Discovery is intentionally cross-sector and transdisciplinary because the most impactful ideas often lie at the intersection of boundaries, the borderlands where multiple disciplines and communities come together. We work to emerge multi-sector, system-of-systems challenges that integrate political, economic, social, technological, environmental, legal and ethical trends, needs, and capabilities.

Future-Focused

Organizations have a tendency of being driven by short-term thinking and relatively short time horizons. CAS Discovery uses strategic foresight methods to examine 20 to 50-year time horizons, systematically ingesting and synthesizing signals and trends from aero and non-aero sources to envision a variety of scenarios to uncover opportunities for the future of aeronautics.

Ecosystemic

We study the ecosystems that are part of aeronautics and aerospace. This helps in broadening consideration of impacts while practicing foresight. It enhances our awareness of the environment and gives stakeholders the ability to see ripple effects across technologies, economies, communities, etc. We seek to benefit the wellness of the entire ecosystem while also benefiting the constituents.

A group of NASA researchers and leaders from the Convergent Aeronautics Solutions project Discovery team at the agency’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, on April 30, 2024.NASA / Ricaurte Chock WHO is Discovery? NASA Researchers

They are the engine that propels CAS Discovery. Our cross-center Discovery sprint and foresight teams are composed of researchers from NASA’s Ames Research Center and Armstrong Flight Research Center in California, Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, and Langley Research Center in Virginia.

Researchers from Outside of NASA

They collaborate with us as subject matter experts or Discovery sprint team members to contribute their backgrounds in fields less common within NASA, such as energy, economics, anthropology, and other areas. This collaboration happens through many mechanisms, such as freelancing, crowdsourcing, interviews, webinars, and podcasts.

Stakeholders

They are engaged in various ways and to different degrees, often co-envisioning potential futures, co-formulating problems, and co-designing solutions.

Innovation Architects

They are the glue that holds CAS Discovery together and the anti-glue that keeps our teams from getting stuck. They come from a wide range of experience, each bringing deep expertise in leading transdisciplinary teams and stakeholders through processes and methods from strategic foresight, complex systems design, human-centered design, and more.

CAS Center Integration Leads (CILs)

They work with NASA line management at each Aeronautics center to bring NASA researchers and potential new PIs into CAS. CILs also host annual Wicked Wild idea pitch events to bring new problem areas and solution ideas into CAS Discovery and early Execution phases.

• Ames Research Center CIL: Ty Huang
• Armstrong Flight Research Center CIL: Matt Kearns 
• Glenn Research Center CIL: Jeffrey Chin
• Langley Research Center CIL: Devin Pugh-Thomas

CAS Discovery Leads

They oversee Discovery sprint and strategic foresight teams, topics, and processes; new tools and continuous improvement experiments; and the overall health of the CAS innovation front-end pipeline and related strategic outputs.

• Discovery Lead: Eric Reynolds Brubaker, Langley Research Center
• Foresight Lead: Vikram Shyam, Glenn Research Center

Sample Discovery Publications

COMING SOON: Links to Technical Memorandums and conference papers.

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Details Last Updated Mar 21, 2025 EditorJim BankeContactDiana Fitzgeralddiana.r.fitzgerald@nasa.gov Related Terms

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4 min read

NASA to Launch Three Rockets from Alaska in Single Aurora Experiment

Three NASA-funded rockets are set to launch from Poker Flat Research Range in Fairbanks, Alaska, in an experiment that seeks to reveal how auroral substorms affect the behavior and composition of Earth’s far upper atmosphere. 

The experiment’s outcome could upend a long-held theory about the aurora’s interaction with the thermosphere. It may also improve space weather forecasting, critical as the world becomes increasingly reliant on satellite-based devices such as GPS units in everyday life.

Colorful ribbons of aurora sway with geomagnetic activity above the launch pads of Poker Flat Research Range.NASA/Rachel Lense

The University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) Geophysical Institute owns Poker Flat, located 20 miles north of Fairbanks, and operates it under a contract with NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, which is part of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

The experiment, titled Auroral Waves Excited by Substorm Onset Magnetic Events, or AWESOME, features one four-stage rocket and two two-stage rockets all launching in an approximately three-hour period.

Colorful vapor tracers from the largest of the three rockets should be visible across much of northern Alaska. The launch window is March 24 through April 6.

The mission, led by Mark Conde, a space physics professor at UAF, involves about a dozen UAF graduate student researchers at several ground monitoring sites in Alaska at Utqiagvik, Kaktovik, Toolik Lake, Eagle, and Venetie, as well as Poker Flat.  NASA delivers, assembles, tests, and launches the rockets.

“Our experiment asks the question, when the aurora goes berserk and dumps a bunch of heat in the atmosphere, how much of that heat is spent transporting the air upward in a continuous convective plume and how much of that heat results in not only vertical but also horizontal oscillations in the atmosphere?” Conde said.

Confirming which process is dominant will reveal the breadth of the mixing and the related changes in the thin air’s characteristics.

“Change in composition of the atmosphere has consequences,” Conde said. “And we need to know the extent of those consequences.”

Most of the thermosphere, which reaches from about 50 to 350 miles above the surface, is what scientists call “convectively stable.” That means minimal vertical motion of air, because the warmer air is already at the top, due to absorption of solar radiation.

A technician with NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility sounding rocket office works on one of the payload sections of the rocket that will launch for the AWESOME campaign.NASA/Lee Wingfield

When auroral substorms inject energy and momentum into the middle and lower thermosphere (roughly 60 to 125 miles up), it upsets that stability. That leads to one prevailing theory — that the substorms’ heat is what causes the vertical-motion churn of the thermosphere.

Conde believes instead that acoustic-buoyancy waves are the dominant mixing force and that vertical convection has a much lesser role. Because acoustic-buoyancy waves travel vertically and horizontally from where the aurora hits, the aurora-caused atmospheric changes could be occurring over a much broader area than currently believed.

Better prediction of impacts from those changes is the AWESOME mission’s practical goal.

“I believe our experiment will lead to a simpler and more accurate method of space weather prediction,” Conde said.

Two two-stage, 42-foot Terrier-Improved Malemute rockets are planned to respectively launch about 15 minutes and an hour after an auroral substorm begins. A four-stage, 70-foot Black Brant XII rocket is planned to launch about five minutes after the second rocket. 

The first two rockets will release tracers at altitudes of 50 and 110 miles to detect wind movement and wave oscillations. The third rocket will release tracers at five altitudes from 68 to 155 miles.
Pink, blue, and white vapor traces should be visible from the third rocket for 10 to 20 minutes. Launches must occur in the dawn hours, with sunlight hitting the upper altitudes to activate the vapor tracers from the first rocket but darkness at the surface so ground cameras can photograph the tracers’ response to air movement.

By Rod Boyce
University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute 

NASA Media Contact: Sarah Frazier 

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Explore More 2 min read Hubble Captures a Neighbor’s Colorful Clouds Article 7 hours ago 11 min read The Earth Observer Editor’s Corner: January–March 2025 Article 24 hours ago 5 min read Celebrating 25 Years of Terra Article 24 hours ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics

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NASA Reveals Semifinalists of Power to Explore Challenge A word cloud showing “superpowers” of the 45 semifinalists.NASA/David Lam

NASA selected 45 student essays as semifinalists of its 2024-2025 Power to Explore Challenge, a national competition for K-12 students featuring the enabling power of radioisotopes. Contestants were challenged to explore how NASA has powered some of its most famous science missions and to dream up how their personal “superpower” would energize their success on their own radioisotope-powered science mission to explore one of the nearly 300 moons of our solar system.

The competition asked students to learn about radioisotope power systems (RPS), a type of “nuclear battery” that NASA uses to explore the harshest, darkest, and dustiest parts of our solar system. RPS have enabled many spacecraft to explore a variety of these moons, some with active volcanoes, methane lakes, and intricate weather patterns similar to Earth. Many of these moons remain a mystery to us.

This year’s submissions to NASA’s Power to Explore Challenge were immensely enthralling, and we’re thrilled that the number of entries reached a record high.

Carl Sandifer II

Program Manager, NASA Radioisotope Power Systems Program

In 275 words or less, students wrote about a mission of their own that would use these space power systems to explore any moon in our solar system and described their own power to achieve their mission goals.

The Power to Explore Challenge offered students the opportunity to learn more about these reliable power systems, celebrate their own strengths, and interact with NASA’s diverse workforce. This year’s contest set a record, receiving 2,051 submitted entries from all 50 states, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) Overseas.

“This year’s submissions to NASA’s Power to Explore Challenge were immensely enthralling, and we’re thrilled that the number of entries reached a record high,” said Carl Sandifer II, program manager of the Radioisotope Power Systems Program at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. “It was particularly interesting to see which moons the students selected for their individual essays, and the mysteries they hope to unravel. Their RPS-powered mission concepts always prove to be innovative, and it’s a joy to learn about their ‘superpowers’ that exemplify their path forward as the next generation of explorers.” 

Entries were split into three categories: grades K-4, 5-8, and 9-12. Every student who submitted an entry received a digital certificate, and over 4,859 participants who signed up received an invitation to the Power Up with NASA virtual event. Students learned about what powers the NASA workforce utilizes to dream big and work together to explore. Speakers included Carl Sandifer II, Dr. Wanda Peters, NASA’s deputy associate administrator for programs in the Science Mission Directorate and Dr. Zibi Turtle, principal investigator for NASA’s Dragonfly mission from the John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

Fifteen national semifinalists in each grade category (45 semifinalists total) have been selected. These participants also will receive a NASA RPS prize pack. Finalists for this challenge will be announced on April 23.

Grades K-4

• Vihaan Akhoury, Roseland, NJ
• Ada Brolan, Somerville, MA
• Ashwin Cohen, Washington D.C
• Unnathi Chandra Devavarapu, San Marcos, CA
• Levi Fisher, Portland, OR
• Tamanna Ghosh, Orlando, FL
• Ava Goodison, Arnold, MD
• Anika Lal, Pflugerville, TX
• Diya Loganathan, Secaucus, NJ
• Mini M, Ann Arbor, MI
• Mark Porter, Temple Hills, MD
• Rohith Thiruppathy, Canton, MI
• Zachary Tolchin, Guilford CT
• Kavin Vairavan, West Windsor Township, NJ
• Terry Xu, Arcadia, CA

Grades 5-8

• Chowdhury Wareesha Ali, Solon OH
• Caydin Brandes, Los Angeles, CA
• Caleb Braswell, Crestview, FL
• Lilah Coyan, Spokane, WA
• Ashwin Dhondi Kubeer, Phoenix, AZ
• Jonathan Gigi, Cypress, TX
• Gagan Girish, Portland, OR
• Maggie Hou, Snohomish, WA
• Sanjay Koripelli, Louisville, KY
• Isaiah Muniz, South Orange, NJ
• Sarabhesh Saravanakumar, Bothell, WA
• Eliya Schubert, Katonah, NY
• Gabriel Traska, Fort Woth, TX
• Jaxon Verbeck, Riggins, ID
• Krish Vinodhkumar, Monrovia, MD

Grades 9-12

• Samaria Berry, Kinder, LA
• David Cai, Saipan, MP
• Reggie Castro, Saipan, MP
• Ryan Danyow, Rutland City, VT
• Faiz Karim, Jericho, NY
• Sakethram Kuncha, Chantilly, VA
• Katerina Morin, Miami, FL
• Emilio Olivares, Edmond, OK
• Kairat Otorov, Trumbull, CT
• Dev Rai, Herndon, VA
• Shaurya Saxena, Irving, TX
• Saanvi Shah, Bothell, WA
• Niyant Sithamraju, San Ramon, CA
• Anna Swenson, Henderson, NV
• Alejandro Valdez, Orlando, FL

About the Challenge

The Power to Explore Student Challenge is funded by the NASA Science Mission Directorate’s Radioisotope Power Systems Program Office and managed and administered by Future Engineers under the direction of the NASA Tournament Lab, a part of the Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing Program in NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate.

Kristin Jansen
NASA’s Glenn Research Center

NASA/George Shelton

A dolphin swims through the water in the Launch Complex 39 Area turn basin at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Nov. 6, 2007. The turn basin was carved out of the Banana River when NASA Kennedy was built. Dolphins are a frequent sight in the rivers around Kennedy, which shares a boundary with the Merritt Island Wildlife Nature Refuge.

The refuge was established in 1963 for the protection of migratory birds. Consisting of 140,000 acres, the refuge provides a wide variety of habitats: coastal dunes, saltwater marshes, managed impoundments, scrub, pine flatwoods, and hardwood hammocks. These habitats provide a home for more than 1,500 species of plants and animals and 15 federally listed species.

Image credit: NASA/George Shelton

NASA astronaut and Pilot for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission Nichole Ayers is pictured training inside a mockup of a Dragon cockpit at the company’s facilities in Hawthorne, California. Credit: SpaceX

Students from Richmond Hill, New York,will have the chance to connect with NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers as they answer prerecorded science, technology, engineering, and mathematics-related questions from aboard the International Space Station.

Watch the 20-minute space-to-Earth call at 12 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, March 26, on NASA+ and learn how to watch NASA content on various platforms, including social media.

The event, open to students and their families, will be hosted by Richmond Hill High School, a New York City public high school in Queens South, District 27. The school’s goal is to inspire their students to pursue STEM careers.

Media interested in covering the event must contact Lilly Donaldson at Lily@arttechnically.org by 5 p.m., Monday, March 24.

For more than 24 years, astronauts have continuously lived and worked aboard the space station, testing technologies, performing science, and developing skills needed to explore farther from Earth. Astronauts aboard the orbiting laboratory communicate with NASA’s Mission Control Center in Houston 24 hours a day through SCaN’s (Space Communications and Navigation) Near Space Network.

Important research and technology investigations taking place aboard the space station benefit people on Earth and lays the groundwork for other agency missions. As part of NASA’s Artemis campaign, the agency will send astronauts to the Moon to prepare for future human exploration of Mars; inspiring Artemis Generation explorers and ensuring the United States continues to lead in space exploration and discovery.

See videos and lesson plans highlighting space station research at:

https://www.nasa.gov/stemonstation

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Abbey Donaldson
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
Abbey.a.donaldson@nasa.gov

Sandra Jones
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov

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Details Last Updated Mar 21, 2025 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms

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Technicians with NASA and Lockheed Martin fitted three spacecraft adapter jettison fairing panels onto the service module of the agency’s Orion’s spacecraft. The operation completed on Wednesday, March 19, 2025, inside the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The European-built service module is the powerhouse that will propel the spacecraft to the Moon. Its four solar array wings which were installed to its exterior in early March. The latest addition of fairing panels on Orion’s service module will protect the solar array wings, shielding them from the heat, wind, and acoustics of launch and ascent, and also help redistribute the load between Orion and the massive thrust of the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket during liftoff and ascent. Once the spacecraft is above the atmosphere, the three fairing panels will separate from the service module, allowing the wings to unfurl.

In addition to power, the service module will provide propulsion and life support including thermal control, air, and water for the Artemis II test flight, NASA’s first mission with crew under the Artemis campaign that will send NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, as well as CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, on a 10-day journey around the Moon.  

Through the Artemis campaign, NASA will send astronauts to explore the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and to build the foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars – for the benefit of all. 

Image credit: NASA/Glenn Benson

Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft is pictured in the grips of the Canadarm2 robotic arm shortly after its capture Credit: NASA

After delivering more than 8,200 pounds of supplies, scientific investigations, commercial products, hardware, and other cargo to the orbiting laboratory for NASA and its international partners, Northrop Grumman’s uncrewed Cygnus spacecraft is scheduled to depart the International Space Station on Friday, March 28.

Watch NASA’s live coverage of undocking and departure at 6:30 a.m. EDT on NASA+. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.

This mission was the company’s 21st commercial resupply mission to the space station for NASA.

Flight controllers on the ground will send commands for the space station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm to detach Cygnus from the Unity module’s Earth-facing port, then maneuver the spacecraft into position for release at 6:55 a.m. NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers will monitor Cygnus’ systems upon its departure from the space station.

Cygnus – filled with trash packed by the station crew – will be commanded to deorbit on Sunday, March 30, setting up a re-entry where the spacecraft will safely burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.

The Northrop Grumman spacecraft arrived at the space station Aug. 6, 2024, following launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Get breaking news, images, and features from the space station on the station blog, Instagram, Facebook, and X.

Learn more about Cygnus’ mission and the International Space Station at:

https://www.nasa.gov/station

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Julian Coltre / Josh Finch
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
julian.n.coltre@nasa.gov / joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov

Sandra Jones
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov

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Details Last Updated Mar 21, 2025 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms

• International Space Station (ISS)
• Humans in Space
• Johnson Space Center
• NASA Headquarters