Latest Posts by nasa - Page 13

What's a day working at NASA like??

How long did it take to build the rover??

What, in your opinion, is Perseverance's most groundbreaking experiment/ instrument?

What part did you take in Perseverance' development?

Will Perseverance be near any other Rovers?

What will scientists do if Perseverance does find signs of life on Mars?

Can we hear mars from this rover?

Why does it take so long for the rover to reach Mars?

The answers are IN for your questions about our Perseverance rover and her upcoming mission to Mars! 

Sit back, relax, and get ready to learn some science and engineering! Experts Sarah Stewart Johnson and Lauren DuCharme are here to talk about the July 30 launch of our Perseverance mission, women in STEM, and much more. 

Our Answer Time starts now! 

See the Closest Ever Images of the Sun

Solar Orbiter just released its first scientific data — including the closest images ever taken of the Sun.

Launched on February 9, 2020, Solar Orbiter is a collaboration between the European Space Agency and NASA, designed to study the Sun up close. Solar Orbiter completed its first close pass of the Sun on June 15, flying within 48 million miles of the Sun’s surface.

This is already closer to the Sun than any other spacecraft has taken pictures (our Parker Solar Probe mission has flown closer, but it doesn’t take pictures of the Sun). And over the next seven years, Solar Orbiter will inch even closer to the Sun while tilting its orbit above the plane of the planets, to peek at the Sun’s north and south poles, which have never been imaged before.

Here’s some of what Solar Orbiter has seen so far.

The Sun up close

Solar Orbiter’s Extreme Ultraviolet Imager, or EUI, sees the Sun in wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet light that are invisible to our eyes.

EUI captured images showing “campfires” dotting the Sun. These miniature bright spots are over a million times smaller than normal solar flares. They may be the nanoflares, or tiny explosions, long thought to help heat the Sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona, to its temperature 300 times hotter than the Sun’s surface. It will take more data to know for sure, but one thing’s certain: In EUI’s images, these campfires are all over the Sun.

The Polar and Helioseismic Imager, or PHI, maps the Sun’s magnetic field in a variety of ways. These images show several of the measurements PHI makes, including the magnetic field strength and direction and the speed of flow of solar material.

PHI will have its heyday later in the mission, as Solar Orbiter gradually tilts its orbit to 24 degrees above the plane of the planets, giving it a never-before-seen view of the poles. But its first images reveal the busy magnetic field on the solar surface.

Studying space

Solar Orbiter’s instruments don’t just focus on the Sun itself — it also carries instruments that study the space around the Sun and surrounding the spacecraft.

The Solar and Heliospheric Imager, or SoloHi, looks out the side of the Solar Orbiter spacecraft to see the solar wind, dust, and cosmic rays that fill the space between the Sun and the planets. SoloHi captured the relatively faint light reflecting off interplanetary dust known as the zodiacal light, the bright blob of light in the right of the image. Compared to the Sun, the zodiacal light is extremely dim – to see it, SoloHi had to reduce incoming sunlight by a trillion times. The straight bright feature on the very edge of the image is a baffle illuminated by reflections from the spacecraft’s solar array.

This first data release highlights Solar Orbiter’s images, but its in situ instruments also revealed some of their first measurements. The Solar Wind Analyser, or SWA instrument, made the first dedicated measurements of heavy ions — carbon, oxygen, silicon, and iron — in the solar wind from the inner heliosphere.

Read more about Solar Orbiter’s first data and see all the images on ESA’s website.

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Did you recently hear that NASA changed the zodiac signs? Nope, we definitely didn’t…

Constellations and the Calendar

Did you recently hear that NASA changed the zodiac signs? Nope, we definitely didn’t…

…Here at NASA, we study astronomy, not astrology. We didn’t change any zodiac signs, we just did the math. Here are the details:

First Things First: Astrology is not Astronomy…

Astronomy is the scientific study of everything in outer space. Astronomers and other scientists know that stars many light-years away have no effect on the ordinary activities of humans on Earth.

Astrology, meanwhile, is something else. It’s the belief that the positions of stars and planets can influence human events. It’s not considered a science.

Some curious symbols ring the outside of the Star Finder. These symbols stand for some of the constellations in the zodiac. What is the zodiac and what is special about these constellations?

Imagine a straight line drawn from Earth though the sun and out into space way beyond our solar system where the stars are. Then, picture Earth following its orbit around the sun. This imaginary line would rotate, pointing to different stars throughout one complete trip around the sun – or, one year. All the stars that lie close to the imaginary flat disk swept out by this imaginary line are said to be in the zodiac.

The constellations in the zodiac are simply the constellations that this imaginary straight line points to in its year-long journey.

What are Constellations?

A constellation is group of stars like a dot-to-dot puzzle. If you join the dots—stars, that is—and use lots of imagination, the picture would look like an object, animal, or person. For example, Orion is a group of stars that the Greeks thought looked like a giant hunter with a sword attached to his belt. Other than making a pattern in Earth’s sky, these stars may not be related at all.

Even the closest star is almost unimaginably far away. Because they are so far away, the shapes and positions of the constellations in Earth’s sky change very, very slowly. During one human lifetime, they change hardly at all.

A Long History of Looking to the Stars

The Babylonians lived over 3,000 years ago. They divided the zodiac into 12 equal parts – like cutting a pizza into 12 equal slices. They picked 12 constellations in the zodiac, one for each of the 12 “slices.” So, as Earth orbits the sun, the sun would appear to pass through each of the 12 parts of the zodiac. Since the Babylonians already had a 12-month calendar (based on the phases of the moon), each month got a slice of the zodiac all to itself.

But even according to the Babylonians’ own ancient stories, there were 13 constellations in the zodiac. So they picked one, Ophiuchus, to leave out. Even then, some of the chosen 12 didn’t fit neatly into their assigned slice of the pie and crossed over into the next one.

When the Babylonians first invented the 12 signs of zodiac, a birthday between about July 23 and August 22 meant being born under the constellation Leo. Now, 3,000 years later, the sky has shifted because Earth’s axis (North Pole) doesn’t point in quite the same direction.

The constellations are different sizes and shapes, so the sun spends different lengths of time lined up with each one. The line from Earth through the sun points to Virgo for 45 days, but it points to Scorpius for only 7 days.  To make a tidy match with their 12-month calendar, the Babylonians ignored the fact that the sun actually moves through 13 constellations, not 12. Then they assigned each of those 12 constellations equal amounts of time.

So, we didn’t change any zodiac signs…we just did the math.

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Image Credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech⁣

In this large celestial mosaic, our Spitzer Space Telescope captured a stellar family portrait! You can find infants, parents and grandparents of star-forming regions all in this generational photo.  ⁣ There’s a lot to see in this image, including multiple clusters of stars born from the same dense clumps of gas and dust – some older and more evolved than others. Dive deeper into its intricacies by visiting https://go.nasa.gov/2XpiWLf ⁣

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How to See Comet NEOWISE

Observers all over the world are hoping to catch a glimpse of Comet NEOWISE before it speeds away into the depths of space, not to be seen again for another 6,800 years. 

For those that are, or will be, tracking Comet NEOWISE there will be a few particularly interesting observing opportunities this week. 

Over the coming days it will become increasingly visible shortly after sunset in the northwest sky.

The object is best viewed using binoculars or a small telescope, but if conditions are optimal, you may be able to see it with the naked eye. If you’re looking in the sky without the help of observation tools, Comet NEOWISE will likely look like a fuzzy star with a bit of a tail. Using binoculars will give viewers a good look at the fuzzy comet and its long, streaky tail. 

Here’s what to do:

Find a spot away from city lights with an unobstructed view of the sky

Just after sunset, look below the Big Dipper in the northwest sky

Each night, the comet will continue rising increasingly higher above the northwestern horizon.

There will be a special bonus for viewers observing comet NEOWISE from the northeast United States near Washington, DC. For several evenings, there will be a brief conjunction as the International Space Station will appear to fly near the comet in the northeast sky. Approximate times and locations of the conjunctions are listed below (the exact time of the conjunction and viewing direction will vary slightly based on where you are in the Washington, DC area):

July 17 :  ~10:56 p.m. EDT  = NEOWISE elevation: ~08°   Space Station elevation: ~14°

July 18 :  ~10:08 p.m. EDT  = NEOWISE elevation: ~13°   Space Station elevation: ~18°

July 19 :  ~10:57 p.m. EDT  = NEOWISE elevation: ~10°   Space Station elevation: ~08°

July 20 :  ~10:09 p.m. EDT  = NEOWISE elevation: ~17°   Space Station elevation: ~07°

It will be a late waning Moon, with the New Moon on July 20, so the viewing conditions should be good as long as the weather cooperates. 

Comet NEOWISE is about 3 miles across and covered in soot left over from its formation near the birth of our solar system 4.6 billion years ago - a typical comet.

Comets are frozen leftovers from the formation of the solar system composed of dust, rock and ices. They range from a few miles to tens of miles wide, but as they orbit closer to the sun, they heat up and spew gases and dust into a glowing head that can be larger than a planet. This material forms a tail that stretches millions of miles.

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Clouds swirling in the coffee colored atmosphere of Jupiter, looks more like a familiar morning beverage of champions. 

This image from our Juno spacecraft was captured in North North Temperate Belt. Image Credit: Enhanced Image by Gerald Eichstädt and Sean Doran (CC BY-NC-SA)/NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS

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Excited about the #CountdownToMars? We've got you covered.

We've created a virtual Mars photo booth, 3D rover experience and more for you to put your own creative touch on wishing Perseverance well for her launch to the Red Planet! Check it out, HERE. 

Don’t forget to mark the July 30 launch date on your calendars! 

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Whilst practicing solar distancing, Parker Solar Probe caught this rare glimpse of the twin tails on comet NEOWISE.☄

The twin tails are seen more clearly in this WISPR instrument processed image, which increased contrast and removed excess brightness from scattered sunlight, revealing more de-"tails". C/2020 F3 NEOWISE was discovered by our Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE), on March 27. Since it's discovery the comet has been spotted by several NASA spacecraft, including Parker Solar Probe, NASA’s Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory, the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, and astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

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Take the Next Moon Step Challenge! Create an image of your footprint and tell us what you would say, in 20 words or less, if you were the next person to step foot on the Moon! Enter here: https://www.futureengineers.org/nextmoonstep

What You Need to Know About Our Space Launch System (SLS) Rocket’s Green Run Test

The comprehensive test series called Green Run for our Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is underway at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. 

During Green Run, the rocket’s massive, 212-foot-tall core stage — the same flight hardware that will help launch Artemis I to the Moon – will operate together for the first time. 

Here’s what you need to know about this top-to-bottom test series of our megarocket’s huge core:

The Meaning Behind the Name 

Why is it called Green Run? “Green” refers to the new, untested hardware (AKA the core stage), and “run” represents the succession of tests the core stage paces through. One by one, this series will bring together several “firsts” for the rocket stage as the flight hardware undergoes eight different tests. Each test is designed to gradually bring our rocket’s core stage and all its systems to life for the first time. 

So far, engineers have completed three of the series: the modal test, the avionics power-on, and the safety systems checkout. The safety systems are designed to end the test and shutdown systems automatically under undesirable conditions.

You can follow the progress of Green Run with this Green Run checklist infographic. Our team will be updating in real time as each Green Run test is completed.

Setting the Stage

The world’s tallest rocket stage is tested in an equally giant test stand.  We upgraded the B-2 Test Stand used for the Saturn V rocket stages during the Apollo Program and, later, for the Space Shuttle Program. Now, the B-2 Test Stand is customized for testing our SLS core stage. When all four core stage engines fire up, they can generate some serious heat. So, the B-2 Test Stand will use roughly 100,000 gallons of water every 18 seconds to protect the stand and the hardware.

Hot fire in 3, 2, 1…

Speaking of engines firing up, the core stage will really show what it is capable of during the grand finale of Green Run. The goal is for the entire core stage to operate as one for up to 8.5 minutes — and that includes an impressive firing of all four RS-25 engines simultaneously. Just like at launch, more than 733,000 gallons of liquid propellant will flow from the two propellant tanks through the fuel lines to feed the RS-25 engines.  When operating at sea level on the test stand, the cluster of four RS-25 engines will produce just over 1.6 million pounds of thrust – the same amount it will produce during the early phase of launch. During ascent, the core stage will produce a maximum thrust of over 2 million pounds.

Data, data, data

All the Green Run tests, check outs and the 100 terabytes of collected data certify the core stage design and help verify the stage is ready for launch. To put the sheer amount of data collected during Green Run into perspective, just one terabyte is the equivalent of roughly 500 hours of movies. Even the Library of Congress’s collection only amounts to a total of 15 terabytes!

Next stop: Kennedy

The next time our SLS rocket’s core stage fires up will be on the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center for the debut of the Artemis program. This inaugural SLS flight will be just the beginning of increasingly complex missions that will enable human exploration to the Moon and, ultimately, Mars.

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Curious about NASA’s next mission to the Red Planet – the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover? Here’s your chance to ask an expert!

Targeted for launch to the Red Planet in July 2020, our Mars 2020 Perseverance rover will search for signs of ancient life. Mission engineer Lauren DuCharme and astrobiologist Sarah Stewart Johnson will be taking your questions in an Answer Time session on Friday, July 17 from noon to 1pm ET here on our Tumblr! Make sure to ask your question now by visiting http://nasa.tumblr.com/ask

Lauren DuCharme is a systems engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, where she’s working on the launch and cruise of the Perseverance rover. Lauren got her start at JPL as an intern. Professor Sarah Stewart Johnson is an astrobiologist at Georgetown University in Washington. Her research focuses on detecting biosignatures, or traces of life, in planetary environments.

Fun Facts:

The name Perseverance was chosen from among the 28,000 essays submitted during the "Name the Rover" contest. Seventh-grader Alex Mather wrote in his winning essay, "We are a species of explorers, and we will meet many setbacks on the way to Mars. However, we can persevere. We, not as a nation but as humans, will not give up."

Perseverance will land in Jezero Crater, a 28-mile-wide (45-kilometer-wide) crater that scientists believe was once filled with water.

Perseverance carries instruments and technology that will pave the way for future human missions to the Moon and Mars. It is also carrying 23 cameras and two microphones to the Red Planet — the most ever flown in the history of deep-space exploration.

Perseverance is the first leg of a round trip to Mars. It will be the first rover to bring a sample caching system to Mars that will package promising samples for return to Earth by a future mission.

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Our friend - the Moon - is putting on a show tonight!

Look to the sky at 12:44 a.m. EDT to see the first full Moon of summer in the Northern Hemisphere and a partial penumbral eclipse, visible from most of North America. Want more info on this special occurrence? click HERE. 

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Today we celebrate the mission that piqued our curiosities, and drove NASA’s perseverance to pursue further exploration of the Red Planet. The Sojourner rover landed on July 4, 1997, after hitching a ride aboard the Mars Pathfinder mission. Its innovative design became the template for future missions. The rover, named after civil rights pioneer Sojourner Truth, outlived its design life 12 times. This panoramic view of Pathfinder's Ares Vallis landing site shows Sojourner rover is the distance. Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com 

More than Just Dust in the Wind

From space, we can see a swirling brown mass making its way across the Atlantic – dust from the Sahara Desert – the largest hot desert in the world. It’s a normal phenomenon. Every year, winds carry millions of tons of dust from North Africa, usually during spring and summer in the Northern Hemisphere.

June 2020 has seen a massive plume of dust crossing the ocean. It’s so large it’s visible from one million miles away in space.

Dust clouds this large can affect air quality in regions where the dust arrives. The particles can also scatter the Sun’s light, making sunrises and sunsets more vibrant.

Dust particles in the air are also known as aerosols. We can measure aerosols, including dust, sea salt and smoke, from satellites and also use computer models to study how they move with the wind.

Following the transport of dust from space shows us how one of the driest places on Earth plays a role in fertilizing the Amazon rainforest. There are minerals in Saharan dust, like phosphorous, that exist in commercial fertilizers, helping seed the rainforest.

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NASA’s View of COVID-19

#COVID19 led to changes in human activities around the globe. We can see some of these changes from space. Some bodies of water have run clearer, emissions of pollutants have temporarily declined, and transportation and shipment of goods have decreased.

Along with our partner agencies – ESA and JAXA – we’re making satellite data available on the COVID-19 Earth Observation Dashboard, where you can explore some of the changes we can see from space.

But it’s not just what we can see. When the pandemic began, NASA engineers sprang into action to build ventilators, oxygen hoods and more to help save lives.

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Have You Ever Seen An Eclipse From Space? Check It Out

On June 21, 2020 an annular solar eclipse passed over parts of Asia and Africa. Eclipses happen when the Moon lines up just right between the Sun and Earth, allowing it to block out part or all of the Sun’s bright face and cast a shadow on Earth. 

On that day, the International Space Station was orbiting over Kazakhstan and into China when this picture of the solar eclipse shadowing a portion of the Asian continent was captured by an external high definition camera. In the left foreground, is the H-II Transfer Vehicle-9 from Japan.

Here is another angle as seen from the orbital lab. In the left foreground, is the Progress 74 resupply ship from Russia.

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Special Celestial Events in June 2020

Earth and the Moon are in a constant dance as they orbit the Sun — and in June 2020, they’ll create two special celestial events. 

June 20: Summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere 

Earth has a slight tilt as it orbits the Sun, and June is one of two times each year when that tilt is most prominent: a solstice. At the solstices, which happen each year in June and December, Earth’s tilt is at the greatest angle with respect to the plane of its orbit, meaning that one hemisphere is tilted towards the Sun, and the other hemisphere is tilted away. 

In the Northern Hemisphere, June 20 is the summer solstice — the Northern Hemisphere is tilted towards the Sun, so the June solstice is the day on which the Northern Hemisphere receives the longest stretch of daylight for the year.

In both hemispheres, the Sun will rise and set at its northernmost point on the horizon. After June 20, the Sun will appear to travel south.

This view from our Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's DSCOVR satellite shows the change in Earth’s tilt between the June and December solstices.

During the June solstice, the Southern Hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun, meaning the June solstice marks its shortest stretch of daylight for the year. June is the Southern Hemisphere’s winter solstice.  

June 21: Annular solar eclipse in Africa and Asia

The day after the solstice will see another special celestial event: an annular eclipse. Eclipses happen when the Moon lines up just right between the Sun and Earth, allowing it to block out part or all of the Sun’s bright face and cast a shadow on Earth. Though the Moon orbits Earth about once a month, its orbit is tilted by five degrees, so the perfect alignment that creates an eclipse is relatively rare. Often the Moon is too high or low in our sky to block out the Sun.

The June 21, 2020, eclipse is an annular eclipse visible primarily in Africa and Asia. During an annular eclipse, the Moon is too far from Earth and its apparent size is too small to entirely block out the face of the Sun, leaving a sliver of the Sun visible around the Moon’s edge during the eclipse and creating a “ring of fire” effect.

Credit: Dale Cruikshank

Outside the path of annularity, people in other parts of Africa, Asia and even some of Europe and the Pacific have a chance to see a partial solar eclipse, weather permitting. The degree of the partial eclipse depends on how close you are to the path of annularity. Locations far from the path of annularity will see only a small part of the Sun covered by the Moon, while places close to the path will see almost all of the Sun obscured.

No matter where you are, you must take safety precautions to watch the eclipse safely. There is no part of an annular eclipse during which it is safe to look directly at the Sun. You must use a proper solar filter or an indirect viewing method during all phases of the eclipse — even if only a tiny sliver of the Sun is visible around the Moon’s edge, that’s still enough to cause damage to your eyes.  

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Meet the people behind our next Mars rover – Perseverance.

Sending a rover to the Red Planet is more than just 3…2…1… Liftoff 🚀 

It takes thousands of people and years of hard work to get a spacecraft from Earth to Mars. So when our Perseverance (Percy) rover touches down on the Martian surface, it will be because of the talented minds that helped to make it happen. 

The team is on track to launch Perseverance on July 20 and land in Mars’ Jezero Crater in February 2021. Each week leading up to launch, learn not only what it’s like to work on this mission but also about the diverse background and career trajectories of the team members at our Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 

Want to stay up to date on Percy’s mission? Follow her on Twitter and Facebook. For more information, visit the official mission site, HERE. 

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Our water-seeking robotic Moon rover just booked a ride to the Moon’s South Pole. Astrobotic of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has been selected to deliver the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, to the Moon in 2023. During its 100-Earth-day mission, the approximately 1,000-pound rover will roam several miles and use its four science instruments to sample various soil environments in search of water ice. Its survey will help pave the way for a new era of human missions to the lunar surface and will bring us a step closer to developing a sustainable, long-term robotic and human presence on the Moon as part of the Artemis program.

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Space is Hard

Earlier this week weather scrubbed our SpaceX launch to the International Space Station. NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley were strapped into their Crew Dragon spacecraft when ground teams called off the 4:33pm ET launch due to inclement weather brought on by Tropical Storm Bertha off the southeastern U.S. coast. The Falcon 9 rocket is healthy, but we want to get it right. Safety is paramount.⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣

In this black and white infrared image, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft onboard is seen on the launch pad at Launch Complex 39A. Photo credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

Join us for our next launch attempt on Saturday, May 30, at 3:22 p.m. EDT (7:22 p.m. UTC). Our live coverage starts at 11 a.m. EDT (3 p.m. UTC) on nasa.gov. As part of our Commercial Crew Program, the liftoff will mark the first time in nearly a decade that our astronauts launch on a brand new spacecraft from U.S. soil. We're ready.⁣⁣⁣

⁣Let's light this candle. 🚀⁣⁣⁣

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From Apollo to Commercial Crew: Get To Know Historic Launch Pad 39A

Originally built for the massive Saturn V rockets that sent astronauts on Apollo missions to the Moon, Launch Complex 39A also served as one of the two launch pads used by the space shuttle. Between Apollo, Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz and the space shuttle, this launch pad has been the starting point for many of the nation’s most challenging and inspiring missions.

In 2014, SpaceX signed a property agreement with NASA for use and operation of the launch complex for 20 years, and the company modified the facility to prepare for the processing and launch of its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company’s Crew Dragon on its Demo-2 flight test to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley will lift off from the same historic site where astronauts first launched to the moon. Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida is also the site of dozens of space shuttle launches that helped build the orbital laboratory.

Launch Complexes 39A and B were constructed in the 1960s. Both launch pads have a long history of supporting launches for the Apollo and Space Shuttle Programs. Launch Pad 39A was the launch site for 11 Saturn V Apollo missions, including Apollo 11, the first Moon landing. The pad also was the launch site for 82 space shuttle missions, including STS-1, the first shuttle launch, the STS-125 final servicing mission for the Hubble Space Telescope, and STS-135, the final shuttle mission.

After the space shuttle was retired in 2011, we began the process to transform Kennedy Space Center from a historically government-only launch facility into a multi-user spaceport for both government and commercial use. On April 14, 2014, the agency signed a property agreement with SpaceX for use of the launch site for the next 20 years.

SpaceX upgraded and modified the launch pad to support its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets. The company also built a horizontal processing hangar at the base of the pad to perform final vehicle integration prior to flight. The first SpaceX launch from the pad was the company’s 10th commercial resupply services (CRS-10) mission for us. A SpaceX Falcon 9 launched a Dragon cargo spacecraft on CRS-10 on Feb. 19, 2017. The Dragon delivered about 5,500 pounds of supplies to the space station, including the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) III instrument to further study ozone in the Earth’s atmosphere. Combined with SpaceX, we’ve launched more than 100 missions from Pad 39A.

Because of our partnership with SpaceX within our agency’s Commercial Crew Program, Launch Complex 39A will once again be the site of crewed missions to the space station.

🚀 TUNE IN starting at 12:15 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, May 27 as NASA and SpaceX launch astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley to the International Space Station aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft: www.nasa.gov.live.

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🚀 A New Era of Human Spaceflight

Our Commercial Crew Program has worked with several American aerospace industry companies to facilitate the development of U.S. human spaceflight systems since 2010. The goal is to have safe, reliable and cost-effective access to and from the International Space Station and foster commercial access to other potential low-Earth orbit destinations.

We selected Boeing and SpaceX in September 2014 to transport crew to the International Space Station from the United States. These integrated spacecraft, rockets and associated systems will carry up to four astronauts on NASA missions, maintaining a space station crew of seven to maximize time dedicated to scientific research on the orbiting laboratory

We begin a new era of human spaceflight as American astronauts will once again launch on an American spacecraft and rocket from American soil to the International Space Station.

As part of our Commercial Crew Program, NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley will fly on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft for an extended stay at the space station for the Demo-2 mission. Launch is scheduled for 4:33 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, May 27.

Demo-2 will be SpaceX’s final test flight to validate its crew transportation system, including the Crew Dragon spacecraft, Falcon 9 rocket, launch pad and operations capabilities. While docked to the space station, the crew will run tests to ensure the Crew Dragon is capable of remaining connected to the station for up to 210 days on future missions.

Our Commercial Crew Program is working with the American aerospace industry as companies develop and operate a new generation of spacecraft and launch systems capable of carrying crews to low-Earth orbit and the International Space Station. Commercial transportation to and from the station will provide expanded utility, additional research time and broader opportunities for discovery on the orbiting laboratory.

The station is a critical testbed for us to understand and overcome the challenges of long-duration spaceflight. As commercial companies focus on providing human transportation services to and from low-Earth orbit, we are freed up to focus on building spacecraft and rockets for deep space missions.

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