Around this time of year the farmers down on earth will be planting away their crops ready for harvest, and so are the Astronauts up in space. In particularly the Astronauts aboard the International Space Station are planting their third on-orbit crop of red romaine lettuce. The Veg-03 experiment was initiated by NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough, one of his first science assignments as a new crew member aboard the orbiting laboratory. 

After collecting drilled rock powder in arguably the most scenic landscape yet visited by a Mars rover, NASA’s Curiosity mobile laboratory is driving toward uphill destinations as part of its two-year mission extension that commenced October 1st. 

In celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Star Trek, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden introduces us to the real world impact of fictional characters Nyota Uhura and Hikaru Sulu.

Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have imaged what may be water vapor plumes erupting off the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa. This finding bolsters other Hubble observations suggesting the icy moon erupts with high-altitude water vapour plumes. The observation increases the possibility that missions to Europa may be able to sample Europa’s ocean without having to drill through miles of ice.

50 years ago Star Trek premiered on the small screen. Today, stars of the original series; William Shatner, Nichelle Nichols and George Takei share their excitement and passion for the real space exploration being done by NASA.

NASA scientists discussed asteroids, how they relate to the origins of our solar system, and the search for life beyond Earth during this event at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center, in Florida on 7th September.

Every day, NASA spacecraft beam down hundreds of petabytes of data, all of which has to be codified, stored and distributed to scientists across the globe. Increasingly, artificial intelligence is helping to "read" this data as well, highlighting similarities between datasets that scientists might miss. For the past 15 years, the big data techniques pioneered by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, have been revolu...

  Scientists using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have made the first detections of X-rays from Pluto. These observations offer new insight into the space environment surrounding the largest and best-known object in the solar system’s outermost regions.

A small asteroid designated 2016 RB1 safely flew past Earth September 8th at 10:20am PDT (1:20pm EDT/17:20 UTC) at a distance of about 25,000 miles (40,000 kilometers, or just less than 1/10th the distance of Earth to the moon). Because the asteroid's orbit carried it below (or over) Earth's south pole, it did not pass within the orbits of communication or weather satellites.

As NASA aeronautics engineers prepare to develop a series of greener, quieter, faster X-planes, they are already testing concepts that could be candidates. One of those is a Blended Wing Body (BWB). A 6% scale model of a Boeing BWB is being tested for six weeks in the 14x22ft. Subsonic Tunnel at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

A team from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, has been selected to develop a third-generation facility science instrument for the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, SOFIA. The principal investigator, Samuel Harvey Moseley will lead the team to develop the High Resolution Mid-InfrarEd spectrometre (HIRMES).

NASA’s Game Changing Development Program (GCD), managed by the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, and the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) are seeking novel and robust concepts for in-space assembly of spacecraft — particularly tugs, propelled by Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP), that transfer payloads from Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to a Lunar Distant Retrograde Orbit (LDRO).

  Early in the morning of 1st September, 2016, NASA's SDO (Solar Dynamics Observatory) caught both Earth and the moon passing in front of the sun.

Ever since the 1950s discovery of the solar wind – the constant flow of charged particles from the sun – there’s been a stark disconnect between this outpouring and the sun itself. As it approaches Earth, the solar wind is gusty and turbulent. But near the sun where it originates, this wind is structured in distinct rays, much like a child’s simple drawing of the sun. 

You may not think about insulation much, but it's one of those unsung industry heroes that keeps our drinks cold and homes warm on those bone-chilling winter days. Insulation also is a key component to protecting NASA's Space Launch System and its super-cold fuels for the journey to Mars.

Now available for Apple and Android phones, the app is an initiative of the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) programme, a science and education effort that for over two decades has enabled schools and students in over 110 countries to investigate their local environment and put their observations in a global context hand holding cell phone and clouds.

Lighter, faster, more efficient. Whenever you advance a technology, that’s the goal. As NASA looks to transform the commercial aircraft of the future, efficient engines are at the heart of it all. To achieve the goal of better engines on future aircraft, researchers at NASA Glenn are investigating promising advances in high-temperature materials that can be used to make turbine engine components.

On Wednesday, 24th August, NASA astronaut and Expedition 48 Commander Jeff Williams surpassed 520 days living in space, breaking Scott Kelly’s previous record for most cumulative time spent in space by a US astronaut, set during Kelly’s year-long mission. By the time Williams returns home on 6th September, he’ll leave us with a new total of 534 days.

After five years of competition by more than 40 different teams from around the globe, NASA’s Sample Return Robot Challenge has reached its final stage. The top seven teams will compete for the $1.36m prize purse on the campus of Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Worcester, Massachusetts, 4th-6th September.

Hoisted about 30ft. in the air, a mockup of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft awaits its encounter with a pad full of dirt. “Three, two, one” projects over the loud speaker just before the spacecraft is released and makes a loud thud when meeting the dirt. Six attached airbags absorb much of the landing impact and stabilise the spacecraft.