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40 Years of Hubble Operations: The Space Telescope Operations Control Center
Dedicated 40 years ago, on February 14th, 1984 at NASA Goddard’s Space Flight Center, the Space Telescope Operations Control Center (STOCC), operates the Hubble Space Telescope on its important mission.
The Operations Team members at the STOCC continue to operate the telescope, capturing data and images of the cosmos for all of us to enjoy, allowing Hubble to continue its mission of unravelling the mysteries of the universe.
The Intuitive Machines IM-1 robotic Moon lander is targeted for launch at 12:57 a.m. ET, Wednesday, February 14, 2024, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket via Launch Pad 39A at Cape Canaveral, Florida. If all goes well, IM-1 will become the first American spacecraft to set down softly on the Moon’s surface since the NASA Apollo 17 moon landing in 1972.
China's Chang'e 3 Mission, the first Chinese landing on the Moon in 2013, was the first spacecraft to soft-land on the Moon since the Soviet Union's Luna 24 in 1976.
In 2023, after the Chandrayaan-3 Lander successfully soft-landed on the Moon, India became the fourth country, after the United States, Russia and China, to accomplish this.
NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative allows NASA to send science investigations and technology demonstrations to the lunar surface. Under Artemis, NASA will study more of the Moon than ever before, and CLPS will demonstrate how NASA is working with commercial companies to achieve robotic lunar exploration.
International Space Station Views | Ax-3/European Astronaut Marcus Wandt
European Space Agency project astronaut from Sweden Marcus Wandt with the Swedish flag in the European-built Cupola on the International Space Station.
European Space Agency project astronaut Marcus Wandt's first mission to space, Muninn, takes its name from Norse mythology and the two raven accomplices of the god Odin—Muninn and Huginn. Together, the two symbolize the human mind. Huginn is the name of ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen’s Space Station mission.
According to the myth, the ravens serve as messengers and advisors to their god, sharing all they see and hear. Muninn comes from the Old Norse word munr, that can be translated as passion and emotion, linking to Marcus’s enthusiasm for spaceflight.
Astronaut Marcus Wandt: "This is how I see the International Space Station from the inside. My work station is an incredible piece of spacecraft engineering. On it, I travel about 400 km above your heads at 28,000 km per hour, circling Earth approximately 16 times every day. The Space Station is the largest object ever built in orbit—a place that has brought humankind together to live and work in space continuously for more than two decades."
European Space Agency (ESA) project astronaut Marcus Wandt's first mission to space, Muninn, takes its name from Norse mythology and the two raven accomplices of the god Odin—Muninn and Huginn. Together, the two symbolize the human mind. Huginn is the name of ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen’s Space Station mission.
According to the myth, the ravens serve as messengers and advisors to their god, sharing all they see and hear. Muninn comes from the Old Norse word munr, that can be translated as passion and emotion, linking to Marcus’s enthusiasm for spaceflight.
Astronaut Marcus Wandt of Sweden lifted off on January 18, 2024, as part of the Axiom-3 Mission to the International Space Station.
Axiom Space’s Ax-3 crew to the International Space Station, commander Michael López-Alegría (United States-Spain), pilot Walter Villadei (Italy), mission specialist Alper Gezeravcı (Türkiye) and European Space Agency (ESA) project astronaut Marcus Wandt (Sweden) later splashed down in their SpaceX “Freedom” Crew Dragon spacecraft off the coast of Florida, on February 9, 2024.
The four Ax-3 astronauts completed 18 days aboard the orbiting laboratory. The SpaceX Crew Dragon returned to Earth with more than 550 pounds of science and supplies, including NASA experiments and hardware.
An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.
Image Credit: Axiom Space/ESA/Ax-3 Astronaut Marcus Wandt
Station Commander: Andreas Mogensen of the European Space Agency (Denmark)
Roscosmos (Russia): Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub, Konstantin Borisov
JAXA: Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa (Japan)
NASA: Jasmin Moghbeli, Loral O'Hara (USA)
An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.
NASA Astronaut Tracy C. Dyson Training for International Space Station
NASA has assigned astronaut Tracy C. Dyson to her second long-duration mission to the International Space Station as a flight engineer and member of the Expedition 70/71 crew. Dyson will launch on the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft in March 2024 and spend approximately six months aboard the International Space Station. She will travel to the station with Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy and spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus, both of whom will spend approximately 12 days aboard the orbital complex.
Astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson's Official NASA Biography:
During her expedition, Dyson will conduct scientific investigations and technology demonstrations that help prepare humans for future space missions and benefit people on Earth. Among some of the hundreds of experiments ongoing during her mission, Dyson will continue to study how fire spreads and behaves in space with the Combustion Integrated Rack, as well as contribute to the long-running Crew Earth Observations study by photographing Earth to better understand how our planet is changing over time.
After completing her expedition, Dyson will return to Earth in fall 2024 with Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub on the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft. Kononenko and Chub launched Friday, Sept. 15, 2023, with NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara on the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft. Kononenko and Chub will remain aboard the orbital laboratory for about one year. O’Hara, who will spend six months aboard the space station, will return with Novitskiy and Vasilevskaya on the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft.
NASA selected Dyson as an astronaut in June 1998, and during her previous two flights, logged more than 188 days in space. Dyson first launched aboard the space shuttle Endeavour on STS-118 in 2007, serving as a mission specialist. During the mission, the crew successfully added the starboard-5 truss segment to the station’s “backbone” and a new gyroscope. In 2010, she served as flight engineer for Expedition 23/24 and performed three successful contingency spacewalks, logging 22 hours and 49 minutes outside the station as she helped remove and replace a failed pump module for one of two external ammonia circulation loops that keep internal and external equipment cool.
Dyson has worked inside the Mission Control Center at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston as spacecraft communicator, known as capcom, for both space shuttle and space station operations. She also served as the lead capcom for various space station missions, as well as the development of the capcom cadre for Boeing’s Starliner Mission Operations Team. Other technical assignments included leading the development of the spacewalk qualification training flow, which she helped to complete for the 2017 class of NASA astronauts.
Born in Arcadia, California, Dyson received a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from California State University, Fullerton, in 1993, and a doctorate in chemistry from the University of California, Davis, in 1997.
For more than 22 years, humans have continuously lived and worked aboard the International Space Station, advancing scientific knowledge, and demonstrating new technologies, making research breakthroughs not possible on Earth. As a global endeavor, 244 people from 19 countries have visited the unique microgravity laboratory that has hosted more than 3,000 research and educational investigations from researchers in 108 countries and areas.
Learn more about International Space Station research and operations at:
Developing New Battery Technologies to Help Prevent Battery Fires | NASA
NASA researchers are exploring the feasibility of predicting and preventing battery fires before they happen. SPARRCI or “Sensor-based Prognostics to Avoid Runaway Reactions and Catastrophic Ignition,” is a research activity with the goal to create a “smart” battery system with sensors inside them, that would self-monitor and send an alert well before it endangers the safety of its aircraft. The operator would then be able to correct the problem or replace the battery before the dangerous overheating ever occurs. This fine-tuned view of the inside of a battery could lead to safer and better performing energy storage—a new generation of batteries.
Dream Chaser Spaceplane's Journey to NASA's Glenn Research Center in Ohio
“The last several years have required an enormous amount of tenacity by our team and no other name would have been more appropriate for our first Dream Chaser spaceplane.”
– Sierra Space CEO Tom Vice
The journey of the Sierra Space Dream Chaser spaceplane "Tenacity" and its Shooting Star Cargo Module to the world's largest vibration table at the Armstrong Test Facility of NASA's Glenn Research Center in Ohio.
The Black Sea: Türkiye (left), Georgia (right) | International Space Station
Expedition 70 Mission Specialist and NASA Astronaut Loral O'Hara aboard the International Space shared this image: "City lights along the Black Sea. Turkey on the left, Georgia on the right."
The Black Sea is a Mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. Around it are six countries: Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Türkiye and Ukraine. The Black Sea is supplied by major rivers, principally the Danube, Dnieper and Dniester.
Türkiye, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in West Asia, with a smaller part called East Thrace on the Balkan Peninsula in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran to the east; Iraq to the southeast; Syria and the Mediterranean Sea to the south; the Aegean Sea to the west; and Greece and Bulgaria to the northwest.
Georgia is a transcontinental country located in Eastern Europe and West Asia. It is part of the Caucasus region, bounded by the Black Sea to the west, Russia to the north and northeast, Turkey to the southwest, Armenia to the south, and by Azerbaijan to the southeast.
Station Commander: Andreas Mogensen of the European Space Agency (Denmark)
Roscosmos (Russia): Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub, Konstantin Borisov
JAXA: Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa (Japan)
NASA: Jasmin Moghbeli, Loral O'Hara (USA)
An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.
Image Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)/Astronaut Loral O'Hara
How NASA Uses Simple Technology to Track Lunar Missions | NASA Goddard
NASA is using a simple but surprisingly effective technology called Laser Retroreflective Arrays (LRAs) to determine the locations of lunar landers more accurately. They will be attached to landers sent to the Moon as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Service (CLPS) initiative. LRAs are inexpensive, small, and lightweight.
Stargazing Podcast: Venus for Valentine's Day (Feb. 12-18, 2024) | BBC Sky at Night
Watch Venus pass through the morning sky this Valentine’s Day. Get the details in the latest episode of our weekly stargazing guide podcast, Star Diary February 12 to 18, 2024.
Splashdown Training: How The Ax-3 Crew Prepared | International Space Station
The successful splashdown of the Ax-3 crew's SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft on Feb. 9, 2024, off the Florida coast, after an 18 day mission aboard the International Space Station, reminds us of the exceptional training and support provided by partners of Axiom Space, like Operator Solutions.
Axiom Space operates end-to-end missions to the International Space Station today while developing its successor, Axiom Station—planning to become the world’s first commercial space station in low-Earth orbit. Axiom Space seeks to "sustain human growth off the planet, while bringing benefits back home."
Ax-3 Crew Arrives in Houston, Texas | Axiom Space | International Space Station
"A Texas-sized welcome for the returning Ax-3 crew as they land back in Houston!"
The crew of Axiom Space’s Ax-3 Mission to the International Space Station, commander Michael López-Alegría (United States-Spain), pilot Walter Villadei (Italy), mission specialist Alper Gezeravcı (Türkiye) and European Space Agency (ESA) project astronaut Marcus Wandt (Sweden), was successfully recovered from SpaceX’s “Freedom” Crew Dragon spacecraft.
SpaceX’s “Freedom” Crew Dragon spacecraft splashed down off the coast of Florida, on February 9, 2024, at 13:30 UTC (8:30am EST).
The Ax-3 astronauts completed 18 days aboard the orbiting laboratory at the conclusion of their mission. The SpaceX Crew Dragon returned to Earth with more than 550 pounds of science and supplies, including NASA experiments and hardware.
An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.
Ax-3 Commander Michael López-Alegría: Crew Dragon Landing | Axiom Space
Ax-3 Commander Michael López-Alegría (United States-Spain) arrives back on Earth, making history as the first person to ride aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft twice.
The crew of Axiom Space’s Ax-3 Mission to the International Space Station, commander Michael López-Alegría (United States-Spain), pilot Walter Villadei (Italy), mission specialist Alper Gezeravcı (Türkiye) and European Space Agency (ESA) project astronaut Marcus Wandt (Sweden), was successfully recovered from SpaceX’s “Freedom” Crew Dragon spacecraft.
SpaceX’s “Freedom” Crew Dragon spacecraft splashed down off the coast of Florida, on February 9, 2024, at 13:30 UTC (8:30am EST).
The Ax-3 astronauts completed 18 days aboard the orbiting laboratory at the conclusion of their mission. The SpaceX Crew Dragon returned to Earth with more than 550 pounds of science and supplies, including NASA experiments and hardware.
An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.
Sagittarius C: The Milky Way's Galaxy Center | European Southern Observatory
Thousands of bright dots in different sizes and colors—red, orange, blue and bluish-white—fill the frame. The dark background is almost completely obscured, aside from a few small black patches peeking through. In the lower left corner, there is a particularly big orange star.
Hundreds of thousands of stars are contained in this infrared image of Sagittarius C, a region near the center of the Milky Way. Taken with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in the Chilean Atacama Desert, this image is helping astronomers unlock a stellar puzzle.
The center of the Milky Way is the most prolific star-forming region in the entire galaxy. However, astronomers have only found a fraction of the young stars they expected here: there is “fossil” evidence that many more stars were born in the recent past than the ones we actually see. This is because looking towards the center of the galaxy is not an easy task: clouds of dust and gas block the light from the stars and obscure the view. Infrared instruments, such as the HAWK-I camera on the VLT, allow astronomers to peer through these clouds and reveal the starry landscape beyond.
In a recent study, Francisco Nogueras Lara, an astronomer at ESO in Germany, analyzed VLT data of Sagittarius C, a region whose chemical composition made it a promising candidate to host recently formed stars. And it delivered: he found that this region was much richer in young stars than other areas in the galactic center. Looking to similar regions, now, is a promising lead to find the other missing young stars.
Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/F. Nogueras-Lara et al.
Star-forming Region IRAS 16562-3959 in Scorpius | Hubble
This image is a relatively close-by star-forming region known as IRAS 16562-3959 that lies within the Milky Way in the constellation Scorpius, about 5,900 light-years from Earth.
This image was compiled using observations from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC 3). The detailed nuances of color are possible because of the four separate filters that were used to collect the data. Filters are thin slivers of highly specialized material that only allow very specific wavelengths of light through. They can be slid in front of the part of the telescope that is sensitive to light, letting astronomers control which wavelengths of light the telescope collects with each observation. This is useful not only for specific scientific research, but also for the creation of images like this one.
Raw telescope observations are always monochrome, regardless of the filter used. However, specially trained artists and image specialists can select colors that match the wavelength range covered by individual filters. Or, in the case where a direct match is not possible—such as for the data used in this image (all in the infrared regime) that human eyes are not sensitive to—the artist can select a color that sensibly represents what is taking place. For example, they might assign bluer colors to shorter wavelengths and redder colors to longer wavelengths, as is the case in the visible light range. Then, data from multiple filters can be combined to build up a multi-color image that looks beautiful and has scientific meaning.
At the center of the image, IRAS 16562-3959 is thought to host a massive star—about 30 times the mass of our Sun—that is still in the process of forming. At the near-infrared wavelengths to which Hubble is sensitive, the central region appears dark because there is so much obscuring dust in the way. However, near-infrared light leaks out mainly on two sides—upper left and lower right—where a powerful jet from the massive protostar has cleared away the dust. Multi-wavelength images, including this incredible Hubble scene, will help us gain a better understanding of how the most massive, brightest stars in our galaxy are born.
Image Description: A nebula with stars. The center of the image from top-left to bottom-right glows brightly with light from where new stars are being formed, and is partially covered by dark dust. Colored layers of gas and dust billow out across the rest of the image. The nebula is speckled with foreground stars with large diffraction spikes.
Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)/Hubble & NASA, R. Fedriani, J. Tan
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