Curiosity Blog, Sols 4832–4837: Driving the (Contact) Line!Written by Catherine O’Connell-Cooper, APXS Strategic Planner and Payload Uplink/Downlink Lead, University of New Brunswick, Canada Earth planning date: Friday, March 13, 2026 We are in our final phase of the boxwork campaign, investigating the contacts between the boxwork unit and the layered sulfate unit. As my colleague Bill reported here, last week we crossed […]
Lava Flows Down MayonThe OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8 acquired this rare, relatively clear image of Mayon, the most active volcano in the Philippines, on Feb. 26, 2026. The natural-color scene is overlaid with infrared observations to highlight the lava’s heat signature. On that day, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) reported volcanic earthquakes, rockfalls, and hot clouds of ash […]
From Service to Space Systems: A Pathways Journey to NASAFor Corey Elmore, the path to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center did not begin in engineering. It began in service. Today he serves as a NASA Pathways engineering intern in the Technical Processes and Tools Branch (KSC-NE-TA) at Kennedy Space Center. Through the Pathways program, he is gaining hands-on experience supporting the engineering environments, technical tools […]
Widely Attended Gatherings (WAGs) Determinations2026 Maryland Space Business Roundtable (MSBR) 3.26.26 SIA_27th Annual Leadership Dinner 3.23.26 2026 Artemis Suppliers Conference 3.23-25.26 Ansys Government Initiatives Event_AGI 3.19.26 Homeland Security Week 3.17-18.26 Amazon Smithsonian and Space for Humanity Event 3.16.26 HLSR_NASA Night at the Rodeo 3.7.26 WIF Leadership Luncheon 3.4.26 2026 National Space Club Florida Committee Monthly Luncheon Space Policy Institute […]
NASA’s Hubble Unexpectedly Catches Comet Breaking UpIn a happy twist of fate, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope just witnessed a comet in the act of breaking apart. The chance of that happening while Hubble watched is extraordinarily minuscule. The findings published Wednesday in the journal Icarus. The comet K1, whose full name is C/2025 K1 (ATLAS)—not to be confused with interstellar comet […]
Wave of Dust Rolls Through TexasAn advancing cold front kicked up a sharp line of sand and other small particles that swept over the high plains.
NASA’s X-59 Prepares for Second FlightNASA’s X-59 experimental aircraft is preparing for its second flight, a step that will set the pace for more flight testing in 2026. Over the coming months, NASA will take the quiet supersonic jet faster and higher, while validating safety and performance, a process known as envelope expansion. NASA test pilot Jim “Clue” Less will be at the X-59’s […]
Dim Delights in CancerCancer the Crab is a dim constellation, yet it contains one of the most beautiful and easy-to-spot star clusters in our sky: the Beehive Cluster. Cancer also possesses one of the most studied exoplanets: the superhot super-Earth, 55 Cancri e. Find Cancer’s dim stars by looking in between the brighter neighboring constellations of Gemini and […]
Solving Asteroid Bennu’s MysteriesThese X-ray computed tomography (XCT) scans released on March 17, 2026, give us a glimpse inside asteroid Bennu. They show the most common types of crack networks observed in Bennu samples; these networks solved a mystery that baffled NASA for years. When NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft first approached asteroid Bennu in 2018, scientists expected to see smooth, sandy beach-like surfaces. Instead, they […]
Asteroid Bennu’s Rugged Surface Baffled NASA, We Finally Know WhyIn one of the biggest surprises of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, its target asteroid, Bennu, turned out to be a jagged, rugged world covered in large boulders, with few of the smooth patches of sandy or pebbly material scientists had expected based on observations with Earth-based instruments. Bennu’s looks were quite deceiving, and until now, scientists struggled to figure out why.