Indoor Testing Facilities available at the NASA Unmanned Autonomy Research Complex (NUARC)WindShaper A large WindShaper fan array is available for dynamic low-speed and hovering flight research. The WindShaper is ideal for generating arbitrary wind gradients and wind gusts via a simple Python API. A companion WindProbe is also available for quick surveys of flows. The WindProbe utilizes the lab’s OptiTrack motion capture system to extract the […]
StarstruckThe Artemis II crew captured this photo of our galaxy, the Milky Way, on April 7, 2026. The Milky Way’s elegant spiral structure is dominated by just two arms wrapping off the ends of a central bar of stars. Spanning more than 100,000 light-years, Earth is located along one of the galaxy’s spiral arms, about […]
Watching the Artemis II Mission Unfold at JPL’s Space Flight Operations FacilityDescription Staff at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California watch the agency’s Artemis II mission unfold soon after launch on April 1, 2026, at the Space Flight Operations Facility, which operates the Deep Space Network (DSN). The DSN comprises of three complexes in Goldstone, California; Madrid, Spain; and Canberra, Australia. Each complex has several […]
The Deep Space Network Acquires Artemis II SignalDescription A graphical representation of the Deep Space Network’s radio frequency antennas indicate signal acquisition from NASA’s Artemis II mission to the Moon on April 1, 2026, inside the Space Flight Operations Facility at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Two antennas at the Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex, Deep Space Station 54 and […]
The Deep Space Network Acquires Artemis II SignalDescription The acquisition of the radio frequency signal from the Artemis II crewed mission to the Moon by NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) is indicated by the peak in the data signal shown on the top computer screen. Soon after the mission’s launch on April 1, 2026, at 6:35 p.m. EDT, NASA’s Near Space Network […]
Watching Over the Deep Space Network Before Artemis II Signal AcquisitionDescription Blanca Renteria, Artemis Deep Space Network (DSN) operations chief, monitors data at the Space Flight Operations Facility at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California shortly after Artemis II launched from the agency’s Kennedy Space Flight Center in Florida on April 1, 2026, at 6:35 p.m. EDT. The Space Flight Operations Facility operates the […]
Watching the Artemis II Launch From JPL’s Space Flight Operations FacilityDescription Staff at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California watch the launch of the agency’s Artemis II mission to the Moon on April 1, 2026, at the Space Flight Operations Facility, which operates the Deep Space Network (DSN). Soon after launch, the Artemis II crew communicated with the Near Space Network while they were […]
JPL’s ‘Lucky Peanuts’ Before Artemis II LaunchDescription A container of “lucky peanuts” sits above workstations within the Space Flight Operations Facility at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory shortly before the launch of the Artemis II mission to the Moon on April 1, 2026. Eating peanuts before launches and other major mission events is a longstanding tradition at JPL. The Space Flight Operations Facility operates […]
Supporting Artemis II From JPL’s Space Flight Operations FacilityDescription The Artemis II mission patch appears in the center screen of the Space Flight Operations Facility at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California on April 1, 2026, shortly before the mission launched to the Moon. A graphical representation of the antennas of the agency’s Deep Space Network (DSN), left, indicates which antennas are […]
Snow in the Shadow of the AndesAn early autumn storm left higher elevations in southern Argentina with a fresh and fleeting coat of white.