NASA Breaking News

Curiosity Blog, Sols 4975-4981: Happy 14th Landing Anniversary By Susanne P. Schwenzer, Professor of Planetary Mineralogy at The Open University, UK Earth planning date: Friday, Aug. 7, 2026 This week was very special for the Curiosity team here on Earth as we celebrated the 14th landing anniversary. I still remember watching the buildup to the entry phase on “Eyes on the Solar System” […] August 17, 2026 at 07:00AM via @nasabreakingnews https://science.nasa.gov/blog/curiosity-blog-sols-4975-4981-happy-14th-landing-anniversary/

NASA Selects Companies to Provide Payload Processing Services NASA has selected four companies to provide payload processing facilities under the Spacecraft Processing Operations Contract on‑ramp provision. The provision enables qualified providers to offer commercial payload processing services for agency missions launching from multiple locations where capabilities were not available at the time of the initial contract award. Contract awardees are: Through the contract, […] August 17, 2026 at 07:00AM via @nasabreakingnews https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-selects-companies-to-provide-payload-processing-services/

NASA Mission Studies Air Pollution Over Ethiopia A NASA-funded air pollution monitoring network has provided one of the most detailed long-term views yet of the role of black carbon, or soot produced by fires, diesel vehicles, and other combustion sources, in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. The detailed measurements show how pollution changes by time of day and season, including increases associated with […] August 17, 2026 at 07:00AM via @nasabreakingnews https://www.nasa.gov/missions/maia/nasa-mission-studies-air-pollution-over-ethiopia/

Next Generation of Planetary Scientists Learn Public Engagement Skills FORCE is a world-class laboratory that uses high-pressure experimental equipment to recreate the extreme conditions found deep within Earth and other planetary bodies, enabling researchers to better understand how planets form, evolve, and behave under immense pressures. August 17, 2026 at 07:00AM via @nasabreakingnews https://science.nasa.gov/learning-resources/science-activation/next-generation-of-planetary-scientists-learn-public-engagement-skills/

Colorful Collage of Tarantula Nebula Data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, and NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope combine to reveal a vibrant view of 30 Doradus, or the Tarantula Nebula, in this Aug. 11, 2026, image. Located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small neighbor galaxy to the Milky Way about 160,000 light-years from Earth, the […] August 17, 2026 at 07:00AM via @nasabreakingnews https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/colorful-collage-of-tarantula-nebula/

Hubble Solves Merger Mystery From Milky Way’s Early Years New Hubble data shows definitive evidence of a dwarf galaxy merging with the young Milky Way in the earliest phases of its evolution. August 17, 2026 at 07:00AM via @nasabreakingnews https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/hubble-solves-merger-mystery-from-milky-ways-early-years/

NASA Challenge Tests Wheel Designs for Moon Base Mobility As NASA prepares to establish the Moon Base, advancing surface mobility will be key to helping crews and robotic systems travel farther across the lunar surface.  To help advance that capability, the Rock and Roll with NASA Challenge invited public innovators to design and build next-generation lunar rover wheels.  Five teams from 128 submissions and 49 countries advanced to the final phase of the […] August 17, 2026 at 07:00AM via @nasabreakingnews https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/johnson/nasa-challenge-tests-wheel-designs-for-moon-base-mobility/

Chasing Fire Clouds in Utah NASA aircraft are sampling smoke lofted high into the atmosphere by one of the most formidable cloud types in the sky—towering, smoke-infused pyrocumulonimbus. August 17, 2026 at 07:00AM via @nasabreakingnews https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/chasing-fire-clouds-in-utah/

APOD: 2026 August 17 – A Golden Corona Eclipse APOD Science APOD APOD: 2026 August 17 – A… Today’s APOD Archive Submissions Index Search Calendar RSS Education About Discuss   APOD Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. A Golden […] August 17, 2026 at 07:00AM via @nasabreakingnews https://science.nasa.gov/image-article/apod-2026-august-17-a-golden-corona-eclipse/

APOD: 2026 August 16 – Milky Way over Yellowstone APOD Science APOD APOD: 2026 August 16 – Milky… Today’s APOD Archive Submissions Index Search Calendar RSS Education About Discuss   APOD Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. Milky Way […] August 16, 2026 at 07:00AM via @nasabreakingnews https://science.nasa.gov/image-article/apod/apod-2026-august-16-milky-way-over-yellowstone/

APOD: 2026 August 15 – Bright Perseids from Sweden APOD Science APOD APOD: 2026 August 15 –… Today’s APOD Archive Submissions Index Search Calendar RSS Education About Discuss   APOD Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. Bright Perseids from […] August 15, 2026 at 07:00AM via @nasabreakingnews https://science.nasa.gov/image-article/apod/apod-2026-august-15-bright-perseids-from-sweden/

NASA Competition Invites Students to Help Imagine a Future Enabled by Lunar Technologies  NASA is asking U.S.-based collegiate teams to submit bold, original concepts to the 2027 edition of a student challenge focused on aerospace innovation that could help the agency envision a future on the Moon shaped by new technology.  The latest NASA Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts – Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) competition invites student teams to explore new operations paradigms and advance the technologies needed to […] August 14, 2026 at 07:00AM via @nasabreakingnews https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/stmd/prizes-challenges-crowdsourcing-program/nasa-competition-invites-students-to-help-imagine-a-future-enabled-by-lunar-technologies/

NASA Announces MAX POWER: America’s Newest Aerospace Expo, Airshow In honor of America’s historic 250th anniversary, NASA announced on Friday MAX POWER, a public exposition of American air and space innovation, Nov. 7 and Nov. 8, on and near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The multi-day, family-friendly event will showcase the next-generation aircraft, spacecraft, autonomous vehicles, and technologies that will help define […] August 14, 2026 at 07:00AM via @nasabreakingnews https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-announces-max-power-americas-newest-aerospace-expo-airshow/

Volunteer Develops Machine-Learning Tool to Identify Rare Clouds Certain kinds of clouds are misbehaving – appearing more often and lower in the sky than they used to. To help identify the factors influencing these changes, scientists have asked people around the world with cameras to submit fresh images of these clouds as a part of the NASA-supported Space Cloud Watch project. August 14, 2026 at 07:00AM via @nasabreakingnews https://science.nasa.gov/get-involved/citizen-science/volunteer-develops-machine-learning-tool-to-identify-rare-clouds/

NASA’s COFFIES Uses AI to Predict Storm-Causing Active Regions on Sun  As humanity looks to the Moon and stars for future exploration, predicting space weather — conditions in space primarily driven by the Sun — is more important than ever.  Now, a team of astrophysicists and data scientists with NASA’s COFFIES (Consequence Of Fields and Flows in the Interior and Exterior of the Sun) has developed a […] August 14, 2026 at 07:00AM via @nasabreakingnews https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/heliophysics/nasas-coffies-uses-ai-to-predict-storm-causing-active-regions-on-sun/

Total Solar Eclipse in Sunflower Field This composite image shows the progression of a total solar eclipse over San Millán de los Caballeros, Spain on, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026. A total solar eclipse swept across parts of Greenland, Iceland, northern Russia, the Atlantic Ocean, Spain, and a small corner of Portugal. A partial eclipse was visible in parts of the U.S., […] August 14, 2026 at 07:00AM via @nasabreakingnews https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/total-solar-eclipse-in-sunflower-field/

APOD: 2026 August 14 – Total Solar Eclipse from Greenland APOD Science APOD APOD: 2026 August 14 – Total… Today’s APOD Archive Submissions Index Search Calendar RSS Education About Discuss   APOD Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. Total Solar […] August 14, 2026 at 07:00AM via @nasabreakingnews https://science.nasa.gov/image-article/apod/apod-2026-august-14-total-solar-eclipse-from-greenland/

A Sunflower’s View of Totality The Moon slid between the Sun and Earth to produce a stunning celestial show visible from Spain in August 2026. August 14, 2026 at 07:00AM via @nasabreakingnews https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/a-sunflowers-view-of-totality/

NASA’s 737 Reveals New Paint NASA’s 737 aircraft was painted this week in Oklahoma as it progresses with modifications for use as a reduced gravity test aircraft for the agency. NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, took ownership of the aircraft from the United States Air Force in June.  The aircraft will perform lunar-gravity parabolic flights to validate […] August 13, 2026 at 07:00AM via @nasabreakingnews https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/nasas-737-reveals-new-paint/

For West Virginia Engineer, Home Is Where the Heart Is… and NASA, Too Growing up in Grafton, West Virginia, engrossed in Star Wars and all things science fiction, Fletcher Newell had an early interest in space exploration. That interest only grew when, in 2013, his fourth-grade class took a field trip to a nearby NASA facility he had not yet heard of – NASA’s Katherine Johnson Independent Verification […] August 13, 2026 at 07:00AM via @nasabreakingnews https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/goddard/for-west-virginia-engineer-home-is-where-the-heart-is-and-nasa-too/