NASA Langley Research Center: 2025 Year in Review
NASA Langley Research Center: 2025 Year in Review
The future of flight, space exploration, and science starts at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, where we have been advancing innovation for more than 100 years. Join us as we look back at NASA Langley’s achievements in 2025 that continued our storied legacy of pushing the boundaries of what is possible.
Langley Researchers Explore MARVL-ous Technology for Future Trips to Mars
As NASA returns astronauts to the Moon through the agency’s Artemis campaign in advance of human exploration of Mars, researchers at Langley are exploring technology that could significantly reduce travel time to the Red Planet. Modular Assembled Radiators for Nuclear Electric Propulsion Vehicles, or MARVL, would use robots for in-space assembly of elements needed to enable nuclear electric propulsion of future spacecraft, which could transform travel to deep space.
NASA Cameras Catch First-of-its-Kind Moon Close-up
The Moon was ready for its close-up in March, when cameras developed by a Langley team captured first-of-its-kind imagery of a lunar lander’s engine plumes interacting with the Moon’s surface during Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1. Information gathered from images like this is critical in helping NASA prepare for future crewed and uncrewed lunar landings.
Stellar Event Offers NASA Rare Look at Uranus
In April, planetary scientists at Langley led an international team of astronomers during a cosmic alignment three decades in the making: a rare opportunity to study Uranus. The one-hour event gave them a glimpse into the planet’s atmosphere, information that could enable future Uranus exploration efforts.
NASA Instrument Measures Wind for Improved Weather Forecasts
Severe or extreme weather can strike in a moment’s notice, and having the tools to accurately predict weather events can help save lives and property. Scientists at Langley have developed and are testing an instrument that uses laser technology to gather precise wind measurements, data that is a crucial element for accurate weather forecasting.
Langley Researchers Develop New Technique to Test Long, Flexible Booms
Gravity can create issues when testing materials for space, but Langley researchers have found a way to successfully use gravity and height when testing long composite booms. Testing these composite booms is important because they could support space exploration in a variety of ways, including being used to build structures that could support humans living and working on the Moon.
NASA Imaging Team Supports Missions to Advance Space Exploration, Science
A Langley team that specializes in capturing imagery-based engineering datasets from spacecraft during launch and reentry continued its work in 2025, including support of a European aerospace company’s test flight in June. Not only does the team support a variety of missions to advance the agency’s work, but they also collaborate with the private sector as NASA works to open space to more science, people, and opportunities.
NASA Instrument Uses Moonlight for Improved Space Measurements
One of the most challenging tasks in remote sensing from space is achieving required instrument calibration on-orbit. Langley scientists are addressing the challenge head on through the Arcstone mission, an instrument that launched in June and aims to establish the Moon as a cost-efficient, high-accuracy calibration reference. Once established, the new standard can be applied to past, present, and future spaceborne sensors and satellite constellations. Arcstone uses a spectrometer, a scientific instrument that measures and analyzes light, to measure lunar spectral reflectance.
NASA Mission Continues Monitoring Air We Breathe
The success of NASA’s Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution mission, or TEMPO, earned the mission an extension, meaning the work to monitor Earth’s air quality from 22,000 miles above the ground will continue through at least September 2026. The Langley-led mission launched in 2023 and is NASA’s first to use a spectrometer, a scientific instrument that measures and analyzes light, to gather hourly air quality data continuously over North America during daytime hours. The data gathered is distributed freely to the public, giving air quality forecasters, scientists, researchers, and your next-door neighbor access to quality information about the air we breathe down to the neighborhood level.
NASA Tests New, Innovative Tech to Enable Faster Launches at Lower Costs
NASA’s Athena Economical Payload Integration Cost mission, or Athena EPIC, launched in July with the goal to shape a future path to launch that saves taxpayers money and expedites access to space. Athena EPIC was the first NASA-led mission led to utilize HISat technology, small satellites engineered to aggregate, share resources, and conform to different sizes and shapes. Langley’s scientists designed and built the Athena sensor with spare parts from NASA’s CERES (Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System) mission to gather top of atmosphere measurements. Athena EPIC demonstrates a novel way to launch Earth-observing instruments into orbit quicker and more economically.
Drop Test at Langley Offers Research, Data for Potential Air Taxi Designs
The future of air travel includes the safe integration of drones and air taxis into our airspace for passenger transport, cargo delivery, and public service capabilities. That is why NASA is investigating and testing potential air taxi materials and designs to help the aviation industry better understand how those materials behave under impact. Data collected from a drop test at Langley’s Landing and Impact Research Facility in June will help in the development of safety regulations for advanced air mobility aircraft, leading to safer designs.
Langley Wind Tunnel Tests Help Support Advanced Air Mobility Aircraft Development
NASA advanced the future of air taxis and autonomous cargo drones by testing a 7-foot wing model in Langley’s 14-by-22-Foot Subsonic Wind Tunnel. This effort produced data on critical propeller-wing interactions, as well as data relevant to cruise, hover, and transition conditions for advanced air mobility aircraft. The results will help validate next-generation design tools and accelerate safe, reliable development across the advanced air mobility industry.
NASA Tests Air Taxi Tech for Future Aircraft Development
The lack of publicly available engineering and flight data to help address technical barriers in the design and development of new electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft is a challenge for researchers and engineers. That is why Langley researchers are using a research aircraft that provides real-world data, obtained through wind tunnel and flight tests, to help fill the information gap and check the accuracy of computer models for flight dynamics and controls. Making this data available to all is a key step in transforming the way we fly and safely integrating new aircraft into our nation’s airspace.
NASA Material Flies High for Study of Long-Term Effects of Space
A material from NASA Langley is riding high as it orbits the Earth aboard a United States Space Force test vehicle, giving researchers a better understanding of how the material responds to long-duration exposure to the harsh vacuum of space. The strap material is a part of a Langley-developed aeroshell to protect spacecraft re-entering Earth’s atmosphere or to ensure their safe landing on other celestial bodies, such as Mars. Understanding how extended exposure to space affects the material is important as NASA prepares to send humans beyond the Moon.
NASA Flights Study Impacts of Space Weather on Travelers
Data gathered during a Langley-led airborne science campaign late this summer could help protect air travelers on Earth and future space travelers to the Moon, Mars, and beyond from the health risks associated with radiation exposure. NASA’s Space Weather Aviation Radiation (SWXRAD) aircraft flight campaign took place in Greenland and measured the radiation dose level to air travelers from cosmic radiation. Researchers are using the information to enhance a modeling system that offers real-time global maps of the hazardous radiation in the atmosphere and creates exposure predictions for aircraft and spacecraft.
NASA’s Dragonfly Completes Wind Tunnel Tests at Langley
As NASA returns astronauts to the Moon through the Artemis campaign in preparation for human exploration of Mars, the agency also has its sights set on Saturn, specifically Saturn’s moon Titan. NASA’s Dragonfly, a car-sized rotorcraft set to launch no earlier than 2028, will explore Titan and try to discover how life began. This fall, engineers placed a full-scale test model representing half of the Dragonfly lander in Langley’s Transonic Dynamics Tunnel to evaluate how its rotor system performed in Titan-like conditions. The data will be integral in developing the rotorcraft’s flight plans and navigation software as it investigates multiple landing sites on Titan.
NASA Offers Science, Technology, and Expertise During Disaster Response
In response to severe weather that impacted more than 10 states in November, the NASA Disasters Response Coordination System (DRCS) activated to support national partners. The DRCS is headquartered at Langley. NASA worked closely with the National Weather Service and the Federal Emergency Management Agency serving the central and southeastern U.S. to provide satellite data and expertise that help communities better prepare, respond, and recover.
NASA’s X-59 Takes Flight
In October, NASA’s Quesst mission celebrated a major milestone – the X-59 quiet supersonic one-of-a-kind research aircraft flew for the first time, a historic moment for aviation. The hard work, talent, and innovation of NASA engineers and project team members, including many based at NASA Langley, made this achievement possible. One of the notable traits of the X-59 is the eXternal Vision System (XVS) which allows the test pilots to safely maneuver the skies without a forward-facing window. This unique supersonic design feature was developed and tested at NASA Langley.
The X-59’s first flight was a major step toward quiet supersonic flight over land, which could revolutionize air travel.
What a Blast! Langley Begins Plume-Surface Interaction Tests
A team at NASA Langley is firing engine plumes into simulated lunar soil because as the United States returns to the Moon, both through NASA’s Artemis campaign and the commercialization of space, researchers need to understand the hazards that may occur when a lander’s engines blast away at the lunar dust, soil, and rocks.
Langley Inspires Through Community Engagement, Educational Opportunities
Langley connected with communities across Virginia and beyond to share the center’s work and impact, and inspire the next generation of explorers, scientists, and researchers. Thousands of spectators enjoyed hands-on activities and exhibits during the Air Power over Hampton Roads air show at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Hampton, Virginia, where NASA Langley’s aviation past, present, and future were on full display. More than 2,300 students from across the nation eagerly participated in Langley’s 2025 Student Art Contest, and shared their artistic spin on the theme, “Our Wonder Changes the World.” Langley and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University announced an agreement in September that will leverage Langley’s aerospace expertise and Embry-Riddle’s specialized educational programs and research to drive innovation in aerospace, research, education, and technology, while simultaneously developing a highly skilled workforce for the future of space exploration and advanced air mobility.
Langley looks forward to another year of successes and advancements in 2026, as we continue to make the seemingly impossible, possible.
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