2023 in Review: Highlights from NASA in Silicon Valley

2023 in Review: Highlights from NASA in Silicon Valley

It’s been another great year at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. Join us as we review some of the highlights of the science, engineering, and innovation from 2023.

Announcing a New Innovation Hub Planned for NASA Research Park at Ames

NASA

Berkeley Space Center is a proposed new campus of the University of California, Berkeley, and an innovation hub for research and advances in astronautics, aeronautics, quantum computing, climate studies, and more. Planning to join Ames as a tenant of our NASA Research Park in Silicon Valley, the new campus aims to bring together researchers from the private sector, academia, and the government to tackle the complex scientific, technological, and societal issues facing our world.

Mapping Water Distribution on the Moon’s South Pole

NASA

Using data collected by the now-retired Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), researchers shared the first detailed, wide-area map of water distribution on the Moon. Understanding how much water lies beneath the lunar surface, and how it’s distributed, will help guide future missions like VIPER, as well as prospective sites for human habitats.

Colliding Moons May Have Formed Saturn’s Rings

NASA

New research suggests Saturn’s icy moons and rings were formed by a collision a few hundred million years ago, creating debris that gathered into the planet’s dusty, icy rings or clumped together to form moons.

NASA and Airlines Partner to Save Fuel and Reduce Delays

Computer screens at the Southwest Airlines Network Operations Control Center in Dallas, Texas, display NASA's Digital Information Platform Collaborative Digital Departure Reroute (CDDR) tool.
NASA/James Blair

This year, NASA partnered with five major U.S. airlines on an air traffic decision-making tool that saved more than 24,000 pounds of jet fuel in 2022 for flights departing from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Dallas Love Field Airport. Partners include American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines.

NASA Leaders View Climate Science, Wildfire Innovations at Ames

A man in a gray suit with back to camera talks with a woman in a dark suit next to a display of drone components: two orange conical pieces, a white component with a Swift Engineering logo, and a gray piece with NASA logo.
NASA/Dominic Hart

NASA’s top leadership, industry experts, and legislative officials visited Ames in April to learn about about the center’s climate science efforts and innovations in aeronautics that will help scientists and engineers better understand climate change and mitigate natural disasters like wildland fires.

Starling Takes Flight

Blue Canyon Technologies/NASA

In July NASA’s Starling mission, managed at Ames, launched four CubeSats into low-Earth orbit to test robotic swarm technologies for space. You can track mission milestones via the Small Satellite Missions blog, and follow the mission live in NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System 3D visualization.

NASA’s First Robotic Moon Rover

Engineers in white suits assemble and test NASA's first robotic Moon rover in a clean room at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
NASA/Robert Markowitz

This year engineers began assembling NASA’s first robotic Moon rover, VIPER — short for the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover — and the agency is giving the public a front row seat to watch along as the rover takes shape. While individual components, such as the rover’s science instruments, lights, and wheels, were assembled and tested, the VIPER team also completed software development, mission planning, and tricky tests of the rover’s ability to drive off the Astrobotic Griffin lunar lander and onto the lunar surface.

Bringing Home Ancient Space Rocks

NASA/Keegan Barber

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission – short for the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer – returned to Earth in Sept. 2023, bringing with it extraterrestrial rocks and dust that it scooped up from an asteroid estimated to be 4.5 billion years old. Ames contributed to the spacecraft’s heat shield, anti-contamination systems, post-landing sample curation, and more.

Preparing to Send Yeast to the Moon’s Surface for Astronaut Health

A person holds a small plastic cartridge with electronics on one side.
NASA/Dominic Hart

NASA’s plans to explore the Moon and eventually go to Mars will bring humans deeper into space for longer duration missions than ever before. These extended missions beyond low Earth orbit pose certain health risks to astronauts. The Lunar Explorer Instrument for Space Biology Applications team is preparing an experiment to study yeast’s biological response to the lunar environment to help understand and mitigate health risks for astronauts.

X-59 Team Moves Toward First Flight in 2024

The X-59 Quesst aircraft is rolled out at Lockheed Martin’s facility in Palmdale, California. Photo credit: Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin/Gary Tice

This year, NASA’s X-59 team installed the finishing touches to the aircraft’s tail structure and moved it from its assembly facility to the flight line to perform structural testing. The X-59 quiet supersonic aircraft will take its first flight in 2024.

Celebrating a Stellar Year for Webb Telescope Science

A crowded region of space, full of stars and colorful clouds, more than twice as wide as it is tall. A funnel-shaped region of space appears darker than its surroundings with fewer stars. It is wider at the top edge of the image, narrowing towards the bottom. Toward the narrow end of this dark region a small clump of red and white appears to shoot out streamers upward and left. A large, bright cyan-colored area surrounds the lower portion of the funnel-shaped dark area, forming a rough U shape. The cyan-colored area has needle-like, linear structures and becomes more diffuse in the center of the image. The right side of the image is dominated by clouds of orange and red, with a purple haze.
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, and S. Crowe (University of Virginia)

The James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera instrument produced a feast for the eyes with a view into a star-forming region, named Sagittarius C, in the heart of the Milky Way. The image reveals a portion of the dense center of our galaxy in unprecedented detail, including never-before-seen features astronomers have yet to explain.

Supercomputer Simulations Lead to Air and Space Innovations

NASA

Simulations and models developed using technology at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing Facility (NAS) help researchers and engineers develop innovations in air and space. Modeling turbofan engines could lead to designs that reduce engine noise and improve efficiency by understanding where noise is generated inside the machine.

S-MODE Sails the Seas and Soars through the Sky

A field researcher stands at the edge of a boat overlooking the edge toward the ocean surface. She wears a backpack full of gear and holds an instrument facing the ocean.
NASA/Avery Snyder

The Sub-Mesoscale Ocean Dynamics Experiment (S-MODE) logged its final field expedition, and they took a team from the TODAY Show along for the ride. S-MODE combined airborne instruments, research ships, and autonomous ocean gliders to get an unprecedented look at how gas and heat exchange at the ocean’s surface impacts Earth’s climate.

From Intern to Astronaut, and Back to Ames

Astronaut Jessica Watkins speaking at Ames Feb. 28, 2023.
NASA/Dominic Hart

NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins, who was once an intern at Ames, returned to the Bay Area in Feb. 2023 to visit with local elementary schools and speak with Ames employees. Watkins started her career with NASA at Ames, where she conducted research on Mars soil simulant supporting the Phoenix Mars Lander mission.

Second Gentleman Joins East Bay Kids for STEM Activities

Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff participates in a “Make a Cloud” demonstration with students and NASA astronaut Dr. Yvonne Cagle at the East Oakland Youth Development Center in Oakland, California.
NASA/Dominic Hart

Nearly 100 East Bay kids and their families got to experience the thrill of “launching a rocket” and “making clouds” at a fun-filled STEM event hosted in honor of Women’s History Month at the East Oakland Youth Development Center in Oakland, California, in March 2023. Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff, NASA Ames Research Center Director Dr. Eugene Tu, and NASA astronaut Dr. Yvonne Cagle joined kids at the Manzanita Community School for hands-on activities and to distribute approximately 500 STEM Artemis Learning Lunchboxes aimed to inspire the Artemis generation to learn about NASA’s Artemis Program.

Top Leaders in Our Midst Hailed from the White House and Australia

NASA/Dominic Hart

In January, U.S. President Joe Biden landed at Moffett Federal Airfield, at Ames, on his way to visit storm-damaged regions in the state. Research conducted at our Silicon Valley center could help predict extreme climate-related weather events. Later in the spring, Vice President Kamala Harris arrived at Moffett before delivering remarks at a local company, and leaders of the Australian Space Agency visited Ames to learn about the center’s missions supporting NASA’s Artemis program, including the VIPER Moon rover, which will launch to the lunar South Pole in late 2024.

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Arezu Sarvestani

2023 in Review: Artemis II Crew Visits Kennedy

2023 in Review: Artemis II Crew Visits Kennedy

Four astronauts wearing blue flight suits stand inside a building, with the Orion crew module behind them. They are, from left, Jeremy Hansen, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Christina Koch. Glover is a Black man, and Koch is a White woman. Orion is cone-shaped, with a flat top. It is black and has yellow wiring on it, as well as blue dots around some panels.
NASA / Kim Shiflett

On Aug. 8, 2023, Artemis II crew members (from left) Jeremy Hansen, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Christina Koch took a photo in front of their Orion crew module at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Announcing the crew and continuing work on the Space Launch System rocket and Orion are part of the significant steps taken this year toward the agency’s goal of landing the first woman and first person of color on the Moon.

Look back on NASA’s achievements in 2023.

Image Credit: NASA

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Monika Luabeya

NASA’s Space Station Laser Comm Terminal Achieves First Link

NASA’s Space Station Laser Comm Terminal Achieves First Link

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NASA’s Space Station Laser Comm Terminal Achieves First Link

NASA’s ILLUMA-T payload at Goddard Space Flight Center fully tested and integrated prior to its delivery to Kennedy Space Center.

Credits:
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

A NASA technology experiment on the International Space Station completed its first laser link with an in-orbit laser relay system on Dec. 5, 2023. Together, they complete NASA’s first two-way, end-to-end laser relay system.

NASA’s LCRD (Laser Communications Relay Demonstration) and the new space station demonstration, ILLUMA-T (Integrated LCRD Low Earth Orbit User Modem and Amplifier Terminal), successfully exchanged data for the first time. LCRD and ILLUMA-T are demonstrating how a user mission, in this case the space station, can benefit from a laser communications relay located in geosynchronous orbit.

NASA’s ILLUMA-T payload communicating with LCRD over laser signals
NASA’s ILLUMA-T payload communicating with LCRD over laser signals.
NASA / Dave Ryan

Laser communications, also known known as optical communications, uses infrared light rather than traditional radio waves to send and receive signals. The tighter wavelength of infrared light allows spacecraft to pack more data into each transmission. Using laser communications greatly increases the efficiency of data transfer and can lead to a faster pace of scientific discoveries.

A quad like graphic showing the Benefits of Laser Communications. In order: Efficient, Lighter, Secure, Flexible.
The benefits of laser communications: more efficient, lighter systems, increased security, and more flexible ground systems.
NASA / Dave Ryan

On Nov. 9, NASA’s SpaceX 29th commercial resupply services mission launched cargo and new science experiments, including ILLUMA-T, to the space station. Following its arrival, the payload was installed onto the station’s Japanese Experiment Module-Exposed Facility.

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and uncrewed Dragon spacecraft lift off from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39A for NASA and SpaceX's 29th resupply services mission to the International Space Station.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon spacecraft lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday, Nov. 9, 2023, on the company’s 29th commercial resupply services mission for the agency to the International Space Station. Liftoff was at 8:28 p.m. EST.
SpaceX

ILLUMA-T and LCRD are a part of the NASA Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program’s effort to demonstrate how laser communications technologies can significantly benefit science and exploration missions.

“ILLUMA-T’s first link with LCRD – known as first light – is the latest demonstration proving that laser communications is the future.” said Dr. Jason Mitchell, director of SCaN’s Advanced Communications and Navigation Technology division. “Laser communications will not only return more data from science missions, but could serve as NASA’s critical, two-way link to keep astronauts connected to Earth as they explore the Moon, Mars, and beyond.”

NASA’s ILLUMA-T payload achieved First Light with LCRD. In this video, Matt Magsamen explains the First Light milestone.

Shortly after space station installation, operation engineers began conducting on-orbit testing to ensure the ILLUMA-T payload operated nominally. Now, it is communicating with LCRD, a relay launched in 2021 that has conducted over 300 experiment configurations to help NASA refine laser communications technologies. LCRD and ILLUMA-T are exchanging data at 1.2 gigabits-per-second.

“We have demonstrated that we can overcome the technical challenges for successful space communications using laser communications. We are now performing operational demonstrations and experiments that will allow us to optimize our infusion of proven technology into our missions to maximize our exploration and science,” said David Israel, a NASA space communications and navigation architect.

NASA's Laser Communications Roadmap. This image includes the 2013 LLCD mission, the 2021 LCRD mission, the 2022 TBIRD mission, the 2023 DSOC mission, the 2023 ILLUMA-T mission, and the 2024 O2O mission.
NASA’s Laser Communications Roadmap: Demonstrating laser communications capabilities on multiple missions in a variety of space regimes.
NASA/Dave Ryan

The LCRD experiments are conducted with industry, academia, and other government agencies. ILLUMA-T is now LCRD’s first in-space user experiment. NASA is still accepting experiments to work with LCRD. Interested parties should contact lcrd-experiments@nasa.onmicrosoft.com for more information.

ILLUMA-T is funded by NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The payload is managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Partners include the International Space Station program office at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, Massachusetts.

For more information: https://nasa.gov/scan

About the Author

Katherine Schauer

Katherine Schauer

Katherine Schauer is a writer for the Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program office and covers emerging technologies, commercialization efforts, exploration activities, and more.

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Dec 13, 2023

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NASA’s Webb Identifies Tiniest Free-Floating Brown Dwarf

NASA’s Webb Identifies Tiniest Free-Floating Brown Dwarf

6 Min Read

NASA’s Webb Identifies Tiniest Free-Floating Brown Dwarf

Image showing wispy pink-purple filaments and a scattering of stars.

Webb Telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera shows the central portion of the star cluster IC 348.

Credits:
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, K. Luhman (Penn State University), and C. Alves de Oliveira (ESA)

Brown dwarfs are objects that straddle the dividing line between stars and planets. They form like stars, growing dense enough to collapse under their own gravity, but they never become dense and hot enough to begin fusing hydrogen and turn into a star. At the low end of the scale, some brown dwarfs are comparable with giant planets, weighing just a few times the mass of Jupiter.

What are the smallest stars?

Astronomers are trying to determine the smallest object that can form in a star-like manner. A team using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has identified the new record-holder: a tiny, free-floating brown dwarf with only three to four times the mass of Jupiter.

“One basic question you’ll find in every astronomy textbook is, what are the smallest stars? That’s what we’re trying to answer,” explained lead author Kevin Luhman of Pennsylvania State University.

Search Strategy

To locate this newfound brown dwarf, Luhman and his colleague, Catarina Alves de Oliveira, chose to study the star cluster IC 348, located about 1,000 light-years away in the Perseus star-forming region. This cluster is young, only about 5 million years old. As a result, any brown dwarfs would still be relatively bright in infrared light, glowing from the heat of their formation.

The team first imaged the center of the cluster using Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) to identify brown dwarf candidates from their brightness and colors. They followed up on the most promising targets using Webb’s NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) microshutter array.

Image: Star Cluster IC438

Image showing wispy pink-purple filaments and a scattering of stars.
This image from the NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope shows the central portion of the star cluster IC 348. The wispy curtains filling the image are interstellar material reflecting the light from the cluster’s stars – what is known as a reflection nebula. The material also includes carbon-containing molecules known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs. Winds from the most massive stars in the cluster may help sculpt the large loop seen on the right side of the field of view.
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, K. Luhman (Penn State University), and C. Alves de Oliveira (ESA)

Webb’s infrared sensitivity was crucial, allowing the team to detect fainter objects than ground-based telescopes. In addition, Webb’s sharp vision enabled them to determine which red objects were pinpoint brown dwarfs and which were blobby background galaxies.

This winnowing process led to three intriguing targets weighing three to eight Jupiter masses, with surface temperatures ranging from 1,500 to 2,800 degrees Fahrenheit (830 to 1,500 degrees Celsius). The smallest of these weighs just three to four times Jupiter, according to computer models.

Explaining how such a small brown dwarf could form is theoretically challenging. A heavy and dense cloud of gas has plenty of gravity to collapse and form a star. However, because of its weaker gravity, it should be more difficult for a small cloud to collapse to form a brown dwarf, and that is especially true for brown dwarfs with the masses of giant planets.

“It’s pretty easy for current models to make giant planets in a disk around a star,” said Catarina Alves de Oliveira of ESA (European Space Agency), principal investigator on the observing program. “But in this cluster, it would be unlikely this object formed in a disk, instead forming like a star, and three Jupiter masses is 300 times smaller than our Sun. So we have to ask, how does the star formation process operate at such very, very small masses?”

A Mystery Molecule

In addition to giving clues about the star-formation process, tiny brown dwarfs also can help astronomers better understand exoplanets. The least massive brown dwarfs overlap with the largest exoplanets; therefore, they would be expected to have some similar properties. However, a free-floating brown dwarf is easier to study than a giant exoplanet since the latter is hidden within the glare of its host star.

Two of the brown dwarfs identified in this survey show the spectral signature of an unidentified hydrocarbon, or molecule containing both hydrogen and carbon atoms. The same infrared signature was detected by NASA’s Cassini mission in the atmospheres of Saturn and its moon Titan. It has also been seen in the interstellar medium, or gas between stars.

“This is the first time we’ve detected this molecule in the atmosphere of an object outside our solar system,” explained Alves de Oliveira. “Models for brown dwarf atmospheres don’t predict its existence. We’re looking at objects with younger ages and lower masses than we ever have before, and we’re seeing something new and unexpected.”

Image: Three Brown Dwarfs

Image of wispy pink-purple hair-like filaments and a scattering of stars, with three image details pulled out in square boxes stacked vertically along the right.
This image from the NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope shows the central portion of the star cluster IC 348. Astronomers combed the cluster in search of tiny, free-floating brown dwarfs: objects too small to be stars but larger than most planets. They found three brown dwarfs that are less than eight times the mass of Jupiter, which are circled in the main image and shown in the detailed pullouts at right. The smallest weighs just three to four times Jupiter, challenging theories for star formation.
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, K. Luhman (Penn State University), and C. Alves de Oliveira (ESA)

Brown Dwarf or Rogue Planet?

Since the objects are well within the mass range of giant planets, it raises the question of whether they are actually brown dwarfs, or if they’re really rogue planets that were ejected from planetary systems. While the team can’t rule out the latter, they argue that they are far more likely to be a brown dwarf than an ejected planet.

An ejected giant planet is unlikely for two reasons. First, such planets are uncommon in general compared to planets with smaller masses. Second, most stars are low-mass stars, and giant planets are especially rare among those stars. As a result, it’s unlikely that most of the stars in IC 348 (which are low-mass stars) are capable of producing such massive planets. In addition, since the cluster is only 5 million years old, there probably hasn’t been enough time for giant planets to form and then be ejected from their systems.

The discovery of more such objects will help clarify their status. Theories suggest that rogue planets are more likely to be found in the outskirts of a star cluster, so expanding the search area may identify them if they exist within IC 348.

Future work may also include longer surveys that can detect fainter, smaller objects. The short survey conducted by the team was expected to detect objects as small as twice the mass of Jupiter. Longer surveys could easily reach one Jupiter mass.

These observations were taken as part of Guaranteed Time Observation program 1229. The results were published in the Astronomical Journal.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.

Downloads

Download full resolution images for this article from the Space Telescope Science Institute.

Read/Download the research results released in The Astronomical Journal.

Right click the images in this article to open a larger version in a new tab/window.

Media Contacts

Laura Betzlaura.e.betz@nasa.gov, Rob Gutrorob.gutro@nasa.gov
NASA’s  Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Hannah Braun hbraun@stsci.edu , Christine Pulliamcpulliam@stsci.edu
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.

Related Information

Lifecycle of Stars

More Webb News – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/latestnews/

More Webb Images – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/multimedia/images/

Webb Mission Page – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/

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6 Min Read

NASA’s Webb Identifies Tiniest Free-Floating Brown Dwarf

Image showing wispy pink-purple filaments and a scattering of stars.

This image from the NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope shows the central portion of the star cluster IC 348. The wispy curtains filling the image are interstellar material reflecting the light from the cluster’s stars – what is known as a reflection nebula. The material also includes carbon-containing molecules known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs. Winds from the most massive stars in the cluster may help sculpt the large loop seen on the right side of the field of view.

Credits:
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, K. Luhman (Penn State University), and C. Alves de Oliveira (ESA)

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Steve Sabia

NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Top 20 Stories of 2023

NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Top 20 Stories of 2023

Here’s a look back at 2023’s most significant events at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida:

JANUARY
Day of Remembrance Marks 20th Anniversary of Columbia Tragedy 

NASA senior management and guests paid tribute to the crew members of space shuttle Columbia, as well as other astronauts who perished in the line of duty, during the agency’s Annual Day of Remembrance held at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.   

NASA’s Day of Remembrance
NASA/Kim Shiflett

JANUARY
Facilities, Spacecraft Prepped for Artemis II Mission 

Teams with Exploration Ground Systems began upgrading and modifying facilities at Kennedy to support Artemis II, paving the way for human exploration to the Moon and Mars. Artemis II will be the first crewed flight of the agency’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft.   

NASA’s mobile launcher, carried atop the crawler-transporter 2, arrives at the entrance to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
NASA’s mobile launcher arrives at the Vehicle Assembly Building
NASA/Ben Smegelsky

FEBRUARY
‘Famous’ Eagles Build New Nest at Kennedy

When storms badly damaged their original nest at the Florida spaceport, a well-known pair of American bald eagles built a new home nearby along Kennedy Parkway, providing a magnificent view of the majestic birds in their natural habitat.   

A southern bald eagle occupies its new nest
NASA/Ben Smegelsky

FEBRUARY
New Orion Test Article Makes a Splash

NASA’s Landing and Recovery team completed a rigorous round of testing on the new mock-up of the agency’s Orion spacecraft. This test article will be used to train NASA, Navy, and other Department of Defense personnel to retrieve astronauts from the Pacific Ocean after splashing down on Artemis Moon missions.   

The Crew Module Test Article in action
NASA/Kim Shiflett

MARCH
Crew-6 Lights up Florida Early-Morning Sky

A Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft roared off of Kennedy’s Launch Pad 39A at 12:34 a.m. EST March 2, kickstarting NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission. The launch carried NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, along with UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev to the International Space Station for a six-month science expedition mission.  

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 on the launch pad
NASA/Joel Kowsky

MARCH
Crew-5 Comes Back to Earth

NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Koichi Wakata, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina splashed down safely in the SpaceX Dragon Endurance in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Tampa, Florida, at 9:02 p.m. EST March 11, returning to Earth after 157 days in space.  

Crew-5 astronauts return to Earth
NASA/Joel Kowsky

MARCH
CRS-27 Launches to the Space Station

At 8:30 p.m. EDT March 14, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket rumbled off the pad at Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A, starting Dragon’s two-day journey to the International Space Station to deliver new science investigations, supplies, and equipment for Expedition 68 and 69 crews aboard the orbiting laboratory.

CRS-27 liftoff
SpaceX

MARCH
Swamp Works Celebrates a Decade of Discoveries

In 2023, Swamp Works, which drew its inspiration from Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works in California, celebrated 10 years. The facility is devoted to innovation and leveraging skills and capabilities across the center, focusing on granular mechanics and regolith operations, applied chemistry, electrostatics and surface physics, advanced materials and systems, applied physics, and corrosion technology.  

ISRU Pilot Excavator testing inside Swamp Works
NASA/Frank Michaux

MAY
Astronauts Complete Second All-Private Mission

Four private astronauts completed a successful Axiom Mission 2, the second all-private astronaut mission to the space station. Axiom Space astronauts Peggy Whitson, John Shoffner, Ali Alqarni, and Rayyanah Barnawi spent 10 days on the orbiting laboratory after lifting off at 5:37 p.m. EDT on May 21 from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center.

The Axiom Mission-2 and Expedition 69 crew members aboard the International Space Station
NASA

JUNE
Solar Arrays Delivered on CRS-28

Several thousand pounds of important research, crew supplies and hardware, including new solar arrays, were delivered to the space station following the June 5 launch of SpaceX’s 28th commercial resupply services mission for NASA from Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A.  

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A in Florida.
CRS-28 liftoff
SpaceX

JULY
Artemis Crews Get New Ride to the Pad

Teams from manufacturer Canoo Technologies Inc. of Torrance, California, delivered three specially designed, fully electric, environmentally friendly crew transportation vehicles to Kennedy on July 11. The vehicles will take Artemis crews on the final Earth-bound leg of their journey to the Moon before boarding their rocket and spacecraft.  

Fully electric, environmentally friendly crew transportation vehicles arrived at Kennedy
NASA/Isaac Watson

AUGUST
Crew-7 Carries International Crew to Space Station   

A Dragon spacecraft, named Endurance, launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket, carrying NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov to the space station on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 mission. Liftoff occurred at 3:27 a.m. EDT on Saturday, Aug. 26.  

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7
NASA/Joel Kowsky

AUGUST
Artemis II Crew Meets Their Ride Around the Moon 

Inside the high bay of Kennedy’s Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building, Artemis II NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen visited the Orion spacecraft that will take them on a 10-day journey around the Moon as the first Artemis crew.  

Artemis II crew members view their Orion spacecraft
NASA/Kim Shiflett

SEPTEMBER
Crew-6 Completes Six-Month Mission  

NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, along with UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev splashed down safely in SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, named Endeavour, in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, at 12:17 a.m. EDT Monday, Sept. 24, after 186 days in space.  

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 astronauts return to Earth
NASA/Kim Shiflett

SEPTEMBER
Artemis II Astronauts Conduct Launch-Day Demonstration 

NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, practiced the procedures they will undergo on launch day to prepare for their mission around the Moon. The Artemis II crew and teams with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program successfully completed the critical ground system tests at Kennedy on Sept. 20. 

Artemis II astronauts at Launch Pad 39B
NASA/Frank Michaux

OCTOBER
Psyche Launches to a Metal Asteroid

NASA’s Psyche spacecraft began its six-year voyage to an asteroid of the same name, a metal-rich world that could tell us more about the formation of rocky planets, after successfully launching aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy on Oct. 13.

Psyche mission lifts off
NASA/Aubrey Gemignani

OCTOBER
Progress Continues Toward NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight to Station 

NASA and Boeing are working to complete the agency’s verification and validation activities ahead of the Starliner spacecraft’s first flight with astronauts to the International Space Station. While Boeing is targeting March 2024 to have the spacecraft ready for flight, teams decided during a launch manifest evaluation that a launch in April will better accommodate upcoming crew rotations and cargo resupply missions this spring.  

The Starliner team works on module for NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test
Boeing/John Grant

OCTOBER
Sea Turtle Nests Set Kennedy Record  

A record number of sea turtle nests were built on the undisturbed beaches of the Florida spaceport in 2023. Biologists counted 13,935 sea turtle nests along Kennedy’s shoreline during the 2023 nesting season, 639 more nests than 2022 and the most found on center in a single year since record-keeping began in 1984.  

Sea turtle hatchlings make their way from their nests to the Atlantic Ocean at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Sea turtle hatchlings at Kennedy Space Center in Florida
NASA

NOVEMBER
NASA, SpaceX Launch New Science, Hardware to Space Station 

Following a successful launch of NASA’s SpaceX 29th commercial resupply mission from Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A, scientific experiments and technology demonstrations – including studies of enhanced optical communications and measurement of atmospheric waves – were delivered to the space station.  

The Integrated LCRD Low Earth Orbit User Modem and Amplifier Terminal loaded into Dragon’s unpressurized spacecraft trunk
SpaceX

DECEMBER
Kennedy Celebrates 25 Years of International Space Station Science

NASA Kennedy marked a quarter of a century of assembling and processing components and science missions for the International Space Station. In December 1998, the Unity module of the International Space Station was carried to orbit on STS-88 from Kennedy, helping kick off a 25-year legacy that includes over 3700 science investigations conducted to date on the orbiting laboratory by 273 people from 21 countries.   

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Jim Cawley