A SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft carrying over 5,000 pounds of science, supplies, and hardware approaches the International Space Station for an automated docking on Aug. 25, 2025.
NASA
NASA’s live coverage of undocking and departure of the agency’s SpaceX 33rd Commercial Resupply Services mission is underway on NASA+. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms.
The unpiloted SpaceX Dragon spacecraft will undock at 12:05 p.m. EST from the forward-facing port of the International Space Station’s Harmony module and fire its thrusters to move safely away from the orbiting complex. NASA will not stream splashdown but will post updates on its space station blog.
The Dragon spacecraft supporting the mission also introduced a new capability to reboost the space station, helping maintain its altitude and counter atmospheric drag, which is critical for safe operations and the long-term sustainability of the orbital complex. During its time docked to the station, Dragon performed six reboosts — five in 2025 and a final maneuver on Jan. 23 — before preparations for its departure began.
Loaded with thousands of pounds of crew supplies, science experiments, and equipment, the spacecraft arrived at the station Aug. 25, 2025. It launched a day earlier on a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida for NASA’s 33rd SpaceX Commercial Resupply Services mission.
With a simple motion, a jack-in-the-box-like spring designed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory showed the potential of additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, to cut costs and complexity for futuristic space antennas. Called JPL Additive Compliant Canister (JACC), the spring deployed on the small commercial spacecraft Proteus Space’s Mercury One on Feb. 3, 2026. An onboard camera captured this video of the spring popping out of its container as the spacecraft passed over the Pacific Ocean in low Earth orbit.
Figure A
Figure A is a still image of JACC after deployment, taken above Antarctica.
JACC is one of two JPL payloads on the spacecraft that are demonstrating new technologies designed to take up reduced volume while precisely deploying antennas on future orbiters. JACC’s success demonstrates that 3D-printed mechanisms can be built faster, cheaper, and with less complexity than traditionally fabricated space hardware.
Printed out of titanium, JACC uses three times fewer parts than similar structures: Combined into a single part is a hinge, panel, compression spring, and two torsion springs. Weighing just over 1 pound (498 grams), it is about 4 inches (10 centimeters) on each side. The spring, which extends from a packed height of just over 1 inch to about 6 inches (3 centimeters to 15 centimeters), is modeled after communication antennas commonly used on satellites.
The second demonstration payload aboard Mercury One is the Solid Underconstrained Multi-Frequency (SUM) Deployable Antenna for Earth Science. Together with JACC, the two payloads go by the name Prototype Actuated Nonlinear Deployables Offering Repeatable Accuracy Stowed on a Box (PANDORASBox). They were both conceived, built, tested, and delivered for flight by JPL in less than one year on minimal budgets.
Mercury One launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Nov. 28, 2025, as part of SpaceX’s Transporter-15 mission.
JPL internal research development funds supported JACC, as did NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO).
For over 50 years, the Landsat program has provided the longest continuous satellite record of Earth’s land surface from space. Landsat 9, launched in 2021, is the latest mission in this remarkable legacy — building on decades of Earth observation with upgraded technology, including enhanced radiometric resolution, improved signal-to-noise performance, and polar night thermal imaging. Working in tandem with Landsat 8 to map the entire planet every eight days, Landsat 9’s data is being fused with the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 satellites to enable near-daily global observations, delivering sharper, more detailed observations that help scientists and communities monitor a changing planet.
VIDEO SCRIPT
It started over 50 years ago with an idea:
A satellite, orbiting Earth, observing our planet’s surface, gathering data, day in, day out.
That idea gave birth to the Landsat program, a partnership between NASA and the US Geological Survey, the longest continuous record of Earth’s land surface from space.
Landsat 1’s launch in 1972 was the first link in a chain of 8 satellites, each one building upon the last.
And today, Landsat 9 carries that legacy forward.
Since its launch in 2021, Landsat 9 helping collect more scenes per day than any previous Landsat satellite mission. collects as many scenes per day as Landsats 5 & 7 combined.
Working in tandem with Landsat 8, the pair now collect nearly 1,500 scenes daily, creating a complete map of the planet’s land surface every 8 days.
It’s not just about scale — it’s about Landsat’s ability to revisit the same scene multiple times a month. With this pace of acquisitions, Landsat 9 helps track seasonal shifts in crops, the spread of wildfires, the aftermath of storms, and even rapid changes in glaciers and coastlines.
More images mean more data, fueling research and scientific applications around the world.
But when it comes to Landsat 9’s imagery, it’s not just about quantity – it’s about quality too.
While Landsat 9’s main design is nearly identical to Landsat 8’s, it’s able to collect data in greater detail thanks to an upgraded radiometric resolution — 14-bit instead of Landsat 8’s 12-bit.
Landsat 9’s quadrupled radiometric sensitivity makes a real difference when capturing data over the planet’s brightest surfaces, like snow and ice, revealing subtle changes that might otherwise go unnoticed: shifts in ice extent, changes in how surfaces reflect sunlight, even the growth of glacial lakes forming where ice once stood.
Seeing more shades of detail is powerful, but it only matters if the picture itself is clear.
It’s like trying to hear a whisper in a noisy room — Landsat 9 quiets the static so we don’t miss anything important.
And that clarity makes a difference, especially over dark surfaces like water which can harbor harmful algal blooms that can spread quickly, threatening drinking water supplies, local wildlife and even human safety.
By spotting these blooms with greater sensitivity, Landsat 9 gives communities and scientists more reliable and actionable information to respond.
Landsat 9 doesn’t clock out when the sun goes down – its onboard thermal sensor, TIRS, measures our planet’s surface heat even in darkness.
That means we can monitor urban heat islands, volcanic hotspots, and water temperature at night.
Since 2022, the US Geological Survey’s special request data program has implemented the Landsat Extended Acquisition of the Poles, or LEAP for short, taking advantage of Landsat 9’s ability to see in the dark to acquire imagery in polar regions year-round when the sun can set for up to six months at the poles.
Together with Landsat 8, the satellites can detect features like meltwater, cracks, and even open water within ice under low light conditions.
The enhanced coverage helps scientists better monitor ice dynamics and seasonal changes in polar regions, detecting calving events, surface melt, and changes in sea ice extent even during the dark months.
Landsat 9 isn’t working alone — it’s part of a global team of satellites, where collaboration across agencies and nations is giving us the clearest, most consistent view of Earth yet.
NASA’s Harmonized Landsat Sentinel-2 project fuses data from Landsats 8 & 9 with that of the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 A,B and C satellites to form a seamless, consistent surface reflectance record.
Landsat 9’s high fidelity, radiometric stability, and continuity anchor HLS, ensuring that the fused product maintains the scientific integrity that Landsat users expect.
Landsat 9 is more than just today’s mission — it’s part of the foundation for the future.
Through the Sustainable Land Imaging program, NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey aims to preserve our ability to keep a continuous, reliable record of Earth’s land for decades to come.
That means not just flying satellites, but building the technology, partnerships, and planning needed to keep the record unbroken.
Within SLI, NASA’s Sustainable Land Imaging–Technology initiative is testing new instruments that could make future missions smaller, more capable, and more efficient.
Landsat 9 is NASA’s first SLI mission and plays a key role here, setting the benchmark for data quality and coverage, proving what works today and guiding the technologies of tomorrow.
Its stability and precision are hallmarks of previous lessons learned, allowing scientists to trust the record across decades, and its success helps guide the innovations that will come next.
For more than half a century, Landsat satellites have given us an unbroken record of our changing planet.
In just four years, Landsat 9 has brought that vision into even sharper focus — capturing millions of scenes, advancing how we track water, ice, and land, and strengthening the world’s longest Earth-observation record.
It’s not just another satellite in orbit. It’s a bridge — carrying the Landsat legacy forward with enhanced technology while preparing the foundation for the future of sustainable land imaging.
Because with Landsat, every image is more than a picture — it’s a calibrated digital record, providing knowledge we can use to understand, protect, and sustain life on Earth.
NASA astronaut and deputy director of the Flight Operations Directorate Kjell Lindgren takes a selfie with panelists and the audience at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Feb. 25, 2026. Actors Ryan Gosling and Sandra Huller, screenwriter Drew Goddard, directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, and producer and writer of the “Project Hail Mary” novel Andy Weir stopped by NASA JPL to talk about their experience making the movie and the collaboration between scientists and creative media.
NASA supported the creative team behind the movie with subject matter experts who answered questions from the crew, and Lindgren met with Gosling during filming to share insights on human spaceflight and being an astronaut.
NASA Invites Media to Discuss Next Steps for Artemis Campaign
NASA’s crawler-transporter 2, carrying NASA’s Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket with the Orion spacecraft, arrives Feb. 25, 2026, inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to troubleshoot the flow of helium to the rocket’s upper stage, the interim cryogenic propulsion stage. Once complete, the SLS rocket will roll back to Launch Complex 39B to prepare to launch four astronauts around the Moon and back for the Artemis II test flight.
Credit: NASA/Cory Huston
With rollback of NASA’s Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft to the Vehicle Assembly Building complete, the agency will host a news conference at 10 a.m. EST on Friday, Feb. 27. Live from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, leadership will discuss the work ahead for the test flight, as well as provide a broader update on the Artemis campaign.
The news conference will stream on NASA’s YouTube channel. An instant replay will be available online. Learn how to watch NASA content on a variety of platforms, including social media.
NASA participants include:
Administrator Jared Isaacman
Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya
Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator for Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate
This event is open to in-person for media previously credentialed at NASA Kennedy for the Artemis II launch. To participate virtually, media must RSVP for call details no later than 30 minutes prior to the start of the event to the newsroom at NASA Kennedy: ksc-newsroom@mail.nasa.gov. NASA’s media credentialing policy is online.
