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NASA Welcomes Morocco as 64th Artemis Accords Signatory 

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NASA Welcomes Morocco as 64th Artemis Accords Signatory 

Flags of 64 Artemis Accords signatory countries in a graphic with an image of the Moon in the background.
Credit: NASA

The Kingdom of Morocco signed the Artemis Accords on April 29th during a ceremony in the country’s capital, Rabat, becoming the latest nation to commit to the responsible exploration of space.

“It is my privilege to welcome the Kingdom of Morocco as the newest signatory to the Artemis Accords,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman in recorded remarks. “The accords began as the framework for like-minded nations to come together for the peaceful exploration of space. But now, under President Trump’s vision for an enduring presence on the lunar surface, Artemis Accords partners will be able to make meaningful contributions to that collective effort. Citizens from every Artemis nation will play a pivotal role in humanity’s greatest adventure.”

Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita of Morocco signed the accords on behalf of the country. Bourita underscored Morocco’s commitment to shared values across a range of critical sectors.

The signing ceremony took place during the Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau’s official visit to Morocco with the U.S. Ambassador to Morocco Duke Buchan III also participating in the event.

In 2020, during the first Trump Administration, the United States, led by NASA and the State Department, joined with seven other founding nations to establish the Artemis Accords, responding to the growing interest in lunar activities by both governments and private companies. The accords introduced the first set of practical principles aimed at enhancing the safety and coordination between like-minded nations as they explore the Moon, Mars, and beyond.  

Signing the Artemis Accords means committing to explore peaceably and transparently, to render aid to those in need, to enable access to scientific data that all of humanity can learn from, to ensure activities do not interfere with those of others, and to preserve historically significant sites and artifacts by developing best practices for space exploration for the benefit of all. 

More countries are expected to sign the Artemis Accords in the months and years ahead, as NASA continues its work to establish a safe, peaceful, and prosperous future in space. 

Learn more about the Artemis Accords at: 

https://www.nasa.gov/artemis-accords

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Apr 30, 2026

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NASA Goddard’s Greenbelt Visitor Center Marks 50th Anniversary

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NASA Goddard’s Greenbelt Visitor Center Marks 50th Anniversary

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NASA Goddard’s Greenbelt Visitor Center Marks 50th Anniversary

a low-slung brick and stucco building with a large rocket behind it

This 1976 photograph shows how the visitor center at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., appeared when it opened to the public for the first time.

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NASA

Trimmed in bicentennial pageantry, NASA opened a visitor center at its Goddard campus in Greenbelt, Maryland, in May 1976. Fifty years on, the Goddard Visitor Center continues to inspire through exhibits and programs on the past, present, and future of space exploration.

black and white photo of a man at a lectern addressing a small crowd in front of a brick building
Dr. John Clark, then NASA Goddard’s center director, provides opening remarks at the visitor center ribbon cutting in May 1976.
NASA

When the visitor center first opened its doors (just a few weeks before the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington), much of it was open-air. Instead of gilded scissors, a reenactment of Dr. Robert Goddard’s first rocket launch snapped the ribbon.

Initial exhibits featured a full-scale mockup of the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory (a Hubble telescope precursor), a phone station to transmit guests’ voices 45,000 miles round trip through Applications Technology Satellite-3, and an active meteorology station displaying satellite views of Western Hemisphere weather.

aerial view of a low-slung office building with a circular concrete sidewalk behind it, featuring a tall Delta A rocket in its center, with green grass and trees surrounding
The Visitor Center at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. (shown here in a 2010 aerial photo), opened its doors to the public for the first time in May 1976.
NASA/Bill Hrybyk

red brick building on a hill surrounded by tall antennae structures
This aerial photograph from 1966 shows what was then the Bureau of Standards’ WWV radio station. After the station relocated to Colorado, NASA Goddard used the structure for facilities storage before converting it into a visitor center.
NASA

black and white photo
The Delta-B rocket at the NASA Goddard Visitor Center was originally displayed at the 1964 New York World’s Fair. NASA Goddard managed the highly successful Thor-Delta program throughout the 1960s and ’70s. In this photo from 1978, a keen eye will see a small model rocket just taking flight to the right of the Delta. Model rocket launches have been a mainstay at the visitor center. They now typically occur the first Saturday of the month.
NASA

black-and-white photo of a large cylindrical satellite with two solar panel wings
The Orbiting Astronomical Observatory-3, also known as Copernicus, was a space telescope that operated for nearly a decade after its 1972 launch. It was a spiritual predecessor to the Hubble Space Telescope. This model was on display at the NASA Goddard Visitor Center in 1976.
NASA

A visitor center guest in 1977 learns about the Sun.
NASA

This late-1970s exhibit centered on Dr. Robert Goddard. In 1926, Goddard became the first person ever to successfully launch a liquid-fueled rocket. NASA named its first spaceflight complex in his honor in 1959.
NASA

Small model of Space Shuttle hangs from the ceiling by an exhibit of small shuttle payloads shaped like white cylinders
A space shuttle model with payload doors open hangs from the ceiling in this mid-1990s visitor center exhibit. The right side of the image describes NASA’s Get Away Special (GAS) Program, which was an opportunity for researchers, students, and other groups to put small payloads in extra space aboard shuttles. Each was contained in a cylinder like those displayed here. The GAS Program can be thought of as a precursor to the CubeSat and other small satellite programs of today.
NASA

seen from above, a crowd of people in the main space of the NASA Goddard Visitor Center
This photograph shows a crowd of guests at a NASA Goddard community day in 1993.
NASA

man in white polo stands next to a gray, plastic-encased Gemini space capsule
Longtime Goddard Visitor Center staffer “D.J.” Emmanuel stands by a Gemini capsule on display here in 2005.
NASA

seated crowd in darkened room views illuminated Earth sphere
During a May 2007 trip to the United States, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh, visited NASA Goddard. Here, the queen and prince look on as then-Goddard Center Director Dr. Ed Weiler demonstrates “Science on a Sphere.” This system, developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), uses computers and four video projectors to display animated images on the outside of a six-foot diameter sphere.
NASA/Pat Izzo

a slender sycamore with green leaves
The “Moon Tree” in front of the visitor center at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. This sycamore (shown in a 2009 file photo) grew from a seed carried to the Moon aboard Apollo 14 and was planted here on June 9, 1977.
NASA/Pat Izzo

This arched entryway of Hubble Space Telescope imagery greeted guests at the NASA Goddard visitor center in the 2010s.
NASA/Debbie McCallum

three people smile with their hands on a glass sphere with plasma streamers inside
These three guests were among some 400 who attended a “Yuri’s Night” celebration at the visitor center on April 10, 2010. Yuri’s Night, a celebration of achievements in space exploration, was named in honor of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space.
NASA/Bill Hrybyk


“The visitor center serves the community by providing engaging exhibits and programming focused on the work of NASA overall and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in particular,” said Amanda Harvey, the visitor center’s engagement coordinator. “We are an important place for people to discover, explore, and experience what it is that NASA does.”

Longtime staffer “D.J.” Emmanuel is himself proof-positive of the sentiment: “The first time I actually got introduced to Goddard was at a talk to see the tools astronauts used during the first Hubble servicing mission in 1993.” He started volunteering his time at the visitor center and then transitioned to fulltime staff.

Harvey and Emmanuel are employees of the NASA Communication Services contract, and the two operate the visitor center with the help of a dedicated team of volunteers.

The original structure and grounds of the visitor center housed WWV, a radio station for what was then the Bureau of Standards (now the National Institute of Standards and Technology, NIST). The station relocated to Colorado in the mid-1960s — campus legend maintains that WWV’s broadcasts interfered with Apollo Program tests and necessitated the move. NASA Goddard used the transmitter building for facility maintenance storage until renovations for a visitor center began in earnest in 1975.

As space exploration has advanced and NASA Goddard’s contributions have evolved, so too has the visitor center, which today hosts a 4K science film movie theater, Hubble telescope artifacts, a custom-programmed Roman telescope video game arcade console — no quarters required — and several more displays and activities.

“I keep going back and looking at the exhibits and reading something new that I haven’t read before,” Emmanuel said. “It’s a great way to introduce kids to the world of science and to space.”

And as much as the visitor center enriches its guests, the reverse is also true: “My favorite memories usually involve young visitors dressed like astronauts,” Harvey said. “Their excitement is palpable and so inspiring. It makes me want to have more programs and serve my community the best that I can!”

Over its first decade of operations, the visitor center hosted just shy of 600,000 guests. Thousands upon thousands more have come in the years since, with virtual field trips now also helping bring NASA Goddard beyond the local community.

Some things, though, have not changed since that rocket-powered ribbon-cutting 50 years ago: Now as then, a towering, 100-foot-tall Delta-B rocket still watches over the grounds. A seed taken to the Moon aboard Apollo 14 grew into the sycamore that has stood by the main entrance for decades.

And just as it was in 1976, the cost of admission is free.

The NASA Goddard Visitor Center will celebrate its 50th on Saturday, May 2, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. No RSVP is required.

For more information on events and programs:

https://www.nasa.gov/visitgoddard

Research and multimedia assistance for this story was provided by the NASA Goddard Archives. Researchers may direct reference requests to history@mail.nasa.gov.

By Rob Garner
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

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NASA Explores Prioritizing First Response Drones in Crowded Skies

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NASA Explores Prioritizing First Response Drones in Crowded Skies

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Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)

Partners from NASA, Texas public safety organizations, industry partners, and the Federal Aviation Administration gathered in the region of North Texas Feb. 18 to understand how public safety drones can operate alongside commercial drones safely and effectively.
Credit: Texas Department of Public Safety

Our streets are crowded with commuters and delivery vehicles, but when a police car or fire engine approaches with its lights and sirens on, drivers clear the way. In the coming years, drones for deliveries and other commercial tasks will become common in the skies over our communities, and NASA is working to ensure first responder vehicles in the air get the same kind of clearance that they do on the ground.

A recent flight exercise in the North Texas region showed how airspace prioritization tools could help first responder drones move quickly and safely through crowded skies. Researchers from NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley teamed up with local and state public safety agencies, industry partners, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to test how emergency crews could get priority airspace access in real time. The exercise is the latest collaboration between NASA and FAA in the area. North Texas is an FAA-designated region that allows for commercial drone deliveries to fly daily.

When a police, fire, or rescue drone launched during the exercise, other drones would move aside. When multiple public safety organizations responded to simulated emergencies, their officials communicated to prioritize access for the right drones.

“Just as ambulances use lights and sirens to signal vehicles to move out of the way, public safety operators require the ability to share airspace safely,” said Abhay Borade, a research lead for the Air Traffic Management and Safety project at NASA Ames. “The key is to prioritize safety of flight operations, while balancing the efficient use of the airspace for all operators.”

The Texas testing helped NASA better understand how commercial flights differ from public safety drone missions – emergency crews rarely fly predictable routes. During a search, a pursuit, or when scanning a dangerous environment, they may need to change direction suddenly.

Researchers collected data on how unpredictable vehicle movements – demonstrated by having a drone follow an officer driving an SUV erratically, simulating a fleeing suspect in a vehicle chase – might affect nearby commercial drone activity. The result demonstrated NASA’s development of air traffic systems and tools to prioritize public safety operators as commercial drone usage increases.

“By working closely with industry and federal partners, we’re helping build the data, tools, and traffic management frameworks needed to ensure the future of drone operations is safe, responsible, and scalable for everyone,” said Shivanjli Sharma, Air Traffic Management and Safety project manager at NASA Ames. Participants involved in the demonstration included the drone airspace management companies Drone Sense, Avision, ANRA Technologies, as well as the FAA, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and the police departments from the Texas cities of Fort Worth, Arlington, and Irving.

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Winter’s End Is Written in the Clouds

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Winter’s End Is Written in the Clouds

 
The snow-covered Alaska Peninsula is bordered by a strip of open water, which becomes obscured by varied cloud formations including vortices (bottom left), parallel cloud bands (center), and a spiral system (upper right).
Clouds line up, curl, and spin over the Gulf of Alaska in this image, acquired on March 19, 2026, by the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA’s Terra satellite.
NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison

Winter 2026 roared to an end in southern Alaska as parts of the coast saw below-normal temperatures and bouts of moderate to heavy snow. Viewed from above, the region’s atmospheric instability was apparent in the striking display of cloud formations just offshore. 

A NASA satellite captured this image of the clouds on March 19, 2026, the final day of astronomical winter. According to a NOAA weather briefing, low pressure over the Gulf of Alaska that day combined with high pressure over eastern Russia and northern Alaska, causing cold Arctic air to pour southeast over the Alaska Peninsula.  

The setup led to the formation of cloud streets, visible in the middle of the scene, oriented in line with the direction of the wind. These parallel bands can occur when frigid, dry air moves over comparatively warm ocean water and gains moisture. Where the warm, moist air rises, water vapor condenses to form clouds. Where cooled air sinks adjacent to the clouds, skies are clear.

But the transformation does not happen right away; it takes the air mass some time over the sea surface to pick up heat and moisture, which is why the region close to shore is mostly cloud-free. (Note that the hazy area close to shore might be stratus or sea fog.) As the air moves farther over the gulf, the cloud streets continue to mature and change into open-cell clouds—a type of cloud that appears as thin wisps surrounding empty pockets.

Another compelling cloud type is visible toward the bottom-left on the lee side of Unimak Island, the easternmost of the Aleutian Islands. These trails of staggered, counterrotating swirls are von Kármán vortex streets. The cloud patterns can form when winds are diverted around elevated areas, often islands, rising from the ocean.

Finally, an especially striking feature in this scene is the larger cloud vortex about 180 miles (300 kilometers) southwest of Anchorage. According to a post from meteorologist Matthew Cappucci, the feature was a polar low—a small cyclonic formation that forms in cold polar air over relatively warm water. This instance, Cappucci wrote, carried tropical storm-force winds and produced snow and thunderstorms around its center. 

Outside of March 19, the month overall brought persistent cold and bouts of storminess to the state. The weather had warmed by the end of April, but news reports indicated more unsettled, wet weather was on the way across Southcentral and Southeast Alaska as an atmospheric river approached the region. 

NASA Earth Observatory image by Michala Garrison, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview. Story by Kathryn Hansen.

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The snow-covered Alaska Peninsula is bordered by a strip of open water, which becomes obscured by varied cloud formations including vortices (bottom left), parallel cloud bands (center), and a spiral system (upper right).

March 19, 2026

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Quantum Physics, Biomedicine, and Computer Gear Fill Wednesday’s Schedule

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Quantum Physics, Biomedicine, and Computer Gear Fill Wednesday’s Schedule

NASA astronaut and Expedition 74 flight engineer Jessica Meir works inside the International Space Station’s Columbus laboratory module swapping scientific hardware inside the BioLab research incubator. Meir was supporting the Lux in Space investigation that observes how DNA damaged by space radiation repairs itself.
NASA astronaut Jessica Meir swaps scientific hardware inside the BioLab research incubator for an investigation that observes how DNA damaged by space radiation repairs itself.
NASA/Jack Hathaway

Physics, biomedicine, and computer networking were the dominant projects for the Expedition 74 crew aboard the International Space Station on Wednesday. The orbital residents also continued unpacking cargo from a pair of resupply ships while keeping up life support maintenance.

NASA flight engineer Jessica Meir spent her shift servicing hardware for a pair of advanced space physics investigations. Meir reviewed procedures and trained to connect delicate fiber optic cables inside the Cold Atom Lab that chills atoms to near absolute zero for quantum research into atomic wave functions, general relativity, and the search for dark matter. The sensitive cables emit light that helps trap, move, and measure the chilled atoms with high accuracy. Next, she set up research gear inside the Microgravity Science Glovebox to explore how weightlessness affects tiny particles floating in a Jello-like substance, known as a colloidal solid. Results may lead to advanced manufacturing techniques leading to new medicines, better food textures, and improved personal‑care products on Earth and in space.

Flight engineer Sophie Adenot from ESA (European Space Agency) continued her biomedical research exploring how to create intravenous (IV) fluid, or a saline solution, using a spacecraft’s clean drinking water to treat medical conditions in space. She collected fluid samples generated by the new Intravenous Fluid Generation – Mini device to analyze how evenly mixed the IV fluid is. The technology demonstration seeks to promote crew self-sufficiency farther away from Earth, reduce a crew’s dependence on cargo missions, and avoid expiration of medical supplies on a spacecraft.

Adenot earlier began installing new computer hardware inside the Columbus laboratory module to update a ground controller’s ability to monitor scientific payloads and download research data in real time. NASA flight engineer Chris Williams replaced ethernet cables in between Columbus and the Harmony module to upgrade communications with the orbital outpost’s computers, experiment hardware, and more. Williams also pedaled on the new European Enhanced Exploration Exercise Device’s (E4D) exercise cycle for the first time at the end of his shift. The E4D is being tested for its ability to support crew workouts on missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

Williams also partnered with NASA flight engineer Jack Hathaway taking apart then examining a handheld barcode and radio‑tag scanner that helps manage inventory aboard the space station. Hathaway also inspected the Tranquility module’s advanced resistive exercise device that mimics working out with free weights in Earth’s gravity. He wrapped up his shift unloading cargo delivered inside Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL resupply ship on April 13.

Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev worked together unloading crew clothing, food containers, scientific supplies, and more from inside the Progress 95 cargo spacecraft that arrived on Monday. The duo also installed air ducts between Progress 95 and the International Space Station and reconfigured the spacecraft’s docking hardware. Roscosmos flight engineer Andrey Fedyaev worked throughout Wednesday on life support duties transferring water between tanks, disinfecting water tanks, and cleaning ventilation fan screens inside the Rassvet module.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_stationon X, as well as the ISS Facebookand ISS Instagram accounts.

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Mark A. Garcia