Launch Into a New School Year With NASA

Launch Into a New School Year With NASA

4 Min Read

Launch Into a New School Year With NASA

An illustration of two astronauts inside a spacecraft, looking at a screen that says "Back to School with NASA"

A new school year brings fresh opportunities to get involved with NASA. Whether you’re curious about space or eager to build real STEM skills, NASA offers a world of experiences putting you close to the action. As we enter a new golden age of exploration, there’s no better time to jump in, try something bold, and see where your curiosity takes you.

Gain Hands-On NASA Experience

NASA opens the door to authentic mission experiences through internships and student challenges. As members of the NASA team, interns work on genuine agency projects and gain industry-ready skills, all with the guidance of NASA mentors. Visit NASA’s internships website to learn more about current vacancies, deadlines, eligibility requirements, and more.

Through NASA’s student challenges and competitions, student teams tackle some of the critical technical hurdles facing mission planners. Flex your innovative muscles and sharpen your collaborative and problem-solving skills while developing, prototyping, and testing your team’s designs. Check out the full list of NASA STEM challenges and opportunities, choose one that fits your interests, and assemble your team.

More than 500 students with 75 teams from around the world participated in the 31st year of NASA’s Human Exploration Rover Challenge (HERC) on April 11 and April 12, 2025, near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Participating teams represented 35 colleges and universities, 38 high schools, and two middle schools from 20 states, Puerto Rico, and 16 other nations. NASA expanded the 2025 challenge to include a remote-control division - named Remote-Operated Vehicular Research - and invited middle school students to participate. Teams were awarded points based on navigating a half-mile obstacle course, conducting mission-specific task challenges, and completing multiple safety and design reviews with NASA engineers.
Students cross the finish line in their human-powered rover during the 2025 Human Exploration Rover Challenge at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama
USSRC/Emily Riddle

Discover Technical Careers at NASA

The future of aerospace depends on a steady pipeline of skilled technical experts ready to make missions and ideas a reality. NASA invites students in high school, community college, and career technical education programs to join in-person and virtual events to explore these important career paths.
 
NASA Career Technical Education Days bring students on-site to meet NASA skilled technical workers who share what their jobs are like, how they built their careers, and the skills, training, and certifications that have helped them succeed. During NASA’s Next Gen STEM Virtual Career Connections , students interact live with technical experts supporting the agency’s missions. Students and teachers can learn more on the Next Gen STEM for Careers website.

A technician performs welding on a spacecraft transporter at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
NASA/Ben Smegelsky

Contribute to NASA Science as a Citizen Scientist

NASA’s Science Mission Directorate invites you to help make real discoveries through science projects powered by volunteers. Join from anywhere, whenever it fits your schedule, and start working with authentic mission data. Help identify comets and asteroids, hunt for binary star systems, and more. Find the project that’s right for you on the list of current citizen science projects.

Keep Up With NASA Missions and Discoveries

Don’t miss out on NASA’s biggest mission milestones this school year! Up first is the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, scheduled to launch no earlier than 7:20 a.m. EDT on Sunday, Aug. 30. This powerful new observatory has a field of view at least 100 times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope. Be a virtual guest for launch and learn more about the telescope with fun activities provided by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. You can also sign up to be a virtual guest for NASA’s next crewed launch to the International Space Station, SpaceX Crew-13, set to launch in September.

And be sure to follow NASA’s continuing crew training and hardware preparations for Artemis III. Set to launch into Earth orbit in 2027, the flight will test rendezvous and docking capabilities with commercial human landing systems – landers that will carry astronauts to the lunar surface on Artemis IV and future missions to the Moon.

NASA astronauts Jack Hathaway and Jessica Meir, both Expedition 74 flight engineers, answer questions inside the International Space Station’s Kibo laboratory module during a live downlink event with Connecticut Public Radio. Hathaway is a native of South Windsor, Connecticut, while Meir is from Caribou, Maine.
NASA astronauts Jack Hathaway and Jessica Meir answer questions inside the International Space Station’s Kibo laboratory module during a live downlink event in May 2026.
NASA

Stay Engaged With NASA

Schools, classrooms, and community-based student groups have further options to engage with NASA and its people. Through In-Flight STEM Downlinks, students have their pre-recorded questions answered live by astronauts aboard the International Space Station, demonstrating how STEM careers reach far beyond Earth. Additionally, the NASA Engages public outreach program connects agency experts with student audiences to share mission and science updates, helping people discover how NASA’s work unfolds and how they can be part of the journey.

This school year, whether you’re interested in aerospace jobs or eager to dive into authentic STEM challenges, you’ll find an array of activities and career exploration tools on NASA’s Learning Resources website. Explore exciting NASA student opportunities and subscribe to the weekly NASA EXPRESS email newsletter for the latest NASA STEM opportunities and updates!

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Kaitlyn Adams

APOD: 2026 August 10 – Three Galaxy Pairs

APOD: 2026 August 10 – Three Galaxy Pairs

APOD

APOD: 2026 August 10 – Three Galaxy Pairs

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.

Three galaxy pairs are arranged vertically in the same field of view..

Three Galaxy Pairs

Explanation: Each of these pairs of galaxies is different. The two galaxies at the top are likely not interacting, at least presently. However, the top galaxy with the blue stripe, NGC 4650A, is a polar ring galaxy and may be the result of a past galaxy collision. The two galaxies in the middle of the featured image appear like they could be interacting gravitationally — but their relative speeds make this unlikely. Of these two, the larger galaxy, NGC 4650, is a spiral galaxy with a bright bar of stars across its center. The two galaxies at the bottom are actively interacting. Possibly in a billion years or so, NGC 4622A and NGC 4622B will merge and become one single galaxy. All of these galaxies are likely members of the larger Centaurus Galaxy Cluster.

Tomorrow’s picture: many moons

Date: August 10, 2026
Credit & Copyright: Rafael Sampaio
Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff, Jerry Bonnell, Cecilia Chirenti, Keighley Rockcliffe
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U.

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APOD: 2026 August 8 – A Messier Moment for Tempel 2

APOD: 2026 August 8 – A Messier Moment for Tempel 2

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.

Greenish cometary coma of 10P/Tempel 2 and globular star cluster M30

A Messier Moment for Tempel 2

Explanation: Which of these is not a comet? You guessed it – the one on the right is a globular star cluster. The diffuse greenish coma of periodic comet 10P/Tempel 2 is at left in the frame. In fact the globular star cluster is Messier 30, also known as M30, or the 30th entry in astronomer Charles Messier’s catalog of things which are not comets. The well-known 18th century astronomer kept a list of objects he observed, now his famous Messier Catalogue of Nebulae and Star Clusters, which did not move from night to night against the background stars and so were not the comets he was hunting for. So the famous comet hunter would get the correct answer too, even though his telescope would show both 10P/Tempel 2 and distant star cluster as similar looking faint and fuzzy objects in his field of view. Recorded on July 29, this modern telescopic image captures periodic comet Tempel 2 as it briefly swept close on the sky to M30. While the periodic comet’s faint, narrow, orbital dust trail seems to pierce the globular star cluster, Tempel 2 was a mere 3.5 light-minutes away. Messier 30 is some 28,000 light-years distant.

Tomorrow’s picture: Contemplating the Sun

Date August 8, 2026
Credit & Copyright Dan Bartlett
Authors & editors: Jerry Bonnell, Cecilia Chirenti, Robert Nemiroff, Keighley Rockcliffe
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U.

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2026 IGARSS Hyperwall Schedule

2026 IGARSS Hyperwall Schedule

IGARSS 2026

Join NASA in the Exhibit Hall (Booth #100) for Hyperwall Storytelling by NASA experts. Full Hyperwall Agenda below.

MONDAY, AUGUST 10

3:00 PM  Technology Enabling the Future of Earth Science Mike Seablom
3:15 PM 
Discovery Earth: New Missions & Technical Innovation Advancing Earth System Insights
Karen St. Germain

TUESDAY, AUGUST 11

10:00 AM STELLA: Open-Source Multisenor Platforms For Real-Time Environmental Monitoring Mike Taylor
10:15 AM NOAA Geostationary Satellites: Valuable Data for both Research and Operational Use Dan Lindsey
3:00 PM  Discovering Mineral Resources with NASA Imaging Spectroscopy Robert O. Green
3:15 PM 
The Importance of Satellite Ocean Observations at NOAA
Paul Chang

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12

10:00 AM Enabling Earth Science Data to Serve Society Joel Scott
10:15 AM Microwaving the Solar System Shannon Brown
3:00 PM  NISAR Updates, One Year After Launch Paul Rosen, Marco Lavalle
3:15 PM 
Office of the Chief Science Data Officer: Data Driven Exploration
Lauren Leese

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NASA’s IXPE Studies Magnetar

NASA’s IXPE Studies Magnetar

This artist’s concept depicts magnetar 1E 1547.0-5408, a rapidly rotating neutron star with magnetic fields over a trillion times stronger than Earth’s. Blue curves emanating from the star's two magnetic poles represent the magnetic field lines. The magnetar is a significant emitter of radio and X-ray radiation, with their peaks offset during its 2.1-second rotation period. This indicates the primary X-ray emitter is a secondary “hot spot” offset from the magnetic axis. These emitters are depicted as conical sections: the lighter blue radio emission peaks at the magnetic field's symmetry axis, while the darker blue X-ray emission peaks below.
NASA/Pablo Garcia

Scientists using NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) conducted more than 140 hours of observations of the magnetar 1E 1547-5408, shown in this Aug. 5, 2026, artist’s concept, between March and April 2025. In doing so, they may have captured empty space behaving in a way physicists have predicted for 90 years, but never directly observed.

Magnetars are a special class of neutron stars with ultra-strong magnetic fields, the strongest of any object in the observable universe, around a trillion times stronger than the strongest permanent magnets ever built on Earth.

Image credit: NASA/Pablo Garcia

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HQ Web Team