NASA Ames Research Center

NASA will provide the instruments, but they will be owned by Relativity, as will the data they collect, which the company plans to share with the science community.

NASA's reimbursable Space Act Agreement, announced June 17, goes well beyond what NASA has previously done to support the burgeoning commercial space industry.

Under new owner and CEO Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, California-based Relativity Space is setting its sights on Mars.

MIT’s sodium fuel cell; airship testing expands; integrating hydrogen propulsion; and nuclear battery for lunar power.

A quantum gravity gradiometer measures variations in gravitational acceleration.

The analysis was released by NASA on Oct. 24.

Solar sails could make new deep space missions possible. One potential application is a “space weather buoy” between the Earth and the Sun.

The mission, dubbed Small Spacecraft Propulsion and Inspection Capability (SSPICY), is planned for launch in late 2026.

The National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine panel also acknowledged the mission’s extreme challenges and received initial comments.

NASA has selected six exploration concepts to receive up to $600,000 in additional development funding.

There is a long history of NASA brain power moving on to private industry.

Round the world on hydrogen; first-responder VTOL competition; stop-fold tiltrotor; another Chinese eVTOL.

NASA’s 2024 Spinoff, the latest edition of the agency’s annual summary of its technical achievements, highlights 20 new technologies.

Boeing goes back to basics to transform retired MD-90 for future truss-braced wing test role.

Nearly 2,000 cubesats have been launched in the past 20 years.

Berkeley Space Center, unveiled Oct. 16, could see employment for more than 6,000 researchers and developers in astronautics, quantum computing and more.

Swarming paths could be useful for deep-space scientific missions.

The NASA-funded Capstone has completed its six-month primary mission in orbit around the Moon with a successful autonomous navigation demonstration.

Operating under unfunded Space Act Agreements, the companies will work for periods of 12 to 24 months.

NASA’s JSC is in line to receive the largest share of the agency’s $27.2 billion fiscal 2024 budget request among NASA’s 10 field centers and Washington HQ.

eVTOL propeller test; hybrid-electric turboprop; hydrogen supply networks; and vertiports for Dubai.

The experimental aircraft would be one of a suite of demonstration projects to mature key technologies for a next-generation subsonic commercial transport by the mid-2020s.

NASA’s Washington headquarters is in line for the most, $7.75 billion, followed by the Johnson Space Center in Houston with $5.66 billion.