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NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has determined the size of the largest icy comet nucleus ever found. And, it’s big! With a diameter of approximately 80 miles across, it’s about 50 times larger than typical comets. Its 500-trillion-ton mass is a hundred thousand times greater than the average comet. Credit: NASA

Reflecting on a record-setting spaceflight, an update on prelaunch activities for Artemis I, and launching the first private astronaut mission to the International Space Station … a few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at NASA! Credit: NASA

NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, who returned to Earth on March 30 after spending 355 days in space, Vande Hei broke the record for longest single spaceflight by an American astronaut during his mission aboard the International Space Station where he lived and worked aboard the microgravity laboratory to advance scientific knowledge and demonstrate new technologies for future human and robotic exploration missions as part of NASA’s Moon and Mars exploration approach, including lunar missions through NASA’s Artemis program. Footage Credit: NASA

Imagine you are an Astronaut on the Moon. Your job for the next eight hours will be exploring, collecting science samples, traversing up and down lunar hills, sampling rocks, and setting up equipment as part of the Artemis program. Temperatures on the lunar surface can reach a blistering 250 degrees Fahrenheit. How does NASA keep astronauts cool in spacesuits so that they can work on the Moon? Fortunately, each spacesuit includes a personal cooling unit. As NASA embraces commercial partnerships to optimize spacesuit technology as part of the Artemis program, the Spacesuit Evaporation Rejection Flight Experiment (SERFE) payload continues to be tested onboard the International Space Station. SERFE is designed to evaluate and demonstrate active thermal control technology in the microgravity environment of the International Space Station. At NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, engineers have been performing the exact same test on the ground on an identical SERFE unit. Credit: NASA

On Friday, April 1 at 12:24 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 launched Transporter-4, SpaceX’s fourth dedicated smallsat rideshare program mission, from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. This was the seventh launch and landing of this Falcon 9 stage booster, which previously supported launch of Crew-1, Crew-2, SXM-8, CRS-23, IXPE, and one Starlink mission. Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage landed on the Just Read the Instructions droneship, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. On board this flight were 40 spacecraft, including CubeSats, microsats, picosats, non-deploying hosted payloads, and an orbital transfer vehicle carrying spacecraft to be deployed at a later time.

What the President’s budget means for NASA, a record-setting astronaut returns safely to Earth, and the next Commercial Crew mission to the space station … a few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at NASA! Credit: NASA

After a record-setting 355-day mission to the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei arrives to Ellington Field in Houston on Thursday, March 31 following his return to Earth on Wednesday, March 30. Vande Hei now holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by an American. His extended mission will provide researchers the opportunity to observe the effects of long-duration spaceflight on humans as the agency plans to return to the Moon under the Artemis program and prepare for exploration of Mars. Credit: NASA

There’s a new American record-holder for longest single spaceflight: NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei is back on Earth after 355 consecutive days off of the planet. Although pleased with the achievement, Vande Hei expects someone will break his record soon as America tackles new frontiers in space exploration. Take a look at some of the highlights of Vande Hei’s almost-a-year in space on his second mission to the International Space Station. Credit: NASA

Exploring the Secrets of the Universe for the Benefit of All (#StateOfNASA 2022 Highlights) NASA explores the unknown in air and space, innovates for the benefit of humanity, and inspires the world through discovery. Credit: NASA

NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei is returning to Earth after living in space for 355 days, the record for the longest single spaceflight by a NASA astronaut. This extended mission aboard the International Space Station provides researchers an opportunity to observe effects of long-duration spaceflight on the human body as the agency makes plans to return to the Moon under the Artemis program and prepare for human exploration at Mars. During his record-setting mission, Vande Hei spent many hours on scientific activities aboard the space station, conducting everything from plant research to physical sciences studies. Credit: NASA

Upgrade work continues outside the space station, an updated strategy for landing Artemis astronauts on the Moon, and unsealing pieces of the past … a few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at NASA! Credit: NASA

Don’t blink, you might miss it. ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer has his eyes examined by NASA astronaut Kayla Barron aboard the International Space Station. During the tonometry eye exam, astronauts measure intraocular pressure by gently tapping the eye with an instrument called a tonometer. As the crew medical officer, Kayla is trained in this examination and received guidance from a medical team on the ground. This exam is part of regular medical testing that astronauts undertake while in orbit. It helps identify and track any changes in eye pressure over time. Closely monitoring astronaut health in orbit is important. Along with regular exercise and a balanced diet, it ensures astronauts remain fit, healthy and in the best condition to support science and operations throughout their time in space. Matthias and Kayla were launched to the International Space Station as members of Crew-3, alongside NASA astronauts Raja Chari and Tom Marshburn, on 11 November 2021. They will spend approximately six months living and working in orbit before returning to Earth in Crew Dragon capsule Endurance.

On 18 February, the NASA/ESA/Canadian Space Agency, James Webb Space Telescope was photographed by ESA’s Gaia observatory. Both spacecraft are located at Lagrange point 2 (L2), 1.5 million km from Earth in the direction away from the Sun. Gaia arrived there in 2014, and Webb in January 2022. Gaia orbits L2 in a Lissajous orbit. The James Webb Space Telescopes orbits L2 in a halo orbit. On 18 February 2022, the two spacecraft were 1 million km apart, with an edge-on view of Gaia towards Webb’s huge sunshield. Very little reflected sunlight came Gaia’s way, and Webb therefore appears as a tiny, faint spec of light in Gaia’s two telescopes without any details visible. this will happen again in the future several dozen times over the next few years. Credit: ESA

On Saturday, March 19 at 12:42 a.m. ET, Falcon 9 launched 53 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, completing the first twelfth launch and landing of an orbital class rocket booster. This Falcon 9 first stage booster previously launched Dragon’s first crew demonstration mission, the RADARSAT Constellation Mission, SXM-7, and now nine Starlink missions.

Preparing the space station for solar array upgrades, rolling out the spacecraft for our Artemis I mission, and the Webb Space Telescope team reaches another milestone … a few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at NASA! Credit: NASA

NASA’s Space Launch System rocket heads to Launch Complex 39B for its wet dress rehearsal fueling test ahead of the Artemis I mission.

Credit: SpaceX

Following the completion of critical mirror alignment steps, the James Webb Space Telescope team has great confidence that the observatory’s optical performance will meet or exceed the science goals it was built to achieve. On March 11, the Webb team completed the stage of alignment known as “fine phasing” – and at this key stage in the commissioning of Webb’s Optical Telescope Element, every optical parameter that has been checked and tested is performing at, or above, expectations. The team found no critical issues and no measurable contamination or blockages to Webb’s optical path. The observatory is able to successfully gather light from distant objects and deliver it to its instruments without issue. Although there are months to go before Webb ultimately delivers its new view of the cosmos, achieving this milestone means the team is confident that Webb’s first-of-its-kind optical system is working as well as possible. Credit: NASA

The Moon has inspired and beckoned generations to explore. NASA’s Artemis I mission will forge a new path to the Moon, charting a course for a new, diverse generation of explorers. We’ll develop the cutting-edge technology we'll need to venture even farther – to Mars and beyond. The Artemis I rocket and spacecraft are now combined and undergoing final testing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where it will soon launch on the first in a series of increasingly ambitious missions. Thanks to the daily efforts of NASA and its international and industry team members, our dreams are poised to take flight. We are going.

Today we celebrate the founding of SpaceX and 20 years of accomplishments by this incredible team—here’s to creating a future that we can all get excited about ~ SpaceX Twitter

Twin solid rocket boosters that will produce a combined 7.2 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, a towering core stage, and the only human-rated spacecraft in the world capable of deep-space travel – together, NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft stand ready to usher in a new chapter of exploration. Now fully assembled at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, SLS and Orion will soon roll to the launch pad. Credit: NASA

For the first time, NASA’s Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) has observed the merging of multimillion-degree X-ray spots on the surface of a magnetar, a supermagnetized stellar core no larger than a city. On Oct. 10, 2020, NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory discovered just such an outburst from a new magnetar, called SGR 1830-0645 (SGR 1830 for short). It’s located in the constellation Scutum, and while its distance is not precisely known, astronomers estimate that the object lies about 13,000 light-years away Credit: NASA

Showcasing NASA’s efforts to monitor Earth’s climate, a spacecraft for an asteroid mission is close to its final configuration, and assembly of our Europa Clipper spacecraft is underway … a few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at NASA! Credit: NASA

A superhero team of space telescopes has been working tirelessly to discover exoplanets and unveil their secrets. Now, a new superhero joins the team—the James Webb Space Telescope. What will it find? Over the past few decades, a team of now legendary space telescopes has been on a mission of exploration. Hubble, Chandra, Spitzer, Kepler, TESS and now, the Webb telescope all have powers to discover exoplanets or to tell us more about them. Many of their “super powers,” of course, go far beyond detecting exoplanets. Hubble can look deep into the cosmic past, seeing light from the early universe and some of the most distant stars and galaxies ever observed. The Chandra X-ray Observatory, like Hubble one of NASA’s “Great Observatories,” examines the universe in X-rays. That has allowed it to peer into the tatters of exploded stars and the edges of our galaxy’s central, supermassive black hole. Another Great Observatory, the Spitzer Space Telescope, viewed the cosmos in infrared light, observing structural details of disks around stars and the faint glow of distant galaxies. Kepler and TESS, meanwhile, took on exoplanets as their main mission, both employing the transit method – searching for tiny dips in starlight as a planet crosses, or “transits,” the face of its star. TESS is still looking for new worlds! Each telescope can reveal something different when studying the same planet. The James Webb Space Telescope will give us a closer look at exoplanets, and will be able to tell us something new. Credit: NASA

On Wednesday, March 9 at 8:45 a.m. EST, Falcon 9 launched 48 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. This was the fourth launch and landing of this Falcon 9 first stage booster, which previously launched Arabsat-6A, STP-2, and COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation FM2. SpaceX's launch director, just before the Starlink mission took off, with a mischevious reference to the Russian space agency chief Rogozin's recent comments: "Time to let the American broomstick fly and hear the sounds of freedom. LD is go for launch." Credit: SpaceX