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A NASA Pilatus PC-12 aircraft will now be based at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, in order to support flight research efforts across the agency.
The PC-12 was acquired in 2022 by NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland for use in advanced technology development. The PC-12 will continue to support research at NASA Glenn while also helping expand flight research capability by supporting other agency efforts.
“NASA Armstrong is proficient in supporting a deployed aircraft concept, where our aircraft goes to another part of the country or world to complete a specific mission,” said Darren Cole, capabilities manager for the Flight Demonstrations and Capabilities project at NASA Armstrong. “That’s exactly what we are going to do with the PC-12, to continue a wide range of flight research.”

Over four years of service at Glenn, the PC-12 has proven a valuable research asset, with contributions such as supporting a communications relay experiment with the International Space Station. Using a portable laser terminal, the PC-12 sent a 4K video stream relayed through a ground network and a satellite to the space station, which was able to send information back. The system helped effectively penetrate cloud coverage.
The aircraft also was used to study surveillance systems that could help handle the air traffic demands of future air taxis flying in cities.
From its new home at NASA Armstrong, the plane will support a variety of agency, industry, and academic research, including continued technology development research led by Glenn and conducted in conjunction with Glenn’s Aerospace Communications Facility.

A NASA T-34 aircraft from Glenn also arrived at Armstrong in February to be evaluated for use. The T-34 can allow NASA pilots to either conduct flight research or train to fly the PC-12 when that larger aircraft is undergoing maintenance or modifications.
“The T-34’s design allows for future pod-mounted flight research efforts,” Cole said. “This could include ideas in development by researchers within NASA or through external partnerships — to get something quickly into the air for flight testing at a low cost.”
The T-34 from Glenn joins another already housed at NASA Armstrong, part of a fleet that has recently grown with new assets, including two F-15s. These help Armstrong remain the agency’s home base for breakthrough flight research and test projects.
The aircraft are supported through NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate.
2026-03-24 20:59
Three Moon rocks are on display during a March 24, 2026, event where NASA announced a series of transformative agencywide initiatives designed to achieve the National Space Policy and advance American leadership in space.
NASA leadership provided updates on mission priorities, including sending the first astronauts to the lunar surface in more than 50 years, establishing the initial elements of a permanent lunar base, getting America underway in space on nuclear propulsion, and other objectives.
Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
2026-03-24 20:41

NASA’s Artemis program will establish a sustainable lunar presence, unlock new scientific discoveries, and develop technologies for spaceflight to Mars and beyond – and students can help shape this new era of space exploration.
As America launches this new Golden Age of innovation and exploration, NASA and its partners offer exciting opportunities for students to get involved in the mission and strengthen the future workforce through internships, competitions, and more.
NASA Internships enable U.S. college students to contribute to Artemis through their work on projects supporting lunar exploration, spacecraft systems, and the cutting-edge technology development that makes deep space missions possible.
As NASA interns, students gain hands-on experience that builds technical skills, connections, and career readiness. Interns collaborate with agency professionals and receive guidance from supportive mentors, all while tackling authentic challenges posed by advanced spaceflight. NASA internships go beyond learning experiences to provide a launch pad into the workforce.
Want to learn more? Explore the NASA Internships website, follow NASA Internships on Instagram, and check out our 5 Tips to Craft a Standout Internship Application.
NASA’s student design challenges offer hands-on STEM experience and an introduction to the skills needed for aerospace careers. These challenges build technical expertise, problem-solving skills, and confidence, preparing participants for roles in the nation’s STEM workforce while giving them a chance to make an impact on the agency’s most ambitious goals. Here are the NASA student challenges focusing on Artemis and related technologies:
Student teams can dive into the Artemis program inside the Minecraft universe. Since 2023, players have been building rockets, launching missions to the Moon, and creating bases on the lunar surface through a partnership between Minecraft Education and NASA. This April, the collaboration’s Artemis adventures will expand to include the new Minecraft Education Build Challenge, Mission Control: Artemis. Students will step into NASA’s Mission Control, use block-based code to guide a spacewalk on the lunar surface, and dream up the ultimate control center for the next generation of space explorers.
NASA and the nation are embarking on a new era in human spaceflight, and students are invited to get involved, increase their knowledge, and learn how they can transform a passion for STEM into a rewarding role in the aerospace workforce.
Ready to be part of NASA’s next giant leap? Check out NASA’s Learning Resources website to learn more about current student opportunities and career resources from NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement.
2026-03-24 20:30
Editor’s note: This advisory was updated on March 24, 2026, to update the finalists list.
NASA has selected seven student teams as finalists in the 2026 Gateways to Blue Skies Competition, giving them the resources to help address a critical challenge for U.S. aviation: aircraft maintenance.
Challenges facing the commercial aviation industry include a shortage of qualified maintenance workers and increasing demands to keep complicated aircraft running for longer.
With Gateways to Blue Skies, NASA taps into student innovation to address some of the biggest topics in aviation, and the current competition, RepAir: Advancing Aircraft Maintenance, is looking for solutions that can have immediate impact.
“Through this competition, students will learn about aviation maintenance and be empowered to change its future,” said Steven Holz, associate project manager for NASA’s University Innovation Project and judging panel co-chair for Gateways to Blue Skies. “By grounding innovative ideas in real operational needs and presenting them to NASA and industry experts, these teams demonstrate the kind of critical thinking, collaboration, and forward-looking problem solving that will shape a safer, more efficient aviation industry in the near future.”
This competition challenged teams of postsecondary students to conceptualize innovative systems and practices that could advance current commercial aircraft maintenance and repair operations. It addresses dual goals for NASA: supporting innovative research and also stimulating the potential aviation workforce of tomorrow.
The goal for RepAir: Advancing Aircraft Maintenance is to generate concepts to improve efficiency, safety, and costs for the aviation maintenance industry by 2035. That timeline differs from many NASA research competitions focused on long-term future technologies; RepAir seeks to address the maintenance issues of today.
NASA made its selections based on a review of participants’ proposals and accompanying videos summarizing the RepAir concepts. The seven finalist teams will receive a $9,000 prize and will advance to Phase 2 of the competition.
Phase 2 includes a review of each team’s final paper, infographic, and presentation at the 2026 Gateways to Blue Skies Forum, held May 18 at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia in May and livestreamed globally.
Following the forum, members of the winning team who fulfill eligibility criteria will be offered the opportunity to intern with NASA Aeronautics.
The 2026 Gateways to Blue Skies Competition finalist projects represent an array of capabilities including robotic inspections, augmented reality smart glasses, and sensor and machine learning architectures:
The Gateways to Blue Skies Challenge is led through the Transformative Aeronautics Concepts Program in NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate. The NASA Tournament Lab, part of the Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing Program in the Space Technology Mission Directorate, manages the challenge through the National Institute of Aerospace on behalf of NASA.
More on the Gateways to Blues Skies: RepAir: Advancing Aircraft Maintenance competition is available on the competition’s site.
2026-03-24 19:57

NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) mission has taken a new observation of a supernova, RCW 86, helping fill in a fuller picture of what other telescopes have observed.
When astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory previously targeted RCW 86, they discovered that a large “cavity” region around the system led the supernova to expand more rapidly than expected. The low-density cavity region could have led to RCW 86’s unique shape as well. Now, IXPE has observed the outer rim of this supernova, where its expansion is suspected to have halted at the edge of the “cavity,” creating the reflected shock effect highlighted in purple.
The full image combines IXPE’s data with legacy observations from two other X-ray telescopes: NASA’s Chandra and the ESA (European Space Agency) XMM-Newton telescope. The yellow represents low-energy X-rays, while blue shows high-energy X-rays detected by Chandra and XMM-Newton. The starfield in the image comes from the National Science Foundation’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab).
The IXPE mission, which continues to provide unprecedented data enabling groundbreaking discoveries about celestial objects across the universe, is a joint NASA and Italian Space Agency mission with partners and science collaborators in 12 countries. It is led by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. BAE Systems, Inc., headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, manages spacecraft operations together with the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder. Learn more about IXPE’s ongoing mission here:
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