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Rise Goes to Washington

2026-05-13 19:17

Rise, the Artemis II zero gravity indicator, sits on a wooden desk. A NASA astronaut is in the foreground.

NASA/Joel Kowsky

“Rise,” the Artemis II zero gravity indicator, is seen sitting on the dais as NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen speak with congressional staff, Tuesday, May 12, 2026, in Washington.

NASA’s Artemis II mission took Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen on a nearly 10-day journey around the Moon and back to Earth in April 2026.

See more photos from the crew’s visit to the U.S. Capitol.

Image credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

NASA Outlines Preliminary Artemis III Mission Plans

2026-05-13 15:33

The Sun rises behind NASA’s Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft on top of a mobile launcher at Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 30, 2026.

Credit: NASA/Jim Ross

NASA is moving quickly to define next year’s Artemis III mission in Earth orbit, a crewed flight that will test rendezvous and docking capabilities between the agency’s Orion spacecraft and commercial landers from Blue Origin and SpaceX. Since a February announcement adding an Artemis mission ahead of crewed landing missions to the Moon’s South Pole region, engineers have been evaluating mission profile options and operational considerations for Artemis III to ensure the test flight helps the agency and its partners reduce risk ahead of the next Americans landing on the Moon during Artemis IV.

“While this is a mission to Earth orbit, it is an important stepping stone to successfully landing on the Moon with Artemis IV. Artemis III is one of the most highly complex missions NASA has undertaken,” said Jeremy Parsons, Moon to Mars acting assistant deputy administrator, NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate in Washington. “For the first time, NASA will coordinate a launch campaign involving multiple spacecraft integrating new capabilities into Artemis operations. We’re integrating more partners and interrelated operations into this mission by design, which will help us learn how Orion, the crew, and ground teams all interact together with hardware and teams from both lander providers before we send astronauts to the Moon’s surface and build a Moon Base there.”

The mission is planned to carry out a series of objectives designed to demonstrate critical systems needed for a future lunar landing. During the Artemis III mission, the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket will launch the Orion spacecraft from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida with four crew members. Instead of using the interim cryogenic propulsion stage as the upper stage of the rocket, NASA will use a “spacer,” a representation of the mass and overall dimensions of an upper stage but without propulsive capabilities. The spacer will maintain the same overall dimensions and interface connection points as the upper stage between the Orion stage adapter and launch vehicle stage adapter.

Design and fabrication activities for the spacer are progressing rapidly at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Material for the barrel section and the upper and lower rings is currently being machined at Marshall in preparation for upcoming welding operations.

The Artemis III core stage sits in High Bay 2 in the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA Kennedy with the core stage tank attached to its engine section on May 12, 2026.

Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

After the rocket delivers Orion to orbit, the spacecraft’s European-built service module will provide propulsion to circularize Orion’s orbit around the planet in low Earth orbit. This orbit increases overall mission success by allowing more launch opportunities for each element as compared to a lunar mission — SLS carrying Orion and its crew, SpaceX’s Starship human landing system pathfinder, and Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 2 human landing system pathfinder.

Informed by Blue Origin and SpaceX capabilities, NASA also is defining the concept of operations for the mission. While some decisions are yet to be determined, astronauts could potentially enter at least one lander test article.

The crew will spend more time aboard Orion than during Artemis II, further advancing the evaluation of life support systems, and for the first time will demonstrate the docking system performance. The mission will inform lander rendezvous and habitation concepts and mission operations in preparation for future surface missions. The agency also plans to test an upgraded heat shield during Orion’s return to Earth to enable more flexible and robust reentry profiles for future missions.

The Artemis III Orion service module is pictured ahead of acoustic testing in NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Operations and Checkout Facility on May 7, 2026.

NASA/Jess Ruffa

Over the coming weeks, NASA will continue to refine specific plans for the flight, including a timeline for identifying astronauts to train for mission operations, options to evaluate Axiom’s AxEMU spacesuit lander interfaces ahead of lunar surface missions, mission duration, and potential science operations for the flight. NASA has asked for industry input on potential solutions to improve the communications with the ground during the mission since the Deep Space Network will not be used. The agency also is seeking both international and domestic interest in potentially flying CubeSats to deploy in Earth orbit, and may share other opportunities as the concept of operations for the mission is further defined.

As part of the Golden Age of innovation and exploration, NASA will send Artemis astronauts on increasingly difficult missions to explore more of the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, establish an enduring human presence on the lunar surface, and to build on our foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars.

Learn more about NASA’s Artemis program:

https://www.nasa.gov/artemis

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Last Updated

May 13, 2026

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Kennedy Space Center

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Studying Pneumonia in Space for Heart Health on Earth

2026-05-13 14:45

NASA astronaut and Expedition 74 flight engineer Jack Hathaway configures research hardware inside a portable glovebag for a biotechnology investigation exploring how bacteria affect heart tissue in the microgravity environment. Results from the MVP (Multi-use Variable-g Platform) Cell-09 experiment could lead to advanced methods for preventing or treating heart damage in humans living on and off the Earth.

NASA astronaut Jack Hathaway works on MVP Cell-09 research inside a portable glovebag aboard the International Space Station.

ESA/Sophie Adenot

Expedition 74 astronauts aboard the International Space Station are uncovering how bacteria that causes pneumonia can lead to long-term damage in the heart. Researchers are leveraging the space environment to observe how stem cell derived heart tissues respond to bacterial infections, to discover new methods to manage cardiovascular health and infectious diseases.

In space, bacteria tend to be more severe and have enhanced drug resistance. Scientists are harnessing these traits to exaggerate their effect on heart cells and reveal important cellular responses that would be difficult to detect on Earth. Pinpointing the factors that make bacterial infections more severe in space could reveal targets for treatment. Dr. Palaniappan Sethu, professor of Medicine and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Alabama at Birmingham says, “By exacerbating the infection, we anticipate clear separation of the infection and control groups, making it easier to identify subtle factors that promote bacterial virulence”.

Preflight imagery of stem cell derived heart tissue models produced for the MVP Cell-09 investigation.

University of Alabama at Birmingham

The Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria is the leading cause of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), an infection which causes millions of deaths each year. More than a quarter of adults hospitalized for CAP develop heart disease and patients that survive severe cases have an increased risk even after the pneumonia has been fully eradicated.

This research is also important as humans venture further into space. For over 25 years, researchers have utilized the space station to study how the human body and microbes respond to space, and deep space missions will require the strategies and knowledge we gain. “Addressing these questions is essential for ensuring human health during long duration space travel and for enabling sustainable habitation beyond Earth. Our experiments are expected to generate new insights into how space specific factors influence disease progression”, says Dr. Carlos J. Orihuela, professor of Microbiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

The MVP Cell-09 research team posts in a laboratory.

From left to right: Redwire Space researchers Grant Vellinger and Dr. Aaron Rogers, and University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers Dr. Vipin Chembilikand and Dr. Ian Berg prepare MVP Cell-09 ahead of launch to the space station.

University of Alabama at Birmingham

The space station allows researchers from around the world to address complex human health problems on Earth and in space. Using the unique environmental factors aboard the space station allows for advanced study of disease formation, testing drugs and diagnostic tools, and more.

Learn more about MVP Cell-09

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NASA’s Planet-Hunting TESS Reveals Dazzling Night Sky

2026-05-13 14:15

3 min read

NASA’s Planet-Hunting TESS Reveals Dazzling Night Sky

NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) has released its most complete view of the starry sky to date, filling in gaps from previous observations. Nearly 6,000 colored dots scattered across the image show the locations of either confirmed or candidate exoplanets — worlds beyond our solar system — identified by the mission as of September 2025 at the end of TESS’s second extended mission.

“Over the last eight years, TESS has become a fire hose of exoplanet science,” said Rebekah Hounsell, a TESS associate project scientist at the University of Maryland Baltimore County and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “It’s helped us find planets of all different sizes, from tiny Mercury-like ones to those larger than Jupiter. Some of them are even in the habitable zone, where liquid water might be possible on the surface, an important factor in our search for life beyond Earth.”

The TESS mission scans a wide swath of the sky, called a sector, for about a month at a time using its four cameras. These long stares allow the spacecraft to track the brightness changes of tens of thousands of stars, looking for variations in their light that might come from orbiting planets.

Researchers assembled an all-sky mosaic made of 96 sectors observed between April 2018, when TESS began its work, and September 2025.

Oval projection of the TESS night sky with exoplanet markers

This view of the whole sky was constructed from 96 TESS sectors. By the end of September 2025, when the last image of this mosaic was captured, TESS had discovered 679 exoplanets (blue dots) and 5,165 candidates (orange dots). The glowing arc running through the center is the plane of the Milky Way. The Large Magellanic Cloud can be seen along the bottom edge just left of center. Black areas within the oval indicate regions TESS has not yet imaged.

NASA/MIT/TESS and Veselin Kostov (University of Maryland College Park)

The blue dots in the image mark the locations of nearly 700 confirmed planets, as of September 9. This menagerie includes worlds that may be covered by volcanoes, are being destroyed by their stars, or orbit two stars — experiencing double sunrises and sunsets each day. The orange dots represent more than 5,000 candidate planets that are awaiting verification.

To date, scientists have confirmed over 6,270 exoplanets using missions like TESS, NASA’s retired Kepler Space Telescope, and other facilities.

Also captured in the mosaic is the bright plane of our Milky Way galaxy, seen as a glowing arc through the center. The bright white ovals in the lower left are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. These satellite galaxies are located 160,000 and 200,000 light-years away, respectively.

“The more we dig into the large TESS dataset, especially using automated algorithms, the more surprises we find,” said Allison Youngblood, the TESS project scientist at NASA Goddard. “In addition to planets, TESS has helped us study rivers of young stars, observe dynamic galactic behavior, and monitor asteroids near Earth. As TESS fills in more of the night sky, there’s no knowing what it might see next.”

You could discover the next exoplanet! Join the Planet Hunters TESS citizen science project, and you’ll learn how to read light curves — plots of light data from distant stars — to find telltale signals from orbiting exoplanets.

By Jeanette Kazmierczak
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli
301-286-1940
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

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Last Updated

May 13, 2026

Editor

Jeanette Kazmierczak

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America’s Emerald Isle

2026-05-13 04:00

A satellite image shows several islands in Lake Michigan. The largest one, Beaver Island, is in the center. The islands are mostly green and vegetated, with bright sandy areas on their perimeters. Shallow waters near the land appear turquoise, and deeper waters are dark blue.

In a process that played out over thousands of years, a retreating ice sheet carved, scoured, and shaped the landscape of the present-day Great Lakes. In northern Lake Michigan, this sculpting left distinct ridges and valleys running north-to-south along the lake floor. Some parts of those ridges, made of erosion-resistant rock, have remained above the waves of the big lake, forming the Beaver Archipelago.

The OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 9 captured this image of several of the archipelago’s islands on August 2, 2024. These patches of land contain upland forests, dunes, wetlands, and marshes—habitats that support rare plant and bird species and provide spawning grounds for fish. The bright, sandy perimeters of the islands are surrounded by shallow, turquoise waters and deeper, dark blue areas, where depths reach up to about 330 feet (100 meters).

This image centers on Beaver Island, the largest island in Lake Michigan at 13 miles (21 kilometers) long and 6 miles (10 kilometers) wide. It is also the only inhabited island of the Beaver Archipelago, and many of its approximately 600 residents are of Irish descent. In the mid-1800s, scores of immigrants from County Donegal, Ireland, and Irish fishermen from nearby islands and ports in Michigan settled on the island, which subsequently took on the moniker of “America’s Emerald Isle.”

The farming and fishing, in particular, were productive for the new arrivals. In the 1880s, Beaver Island became the largest supplier of freshwater fish in the United States. Due to overfishing, however, such abundance would be short-lived.

Ship traffic on the Great Lakes was also increasing during this time. Two lighthouses were constructed on the island to help the growing number of vessels traveling between Chicago and the Straits of Mackinac. The Beaver Head Lighthouse operated from 1852 to 1962 on the southern end of the island. On the northern side, the Beaver Island Harbor Light, pictured below, was first lit in 1870 and remains an active beacon more than 150 years later.

A lighthouse with a white tower and a glowing red beacon at the top stands on the left side of this photograph. A large lake and cloudy skies fill the background.

Today, people travel to Beaver Island by boat or plane to explore its history and enjoy activities such as biking, fishing, and kayaking. The island’s remote location and minimal light pollution led to the establishment of the Beaver Island State Wildlife Research Area International Dark Sky Sanctuary in 2024. Sky gazers may be drawn to the sanctuary for a chance to glimpse the aurora borealis and other celestial phenomena.

Neighboring islands in the archipelago are more difficult to access and have remained relatively undisturbed. Perched, or cliff-top, sand dunes are found up to 200 feet (60 meters) above the lake level on the western side of High Island. Unique plant species, including the Pitcher’s thistle and Lake Huron tansy, grow in the island’s dunes. On Hog Island, patches of old-growth northern hardwood forest remain. Wetland communities known as Great Lakes marshes along the shoreline provide spawning grounds for perch and smallmouth bass.

NASA Earth Observatory image by Wanmei Liang, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Photo by Kelcie Herald/Unsplash. Story by Lindsey Doermann.