In Case You Missed It: A Weekly Summary of Top Content from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center
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IXPE Checks Out X-rays from Extreme Objects
NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) mission, a joint effort with the Italian Space Agency, has returned data that no other spacecraft has obtained before from a few extreme cosmic objects. IXPE has detected polarized X-rays from three of its first six targets. Polarized X-rays carry unique details about where the light comes from and what it passes through.
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NASA Joins Four Major SLS Rocket Parts to Form Artemis II Core Stage
NASA joined the Space Launch System rocket’s core stage forward assembly with the 130-foot liquid hydrogen tank for the Artemis II mission on March 18 at the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. This completes assembly of four of the five large structures that make up the core stage that will help send the first astronauts to lunar orbit on Artemis II.
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Astronauts Complete Spacewalk to Install Station Upgrades
Expedition 66 Flight Engineers Raja Chari of NASA and Matthias Maurer of the European Space Agency concluded their March 23 spacewalk after 6 hours and 54 minutes in preparation for upcoming International Space Station solar array installation. Maurer and Chari completed their major objective: to install hoses on a Radiator Beam Valve Module that routes ammonia through the station’s heat-rejecting radiators to keep systems at the proper temperature.
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NASA Provides Update to Astronaut Moon Lander Plans Under Artemis
As NASA makes strides to return humans to the lunar surface under Artemis, the agency announced plans March 23 to create additional opportunities for commercial companies to develop an astronaut Moon lander. NASA is asking American companies to propose lander concepts capable of ferrying astronauts between lunar orbit and the lunar surface for missions beyond Artemis III, which will land the first astronauts on the Moon in more than 50 years
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Cosmic Milestone: NASA Confirms 5,000 Exoplanets
Not so long ago, humans lived in a universe with only a small number of known planets, all of them orbiting the Sun. But a new raft of discoveries marks a scientific high point: More than 5,000 planets are now confirmed to exist beyond Earth’s solar system. The planetary odometer turned on March 21, with the latest batch of 65 exoplanets – planets outside the immediate solar family – added to the NASA Exoplanet Archive.
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