Twin NASA Control Rooms Support Artemis Safety, Success
Twin control rooms at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, are actively supporting real-time mission operations in lunar orbit as part of the agency’s Artemis II mission, helping ensure astronaut safety and mission success as the crew prepares to return to Earth Friday, April 10.
The LUCA (Lunar Utilization Control Area) and LESA (Lander Engineering Support Area) rooms are part of the Huntsville Operations Support Center at NASA Marshall. While the spaces look nearly identical, the two are more like fraternal twins in their focus areas: LUCA primarily supports Artemis science operations, while LESA will provide engineering support for landing astronauts on the Moon.
LUCA (Lunar Utilization Control Area) at NASA Marshall is specially designed to support a wide variety of science operations on and around the Moon – and beyond. Engineers in the LUCA monitored operations for the Lunar Node-1 experiment, an autonomous navigation payload that was part of the first NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) launch on Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lunar lander in 2024. NASA Marshall flight controllers will use the LUCA again for Artemis II to monitor science operations.
NASA/Charles Beason
“The Huntsville Operations Support Center at NASA Marshall can be adapted to the needs of the agency’s missions, and LUCA and LESA are some of our newest configurable control rooms for the Artemis campaign,” said Harish Chandranath, Payload and Mission Operations Division Human Landing Systems project lead at Marshall. “In addition to supporting Artemis, our Huntsville Operations Support Center teams also support the Commercial Crew Program, the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket, and International Space Station science operations.”
Support center services include work to manage spacecraft command and telemetry, local and remote voice services for international connections, live and recorded video services, and a telescience resource kit – special software that makes sure two computers far apart can communicate without missing any information and without human help. All Huntsville Operations Support Center services can be tied into both the LUCA and LESA rooms, giving operators the capability to use data and communicate with scientists and experts around the world.
Support engineers will use the LESA (Lander Engineering Support Area) at NASA Marshall to monitor human landing system (HLS) for the first crewed Artemis missions.
NASA/Charles Beason
During Artemis II, teams in LUCA are supporting first-of-their-kind science operations designed to better understand the effects of deep space – such as microgravity and radiation – on crew physiology, immune response, and performance. The data gathered during the mission will inform future crewed flights to the Moon.
Meanwhile, teams in LESA are observing Artemis II mission operations in real time, which is a critical opportunity to refine processes and prepare for future crewed landings on the Moon’s surface. For Artemis missions, members of NASA’s Human Landing System Mission Insight Support Team – including engineers, safety leads, flight operations experts, and technical authorities – will operate from LESA to monitor lander systems and support key decision-making.
Through the Artemis program, NASA is returning humans to the Moon for scientific discovery, economic opportunity, and to build the foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars – for the benefit of all.
Overlapping volcanic complexes shape the eastern Sierra Nevada in this image acquired on March 29, 2026, by the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 9.
NASA Earth Observatory/Lauren Dauphin
Take a tour through volcanic history on the edge of the Sierra Nevada near Mammoth Lakes, California. Between the tall granite peaks to the west and the Basin and Range province to the east, overlapping volcanic complexes imprint the landscape with a collection of craters, cones, and calderas. The area, still restless today, draws interest from geologists studying Earth’s processes and from planetary scientists exploring its commonalities with volcanic terrain elsewhere in our solar system.
A string of volcanic features between Mono Lake and Mammoth Mountain is visible along the left side of this Landsat image. Known as the Mono-Inyo Craters, this chain of about three dozen lava domes, lava flows, and tephra rings formed within the past 10,000 years. Explosive eruptions in the area date back even further, but evidence of those older events is no longer apparent at the surface.
Among the most recent activity in this chain, explosive eruptions formed Panum Crater near Mono Lake about 700 years ago. A strombolian eruption deposited a ring of pumice, ash, obsidian fragments, and other material around the vent. After that, a lava dome made of pumice and obsidian built up in the center, creating the concentric-circle pattern visible today.
The Mono Craters arc across this image acquired on March 29, 2026, by the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 9.
NASA Earth Observatory/Lauren Dauphin
South of the Mono-Inyo Craters, Mammoth Mountain is perhaps best known for its ample skiable terrain, but it has a volcanic side, as well. The mountain is made up of at least 25 overlapping lava domes. Its last magmatic eruptions took place about 57,000 years ago, but steam-driven phreatic eruptions and other unrest have occurred much more recently.
Scientists believe a magma intrusion beneath the mountain in 1989 set off a spate of seismicity and volcanic gas emissions. Venting of carbon dioxide gas has killed trees in the area, and the U.S. Geological Survey continues to monitor the mountain’s CO2 emissions. Researchers have previously worked with NASA airborne remote sensing technology to measure ecosystem responses to elevated volcanic CO2 around Mammoth Mountain. More recent projects have expanded these efforts to other volcanoes and incorporated satellite imagery to detect signs of gas emissions. These methods partly rely on changes observed in vegetation and could aid in earlier warnings of volcanic hazards.
The most dramatic volcanism in the region, however, is far older. A massive eruption 760,000 years ago formed the Long Valley Caldera. This oval-shaped area, measuring 10 by 20 miles (16 by 32 kilometers), is bounded by snowy ridges, with Mammoth Mountain just off its southwest rim. Crowley Lake, a reservoir on the Owens River, drains the area to the southeast.
The caldera was formed during a six-day-long eruption, during which 150 cubic miles (625 cubic kilometers) of material were ejected. (That’s about 20 times the amount that was spewed in the 1912 eruption of Novarupta, the largest on Earth in the 20th century.) As a result, the surface over the magma storage area subsided thousands of feet to create a vast depression. Scientists with NASA’s Goddard Instrument Field Team conducted research in the area in 2023 to better understand how similar massive eruptions on Mars and other planets and moons in our solar system may have altered their environments.
NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey.Story by Lindsey Doermann.
Showing a large portion of M66, this Hubble photo is a composite of images obtained at visible and infrared wavelengths. The images have been combined to represent the real colors of the galaxy.
Credits: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration; Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin and Robert Gendler
Leo is a prominent sight for stargazers in April. Its famous sickle, punctuated by the bright star Regulus, draws many a beginning stargazer’s eyes, inviting deeper looks into some of Leo’s celestial delights, including a great double star and a famous galactic trio.
The constellation, Leo. You can find this constellation in the springtime skies.
Stellarium
Leo’s distinctive forward sickle, or “reverse question mark,” is easy to spot as it climbs the skies in the southeast after sunset. If you are having a difficult time spotting the sickle, look for bright Sirius and Procyon in Canis Major and Canis Minor. Complete a triangle by drawing two lines to the east, joining at the bright star Regulus, the “period” in the reverse question mark. Trailing them is a trio of bright stars forming an isosceles triangle, the brightest star in that formation named Denebola. Connecting these two patterns together forms the constellation of Leo the Lion, with the forward-facing sickle being the lion’s head and mane, and the rear triangle its hindquarters. Can you see this mighty feline? It might help to imagine Leo proudly sitting up and staring straight ahead, like a celestial Sphinx. To help find these objects, you can use online tools like Stellarium Web.
If you peer deeper into Leo with a small telescope or binoculars, you’ll find a notable double star! Look in the sickle of Leo for its second-brightest star, Algieba, also called Gamma Leonis. This star splits into two bright yellow stars even with a small magnification. You can make this “split” with binoculars, but it’s more apparent with a telescope. Compare the color and intensity of these two stars: do you notice any differences? There are other multiple-star systems in Leo; spend a few minutes scanning with your instrument of choice, and see what you discover.
The Leo Triplet – three galaxies that appear to be close together under the star Chertan in the Leo constellation.
Stellarium
One of the most famous sights in Leo is the “Leo Triplet”: three galaxies that appear to be close together. They are indeed gravitationally bound to one another, around 30 million light-years away! You’ll need a telescope to spot them, and use an eyepiece with a wide field of view to see all three galaxies at once! Look below the star Chertan to find galaxies M65, M66, and NGC 3628 – The Hamburger Galaxy. Compare and contrast the appearance of each galaxy – while they are all spiral galaxies, each one is tilted at different angles to our point of view! Do they all look like spiral galaxies to you?
April is Citizen Science Month, and there are some fun Leo-related activities you can participate in! If you enjoy
comparing the Triplets, the Galaxy Zoo project could use your eyes to help classify different galaxies from sky survey data! Looking at Leo itself can even help measure light pollution: the Globe at Night project uses Leo as their target constellation for sky quality observations from the Northern Hemisphere. Find and participate in many more NASA community science programs at NASA Citizen Science. Happy observing!
The Moon, backlit by the Sun during a solar eclipse, is photographed by NASA’s Orion spacecraft on Monday, April 6, 2026, during the Artemis II mission. Orion is visible in the foreground on the left. Earth is reflecting sunlight at the left edge of the Moon, which is slightly brighter than the rest of the disk. The bright spot visible just below the Moon’s bottom right edge is Saturn. Beyond that, the bright spot at the right edge of the image is Mars.
Credit: NASA
The first flyby images of the Moon captured by NASA’s Artemis II astronauts during their historic test flight reveal some regions no human has seen, including a rare in-space solar eclipse. Released Tuesday, astronauts captured the images April 6 during the mission’s seven-hour flyby of the lunar far side, showing humanity’s return to the Moon’s vicinity and opening a trove of scientific data.
NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, have used a fleet of cameras to take thousands of photos. The agency released several images, with more expected in the coming days as the crew members are more than halfway through their journey and now headed home toward Earth.
“Our four Artemis II astronauts — Reid, Victor, Christina, and Jeremy — took humanity on an incredible journey around the Moon and brought back images so exquisite and brimming with science, they will inspire generations to come,” said Dr. Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters in Washington.
During the lunar flyby, the crew documented impact craters, ancient lava flows, and surface fractures that will help scientists study the Moon’s geologic evolution. They monitored color, brightness, and texture differences across the terrain, observed an earthset and earthrise, and captured solar‑eclipse views of the Sun’s corona. The crew also reported six meteoroid impact flashes on the darkened lunar surface.
Peeking at Earth
As NASA’s Artemis II crew came close to passing behind the Moon and experiencing a planned loss of signal on Monday, April 6, 2026, they captured this image of a crescent Earth setting on the Moon’s limb. In this photo, the dark portion of Earth is experiencing nighttime, while Australia and Oceania are in the daylight. In the foreground, the Ohm crater is visible, with terraced edges and a flat floor interrupted by central peaks. Peaks such as these form in complex craters when the lunar surface is liquified on impact, and the liquefied surface splashes upward during the crater’s formation.
Credit: NASA
Setting Earth
The lunar surface fills the frame in sharp detail, as seen during NASA’s Artemis II lunar flyby, while a distant Earth sets in the background. This image was captured at 6:41 p.m. EDT, on April 6, 2026, just three minutes before the Orion spacecraft and its crew went behind the Moon and lost contact with Earth for 40 minutes before emerging on the other side. In this image, the dark portion of Earth is experiencing nighttime, while on its day side, swirling clouds are visible over the Australia and Oceania region. In the foreground, Ohm crater shows terraced edges and a relatively flat floor marked by central peaks — formed when the surface rebounded upward during the impact that created the crater.
Credit: NASA
Shadows Across Vavilov Crater
A close-up view taken by the Artemis II crew of Vavilov Crater on the rim of the older and larger Hertzsprung basin on Monday, April 6, 2026. The right portion of the image shows the transition from smooth material within an inner ring of mountains to more rugged terrain around the rim. Vavilov and other craters and their ejecta are accentuated by long shadows at the terminator, the boundary between lunar day and night. The image was captured with a handheld camera at a focal length of 400 mm, as the crew flew around the far side of the Moon.
Credit: NASA
Artemis Era Earthrise
Earthrise captured through the Orion spacecraft window at 7:22 p.m. EDT on Monday, April 6, 2026, during the Artemis II crew’s flyby of the Moon’s far side. Earth appears as a delicate crescent, with only its upper edge illuminated. The planet’s soft blue hue and scattered white cloud systems stand out against the blackness of space, while the lower portion fades into night. Taken with a 400 mm lens, the image, Earthrise, reveals a striking alignment of Earth and Moon, with the Moon in the top foreground and the Earth below. Along the lunar horizon, rugged terrain is silhouetted against the bright crescent Earth. Both bodies are oriented with their north poles to the left and south poles to the right, offering a unique perspective of our home planet from deep space. This photo was rotated 90 degrees clockwise for standard viewing orientation.
Credit: NASA
Artemis II in Eclipse
Captured by the Artemis II crew during their lunar flyby on Monday, April 6, 2026, this image shows the Moon fully eclipsing the Sun. From the crew’s perspective, the Moon appears large enough to completely block the Sun, creating nearly 54 minutes of totality and extending the view far beyond what is possible from Earth. The corona forms a glowing halo around the dark lunar disk, revealing details of the Sun’s outer atmosphere typically hidden by its brightness. Also visible are stars, typically too faint to see when imaging the Moon, but with the Moon in darkness stars are readily imaged. This unique vantage point provides both a striking visual and a valuable opportunity for astronauts to document and describe the corona during humanity’s return to deep space. The faint glow of the nearside of the Moon is visible in this image, having been illuminated by light reflected off the Earth.
Credit: NASA
Artemis II Total Solar Eclipse, Partial Frame
A close-up view from the Orion spacecraft during the Artemis II crew’s lunar flyby on Monday, April 6, 2026, captures a total solar eclipse, with only part of the Moon visible in the frame as it fully obscures the Sun. Although the full lunar disk extends beyond the image, the Sun’s faint corona remains visible as a soft halo of light around the Moon’s edge. From this deep-space vantage point, the Moon appeared large enough to sustain nearly 54 minutes of totality, far longer than total solar eclipses typically seen from Earth. This cropped perspective emphasizes the scale of the alignment and reveals subtle structure in the corona during the rare, extended eclipse observed by the crew. The bright silver glint on the left edge of the image is the planet Venus. The round, dark gray feature visible along the Moon’s horizon between the 9 and 10 o’clock positions is Mare Crisium, a feature visible from Earth. We see faint lunar features because light reflected off of Earth provides a source of illumination.
Credit: NASA
Earthset
Earthset captured through the Orion spacecraft window at 6:41 p.m. EDT, April 6, 2026, during the Artemis II crew’s flyby of the Moon. A muted blue Earth with bright white clouds sets behind the cratered lunar surface. The dark portion of Earth is experiencing nighttime. On Earth’s day side, swirling clouds are visible over the Australia and Oceania region. In the foreground, Ohm crater has terraced edges and a flat floor interrupted by central peaks. Central peaks form in complex craters when the lunar surface, liquefied on impact, splashes upwards during the crater’s formation.
Credit: NASA
Final Flyby Preparations
NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen prepare for their journey around the far side of the Moon by configuring their camera equipment shortly before beginning the Artemis II lunar flyby observations.
Credit: NASA
Ready for Close Up
Captured by the Artemis II crew, the heavily cratered terrain of the eastern edge of the South Pole-Aitken basin is seen with the shadowed terminator – the boundary between lunar day and night – at the top of the image. The South Pole-Aitken basin is the largest and oldest basin on the Moon, providing a glimpse into an ancient geologic history built up over billions of years.
Credit: NASA
Scientists already are analyzing the downlinked images, audio, and data to refine the timing and locations of these events and compare them with observations from amateur astronomers. The new imagery also will help NASA better understand the Moon’s geology and inform future exploration and science missions that will lay the foundation for an enduring presence on the Moon ahead of future astronaut missions to Mars.
“It was remarkable listening to the crew describe the stunning views during the flyby,” said Jacob Bleacher, NASA’s chief exploration scientist at the agency’s headquarters. “At first, their descriptions didn’t quite match what we were seeing on our screens. Now that higher resolution images are coming down, we can finally experience the moments they were trying to share and truly appreciate the scientific return provided by these images and our other research on this mission.”
Official NASA imagery for viewing and download is available on the agency website and digital platforms, including:
NASA is targeting 8:07 p.m. EDT (5:07 p.m. PDT) Friday, April 10, for the return of Artemis II off the coast of San Diego. NASA+ live return coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. and will continue until NASA and Department of War personnel safely assist the crew out of Orion and transport them to the USS John P. Murtha.
Briefings, events, and 24/7 mission coverage are streaming on NASA’s YouTube channel and events will each have their own stream closer to their start time. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of online platforms, including social media.
As part of 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, and to build on our foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars.
The Artemis II crew captured this view of Earth setting on April 6, 2026, as they flew around the Moon. As the astronauts flew over the Moon’s far side, the crew photographed and described terrain features including impact craters, ancient lava flows, and surface cracks and ridges formed as the Moon slowly evolved over time. They also noted differences in color, brightness and texture, which provide clues that help scientists understand the composition and history of the lunar surface.
The image is reminiscent of the iconic Earthrise image taken by astronaut Bill Anders 58 years earlier as the Apollo 8 crew flew around the Moon. The Apollo 8 mission was the first crewed spacecraft to circumnavigate the Moon.
Midway through their lunar observation period on April 6, 2026, the Artemis II crew members, NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, pause to turn the camera around for a selfie inside the Orion spacecraft.
Credit: NASA
Media will have an opportunity at 9:45 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, April 8, to speak with NASA’s Artemis II crew members as they continue their journey toward Earth during their historic mission around the Moon.
The 20-minute virtual news conference will take place with NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
Live coverage will stream on NASA’s YouTube channel. An instant replay will be available online. Learn how to watch NASA content on a variety of platforms, including social media.
Members of the media previously credentialed at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and planning to be onsite must RSVP for consideration to ask a question during the call. NASA will prioritize media outlets that have not yet spoken to the Artemis II astronauts in space.
With just days until the crew splashes down off the coast of San Diego on Friday, April 10, the Artemis II test flight has reached multiple milestones, including a successful launch, manually piloting the Orion spacecraft, multiple spacecraft moves to propel Orion to the Moon and adjust its course during the flight, surpassing the Apollo 13 record for farthest crewed spaceflight, and a lunar flyby to view the far side of the Moon.
Artemis II is the first crewed mission under the agency’s Artemis program, where NASA is sending astronauts on increasingly difficult missions to explore more of the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and to build on our foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars.
Shallow groundwater aquifers are driest in northern and central Florida in this map based on observations acquired on March 30, 2026, by theGRACE-FO(Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On) satellites.
NASA Earth Observatory/Lauren Dauphin
Florida is among the wettest U.S. states, but that doesn’t mean it is drought-free. Nearly all of Florida faced at least “moderate” drought, and nearly 80 percent faced “extreme” conditions in April 2026, according to data from the U.S. Drought Monitor. Unusually dry conditions gripped the state for much of 2025, but the intensity and extent of the drought ratcheted up starting in January 2026.
Data from a NASA and German Research Center for Geosciences satellite mission show that the drought has left its imprint on the state’s underground water supplies, which are often tapped for drinking water and farming. The map above combines data from the twin GRACE-FO (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On) satellites and ground-based measurements to estimate the relative amount of groundwater stored underground as of March 30, 2026. The colors depict the wetness percentile, or how the amount of shallow groundwater compares to long-term records (1948–2010). Blue areas have more water than usual, and orange and red areas have less. Aquifers in the northern and central regions of the state are particularly dry.
The drought is being felt throughout Florida. Some water districts have imposed restrictions on when water can be used for certain activities, such as lawn watering and car washes. News reports suggest that the dry weather poses a threat to crops, many of which already suffered severe damage during hard freezes in February. Large wildland fires have flared up in some areas, and even wetland ecosystems like the Everglades face unusually dry conditions.
The 2025-2026 drought is the most severe to affect Florida since 2012, data from the U.S. Drought Monitor show.
NASA Earth Observatory / Lauren Dauphin
U.S. Drought Monitor records indicate that the current drought is the most widespread and severe to affect the state since 2012. Many areas have received less than half their normal rainfall since September 1, 2025, according to the National Weather Service. St. Petersburg has seen only 7.7 inches (195.6 millimeters) of rain since September 1, compared to the normal 19.0 inches, making this the driest year on record for that period.
However, the current drought does not yet rival the worst drought that has parched the state, according to data from the U.S. Drought Monitor. Their analysis indicates that the 2000–2001 drought was more intense, lasted longer, and affected a larger area. GRACE-FO observations are among the sources of information that the U.S. Drought Monitor considers when mapping drought conditions in its weekly assessments. Forecasters anticipate that a slow-moving rainstorm set to hit Florida this week may offer some relief.
