Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Artist concept of a high-speed point-to-point vehicle.
NASA Langley
What We do
The High-Speed Flight (HSF) project develops technologies that make high-speed, airbreathing, commercial flight possible from Mach 1 to Mach 5 and above.
HSF creates tools, technologies, and knowledge that will help eliminate today’s technical barriers to practical supersonic flight, most notably sonic boom. The project supports the X-59 quiet supersonic vehicle testing by gathering acoustic data and validating tools that predict in-flight sonic booms.
HSF conducts fundamental and applied research that explores key challenges in reusable, hypersonic flight technology.
Future Applications
The project evaluates the potential for future commercial hypersonic vehicles, including reusable access to space and commercial point-to-point missions.
Unique Hypersonic Facilities and Expertise
NASA maintains unique facilities, laboratories, and subject matter experts who investigate fundamental and applied research areas to solve the challenges of hypersonic flight. The High-Speed Flight project coordinates closely with partners in industry, academia, and other government agencies to leverage relevant data sets to validate computational models. These partners also utilize NASA expertise, facilities, and computational tools. Partnerships are critical to advancing the state of the art in hypersonic flight.
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA
NASA’s Advanced Air Vehicles Program (AAVP) studies, evaluates, and develops technologies and capabilities for new aircraft systems and explores far-future concepts for revolutionary air travel improvements. AAVP develops technologies for all flight regimes from hover to hypersonic to enable safe, new aircraft that are faster, quieter, and more fuel efficient.
AAVP develops a broad range of technologies that maintain U.S. leadership in aerospace, benefitting the nation’s economy and quality of life. AAVP’s research primes the technology pipeline, bolstering U.S. competitiveness.
For subsonic transport aircraft, AAVP accelerates development of key technologies to ensure they will be ready by the late 2020s to transition into U.S. industry’s next-generation single-aisle transport aircraft. AAVP also explores high-risk, high-payoff concepts for future generations of aircraft. The program engages with partners from industry, academia, and other government agencies to maintain a broad perspective on technology solutions to aviation’s challenges, to pursue mutually beneficial collaborations, and to leverage opportunities for effective technology transition.
The food flying aboard Artemis II is designed to support crew health and performance during the mission around the Moon. With no resupply, refrigeration, or late-load capability, all meals must be carefully selected to remain safe, shelf-stable, and easy to prepare and consume in NASA’s Orion spacecraft. Food selections are developed in coordination with space food experts and the crew to balance calorie needs, hydration, and nutrient intake while accommodating individual crew preferences.
Here are a frequently asked questions about how NASA designs and prepares food systems for Artemis II to support crew health:
What considerations go into selecting and packaging food for safe use during a mission like Artemis II?
Food selection for Artemis II considers shelf life, food safety, nutritional value, crew preference, and compatibility with Orion’s mass, volume, and power requirements. Foods must be easy to prepare and consume in microgravity, minimize crumbs, and remain safe and stable throughout the mission. The crew provided input well before the meals were packed for the test flight.
How are menu items structured to make up an astronaut’s typical daily meals?
On a typical mission day—excluding launch and reentry—astronauts have scheduled time for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Each astronaut is allotted two flavored beverages per day, which may include coffee. Beverage options are limited due to upmass constraints, which restrict how much food and drink can be carried onboard.
Fresh foods will not be flying on Artemis II as Orion does not have refrigeration nor the late load capability required for fresh foods. Shelf-stable foods help manage food safety and quality throughout the intended shelf life in a compact, self-contained spacecraft, while also reducing the risk of crumbs or particulates in microgravity.
How do Artemis II menus differ from those used during Apollo, space shuttle, and International Space Station missions?
Artemis II menus reflect decades of advancement in space food systems. Apollo missions relied on early food technologies with limited variety, while space shuttle missions expanded menu options and onboard preparation. The International Space Station benefits from regular resupply and occasional fresh foods. In contrast, Artemis II uses a fixed, pre-selected menu designed for a self-contained space vehicle with no resupply.
How much input does the Artemis II crew have in choosing their meals?
The Artemis II crew has direct input into menu selection. Crew members sample, evaluate, and rate all foods on the standard menu during preflight testing, and their preferences are balanced with nutritional requirements and what Orion can accommodate. Final, crew-specific menus are set well before launch. Two to three days’ worth of food for each crewmember is packed together in a single container, providing flexibility for meal selection during the mission.
How are menus tailored for different mission phases, such as launch, transit, and re-entry?
Menus are tailored based on the spacecraft’s food preparation capabilities during each hase of flight. Certain foods — such as freeze-dried meals — require hydration using Orion’s potable water dispenser, which is not available during some phases, including launch and landing. As a result, foods selected for those phases must be ready-to-eat and compatible with the spacecraft’s operational constraints, while a broader range of food options are available once full food preparation systems are up and running.
How is space food prepared in the Orion spacecraft?
Food aboard Orion is ready-to-eat, rehydratable, thermostabilized, or irradiated. The crew uses Orion’s potable water dispenser to rehydrate foods and beverages and a compact, briefcase-style food warmer to heat meals as needed.
What challenges come with designing and preparing food for a contained spacecraft like Orion?
Designing food systems for Orion requires balancing nutrition, safety, and crew preference within strict mass, volume, and power limits inside a compact, shared cabin.
Foods must be easy to store, prepare, and consume in microgravity while minimizing crumbs and waste. Preparation is intentionally simple, using ready-to-eat, rehydratable, thermostabilized, or irradiated foods that can be safely prepared without interfering with crew operations or spacecraft systems.
Watch: How to Eat in Space Aboard Orion
Victoria Segovia
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
victoria.segovia@nasa.gov
Curiosity Blog, Sols 4818-4824: Thinking Out of the Boxwork
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Front Hazard Avoidance Camera (Front Hazcam), showing the rover’s Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) instrument investigating a target. APXS is a spectrometer that measures the abundance of chemical elements in rocks and soils, is about the size of a cupcake, and is located on the turret at the end of Curiosity’s robotic arm. Curiosity captured this image on Feb. 26, 2026 — Sol 4820, or Martian day 4,820 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 13:03:08 UTC.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Written by Ashley Stroupe, Operations Systems Engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Earth planning date: Friday, Feb. 27, 2026
This week we had three planning sessions, exploring the eastern side of the boxwork unit. As a Rover Planner on Monday, I worked on the arm and drive activities, while on Friday I served as the Engineering Uplink Lead (planning all of our engineering activities like heating and managing our onboard data). We had two small drives this week to put different targets into our workspace for each plan. The months-long careful and systematic investigation of the boxwork unit will hopefully provide the science team insights on what was going on in this area of Mars that resulted in this interesting and unique terrain. As we wrap it up, we are already thinking ahead to our future investigations of the sulfate unit, where we will be heading after finishing here and continuing our climb up Mount Sharp.
With three plans and short drives, we were able to do a total of 19 Mastcam stereo mosaics, getting a full 360-degree panorama as well as additional documentation of the nearby ridges/hollows and the nearby sulfate unit. Some of the rocks in the hollows show a return of the polygonal structures that we saw in abundance prior to entering the boxwork unit, but have only seen sparsely in other hollows. As we are entering deeper into the warmer months, the start of dust-storm season, we have also been doing a lot of atmospheric measurements. We did multiple observations of the crater rim (to watch it fading into the haze), Mastcam solar Tau measurements (looking at the Sun to measure dust in the atmosphere), dust-devil movies, and other sky observations.
We investigated a total of four targets with MAHLI and APXS, two of which we were able to brush. The accompanying image shows the APXS down on one of the targets near the contact. Most of the targets were not very complicated for the Rover Planners because the rocks have been mostly smooth and flat. But our Wednesday target, “Los Monos,” was slightly under the front of the rover, and we had to do some additional intermediate arm motions to reach underneath safely. We won’t actually know if today’s targets are on the other side of the contact (in the sulfate unit) or not until we can study the data.
Planning the short drives has been interesting, as with most of the boxwork unit drives, because we must navigate around the sand and steeper slopes in hopes of minimizing slip. In this weekend’s plan our drive will head south towards the southern end of the boxwork unit, where the terrain smooths out a bit and driving should be easier.
The Space Environments Complex at NASA’s Glenn Research Center at Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio, shown here in September 2024. Armstrong Test Facility sits on 6,400 acres of land.
Credit: NASA/Jordan Salkin
NASA’s Glenn Research Center is seeking proposals to lease select land parcels at its Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio. Proposals are due by 5 p.m. EST on July 2, 2026.
The parcels are part of an area of land that currently serves as a buffer for ongoing NASA operations. The solicitation includes the land parcels, any existing facilities on the property, and access to supporting infrastructure needed for a tenant to operate onsite.
The available land includes five parcels ranging in size from approximately 184 to 516 acres, for a total of about 1,736 acres. Two of the parcels currently sit within Armstrong Test Facility’s controlled-access area. Proposers may submit proposals for individual parcels, portions of parcels, or combinations of parcels and acreage.
If selected, the proposer(s) would enter a lease with NASA using a Model Enhanced Use Lease Agreement, which provides the rights needed to occupy, operate, modify, and maintain the land for one 20-year base period and two consecutive 10-year option periods. Proposals may identify other term options, which will be evaluated and considered by NASA.
During the proposal and review period, NASA plans to request feedback from the community on factors most important to them for NASA to consider when evaluating proposals.
NASA Glenn first announced plans to lease property and facilities in May 2024 under the government’s Enhanced Use Lease authority. These lease agreements allow space, aeronautics, and other related industries to use agency land and facilities, reducing NASA’s maintenance costs while fostering strategic partnerships that spur innovation.
“As we modernize our Cleveland and Sandusky campuses to support NASA’s future missions, Enhanced Use Leases help ensure full use of government land and facilities while creating regional economic opportunities,” said Dr. Jimmy Kenyon, Glenn’s center director.
Armstrong Test Facility, formerly known as Plum Brook Station, spans more than 6,400 acres of controlled land. Located near Lake Erie and several popular tourist destinations, it is home to unique, world-class test facilities that support complex ground testing for the international aerospace community.
Interested parties should contact NASA HQ Real Estate at hq-realestate@mail.nasa.gov to submit a request to view the property.
For more information about Armstrong Test Facility, visit:
Two Observatories, One Cosmic Eye: Hubble and Euclid View Cat’s Eye Nebula
Hubble and Euclid teamed up in this image of the Cat’s Eye Nebula, NGC 6543.
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, ESA Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA/Q1-2025, J.-C. Cuillandre & E. Bertin (CEA Paris-Saclay), Z. Tsvetanov
ESA/Hubble & NASA, ESA Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA/Q1-2025, J.-C. Cuillandre & E. Bertin (CEA Paris-Saclay), Z. Tsvetanov
This new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features one of the most visually intricate remnants of a dying star: the Cat’s Eye Nebula, also known as NGC 6543. This extraordinary planetary nebula lies in the constellation Draco and has captivated astronomers for decades with its elaborate and multilayered structure. Observations with ESA’s Gaia mission place the nebula at 4,400 light-years away.
Planetary nebulae, so-called because of their round shape, which made them appear to look like planets when viewed through early telescopes, are in fact expanding gas thrown off by stars in their final stages of evolution. It was the Cat’s Eye Nebula itself where this fact was first discovered in 1864 — examining the spectrum of its light reveals the emission from individual molecules that’s characteristic of a gas, distinguishing planetary nebulae from stars and galaxies.
Hubble also revolutionized our understanding of planetary nebulae; its detailed images showed that the simple, circular appearance of a planetary nebula seen from the ground belies a very complex morphology. This was particularly true of the Cat’s Eye Nebula, where Hubble images in 1995 revealed never-before-seen structures that broadened our understanding of how planetary nebulae come to be.
In this new image, Hubble captures the very core of billowing gas with the High Resolution Channel sub-instrument on its Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). This instrument is optimized for taking very sharp images of fine details in a small area, such as the complex features at the heart of the Cat’s Eye Nebula. The data reveal a tapestry of concentric shells, jets of high-speed gas and dense knots sculpted by shock interactions, features that appear almost surreal in their intricacy. These structures are believed to record episodic mass loss from the dying star at the nebula’s center, creating a kind of cosmic “fossil record” of its final evolutionary stages. Part of these data were also used in a previous image of the Cat’s Eye Nebula, released in 2004. Previously unused data from ACS is combined with state-of-the-art image processing to create this new image, the sharpest yet taken of this nebula.
ESA/Hubble & NASA, Z. Tsvetanov
This time, Hubble is joined by ESA’s Euclid space telescope to create a new image of NGC 6543. The combined eyes of Hubble and Euclid reveal the remarkable complexity of stellar death in this object. Though primarily designed to map the distant universe, Euclid captures the Cat’s Eye Nebula as part of its deep imaging surveys. In Euclid’s wide, near-infrared, and visible light view, the arcs and filaments of the nebula’s bright central region are situated within a halo of colorful fragments of gas zooming away from the star. This ring was ejected from the star at an earlier stage, before the main nebula at the center formed. The whole nebula stands out against a backdrop teeming with distant galaxies, demonstrating how local astrophysical beauty and the farthest reaches of the cosmos can be seen together with Euclid.
In Euclid’s wide, near-infrared, and visible light view, the arcs and filaments of the nebula’s bright central region are situated within a halo of colorful fragments of gas zooming away from the star. This ring was ejected from the star at an earlier stage, before the main nebula at the center formed. Hubble captures the very core of the billowing gas with high-resolution visible-light images, adding extra detail in the center of this image. The whole nebula stands out against a backdrop teeming with distant galaxies, demonstrating how local astrophysical beauty and the farthest reaches of the cosmos can be seen together in modern astronomical surveys. Together, these missions provide a rich and complementary view of NGC 6543 — revealing the delicate interplay between stellar end-of-life processes and the vast cosmic tapestry beyond.
ESA/Hubble & NASA, ESA Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA/Q1-2025, J.-C. Cuillandre & E. Bertin (CEA Paris-Saclay), Z. Tsvetanov
Within this broad view of the nebula and its surroundings, Hubble captures the very core of the billowing gas with a new high-resolution visible-light image, adding extra detail in the center of this image. The data reveal a tapestry of concentric shells, jets of high-speed gas and dense knots sculpted by shock interactions, features that appear almost surreal in their intricacy. These structures are believed to record episodic mass loss from the dying star at the nebula’s center, creating a kind of cosmic “fossil record” of its final evolutionary stages.
Combining the focused view of Hubble with Euclid’s deep field observations not only highlights the nebula’s exquisite structure but also places it within the broader context of the universe that both space telescopes explore. Together, these missions provide a rich and complementary view of NGC 6543 — revealing the delicate interplay between stellar end-of-life processes and the vast cosmic tapestry beyond.
Download a 12.1 MB Tiff (4000 X 1667) of the Euclid and Hubble image (left) and the Hubble image (right) of the Cat’s Eye Nebula.
Hubble Image of the Cat’s Eye Nebula 2026
Download a 14.3 MB Tiff (1546 X 1608) of Hubble’s latest image of the Cat’s Eye Nebula.
Euclid and Hubble’s Image of the Cat’s Eye Nebula
Download a 18.9 MB Tiff (4000 X 2195) of the combined Euclid and Hubble view of the Cat’s Eye Nebula.
Hubble Image of the Cat’s Eye Nebula 2004
This detailed Hubble image of the Cat’s Eye Nebula looks like the penetrating eye of the disembodied sorcerer Sauron from the film adaptation of “The Lord of the Rings.”
Hubble Image of the Cat’s Eye Nebula 1995
This Hubble image shows one of the most complex planetary nebulae ever seen, NGC 6543, nicknamed the “Cat’s Eye Nebula.”
Hubble Science: The Death Throes of Stars
When stars die, they throw off their outer layers, creating the clouds that birth new stars.
Universe Uncovered: Hubble’s Nebulae
These ethereal veils of gas and dust tell the story of star birth and death.
