A winter chill descended on the Great Lakes region of North America in January 2026. Some of the effects were apparent in this satellite image as newly formed lake ice and a fresh layer of snow. The image, acquired by the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) instrument on NASA’s Terra satellite, shows the region on the morning of January 20, 2026.
In the days prior, a winter storm blanketed many parts of western Michigan near the lake with nearly a foot of snow, according to the National Weather Service. West of Walker, snowfall totals surpassed that amount, reaching nearly 14 inches (36 centimeters). The storm’s effects extended beyond Michigan as well, including blizzard conditions in parts of Ontario east of Lake Huron.
Lake effect snow is common in the Great Lakes area during late fall and winter, occurring when cold air moves over relatively warm, unfrozen water. As the air picks up heat and moisture, it rises to form narrow cloud bands that can produce heavy snowfall.
The air over Lake Erie was still moist enough for clouds to form, though the amount of open water on this lake has decreased sharply in recent days. Around mid-month, during a period of unseasonably warm air temperatures, ice coverage dropped to cover about 2 percent of the lake, according to the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. It then spiked to nearly 85 percent on January 21 after temperatures plummeted.
The frigid temperatures were brought about by an Arctic cold front that moved across the region. In Cleveland, for instance, the weather service issued a cold weather advisory on January 19 for wind chills as low as minus 15 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit. On that day, even colder wind chills were reported in the area around Chicago. Forecasts called for another round of cold Arctic air to spill over the Great Plains and Eastern U.S. over the coming weekend, accompanied by heavy snow.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Michala Garrison, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview. Story by Kathryn Hansen.
The Space Shuttle Challenger Memorial is seen during a wreath laying ceremony that was part of NASA’s Day of Remembrance, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026, at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va. Wreaths were laid in memory of those men and women who lost their lives in the quest for space exploration.
Each January, NASA pauses to honor members of the NASA family who lost their lives while furthering the cause of exploration and discovery, including the crews of Apollo 1 and space shuttles Challenger and Columbia. We celebrate their lives, their bravery, and contributions to human spaceflight.
Official crew portrait for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission with NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov. Ayers and Onishi will discuss their recent mission to the International Space Station during a visit to Marshall Space Flight Center on Jan. 23.
Credit: NASA
NASA will host two astronauts at 10 a.m. CST Friday, Jan. 23, for a media opportunity at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, who served as part of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission, will discuss their recent mission to the International Space Station.
Media interested in attending the event must confirm their attendance with Lance D. Davis, lance.d.davis@nasa.gov, and Molly Porter, molly.a.porter@nasa.gov, by 12 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 22 to receive further instructions.
The Crew-10 mission launched March 14 and was NASA’s 11th human spaceflight with SpaceX to the space station for the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. Aboard the station, the crew completed dozens of experiments and technology demonstrations before safely returning to Earth on Aug. 9, 2025.
NASA’s Commercial Crew Program provides reliable access to space, maximizing the use of the station for research and development and supporting future missions beyond low Earth orbit by partnering with private companies to transport astronauts to and from the space station.
The International Space Station remains the springboard to NASA’s next leap in space exploration, including future missions to the Moon and, eventually, Mars. The agency’s Huntsville Operations Support Center, or HOSC, at Marshall provides engineering and mission operations support for the space station, Commercial Crew Program, and other missions.
Within the HOSC, the commercial crew support team provides engineering and safety and mission assurance expertise for launch vehicles, spacecraft propulsion, and integrated vehicle performance. The HOSC’s Payload Operations Integration Center, which operates, plans, and coordinates science experiments aboard the space station 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, supported the Crew-10 mission, managing communications between the International Space Station crew and researchers worldwide.
Learn more about Crew-10 and agency’s Commercial Crew Program at:
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA’s Cross Flow Attenuated Natural Laminar Flow test article is mounted beneath the agency’s F-15 research aircraft ahead of the design’s high-speed taxi test on Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2026, at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. The 3-foot-tall scale model is designed to increase a phenomenon known as laminar flow and reduce drag, improving efficiency in large, swept wings like those found on most commercial aircraft.
NASA/Christopher LC Clark
NASA researchers have successfully completed a high-speed taxi test of a scale model of a design that could make future aircraft more efficient by improving how air flows across a wing’s surface, saving fuel and money.
On Jan. 12, the Crossflow Attenuated Natural Laminar Flow (CATNLF) test article reached speeds of approximately 144 mph, marking its first major milestone. The 3-foot-tall scale model looks like a fin mounted under the belly of one of the agency’s research F-15B testbed jets. However, it’s a scale model of a wing, mounted vertically instead of horizontally. The setup allows NASA to flight-test the wing design using an existing aircraft.
The CATNLF concept aims to increase a phenomenon known as laminar flow and reduce wind resistance, also known as drag.
A NASA computational study conducted between 2014 and 2017 estimated that applying a CATNLF wing design to a large, long-range aircraft like the Boeing 777 could achieve annual fuel savings of up to 10%. Although quantifying the exact savings this technology could achieve is difficult, the study indicates it could approach millions of dollars per aircraft each year.
NASA’s Cross Flow Attenuated Natural Laminar Flow test article is mounted beneath the agency’s F-15 research aircraft ahead of the design’s high-speed taxi test on Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2026, at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. The 3-foot-tall scale model is designed to increase a phenomenon known as laminar flow and reduce drag, improving efficiency in large, swept wings like those found on most commercial aircraft.
NASA/Christopher LC Clark
“Even small improvements in efficiency can add up to significant reductions in fuel burn and emissions for commercial airlines,” said Mike Frederick, principal investigator for CATNLF at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California.
Reducing drag is key to improving efficiency. During flight, a thin cover of air known as the boundary layer forms very near an aircraft’s surface. In this area, most aircraft experience increasing friction, also known as turbulent flow, where air abruptly changes direction. These abrupt changes increase drag and fuel consumption. CATNLF increases laminar flow, or the smooth motion of air, within the boundary layer. The result is more efficient aerodynamics, reduced friction, and less fuel burn.
The CATNLF testing falls under NASA’s Flight Demonstrations and Capabilities project, a part of the agency’s Integrated Aviation Systems Program under the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate. The concept of was first developed by NASA’s Advanced Air Transport Technology project, and in 2019, NASA Armstrong researchers developed the initial shape and parameters of the model. The design was later refined for efficiency at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.
“Laminar flow technology has been studied and used on airplanes to reduce drag for many decades now, but laminar flow has historically been limited in application,” said Michelle Banchy, Langley principal investigator for CATNLF.
NASA ground crew prepares the agency’s F-15 research aircraft and Cross Flow Attenuated Natural Laminar Flow (CATNLF) test article ahead of its first high-speed taxi test on Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2026, at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. The CATNLF design aims to reduce drag on wing surfaces to improve efficiency and, in turn, reduce fuel burn.
NASA/Christopher LC Clark
This limitation is due to crossflow, an aerodynamic phenomenon on angled surfaces that can prematurely end laminar flow. While large, swept wings like those found on most commercial aircraft provide aerodynamic efficiencies, crossflow tendencies remain.
In a 2018 wind tunnel test at Langley, researchers confirmed that the CATNLF design successfully achieved prolonged laminar flow.
“After the positive results in the wind tunnel test, NASA saw enough promise in the technology to progress to flight testing,” Banchy said. “Flight testing allows us to increase the size of the model and fly in air that has less turbulence than a wind tunnel environment, which are great things for studying laminar flow.”
NASA Armstrong’s F-15B testbed aircraft provides the necessary flight environment for laminar flow testing, Banchy said. The aircraft enables researchers to address fundamental questions about the technology while keeping costs lower than alternatives, such as replacing a test aircraft’s wing with a full-scale CATNLF model or building a dedicated demonstrator aircraft.
NASA’s Cross Flow Attenuated Natural Laminar Flow (CATNLF) scale model completes its first major milestone – high-speed taxi test – Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2026, at Edwards Air Force Base in California. NASA’s F-15 research aircraft, with the 3-foot-tall test article mounted on its underside, reached speeds of approximately 144 mph during testing. If successful, the technology could be applied to future commercial aircraft to improve efficiency and potentially reduce fuel consumption.
NASA/Christopher LC Clark
CATNLF currently focuses on commercial aviation, which has steadily increased over the past 20 years, with passenger numbers expected to double in the next 20, according to the International Civil Aviation Organization. Commercial passenger aircraft fly at subsonic speeds, or slower than the speed of sound.
“Most of us fly subsonic, so that’s where this technology would have the greatest impact right now,” Frederick said. NASA’s previous computational studies also confirmed that technology like CATNLF could be adapted for supersonic application.
In the coming weeks, CATNLF is expected to begin its first flight, kicking off a series of test flights designed to evaluate the design’s performance and capabilities in flight.
Looking ahead, NASA’s work on CATNLF could lay the groundwork for more efficient commercial air travel and might one day extend similar capabilities to supersonic flight, improving fuel efficiency at even higher speeds.
“The CATNLF flight test at NASA Armstrong will bring laminar technology one step closer to being implemented on next-generation aircraft,” Banchy said.
NASA announced Tuesday the selection of three new science investigations that will strengthen humanity’s understanding and exploration of the Moon. As part of the agency’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis campaign, American companies will deliver these research payloads to the lunar surface no earlier than 2028.
“With CLPS, NASA has been taking a new approach to lunar science, relying on U.S. industry innovation to travel to the surface of the Moon and enable scientific discovery,” said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters in Washington. “These selections continue this pipeline of lunar exploration, through research that will not only expand our knowledge about the Moon’s history and environment, but also inform future human safety and navigation on the Moon and beyond.”
The selected scientific payloads are:
Emission Imager for Lunar Infrared Analysis in 3D (EMILIA-3D). The EMILIA-3D payload will create three-dimensional thermal models of the lunar terrain, using a thermal imager to measure the temperature of the landscape coupled with a stereo pair of visible-light cameras. These models will help the U.S. better image and navigate the Moon’s surface through improved understanding of the properties of the dusty lunar soil, called regolith, and what temperature measurements convey about the lunar surface. The principal investigator is Andrew Ryan at the University of Arizona.
Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity (LISTER). The LISTER instrument will measure the heat flow of the Moon’s interior by drilling beneath the lunar surface, pausing at intervals to measure temperature changes and the ability of the subsurface material to conduct heat. A previous version of LISTER flew on the Blue Ghost Mission 1 CLPS delivery to the Moon’s near side, where it took eight temperature and thermal conductivity measurements and drilled down to about three feet beneath the lunar surface. This new LISTER investigation will study the heat flow generated by the Moon itself, giving us a better understanding of its thermal history. The principal investigator is Seiichi Nagihara at Texas Tech University.
Site-agnostic Energetic Lunar Ion and Neutron Environment (SELINE). The SELINE payload will provide new insight into the Moon’s radiation environment by studying, for the first time at the lunar surface, the radiation from both primary galactic cosmic rays and their secondary particles and how this radiation interacts with the lunar regolith. Data from SELINE will improve our understanding of the planetary processes at work on the Moon, as well as inform space weather preparation and safety for long-term human exploration of the lunar surface. The principal investigator is Drew Turner at Johns Hopkins University.
These science experiments, selected through NASA’s Payloads and Research Investigations on the Surface of the Moon call for proposals, do not require a specific landing site on the lunar surface to gather their data, and NASA will assign them to specific CLPS delivery task orders at a later time.
NASA uses CLPS to send scientific instruments and technology demonstrations to advance capabilities for science, exploration, or commercial development of the Moon and beyond. By supporting a steady cadence of lunar deliveries, the agency will continue to enable a growing lunar economy while leveraging the entrepreneurial innovation of the commercial space industry.
NASA’s Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation (CoECI) assists in the use of crowdsourcing across the federal government. CoECI’s NASA Tournament Lab offers the contract capability to run external crowdsourced challenges on behalf of NASA and other agencies.
The Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announces the “Supplements, Facts First: A Digital Adventure for Every Age” challenge. This competition aims to catalyze innovative multimedia strategies to transform static dietary supplement fact sheets into engaging digital experiences. It addresses a critical gap between authoritative supplement information and meaningful public engagement by incentivizing teams to develop prototypes that target the following modalities:
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft flies above Palmdale and Edwards, California, during its first flight Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, accompanied by a NASA F-15 research aircraft serving as chase.
NASA/Jim Ross
As NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft continues a series of flight tests over the California high desert in 2026, its pilot will be flying with a buddy closely looking out for his safety.
That colleague will be another test pilot in a separate chase aircraft. His job as chase pilot: keep a careful watch on things as he tracks the X-59 through the sky, providing an extra set of eyes to help ensure the flight tests are as safe as possible.
Having a chase pilot watch to make sure operations are going smoothly is an essential task when an experimental aircraft is exercising its capabilities for the first time. The chase pilot also takes on tasks like monitoring local weather and supplementing communications between the X-59 and air traffic control.
“All this helps reduce the test pilot’s workload so he can concentrate on the actual test mission,” said Jim “Clue” Less, a NASA research pilot since 2010 and 21-year veteran U.S. Air Force flyer.
Less served as chase pilot in a NASA F/A-18 research jet when NASA test pilot Nils Larson made the X-59’s first flight on Oct. 28. Going forward, Less and Larson will take turns flying as X-59 test pilot or chase pilot.
NASA pilots Jim “Clue” Less (left) and Nils Larson celebrate the X-59’s first flight on Oct. 28, 2025. Less flew an F-18 chase aircraft while Larson flew the X-59.
NASA/Genaro Vavuris
Staying Close
So how close does a chase aircraft fly to the X-59?
“We fly as close as we need to,” Less said. “But no closer than we need to.”
The distance depends on where the chase aircraft needs to be to best ensure the success of the test flight. Chase pilots, however, never get so close as to jeopardize safety.
We fly as close as we need to, but no closer than we need to.
Jim "clue" LESS
NASA Test Pilot
For example, during the X-59’s first flight the chase aircraft moved to within a wingspan of the experimental aircraft. At that proximity, the airspeed and altitude indicators inside both aircraft could be compared, allowing the X-59 team to calibrate their instruments.
Generally, the chase aircraft will remain about 500 and 1,000 feet away—or about 5-10 times the length of the X-59 itself—as the two aircraft cruise together.
“Of course, the chase pilot can move in closer if I need to look over something on the aircraft,” Less said. “We would come in as close as needed, but for the most part the goal is to stay out of the way.”
Airborne Photo Op
In a view captured from a NASA F-18 chase aircraft, the X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft lifts off for its first flight Oct. 28, 2025, from U.S. Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California.
NASA/Lori Losey
The up-close-and-personal vantage point of the chase aircraft also affords the opportunity to capture photos and video of the test aircraft.
For the initial X-59 flight, a NASA photographer—fully trained and certified to fly in a high-performance jet—sat in the chase aircraft’s rear seat to record images and transmit high-definition video down to the ground.
“We really have the best views,” Less said. “The top focus of the test team always is a safe flight and landing. But if we get some great shots in the process, it’s an added bonus.”
Chase aircraft can also carry sensors that gather data during the flight that would be impossible to obtain from the ground. In a future phase of X-59 flights, the chase aircraft will carry a probe to measure the X-59’s supersonic shock waves and help validate that the airplane is producing a quieter sonic “thump,” rather than a loud sonic boom to people on the ground.
The instrumentation was successfully tested using a pair of NASA F-15 research jets earlier this year.
As part of NASA’s Quesst mission, the data could help open the way for commercial faster-than-sound air travel over land.
Choice of Chase Aircraft
A NASA F-15 aircraft sits 20 feet off the left side of the X-59 aircraft, with a white hangar and hills in the background, during electromagnetic interference testing.
NASA/Carla Thomas
Chase aircraft have served as a staple of civilian and military flight tests for decades, with NASA and its predecessor—the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics—employing aircraft of all types for the job.
While both types are qualified as chase aircraft for the X-59, each has characteristics that make them appropriate for certain tasks.
The F/A-18 is a little more agile flying at lower speeds. One of NASA’s F/A-18s has a two-seat cockpit, and the optical quality and field of view of its canopy makes it the preferred aircraft for Armstrong’s in-flight photographers.
At the same time, the F-15 is more capable of keeping pace with the X-59 during supersonic test flights and carries the instrumentation that will measure the X-59’s shock waves.
“The choice for which chase aircraft we will use for any given X-59 test flight could go either way depending on other mission needs and if any scheduled maintenance requires the airplane to be grounded for a while,” Less said.
About the Author
Jim Banke
Managing Editor/Senior Writer
Jim Banke is a veteran aviation and aerospace communicator with more than 40 years of experience as a writer, producer, consultant, and project manager based at Cape Canaveral, Florida. He is part of NASA Aeronautics' Strategic Communications Team and is Managing Editor for the Aeronautics topic on the NASA website.
