As NASA pushes the boundaries of exploration and innovation for the benefit of humanity, the agency is looking for partners to share mission stories covering Artemis Moon missions, nuclear propulsion, aeronautics, and more.

NASA published an Announcement for Proposals on May 21 asking filmmakers, documentarians, songwriters, storytellers, poets, and others to submit proposals to partner with the agency by Tuesday, June 30.

In this initial round, NASA is seeking up to 10 partners for unfunded Space Act Agreements to share the stories behind, and insights into, multiple NASA missions, including, but not limited to, the following:

• Artemis program, including the recently added Artemis III mission in 2027, and Artemis IV lunar landing in 2028, as well as plans for the agency to develop a Moon Base. Learn more about Artemis on the agency’s website.
• NASA’s advancement of nuclear propulsion, including the Space Reactor-1 Freedom mission to Mars in 2028 carrying the Skyfall payload.
• NASA’s cutting-edge aviation work through flight tests and other efforts.

While this opportunity is focused on U.S. creators, the agency will consider proposals with a minority of international participants. Proposals should detail which area of focus is desired, funding and distribution arrangements, and any specifics needs from NASA to move forward (access to facilities, personnel, etc.).

Full requirements and other details are available online:

https://go.nasa.gov/CreatorProposals

-end-

Camille Gallo / Cheryl Warner
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
camille.m.gallo@nasa.gov / cheryl.m.warner@nasa.gov

NASA will provide live coverage on Wednesday, May 27, as two Roscosmos cosmonauts conduct a spacewalk outside the International Space Station. The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at approximately 10:15 a.m. EDT and last roughly five hours.

Watch NASA’s live coverage beginning at 9:45 a.m. on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and the agency’s YouTube channel. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of online platforms, including social media.

International Space Station Expedition 74 commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and flight engineer Sergei Mikaev will install a solar radiation experiment on the Zvezda service module and remove other science hardware from the Poisk and Nauka modules of the orbiting complex’s Roscosmos segment. If time allows, the duo also will photograph one of the Progress 94 cargo spacecraft’s Kurs rendezvous antennas, which failed to deploy in March following its launch to the space station.

This Roscosmos spacewalk will be the second for Kud-Sverchkov and the first for Mikaev. Kud-Sverchkov will wear a spacesuit with red stripes, and Mikaev will wear a spacesuit with blue stripes. It will be the 279th spacewalk in support of space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.

To learn more about International Space Station research, operations, and its crews, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/station

-end-

Josh Finch / Jimi Russell
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / james.j.russell@nasa.gov

Sandra Jones
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov

This near-infrared image released on May 6, 2026, shows a section of one of the spiral arms of Messier 51 (M51). M51 is one of four nearby galaxies observed by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in a study of nearly 9,000 star clusters.

Data from the study shows that more massive star clusters emerge more quickly from the clouds they are born in. Learning about star formation helps us understand galactic evolution, the dynamics within a galaxy, as well as how and where planets form.

See what scientists learned.

Image credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Pedrini, A. Adamo (Stockholm University) and the FEAST JWST team

From high‑speed research flights to high‑altitude science campaigns, NASA depends on aircraft that perform at their best and the ground crews who keep them mission ready.

At NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, specially trained maintenance crews are essential to keeping the agency’s aircraft flying safely and reliably.

This year, NASA added two F-15s and a Pilatus PC-12 to its fleet at Armstrong. These aircraft – alongside platforms such as the high-altitude ER-2s and NASA’s newest X-plane, the X-59 – reflect a wide range of capabilities. The maintenance staff is responsible for keeping each one mission ready.

“That’s the beauty of our Armstrong maintenance teams. They adapt to any type of change,” said Jose “Manny” Rodriguez, NASA Armstrong Gulfstream G-IV crew chief. “One day you could have an instrument being loaded, and the next day it may be aircraft reconfiguration, all while other aircraft systems may need fixing. They adapt and they overcome any situation.”

Each aircraft supports a specific mission, whether it’s conducting science research, serving as a support or chase aircraft, or assisting NASA rocket launches. The aircraft fly at different speeds, carry specialized hardware, and require maintenance crews to stay agile with fast-paced changes.

To ensure NASA can make aeronautics and science advancements safely, the crews work continuously, checking on the ejection seats, filling the tanks with fuel, and changing out brakes, wheels, wiring, and hardware constantly, all of which can degrade with each flight.

On any given day, an aircraft may be flight-ready for a mission, undergoing scheduled maintenance or modifications, or down for longer-term care.

There are typically multiple NASA Armstrong aircraft in the air in one day. Currently, the center’s C-20A is flying in Peru and Panama, the X-59 is often  flying twice per day with a chase plane, and the center’s ER-2 is flying in Colorado, supporting the Geological Earth Mapping Experiment (GEMx). All this work is happening at the same time, and Armstrong’s skilled maintenance staff is prepping and fixing aircraft as needed along the way.

The team includes mechanics with both military and civilian backgrounds, and the job involves a lot of on-the-job training.

Maintenance crews are composed of:

• a crew chief – the person in charge of the airplane
• an avionics technician, who specializes in navigation, communication, and flight control systems
• quality assurance personnel, who oversee the work being done
• additional mechanics assigned to each airplane

After the maintenance crew ensures the aircraft is in the best condition possible, the team tows it out to the flightline, and it becomes ready for operations. The NASA pilot assigned to the mission will walk around the aircraft with the assigned crew chief for a final safety check before flight.

“There is a crew chief assigned to every aircraft,” Rodriguez said. “The crew chief is responsible for the integrity of that aircraft, and at the end of the day, his signature and the pilot’s together are what constitutes that the aircraft is safe for flight.”

Maintenance crews track each flight to help ensure it completes the mission without returning early. If an aircraft does return to base early, the maintenance team stands ready. When it lands, the crew is right there again, helping the research team complete the mission and fixing whatever is needed to stay nimble and ready for the next flight.

“It’s difficult at times to work with different airplanes from both the civilian and military sides, but it’s very rewarding to see that we have the capability and the expertise to keep these aircraft flying,” Rodriguez said.

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NASA announced plans Friday to compete the next contract for managing and operating the agency’s federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) in Southern California at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), to ensure continued accountability and strong value for U.S. taxpayers.

The California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has managed the laboratory since its inception in the 1930s, and previous NASA contracts for its management and operations have been awarded sole source to the university since the facility was transferred from the U.S. Army to NASA in 1958.

The rapid growth of the U.S. space economy indicates there may now be a viable competitive market for programmatic and institutional elements of the FFRDC operations.

Conducting a competition for this contract enables NASA to assess the potential benefits of alternative management approaches to the FFRDC, including opportunities to enhance mission performance, innovation, and overall cost and operational efficiency, consistent with federal competition requirements.

This decision is part of a broader governmentwide and agency effort to find efficiencies, strengthen performance, and drive mission outcomes faster and more affordably.

“The Jet Propulsion Laboratory has delivered some of the most extraordinary scientific and engineering achievements in NASA’s history,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “As America’s space economy evolves, we have a responsibility to the American people and the scientific community to evaluate how we can execute faster, operate more efficiently, and continue to deliver world-class science and engineering at the highest level. The decision to compete this contract reflects NASA’s commitment to strong stewardship of taxpayer resources and positions Jet Propulsion Laboratory to continue driving world-changing scientific discovery and technological innovation for decades to come.”

The work conducted at JPL remains critically important to the agency, and NASA is committed to maintaining continuity for active and future missions throughout the procurement process. NASA also is committed to maintaining the FFRDC’s existing physical location.

This approach is consistent with broader government practices, including at the Department of Energy, which has held full and open competitions for five of its 16 FFRDC management and operations contracts over the past 10 years.

The current contract with Caltech began Oct. 1, 2018, and runs through Sept. 30, 2028, with a potential maximum value of $30 billion, if all options are exercised. NASA has initiated the procurement process to compete the contract. Beginning this process now allows the agency sufficient time to conduct a comprehensive competition and award cycle while maintaining continuity for ongoing missions and laboratory operations.

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov

-end-

George Alderman / Cheryl Warner
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
george.a.alderman@nasa.gov / cheryl.m.warner@nasa.gov

Editor’s Note: This advisory was updated May 22, 2026 to include a retirement.

NASA announced Friday an agencywide realignment to increase mission focus and move out on the National Space Policy. These changes position the agency to better deliver on the nation’s highest‑priority objectives with speed and efficiency.

During the Ignition event in late March, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman and agency leaders outlined the most pressing objectives to deliver on the next chapter of American leadership in space. President Trump’s Executive Order Ensuring American Space Superiority, otherwise known as the National Space Policy, directed NASA to focus talent and resources on objectives including accelerating the Artemis program, establishing a Moon Base, developing a nuclear space reactor, igniting the orbital economy, and expanding missions of science and discovery.

To support the agency’s ambitious short- and long-term goals, NASA is taking action to increase specialization at centers and integrate mission directorates, elevating delivery of technically excellent work. Some of these actions include:

• Center directors will continue reporting to Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya, empowered to foster the unique capabilities of each center, and strengthen investments in infrastructure and the health of their workforce.
• Mission directorates will now report directly to the administrator, ensuring focus on the mission and enabling them to leverage resources across centers, industry, and international partnerships with greater speed and efficiency.
• The associate administrator also now serves as NASA chief engineer, reinforcing the agency’s technical backbone and ensuring continuity and autonomy in critical engineering decisions.
• The agency continues to focus on rebuilding core competencies, insourcing contractors to civil servants where appropriate, strengthening the intern pipeline, and leveraging the agency’s joint recruitment initiative with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, NASA Force, to build a strong, sustainable workforce for generations to come.

“This initiative reflects NASA’s extreme focus on executing the mission in direct support of the National Space Policy. We are focusing resources on the most pressing objectives only NASA is capable of undertaking and liberating the workforce from unnecessary bureaucracy and obstacles that impede progress. We aim to rebuild competencies and instill a culture that attracts the best and brightest capable of pursuing the most demanding engineering challenges and moving safely and urgently,” said Isaacman. “There will be no reduction in force, no program cancellations, no closures, but we will achieve cost savings through more efficient execution and taking an active role in delivering the outcomes the world has been waiting for from NASA. This is how we deliver on the mission, meet the moment, and continue to make history on behalf of the American people.”

Mission directorate realignment is as follows:

• Human Spaceflight Mission Directorate (HSMD): With human spaceflight operational to both low Earth orbit and the Moon, the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate and Space Operations Mission Directorate will unify as HSMD.
• Research and Technology Mission Directorate (RTMD): NASA will integrate the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate and Space Technology Mission Directorate into the new RTMD. As a combined research, space technology, and aeronautics organization charged with nuclear power and propulsion development, RTMD will ensure NASA has the capabilities needed for the mission of today and the future.
• Science Mission Directorate (SMD): Remains unchanged and continues to provide the foundation for NASA’s world‑leading scientific discovery.

Additional leadership roles, in alphabetical order, include:

• John Bailey, associate administrator, Mission Support Directorate
• Kevin Coggins, director, SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation), RTMD
• Wesley Deadrick, director, Katherine Johnson IV&V Facility
• Jamie Dunn, director, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
• Carlos García-Galán, program manager, Moon Base, HSMD
• Dr. Lori Glaze, associate administrator, HSMD
• Laurie Grindle, director, Aeronautics Division, RTMD
• Marvin Horne, deputy assistant administrator for Procurement
• Brian Hughes, director, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center
• Kathleen Karika, associate administrator, Office of International and Interagency Relations, OIIR
• Dr. James Kenyon, associate administrator, RTMD
• Kelvin Manning, deputy associate administrator, HSMD
• Meredith McKay, deputy associate administrator, OIIR
• Dave Mitchell, special assignment lead for NASA Headquarters Relocation
• Joel Montalbano, deputy associate administrator, HSMD
• Bradley Niese, associate administrator for Procurement
• Eli Ouder, acting deputy associate administrator, Mission Support Directorate
• Jeremy Parsons, program manager, Artemis, HSMD
• Bob Pearce to retire as head of ARMD after an amazing 36-year career at NASA
• Wanda Peters, deputy associate administrator, RTMD
• Dawn Schaible, director, NASA’s Glenn Research Center
• Cynthia Simmons, deputy director, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
• Steve Sinacore, acting director, Space Reactor Office; program manager for SR-1, LR-1, RTMD
• Adam Steltzner, chief engineer for Special Projects
• Greg Stover, director, Advanced Research and Technology Division, RTMD
• Dana Weigel, program manager, Low Earth Orbit, HSMD

Leadership at unlisted centers remains unchanged.

For more, please visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/nasa-leadership

-end-

Bethany Stevens / Camille Gallo
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
bethany.c.stevens@nasa.gov / camille.m.gallo@nasa.gov

A material recently discovered and tested at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland could help astronauts pack lighter for future missions to the Moon. NASA is researching ways explorers could “live off the land” by harnessing lunar resources, including melting Moon rocks to extract metals for building infrastructure and oxygen for fuel and life support.

As part of a graduate fellowship through the agency’s Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunities, Dr. Kevin Yu, who now works as a technologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, teamed up with Dr. Jamesa Stokes, a materials research engineer at NASA Glenn, to study how a variety of substances interacted with liquefied Moon dust.

You could call it lava, because it’s basically rocks that are crushed up and then melted. It’s very corrosive, and it will very quickly eat through a lot of commonly used refractory, or heat-resistant, materials.

Dr. kevin yu

Technologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

About six months into their research, Stokes and Yu realized they’d stumbled across something promising and entirely new. After combining simulated lunar dust with a compound called scandium oxide and heat treating the mixture using a red-hot furnace, they discovered that an unknown material had formed. The researchers checked and double-checked their work, but the material didn’t match any of the more than 1 million substances in their X-ray analysis database.

Nothing about the material had ever been studied before, so the team started from scratch, measuring the substance’s chemical composition. To make small, isolated samples and continue testing how it reacted with molten Moon dust, they used special grinding and mixing equipment in their laboratory to crush up around eight basic oxide components in ethyl alcohol before baking the mixture at more than 2,900 degrees Fahrenheit inside the furnace.

“It’s actually a very cool-looking powder; it goes in pink, almost like strawberry milk,” Yu said. “It has a built-in color indicator, so by the time you’re done with it, it turns to a light beige or tan color, and that’s how you know the reaction has proceeded the way you wanted it to.”

After analyzing their results, the team found that the new substance isn’t corroded too quickly by the molten Moon dirt and can withstand the high temperatures needed to melt it — up to six times hotter than the oven in your kitchen. While it’s made with scandium oxide, which can be expensive, it costs much less than precious metals like platinum that would normally be used in these types of high-temperature processes.

The researchers’ insights could help influence NASA’s designs for a future technology that would extract resources from Moon rocks, and the new material could be used to make the pipes or basins holding molten dust inside this potential technology.

The new material’s characteristics also could prove ideal for making coatings that protect parts inside of jet engines, which can reach similarly scorching temperatures. The researchers found it is lighter, less dense, and better at insulating heat than current state-of-the-art coating materials.

While Yu and Stokes have now completed their initial tests, they hope to fine-tune the material in the future to purify it and make it even more affordable to produce. Materials research will be integral to exploring the harsh environments of the Moon and beyond.

You can have the best idea in the world for a structure or a vehicle, but if you don’t have the materials that have the right properties to make your vision come true, it’s not going to succeed no matter how well you design it.

Dr. Jamesa stokes

Materials Research Engineer at NASA Glenn

Studying new materials also advances NASA’s work on Earth.

“I think trying to push what’s possible with materials also allows for a lot of breakthroughs on the terrestrial side. Having a better understanding of materials for all sorts of applications is what gets me excited to go to work in the morning,” Yu said. “That’s why I love NASA’s mission; it’s for the benefit of all.”

This materials research is supported by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate and NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate.

For more information, visit:  

https://www.nasa.gov/

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Look closely at this image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and you’ll see galaxies of various shapes and sizes clustered together toward the center-left of the image. A few foreground stars shine brightly and are easily distinguished by the spikes that appear to extend outward from each star. These spikes, called diffraction spikes, are the result of how point sources of light (such as stars) bend, or diffract, around the supports for Hubble’s secondary mirror.

Hubble captured this scene of MACS J1141.6-1905 in visible and infrared light. The image includes data from two Hubble observing programs that looked at massive galaxy clusters that shine very brightly in X-rays. Both programs were looking for distant galaxies gravitationally lensed by the cluster. They also wanted to better understand the physical nature of interactions at each cluster’s core. An extra bonus was the addition of Hubble’s visible and infrared observations of these very bright X-ray clusters to its archive.

Hubble’s archive of 1.7 million observations, and counting, is a valuable tool for current and future astronomers. They can mine Hubble’s 36 years of observations and examine the data with new tools, enabling researchers to make new discoveries.

MACS J1141.6-1905 is around four billion light-years away in the constellation Crater (the Cup).

Media Contact:

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov

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A powerful supercell storm produced multiple tornadoes across southern Mississippi on May 6, 2026. The longest and most powerful spanned five counties, delivering wind speeds up to 137 miles (220 kilometers) per hour and EF-3 damage, as gauged by the Enhanced Fujita Scale, to several areas.

Part of this tornado’s destructive path was visible to the Landsat 8 satellite when it passed over the area on May 12. Winds snapped, uprooted, and tore bark and branches off trees, creating a brownish track across the landscape. This area, south of Brookhaven in Lincoln County, was one that sustained EF-3 damage. National Weather Service (NWS) post-event damage assessments noted extensive tree damage, a home whose exterior walls collapsed, and a mobile home park “devastated with debris.”

The tornado covered much more ground than is captured in this scene. It began in St. Catherine Creek National Wildlife Refuge near the Mississippi River, approximately 60 miles (100 kilometers) west-southwest of Brookhaven. In just over two hours, it traveled nearly 82 miles (132 kilometers), placing it among some of the longest tornadoes recorded in Mississippi. Heavy tree damage occurred along its entire path, NWS surveys found, with several instances of EF-2 structural damage and bent or collapsed transmission towers.

Seven tornadoes occurred in Mississippi on the evening of May 6, according to NWS preliminary data as of May 20. The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency received reports of damage to more than 400 homes and dozens of businesses and farm buildings statewide after the storms, according to a news release, the majority of which were in Lincoln County.

The Gulf Coast and other southeastern states are not considered part of what’s commonly known as Tornado Alley, an area encompassing much of the U.S. central and southern plains where supercells tend to form. However, this belt of southeastern states is also tornado-prone, experiencing a relatively high frequency of tornadoes in spring and late autumn. Historically in Mississippi, the most monthly tornadoes—an average of more than seven—occur in April, while May averages just over three. Some recent analyses have found decreases in tornado frequency in the Great Plains and increases in the Southeast over several decades.

NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Lindsey Doermann.

Downloads

May 12, 2026

JPEG (6.20 MB)

References & Resources

• AccuWeather (2026, May 7) EF3 tornado damages hundreds of homes, injures 17 in Mississippi. Accessed May 20, 2026.
• Kentucky Lantern (2025, May 19) Traditional ‘Tornado Alley’ shifts eastward as climate changes, says meteorologist studying trend. Accessed May 20, 2026.
• Mississippi Emergency Management Agency (2026, May 12) May 6-7, 2026, Severe Weather Update #5. Accessed May 20, 2026.
• NASA Applied Sciences (2025, March 24) Tracking Tornadoes from Space. Accessed May 20, 2026.
• National Centers for Environmental Information, Tornado Alley. Accessed May 20, 2026.
• National Weather Service (2026, May) 2026 NWS Jackson/Mississippi Tornado Information. Accessed May 20, 2026.
• National Weather Service, Severe Weather Statistics. Accessed May 20, 2026.
• NOAA (2026, May) Damage Assessment Toolkit. Accessed May 20, 2026.

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Media are invited to NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on Wednesday, June 17, to view Northrop Grumman’s Pegasus XL rocket, carrying a Katalyst robotic spacecraft that will attempt to boost the orbit of NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory.

Katalyst’s robotic servicing spacecraft, called LINK, will launch on Pegasus in June to rendezvous with Swift and raise its altitude, extending its science mission lifespan.

Both United States and international media may apply for onsite credentials to view the Pegasus and the L-1011 Stargazer aircraft that will deploy the rocket at launch. In addition to interview opportunities on site, media also will receive images and video of LINK, as the spacecraft already will be encapsulated in the rocket.

NASA and Katalyst also will host an audio-only media teleconference on June 17 to preview the mission to boost Swift’s orbit. Audio of the media teleconference will stream live on NASA’s YouTube channel. Information about timing and teleconference participants will be shared closer to the event.

The application deadline for U.S. citizens to attend in person is 4 p.m. EDT, Wednesday, June 10. International media without U.S. citizenship must apply by 3 p.m. EDT, Wednesday, May 27. NASA’s media accreditation policy is available online.

Media requesting to participate in person or join the media call must send their accreditation requests to Amy Barra at: amy.l.barra@nasa.gov, with the following information:

• Legal first and last name (must match government identification)
• Email
• Phone number
• Job title and organization
• Citizenship

The Swift mission, which launched in 2004, leads NASA’s fleet of space telescopes in studying changes in the high-energy universe. It studies gamma-ray bursts — the most powerful explosions in the universe — and other cosmic objects and events. When a rapid, sudden event takes place in the cosmos, Swift serves as a “dispatcher,” providing critical information that allows other “first responder” missions to follow up to learn more about how the universe works.

Learn more about the mission to boost Swift’s orbit at:

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/swift/swift-boost-mission

-end-

Karen Fox / Alise Fisher
Headquarters, Washington
202-385-1287 / 202-358-2546
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov

Amy Barra
Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Virginia
757-824-1579
amy.l.barra@nasa.gov