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The shores of Tracy Arm, a fjord in southeast Alaska, are stripped of vegetation following a landslide and tsunami that occurred on August 10, 2025. The OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8 and Landsat 9 show the area in the weeks before and after the event, respectively.

Carved over millennia by the pressure and motion of glacial ice, the valley walls cradling the Tracy Arm fjord in southeast Alaska continue to be reshaped. In summer 2025, following the rapid retreat of South Sawyer Glacier, a large landslide sent rock careening into the fjord, altering the wider landscape in a matter of minutes.

The slide culminated on the morning of August 10, 2025, when at least 64 million cubic meters of rock slid downslope. Material entering the fjord induced a tsunami that stripped trees and other vegetation from the opposing fjord wall up to 1,578 feet (481 meters) above sea level. While this peak was the highest “runup” reached by the tsunami, shores and islands down the fjord also saw substantial destruction.

NASA-USGS Landsat satellites captured these images on July 26 (left) and August 19 (right), before and after the event, respectively. “The bright landslide scar on the north side of the fjord is striking, as is the ‘bathtub’ ring around the fjord showing the areas where the forest was leveled by the tsunami,” said Dan Shugar, a geomorphologist at the University of Calgary.

Note that Sawyer Island, about 6 miles (9 kilometers) from the landslide, also turned from green to brown. Only a few trees still stood at the island’s higher elevations.

In the months following the slide, Shugar and colleagues combined satellite, airborne, and ground-based observations with eyewitness reports and simulations to build a more complete picture of how the event unfolded. Their analysis, detailing the event from its lead-up through its aftermath, was published May 6, 2026, in the journal Science.

In addition to the details outlined above, the researchers showed that water continued to slosh around the fjord—a phenomenon known as a “seiche”—for more than a day. Both the landslide and seiche produced seismic signals detected around the world, the former equivalent to a magnitude 5.4 earthquake.

The Landsat images also reveal significant retreat at the front of South Sawyer Glacier in less than a month. “Part of that occurred between the date of the first image and the date of the landslide,” Shugar said. “But part of it is from the landslide itself, which broke off a big chunk of the terminus of South Sawyer Glacier, resulting in a slurry of icebergs in the fjord.”

The exact mechanisms that caused the landslide remain uncertain and could have involved a combination of factors. Rainfall, which was moderate prior to the event, and the rapid retreat of glaciers can both destabilize a slope. What is clear, however, is that the glacier’s retreat exposed a new area of open water, leaving it vulnerable to a landscape-reorganizing tsunami. 

No one was injured in the event, though it did catch some by surprise. Kayakers camping on Harbor Island near the fjord’s mouth had their gear swept away, and passengers aboard a small cruise vessel in neighboring Endicott Arm reported swings in water levels and a strong current associated with the tsunami. Brentwood Higman of Ground Truth Alaska, a co-author of the paper, noted that a glacier’s shift from relative stability to renewed retreat, visible in satellite images, could serve as an important indicator that an area has become more susceptible to landslide and tsunami hazards.

NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Photograph by John Lyons/U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Kathryn Hansen.

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References & Resources

• Alaska Public Media (2025, August 12) ‘Pure chaos out of nowhere’: Mega-landslide and tsunami rip through Tracy Arm south of Juneau. Accessed May 7, 2026.
• AP News (2026, April 12) Cruise companies to Alaska are avoiding a popular excursion to Tracy Arm after a massive landslide. Accessed May 7, 2026.
• NASA Earth Observatory (2024, November 12) Sizing Up a Greenland Tsunami. Accessed May 7, 2026.
• Shugar, D. H., et al. (2026) A 481-meter-high landslide-tsunami in a cruise ship–frequented Alaska fjord. Science, 392 (6798).
• University of Alaska Fairbanks (2025, August 12) Tsunami-causing slide was largest in decade, earthquake center finds. Accessed May 7, 2026.
• U.S. Geological Survey (2025, August 13) 2025 Tracy Arm Landslide Before and After Satellite Imagery. Accessed May 7, 2026.

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NASA’s home for experimental flight is welcoming more flyers to its already high-performing fleet as it continues to support science and aeronautics test missions – continuing the legacy of pioneers like Neil Armstrong.

NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, added multiple aircraft this year: two F-15s supersonic jets, a Pilatus PC-12 utility plane, and a T-34 turboprop trainer, which the center will use to support the agency’s advancement of aerospace research.

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“Armstrong has a rich history of flight research, but it’s the multidimensional skills of the people we have here, and the knowledge they’ve built to handle very unique aircraft maintenance and modifications, that stands out,” said Darren Cole, capabilities manager for the Flight Demonstrations and Capabilities project at NASA Armstrong.

Armstrong has a rich history of flight research, but it’s the multidimensional skills of the people we have here … that stands out.

Darren Cole

Capabilities Manager at NASA Armstrong

The center plays a pivotal role in worldwide airborne science missions, flying scientists and equipment from NASA, other government agencies, industry, and academia to collect measurements such as air pollution levels, glacier melt trends, and wildland fire mapping.

Scientists can manage experiments in real time aboard flying laboratories like the NASA ER-2, to collect important data with the help of Armstrong’s pilots and airborne science team.

“We all come together to make the science happen,” said Matt Berry, airborne research platforms branch chief at NASA Armstrong. “It is the agility of the Armstrong team that allows us to collaborate with scientists, get their equipment onboard, and to fly them to areas where they need to collect data.”

The center sits on Rogers Dry Lake, a 44-square-mile slat flat area used for aviation research and test operations. Rogers and the adjacent Rosamond Dry Lake have seen everything from space shuttle landings to emergency test flight recoveries. The Rogers lakebed continues to serve as an important piece of Armstrong’s test missions.

For NASA Armstrong, it all started with the first attempt by a human to fly faster than the speed of sound in the Bell X-1. In 1946, 13 employees from NASA’s predecessor agency, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), arrived at what was then known as Muroc Army Airfield to prepare for the X-1 tests. A year later, NACA’s Muroc Flight Test Unit was established as a permanent facility at the airfield.

The center has gone by several names over the years, most recently changing from NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center to NASA Armstrong in 2014. But its legacy has never shifted: The Bell X-1E, the last of the X-1 series of aircraft, now sits in front of NASA Armstrong, welcoming the newest test pilots, engineers, scientists, explorers, and dreamers. And they’re using the aircraft of today to break new barriers.

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“Today, I am proud to welcome Paraguay as the 67th signatory to the Artemis Accords,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “They join an ever-growing coalition of like-minded nations committed to the peaceful, transparent, and responsible exploration of space. Established by President Trump in his first term, the Artemis Accords provided the principles for how we explore the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Now, with his national space policy, we are putting the Artemis Accords into practice with our Moon Base. We are creating opportunities for all Artemis Accords signatories, including Paraguay, to join us on the lunar surface and advance our shared objectives in this next era of exploration.”

U.S. Embassy Asunción Chargé d’Affaires ad interim Aaron Pratt shared Isaacman’s remarks during the ceremony. Minister President of the Paraguayan Space Agency Osvaldo Almirón Riveros signed on behalf of Paraguay.

“The signing of the Artemis Accords represents a historic milestone for Paraguay and reflects our commitment to international cooperation, the peaceful use of outer space, scientific development, and the advancement of national space capabilities,” said Almirón Riveros. “This step strengthens Paraguay’s position within the global space community and opens new opportunities for research, innovation, and sustainable development.”

The Paraguayan Space Agency was established in 2014 and has worked to develop capabilities in satellite technology and Earth observation, including with international partners. Its first satellite, GuaraníSat‑1, launched from the International Space Station in 2021. The agency now is preparing to launch its second satellite, GuaraníSat‑2, in October aboard a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The mission was developed with collaborators from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and other partners.

In 2020, the United States, led by NASA and the U.S. State Department, joined with seven other founding nations to establish the Artemis Accords, responding to the growing interest in lunar activities by both governments and private companies. The Artemis Accords introduced the first set of practical principles aimed at enhancing the safety and coordination between like-minded nations as they explore the Moon, Mars, and beyond.  

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Engineer Jaakko Karras inspects a next-generation Mars helicopter rotor blade prior to supersonic speed testing in the 25-Foot Space Simulator at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California in November 2025. The three-bladed rotor hanging horizontally in the foreground is the next-gen rotor being tested. The vertically aligned two-bladed rotor provided a “headwind,” enabling the tips of the three-bladed rotor to go beyond Mach 1. Data from the tests indicate that the next-gen rotor could surpass the sound barrier without breaking apart.

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The rotor blades that will carry NASA’s next-generation helicopters to new Martian heights broke the sound barrier during March tests at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Data from the tests, which took place in a special chamber that can simulate environmental conditions on the Red Planet, indicate that the fastest traveling part of the rotor blade, the tips, can be accelerated beyond Mach 1 without breaking apart. Data gathered from 137 test runs will enable engineers to design aircraft capable of carrying heavier payloads, including science instruments.

“NASA had a great run with the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, but we are asking these next-generation aircraft to do even more at the Red Planet,” said Al Chen, Mars Exploration Program manager at JPL. “That’s not an easy ask. While everything about Mars is hard, flying there is just about the hardest thing you can do. That’s because its atmosphere is so incredibly thin that it is hard to generate lift, and yet Mars has significant gravity.”

Ingenuity, which performed the first powered, controlled flight on another world just over five years ago on April 19, 2021, was a trailblazing technology demonstration that did not carry science instruments. The agency’s recently announced SkyFall project and other potential future Mars aircraft will be capable of carrying payloads — including science instruments and sensors — to collect data in support of future human and robotic missions, leveraging the advantages that come with low-altitude aerial exploration.

Need for speed

In the fast-moving world of rotors, more thrust comes from a quicker spin or a larger diameter. Although this axiom holds true on Earth, engineers designing aircraft for the Red Planet must be much more aggressive. Because the Mars atmosphere is only 1% as dense as Earth’s, maximizing thrust requires pushing blade tips toward the speed of sound to achieve significant lift. While small-diameter rotors on Earth can also rotate at thousands of revolutions per minute, they have more air molecules to push and don’t need to approach the sonic edge.

The Ingenuity flight team never allowed the rotational speed of their composite-skinned foam rotors to exceed 2,700 rpm during the helicopter’s 72 flights at Mars for two reasons: to avoid the unpredictable physics of the sound barrier and to make sure that an unexpected gust of wind (from a dust devil, for instance) wouldn’t send the rotor tips over the sonic edge.

“If Chuck Yeager were here, he’d tell you things can get squirrely around Mach 1,” said JPL’s Jaakko Karras, the rotor test lead. “With that in mind, we planned Ingenuity’s flights to keep the rotor blade tips at Mach 0.7 with no wind so that if we encountered a Martian headwind while in flight, the rotor tips wouldn’t go supersonic. But we want more performance from our next-gen Mars aircraft. We needed to know that our rotors could go faster safely.”

While Mach 1 on Earth at sea level is approximately 760 mph (1,223 kph), the speed of sound on Mars is significantly slower — roughly 540 mph (869 kph) — due to the planet’s thin, cold, carbon-dioxide-rich atmosphere.

Blade-proof chamber

To begin evaluating the rotors, which were developed and manufactured by AeroVironment in Simi Valley, California, Karras and his team mounted a three-bladed rotor that could be used in future Mars helicopter designs inside the historic 25-Foot Space Simulator at JPL. They evacuated the air and replaced it with just enough carbon dioxide to match the Martian atmosphere, then blasted the rotor with wind as it spun at increasing speeds.

The test engineers had taken the precaution of lining part of the chamber with sheet metal in case the blades broke apart during the supersonic experiment. From a control room a few yards away from the chamber, the team watched displays showing data and a view inside the chamber as the rpm climbed as high as 3,750. At that rate, the tips were traveling at Mach 0.98. Then the engineers activated a fan inside the chamber that pelted the rotors with headwinds. After each run, they increased in wind velocity for the next run.

The team pushed rotor tip speeds to Mach 1.08, boosting the Mars vehicle’s lift capability by 30%. This breakthrough allows future missions to support heavier scientific payloads, including advanced sensors and larger batteries for extended flight.

Next the team tried their luck with the two-bladed SkyFall rotor. Because it is slightly longer than the three-bladed version, only 3,570 rpm was needed to achieve the same near-supersonic speed at the rotor tips prior to introducing the headwinds.

“The successful testing of these rotors was a major step toward proving the feasibility of flight in more demanding environments, which is key for next-gen vehicles,” said Shannah Withrow-Maser, an aerodynamicist from NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley and member of the test team. “We thought we’d be lucky to hit Mach 1.05, and we reached Mach 1.08 on our last runs. We’re still digging into the data, and there may be even more thrust on the table. These next-gen helicopters are going to be amazing.”

The SkyFall mission design team has incorporated the test team’s findings into the performance specifications. Inspired by Ingenuity, the only rotorcraft to fly on another planet to date, SkyFall is designed to carry three next-gen Mars helicopters to the Red Planet in December 2028.

More about NASA’s Mars Exploration Program

The faster-than-sound spin test campaign was funded by the agency’s Mars Exploration Program in pursuit of maximizing the capability of future aircraft flying at the Red Planet. A division of Caltech in Pasadena, JPL manages the Mars Exploration Program for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.  

For more information about NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, visit:

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A full-scale mock-up of a crew cabin for a future industry lunar lander for NASA’s Artemis program now is operational for training and testing. The agency and its industry partners will use Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 2 crew cabin for mission simulations as the agency prepares to dock with landers in Earth orbit in 2027 and send astronauts to the Moon by 2028.

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The Blue Moon crew lander that will fly to the Moon will stand about 52 feet tall. Its crew cabin, located at the base of the lander, will be the living and working space where two astronauts will eat, sleep, conduct science, and observe the lunar environment during their stay.

The prototype at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston is a full-size model, featuring the exterior ladder astronauts will use during their time on the Moon. As NASA and industry teams prepare for future crewed missions to the lunar surface, this model will evolve to support more advanced mission and training needs. Over time, it will become an integrated simulator with interactive systems that help astronauts practice for their flight with ground flight control teams.

NASA and Blue Origin can access the exterior and interior of the crew cabin trainer to conduct a series of human-in-the-loop tests, or tests with human interaction, including mission scenarios, mission control communications, spacesuit checkouts, and preparations for simulated moonwalks. The training cabin will also be used to provide design feedback to the Blue Origin team as the lander continues to be developed and mission planning evolves.

Following the successful Artemis II test flight that took four astronauts around the Moon, NASA will launch the Artemis III mission next year to test critical systems in Earth orbit, including rendezvous and docking with one or both commercial landers from Blue Origin and SpaceX. The agency and its partners will conduct integrated checkouts of life support, communications, propulsion, and potentially new spacesuits. These operations will pave the way for Artemis IV and V in 2028, which will return NASA astronauts to the Moon using these commercial provide landers.

Under Artemis, NASA will send astronauts on increasingly difficult missions to explore more of the Moon for scientific discovery and economic benefits, building the foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars.

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A thin sliver of Earth’s edge is brightly illuminated against the vast darkness of space in this April 3, 2026, image taken during the Artemis II mission. Artemis II was the first crewed flight in a series of missions to test NASA’s human deep space capabilities, paving the way for future lunar surface missions.

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Image credit: NASA

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Through NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts program, within the Space Technology Mission Directorate, SNAPPY was selected for a Phase I award in 2018, followed by a Phase II award in 2019, and a Phase III award in 2021, helping mature the project from its early studies through flight demonstration.

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A team of researchers from Adelaide University and the SmartSat Cooperative Research Center in South Australia has successfully uploaded and demonstrated NASA and IBM’s open-source Prithvi Geospatial artificial intelligence (AI) foundation model aboard two in-orbit platforms, making it the first geospatial foundation model to be deployed in orbit. Trained on 13 years’ worth of data, Prithvi can facilitate a wide variety of Earth observation tasks.

By uploading a compressed version of Prithvi to the South Australian government’s Kanyini satellite and to the Thales Alenia Space IMAGIN-e (ISS Mounted Accessible Global Imaging Nod-e) payload aboard the International Space Station, the researchers tested the model’s flood and cloud detection performance across two different orbiting platforms and computing environments. The team shared their results in a preprint article.

The team chose Prithvi for their research because of its strong generalization across Earth observation tasks, and because of its availability as an open-source model.

“If Prithvi weren’t open source, I would have to train my own foundation model,” said Dr. Andrew Du, the project’s lead researcher, who is a postdoctoral researcher at Adelaide University and an AI engineer at the SmartSat Cooperative Research Center. “Having that model openly available saved a lot of time and effort.”

A foundation model is an AI model trained on an enormous amount of unlabeled data, which allows the model to begin detecting patterns in the data that humans wouldn’t notice on their own. The model can then be fine-tuned for specific applications using much smaller amounts of labeled data.

“Prithvi is the first model of its kind to be deployed in orbit, and that demonstrates exactly why we make our AI models open source,” said Kevin Murphy, chief science data officer at NASA Headquarters in Washington, whose office led the collaboration that created Prithvi. “By sharing these tools with anyone who wants to use them, we accelerate scientific and technological development into the future.”

Developed by a team of data scientists from IBM and NASA’s IMPACT team within the Office of Data Science and Informatics at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, the Prithvi Geospatial model was trained on the Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 dataset. This dataset compiles over a decade of global geospatial data from NASA’s Landsat and ESA (European Space Agency) Sentinel-2 satellites. Prithvi can be adapted for tasks such as mapping flood plains, monitoring disasters, and predicting crop yields.

Earth-observing satellites collect enormous amounts of data about our planet. Processing and analyzing the data in orbit before the satellite sends it back to Earth can help researchers gain insights more quickly. However, active satellites often can’t accept large software updates because of bandwidth limits, so the AI models they carry for data analysis tend to be lightweight and highly specialized.

Researchers can use the flexibility of a foundation model to facilitate a wide range of Earth observation tasks in one software architecture. If they want the model to take on a new task once the satellite is in orbit, they only need to upload a small extra decoder package – using far less bandwidth than uploading a whole new model to the satellite.

Sending Prithvi to orbit is an early demonstration of how foundation models could transform Earth observation. In addition to data analysis, foundation models could eventually help scientists interact with the instruments collecting the data.

“A large language model is also a type of foundation model,” Du said. “In the future, this could allow operators to interact with satellites in natural language, asking questions about onboard data or system status and receiving responses in a conversational way.”

The NASA team behind Prithvi continues to work on open-source foundation models trained on NASA data. A heliophysics model, Surya, was released in 2025, and the team intends to create foundation models for planetary science, astrophysics, and biological and physical sciences as well.

The Prithvi Geospatial foundation model is funded by the Office of the Chief Science Data Officer within NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The Office of the Chief Science Data Officer advances scientific discovery through innovative applications and partnerships in data science, advanced analytics, and artificial intelligence. To learn more about NASA’s AI foundation models and other AI tools for science, visit:

https://science.nasa.gov/artificial-intelligence-science

By Lauren Leese
Web Content Strategist for the Office of the Chief Science Data Officer

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