NASA

Scientists have found that localized dust storms on Mars can drive water vapor into the upper atmosphere, where it breaks apart and escapes into space. The discovery, based on observations from multiple Mars orbiters, challenges prior assumptions about when and how the planet loses water. Researchers link the effect to an intense regional storm during the Northern Hemisphere summer.

March 25, 2026 Reported by AI

NASA announced on Tuesday that it will pause development of the Gateway lunar space station and repurpose its Power and Propulsion Element for SR-1 Freedom, a nuclear-electric propulsion demonstration mission to Mars launching before the end of 2028. The spacecraft will carry Skyfall helicopters to scout subsurface water ice and landing sites. Officials described the move as leveraging existing hardware to prove nuclear power in deep space.

NASA's Van Allen Probe A satellite, launched in 2012 to study Earth's radiation belts, is set to reenter the atmosphere early this week after running out of fuel in 2019. The agency has approved a safety waiver due to the reentry's risk exceeding government standards, though the chance of harm remains low at 1 in 4,200. Most of the 1,323-pound spacecraft will burn up, with some debris potentially reaching the surface.

March 08, 2026 Reported by AI

Images from NASA's DART mission have provided the first direct visual evidence that asteroids in binary systems exchange material through slow-moving debris. Faint streaks on the asteroid moon Dimorphos suggest debris from its parent asteroid Didymos landed there, driven by sunlight-induced spin. This discovery highlights the dynamic nature of near-Earth asteroids.

A new NASA study indicates that traces of ancient life on Mars could survive for over 50 million years in pure ice, protected from cosmic radiation. Researchers recommend future missions focus on drilling into clean ice deposits rather than rocks or soil. The findings, based on lab simulations, highlight pure ice as a potential preserve for organic material.

February 25, 2026 Reported by AI

NASA has named veteran astronaut Mike Fincke as the crew member who suffered a medical event on the International Space Station (ISS), leading to the historic early return of the Crew-11 mission—the first medical evacuation from the ISS in 25 years.