NASA Accelerates Space Exploration, Earth Science for All in 2024

With a glance again at 2024, NASA is celebrating its many progressive and provoking accomplishments this 12 months together with for the primary time, touchdown new science and know-how on the Moon with an American firm, pushing the boundaries of exploration by launching a brand new mission to check Jupiter’s icy moon Europa; sustaining 24 years of steady human exploration off the Earth aboard the Worldwide House Station, and unveiling the primary take a look at its supersonic quiet plane for the good thing about humanity.

The company additionally shared the marvel of a complete eclipse with tens of millions of People, performed the ultimate flight of its Ingenuity helicopter on the Pink Planet, demonstrated the primary laser communications functionality in deep area, examined the following technology photo voltaic sail in area, made new scientific discoveries with its James Webb House Telescope, accomplished a year-long Mars simulation on Earth with crew, introduced the most recent class of Artemis Era astronauts, and rather more.

“In 2024, NASA made leap after large leap to discover, uncover, and encourage – all whereas bringing actual, tangible, and substantial advantages to the American folks and to all of humanity,” mentioned NASA Administrator Invoice Nelson. “We deepened the business and worldwide partnerships that may assist NASA lead humanity again to the Moon after which to the purple sands of Mars. We launched new missions to check our photo voltaic system and our universe in charming new methods. We noticed our altering Earth via our eyes within the sky – our ever-growing fleet of satellites and devices – and shared that knowledge with all of humanity. And we opened the doorways to new potentialities in aviation, new breakthroughs on the Worldwide House Station, and new wonders in area journey.” 

By means of its Moon to Mars exploration strategy, the company continued shifting ahead with its Artemis marketing campaign, together with progress towards its first mission across the Moon with crew in additional than 50 years and advancing plans to discover extra of the Moon than ever earlier than. To date in 2024, 15 nations signed the Artemis Accords, committing to the protected, clear, and accountable exploration of area with the USA.

As a part of efforts to watch local weather change, the company launched a number of satellites to check our altering planet and opened its second Earth Info Middle to supply knowledge to a wider viewers.

With the discharge of its newest Economic Impact Report, NASA underscored the company’s $75.6 billion influence on the U.S. financial system, worth to society, and return on funding for taxpayers. 

“To spend money on NASA is to spend money on American staff, American innovation, the American financial system, and American financial competitiveness. By means of continued investments in our workforce and our infrastructure, NASA will proceed to propel American management on Earth, within the skies, and within the stars,” mentioned Nelson. 

Key 2024 company highlights throughout its mission areas embody:

Getting ready for Moon, Mars

This 12 months, NASA made strides towards the Artemis Era of scientific discovery on the Moon whereas validating operations and techniques to organize for human missions to Mars. The company superior towards Artemis II, the primary crewed flight below Artemis:

• NASA announced outcomes of its Orion warmth protect investigation and up to date its timelines for Artemis II and III.
• Groups delivered the core stage and launch vehicle stage adapter of the SLS (House Launch System) rocket from NASA’s Michoud Meeting Facility in New Orleans to NASA’s Kennedy House Middle in Florida and commenced stacking the rocket’s booster segments.
• Engineers carried out a series of exams of the cellular launcher and techniques at NASA Kennedy’s Launch Pad 39B forward of the check flight and added an emergency egress system to maintain crew and different personnel on the launch pad protected within the case of an emergency.
• NASA carried out key built-in testing of the Orion spacecraft that may ship 4 astronauts across the Moon and produce them house, together with testing inside an altitude chamber simulating the vacuum situations of deep area.
• The crew and different groups carried out key coaching actions to organize for flight, together with practising recovery operations at sea, in addition to launch countdown and mission simulations. 
• In February, the primary Moon touchdown via the company’s CLPS (Industrial Lunar Payload Providers) initiative brought NASA science to the lunar surface on Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander efficiently capturing knowledge that may assist us higher perceive the Moon’s setting and enhance touchdown precision and security.
• In August, NASA introduced that a new set of NASA science experiments and know-how demonstrations will arrive on the lunar South Pole in 2027 following the company’s newest CLPS initiative supply award.

• To return worthwhile samples from Mars to Earth, NASA sought innovative designs and introduced a brand new strategy review team to evaluate varied design research to scale back price, danger, and complexity.
• NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Environment and Risky EvolutioN) spacecraft celebrated 10 years of exploration of the Pink Planet’s higher environment.
• After three years, NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter ended its mission in January, with dozens extra flights than deliberate.
• In September, the NASA House Communications and Navigation workforce awarded a contract to Intuitive Machines to assist the company’s lunar relay techniques as a part of the Near Space Network, operated by NASA’s Goddard House Flight Middle in Greenbelt, Maryland.

• NASA recognized an up to date set of 9 potential landing regions close to the lunar South Pole for its Artemis III mission.
• Capturing the present state of the Moon to Mars structure, NASA launched the second revision of its Architecture Definition Document.
• NASA formalized two worldwide agreements for key Artemis components, together with with the United Arab Emirates for the Gateway airlock module, and with Japan to supply a pressurized rover for the lunar floor.
• Astronauts, scientists, and engineers took half in testing key applied sciences and evaluating {hardware} wanted to work on the Moon, together with simulating moonwalks in geologically Moon-like areas of Arizona, practiced integration between the crew and mission controllers, participated in human factors testing for Gateway, and evaluated the developmental hardware.
• NASA labored collaboratively with SpaceX and Blue Origin on their human lunar landers for Artemis missions, exercising an possibility below present contracts to develop cargo variants of their human landers.
• In August, as a part of its dedication to a sturdy, sustainable lunar exploration program for the good thing about all, NASA announced it issued a Request for Information to hunt curiosity from American firms and establishments in conducting a mission utilizing the company’s VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) Moon rover.
• The company selected three companies to advance capabilities for a lunar terrain car that Artemis astronauts will use to journey across the lunar floor.
• NASA accomplished a vital design evaluate on the second mobile launcher, which can launch the extra highly effective Block 1B model of the SLS rocket.
• Engineers at NASA Kennedy continued outfitting the Artemis III and IV Orion crew modules and received the European-built Orion service module for Artemis III; in addition they acquired a number of sections of the Artemis III and IV SLS core phases, and upgraded Excessive Bay 2 within the Car Meeting Constructing.
• NASA completed its second RS-25 certification check collection at NASA’s Stennis House Middle close to Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, setting the stage for manufacturing of latest engines to assist energy future Artemis missions to the Moon and past.
• The CHAPEA (Crew Well being and Efficiency Exploration Analog) 1 crew completed a 378-day mission in a ground-based Mars habitat at NASA’s Johnson House Middle in Houston. 

Observing, Studying About Earth

NASA collects knowledge about our house planet from area and on land, serving to perceive how our local weather on Earth is altering. Among the company’s key accomplishments in Earth science this 12 months embody:

• After launching into area in February, NASA’s PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) satellite tv for pc mission is efficiently transmitting first-of-their-kind measurements of ocean well being, air high quality, and the consequences of a altering local weather.
• Utilizing the company’s TEMPO (Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Air pollution) instrument, NASA made obtainable new near-real time data offering air air pollution observations at unprecedented resolutions – right down to the dimensions of particular person neighborhoods.
• Launched in Could and June, NASA’s PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Power within the Far-Infrared Experiment) CubeSats began accumulating knowledge on the quantity of warmth within the type of far-infrared radiation that the Arctic and Antarctic environments emit to area.
• NASA rolled out the Catastrophe Response Coordination System, a new resource that delivers up-to-date information on fires, earthquakes, landslides, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, and different excessive occasions to emergency managers.
• The company partnered with the Smithsonian Nationwide Museum of Pure Historical past to open the Earth Information Center exhibit.

Exploring Our Photo voltaic System, Universe

NASA’s Europa Clipper embarked Oct. 14 on its lengthy voyage to Jupiter, the place it’s going to examine Europa, a moon with an unlimited subsurface ocean that will have situations to assist life. NASA collaborated with a number of companions on content material and social media associated to the launch, together with engagements with the Nationwide Hockey League, U.S. Determine Skating, 7-Eleven, e.l.f., Lady Scouts, Crayola, Library of Congress, and others. NASA’s 2024 area exploration milestones additionally embody: 

• NASA’s groundbreaking James Webb House Telescope marked greater than two years in area, remodeling our view of the universe as designed, by finding out the most distant galaxies ever noticed, whereas elevating thrilling new questions in regards to the atmospheres of planets outside our solar system.
• As a part of an asteroid sample exchange, NASA formally transferred to JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Company) a portion of the asteroid Bennu pattern collected by the company’s OSIRIS-Rex (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Useful resource Identification, and Safety-Regolith Explorer) mission in a ceremony on Aug. 22.
• After surviving a number of challenges this 12 months, NASA’s Voyager mission continues to collect data on the furthest reaches of our Solar’s influences.

• NASA chosen a brand new area telescope for improvement that may survey ultraviolet gentle throughout your entire sky, referred to as UVEX (UltraViolet Explorer).
• This 12 months, all remaining major components had been delivered to NASA Goddard to start the combination section for the company’s Nancy Grace Roman House Telescope.
• NASA developed, tested, and launched the patch equipment that astronauts will use to restore the company’s NICER (Neutron star Inside Composition Explorer) telescope on the Worldwide House Station.
• The company continued getting ready the SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the Historical past of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) mission to launch by April 2025.
• To handle the maturation of applied sciences essential to develop the Habitable Worlds Observatory telescope, NASA established a undertaking workplace at NASA Goddard.
• NASA and companions declared that the Sun reached solar maximum in 2024, a interval of heightened photo voltaic exercise when area climate turns into extra frequent.
• The Photo voltaic and Heliospheric Observatory, a joint mission between ESA (European House Company) and NASA, discovered its 5,000th comet in March.
• NASA’s Sounding Rocket Program supplied low-cost entry to area for scientific analysis, know-how improvement, and academic missions. NASA launched 14 sounding rocket missions in 2024. Scientists announced findings from a sounding rocket launched in 2022 that confirmed the existence of a long-sought world electrical subject at Earth.
• The company established a brand new class of astrophysics missions, referred to as Astrophysics Probe Explorers, designed to fill a niche between NASA’s flagship and smaller-scale missions.

Dwelling, Conducting Analysis in House

In 2024, a complete of 25 folks lived and labored aboard the Worldwide House Station, serving to to finish science for the good thing about humanity, open entry to area to extra folks, and assist exploration to the Moon in preparation for Mars. A complete of 14 spacecraft visited the microgravity laboratory in 2024, together with eight commercial resupply missions from Northrop Grumman and SpaceX, in addition to worldwide accomplice missions, delivering greater than 40,000 kilos of science investigations, instruments, and significant provides to the area station. NASA additionally helped safely return the uncrewed Boeing Starliner spacecraft to Earth, concluding a three-month flight check to the Worldwide House Station. As well as:

• In March, NASA welcomed its latest class of Artemis Era astronauts in a commencement ceremony. The company additionally sought new astronaut candidates, and extra 8,000 folks utilized.
• NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, ESA (European House Company) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Company) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa returned to Earth on the conclusion of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 mission aboard the Worldwide House Station. The three crew members, together with Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov, splashed down in March off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, finishing a six-and-a-half-month mission contributing to a whole bunch of experiments and technology demonstrations.
• In June, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams safely arrived on the area station aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft following launch of their flight check. With Starliner’s arrival, it was the primary time in station historical past three completely different spacecraft that carried crew to station had been docked on the similar time. Starliner returned uncrewed in September following a decision by NASA. Wilmore and Williams, now serving as a part of the company’s Crew-9 mission, will return to Earth in February 2025.
• NASA astronaut Don Pettit, accompanied by Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, arrived on the orbital laboratory in September to start a six-month mission.
• Finishing a six-month research mission in September, NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson returned to Earth with Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub aboard the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft.
• NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov launched on the company’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission to the area station.
• Concluding an almost eight-month science mission, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission safely returned to Earth, splashing down on Oct. 25, off the coast of Pensacola, Florida.
• NASA and Axiom House successfully completed the third non-public astronaut mission to the area station in February, following an 18-day mission, the place the crew performed 30 experiments, public outreach, and business actions in microgravity.
• The company introduced SpaceX was selected to develop and ship the U.S. Deorbit Car, which can safely transfer the area station out of orbit and right into a distant space of an ocean on the finish of its operations.
• NASA and SpaceX monitored operations as the corporate’s Dragon spacecraft carried out its first demonstration of reboost capabilities for the area station.
• NASA concluded the ultimate mission of its Spacecraft Fireplace Security Experiment, or Saffire, placing a blazing finish to an eight-year collection of investigations taking a look at  hearth’s habits in area.
• A robotic surgical tool aboard area station was efficiently controlled remotely by surgeons on Earth. The Robotic Surgery Tech Demo examined the efficiency of a small robotic to judge the consequences of microgravity and time delays between area and floor.
• The primary profitable metallic 3D print was performed aboard the area station, depositing a small s-curve in liquified chrome steel for the Metal 3D Printer investigation to check additive manufacturing of small metallic elements in microgravity for gear upkeep on future long-duration missions.
• In 2024, 17 NASA Biological and Physical Science analysis payloads had been delivered to the orbital laboratory, spanning quantum, plant biology, and bodily sciences investigations.
• Greater than 825,000 photos of Earth had been taken from the area station in 2024 to this point, contributing to analysis monitoring how our planet’s landscapes are altering over time. Expedition 71 produced greater than 630,000 photographs, probably the most taken throughout a single mission. In complete, greater than 5.3 million images have been taken from the area station, offering imagery for city gentle research, research of lightning flashes, and 14 pure catastrophe occasions in 2024 alone.

Imagining Future Flight

NASA researchers labored to advance improvements that may rework U.S. aviation, furthering the Sustainable Flight National Partnership and different efforts to assist the nation attain web zero carbon emissions by 2050. NASA additionally unveiled its X-59 quiet supersonic plane, the centerpiece of its Quesst mission to make quiet overland supersonic flight a actuality. NASA aeronautics initiatives additionally labored to carry air taxis, supply drones, and different revolutionary know-how nearer to deployment to profit the U.S. public and business. Over the previous 12 months, the company:

• Started testing the quiet supersonic X-59’s engine forward of its first flight.
• Made additional progress in analysis areas of Quesst mission, together with floor recording station testing and development and structural tests on the plane.
• Publicly unveiled the X-59 in January, offering the primary take a look at this distinctive plane.
• Examined a wind-tunnel mannequin of the X-66, an experimental plane designed to scale back the carbon footprint.
• Started constructing the X-66 simulator that may permit pilots and engineers to run real-life eventualities in a protected setting.
• Funded new studies taking a look at the way forward for sustainable plane for the 2050 timeframe and past.
• Constructed a new simulator to check how passengers might expertise air taxi rides. The outcomes will assist designers create new plane varieties with passenger consolation in thoughts.
• Developed a pc software program software referred to as OVERFLOW to foretell plane noise and aerodynamic efficiency. This software is now being utilized by a number of air taxi producers to check how propellers or wings carry out.
• In collaboration with Sikorsky and DARPA (Protection Superior Analysis Initiatives Company), flew two helicopters autonomously utilizing NASA-designed collision avoidance software program.
• Designed and flew a camera pod with sensors to assist advance pc imaginative and prescient for autonomous aviation.
• Launched a brand new science, know-how, engineering, and arithmetic equipment targeted on Advanced Air Mobility so college students can study extra about air taxis and drones.
• Continued to reduce traffic and save fuel at main U.S. airports as a part of NASA’s to work to enhance air journey and make it extra sustainable.
• Labored with companions to demonstrate a first-of-its-kind air visitors administration idea for plane to soundly function at larger altitudes.
• Superior Hybrid-Electric technologies with GE Aerospace below the Hybrid Thermally Environment friendly Core undertaking.
• Carried out new ground and flight tests for the Electrified Powertrain Flight Demonstration undertaking, which works to create hybrid electrical powertrains for regional and single-aisle plane, alongside GE Aerospace and magniX.
• Collaborated with the Federal Aviation Administration and police and hearth departments to strategize on integrating public safety drones into the nationwide airspace.
• Launched a brand new science, technology, engineering, and mathematics kit focused on Advanced Air Mobility so college students can study extra about air taxis and drones.

Bettering Life on Earth, in House with Expertise

NASA develops important applied sciences to drive exploration and the area financial system. In 2024, NASA leveraged partnerships to advance applied sciences and check new capabilities to assist the company develop a sustainable presence on the lunar floor and past, whereas benefiting life on our house planet and in low Earth orbit. The next are 2024 area know-how developments:

• Deployed NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System in area, marking a profitable check of its composite increase know-how.
• Carried out record-breaking laser communications with NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications know-how demonstration by sending a laser sign from Earth to NASA’s Psyche spacecraft about 290 million miles away.
  • NASA’s Superior Composite Photo voltaic Sail System and Deep House Optical Communications had been named amongst TIME’s Inventions of 2024, together with the company’s Europa Clipper spacecraft.
• Supported 84 exams of know-how payloads through 38 flights with six U.S. business flight suppliers via NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program.
• Enabled the primary NASA-supported researcher to fly with their payload aboard a business suborbital rocket.
• Superior vital capabilities for autonomous networks of small spacecraft with NASA’s Starling demonstration, the primary satellite tv for pc swarm to autonomously distribute info and operations knowledge between spacecraft.
• Demonstrated space-age fuel gauge technology, generally known as a Radio Frequency Mass Gauge, on Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lunar lander, to develop know-how to precisely measure spacecraft gasoline ranges.
• Carried out an in-space tank to tank transfer of cryogenic propellent (liquid oxygen) on the third flight check of SpaceX’s Starship.
• Licensed a new 3-D printed superalloy, dubbed GRX-810, to 4 American firms to strengthen, extra sturdy airplane and spacecraft elements.
• Manufactured 3D-printed, liquid oxygen/hydrogen thrust chamber {hardware} as a part of NASA’s Rapid Analysis and Manufacturing Propulsion Technology undertaking, which earned the company’s 2024 “Invention of The 12 months” award for its contributions to NASA and business business’s deep area exploration targets.
• Pioneered quantum discovery utilizing the Cold Atom Lab, together with producing the primary dual-species Bose-Einstein Condensates in area, the primary dual-species atom interferometers in area, and demonstrating the primary ultra-cool quantum sensor for the primary time in area.
• Introduced two new consortia to hold out ground-based analysis investigations and conduct actions for NASA’s Organic and Bodily Sciences Space Biology Program, totaling $5 million.
• Awarded $4.25 million throughout the finales of three main NASA Centennial Challenges, together with Break the Ice, Watts on the Moon, and Deep Space Food to assist NASA’s Artemis missions and future journeys into deep area. 
• Launched a collaborative course of to seize the aerospace group’s most pervasive technical challenges, leading to a ranked record of 187 civil space shortfalls to assist information future know-how improvement tasks, investments, and know-how roadmaps.

Rising World Partnerships

By means of the Artemis Accords, virtually 50 nations have joined the USA, led by NASA with the U.S. State Division, in a voluntary dedication to have interaction within the protected, clear, and accountable exploration of the Moon, Mars, and past. The Artemis Accords characterize a sturdy and numerous group of nation states, representing all areas of the world, working collectively for the protected, clear, and accountable exploration of the Moon, Mars and past with NASA. Extra nations are anticipated to signal the Artemis Accords within the weeks and months forward.

• Throughout a Could workshop with Artemis Accords signatories in Montreal, Canada, NASA led a tabletop exercise for twenty-four nations centered on additional defining and implementing key tenets, together with contemplating views on non-interference, interoperability, and scientific knowledge sharing amongst nations.
• A NASA delegation participated within the seventy fifth Worldwide Astronautical Congress in Milan. Through the congress, NASA co-chaired the Artemis Accords Principals’ Meeting, which introduced collectively 42 nations furthering discussions on the protected and accountable use of area for the good thing about all.

Celebrating Whole Photo voltaic Eclipse

Through the complete photo voltaic eclipse on April 8, NASA helped the nation benefit from the occasion safely and engaged tens of millions of individuals with in-person occasions, reside on-line protection, and citizen science alternatives. NASA additionally funded scientists round North America to reap the benefits of this distinctive place of the Solar, Moon, and Earth to study extra in regards to the Solar and its connection to our house planet. Highlights of the photo voltaic celebration embody:

• The area station crew had been among the many tens of millions viewing the solar eclipse.
• NASA collaborated with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Google, NCAA Girls’s Last 4, Peanuts Worldwide, Microsoft, Sésamo, LEGO, Barbie, Main League Baseball, Third Rock Radio, Discovery Training, and others on eclipse-inspired merchandise and social posts to assist consciousness of the eclipse and the significance of protected viewing.
• Greater than 50 student teams participated in NASA’s Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Venture, with some turning into the primary to measure atmospheric gravity waves attributable to eclipses.

Constructing Low Earth Orbit Financial system

In August, NASA announced the event of its low Earth orbit microgravity technique by releasing 42 aims for stakeholder suggestions. The technique helps to information the following technology of human presence in low Earth orbit and advance microgravity science, know-how, and exploration. NASA is refining the aims with collected enter and can finalize the technique earlier than the tip of the 12 months. Further developments embody:

• NASA modified agreements for 2 funded business area station companions that are on track to develop low Earth orbit locations for the company and different prospects.
• A NASA-funded business area station, Blue Origin’s Orbital Reef, completed multiple testing milestones for its vital life assist system as a part of the company’s efforts for brand spanking new locations in low Earth orbit.
• A full-scale ultimate burst pressure test on Sierra House’s LIFE (Giant Built-in Versatile Setting) habitat construction was performed, a component of a NASA-funded business area station.
• The company’s industry partners, via the second Collaborations for Industrial House Capabilities initiative and Small Enterprise Innovation Analysis Ignite initiative, accomplished security milestones, profitable flight exams, and main technological developments.
• As NASA opens entry to area by working with non-public business, the company shared its medical experience, human system integration knowledge, utilization requirements, and commercial space food insight to help in creating protected, dependable, progressive, and cost-effective area stations.
• To handle a quickly altering area working setting and guarantee its preservation for generations to come back, NASA launched its built-in Space Sustainability Strategy in April.
• The company examined the Sierra Space Dream Chaser spaceplane for the acute environments of area at NASA’s Neil Armstrong Check Facility in Sandusky, Ohio.
• NASA’s Glenn Analysis Middle in Cleveland streamed 4K video footage from an plane to the area station and again for the primary time utilizing optical, or laser, communications.

Inspiring Artemis Era of STEM College students

NASA continues to supply a variety of science, know-how, engineering, and arithmetic (STEM) initiatives and actions, reaching and interesting the following technology of scientists, engineers, and explorers. The company’s STEM engagements are enhanced via collaborations with accomplice organizations, the distribution of varied grants, and extra strategic actions. Key 2024 STEM highlights embody:

• Awarded almost $45 million to 21 higher-education institutions to assist construct capability for analysis, and introduced the recipients of grants that may assist scientific and technical research projects for greater than 20 universities and organizations throughout the USA.
• Planted a “Moon Tree,” a seedling that traveled across the Moon and again aboard the company’s Artemis I mission in 2022, on the U.S. Capitol in Washington. The occasion highlighted a partnership with the U.S. Forest Service that invited organizations throughout the nation to host the seedlings.
• Partnered with Microsoft’s Minecraft to have interaction college students in a game-based studying platform, the place gamers can expertise NASA’s discoveries with interactive modules on star formation, planets, and galaxy varieties, modeled utilizing actual James Webb House Telescope photographs.
• Collaborate with the U.S. Department of Education to carry STEM to college students throughout after-school hours below the twenty first Century Neighborhood Studying Facilities program, which goals to achieve hundreds of scholars in additional than 60 websites throughout 10 states.
• Launched NASA Engages, a platform to attach and serve the general public by offering company specialists to share their experiences engaged on company missions and applications.
• With greater than 55,000 purposes for NASA internships throughout the spring, summer time and fall periods, a brand new recruitment file, NASA helped students and early-career professionals make actual contributions to area and science missions.
• Expanded the company’s program to assist casual instructional establishments like museums, science facilities, libraries, and different group organizations carry STEM content material to communities, leading to 42 lively awards throughout 26 states and Puerto Rico.
• Hosted the thirtieth Human Exploration Rover Challenge, one in every of NASA’s longest-standing pupil challenges, with participation from greater than 600 college students and 72 groups from around the globe.

Reaching New, Future Explorers

NASA’s future-forward outreach to present and new audiences is vital to offering accessibility to the company’s scientific discoveries and to rising the longer term STEM workforce. NASA’s artistic and inclusive 2024 methods to achieve the general public embody:

• NASA’s on-demand streaming service, NASA+, achieved 4 instances the viewership of the company’s conventional cable channel, marking a serious milestone in its ongoing net modernization efforts. As a part of the digital transformation, NASA mentioned goodbye to NASA Tv, its over-the-air broadcast, streamlining the way it delivers the most recent area, science, and know-how information. NASA+ marked its first 12 months of operation Sept. 23, and guests have performed 1,036,389 hours of programming.
• April 8, the day of the overall photo voltaic eclipse, introduced in 32 million views to NASA’s web sites, greater than 15 instances further views than the typical this 12 months. On common, NASA web sites obtain 33.4 million views each month.
• NASA social media accounts noticed a rise of 4% in followers since 2023, from 391.2 million in 2023 to 406.8 million this 12 months. On common, NASA accounts see near 25 million engagements every month.
  • Notable reside social media occasions in 2024 included the first-ever Reddit Ask Me Something with the platform’s 23-million member “Clarify Like I’m 5” group; the primary X Areas dialog from area; and NASA’s first Instagram Stay of a launch, which contributed 410,000 of the 6.6 million views of the Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Check launch.
  • NASA Twitch launched customized emotes, issued channel factors for the primary time, and collaborated with an exterior Twitch creator, a how-to dialog with astrophotographers and NASA specialists about photographing the Moon.
• NASA aired reside broadcasts for 14 mission launches in 2024. The company’s official broadcast of the 2024 complete photo voltaic eclipse and its telescope feed are the highest two most-watched livestreams this 12 months on NASA’s YouTube.
  • The company’s YouTube livestreams in 2024 surpassed 84.7 million complete views.  
  • NASA broadcasts typically had been enhanced by the presence of well-known athletes, artists, and cultural figures. The photo voltaic eclipse broadcast alone featured musician Lance Bass, actor Scarlett Johannson, NFL quarterback Josh Dobbs, and Snoopy.
• The company’s podcasts surpassed 9.7 million all-time performs on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
• The NASA app was put in greater than 2.1 million instances in 2024.  
• The variety of subscribers to NASA’s flagship and Spanish newsletters complete greater than 5 million.
• NASA celebrated the fifth anniversary of the Hidden Figures Means road renaming. This system honored the legacy of Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, and Christine M. Darden, and others who had been featured in Margot Shetterly’s e-book – and the next film – Hidden Figures, and their dedication to science, justice, and humanity.
• The company signed House Act agreements with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Hispanic Heritage Foundation to extend engagement and fairness for underrepresented college students pursuing STEM fields and scale back obstacles to company actions and alternatives.
• As a part of its plans to achieve new audiences, NASA continued to concentrate on creating Spanish-language content material. This 12 months, the company:
  • Greater than doubled the variety of yearly posts to its science-focused web site in Spanish, Ciencia de la NASA, and grew the web site’s visitors by five-fold.
  • Produced reside broadcasts for the 2024 complete photo voltaic eclipse and for the launch of the Europa Clipper mission, which reached a mixed viewers of greater than 5 million viewers around the globe.
  • Revealed a video about how NASA and ESA (European House Company) cooperate to coach astronauts.
  • Launched an astrobiology graphic novel and the company’s financial influence yearly report in Spanish, amongst different outreach supplies.
• Relaunched the NASA Art Program with two space-themed murals in New York’s Hudson Sq. neighborhood in Manhattan. The imaginative and prescient of the reimagined NASA Artwork Program is to encourage and interact the Artemis Era with group murals and artwork tasks for the good thing about humanity.
• A DC-8 Airborne Science Laboratory Workshop documented and celebrated the vital scientific work performed aboard NASA’s legendary DC-8 and captured classes of the previous for present and future operators. 
• The Deep House Community beamed a Missy Elliott track to area on July 12. 
• NASA partnered with Crayola Training to develop content material for Crayola’s annual Creativity Week held in January, which reached greater than 6 million children from 100 nations. 
• On the eve of the fifty fifth anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon touchdown, NASA Johnson named one in every of its central buildings the “Dorothy Vaughan Middle in Honor of the Girls of Apollo.” Actress Octavia Spencer narrated a video for the occasion. 
• NASA’s Ames Analysis Middle in California’s Silicon Valley hosted social media creators in area, science, and engineering for a behind-the-scenes tour of the middle’s world-class services.
• Partaking largely untapped NASA audiences of greater than 155,000 in Illinois, Michigan, and Minnesota, NASA’s Glenn launched NASA within the Midwest, an built-in strategy to carry consciousness to the company’s connections to the area to large-scale festivals and surrounding group establishments.
• Reaching 500,000 in-person attendees, NASA Stennis supported the company’s return to the ESSENCE Pageant of Tradition in New Orleans.
• NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia developed a dance engagement program in partnership with the Japanese Shore Ballet Theatre, introducing new audiences to the company whereas mixing arts and science.
• NASA participated in additional than 3,700 occasions deliberate with an estimated attain of greater than 17 million worldwide. This was achieved via in-person, hybrid, and digital outreach actions and occasions.
• The company’s Digital Visitor Program engaged 277,370 digital visitors throughout 13 occasions, with a mean of 145 nations, areas, and territories represented per occasion.

There additionally had been many notable engagements highlighting the intersection of area and sports activities in 2024, together with the Stanley Cup visiting NASA Kennedy for images as a part of the company’s rising partnership with the Nationwide Hockey League. NASA Glenn additionally collaborated with The Ohio State College Marching Band for its halftime present throughout the college’s soccer sport on Sept. 21. A video greeting from astronauts aboard the Worldwide House Station launched the show, which featured aerospace-themed music and quite a few formations together with the ultimate formation the NASA Meatball.

For extra about NASA’s missions, analysis, and discoveries, go to:

https://www.nasa.gov

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Meira Bernstein / Cheryl Warner
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
meira.b.bernstein@nasa.gov / cheryl.m.warner@nasa.gov