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By NASA
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA is kicking off the 2026 Student Launch challenge, looking for new student teams to design, build, and launch high-powered rockets with a scientific or engineering payload next April.
The agency is seeking proposals until Monday, Sept. 22. Details about this year’s challenge are in the 2026 handbook, which outlines the requirements for middle school, high school, and college students to participate. After a competitive proposal selection process, selected teams must meet documentation milestones and undergo detailed reviews throughout the activity year.
NASA’s Student Launch, a STEM competition, officially kicks off its 26th anniversary with the 2026 handbook. “These bright students rise to a nine-month challenge for Student Launch that tests their skills in engineering, design, and teamwork,” said Kevin McGhaw, director of NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement Southeast Region. “They are part of the Golden Age of explorers – the future scientists, engineers, and innovators who will lead us into the future of space exploration.”
Student Launch will culminate with on-site events starting on April 22, 2026. Final launches are scheduled for April 25, at Bragg Farms in Toney, Alabama, near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
Each year, NASA updates the university payload challenge to reflect current scientific and exploration missions. For the 2026 season, the payload challenge will take inspiration from the Artemis missions, which seek to explore the Moon for scientific discovery, technology advancement, and to learn how to live and work on another world as we prepare for human missions to Mars. This year’s payload challenge tasks college and university teams with designing, building, and flying a habitat to safely house four STEMnauts – non-living objects representing astronauts – during extended missions. The habitat must include equipment capable of both collecting and testing soil samples to support agricultural research operations.
Nearly 1,000 students participated in the 2025 Student Launch competition – making up 71 teams from across the United States. Teams launched their rockets to an altitude between 4,000 and 6,000 feet, while attempting to make a successful landing and executing the payload mission.
NASA Student Launch has been at the forefront of experiential education, providing students from middle school through university with unparalleled opportunities to engage in real-world engineering and scientific research.
John Eckhart
Technical Coordinator, Student Launch
Former NASA Marshall Director Art Stephenson started Student Launch in 2000 as a student rocket competition at the center. Just two university teams competed in the inaugural challenge – Alabama A&M University and the University of Alabama in Huntsville. The challenge continues to soar with thousands of students participating in the STEM competition each year, and many going on to a career with NASA.
NASA Marshall’s Office of STEM Engagement hosts Student Launch to provide students with real-world experiences that encourage them to pursue degrees and careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Student Launch is one of several NASA Artemis Student Challenges – a variety of activities that expose students to the knowledge and technology required to achieve the goals of the agency’s Artemis campaign.
In addition to NASA Office of STEM Engagement’s Next Generation STEM project, NASA Space Operations Mission Directorate, Northrop Grumman, National Space Club Huntsville, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, National Association of Rocketry, Relativity Space and, Bastion Technologies provide funding and leadership for the Student Launch competition.
To learn more about Student Launch, visit:
www.nasa.gov/studentlaunch
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Last Updated Aug 25, 2025 Related Terms
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By NASA
NASA’s SpaceX 33rd commercial resupply mission successfully launched to deliver supplies and science investigations to the International Space Station from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Aug. 24, 2025.Credit: NASA Following a successful launch of NASA’s SpaceX 33rd commercial resupply mission, new scientific experiments and cargo for the agency are bound for the International Space Station.
The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, carrying more than 5,000 pounds of supplies to the orbiting laboratory, lifted off at 2:45 a.m. EDT on Sunday, on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
“Commercial resupply missions to the International Space Station deliver science that helps prove technologies for Artemis lunar missions and beyond,” said acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy. “This flight will test 3D printing metal parts and bioprinting tissue in microgravity – technology that could give astronauts tools and medical support on future Moon and Mars missions.”
Live coverage of the spacecraft’s arrival will begin at 6 a.m., Monday, Aug. 25, on NASA+, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and more. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.
The spacecraft is scheduled to dock autonomously at approximately 7:30 a.m. to the forward port of the space station’s Harmony module.
In addition to food, supplies, and equipment for the crew, Dragon will deliver several experiments, including bone-forming stem cells for studying bone loss prevention and materials, to 3D print medical implants that could advance treatments for nerve damage on Earth. Dragon also will deliver bioprinted liver tissue to study blood vessel development in microgravity, as well as supplies to 3D print metal cubes in space.
These are just a sample of the hundreds of biology and biotechnology, physical sciences, Earth and space science investigations conducted aboard the orbiting laboratory. This research benefits people on Earth while laying the groundwork for other agency deep space missions. As part of NASA’s Artemis campaign, the agency will send astronauts to the Moon to prepare for future human exploration of Mars, inspiring the world through discovery in a new Golden Age of innovation and exploration.
During the mission, Dragon also will perform a reboost demonstration of station to maintain its current altitude. The hardware, located in the trunk of Dragon, contains an independent propellant system separate from the spacecraft to fuel two Draco engines using existing hardware and propellant system design. The boost kit will help sustain the orbiting lab’s altitude starting in September with a series of burns planned periodically throughout the fall of 2025. During NASA’s SpaceX 31st commercial resupply services mission on Nov. 8, 2024, the Dragon spacecraft performed its first demonstration of these capabilities.
The Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to remain at the space station until December, when it will depart the orbiting laboratory and return to Earth with research and cargo, splashing down off the coast of California.
Learn more about the International Space Station at:
https://www.nasa.gov/international-space-station
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Joshua Finch
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov
Steven Siceloff
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
321-876-2468
steven.p.siceloff@nasa.gov
Sandra Jones / Joseph Zakrzewski
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov / joseph.a.zakrzewski@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Aug 24, 2025 EditorJessica TaveauLocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
Commercial Resupply International Space Station (ISS) ISS Research SpaceX Commercial Resupply View the full article
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By NASA
Technicians conduct blanket closeout work on NASA’s IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) observatory at the Astrotech Space Operations Facility near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. The IMAP mission will explore and map the boundaries of the heliosphere — a huge bubble created by the Sun’s wind that encapsulates our entire solar system — and study how the heliosphere interacts with the local galactic neighborhood beyond.Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett Media accreditation is open for the launch of three observatories that will study the Sun and enhance the ability to make accurate space weather forecasts, helping protect technology systems that affect life on Earth.
NASA is targeting no earlier than Tuesday, Sept. 23, for the launch of the agency’s IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe), the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Follow On–Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) observatory. The observatories will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Accredited media will have the opportunity to participate in prelaunch briefings and interviews with key mission personnel prior to launch, as well as cover the launch. NASA will communicate additional details regarding the media event schedule as the launch date approaches.
Media accreditation deadlines for the launch are as follows:
International media without U.S. citizenship must apply by 11:59 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Aug. 31. U.S. media and U.S. citizens representing international media organizations must apply by 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 4. All accreditation requests must be submitted online at:
https://media.ksc.nasa.gov
NASA’s media accreditation policy is available online. For questions about accreditation, please email: ksc-media-accreditat@mail.nasa.gov. For other mission questions, please contact the NASA Kennedy newsroom at 321-867-2468.
Para obtener información en español en sobre el Centro Espacial Kennedy, comuníquese con Antonia Jaramillo: 321-501-8425. Si desea solicitar entrevistas en español sobre IMAP, póngase en contacto con María-José Viñas: maria-jose.vinasgarcia@nasa.gov.
NASA’s IMAP will use 10 science instruments to study and map the heliosphere, a vast magnetic bubble surrounding the Sun protecting our solar system from radiation incoming from interstellar space. This mission and its two rideshares will orbit the Sun near Lagrange point 1, about one million miles from Earth, where it will scan the heliosphere, analyze the composition of charged particles, and investigate how those particles move through the solar system. This will provide information on how the Sun accelerates charged particles, filling in essential puzzle pieces to understand the space weather environment across the solar system. The IMAP spacecraft also will continuously monitor solar wind and cosmic radiation. Scientists can use this information to evaluate new and improved capabilities for space weather prediction tools and models, which are vital for the health of human space explorers and the longevity of technological systems, like satellites and power grids, that can affect life on Earth.
The agency’s Carruthers Geocorona Observatory is a small satellite set to study the exosphere, the outermost part of Earth’s atmosphere. Using ultraviolet cameras, it will monitor how space weather from the Sun impacts the exosphere, which plays a crucial role in protecting Earth from space weather events that can affect satellites, communications, and power lines. The exosphere, a cloud of neutral hydrogen extending to the Moon and possibly beyond, is created by the breakdown of water and methane by ultraviolet light from the Sun, and its glow, known as the geocorona, has been observed globally only four times before this mission.
The SWFO-L1 mission, managed by NOAA and developed with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and commercial partners, will use a suite of instruments to provide real-time measurements of solar wind, along with a compact coronagraph to detect coronal mass ejections from the Sun. The observatory, serving as an early warning beacon for potentially destructive space weather events, will enable faster and more accurate forecasts. Its 24/7 data will support NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center in protecting vital infrastructure, economic interests, and national security, both on Earth and in space.
David McComas, professor, Princeton University, leads the IMAP mission with an international team of 25 partner institutions. The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, built the spacecraft and operates the mission. NASA’s IMAP is the fifth mission in NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Probes program portfolio. The Explorers and Heliophysics Project Division at NASA Goddard manages the program for the agency’s Heliophysics Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.
NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at NASA Kennedy, manages the launch service for the mission.
For more details about the IMAP mission and updates on launch preparations, visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/imap/
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Abbey Interrante
Headquarters, Washington
301-201-0124
abbey.a.interrante@nasa.gov
Sarah Frazier
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
202-853-7191
sarah.frazier@nasa.gov
Leejay Lockhart
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
321-747-8310
leejay.lockhart@nasa.gov
John Jones-Bateman
NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service, Silver Spring, Md.
202-242-0929
john.jones-bateman@noaa.gov
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Last Updated Aug 21, 2025 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) Carruthers Geocorona Observatory (GLIDE) Goddard Space Flight Center Heliophysics Heliophysics Division Kennedy Space Center Launch Services Program Science & Research Science Mission Directorate Space Weather
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By NASA
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon spacecraft lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday, April 21, 2025, on the company’s 32nd commercial resupply services mission for the agency to the International Space Station. Liftoff was at 4:15 a.m. EDT. SpaceX NASA and SpaceX are targeting 2:45 a.m. EDT, Sunday, Aug. 24, for the next launch to deliver science investigations, supplies, and equipment to the International Space Station. This is the 33rd SpaceX commercial resupply services mission to the orbital laboratory for NASA.
Filled with more than 5,000 pounds of supplies, a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket will lift off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Dragon will dock autonomously about 7:30 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 25, to the forward port of the space station’s Harmony module.
Watch agency launch and arrival coverage on NASA+, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and more. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.
In addition to food, supplies, and equipment for the crew, Dragon will deliver several experiments, including bone-forming stem cells for studying bone loss prevention and materials to 3D print medical implants that could advance treatments for nerve damage on Earth. Dragon also will deliver bioprinted liver tissue to study blood vessel development in microgravity and supplies to 3D print metal cubes in space. Research conducted aboard the space station advances future space exploration – including Artemis missions to the Moon and astronaut missions Mars – and provides multiple benefits to humanity.
In addition, Dragon will perform a reboost demonstration of station to maintain its current altitude. The hardware, located in the trunk of Dragon, contains an independent propellant system separate from the spacecraft to fuel two Draco engines using existing hardware and propellant system design. The boost kit will demonstrate the capability to help sustain the orbiting lab’s altitude starting in September with a series of burns planned periodically throughout the fall of 2025. During NASA’s SpaceX 31st commercial resupply services mission, the Dragon spacecraft performed its first demonstration of these capabilities on Nov. 8, 2024.
The Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to remain at the space station until December when it will depart and return to Earth with research and cargo, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California.
NASA’s mission coverage is as follows (all times Eastern and subject to change based on real-time operations):
Tuesday, Aug. 19:
1 p.m. – International Space Station National Laboratory Science Webinar with the following participants:
Heidi Parris, associate program scientist, NASA’s International Space Station Program Research Office Michael Roberts, chief scientific officer, International Space Station National Laboratory James Yoo, assistant director, Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative Medicine Tony James, chief architect for science and space, Red Hat Abba Zubair, medical director and scientist, Mayo Clinic Arun Sharma, director, Center for Space Medicine Research, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Media who wish to participate must register for Zoom access no later than one hour before the start of the webinar.
The conference will stream live on the International Space Station National Lab’s website.
Friday, Aug. 22:
11:30 a.m. – Prelaunch media teleconference with the following participants:
Bill Spetch, operations integration manager, NASA’s International Space Station Program Heidi Parris, associate program scientist, NASA’s International Space Station Program Research Office Sarah Walker, director, Dragon Mission Management, SpaceX Media who wish to participate by phone must request dial-in information by 10 a.m. Aug. 22, by emailing NASA Kennedy Space Center’s newsroom at: ksc-newsroom@mail.nasa.gov.
Audio of the media teleconference will stream live on the agency’s YouTube channel.
Sunday, Aug. 24
2:25 a.m. – Launch coverage begins on NASA+, Netflix, and Amazon Prime.
2:45 a.m. – Launch
Monday, Aug. 25:
6 a.m. – Arrival coverage begins on NASA+, Netflix, and Amazon Prime.
7:30 a.m. – Docking
NASA website launch coverage
Launch day coverage of the mission will be available on the NASA website. Coverage will include live streaming and blog updates beginning no earlier than 2:25 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 24, as the countdown milestones occur. On-demand streaming video on NASA+ and photos of the launch will be available shortly after liftoff. For questions about countdown coverage, contact the NASA Kennedy newsroom at 321-867-2468. Follow countdown coverage on our International Space Station blog for updates.
Attend Launch Virtually
Members of the public can register to attend this launch virtually. NASA’s virtual guest program for this mission also includes curated launch resources, notifications about related opportunities or changes, and a stamp for the NASA virtual guest passport following launch.
Watch, Engage on Social Media Let people know you’re watching the mission on X, Facebook, and Instagram by following and tagging these accounts:
X: @NASA, @NASAKennedy, @NASASocial, @Space_Station, @ISS_CASIS
Facebook: NASA, NASAKennedy, ISS, ISS National Lab
Instagram: @NASA, @NASAKennedy, @ISS, @ISSNationalLab
Coverage en Espanol
Did you know NASA has a Spanish section called NASA en Espanol? Check out NASA en Espanol on X, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube for additional mission coverage.
Para obtener información sobre cobertura en español en el Centro Espacial Kennedy o si desea solicitar entrevistas en español, comuníquese con Antonia Jaramillo o Messod Bendayan a: antonia.jaramillobotero@nasa.gov o messod.c.bendayan@nasa.gov.
Learn more about the mission at:
https://www.nasa.gov/mission/nasas-spacex-crs-33/
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Joshua Finch
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov
Steven Siceloff
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
321-876-2468
steven.p.siceloff@nasa.gov
Sandra Jones / Joseph Zakrzewski
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov / joseph.a.zakrzewskI@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Aug 18, 2025 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
SpaceX Commercial Resupply Commercial Resupply International Space Station (ISS) Johnson Space Center Kennedy Space Center NASA Headquarters View the full article
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