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30 Years Ago: NASA Selects its 15th Group of Astronauts 


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Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)

On Dec. 8, 1994, NASA announced the selection of its 15th group of astronauts. The diverse group comprised 19 candidates – 10 pilots and nine mission specialists, and included five women, two African Americans, one Asian American, and the first Peruvian-born and Indian-born astronauts. Four international astronauts, one each from Canada and Japan and two from France, joined the group later for astronaut candidate training, following which all 23 became eligible for spaceflight assignment. The two French candidates had previous spaceflight experience in cooperative missions with Russia. All members of the group completed at least one spaceflight, making significant contributions to assembly and maintenance of the space station and carrying out important science missions. Three perished in the Columbia accident. 

The Group 15 NASA and international astronaut candidates pose for a group photo – front row, Jeffrey S. Ashby, left, Dafydd “Dave” R. Williams, James F. Reilly, Scott D. Altman, Rick D. Husband, and Michael J. Bloomfield; middle row, Pamela A. Melroy, left, Michael P. Anderson, Michel Tognini, Kathryn “Kay” P. Hire, Kalpana Chawla, Carlos I. Noriega, Susan L. Still, Takao Doi, and Frederick “Rick” W. Sturckow; back row, Janet L. Kavandi, left, Edward T. Lu, Steven K. Robinson, Robert L. Curbeam, Dominic L.P. Gorie, Joe F. Edwards, Steven W. Lindsey, and Jean-Loup Chrétien.
The Group 15 NASA and international astronaut candidates pose for a group photo – front row, Jeffrey S. Ashby, left, Dafydd “Dave” R. Williams, James F. Reilly, Scott D. Altman, Rick D. Husband, and Michael J. Bloomfield; middle row, Pamela A. Melroy, left, Michael P. Anderson, Michel Tognini, Kathryn “Kay” P. Hire, Kalpana Chawla, Carlos I. Noriega, Susan L. Still, Takao Doi, and Frederick “Rick” W. Sturckow; back row, Janet L. Kavandi, left, Edward T. Lu, Steven K. Robinson, Robert L. Curbeam, Dominic L.P. Gorie, Joe F. Edwards, Steven W. Lindsey, and Jean-Loup Chrétien.
Credit: NASA

The newest class of NASA astronaut candidates included pilot candidates Scott D. Altman, Jeffrey S. Ashby, Michael J. Bloomfield, Joe F. Edwards, Dominic L.P. Gorie, Rick D. Husband, Steven W. Lindsey, Pamela A. Melroy, Susan L. Still, and Frederick “Rick” W. Sturckow, and mission specialist candidates Michael P. Anderson, Kalpana Chawla, Robert L. Curbeam, Kathryn “Kay” P. Hire, Janet L. Kavandi, Edward T. Lu, Carlos I. Noriega, James F. Reilly, and Steven K. Robinson. A January 1995 agreement among the agencies enabled Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Dafydd “Dave” R. Williams and Takao Doi of the National Space Development Agency (NASDA), now the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, to join the 19 NASA astronauts for training. Another agreement between NASA and the French space agency CNES enabled astronauts Jean-Loup Chrétien and Michel Tognini to also join the group. Both Chrétien and Tognini had previous spaceflight experience through joint agreements with Russia, and their experience proved helpful to NASA in the fledgling Shuttle-Mir Program. 

Group 15 astronaut candidates experience short-duration weightlessness aboard NASA’s KC-135 aircraft.
Group 15 astronaut candidates experience short-duration weightlessness aboard NASA’s KC-135 aircraft.
Credit: NASA

The 19 NASA candidates along with Williams and Doi reported to work at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston on March 6, 1995, to begin their one-year training period. The two French astronauts joined them later. During the yearlong training, the candidates attended classes in applied sciences, space shuttle and space station systems, space medicine, Earth and planetary sciences, and materials sciences. They visited each of the NASA centers to learn about their functions and received instruction in flying the T-38 Talon training aircraft, high-altitude and ground egress systems, survival skills, parasail flight, and scuba. They experienced short-duration weightlessness aboard NASA’s KC-135 aircraft dubbed the Vomit Comet. After completing the astronaut candidate training, they qualified for various technical assignments within the astronaut office leading to assignments to space shuttle crews. 

The 19 NASA candidates along with Williams and Doi reported to work at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston on March 6, 1995, to begin their one-year training period. The two French astronauts joined them later. During the yearlong training, the candidates attended classes in applied sciences, space shuttle and space station systems, space medicine, Earth and planetary sciences, and materials sciences. They visited each of the NASA centers to learn about their functions and received instruction in flying the T-38 Talon training aircraft, high-altitude and ground egress systems, survival skills, parasail flight, and scuba. They experienced short-duration weightlessness aboard NASA’s KC-135 aircraft dubbed the Vomit Comet. After completing the astronaut candidate training, they qualified for various technical assignments within the astronaut office leading to assignments to space shuttle crews. 

Per tradition, the previous astronaut class provided the nickname for Group 15. Originally, The Class of 1992, The Hogs, dubbed them The Snails because NASA had delayed their announcement. Then after the addition of the two French astronauts, they felt that The Flying Escargots seemed more appropriate. The Group 15 patch included an astronaut pin rising from the Earth, an orbiting space shuttle and space station, and flags of the United States, Canada, France, and Japan. 

Group 15 patch.
Group 15 patch.
Credit: NASA

Altman, a U.S. Navy pilot, hails from Illinois. He received his first spaceflight assignment as pilot of STS-90, the 16-day Neurolab mission in 1998, along with fellow Escargots Hire and Williams. He again served as pilot on STS-106, a 12-day space station resupply mission in 2000, accompanied by fellow Escargot Lu. He served as commander on his third mission, STS-109, the 11-day fourth Hubble Space Telescope (HST) servicing mission in 2002. He commanded his fourth and final mission, the 13-day final HST servicing mission, STS-125, in 2009. Altman logged a total of 51 days in space. 

Anderson, a native of upstate New York and a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force, received his first assignment as a mission specialist on STS-89, the nine-day eighth docking with Mir. Fellow Escargots Edwards and Reilly flew with Anderson, who has the distinction as the only African American astronaut to visit that space station during the mission in 1998. He next served as payload commander on the 16-day STS-107 Spacehab research mission in 2003, flying with fellow Escargots Chawla and Husband. Anderson perished in the Columbia accident. He logged nearly 25 days in space. 

Texas native and U.S. Navy captain Ashby received his first spaceflight assignment as pilot of STS-93, the five-day mission in 1999 to deploy the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Fellow Escargot Tognini served as a mission specialist on this flight. On his second mission, Ashby served as pilot of STS-100, the 12-day flight in 2001 that delivered the Canadarm2 robotic arm to the space station. Ashby commanded his third and final mission in 2002, STS-112, the 11-day space station assembly flight that delivered the S1 truss. Fellow Escargot Melroy served as pilot on this flight. During his three missions, Ashby spent nearly 28 days in space. 

Hailing from Michigan, U.S. Air Force Colonel Bloomfield received his first flight assignment as pilot of STS-86, the seventh Mir docking mission. The 11-day flight took place in 1997, with fellow Escargot Chrétien serving as a mission specialist. Bloomfield served as pilot on his second flight, STS-97, the 11-day station assembly mission in 2000 that delivered the P6 truss and the first set of U.S. solar arrays. Fellow Escargot Noriega flew as a mission specialist on this flight. Bloomfield served as commander on his third and final mission, the 11-day STS-110 assembly flight that delivered the S0 truss segment in 2002. Bloomfield logged a total of 32 days in space across his three missions. 

Chawla, the first Indian-born NASA astronaut, earned a doctorate in aerospace engineering. She received her first spaceflight assignment as a mission specialist on STS-87, the 16-day flight in 1997 that carried the fourth U.S. Microgravity Payload (USMP-4). Fellow Escargot Lindsey served as pilot on this mission, during which Chawla used the shuttle’s robotic arm to release and capture the SPARTAN-201-4 free flyer. She next served as a mission specialist on the STS-107 Spacehab research mission in 2003, along with fellow Escargots Anderson and Husband. Chawla perished in the Columbia accident. She logged nearly 32 days in space.

On his first spaceflight, Curbeam, a native of Baltimore and commander in the U.S. Navy, flew as a mission specialist on STS-85, a 12-day mission in 1997 that carried the CRISTA-SPAS-2 free flyer. Fellow Escargot Robinson accompanied Curbeam on this mission. On his next flight, he served as a mission specialist on STS-98, the 2001 station assembly flight that delivered the Destiny U.S. Lab. During that 13-day flight, Curbeam participated in three spacewalks, spending nearly 20 hours outside. On his third and final spaceflight, he served as a mission specialist on STS-116, the 13-day assembly flight in 2006 that delivered the P5 truss segment. Curbeam participated in four spacewalks to reconfigure the station’s power system, spending nearly 26 hours outside. Across his four flights, Curbeam spent more than 37 days in space, and across his seven spacewalks more than 45 hours outside.  

Edwards, a native of Virginia and U.S. Navy commander, flew his single spaceflight as pilot of STS-89, the eighth Mir docking mission in 1998. Fellow Escargots Anderson and Reilly flew with him as mission specialists on this flight. Edwards spent nine days in space. 

A native of Louisiana and U.S. Navy captain, Gorie received his first spaceflight assignment as pilot of STS-91, the 10-day ninth and final Mir docking mission in 1998, along with fellow Escargot Kavandi. In 2000, he served as pilot of STS-99, the 11-day Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), once again with fellow Escargot Kavandi. Gorie commanded his third mission, STS-108 in 2001, the first station Utilization Flight that lasted 12 days. He also commanded his fourth and final flight, accompanied by fellow Escargot Doi, the 16-day STS-123 mission in 2008 that delivered the Japanese pressurized logistics module and the Canadian Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM) to the station. Over his four missions, Gorie spent more than 48 days in space. 

A native of Alabama and a captain in the U.S. Navy Reserve, Hire completed her first space mission in 1998 as a mission specialist on the 16-day STS-90 Neurolab mission, along with fellow Escargots Altman and Williams. Twelve years later, Hire flew her second and last mission, STS-130, a 14-day space station assembly mission that installed the Node 3 Tranquility module and the Cupola. During her two flights, Hire spent nearly 30 days in space. 

Hailing from Amarillo, Texas, and a colonel in the U.S. Air Force, Husband flew as the pilot of STS-96 on his first flight. The 10-day space station resupply mission took place in 1999. He served as commander on his second flight, the 16-day STS-107 Spacehab research mission in 2003, along with fellow Escargots Anderson and Chawla. Husband perished in the Columbia accident. He logged nearly 26 days in space. 

Missouri native Kavandi completed her first spaceflight as a mission specialist on STS-91, the 10-day ninth and final Mir docking mission in 1998, along with fellow Escargot Gorie. On her second flight, she served as a mission specialist on the 11-day STS-99 SRTM in 2000, once again with fellow Escargot Gorie. As a mission specialist on STS-104, her third and final spaceflight, Kavandi flew with fellow Escargots Lindsey and Reilly to install the Quest airlock on the station. On her three flights, she logged 34 days in space. Kavandi served as director of NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland from March 2016 to September 2019. 

A colonel in the U.S. Air Force, California-born Lindsey has the distinction as the only member of his class to complete five spaceflights. He served as pilot on his first spaceflight in 1997, the 16-day STS-87 USMP-4 mission, joined by fellow Escargots Chawla and Doi. He flew as pilot on his second mission in 1998, the nine-day STS-95 mission that saw astronaut John H. Glenn return to space. Fellow Escargot Robinson joined Lindsey on this mission. He commanded his third spaceflight, the 13-day STS-104 mission in 2001 that delivered the Quest airlock to the space station. Fellow Escargots Kavandi and Reilly accompanied Lindsey on this flight. He served as commander of his fourth trip into space in 2006, the 13-day STS-121 second return to flight mission after the Columbia accident that also returned the station to a 3-person crew. For his fifth and final space mission in 2011, Lindsey once again served as commander, of STS-133, the 39th and final flight of space shuttle Discovery. The fifth Utilization and Logistics Flight delivered the Permanent Multipurpose Module and the third of four EXPRESS Logistics Carriers to the space station. Lindsey’s flight on STS-133 marked the last flight by a Flying Escargot. Across his five missions, Lindsey logged nearly 63 days in space. 

Born in Massachusetts, Lu earned a doctorate in applied physics. He received his first spaceflight assignment as a mission specialist on the nine-day STS-84 flight in 1997, the sixth Mir docking mission. Fellow Escargot Noriega accompanied him on the flight. On his second trip into space, Lu served as mission specialist on STS-106, a 12-day station resupply mission in 2000. He participated in a six-hour spacewalk to complete electrical connections between two of the station’s modules. Fellow Escargot Altman flew with Lu on this mission. On his third mission, Lu served as flight engineer of Expedition 7, spending 185 days in space in 2003, the only Escargot to complete a long-duration mission. He logged 206 days in space during his three spaceflights.

 

California native Melroy, a colonel in the U.S. Air Force, received her first flight assignment as pilot of STS-92, the 13-day space station assembly flight in 2000 that delivered the Z1 truss. She served as pilot on her second mission, STS-112, the 11-day flight that brought the S1 truss to the station in 2002. Fellow Escargot Ashby commanded this mission. On her third and final mission in 2007, she served as commander of STS-120, the 15-day assembly flight that brought the Harmony Node 2 module to the station. After hatch opening, space station commander Peggy A. Whitson greeted Melroy, highlighting the first time that women commanded both spacecraft. She accumulated nearly 39 days in space during her three missions. Melroy has served as NASA’s deputy administrator since June 2021. 

Noriega has the distinction as the first Peruvian-born astronaut, and served as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps. For his first spaceflight, he served as a mission specialist, along with fellow Escargot Lu, on STS-84, the nine-day sixth Mir docking mission in 1997. On his second and final mission, Noriega served as a mission specialist on STS-97, the 11-day assembly flight in 2000 that delivered the P6 truss and the first set of U.S. solar arrays to the space station. He participated in three spacewalks, spending more than 19 hours outside. Fellow Escargot Bloomfield served as pilot on this mission. Across his two flights, Noriega accumulated 20 days in space. 

Born in Idaho, Reilly earned a doctorate in geosciences. He received his first spaceflight assignment as a mission specialist on STS-89, the nine-day eighth Mir docking mission in 1998. Fellow Escargots Edwards and Anderson joined him on this mission. On his second trip to space, Reilly served as a mission specialist on STS-104, the assembly flight to install the Quest airlock on the station. Reilly participated in three spacewalks, including the first one staged from the Quest airlock, totaling 15 and a half hours. Fellow Escargots Lindsey and Kavandi accompanied Reilly on this mission. On his third and final spaceflight, Reilley flew as a mission specialist on STS-117, the 14-day flight in 2007 that delivered the S3/S4 truss segment to the station. Reilly participated in two of the mission’s spacewalks, spending more than 13 hours outside. Fellow Escargot Sturckow served as commander on this mission. Across his three spaceflights, Reilly logged more than 35 days in space and spent nearly 29 hours outside on five spacewalks. 

California native Robinson earned a doctorate in mechanical engineering. On his first spaceflight, he flew, along with fellow Escargot Curbeam, as a mission specialist on STS-85, a 12-day mission in 1997 that carried the CRISTA-SPAS-2 free flyer. On his second trip into space, he served as a mission specialist on STS-95, commanded by fellow Escargot Lindsey, the nine-day mission in 1998 that saw astronaut John H. Glenn return to space. In 2005, Robinson flew for a third time on STS-114, the 14-day return to flight mission after the Columbia accident. He participated in three spacewalks totaling 20 hours. He flew as a mission specialist on STS-130, his fourth and final spaceflight, in 2010. Fellow Escargot Hire accompanied him on the 14-day mission that brought the Tranquility Node 3 module and the Cupola to the station. Robinson logged 48 days in space across his four missions. 

Born in Georgia, and a commander in the U.S. Navy, Still received her first spaceflight assignment as pilot for STS-83, the Microgravity Sciences Laboratory (MSL) mission in 1997. She has the distinction as the first of her class to reach space. When a fuel cell problem cut the planned 16-day mission short after four days, NASA decided to refly the mission and its crew. Still returned to space as pilot of STS-94, the MSL reflight, later in 1997, and flew the full duration 16 days. She logged a total of 20 days in space. 

California native and a colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps, Sturckow received his first spaceflight assignment as pilot of STS-88, the 12-day mission in 1998 that launched the Node 1 Unity module to begin assembly of the space station. He again served as pilot on his second spaceflight, STS-105 in 2001, a 12-day station assembly, resupply, and crew rotation mission. Sturckow served as commander on his third mission, the 14-day STS-117 mission in 2007 that delivered the S3/S4 truss segment to the station. Fellow Escargot Reilly accompanied Sturckow on this mission. He once again served as commander on his fourth and final spaceflight, STS-128, the 14-day flight in 2009 that brought facilities to the station to enable a six-person permanent crew. He logged more than 51 days in space on his four missions. 

Born in La Rochelle, France, Chrétien rose to the rank of brigadier general in the French Air Force. Selected as an astronaut by CNES in 1980, Chrétien made his first spaceflight in 1982, an eight-day mission aboard the Soviet Salyut-7 space station, the first non-Soviet and non-American to reach space. Chrétien returned to space in 1988, completing a 25-day mission aboard Mir during which he participated in a six-hour spacewalk, the first non-Soviet and non-American to do so. Under a special agreement between NASA and CNES, Chrétien and Tognini joined the Group 15 astronauts for training, making them eligible for flights on the shuttle. For his third and final spaceflight, Chrétien served as a mission specialist on the 11-day STS-86 seventh Mir docking mission in 1997. Fellow Escargot Bloomfield served as pilot on this mission. Across his three flights, Chrétien logged more than 43 days in space. 

Tokyo native Doi earned a doctorate in aerospace engineering. NASDA selected him as an astronaut in 1985 and through an agreement with NASA, he joined the Group 15 astronauts for training, making him eligible for flights on the space shuttle. On his first spaceflight, he flew as a mission specialist on STS-87, accompanied by fellow Escargots Lindsey and Chawla. The 16-day mission in 1997 carried the USMP-4 suite of experiments. Doi participated in two spacewalks, spending more than 15 hours outside the shuttle. For his second and final spaceflight, Doi flew as a mission specialist on STS-123, the 16-day assembly flight in 2008 that delivered the Japanese pressurized logistics module and the SPDM to the station. Fellow Escargot Gorie served as commander on this mission. Doi logged more than 31 days in space on his two missions. 

The French space agency CNES selected Tognini, born in Vincennes, France, in 1985. He rose to the rank of brigadier general in the French Air Force. He received his first assignment as Chrétien’s backup for his 1988 mission to Mir. For his first spaceflight, Tognini spent 14 days aboard Mir in 1992. Under a special agreement between NASA and CNES, Tognini and Chrétien joined the Group 15 astronauts for training, making them eligible for flights on the shuttle. For his second spaceflight, Tognini served as a mission specialist on STS-93, the five-day mission in 1999 to deploy the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Fellow Escargot Ashby served as pilot on this mission. Tognini logged nearly 19 days in space. 

Born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Williams earned a medical degree. The CSA selected him as an astronaut in 1992, and in January 1995, as part of an agreement between NASA and the CSA, he joined the Group 15 astronauts for training, making him eligible for flights on the space shuttle. His first spaceflight took place in 1998 as a mission specialist on the 16-day STS-90 Neurolab mission, under the command of fellow Escargot Altman. For his second trip into space, he served as a mission specialist on STS-118, the 13-day assembly flight in 2007 that delivered the S5 truss segment to the space station. Williams participated in three of the mission’s four spacewalks, spending nearly 18 hours outside. Across his two missions, he spent nearly 29 days in space.

Summary of spaceflights by Group 15 astronauts. Jean-Loup Chrétien completed two earlier missions, to Salyut-7 in 1982 and to Mir in 1988, while Tognini completed one earlier mission to Mir in 1992.
Summary of spaceflights by Group 15 astronauts. Jean-Loup Chrétien completed two earlier missions, to Salyut-7 in 1982 and to Mir in 1988, while Tognini completed one earlier mission to Mir in 1992.
Credit: NASA

The Group 15 NASA and international astronauts made significant contributions to spaceflight. As a group, they completed 64 flights spending 888 days, or nearly two and a half years, in space, including the three flights Chrétien and Tognini completed before their addition to the group. One Flying Escargot made a single trip into space, nine made two trips, eight made three, four made four, and one went five times. Seventeen of the 23 participated in the assembly, research, maintenance, logistics, and management of the space station. In preparation for space station operations, ten group members visited Mir, and seven visited both space stations, but only one completed a long-duration flight. Twelve contributed their talents on Spacelab or other research missions, and three performed work with the great observatories Hubble and Chandra. Eight of the 23 performed 25 spacewalks spending 161 hours, or more than six days, outside their spacecraft.  

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Dominique V. Crespo

Dominique V. Crespo

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      “We really need the whole community working together if we want to maximize our investments in these missions that are churning out exoplanets candidates,” said Aurora Kesseli, the deputy science lead for the NASA Exoplanet Archive at IPAC. “A big part of what we do at NExScI is build tools that help the community go out and turn candidate planets into confirmed planets.”
      The rate of exoplanet discoveries has accelerated in recent years (the database reached 5,000 confirmed exoplanets just three years ago), and this trend seems likely to continue. Kesseli and her colleagues anticipate receiving thousands of additional exoplanet candidates from the ESA (European Space Agency) Gaia mission, which finds planets through a technique called astrometry, and NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which will discover thousands of new exoplanets primarily through a technique called gravitational microlensing.
      Many telescopes contribute to the search for and study of exoplanets, including some in space (artists concepts shown here) and on the ground. Doing the work are organizations around the world, including ESA (European Space Agency), CSA (Canadian Space Agency), and NSF (National Science Foundation). NASA/JPL-Caltech Future exoplanets
      At NASA, the future of exoplanet science will emphasize finding rocky planets similar to Earth and studying their atmospheres for biosignatures — any characteristic, element, molecule, substance, or feature that can be used as evidence of past or present life. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has already analyzed the chemistry of over 100 exoplanet atmospheres.
      But studying the atmospheres of planets the size and temperature of Earth will require new technology. Specifically, scientists need better tools to block the glare of the star a planet orbits. And in the case of an Earth-like planet, the glare would be significant: The Sun is about 10 billion times brighter than Earth — which would be more than enough to drown out our home planet’s light if viewed by a distant observer.
      NASA has two main initiatives to try overcoming this hurdle. The Roman telescope will carry a technology demonstration instrument called the Roman Coronagraph that will test new technologies for blocking starlight and making faint planets visible. At its peak performance, the coronagraph should be able to directly image a planet the size and temperature of Jupiter orbiting a star like our Sun, and at a similar distance from that star. With its microlensing survey and coronagraphic observations, Roman will reveal new details about the diversity of planetary systems, showing how common solar systems like our own may be across the galaxy.
      Additional advances in coronagraph technology will be needed to build a coronagraph that can detect a planet like Earth. NASA is working on a concept for such a mission, currently named the Habitable Worlds Observatory.
      More about ExEP, NExScI 
      NASA’s Exoplanet Exploration Program is responsible for implementing the agency’s plans for the discovery and understanding of planetary systems around nearby stars. It acts as a focal point for exoplanet science and technology and integrates cohesive strategies for future discoveries. The science operations and analysis center for ExEP is NExScI, based at IPAC, a science and data center for astrophysics and planetary science at Caltech. JPL is managed by Caltech for NASA.
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      Calla Cofield
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      calla.e.cofield@jpl.nasa.gov
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      Last Updated Sep 17, 2025 Related Terms
      Exoplanets Exoplanet Discoveries Gas Giant Exoplanets Jet Propulsion Laboratory Kepler / K2 Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Neptune-Like Exoplanets Super-Earth Exoplanets Terrestrial Exoplanets TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) The Search for Life Explore More
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    • By NASA
      6 min read
      NASA’s IMAP Mission to Study Boundaries of Our Home in Space
      Summary
      NASA’s new Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe, or IMAP, will launch no earlier than Tuesday, Sept. 23 to study the heliosphere, a giant shield created by the Sun. The mission will chart the heliosphere’s boundaries to help us better understand the protection it offers life on Earth and how it changes with the Sun’s activity. The IMAP mission will also provide near real-time measurements of the solar wind, data that can be used to improve models predicting the impacts of space weather ranging from power-line disruptions to loss of satellites, to the health of voyaging astronauts. Space is a dangerous place — one that NASA continues to explore for the benefit of all. It’s filled with radiation and high-energy particles that can damage DNA and circuit boards alike. Yet life endures in our solar system in part because of the heliosphere, a giant bubble created by the Sun that extends far beyond Neptune’s orbit.
      With NASA’s new Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe, or IMAP, launching no earlier than Tuesday, Sept. 23, humanity is set to get a better look at the heliosphere than ever before. The mission will chart the boundaries of the heliosphere to help us better understand the protection it offers and how it changes with the Sun’s activity. The IMAP mission will also provide near real-time measurements of space weather conditions essential for the Artemis campaign and deep space travel. 
      “With IMAP, we’ll push forward the boundaries of knowledge and understanding of our place not only in the solar system, but our place in the galaxy as a whole,” said Patrick Koehn, IMAP program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “As humanity expands and explores beyond Earth, missions like IMAP will add new pieces of the space weather puzzle that fills the space between Parker Solar Probe at the Sun and the Voyagers beyond the heliopause.”
      Download this video from NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.
      Domain of Sun
      The heliosphere is created by the constant outflow of material and magnetic fields from the Sun called the solar wind. As the solar system moves through the Milky Way, the solar wind’s interaction with interstellar material carves out the bubble of the heliosphere. Studying the heliosphere helps scientists understand our home in space and how it came to be habitable.
      As a modern-day celestial cartographer, IMAP will map the boundary of our heliosphere and study how the heliosphere interacts with the local galactic neighborhood beyond. It will chart the vast range of particles, dust, ultraviolet light, and magnetic fields in interplanetary space, to investigate the energization of charged particles from the Sun and their interaction with interstellar space.
      The IMAP mission builds on NASA’s Voyager and IBEX (Interstellar Boundary Explorer) missions. In 2012 and 2018, the twin Voyager spacecraft became the first human-made objects to cross the heliosphere’s boundary and send back measurements from interstellar space. It gave scientists a snapshot of what the boundary looked like and where it was in two specific locations. While IBEX has been mapping the heliosphere, it has left many questions unanswered. With 30 times higher resolution and faster imaging, IMAP will help fill in the unknowns about the heliosphere.
      Energetic neutral atoms: atomic messengers from our heliosphere’s edge
      Of IMAP’s 10 instruments, three will investigate the boundaries of the heliosphere by collecting energetic neutral atoms, or ENAs. Many ENAs originate as positively charged particles released by the Sun but after racing across the solar system, these particles run into particles in interstellar space. In this collision, some of those positively charged particles become neutral, and an energetic neutral atom is born. The interaction also redirects the new ENAs, and some ricochet back toward the Sun.
      Charged particles are forced to follow magnetic field lines, but ENAs travel in a straight line, unaffected by the twists, turns, and turbulences in the magnetic fields that permeate space and shape the boundary of the heliosphere. This means scientists can track where these atomic messengers came from and study distant regions of space from afar. The IMAP mission will use the ENAs it collects near Earth to trace back their origins and construct maps of the boundaries of the heliosphere, which would otherwise be invisible from such a distance.
      “With its comprehensive state-of-the-art suite of instruments, IMAP will advance our understanding of two fundamental questions of how particles are energized and transported throughout the heliosphere and how the heliosphere itself interacts with our galaxy,” said Shri Kanekal, IMAP mission scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
      The IMAP mission will study the heliosphere, our home in space. NASA/Princeton University/Patrick McPike Space weather: monitoring solar wind
      The IMAP mission will also support near real-time observations of the solar wind and energetic solar particles, which can produce hazardous conditions in the space environment near Earth. From its location at Lagrange Point 1, about 1 million miles from Earth toward the Sun, IMAP will provide around a half hour’s warning of dangerous particles headed toward our planet. The mission’s data will help with the development of models that can predict the impacts of space weather ranging from power-line disruptions to loss of satellites.
      “The IMAP mission will provide very important information for deep space travel, where astronauts will be directly exposed to the dangers of the solar wind,” said David McComas, IMAP principal investigator at Princeton University.
      Cosmic dust: hints of the galaxy beyond
      In addition to measuring ENAs and solar wind particles, IMAP will also make direct measurements of interstellar dust — clumps of particles originating outside of the solar system that are smaller than a grain of sand. This space dust is largely composed of rocky or carbon-rich grains leftover from the aftermath of supernova explosions. 
      The specific elemental composition of this space dust is a postmark for where it comes from in the galaxy. Studying cosmic dust can provide insight into the compositions of stars from far outside our solar system. It will also help scientists significantly advance what we know about these basic cosmic building materials and provide information on what the material between stars is made of.
      David McComas leads the mission with an international team of 27 partner institutions. APL is managing the development phase and building the spacecraft, and it will operate the mission. IMAP is the fifth mission in NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Probes Program portfolio. The Explorers and Heliophysics Projects Division at NASA Goddard manages the STP Program for the agency’s Heliophysics Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, manages the launch service for the mission.
      By Mara Johnson-Groh
      NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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    • By NASA
      The IAU (International Astronomical Union), an international non-governmental research organization and global naming authority for celestial objects, has approved official names for features on Donaldjohanson, an asteroid NASA’s Lucy spacecraft visited on April 20. In a nod to the fossilized inspiration for the names of the asteroid and spacecraft, the IAU’s selections recognize significant sites and discoveries on Earth that further our understanding of humanity’s origins.
      The asteroid was named in 2015 after paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson, discoverer of one of the most famous fossils ever found of a female hominin, or ancient human ancestor, nicknamed Lucy. Just as the Lucy fossil revolutionized our understanding of human evolution, NASA’s Lucy mission aims to revolutionize our understanding of solar system evolution by studying at least eight Trojan asteroids that share an orbit with Jupiter.
      Postcard commemorating NASA’s Lucy spacecraft April 20, 2025, encounter with the asteroid Donaldjohanson. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Donaldjohanson, located in the main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, was a target for Lucy because it offered an opportunity for a comprehensive “dress rehearsal” for Lucy’s main mission, with all three of its science instruments carrying out observation sequences very similar to the ones that will occur at the Trojans.
      After exploring the asteroid and getting to see its features up close, the Lucy science and engineering team proposed to name the asteroid’s surface features in recognition of significant paleoanthropological sites and discoveries, which the IAU accepted.
      The smaller lobe is called Afar Lobus, after the Ethiopian region where Lucy and other hominin fossils were found. The larger lobe is named Olduvai Lobus, after the Tanzanian river gorge that has also yielded many important hominin discoveries.
      The asteroid’s neck, Windover Collum, which joins those two lobes, is named after the Windover Archeological Site near Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida — where NASA’s Lucy mission launched in 2021. Human remains and artifacts recovered from that site revolutionized our understanding of the people who lived in Florida around 7,300 years ago.
      Officially recognized names of geologic features on the asteroid Donaldjohanson. NASA Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL Two smooth areas on the asteroid’s neck are named Hadar Regio, marking the specific site of Johanson’s discovery of the Lucy fossil, and Minatogawa Regio, after the location where the oldest known hominins in Japan were found. Select boulders and craters on Donaldjohanson are named after notable fossils ranging from pre-Homo sapiens hominins to ancient modern humans. The IAU also approved a coordinate system for mapping features on this uniquely shaped small world.
      As of Sept. 9, the Lucy spacecraft was nearly 300 million miles (480 million km) from the Sun en route to its August 2027 encounter with its first Trojan asteroid called Eurybates. This places Lucy about three quarters of the way through the main asteroid belt. Since its encounter with Donaldjohanson, Lucy has been cruising without passing close to any other asteroids, and without requiring any trajectory correction maneuvers.
      The team continues to carefully monitor the instruments and spacecraft as it travels farther from the Sun into a cooler environment.
      Stay tuned at nasa.gov/lucy for more updates as Lucy continues its journey toward the never-before-explored Jupiter Trojan asteroids.
      By Katherine Kretke
      Southwest Research Institute
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    • By NASA
      NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will help scientists better understand our Milky Way galaxy’s less sparkly components — gas and dust strewn between stars, known as the interstellar medium.
      One of Roman’s major observing programs, called the Galactic Plane Survey, will peer through our galaxy to its most distant edge, mapping roughly 20 billion stars—about four times more than have currently been mapped. Scientists will use data from these stars to study and map the dust their light travels through, contributing to the most complete picture yet of the Milky Way’s structure, star formation, and the origins of our solar system.
      Our Milky Way galaxy is home to more than 100 billion stars that are often separated by trillions of miles. The spaces in between, called the interstellar medium, aren’t empty — they’re sprinkled with gas and dust that are both the seeds of new stars and the leftover crumbs from stars long dead. Studying the interstellar medium with observatories like NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will reveal new insight into the galactic dust recycling system.
      Credit: NASA/Laine Havens; Music credit: Building Heroes by Enrico Cacace [BMI], Universal Production Music “With Roman, we’ll be able to turn existing artist’s conceptions of the Milky Way into more data-driven models using new constraints on the 3D distribution of interstellar dust,” said Catherine Zucker, an astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
      Solving Milky Way mystery
      Scientists know how our galaxy likely looks by combining observations of the Milky Way and other spiral galaxies. But dust clouds make it hard to work out the details on the opposite side of our galaxy. Imagine trying to map a neighborhood while looking through the windows of a house surrounded by a dense fog.
      Roman will see through the “fog” of dust using a specialized camera and filters that observe infrared light — light with longer wavelengths than our eyes can detect. Infrared light is more likely to pass through dust clouds without scattering.
      This artist’s concept visualizes different types of light moving through a cloud of particles. Since infrared light has a longer wavelength, it can pass more easily through the dust. That means astronomers observing in infrared light can peer deeper into dusty regions.Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Light with shorter wavelengths, including blue light produced by stars, more easily scatters. That means stars shining through dust appear dimmer and redder than they actually are.
      By comparing the observations with information on the source star’s characteristics, astronomers can disentangle the star’s distance from how much its colors have been reddened. Studying those effects reveals clues about the dust’s properties.
      “I can ask, ‘how much redder and dimmer is the starlight that Roman detects at different wavelengths?’ Then, I can take that information and relate it back to the properties of the dust grains themselves, and in particular their size,” said Brandon Hensley, a scientist who studies interstellar dust at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
      Scientists will also learn about the dust’s composition and probe clouds to investigate the physical processes behind changing dust properties.
      Clues in dust-influenced starlight hint at the amount of dust between us and a star. Piecing together results from many stars allows astronomers to construct detailed 3D dust maps. That would enable scientists like Zucker to create a model of the Milky Way, which will show us how it looks from the outside. Then scientists can better compare the Milky Way with other galaxies that we only observe from the outside, slotting it into a cosmological perspective of galaxy evolution.
      “Roman will add a whole new dimension to our understanding of the galaxy because we’ll see billions and billions more stars,” Zucker said. “Once we observe the stars, we’ll have the dust data as well because its effects are encoded in every star Roman detects.”
      Galactic life cycles
      The interstellar medium does more than mill about the Milky Way — it fuels star and planet formation. Dense blobs of interstellar medium form molecular clouds, which can gravitationally collapse and kick off the first stages of star development. Young stars eject hot winds that can cause surrounding dust to clump into planetary building blocks.
      “Dust carries a lot of information about our origins and how everything came to be,” said Josh Peek, an associate astronomer and head of the data science mission office at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. “Right now, we’re basically standing on a really large dust grain — Earth was built out of lots and lots of really tiny grains that grew together into a giant ball.”
      Roman will identify young clusters of stars in new, distant star-forming regions as well as contribute data on “star factories” previously identified by missions like NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope.
      “If you want to understand star formation in different environments, you have to understand the interstellar landscape that seeds it,” Zucker said. “Roman will allow us to link the 3D structure of the interstellar medium with the 3D distribution of young stars across the galaxy’s disk.”
      Roman’s new 3D dust maps will refine our understanding of the Milky Way’s spiral structure, the pinwheel-like pattern where stars, gas, and dust bunch up like galactic traffic jams. By combining velocity data with dust maps, scientists will compare observations with predictions from models to help identify the cause of spiral structure—currently unclear.
      The role that this spiral pattern plays in star formation remains similarly uncertain. Some theories suggest that galactic congestion triggers star formation, while others contend that these traffic jams gather material but do not stimulate star birth.
      Roman will help to solve mysteries like these by providing more data on dusty regions across the entire Milky Way. That will enable scientists to compare many galactic environments and study star birth in specific structures, like the galaxy’s winding spiral arms or its central stellar bar.
      NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will conduct a Galactic Plane Survey to explore our home galaxy, the Milky Way. The survey will map around 20 billion stars, each encoding information about intervening dust and gas called the interstellar medium. Studying the interstellar medium could offer clues about our galaxy’s spiral arms, galactic recycling, and much more.
      Credit: NASA, STScI, Caltech/IPAC The astronomy community is currently in the final stages of planning for Roman’s Galactic Plane Survey.
      “With Roman’s massive survey of the galactic plane, we’ll be able to have this deep technical understanding of our galaxy,” Peek said.
      After processing, Roman’s data will be available to the public online via the Roman Research Nexus and the Barbara A. Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes, which will each provide open access to the data for years to come.
      “People who aren’t born yet are going to be able to do really cool analyses of this data,” Peek said. “We have a really beautiful piece of our heritage to hand down to future generations and to celebrate.”
      Roman is slated to launch no later than May 2027, with the team working toward a potential early launch as soon as fall 2026.
      The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is managed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, with participation by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech/IPAC in Southern California, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, and a science team comprising scientists from various research institutions. The primary industrial partners are BAE Systems Inc. in Boulder, Colorado; L3Harris Technologies in Rochester, New York; and Teledyne Scientific & Imaging in Thousand Oaks, California.
      Download additional images and video from NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.
      For more information about the Roman Space Telescope, visit:
      https://www.nasa.gov/roman
      By Laine Havens
      NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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      Last Updated Sep 16, 2025 EditorAshley BalzerContactAshley Balzerashley.m.balzer@nasa.govLocationGoddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
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