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By NASA
Teams with NASA and the Department of Defense (DoD) rehearse recovery procedures for a launch pad abort scenario off the coast of Florida near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday, June 11, 2025. NASA/Isaac Watson NASA and the Department of Defense (DoD) teamed up June 11 and 12 to simulate emergency procedures they would use to rescue the Artemis II crew in the event of a launch emergency. The simulations, which took place off the coast of Florida and were supported by launch and flight control teams, are preparing NASA to send four astronauts around the Moon and back next year as part of the agency’s first crewed Artemis mission.
The team rehearsed procedures they would use to rescue the crew during an abort of NASA’s Orion spacecraft while the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket is still on the launch pad, as well as during ascent to space. A set of test mannequins and a representative version of Orion called the Crew Module Test Article, were used during the tests.
The launch team at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, flight controllers in mission control at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, as well as the mission management team, all worked together, exercising their integrated procedures for these emergency scenarios.
Teams with NASA and the Department of Defense (DoD) rehearse recovery procedures for a launch pad abort scenario off the coast of Florida near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday, June 11, 2025.NASA/Isaac Watson “Part of preparing to send humans to the Moon is ensuring our teams are ready for any scenario on launch day,” said Lakiesha Hawkins, NASA’s assistant deputy associate administrator for the Moon to Mars Program, and who also is chair of the mission management team for Artemis II. “We’re getting closer to our bold mission to send four astronauts around the Moon, and our integrated testing helps ensure we’re ready to bring them home in any scenario.”
The launch pad abort scenario was up first. The teams conducted a normal launch countdown before declaring an abort before the rocket was scheduled to launch. During a real pad emergency, Orion’s launch abort system would propel Orion and its crew a safe distance away and orient it for splashdown before the capsule’s parachutes would then deploy ahead of a safe splashdown off the coast of Florida.
Teams with NASA and the Department of Defense (DoD) rehearse recovery procedures for a launch pad abort scenario off the coast of Florida near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday, June 11, 2025. NASA/Isaac Watson For the simulated splashdown, the test Orion with mannequins aboard was placed in the water five miles east of Kennedy. Once the launch team made the simulated pad abort call, two Navy helicopters carrying U.S. Air Force pararescuers departed nearby Patrick Space Force Base. The rescuers jumped into the water with unique DoD and NASA rescue equipment to safely approach the spacecraft, retrieve the mannequin crew, and transport them for medical care in the helicopters, just as they would do in the event of an actual pad abort during the Artemis II mission.
The next day focused on an abort scenario during ascent to space.
The Artemis recovery team set up another simulation at sea 12 miles east of Kennedy, using the Orion crew module test article and mannequins. With launch and flight control teams supporting, as was the Artemis II crew inside a simulator at Johnson, the rescue team sprung into action after receiving the simulated ascent abort call and began rescue procedures using a C-17 aircraft and U.S. Air Force pararescuers. Upon reaching the capsule, the rescuers jumped from the C-17 with DoD and NASA unique rescue gear. In an actual ascent abort, Orion would separate from the rocket in milliseconds to safely get away prior to deploying parachutes and splashing down.
Teams with NASA and the Department of Defense (DoD) rehearse recovery procedures for an ascent abort scenario off the coast of Florida near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center on Thursday, June 12, 2025. NASA/Isaac Watson Rescue procedures are similar to those used in the Underway Recovery Test conducted off the California coast in March. This demonstration ended with opening the hatch and extracting the mannequins from the capsule, so teams stopped without completing the helicopter transportation that would be used during a real rescue.
Exercising procedures for extreme scenarios is part of NASA’s work to execute its mission and keep the crew safe. Through the Artemis campaign, NASA will send astronauts to explore the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and to build the foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars – for the benefit of all.
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By NASA
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Students from Tropico Middle School in Rosamond, California, build their own paper planes as part of a project during NASA Aero Fair on April 9, 2025.NASA/Genaro Vavuris A new generation of aerospace explorers will soon embark on a hands-on summer experience focusing on careers in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology (STEM). This month, NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, and the Flight Test Museum Foundation will launch the 2025 Junior Test Pilot School.
Held at Blackbird Airpark and Joe Davies Heritage Airpark in Palmdale, California, this six-week program invites elementary-aged students to step into the shoes of test pilots and engineers from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, June 16 through July 25. Registration is free through participating school districts and the Flight Test Museum. Students will have direct access to legendary aircraft such as A-12, SR-71, U-2, F-86 Sabre, and NASA Boeing 747 Space Shuttle Carrier Aircraft.
The Junior Test Pilot School combines authentic NASA-designed curriculum, immersive aerospace activities, and direct engagement with engineers, test pilots, and scientists to inspire future aerospace professionals in the Antelope Valley – home to one of the nation’s highest concentrations of STEM careers.
“This program offers more than a glimpse into aerospace, it provides students a hands-on opportunity to solve real-world problems and see themselves in future STEM roles,” said Dr. Amira Flores, program integration manager for NASA’s California Office of STEM Engagement.
Daily lessons cover eight core modules: flight principles, stealth engineering, altitude effects, speed and g-force, payload impact, maneuverability, reconnaissance design, and jet engine systems.
Additionally, in collaboration with NASA Armstrong’s Aero Fair program, students will be guided through the program’s Wildfire Design Challenge by a NASA volunteer. Following the engineering design process, students will collaborate to design and build a prototype of an aerial vehicle that suppresses wildfires.
“Our junior test pilots learn to analyze the aircraft to figure out why they were designed the way they are and think like an engineer,” said Lisa Sheldon Brown, director of education at the Flight Test Museum. “Research shows that academic trajectory is set by fifth grade, making this the critical window to inspire STEM interest and career awareness.”
The program is delivered in partnership with the City of Palmdale and is supported by industry sponsors, including Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. These partners not only provide funding and volunteers but also elevate career exposure by introducing students to diverse aerospace professionals within the region.
NASA Armstrong is a hub of aeronautical innovation and STEM workforce development in the Antelope Valley. Through programs like Aero Fair and partnerships like Junior Test Pilots School, Armstrong inspires and equips the next generation of engineers, pilots, and scientists.
The Flight Test Museum Foundation preserves the legacy and promotes the future of aerospace through education programs and historical preservation at the Blackbird Airpark and forthcoming Flight Test Museum at Edwards Air Force Base in Edwards, California.
For more about NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/armstrong
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Elena Aguirre
Armstrong Flight Research Center, Edwards, California
(661) 276-7004
elena.aguirre@nasa.gov
Dede Dinius
Armstrong Flight Research Center, Edwards, California
(661) 276-5701
darin.l.dinius@nasa.gov
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By NASA
5 min read
NASA Launching Rockets Into Radio-Disrupting Clouds
NASA is launching rockets from a remote Pacific island to study mysterious, high-altitude cloud-like structures that can disrupt critical communication systems. The mission, called Sporadic-E ElectroDynamics, or SEED, opens its three-week launch window from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands on Friday, June 13.
The atmospheric features SEED is studying are known as Sporadic-E layers, and they create a host of problems for radio communications. When they are present, air traffic controllers and marine radio users may pick up signals from unusually distant regions, mistaking them for nearby sources. Military operators using radar to see beyond the horizon may detect false targets — nicknamed “ghosts” — or receive garbled signals that are tricky to decipher. Sporadic-E layers are constantly forming, moving, and dissipating, so these disruptions can be difficult to anticipate.
An animated illustration depicts Sporadic-E layers forming in the lower portions of the ionosphere, causing radio signals to reflect back to Earth before reaching higher layers of the ionosphere. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Conceptual Image Lab Sporadic-E layers form in the ionosphere, a layer of Earth’s atmosphere that stretches from about 40 to 600 miles (60 to 1,000 kilometers) above sea level. Home to the International Space Station and most Earth-orbiting satellites, the ionosphere is also where we see the greatest impacts of space weather. Primarily driven by the Sun, space weather causes myriad problems for our communications with satellites and between ground systems. A better understanding of the ionosphere is key to keeping critical infrastructure running smoothly.
The ionosphere is named for the charged particles, or ions, that reside there. Some of these ions come from meteors, which burn up in the atmosphere and leave traces of ionized iron, magnesium, calcium, sodium, and potassium suspended in the sky. These “heavy metals” are more massive than the ionosphere’s typical residents and tend to sink to lower altitudes, below 90 miles (140 kilometers). Occasionally, they clump together to create dense clusters known as Sporadic-E layers.
The Perseids meteor shower peaks in mid-August. Meteors like these can deposit metals into Earth’s ionosphere that can help create cloud-like structures called Sporadic-E layers. NASA/Preston Dyches “These Sporadic-E layers are not visible to naked eye, and can only be seen by radars. In the radar plots, some layers appear like patchy and puffy clouds, while others spread out, similar to an overcast sky, which we call blanketing Sporadic-E layer” said Aroh Barjatya, the SEED mission’s principal investigator and a professor of engineering physics at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida. The SEED team includes scientists from Embry-Riddle, Boston College in Massachusetts, and Clemson University in South Carolina.
“There’s a lot of interest in predicting these layers and understanding their dynamics because of how they interfere with communications,” Barjatya said.
A Mystery at the Equator
Scientists can explain Sporadic-E layers when they form at midlatitudes but not when they appear close to Earth’s equator — such as near Kwajalein Atoll, where the SEED mission will launch.
In the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, Sporadic-E layers can be thought of as particle traffic jams.
Think of ions in the atmosphere as miniature cars traveling single file in lanes defined by Earth’s magnetic field lines. These lanes connect Earth end to end — emerging near the South Pole, bowing around the equator, and plunging back into the North Pole.
A conceptual animation shows Earth’s magnetic field. The blue lines radiating from Earth represent the magnetic field lines that charged particles travel along. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Conceptual Image Lab At Earth’s midlatitudes, the field lines angle toward the ground, descending through atmospheric layers with varying wind speeds and directions. As the ions pass through these layers, they experience wind shear — turbulent gusts that cause their orderly line to clump together. These particle pileups form Sporadic-E layers.
But near the magnetic equator, this explanation doesn’t work. There, Earth’s magnetic field lines run parallel to the surface and do not intersect atmospheric layers with differing winds, so Sporadic-E layers shouldn’t form. Yet, they do — though less frequently.
“We’re launching from the closest place NASA can to the magnetic equator,” Barjatya said, “to study the physics that existing theory doesn’t fully explain.”
Taking to the Skies
To investigate, Barjatya developed SEED to study low-latitude Sporadic-E layers from the inside. The mission relies on sounding rockets — uncrewed suborbital spacecraft carrying scientific instruments. Their flights last only a few minutes but can be launched precisely at fleeting targets.
Beginning the night of June 13, Barjatya and his team will monitor ALTAIR (ARPA Long-Range Tracking and Instrumentation Radar), a high-powered, ground-based radar system at the launch site, for signs of developing Sporadic-E layers. When conditions are right, Barjatya will give the launch command. A few minutes later, the rocket will be in flight.
The SEED science team and mission management team in front of the ARPA Long-Range Tracking and Instrumentation Radar (ALTAIR). The SEED team will use ALTAIR to monitor the ionosphere for signs of Sporadic-E layers and time the launch. U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command On ascent, the rocket will release colorful vapor tracers. Ground-based cameras will track the tracers to measure wind patterns in three dimensions. Once inside the Sporadic-E layer, the rocket will deploy four subpayloads — miniature detectors that will measure particle density and magnetic field strength at multiple points. The data will be transmitted back to the ground as the rocket descends.
On another night during the launch window, the team will launch a second, nearly identical rocket to collect additional data under potentially different conditions.
Barjatya and his team will use the data to improve computer models of the ionosphere, aiming to explain how Sporadic-E layers form so close to the equator.
“Sporadic-E layers are part of a much larger, more complicated physical system that is home to space-based assets we rely on every day,” Barjatya said. “This launch gets us closer to understanding another key piece of Earth’s interface to space.”
By Miles Hatfield
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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Last Updated Jun 12, 2025 Related Terms
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By NASA
A funky effect Einstein predicted, known as gravitational lensing — when a foreground galaxy magnifies more distant galaxies behind it — will soon become common when NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope begins science operations in 2027 and produces vast surveys of the cosmos.
This image shows a simulated observation from NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope with an overlay of its Wide Field Instrument’s field of view. More than 20 gravitational lenses, with examples shown at left and right, are expected to pop out in every one of Roman’s vast observations. A journal paper led by Bryce Wedig, a graduate student at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, estimates that of those Roman detects, about 500 from the telescope’s High-Latitude Wide-Area Survey will be suitable for dark matter studies. By examining such a large population of gravitational lenses, the researchers hope to learn a lot more about the mysterious nature of dark matter.Credit: NASA, Bryce Wedig (Washington University), Tansu Daylan (Washington University), Joseph DePasquale (STScI) A particular subset of gravitational lenses, known as strong lenses, is the focus of a new paper published in the Astrophysical Journal led by Bryce Wedig, a graduate student at Washington University in St. Louis. The research team has calculated that over 160,000 gravitational lenses, including hundreds suitable for this study, are expected to pop up in Roman’s vast images. Each Roman image will be 200 times larger than infrared snapshots from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, and its upcoming “wealth” of lenses will vastly outpace the hundreds studied by Hubble to date.
Roman will conduct three core surveys, providing expansive views of the universe. This science team’s work is based on a previous version of Roman’s now fully defined High-Latitude Wide-Area Survey. The researchers are working on a follow-up paper that will align with the final survey’s specifications to fully support the research community.
“The current sample size of these objects from other telescopes is fairly small because we’re relying on two galaxies to be lined up nearly perfectly along our line of sight,” Wedig said. “Other telescopes are either limited to a smaller field of view or less precise observations, making gravitational lenses harder to detect.”
Gravitational lenses are made up of at least two cosmic objects. In some cases, a single foreground galaxy has enough mass to act like a lens, magnifying a galaxy that is almost perfectly behind it. Light from the background galaxy curves around the foreground galaxy along more than one path, appearing in observations as warped arcs and crescents. Of the 160,000 lensed galaxies Roman may identify, the team expects to narrow that down to about 500 that are suitable for studying the structure of dark matter at scales smaller than those galaxies.
“Roman will not only significantly increase our sample size — its sharp, high-resolution images will also allow us to discover gravitational lenses that appear smaller on the sky,” said Tansu Daylan, the principal investigator of the science team conducting this research program. Daylan is an assistant professor and a faculty fellow at the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. “Ultimately, both the alignment and the brightness of the background galaxies need to meet a certain threshold so we can characterize the dark matter within the foreground galaxies.”
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This video shows how a background galaxy’s light is lensed or magnified by a massive foreground galaxy, seen at center, before reaching NASA’s Roman Space Telescope. Light from the background galaxy is distorted, curving around the foreground galaxy and appearing more than once as warped arcs and crescents. Researchers studying these objects, known as gravitational lenses, can better characterize the mass of the foreground galaxy, which offers clues about the particle nature of dark matter.Credit: NASA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI) What Is Dark Matter?
Not all mass in galaxies is made up of objects we can see, like star clusters. A significant fraction of a galaxy’s mass is made up of dark matter, so called because it doesn’t emit, reflect, or absorb light. Dark matter does, however, possess mass, and like anything else with mass, it can cause gravitational lensing.
When the gravity of a foreground galaxy bends the path of a background galaxy’s light, its light is routed onto multiple paths. “This effect produces multiple images of the background galaxy that are magnified and distorted differently,” Daylan said. These “duplicates” are a huge advantage for researchers — they allow multiple measurements of the lensing galaxy’s mass distribution, ensuring that the resulting measurement is far more precise.
Roman’s 300-megapixel camera, known as its Wide Field Instrument, will allow researchers to accurately determine the bending of the background galaxies’ light by as little as 50 milliarcseconds, which is like measuring the diameter of a human hair from the distance of more than two and a half American football fields or soccer pitches.
The amount of gravitational lensing that the background light experiences depends on the intervening mass. Less massive clumps of dark matter cause smaller distortions. As a result, if researchers are able to measure tinier amounts of bending, they can detect and characterize smaller, less massive dark matter structures — the types of structures that gradually merged over time to build up the galaxies we see today.
With Roman, the team will accumulate overwhelming statistics about the size and structures of early galaxies. “Finding gravitational lenses and being able to detect clumps of dark matter in them is a game of tiny odds. With Roman, we can cast a wide net and expect to get lucky often,” Wedig said. “We won’t see dark matter in the images — it’s invisible — but we can measure its effects.”
“Ultimately, the question we’re trying to address is: What particle or particles constitute dark matter?” Daylan added. “While some properties of dark matter are known, we essentially have no idea what makes up dark matter. Roman will help us to distinguish how dark matter is distributed on small scales and, hence, its particle nature.”
Preparations Continue
Before Roman launches, the team will also search for more candidates in observations from ESA’s (the European Space Agency’s) Euclid mission and the upcoming ground-based Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile, which will begin its full-scale operations in a few weeks. Once Roman’s infrared images are in hand, the researchers will combine them with complementary visible light images from Euclid, Rubin, and Hubble to maximize what’s known about these galaxies.
“We will push the limits of what we can observe, and use every gravitational lens we detect with Roman to pin down the particle nature of dark matter,” Daylan said.
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 in Southern California; Caltech/IPAC in Pasadena, 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 Melbourne, Florida; and Teledyne Scientific & Imaging in Thousand Oaks, California.
By Claire Blome
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
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Last Updated Jun 12, 2025 EditorAshley BalzerContactAshley Balzerashley.m.balzer@nasa.govLocationNASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
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By NASA
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Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Electrical engineer Nikolas Gibson performs calibration tests on the MODIS/ASTER Airborne Simulator (MASTER) spectrometer, co-developed by NASA’s Ames Research Center and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Gibson works at the Airborne Sensor Facility at Ames, which builds, maintains, miniaturizes, and calibrates instruments.NASA/Milan Loiacono
NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley houses a unique laboratory: the Airborne Sensor Facility (ASF). The engineers at the ASF are responsible for building, maintaining, and operating numerous instruments that get deployed on research aircraft, but one of their most important roles is instrument calibration.
Think of calibration like tuning a piano between performances: A musician uses a tuner to set the standard pitch for each string, ensuring that the piano remains on pitch for every concert.
The “tuners” at ASF include lasers, mirrors, and a light source called an integrating sphere – a hollow sphere about 36 inches in diameter that emits a set amount of light from a hole in the top. By checking an instrument against this baseline between each mission, engineers ensure that the instrument sensors provide accurate, reliable data every time.
In the photo above, electrical engineer Nikolas Gibson performs calibration tests on the MODIS/ASTER Airborne Simulator (MASTER) spectrometer, co-developed by NASA Ames and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
A spectrometer separates light into individual wavelengths, providing researchers with information about the properties of whatever is creating or interacting with that light. The MASTER instrument measures about 50 individual spectral channels, providing data on wavelengths from the visible spectrum through the infrared.
When it comes to calibration, each of these channels functions like a specific key on a piano and needs to be individually checked against the “tuner.” By pointing the instrument’s sensor at a known quantity of light coming from the integrating sphere, the team checks the accuracy of MASTER’s data output and repairs or adjusts the sensor as needed.
In this image, MASTER had returned from an April 2025 scientific campaign observing prescribed fires in Alabama and Georgia with NASA’s FireSense project. It was recalibrated before heading back into the field for the Geological Earth Mapping Experiment, or GEMx, mission in late May 2025, which will use the instrument to help map critical minerals across the southwestern United States.
About the Author
Milan Loiacono
Science Communication SpecialistMilan Loiacono is a science communication specialist for the Earth Science Division at NASA Ames Research Center.
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Last Updated Jun 11, 2025 Related Terms
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