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The Department of the Air Force achieved 100% of its annual recruitment goal three months ahead of schedule, a testament to the enduring appeal of service and the effectiveness of modernized recruiting strategies.
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By NASA
The Roscosmos Progress 90 cargo craft approaches the International Space Station for a docking to the Poisk module delivering nearly three tons of food, fuel, and supplies replenishing the Expedition 72 crew. Credit: NASA NASA will provide live coverage of the launch and docking of a Roscosmos cargo spacecraft delivering approximately three tons of food, fuel, and supplies to the Expedition 73 crew aboard the International Space Station.
The unpiloted Roscosmos Progress 92 spacecraft is scheduled to launch at 3:32 p.m. EDT, Thursday, July 3 (12:32 a.m. Baikonur time, Friday, July 4), on a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Live launch coverage will begin at 3:10 p.m. on NASA+. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.
After a two-day, in-orbit journey to the station, the spacecraft will dock autonomously to the space-facing port of the orbiting laboratory’s Poisk module at 5:27 p.m. on Saturday, July 5. NASA’s rendezvous and docking coverage will begin at 4:45 p.m. on NASA+.
The Progress 92 spacecraft will remain docked to the space station for approximately six months before departing for re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere to dispose of trash loaded by the crew.
Ahead of the spacecraft’s arrival, the Progress 90 spacecraft will undock from the Poisk module on Tuesday, July 1. NASA will not stream undocking.
The International Space Station is a convergence of science, technology, and human innovation that enables research not possible on Earth. For nearly 25 years, NASA has supported a continuous U.S. human presence aboard the orbiting laboratory, through which astronauts have learned to live and work in space for extended periods of time. The space station is a springboard for developing a low Earth economy and NASA’s next great leaps in exploration, including missions to the Moon under Artemis and, ultimately, human exploration of Mars.
Learn more about the International Space Station, its research, and crew, at:
https://www.nasa.gov/station
-end-
Jimi Russell
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
james.j.russell@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 Jun 30, 2025 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
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By NASA
Curiosity Navigation Curiosity Home Mission Overview Where is Curiosity? Mission Updates Science Overview Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Curiosity Raw Images Images Videos Audio Mosaics More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions Mars Home 2 min read
Curiosity Blog, Sols 4580-4581: Something in the Air…
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Left Navigation Camera on June 23, 2025 — Sol 4578, or Martian day 4,578 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 02:38:50 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech Written by Scott VanBommel, Planetary Scientist at Washington University in St. Louis
Earth planning date: Monday, June 23, 2025
Curiosity was back at work on Monday, with a full slate of activities planned. While summer has officially arrived for much of Curiosity’s team back on Earth, Mars’ eldest active rover is recently through the depths of southern Mars winter and trending toward warmer temperatures itself. Warmer temperatures mean less component heating is required and therefore more power is freed up for science and driving. However, the current cooler temperatures do present an opportunity to acquire quality short-duration APXS measurements first thing in the morning, which is what Curiosity elected to do once again.
Curiosity’s plan commenced by brushing a rock target with potential cross-cutting veins, “Hornitos,” and subsequently analyzing it with APXS. A sequence of Mastcam images followed on targets such as “Volcán Peña Blanca,” “La Pacana,” “Iglesia de Jarinilla de Umatia,” and “Ayparavi.” ChemCam, returning to action after a brief and understood hiatus, rounded out the morning’s chemical analysis activities with a 5-point analysis of Ayparavi. After some images of the brush, and a handful of MAHLI snaps of Hornitos, Curiosity was on its way with a planned drive of about 37 meters (about 121 feet).Curiosity’s night would not be spent entirely dreaming of whatever rovers dream, but rather conducting a lengthy APXS analysis of the atmosphere. These analyses enable Curiosity’s team to assess the abundance of argon in the atmosphere — from a volume about the size of a pop can (or soda can, depending on your unit of preference) — which can be used to trace global circulation patterns and better understand modern Mars. Recently, Curiosity has been increasing the frequency of these measurements and pairing them with ChemCam “Passive Sky” observations. These ChemCam activities do not utilize the instrument’s laser, but instead use its other components to characterize the air above the rover. By combining APXS and ChemCam observations of the atmosphere, Curiosity’s team is able to better assess daily and seasonal trends in gases around Gale crater. A ChemCam “Passive Sky” was the primary observation in the second sol of the plan, with Curiosity spending much of the remaining time recharging and eagerly awaiting commands from Wednesday’s team.
For more Curiosity blog posts, visit MSL Mission Updates
Learn more about Curiosity’s science instruments
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Last Updated Jun 26, 2025 Related Terms
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Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA Ames research scientist Kristina Pistone monitors instrument data while onboard the Twin Otter aircraft, flying over Monterey Bay during the October 2024 deployment of the AirSHARP campaign. NASA/Samuel Leblanc In autumn 2024, California’s Monterey Bay experienced an outsized phytoplankton bloom that attracted fish, dolphins, whales, seabirds, and – for a few weeks in October – scientists. A team from NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, with partners at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), and the Naval Postgraduate School, spent two weeks on the California coast gathering data on the atmosphere and the ocean to verify what satellites see from above. In spring 2025, the team returned to gather data under different environmental conditions.
Scientists call this process validation.
Setting up the Campaign
The PACE mission, which stands for Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem, was launched in February 2024 and designed to transform our understanding of ocean and atmospheric environments. Specifically, the satellite will give scientists a finely detailed look at life near the ocean surface and the composition and abundance of aerosol particles in the atmosphere.
Whenever NASA launches a new satellite, it sends validation science teams around the world to confirm that the data from instruments in space match what traditional instruments can see at the surface. AirSHARP (Airborne aSsessment of Hyperspectral Aerosol optical depth and water-leaving Reflectance Product Performance for PACE) is one of these teams, specifically deployed to validate products from the satellite’s Ocean Color Instrument (OCI).
The OCI spectrometer works by measuring reflected sunlight. As sunlight bounces off of the ocean’s surface, it creates specific shades of color that researchers use to determine what is in the water column below. To validate the OCI data, research teams need to confirm that measurements directly at the surface match those from the satellite. They also need to understand how the atmosphere is changing the color of the ocean as the reflected light is traveling back to the satellite.
In October 2024 and May 2025, the AirSHARP team ran simultaneous airborne and seaborne campaigns. Going into the field during different seasons allows the team to collect data under different environmental conditions, validating as much of the instrument’s range as possible.
Over 13 days of flights on a Twin Otter aircraft, the NASA-led team used instruments called 4STAR-B (Spectrometer for sky-scanning sun Tracking Atmospheric Research B), and the C-AIR (Coastal Airborne In-situ Radiometer) to gather data from the air. At the same time, partners from UCSC used a host of matching instruments onboard the research vessel R/V Shana Rae to gather data from the water’s surface.
Ocean Color and Water Leaving Reflectance
The Ocean Color Instrument measures something called water leaving reflectance, which provides information on the microscopic composition of the water column, including water molecules, phytoplankton, and particulates like sand, inorganic materials, and even bubbles. Ocean color varies based on how these materials absorb and scatter sunlight. This is especially useful for determining the abundance and types of phytoplankton.
Photographs taken out the window of the Twin Otter aircraft during the October 2024 AirSHARP deployment showcase the variation in ocean color, which indicates different molecular composition of the water column beneath. The red color in several of these photos is due to a phytoplankton bloom – in this case a growth of red algae. NASA/Samuel Leblanc
The AirSHARP team used radiometers with matching technology – C-AIR from the air and C-OPS (Compact Optical Profiling System) from the water – to gather water leaving reflectance data.
“The C-AIR instrument is modified from an instrument that goes on research vessels and takes measurements of the water’s surface from very close range,” said NASA Ames research scientist Samuel LeBlanc. “The issue there is that you’re very local to one area at a time. What our team has done successfully is put it on an aircraft, which enables us to span the entire Monterey Bay.”
The larger PACE validation team will compare OCI measurements with observations made by the sensors much closer to the ocean to ensure that they match, and make adjustments when they don’t.
Aerosol Interference
One factor that can impact OCI data is the presence of manmade and natural aerosols, which interact with sunlight as it moves through the atmosphere. An aerosol refers to any solid or liquid suspended in the air, such as smoke from fires, salt from sea spray, particulates from fossil fuel emissions, desert dust, and pollen.
Imagine a 420 mile-long tube, with the PACE satellite at one end and the ocean at the other. Everything inside the tube is what scientists refer to as the atmospheric column, and it is full of tiny particulates that interact with sunlight. Scientists quantify this aerosol interaction with a measurement called aerosol optical depth.
“During AirSHARP, we were essentially measuring, at different wavelengths, how light is changed by the particles present in the atmosphere,” said NASA Ames research scientist Kristina Pistone. “The aerosol optical depth is a measure of light extinction, or how much light is either scattered away or absorbed by aerosol particulates.”
The team measured aerosol optical depth using the 4STAR-B spectrometer, which was engineered at NASA Ames and enables scientists to identify which aerosols are present and how they interact with sunlight.
Twin Otter Aircraft
AirSHARP principal investigator Liane Guild walks towards a Twin Otter aircraft owned and operated by the Naval Postgraduate School. The aircraft’s ability to perform complex, low-altitude flights made it the ideal platform to fly multiple instruments over Monterey Bay during the AirSHARP campaign. NASA/Samuel Leblanc
Flying these instruments required use of a Twin Otter plane, operated by the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS). The Twin Otter is unique for its ability to perform extremely low-altitude flights, making passes down to 100 feet above the water in clear conditions.
“It’s an intense way to fly. At that low height, the pilots continually watch for and avoid birds, tall ships, and even wildlife like breaching whales,” said Anthony Bucholtz, director of the Airborne Research Facility at NPS.
With the phytoplankton bloom attracting so much wildlife in a bay already full of ships, this is no small feat. “The pilots keep a close eye on the radar, and fly by hand,” Bucholtz said, “all while following careful flight plans crisscrossing Monterey Bay and performing tight spirals over the Research Vessel Shana Rae.”
Campaign Data
Data gathered from the 2024 phase of this campaign is available on two data archive systems. Data from the 4STAR instrument is available in the PACE data archive and data from C-AIR is housed in the SeaBASS data archive.
Other data from the NASA PACE Validation Science Team is available through the PACE website: https://pace.oceansciences.org/pvstdoi.htm#
Samuel LeBlanc and Kristina Pistone are funded via the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute (BAERI), which is a scientist-founded nonprofit focused on supporting Earth and space sciences.
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 26, 2025 Related Terms
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Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Since childhood, Derrick Bailey always had an early fascination with aeronautics. Military fighter jet pilots were his childhood heroes, and he dreamed of joining the aerospace industry. This passion was a springboard into his 17-year career at NASA, where Bailey plays an important role in enabling successful rocket launches.
Bailey is the Launch Vehicle Certification Manager in the Launch Services Program (LSP) within the Space Operations Mission Directorate. In this role, he helps NASA outline the agency’s risk classifications of new rockets from emerging and established space companies.
“Within my role, I formulate a series of technical and process assessments for NASA LSP’s technical team to understand how companies operate, how vehicles are designed and qualified, and how they perform in flight,” Bailey said.
Beyond technical proficiency and readiness, a successful rocket launch relies on establishing a strong foundational relationship between NASA and the commercial companies involved. Bailey and his team ensure effective communication with these companies to provide the guidance, data, and analysis necessary to support them in overcoming challenges.
“We work diligently to build trusting relationships with commercial companies and demonstrate the value in partnering with our team,” Bailey said.
Bailey credits a stroke of fate that landed him at the agency. During his senior year at Georgia Tech, where he was pursuing a degree in aerospace engineering, Bailey almost walked past the NASA tent at a career fair. However, he decided to grab a NASA sticker and strike up a conversation, which quickly turned into an impromptu interview. He walked away that day with a job offer to work on the now-retired Space Shuttle Program at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
“I never imagined working at NASA,” Bailey said. “Looking back, it’s unbelievable that a chance encounter resulted in securing a job that has turned into an incredible career.”
Thinking about the future, Bailey is excited about new opportunities in the commercial space industry. Bailey sees NASA as a crucial advisor and mentor for commercial sector while using industry capabilities to provide more cost-effective access to space.
Derrick Bailey, launch vehicle certification manager for NASA’s Launch Services Program
“We are the enablers,” Bailey said of his role in the directorate. “It is our responsibility to provide the best opportunity for future explorers to begin their journey of discovery in deep space and beyond.”
Outside of work, Bailey enjoys spending time with his family, especially his two sons, who keep him busy with trips to the baseball diamond and homework sessions. Bailey also enjoys hands-on activities, like working on cars, off-road vehicles, and house projects – hobbies he picked up from his mechanically inclined father. Additionally, at the beginning of 2025, his wife accepted a program specialist position with LSP, an exciting development for the entire Bailey family.
“One of my wife’s major observations early on in my career was how much my colleagues genuinely care about one another and empower people to make decisions,” Bailey explained. “These are the things that make NASA the number one place to work in the government.”
NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate maintains a continuous human presence in space for the benefit of people on Earth. The programs within the directorate are the hub of NASA’s space exploration efforts, enabling Artemis, commercial space, science, and other agency missions through communication, launch services, research capabilities, and crew support.
To learn more about NASA’s Space Operation Mission Directorate, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/space-operations
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Last Updated Jun 26, 2025 Related Terms
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