NOTE: I missed posting the last 2 weeks of NASA news. I have the content and if anyone wants me to add those, add a comment below I and I will add them to the site.
| In this week’s newsletter, find out where and when you can watch the Northern Hemisphere’s total solar eclipse with NASA; explore the discovery of a wandering black hole that tore apart a star on the outskirts of a distant galaxy; and take a trip inside the 1,700‑square‑foot Mars simulation habitat with the CHAPEA Mission 2 crew on the newest episode of Houston We Have a Podcast. Plus, catch up on more stories you might have missed. |
| THE SOLAR SYSTEM Experience Totality |
| The Sun and Moon are coming together to put on a show for Earth, and NASA will be sharing it with you. On Wednesday, Aug. 12, a total solar eclipse will be visible in parts of Greenland, Iceland, northern Russia, the Atlantic Ocean, Spain, and a small corner of Portugal. During the eclipse, NASA will conduct several experiments along the path of totality. To study the Sun’s corona, a NASA-funded science team will chase the Moon’s shadow with a WB‑57 high‑altitude research aircraft. At the same time, students participating in the NASA-supported Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project will launch scientific balloons in Iceland and Spain before, during, and after the eclipse to explore how temporary darkness affects Earth’s atmosphere. NASA’s live coverage, featuring views from across the path and interviews with subject matter experts, begins at 1:15 p.m. EDT. WAYS TO WATCH |
 | THE SOLAR SYSTEM Field of Honeycomb Textures As NASA’s Curiosity rover recently began climbing up a Martian valley nicknamed “Valle Grande,” it sent back images that were a familiar sight to mission scientists: honeycomb-like textures called polygonal fractures. The mission has spotted small patches of these geometric shapes before, but nothing at this scale. MARS EXPLORATION |
| HUMANS IN SPACE Upcoming US Spacewalks NASA will provide coverage as astronauts venture outside the International Space Station during three spacewalks in August to continue upgrading solar arrays, replace a communications antenna, and connect power and data cables in support of space station operations .WAYS TO WATCH |  |
 THE UNIVERSE Mega Black Hole Shreds Star NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory has captured a star being torn apart by intense gravitational forces after it ventured too close to a supermassive black hole, a phenomenon known as a tidal disruption event. These events are already extremely rare, and this marks the first time one has been observed so far from a galaxy’s core. LEARN MORE |  THE UNIVERSE Winding Down A new study using data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope finds that star formation in the nearby Andromeda galaxy has undergone a 500-million-year decline, with an even steeper drop in the last 40 million years. Located about 2.5 million light-years from Earth, Andromeda offers an opportunity for astronomers to examine its stellar populations in detail, leading to a better understanding of the history of galaxies like our own. LEARN MORE |
| More NASA News |
 | NASA astronaut Deniz Burnham is preparing for her first mission to the International Space Station, where she will serve as a flight engineer for Expedition 76. She will launch aboard the Roscosmos Soyuz MS‑30 spacecraft alongside cosmonauts Dmitri Petelin and Konstantin Borisov in March 2027 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. |
 | In the latest episode of Houston We Have a Podcast, NASA’s CHAPEA (Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog) Mission 2 crew shares what it was like operating through a simulated two‑week loss‑of‑signal period that mimics a Mars-Earth communications blackout when Mars moves behind the Sun. |
 | NASA opened its newest wind tunnel — the Flight Dynamics Research Facility — on July 31 at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The facility provides a critical resource for the agency and its partners to test the safety and performance of future generations of aircraft, rockets, and space exploration vehicles. |
 | On July 27, technicians at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida installed a memory card containing 1,350,144 names as part of a commemorative plaque on the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. The memory card will travel with the observatory to the Sun-Earth Lagrange point 2, about one million miles from Earth, where the Sun’s and Earth’s gravity balance out. |
 | The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program has created 18 new awards to support visionary ideas to improve aerospace technologies in areas ranging from the exploration of the solar system to understanding the universe. Researchers, known as NIAC Fellows, will investigate their concepts and identify potential challenges and opportunities for further development. |
| Do You Know? |
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| Apollo 15 astronauts David R. Scott and James B. Irwin drove NASA’s Lunar Roving Vehicle on the surface of the Moon for the first time 55 years ago this week. This first “moon buggy” provided a boost for lunar science by allowing the astronauts to travel farther from their landing site, explore more types of lunar deposits, and collect more samples. |
| What was the Lunar Roving Vehicle’s power source? A. Solar arrays B. Batteries C. A radioisotope thermoelectric generator D. Gasoline E. A hydrogen fuel cell |
| Find out the answer in next week’s NASA newsletter! |
 | Last week, we asked which food astronauts did not eat aboard Skylab. The answer? Hard-boiled eggs. Skylab’s freezer, the first ever flown, allowed astronauts to enjoy ice cream, frozen meats, and even lobster Newburg as part of their meals. On the Skylab 3 and 4 missions, condiments like tabasco sauce and horseradish were also included for the first time as part of a NASA space mission. |
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| In the citizen‑science project, Redshift Wrangler, volunteers will examine data from the W. M. Keck Observatory and NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, looking for “bumps” and “wiggles.” Using the tools of spectroscopy — the study of light across different wavelengths — the bumps and wiggles will be used to measure how big the universe was back when the light was released. That information, called the “redshift” of a galaxy, reveals in turn how galaxies evolve across oceans of time. Through NASA’s citizen science projects, volunteers help with cutting-edge research in Earth science, planetary science, astrophysics, biological and physical sciences, and heliophysics. With just your phone or computer, you can help NASA expand our understanding of the universe — including life here on Earth. Projects are available in 18+ languages beyond English and open to anyone, regardless of country of origin or citizenship status, and need no special gear, just curiosity and a willingness to learn. JOIN THE PROJECT |
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