| In this week’s newsletter, discover a sparkling scene captured in infrared light by the James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera; hear NASA’s Acting Administrator Sean Duffy discuss his vision for advancing NASA into the future on the 400th episode of Houston We Have a Podcast; and find out where to watch two upcoming cargo resupply missions to the International Space Station—NASA’s Northrop Grumman CRS-23 and Roscosmos Progress 93. Plus, more stories you might have missed. |
| THE UNIVERSE A Sparkling Scene of Star Birth  |
| A sparkling scene captured in infrared light by the James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera appears to be a craggy, starlit mountaintop kissed by wispy clouds—but is actually a cosmic dust-scape being eaten away by the blistering winds and radiation of nearby, massive, infant stars. Called Pismis 24, this young star cluster resides in the core of the nearby Lobster Nebula, approximately 5,500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Scorpius. Home to a vibrant stellar nursery and one of the closest sites of massive star birth, Pismis 24 provides rare insight into large and massive stars. Its proximity makes this region one of the best places to explore the properties of hot young stars and how they evolve. STAR CLUSTER PISMIS 24 |
 | SCIENCE The Sun’s Influence Expected to launch Tuesday, Sept. 23, a trio of spacecraft will study the Sun’s influence across the solar system. The missions—Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe, Carruthers Geocorona Observatory, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Follow On-Lagrange 1—will each focus on different effects of solar wind and space weather to help scientists better understand the Sun’s influence on Earth’s habitability. NASA’s IMAP |
| PODCASTS Advancing NASA For the 400th episode of Houston We Have a Podcast, NASA’s Acting Administrator Sean Duffy shares his journey and vision for advancing NASA into the future. LISTEN |  |
 HUMANS IN SPACE Science Launching NASA and Northrop Grumman are preparing to send scientific investigations and supplies to the International Space Station, flying research to support Artemis missions to the Moon and human exploration of Mars and beyond, while improving life on Earth. The investigations aboard the Cygnus spacecraft aim to refine semiconductor crystals for next-generation technologies, reduce harmful microbes, improve medication production, and manage fuel pressure. LEARN MORE |  ABOUT NASA NASA’s New Associate Administrator Earlier this week NASA’s Acting Administrator Sean Duffy named Amit Kshatriya as the new associate administrator of the agency. Kshatriya serves as the highest-ranking civil servant at the agency and as a senior advisor to the administrator, leading NASA’s 10 center directors, as well as the mission directorate associate administrators at NASA Headquarters in Washington. LEARN MORE |
| More NASA News |
 | What can skywatchers look for in September? Saturn puts on a spectacular show, a sunrise conjunction shines bright, and we ring in the autumnal equinox. |
 | NASA, Northrop Grumman, and SpaceX are accelerating the next commercial resupply flight to the International Space Station to maximize launch opportunities following an assessment of mission readiness. NASA is now targeting no earlier than 6:11 p.m. EDT, Sunday, Sept. 14, for the launch of the agency’s Northrop Grumman CRS-23 mission from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. |
 | On Thursday, Sept. 11, NASA will provide live coverage of the launch and docking of the unpiloted Roscosmos Progress 93 cargo spacecraft carrying about three tons of food, fuel, and supplies for the crew aboard the International Space Station. Coverage will begin at 11:30 a.m. on NASA+. |
| ARTEMIS Moon Mission Masterminds As four astronauts venture around the Moon on NASA’s Artemis II test flight in 2026, many people will support the journey from here on Earth. Teams directing operations from the ground include the missionmanagement team, launch control team, flight control team, and the landing and recovery team, each with additional support personnel who are experts in every individual system and subsystem. The teams have managed every aspect of the test flight and ensured NASA is prepared to send humans beyond our atmosphere and into a new Golden Age of innovation and exploration. MEET THE TEAMS |  |
| Do You Know? |
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| The Carruthers Geocorona Observatory is named for George Carruthers, a scientist and inventor who developed the first astronomical observatory on the Moon: the Far Ultraviolet Camera/Spectrograph. This telescope gave us the first ultraviolet images of Earth taken from a distance, showing us the full extent of Earth’s hydrogen atmosphere, the polar auroras, and the tropical airglow belt. |
| As part of which NASA mission did this observatory get to the Moon? A. Surveyor III B. Apollo 12 C. Apollo 16 D. Lunar Prospector E. Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) |
| Find out the answer in next week’s NASA newsletter! |
 | Last week, we asked what NASA’s first human space flight to launch at night was. The answer? Apollo 17! Apollo 17, the sixth and final Apollo Moon landing mission, lifted off from Kennedy Space Center at 12:33 a.m. local time on Dec. 7, 1972. Apollo 17’s launch window was dictated by the orbital mechanics needed for suitable lighting conditions for landing at the Moon’s Taurus-Littrow Valley. |
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| Do you have a telescope? Would you like to see some of the same night sky objects from the ground that Hubble has seen from space? We invite you to commemorate the Hubble Space Telescope’s 35th anniversary by accepting our yearlong stargazing challenge! New challenge objects will be featured weekly. This week’s object is the globular cluster Messier 15 (M15), which is located 33,600 light-years from Earth in the constellation Pegasus and can be spotted with a pair of binoculars. A spectacular swarm of stars, M15 was discovered in 1746 by Jean-Dominique Maraldi, an Italian astronomer on the hunt for comets. M15 was the first globular cluster known to host a planetary nebula (the gaseous shell of a dying star). This nebula, Pease 1, was detected in 1928 by Francis G. Pease and is one of only four planetary nebulas known to exist within a globular cluster. JOIN THE CELEBRATION |
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