| In this week’s newsletter, find out where and when to watch live coverage of NASA astronaut Jonny Kim’s departure from the International Space Station aboard the Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft; learn how asteroid Bennu continues to provide new clues to scientists’ biggest questions about the formation of the early solar system and the origins of life; and view the now fully assembled Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, NASA’s next big eye on the cosmos. Plus, more stories you might have missed. |
| HUMANS IN SPACE NASA Astronaut Jonny Kim Returns to Earth  |
| NASA astronaut Jonny Kim, accompanied by Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky, is preparing to depart the International Space Station aboard the Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft and return to Earth. Kim, Ryzhikov, and Zubritsky will undock from the station’s Prichal module at 8:41 p.m. EST on Monday, Dec. 8, headed for a parachute-assisted landing at 12:04 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 9, on the steppe of Kazakhstan, southeast of the city of Dzhezkazgan. Kim and his crewmates are completing a 245-day mission aboard the station. At the conclusion of their mission, they will have orbited Earth 3,920 times and traveled nearly 104 million miles. This was the first flight for Kim and Zubritsky to the orbiting laboratory, while Ryzhikov is ending his third trip to space. LIVE COVERAGE SCHEDULE |
 | PODCAST A Step Toward Mars On the latest episode of Houston We Have a Podcast, the CHAPEA Mission 2 crew—Ross Elder, Ellen Ellis, Matthew Montgomery, and James Spicer—discusses their backgrounds and preparations for their upcoming yearlong analog Mars mission inside the Mars Dune Alpha habitat at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. LISTEN |
| MISSIONS Test, Tinker, Repeat When NASA engineers want to test a concept for exploring Mars, they have to find ways to create similar conditions here on Earth. That’s why a team from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California took three research drones to California’s Death Valley National Park and the Mojave Desert earlier this year to hone navigation software that could expand the range of terrains that a future Martian helicopter can safely operate over. PREPARING FOR MARTIAN SKIES |  |
 MISSIONS Construction Complete NASA’s next big eye on the cosmos is now fully assembled. On Nov. 25, technicians joined the inner and outer portions of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope in the largest clean room at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. After final testing, Roman will move to the launch site at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for launch preparations in summer 2026. LEARN MORE |  THE SOLAR SYSTEM Sugars, ‘Gum,’ and Stardust The asteroid Bennu continues to provide new clues to scientists’ biggest questions about the formation of the early solar system and the origins of life. As part of the ongoing study of pristine samples delivered to Earth by the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security–Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx, spacecraft, three new papers published Tuesday by the journals Nature Geosciences and Nature Astronomy present remarkable discoveries: sugars essential for biology, a gum-like substance not seen before in astromaterials, and an unexpectedly high abundance of dust produced by supernova explosions.LEARN MORE |
| More NASA News |
 | In December, skywatchers can observe comet 3I/ATLAS make its closest approach to Earth; the Geminid meteor shower sparkle across the sky; and the Moon and Jupiter appearing close together for a conjunction. |
 | From August to October, the Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere, or PUNCH, mission — a constellation of four small satellites in low Earth orbit — tracked comet SWAN, one of the thousands of comets discovered in images from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory spacecraft, which launched 30 years ago Tuesday. Capturing a new image of the comet every few minutes, PUNCH’s observations may be the longest any comet has been tracked with such frequency. |
 | NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has recorded the sounds of electrical discharges—sparks—and mini-sonic booms in dust devils on Mars. Long theorized, the phenomenon has now been confirmed through audio and electromagnetic recordings captured by the rover’s SuperCam microphone. |
 | When flying in certain weather conditions, tiny freezing water droplets floating in the air can pose a risk to aircraft. If not taken into consideration, these water droplets can accumulate on an aircraft as ice and pose a safety risk. Discover how NASA software tools are working to transform the way we explore, understand, and prevent ice buildup on aircraft wings and engines. |
 | To build habitats on the Moon and Mars, first we need to simulate lunar and Martian soil on Earth. In the latest episode of the Small Steps, Giant Leaps podcast, Jennifer Edmunson shares why these simulants are essential, what it takes to create them, and the lessons learned from preparing for construction beyond Earth. |
| Do You Know? |
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| On Dec. 4, 1965—60 years ago—astronauts Frank Borman and James Lovell climbed into the Gemini VII spacecraft and were launched into orbit for a two-week mission of endurance. They would break a space duration record, showing that humans could survive a flight to the Moon and back. For two weeks they were confined together in a space about as big as the front seat of a small car. But space to stow food, gear, and garbage was a special problem for this two-week flight. |
| Where did the Gemini VII astronauts put their garbage? A. They ejected it into space B. They stuck it to the interior walls with velcro C. They put it behind their seats D. They stuffed it into their spacesuits |
| Find out the answer in next week’s NASA newsletter! |
 | Last week, we asked how far the rocket traveled during the first attempted launch of the Mercury spacecraft on a Redstone rocket. The answer? The Mercury-Redstone rose at most 4 or 5 inches before its engine shut down and the vehicle settled back on the launchpad. The Mercury capsule then jettisoned its escape rocket and deployed its parachutes. The failure was one of the most distressing episodes in Project Mercury’s history—but NASA’s determination was not curbed. Less than six months later, Alan Shepard became the first American astronaut to reach space on Mercury-Redstone 3. |
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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 Caldwell 67, a beautiful barred spiral galaxy located about 45 million light-years away in the constellation Fornax. This sparkling barred spiral galaxy was discovered by William Herschel in 1790 and subsequently cataloged as NGC 1097. It was originally classified as a nebula because prior to the 20th century, no one knew of the existence of other galaxies. Despite its bright core, this magnitude 9.2 galaxy is difficult to spot with smaller ground-based telescopes. JOIN THE CELEBRATION |
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