With a glance again at 2024, NASA is celebrating its many revolutionary and galvanizing accomplishments this yr together with for the primary time, touchdown new science and expertise on the Moon with an American firm, pushing the boundaries of exploration by launching a brand new mission to check Jupiter’s icy moon Europa; sustaining 24 years of steady human exploration off the Earth aboard the Worldwide Area Station, and unveiling the primary have a look at its supersonic quiet plane for the good thing about humanity.

The company additionally shared the marvel of a complete eclipse with thousands and thousands of People, carried out the ultimate flight of its Ingenuity helicopter on the Pink Planet, demonstrated the primary laser communications functionality in deep area, examined the subsequent technology photo voltaic sail in area, made new scientific discoveries with its James Webb Area Telescope, accomplished a year-long Mars simulation on Earth with crew, introduced the latest class of Artemis Technology astronauts, and rather more.

“In 2024, NASA made leap after big leap to discover, uncover, and encourage – all whereas bringing actual, tangible, and substantial advantages to the American folks and to all of humanity,” mentioned NASA Administrator Invoice Nelson. “We deepened the industrial and worldwide partnerships that may assist NASA lead humanity again to the Moon after which to the purple sands of Mars. We launched new missions to check our photo voltaic system and our universe in charming new methods. We noticed our altering Earth via our eyes within the sky – our ever-growing fleet of satellites and devices – and shared that knowledge with all of humanity. And we opened the doorways to new potentialities in aviation, new breakthroughs on the Worldwide Area Station, and new wonders in area journey.” 

By its Moon to Mars exploration method, the company continued transferring ahead with its Artemis marketing campaign, together with progress towards its first mission across the Moon with crew in additional than 50 years and advancing plans to discover extra of the Moon than ever earlier than. Up to now in 2024, 15 international locations signed the Artemis Accords, committing to the protected, clear, and accountable exploration of area with the USA.

As a part of efforts to observe local weather change, the company launched a number of satellites to check our altering planet and opened its second Earth Info Heart to offer knowledge to a wider viewers.

With the discharge of its newest Financial Influence Report, NASA underscored the company’s $75.6 billion impression on the U.S. financial system, worth to society, and return on funding for taxpayers. 

“To put money into NASA is to put money into American staff, American innovation, the American financial system, and American financial competitiveness. By continued investments in our workforce and our infrastructure, NASA will proceed to propel American management on Earth, within the skies, and within the stars,” mentioned Nelson. 

Key 2024 company highlights throughout its mission areas embody:

Getting ready for Moon, Mars

This yr, NASA made strides towards the Artemis Technology of scientific discovery on the Moon whereas validating operations and methods to arrange for human missions to Mars. The company superior towards Artemis II, the primary crewed flight below Artemis:

• NASA introduced outcomes of its Orion warmth defend investigation and up to date its timelines for Artemis II and III.
• Groups delivered the core stage and launch car stage adapter of the SLS (Area Launch System) rocket from NASA’s Michoud Meeting Facility in New Orleans to NASA’s Kennedy Area Heart in Florida and started stacking the rocket’s booster segments.
• Engineers carried out a sequence of assessments of the cellular launcher and methods at NASA Kennedy’s Launch Pad 39B forward of the check flight and added an emergency egress system to maintain crew and different personnel on the launch pad protected within the case of an emergency.
• NASA carried out key built-in testing of the Orion spacecraft that may ship 4 astronauts across the Moon and produce them dwelling, together with testing inside an altitude chamber simulating the vacuum circumstances of deep area.
• The crew and different groups carried out key coaching actions to arrange for flight, together with working towards restoration operations at sea, in addition to launch countdown and mission simulations. 
• In February, the primary Moon touchdown via the company’s CLPS (Business Lunar Payload Providers) initiative introduced NASA science to the lunar floor on Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander efficiently capturing knowledge that may assist us higher perceive the Moon’s setting and enhance touchdown precision and security.
• In August, NASA introduced {that a} new set of NASA science experiments and expertise demonstrations will arrive on the lunar South Pole in 2027 following the company’s newest CLPS initiative supply award.

• To return useful samples from Mars to Earth, NASA sought revolutionary designs and introduced a brand new technique overview crew to evaluate numerous design research to cut back price, threat, and complexity.
• NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Environment and Risky EvolutioN) spacecraft celebrated 10 years of exploration of the Pink Planet’s higher ambiance.
• After three years, NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter ended its mission in January, with dozens extra flights than deliberate.
• In September, the NASA Area Communications and Navigation crew awarded a contract to Intuitive Machines to assist the company’s lunar relay methods as a part of the Close to Area Community, operated by NASA’s Goddard Area Flight Heart in Greenbelt, Maryland.

• NASA recognized an up to date set of 9 potential touchdown areas close to the lunar South Pole for its Artemis III mission.
• Capturing the present state of the Moon to Mars structure, NASA launched the second revision of its Structure Definition Doc.
• NASA formalized two worldwide agreements for key Artemis parts, together with with the United Arab Emirates for the Gateway airlock module, and with Japan to offer a pressurized rover for the lunar floor.
• Astronauts, scientists, and engineers took half in testing key applied sciences and evaluating {hardware} wanted to work on the Moon, together with simulating moonwalks in geologically Moon-like areas of Arizona, practiced integration between the crew and mission controllers, participated in human elements testing for Gateway, and evaluated the developmental {hardware}.
• NASA labored collaboratively with SpaceX and Blue Origin on their human lunar landers for Artemis missions, exercising an choice below current contracts to develop cargo variants of their human landers.
• In August, as a part of its dedication to a sturdy, sustainable lunar exploration program for the good thing about all, NASA introduced it issued a Request for Info to hunt curiosity from American firms and establishments in conducting a mission utilizing the company’s VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) Moon rover.
• The company chosen three firms to advance capabilities for a lunar terrain car that Artemis astronauts will use to journey across the lunar floor.
• NASA accomplished a vital design overview on the second cellular launcher, which is able to launch the extra highly effective Block 1B model of the SLS rocket.
• Engineers at NASA Kennedy continued outfitting the Artemis III and IV Orion crew modules and obtained the European-built Orion service module for Artemis III; additionally they obtained a number of sections of the Artemis III and IV SLS core phases, and upgraded Excessive Bay 2 within the Automobile Meeting Constructing.
• NASA accomplished its second RS-25 certification check sequence at NASA’s Stennis Area Heart close to Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, setting the stage for manufacturing of latest engines to assist energy future Artemis missions to the Moon and past.
• The CHAPEA (Crew Well being and Efficiency Exploration Analog) 1 crew accomplished a 378-day mission in a ground-based Mars habitat at NASA’s Johnson Area Heart in Houston. 

Observing, Studying About Earth

NASA collects knowledge about our dwelling planet from area and on land, serving to perceive how our local weather on Earth is altering. Among the company’s key accomplishments in Earth science this yr embody:

• After launching into area in February, NASA’s PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) satellite tv for pc mission is efficiently transmitting first-of-their-kind measurements of ocean well being, air high quality, and the consequences of a altering local weather.
• Utilizing the company’s TEMPO (Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Air pollution) instrument, NASA made accessible new near-real time knowledge offering air air pollution observations at unprecedented resolutions – all the way down to the dimensions of particular person neighborhoods.
• Launched in Could and June, NASA’s PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Vitality within the Far-Infrared Experiment) CubeSats began accumulating knowledge on the quantity of warmth within the type of far-infrared radiation that the Arctic and Antarctic environments emit to area.
• NASA rolled out the Catastrophe Response Coordination System, a brand new useful resource that delivers up-to-date data on fires, earthquakes, landslides, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, and different excessive occasions to emergency managers.
• The company partnered with the Smithsonian Nationwide Museum of Pure Historical past to open the Earth Info Heart exhibit.

Exploring Our Photo voltaic System, Universe

NASA’s Europa Clipper embarked Oct. 14 on its lengthy voyage to Jupiter, the place it would examine Europa, a moon with an unlimited subsurface ocean that will have circumstances to assist life. NASA collaborated with a number of companions on content material and social media associated to the launch, together with engagements with the Nationwide Hockey League, U.S. Determine Skating, 7-Eleven, e.l.f., Lady Scouts, Crayola, Library of Congress, and others. NASA’s 2024 area exploration milestones additionally embody: 

• NASA’s groundbreaking James Webb Area Telescope marked greater than two years in area, remodeling our view of the universe as designed, by finding out essentially the most distant galaxies ever noticed, whereas elevating thrilling new questions concerning the atmospheres of planets exterior our photo voltaic system.
• As a part of an asteroid pattern trade, NASA formally transferred to JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Company) a portion of the asteroid Bennu pattern collected by the company’s OSIRIS-Rex (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Useful resource Identification, and Safety-Regolith Explorer) mission in a ceremony on Aug. 22.
• After surviving a number of challenges this yr, NASA’s Voyager mission continues to gather knowledge on the furthest reaches of our Solar’s influences.

• NASA chosen a brand new area telescope for growth that may survey ultraviolet mild throughout your entire sky, known as UVEX (UltraViolet Explorer).
• This yr, all remaining main elements have been delivered to NASA Goddard to start the combination part for the company’s Nancy Grace Roman Area Telescope.
• NASA developed, examined, and launched the patch equipment that astronauts will use to restore the company’s NICER (Neutron star Inside Composition Explorer) telescope on the Worldwide Area Station.
• The company continued making ready the SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the Historical past of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) mission to launch by April 2025.
• To handle the maturation of applied sciences essential to develop the Liveable Worlds Observatory telescope, NASA established a undertaking workplace at NASA Goddard.
• NASA and companions declared that the Solar reached photo voltaic most in 2024, a interval of heightened photo voltaic exercise when area climate turns into extra frequent.
• The Photo voltaic and Heliospheric Observatory, a joint mission between ESA (European Area Company) and NASA, found its 5,000th comet in March.
• NASA’s Sounding Rocket Program offered low-cost entry to area for scientific analysis, expertise growth, and academic missions. NASA launched 14 sounding rocket missions in 2024. Scientists introduced findings from a sounding rocket launched in 2022 that confirmed the existence of a long-sought world electrical subject at Earth.
• The company established a brand new class of astrophysics missions, known as Astrophysics Probe Explorers, designed to fill a spot between NASA’s flagship and smaller-scale missions.

Dwelling, Conducting Analysis in Area

In 2024, a complete of 25 folks lived and labored aboard the Worldwide Area Station, serving to to finish science for the good thing about humanity, open entry to area to extra folks, and assist exploration to the Moon in preparation for Mars. A complete of 14 spacecraft visited the microgravity laboratory in 2024, together with eight industrial resupply missions from Northrop Grumman and SpaceX, in addition to worldwide accomplice missions, delivering greater than 40,000 kilos of science investigations, instruments, and demanding provides to the area station. NASA additionally helped safely return the uncrewed Boeing Starliner spacecraft to Earth, concluding a three-month flight check to the Worldwide Area Station. As well as:

• In March, NASA welcomed its latest class of Artemis Technology astronauts in a commencement ceremony. The company additionally sought new astronaut candidates, and extra 8,000 folks utilized.
• NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, ESA (European Area Company) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Company) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa returned to Earth on the conclusion of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 mission aboard the Worldwide Area Station. The three crew members, together with Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov, splashed down in March off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, finishing a six-and-a-half-month mission contributing to a whole lot of experiments and expertise demonstrations.
• In June, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams safely arrived on the area station aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft following launch of their flight check. With Starliner’s arrival, it was the primary time in station historical past three completely different spacecraft that carried crew to station have been docked on the identical time. Starliner returned uncrewed in September following a choice by NASA. Wilmore and Williams, now serving as a part of the company’s Crew-9 mission, will return to Earth in February 2025.
• NASA astronaut Don Pettit, accompanied by Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, arrived on the orbital laboratory in September to start a six-month mission.
• Finishing a six-month analysis mission in September, NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson returned to Earth with Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub aboard the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft.
• NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov launched on the company’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission to the area station.
• Concluding an almost eight-month science mission, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission safely returned to Earth, splashing down on Oct. 25, off the coast of Pensacola, Florida.
• NASA and Axiom Area efficiently accomplished the third non-public astronaut mission to the area station in February, following an 18-day mission, the place the crew carried out 30 experiments, public outreach, and industrial actions in microgravity.
• The company introduced SpaceX was chosen to develop and ship the U.S. Deorbit Automobile, which is able to safely transfer the area station out of orbit and right into a distant space of an ocean on the finish of its operations.
• NASA and SpaceX monitored operations as the corporate’s Dragon spacecraft carried out its first demonstration of reboost capabilities for the area station.
• NASA concluded the ultimate mission of its Spacecraft Fireplace Security Experiment, or Saffire, placing a blazing finish to an eight-year sequence of investigations  fireplace’s habits in area.
• A robotic surgical device aboard area station was efficiently managed remotely by surgeons on Earth. The Robotic Surgical procedure Tech Demo examined the efficiency of a small robotic to judge the consequences of microgravity and time delays between area and floor.
• The primary profitable steel 3D print was carried out aboard the area station, depositing a small s-curve in liquified chrome steel for the Steel 3D Printer investigation to check additive manufacturing of small steel elements in microgravity for tools upkeep on future long-duration missions.
• In 2024, 17 NASA Organic and Bodily Science analysis payloads have been delivered to the orbital laboratory, spanning quantum, plant biology, and bodily sciences investigations.
• Greater than 825,000 images of Earth have been taken from the area station in 2024 to date, contributing to analysis monitoring how our planet’s landscapes are altering over time. Expedition 71 produced greater than 630,000 photos, essentially the most taken throughout a single mission. In complete, greater than 5.3 million images have been taken from the area station, offering imagery for city mild research, research of lightning flashes, and 14 pure catastrophe occasions in 2024 alone.

Imagining Future Flight

NASA researchers labored to advance improvements that may remodel U.S. aviation, furthering the Sustainable Flight Nationwide Partnership and different efforts to assist the nation attain web zero carbon emissions by 2050. NASA additionally unveiled its X-59 quiet supersonic plane, the centerpiece of its Quesst mission to make quiet overland supersonic flight a actuality. NASA aeronautics initiatives additionally labored to deliver air taxis, supply drones, and different revolutionary expertise nearer to deployment to learn the U.S. public and trade. Over the previous yr, the company:

• Started testing the quiet supersonic X-59’s engine forward of its first flight.
• Made additional progress in analysis areas of Quesst mission, together with floor recording station testing and development and structural assessments on the plane.
• Publicly unveiled the X-59 in January, offering the primary have a look at this distinctive plane.
• Examined a wind-tunnel mannequin of the X-66, an experimental plane designed to cut back the carbon footprint.
• Started constructing the X-66 simulator that may enable pilots and engineers to run real-life situations in a protected setting.
• Funded new research the way forward for sustainable plane for the 2050 timeframe and past.
• Constructed a brand new simulator to check how passengers might expertise air taxi rides. The outcomes will assist designers create new plane sorts with passenger consolation in thoughts.
• Developed a pc software program device known as OVERFLOW to foretell plane noise and aerodynamic efficiency. This device is now being utilized by a number of air taxi producers to check how propellers or wings carry out.
• In collaboration with Sikorsky and DARPA (Protection Superior Analysis Tasks Company), flew two helicopters autonomously utilizing NASA-designed collision avoidance software program.
• Designed and flew a digital camera pod with sensors to assist advance pc imaginative and prescient for autonomous aviation.
• Launched a brand new science, expertise, engineering, and arithmetic equipment targeted on Superior Air Mobility so college students can be taught extra about air taxis and drones.
• Continued to cut back site visitors and save gasoline at main U.S. airports as a part of NASA’s to work to enhance air journey and make it extra sustainable.
• Labored with companions to display a first-of-its-kind air site visitors administration idea for plane to soundly function at greater altitudes.
• Superior Hybrid-Electrical applied sciences with GE Aerospace below the Hybrid Thermally Environment friendly Core undertaking.
• Performed new floor and flight assessments for the Electrified Powertrain Flight Demonstration undertaking, which works to create hybrid electrical powertrains for regional and single-aisle plane, alongside GE Aerospace and magniX.
• Collaborated with the Federal Aviation Administration and police and fireplace departments to strategize on integrating public security drones into the nationwide airspace.
• Launched a brand new science, expertise, engineering, and arithmetic equipment targeted on Superior Air Mobility so college students can be taught extra about air taxis and drones.

Enhancing Life on Earth, in Area with Expertise

NASA develops important applied sciences to drive exploration and the area financial system. In 2024, NASA leveraged partnerships to advance applied sciences and check new capabilities to assist the company develop a sustainable presence on the lunar floor and past, whereas benefiting life on our dwelling planet and in low Earth orbit. The next are 2024 area expertise developments:

• Deployed NASA’s Superior Composite Photo voltaic Sail System in area, marking a profitable check of its composite increase expertise.
• Carried out record-breaking laser communications with NASA’s Deep Area Optical Communications expertise demonstration by sending a laser sign from Earth to NASA’s Psyche spacecraft about 290 million miles away.
  • NASA’s Superior Composite Photo voltaic Sail System and Deep Area Optical Communications have been named amongst TIME’s Innovations of 2024, together with the company’s Europa Clipper spacecraft.
• Supported 84 assessments of expertise payloads through 38 flights with six U.S. industrial flight suppliers via NASA’s Flight Alternatives Program.
• Enabled the primary NASA-supported researcher to fly with their payload aboard a industrial suborbital rocket.
• Superior vital capabilities for autonomous networks of small spacecraft with NASA’s Starling demonstration, the primary satellite tv for pc swarm to autonomously distribute data and operations knowledge between spacecraft.
• Demonstrated space-age gasoline gauge expertise, often called a Radio Frequency Mass Gauge, on Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lunar lander, to develop expertise to precisely measure spacecraft gasoline ranges.
• Carried out an in-space tank to tank switch of cryogenic propellent (liquid oxygen) on the third flight check of SpaceX’s Starship.
• Licensed a brand new 3-D printed superalloy, dubbed GRX-810, to 4 American firms to toughen, extra sturdy airplane and spacecraft elements.
• Manufactured 3D-printed, liquid oxygen/hydrogen thrust chamber {hardware} as a part of NASA’s Fast Evaluation and Manufacturing Propulsion Expertise undertaking, which earned the company’s 2024 “Invention of The Yr” award for its contributions to NASA and industrial trade’s deep area exploration objectives.
• Pioneered quantum discovery utilizing the Chilly Atom Lab, together with producing the primary dual-species Bose-Einstein Condensates in area, the primary dual-species atom interferometers in area, and demonstrating the primary ultra-cool quantum sensor for the primary time in area.
• Introduced two new consortia to hold out ground-based analysis investigations and conduct actions for NASA’s Organic and Bodily Sciences Area Biology Program, totaling $5 million.
• Awarded $4.25 million throughout the finales of three main NASA Centennial Challenges, together with Break the Ice, Watts on the Moon, and Deep Area Meals to assist NASA’s Artemis missions and future journeys into deep area. 
• Launched a collaborative course of to seize the aerospace group’s most pervasive technical challenges, leading to a ranked record of 187 civil area shortfalls to assist information future expertise growth tasks, investments, and expertise roadmaps.

Rising World Partnerships

By the Artemis Accords, virtually 50 nations have joined the USA, led by NASA with the U.S. State Division, in a voluntary dedication to interact within the protected, clear, and accountable exploration of the Moon, Mars, and past. The Artemis Accords characterize a sturdy and numerous group of nation states, representing all areas of the world, working collectively for the protected, clear, and accountable exploration of the Moon, Mars and past with NASA. Extra international locations are anticipated to signal the Artemis Accords within the weeks and months forward.

• Throughout a Could workshop with Artemis Accords signatories in Montreal, Canada, NASA led a tabletop train for twenty-four international locations centered on additional defining and implementing key tenets, together with contemplating views on non-interference, interoperability, and scientific knowledge sharing amongst nations.
• A NASA delegation participated within the seventy fifth Worldwide Astronautical Congress in Milan. Through the congress, NASA co-chaired the Artemis Accords Principals’ Assembly, which introduced collectively 42 nations furthering discussions on the protected and accountable use of area for the good thing about all.

Celebrating Whole Photo voltaic Eclipse

Through the complete photo voltaic eclipse on April 8, NASA helped the nation benefit from the occasion safely and engaged thousands and thousands of individuals with in-person occasions, reside on-line protection, and citizen science alternatives. NASA additionally funded scientists round North America to reap the benefits of this distinctive place of the Solar, Moon, and Earth to be taught extra concerning the Solar and its connection to our dwelling planet. Highlights of the photo voltaic celebration embody:

• The area station crew have been among the many thousands and thousands viewing the photo voltaic eclipse.
• NASA collaborated with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Google, NCAA Ladies’s Remaining 4, Peanuts Worldwide, Microsoft, Sésamo, LEGO, Barbie, Main League Baseball, Third Rock Radio, Discovery Training, and others on eclipse-inspired merchandise and social posts to assist consciousness of the eclipse and the significance of protected viewing.
• Greater than 50 scholar groups participated in NASA’s Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Venture, with some changing into the primary to measure atmospheric gravity waves attributable to eclipses.

Constructing Low Earth Orbit Economic system

In August, NASA introduced the event of its low Earth orbit microgravity technique by releasing 42 targets for stakeholder suggestions. The technique helps to information the subsequent technology of human presence in low Earth orbit and advance microgravity science, expertise, and exploration. NASA is refining the targets with collected enter and can finalize the technique earlier than the tip of the yr. Further developments embody:

• NASA modified agreements for 2 funded industrial area station companions which can be on observe to develop low Earth orbit locations for the company and different prospects.
• A NASA-funded industrial area station, Blue Origin’s Orbital Reef, accomplished a number of testing milestones for its vital life assist system as a part of the company’s efforts for brand new locations in low Earth orbit.
• A full-scale final burst strain check on Sierra Area’s LIFE (Giant Built-in Versatile Setting) habitat construction was carried out, a component of a NASA-funded industrial area station.
• The company’s trade companions, via the second Collaborations for Business Area Capabilities initiative and Small Enterprise Innovation Analysis Ignite initiative, accomplished security milestones, profitable flight assessments, and main technological developments.
• As NASA opens entry to area by working with non-public trade, the company shared its medical experience, human system integration information, utilization necessities, and industrial area meals perception to assist in growing protected, dependable, revolutionary, and cost-effective area stations.
• To handle a quickly altering area working setting and guarantee its preservation for generations to come back, NASA launched its built-in Area Sustainability Technique in April.
• The company examined the Sierra Area Dream Chaser spaceplane for the intense environments of area at NASA’s Neil Armstrong Check Facility in Sandusky, Ohio.
• NASA’s Glenn Analysis Heart in Cleveland streamed 4K video footage from an plane to the area station and again for the primary time utilizing optical, or laser, communications.

Inspiring Artemis Technology of STEM College students

NASA continues to supply a variety of science, expertise, engineering, and arithmetic (STEM) initiatives and actions, reaching and fascinating the subsequent technology of scientists, engineers, and explorers. The company’s STEM engagements are enhanced via collaborations with accomplice organizations, the distribution of assorted grants, and extra strategic actions. Key 2024 STEM highlights embody:

• Awarded almost $45 million to 21 higher-education establishments to assist construct capability for analysis, and introduced the recipients of grants that may assist scientific and technical analysis tasks for greater than 20 universities and organizations throughout the USA.
• Planted a “Moon Tree,” a seedling that traveled across the Moon and again aboard the company’s Artemis I mission in 2022, on the U.S. Capitol in Washington. The occasion highlighted a partnership with the U.S. Forest Service that invited organizations throughout the nation to host the seedlings.
• Partnered with Microsoft’s Minecraft to interact college students in a game-based studying platform, the place gamers can expertise NASA’s discoveries with interactive modules on star formation, planets, and galaxy sorts, modeled utilizing actual James Webb Area Telescope photos.
• Collaborate with the U.S. Division of Training to deliver STEM to college students throughout after-school hours below the twenty first Century Neighborhood Studying Facilities program, which goals to achieve hundreds of scholars in additional than 60 websites throughout 10 states.
• Launched NASA Engages, a platform to attach and serve the general public by offering company specialists to share their experiences engaged on company missions and applications.
• With greater than 55,000 purposes for NASA internships throughout the spring, summer time and fall periods, a brand new recruitment document, NASA helped college students and early-career professionals make actual contributions to area and science missions.
• Expanded the company’s program to assist casual instructional establishments like museums, science facilities, libraries, and different group organizations deliver STEM content material to communities, leading to 42 energetic awards throughout 26 states and Puerto Rico.
• Hosted the thirtieth Human Exploration Rover Problem, one among NASA’s longest-standing scholar challenges, with participation from greater than 600 college students and 72 groups from world wide.

Reaching New, Future Explorers

NASA’s future-forward outreach to present and new audiences is vital to offering accessibility to the company’s scientific discoveries and to rising the longer term STEM workforce. NASA’s inventive and inclusive 2024 methods to achieve the general public embody:

• NASA’s on-demand streaming service, NASA+, achieved 4 instances the viewership of the company’s conventional cable channel, marking a serious milestone in its ongoing internet modernization efforts. As a part of the digital transformation, NASA mentioned goodbye to NASA Tv, its over-the-air broadcast, streamlining the way it delivers the newest area, science, and expertise information. NASA+ marked its first yr of operation Sept. 23, and guests have performed 1,036,389 hours of programming.
• April 8, the day of the overall photo voltaic eclipse, introduced in 32 million views to NASA’s web sites, greater than 15 instances further views than the typical this yr. On common, NASA web sites obtain 33.4 million views each month.
• NASA social media accounts noticed a rise of 4% in followers since 2023, from 391.2 million in 2023 to 406.8 million this yr. On common, NASA accounts see near 25 million engagements every month.
  • Notable reside social media occasions in 2024 included the first-ever Reddit Ask Me Something with the platform’s 23-million member “Clarify Like I’m 5” group; the primary X Areas dialog from area; and NASA’s first Instagram Stay of a launch, which contributed 410,000 of the 6.6 million views of the Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Check launch.
  • NASA Twitch launched customized emotes, issued channel factors for the primary time, and collaborated with an exterior Twitch creator, a how-to dialog with astrophotographers and NASA specialists about photographing the Moon.
• NASA aired reside broadcasts for 14 mission launches in 2024. The company’s official broadcast of the 2024 complete photo voltaic eclipse and its telescope feed are the highest two most-watched livestreams this yr on NASA’s YouTube.
  • The company’s YouTube livestreams in 2024 surpassed 84.7 million complete views.  
  • NASA broadcasts usually have been enhanced by the presence of well-known athletes, artists, and cultural figures. The photo voltaic eclipse broadcast alone featured musician Lance Bass, actor Scarlett Johannson, NFL quarterback Josh Dobbs, and Snoopy.
• The company’s podcasts surpassed 9.7 million all-time performs on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
• The NASA app was put in greater than 2.1 million instances in 2024.  
• The variety of subscribers to NASA’s flagship and Spanish newsletters complete greater than 5 million.
• NASA celebrated the fifth anniversary of the Hidden Figures Manner road renaming. This system honored the legacy of Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, and Christine M. Darden, and others who have been featured in Margot Shetterly’s ebook – and the following film – Hidden Figures, and their dedication to science, justice, and humanity.
• The company signed Area Act agreements with the Nationwide Affiliation for the Development of Coloured Individuals and the Hispanic Heritage Basis to extend engagement and fairness for underrepresented college students pursuing STEM fields and scale back obstacles to company actions and alternatives.
• As a part of its plans to achieve new audiences, NASA continued to concentrate on growing Spanish-language content material. This yr, the company:
  • Greater than doubled the variety of yearly posts to its science-focused web site in Spanish, Ciencia de la NASA, and grew the web site’s site visitors by five-fold.
  • Produced reside broadcasts for the 2024 complete photo voltaic eclipse and for the launch of the Europa Clipper mission, which reached a mixed viewers of greater than 5 million viewers world wide.
  • Revealed a video about how NASA and ESA (European Area Company) cooperate to coach astronauts.
  • Launched an astrobiology graphic novel and the company’s financial impression yearly report in Spanish, amongst different outreach supplies.
• Relaunched the NASA Artwork Program with two space-themed murals in New York’s Hudson Sq. neighborhood in Manhattan. The imaginative and prescient of the reimagined NASA Artwork Program is to encourage and interact the Artemis Technology with group murals and artwork tasks for the good thing about humanity.
• A DC-8 Airborne Science Laboratory Workshop documented and celebrated the vital scientific work carried out aboard NASA’s legendary DC-8 and captured classes of the previous for present and future operators. 
• The Deep Area Community beamed a Missy Elliott music to area on July 12. 
• NASA partnered with Crayola Training to develop content material for Crayola’s annual Creativity Week held in January, which reached greater than 6 million children from 100 international locations. 
• On the eve of the fifty fifth anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon touchdown, NASA Johnson named one among its central buildings the “Dorothy Vaughan Heart in Honor of the Ladies of Apollo.” Actress Octavia Spencer narrated a video for the occasion. 
• NASA’s Ames Analysis Heart in California’s Silicon Valley hosted social media creators in area, science, and engineering for a behind-the-scenes tour of the middle’s world-class amenities.
• Partaking largely untapped NASA audiences of greater than 155,000 in Illinois, Michigan, and Minnesota, NASA’s Glenn launched NASA within the Midwest, an built-in method to deliver consciousness to the company’s connections to the area to large-scale festivals and surrounding group establishments.
• Reaching 500,000 in-person attendees, NASA Stennis supported the company’s return to the ESSENCE Pageant of Tradition in New Orleans.
• NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia developed a dance engagement program in partnership with the Jap Shore Ballet Theatre, introducing new audiences to the company whereas mixing arts and science.
• NASA participated in additional than 3,700 occasions deliberate with an estimated attain of greater than 17 million worldwide. This was completed via in-person, hybrid, and digital outreach actions and occasions.
• The company’s Digital Visitor Program engaged 277,370 digital visitors throughout 13 occasions, with a mean of 145 international locations, areas, and territories represented per occasion.

There additionally have been many notable engagements highlighting the intersection of area and sports activities in 2024, together with the Stanley Cup visiting NASA Kennedy for pictures as a part of the company’s rising partnership with the Nationwide Hockey League. NASA Glenn additionally collaborated with The Ohio State College Marching Band for its halftime present throughout the college’s soccer sport on Sept. 21. A video greeting from astronauts aboard the Worldwide Area Station launched the present, which featured aerospace-themed music and quite a few formations together with the ultimate formation the NASA Meatball.

For extra about NASA’s missions, analysis, and discoveries, go to:

-end-

Meira Bernstein / Cheryl Warner
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
meira.b.bernstein@nasa.gov / cheryl.m.warner@nasa.gov