This Week @NASA: Imaging Faraway Planets, X-59 Aircraft Milestone, Dream Chaser Launch Preparation

The Roman Coronagraph Instrument on NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will help pave the way in the search for habitable worlds outside our solar system by testing new tools that block starlight, revealing planets hidden by the glare of their parent stars. Credit: NASA

Getting ready to image faraway planets…

Discussing artificial intelligence at NASA…

And a milestone for NASA’s supersonic X-plane…

A few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at NASA!

NASA Tool Gets Ready to Image Faraway Planets

The Roman Coronagraph Instrument for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope was recently shipped from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. The coronagraph will test new tools that block starlight to reveal planets hidden by light from their parent stars.

The instrument will demonstrate technologies that could help pave the way for future missions searching for habitable worlds outside our solar system – like NASA’s proposed Habitable Worlds Observatory. The Roman Space Telescope is targeted for launch by May 2027.

AI helps NASA support missions and research projects across the agency, analyze data to reveal trends and patterns, and develop systems capable of supporting spacecraft and aircraft autonomously. Credit: NASA

NASA Leaders Host Agency Town Hall on Artificial Intelligence

On May 22, agency leaders hosted an Artificial Intelligence, or AI town hall at NASA’s headquarters in Washington. The event provided an opportunity to discuss how NASA is using and developing a variety of AI tools to advance missions and research.

Learn more about artificial intelligence at the agency at nasa.gov/artificial-intelligence.

Artist illustration of the X-59 in flight over land. Credit: Lockheed Martin

X-59 Passes Milestone Toward Safe First Flight

NASA’s team for the quiet supersonic X-59 aircraft has taken the next step toward verifying the airworthiness of the plane by completing a milestone Flight Readiness Review. This review allows the X-59 to progress toward flight. The X-59 is being developed as part of NASA’s Quesst mission to reduce the sound of the typical sonic boom associated with supersonic flight to a quieter sonic “thump.”

Illustration of Sierra Space’s first Dream Chaser, named DC#1 (Tenacity). Credit: Sierra Space

NASA, Sierra Space Deliver Dream Chaser for Launch Preparation

As part of NASA’s efforts to expand commercial resupply in low Earth orbit, Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser spaceplane recently arrived at our Kennedy Space Center to prepare for its first flight to the International Space Station.

Before Kennedy, the uncrewed spaceplane and its cargo module were at NASA’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio. While there, the Dream Chaser was exposed to vibrations like it will experience during launch and re-entry, as well as the low ambient pressures and extreme temperatures it will encounter in space.

The spaceplane, named Tenacity, is expected to deliver 7,800 pounds of cargo to the space station later this year.

That’s what’s up this week @NASA!