Curiosity Blog, Sols 4941-4947: (Pin)Stripes on the Fourth of July

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Curiosity Navigation Curiosity Home Mission Overview Where is Curiosity? Mission Updates Science Overview Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Curiosity Raw Images Images Videos Audio Mosaics More Resources Mars Missions Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions Mars Home 4 min read Curiosity Blog, Sols 4941-4947: (Pin)Stripes on the Fourth of July NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image of the “Cerro Castillo” bedrock outcrop with target “Hornillos” at the bottom center. Curiosity used its Left Navigation Camera on July 1,…

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NASA Study Points to Smoother Air Taxi Rides

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3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Matt Kamlet, an employee at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, sits atop the virtual reality passenger ride quality simulator during a study of air taxi motion Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. NASA recently completed a multi-year study to understand how large, sudden air taxi motion affects ride comfort. NASA/Christopher LC Clark No one wants to get into an uncomfortable aircraft. NASA research could help the emerging industry of air taxis —small, vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft meant for short trips…

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These mysterious exoplanets may have clouds of vaporized rock and grounds of scorching magma oceans

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Clouds formed from vaporized rock could create the ultimate thermal insulation on one of the most common types of exoplanets discovered so far — the sub-Neptunes — raising temperatures so high that these worlds’ solid surfaces melt and turn into oceans of magma. “This work takes us one step closer to answering the question of what these mysterious worlds are made from,” said astronomer Luis Welbanks, of Arizona State University, in a statement. Sub-Neptunes are planets larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune. They are especially mysterious since we do…

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Russia’s launching a NASA astronaut and 2 cosmonauts to the International Space Station on July 14: Watch it live

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NASA Astronaut Anil Menon Soyuz MS-29 Launch – YouTube Watch On Three people will launch toward the International Space Station on Tuesday (July 14), and you can watch the action live. NASA’s Anil Menon and cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina are scheduled to lift off atop a Russian Soyuz rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Tuesday at 10:47 a.m. EDT (1347 GMT; 7:47 p.m. local time in Baikonur). You can watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA, or directly via the space agency’s YouTube channel. Coverage…

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NASA Astronaut Anil Menon

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NASA/Robert Markowitz NASA astronaut Anil Menon poses in a spacesuit for a portrait at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas on Jan. 8, 2026. Menon will launch aboard the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft to the International Space Station on Tuesday, July 14, accompanied by cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina, where they will join the Expedition 74 crew advancing scientific research. During his stay on the station, Menon will conduct scientific research and technology demonstrations aimed at advancing human space exploration and benefiting life on Earth. Learn more about…

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Why space games still struggle with the scale of the universe

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Space is incomprehensibly vast. So huge that the human mind struggles to even conceptualize it. The observable universe spans roughly 93 billion light-years. Even our own humble galaxy, the Milky Way — a few tiny stitches of the universal canvas — stretches across 100,000 light-years and contains hundreds of billions of stars. It’s no wonder, then, that space video games struggle so mightily with anything approaching a “realistic” interpretation of those incredible distances, especially in an age where we have yet to invent a technology that can traverse them in…

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149 million views! Artemis II moon mission breaks NASA’s streaming record

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Nearly 150 million people shared in the “moon joy” of Artemis II on NASA channels, setting a new agency record in the process. NASA numbers indicate that 149.4 million people used agency platforms in March and April to follow the four astronauts of Artemis II as they prepped for their mission, lifted off aboard the Space Launch System rocket, flew by the moon and finally splashed down in the Pacific Ocean. The viewership figure includes the mission’s 24/7 livestreams of mission activities and views from the Orion spacecraft. “Artemis II’s…

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Space medicine breakthrough? Kidney and liver tissue bioprinted off Earth for 1st time ever

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A company just produced kidney and liver tissue in space for the first time, using a method called bioprinting, which 3D-prints living tissue. The announcement comes from California-based Auxilium Biotechnologies, whose AMP-1 orbital bioprinter made the breakthrough. The bioprinter used cell and tissue designs from the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in North Carolina. “The ability to manufacture multiple tissue types alongside clinically relevant medical products highlights both the versatility and scalability of our technology,” Auxilium CEO Jacob Koffler said in a statement today (July 9). Auxilium Biotechnologies successfully…

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Your lost dog can now call home with the world’s 1st satellite-connected dog collar

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Imagine you’re on a hike in a remote mountain range. Your hyperactive dog catches the scent of a deer and, powered by his hunter’s instinct, disappears in the forest. He has a GPS tracker in his collar that can send his coordinates via the cellular network. But where you are, there is no mobile coverage. You keep whistling and calling but to no avail: your dog is nowhere to be seen. That exact scenario prompted technologist Jonathan Bensamoun to develop what he describes as the world’s first satellite-connected wearable device…

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