Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong’s gold Omega moonwatch sells for record $2.2M at auction

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A new record has been set for the most paid at auction for an astronaut’s timepiece. The 18-karat gold Omega Speedmaster that was presented to Neil Armstrong four months after he became the first person to walk on the moon in 1969, sold for a hammer price of $1.7 million on Thursday (April 17). With the auction house’s fees included, the total price for the chronograph was $2,187,500 — $280,546.25 more than the previous record set in 2022 by a nearly-identical gold Speedmaster gifted to Mercury, Gemini and Apollo astronaut…

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NASA developing 1st-ever space-based quantum sensor for gravity measurements

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Scientists are developing an advanced quantum sensor for low Earth orbit that can detect the tiniest tremors in Earth’s gravity. These barely perceptible shifts — caused by moving water, tectonic activity or shifting rock — offer clues about what lies beneath the planet’s surface. The new device could allow the mapping of underground features like aquifers and mineral deposits — crucial data for navigation, resource management and national security, its developers say. You may like “We could determine the mass of the Himalayas using atoms,” Jason Hyon, chief technologist for…

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Origins Uncertain: ‘Skull Hill’ Rock

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Explore This Section Perseverance Home Mission Overview Rover Components Mars Rock Samples Where is Perseverance? Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Mission Updates Science Overview Objectives Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Perseverance Raw Images Images Videos Audio More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions Mars Home 2 min read Origins Uncertain: ‘Skull Hill’ Rock Written by Margaret Deahn, Ph.D. Student at Purdue University Last week, NASA’s Mars 2020 rover continued its journey down lower ‘Witch…

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Haircut on high: Getting a trim in space | Space picture of the day for April 17, 2025

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NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers gave Takuya Onishi, her JAXA crewmate, a haircut on board the International Space Station on April 13, 2025. (Image credit: JAXA/Takuya Onishi) What is it? A month into his second long-duration stay aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 73 commander Takuya Onishi received a haircut from his crewmate Nichole Ayers. Onishi shared this photo on social media, commenting on how this haircut by a NASA astronaut was different from his experience with a Russian cosmonaut during his first stay on the station in 2016. “A different…

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NASA Studies Wind Effects and Aircraft Tracking with Joby Aircraft

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3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) One of several NASA distributed sensing ground nodes is set up in the foreground while an experimental air taxi aircraft owned by Joby Aviation sits in the background near NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, on March 12, 2025. NASA is collecting information during this study to help advance future air taxi flights, especially those occurring in cities, to track aircraft moving through traffic corridors and around landing zones. NASA/Genaro Vavuris NASA engineers began using a network of…

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Building for a Better World: Norfolk Students Bring STEM to Life with NASA Partnership

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Explore This Section Science Science Activation Building for a Better World:… Overview Learning Resources Science Activation Teams SME Map Opportunities More Science Activation Stories Citizen Science   6 min read Building for a Better World: Norfolk Students Bring STEM to Life with NASA Partnership At Norfolk Technical Center in Norfolk, Virginia, carpentry students in Jordan Crawford’s first-year class aren’t just learning how to measure and cut wood—they’re discovering how their skills can serve a greater purpose. When the NASA Science Activation program’s NASA eClips project—led by the National Institute of…

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NASA Supports Next Generation of Innovators

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2 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Robotics teams gather on the main floor of the 2025 Aerospace Valley FIRST Robotics Competition at Eastside High School in Lancaster, California, adjusting and testing the functions of their robots, on April 3, 2025 NASA/Genaro Vavuris A group of attendees to the 2025 Aerospace Valley FIRST Robotics Competition gather outside Eastside High School’s gymnasium in Lancaster, California, to watch an F/A-18 from NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center, in Edwards, California, fly over the school to kick off the competition,…

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NICER Status Updates

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April 17, 2025 Following Repair, NASA’s NICER Improves Daytime Measurements A NASA X-ray telescope on the International Space Station called NICER, or Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer, has regained additional daytime observation capabilities thanks to repairs completed during a spacewalk and a reconfiguration of its detectors. In May 2023, NICER developed a light leak in which unwanted sunlight began entering the instrument. Photos taken from inside the space station revealed several small areas of damage to the telescope’s thin thermal shields, which block sunlight while allowing X-rays through to the…

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