Friends of NASA (FoN) is an independent non-governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to building international support for peaceful space exploration, commerce, scientific discovery, and STEM education.
Partial Solar Eclipse Visible across UK, Eastern U.S. & Canada | March 24-30, 2025
This week, a partial solar eclipse will be visible across the UK and parts of eastern North America. Find out how you can safely see the momentous occasion for yourself by listening to the latest episode of Star Diary, the podcast from the makers of Sky at Night Magazine.
On March 29, 2025, the Moon will pass in front of and partially block the Sun, casting a shadow on parts of the Northern Hemisphere. The central part of the Moon’s shadow, where the Sun would appear completely blocked, misses Earth, so no one will be able to see a total solar eclipse this time. Everyone watching the eclipse must use proper eye protection or an indirect viewing method to protect their eyes.
Nichole Ayers Talks with Space Conference in Spain | International Space Station
[Event starts at 1 minute, 53 second mark]
Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 72 flight engineer Nichole Ayers of NASA discussed life and work aboard the orbital outpost during an in-flight interview March 17, 2025, with “Space and Solutions” conference attendees in Seville, Spain. Ayers is in the midst of a long-duration mission living and working aboard the microgravity laboratory to advance scientific knowledge and demonstrate new technologies for future human and robotic exploration flights as part of NASA’s Moon and Mars exploration approach, including lunar missions through NASA’s Artemis program.
Station Commander: Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin (Russia) Roscosmos (Russia) Flight Engineers: Ivan Vagner, Kirill Peskov NASA Flight Engineers: Don Pettit, Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers
JAXA Flight Engineer: Takuya Onishi
An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada.
Spectrum Rocket at Andøya Spaceport in Norway: Pre-launch | Isar Aerospace
Isar Aerospace Spectrum launch vehicle at Andøya Spaceport in Norway
Andøya Spaceport in Norway offers access to high inclination, polar and sun-synchronous orbits for satellites
Andøya Spaceport in Norway
The launch window for Germany-based Isar Aerospace’s first test flight of its new two-stage launch vehicle Spectrum begins on Monday, March 24, 2025. Subject to weather, safety and range infrastructure, the company is preparing to conduct the launch of Spectrum from Andøya Spaceport in Norway. "The objective of this first test flight is to collect as much data and experience as possible."
European Space Agency (ESA) Director General Josef Aschbacher stated "[the] upcoming Spectrum launch will be historic: the first commercial orbital launch from mainland Europe. The support and co-funding the European Space Agency has given Isar Aerospace and other launch service provider startups is paying off for increased autonomy in Europe. Wishing Isar Aerospace a great launch day with fair weather and most importantly, that the data they receive from the liftoff will speed next iterations of their rockets."
Isar Aerospace "develops next generation rockets for sustainable access to space for small and medium satellites and satellite constellations."
Shenzhou-19 Crew Achieves Key Breakthroughs in 5 Months | China Space Station
Aboard China's Tiangong Space Station, the Shenzhou-19 crew has achieved significant breakthroughs over the past five months in space science, technology validation, and space medicine research.
Astronauts Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong, and Wang Haoze, entered China's space station for a six-month spaceflight on October 30 last year.
Over the past nearly five months, a range of space science experiments and technology tests have been progressing smoothly.
In the field of space life sciences, the crew completed the first-ever fruit fly cultivation research in orbit. Additionally, the crew also conducted in orbit experiments on protein crystallization and five types of cells, providing important insights into the life sciences in the microgravity environment.
In the field of materials science, they carried out a number of metal and non-metal experiments in the containerless experiment cabinet and the high temperature scientific experiment cabinet.
"It is worth mentioning that we will be conducting an experiment with a maximum temperature of 3,000 degrees Celsius, using the containerless experiment cabinet. In the fields of microgravity fluid physics and combustion science, we have collaborated with the European Space Agency on research related to soft matter and complex fluids. By leveraging the different experimental conditions of China's space station and the International Space Station, we conduct scientific research in related fields in a complementary manner, enabling deeper and more extensive space exploration," said Wang Yifeng, an engineer at the Technology and Engineering Centre for Space Utilization, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
In the field of space medicine, the Shenzhou-19 mission has established a new health assessment system for astronauts in a microgravity environment. This system closely monitors astronauts’ physical and psychological conditions, tracks key indicators, such as cardiac health, bone density, muscle condition, and emotional well-being, and integrates traditional Chinese and Western medicine.
During their stay, the crew will conduct a total of 86 key space scientific experiments and tests.
The Shenzhou-19 crew is expected to return to Earth in just over a month.
Shenzhou-19 Crew: Commander Cai Xuzhe (蔡旭哲) Mission Specialist Wang Haoze (王浩泽) Mission Specialist Song Lingdong (宋令东)
Video Credit: CCTV Duration: 1 minute Release Date: March 22, 2025
Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) Setting at Paranal Observatory | ESO
A night photograph taken in the Atacama desert. The sky is full of stars, but the horizon is still partly orange as the Sun has just set. The comet appears as a bright white smudge that seems to touch the horizon. To the left there is a flat-topped hill with telescope domes on its summit.
Florentin Millour captured this breathtaking wide-field image of comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) on January 21, 2025, from European Southern Observatory's Paranal Observatory in Chile. The Very Large Telescope (VLT) sits atop Cerro Paranal to the left, while the comet sets in the western horizon right after sunset.
Credit: F. Millour/ESO Release Date: March 17, 2025
View of Comet C/2024 G3 Approaching Sun | European Space Agency Solar Orbiter
The European Space Agency Solar Orbiter captured these views of Comet ATLAS (C/2024 G3) as it passed close to the Sun. Notice the splintered tail. It is said that this comet will not be seen again for another 600,000 years. Nicknamed the "Great Comet of 2025," Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) is currently the brightest comet predicted to be visible from Earth all year. Discovered on April 5, 2024 by NASA's Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS), it is a nonperiodic comet that is traveling on an orbit that will not bring it back to the sun's neighborhood for hundreds of thousands of years.
Comet C/2024 G3 reached perihelion—the closest point to the sun in its orbit—on Jan. 13, 2025. At this point, it was roughly 8 million miles (13 million kilometers) from the sun, well within planet Mercury's orbit.
Drone view: Extremely Large Telescope under Construction in Chile | ESO
In this drone video, recorded in March 2025, we fly over the European Southern Observatory's Extremely Large Telescope, currently under construction in Chile’s Atacama Desert. This footage is not recommended for people with motion sickness.
The Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) is truly a massive building. Despite their massive size, these structures are able to rotate and tilt the mirrors to the targeted observation with great precision. The ELT is almost as tall as London's Big Ben clock tower and larger than Rome's Colosseum. The construction materials used for the ELT include: 10,000 tonnes of steel, 30 million bolts or 500 km of cables. Even compared to other large telescopes, the ELT is a one-of-a-kind.
The ELT can be seen including its dome, central structure, and base of the M1 mirror. The ELT stands at Cerro Armazones in Chile's Atacama Desert and will be one of the main flagships of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) for the next two decades.
Tres datos importantes acerca de la misión SPHEREx de la NASA
Estudiando el cosmos y nuestros orígenes. ✨
SPHEREx, nuestro próximo telescopio espacial, está listo para crear el mapa de todo el cielo más colorido de la historia. Su lanzamiento está previsto para esta semana.
En este video, la directora adjunta de la División de Astrofísica de la NASA, Sandra Cauffman, comparte tres datos importantes sobre la misión que arrojará luz sobre los orígenes de nuestro universo.
Artemis Moon Minute: How NASA Uses Science Missions for Lunar Exploration
Want the latest update for NASA's Artemis campaign? Check out this update! It features how NASA is using science missions like the SPHEREx and PUNCH astrophysical missions to support lunar exploration.
The Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) is NASA’s newest space telescope that “will observe hundreds of millions of galaxies and other objects during its two-year mission, mapping the cosmos in wavelengths invisible to the human eye”. The Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) is a “constellation of four small satellites in a polar (Sun-synchronous) low Earth orbit that will make global, 3D observations of the entire inner heliosphere to learn how the Sun's corona becomes the solar wind”.
Shenzhou-19 Completes Multiple Tasks in Third Spacewalk | China Space Station
Members of the Shenzhou-19 crew aboard China's orbiting Tiangong Space Station Tiangong completed their mission's third series of extravehicular activities (EVAs) at 20:50 (Beijing Time) on Friday, March 21, 2025, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).
Astronauts Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong, and Wang Haoze worked for about seven hours to complete multiple tasks, including the installation of space debris protection devices and extravehicular auxiliary facilities, as well as extravehicular equipment inspection. They were assisted by the space station's robotic arm and a team on Earth.
Cai has now carried out five extravehicular missions, more than any other Chinese astronaut to date, according to the CMSA.
At 13:45, Cai opened the hatch door to exit the cabin.
After Cai claimed onto the tip of the robotic arm, Song handed the airlock protective device to Cai from the hatch door.
Then Cai rode the robotic arm to the operation point and installed the protective device.
About two hours later, Song also exited the cabin and climbed to the handrail of the node module. Song worked with Cai to pass and install the protective devices for the Wentian lab module and the airlock module, and also installed the base for the node module's fixation device.
Wang assisted the pair throughout the mission from the Tianhe core module.
After completing the installation task, Cai rode the robotic arm to the inspection points of the space station's docking interface, where he conducted photographic inspections.
After completing the various spacewalk duties, Cai and Song have since returned to the Wentian lab module safely, according to the CMSA.
"The astronauts performed exceptionally well during the extravehicular mission. First, all of our operations were successful on the first attempt, and the alignment and installation of devices were very precise. In fact, the astronauts completed the tasks even faster than we had anticipated. The coordination between the astronauts, as well as between the space station and the ground team, was seamless. It was truly a perfect extravehicular mission," said Wang Yanlei, a staff member with the Beijing-based China Astronaut Research and Training Center.
The Shenzhou-19 crew has been in space for nearly five months, and the various space scientific experiments and tests are progressing smoothly. The crew is scheduled to return to Earth in more than a month.
Shenzhou-19 Crew:
Commander Cai Xuzhe (蔡旭哲)
Mission Specialist Wang Haoze (王浩泽)
Mission Specialist Song Lingdong (宋令东)
Video Credit: CCTV Duration: 2 minutes Release Date: March 22, 2025
NASA Crew-9 Comes Home to Houston | Johnson Space Center
NASA astronaut Sunita Williams is welcomed home at Johnson Space Center’s Ellington Field in Houston, Texas
NASA astronaut Sunita Williams is welcomed home
NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore is welcomed home
NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore is greeted by Steve Koerner, acting center director, and Norm Knight, acting deputy center director of NASA's Johnson Space Center
NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore is welcomed home by fellow NASA astronauts, including Reid Wiseman and Warren "Woody" Hoburg.
Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov of Russia steps off the plane at Johnson Space Center’s Ellington Field in Houston, Texas
Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov of Russia arrives at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas
Members of the NASA astronaut corps cheer on Crew-9 as they returned to Johnson Space Center's Ellington Field in Houston
Home sweet home! 🏠 Welcome home, Butch, Suni, Nick, & Aleksandr! NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 touched down at Johnson Space Center’s Ellington Field in Houston, Texas at 11:19 pm CDT, March 18, 2025, after their International Space Station mission and successful splashdown earlier this afternoon.
A SpaceX Dragon spacecraft landed off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida, on Tuesday, March 18, 2025,with NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams, Butch Wilmore, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov of Russia aboard. Hague, Gorbunov, Williams, and Wilmore are returning from a long-duration science expedition aboard the International Space Station.
Hague and Gorbunov have been at the International Space Station since Sept. 29, 2024, while Williams and Wilmore arrived on June 6. This completes a stay in space of 171 days for Hague and Gorbunov and 286 days for Williams and Wilmore.
On the main deck of the recovery ship, the crew exited their Dragon spacecraft. They underwent medical checks before a short helicopter ride to board a plane for NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. These are photos of the plane's arrival at Ellington Field.
Next up will be the arrival of the Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft to the International Space Station due to launch on April 8, 2025, carrying NASA astronaut Jonny Kim and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky of Russia. Kim and Zubritsky will be beginning their first space mission while Ryzhikov will be serving on his third expedition to the orbiting lab.
An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada.
Image Credit: NASA/JSC Capture Date: March 18, 2025
Simulation Reveals Spiraling Supermassive Black Holes | NASA Goddard
A recent model is bringing scientists a step closer to understanding the kinds of light signals produced when two supermassive black holes, millions to billions of times the mass of the Sun, spiral toward a collision. A recent computer simulation fully incorporates the physical effects of Einstein’s general theory of relativity, showing that gas in such systems will glow predominantly in ultraviolet (UV) and X-ray light.
Just about every galaxy the size of our own Milky Way or larger contains a monster black hole at its center. Observations show galaxy mergers occur frequently in the universe, but so far no one has seen a merger of these giant black holes.
This simulation shows three orbits of a pair of supermassive black holes only 40 orbits from merging. The models reveal the light emitted at this stage of the process may be dominated by UV light with some high-energy X-rays, similar to what is seen in any galaxy with a well-fed supermassive black hole.
Gas glows brightly in this computer simulation of supermassive black holes only 40 orbits from merging. Models like this may eventually help scientists pinpoint real examples of these powerful binary systems.
Three regions of light-emitting gas glow as the black holes merge, all connected by streams of hot gas: a large ring encircling the entire system, called the circumbinary disk, and two smaller ones around each black hole, called mini disks. All these objects emit predominantly UV light. When gas flows into a mini disk at a high rate, the disk’s UV light interacts with each black hole’s corona, a region of high-energy subatomic particles above and below the disk. This interaction produces X-rays. When the accretion rate is lower, UV light dims relative to the X-rays.
Based on the simulation, running on the National Center for Supercomputing Applications’ Blue Waters supercomputer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the researchers expect X-rays emitted by a near-merger will be brighter and more variable than X-rays seen from single supermassive black holes. The pace of the changes links to both the orbital speed of gas located at the inner edge of the circumbinary disk as well as that of the merging black holes.
However, supermassive binaries nearing collision may have one thing stellar-mass binaries lack—a gas-rich environment. Scientists suspect the supernova explosion that creates a stellar black hole also blows away most of the surrounding gas. The black hole consumes what little remains so quickly there is not much left to glow when the merger happens.
Supermassive mergers will be much more difficult to find than their stellar-mass cousins. One reason ground-based observatories cannot detect gravitational waves from these events is because Earth itself is too noisy, shaking from seismic vibrations and gravitational changes from atmospheric disturbances. The detectors must be in space, like the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) led by the European Space Agency (ESA) and planned for launch in the 2030s.
Supermassive binaries, on the other hand, result from galaxy mergers. Each supersized black hole brings along an entourage of gas and dust clouds, stars and planets. Scientists think a galaxy collision propels much of this material toward the central black holes, consuming it on a time scale similar to that needed for the binary to merge. As the black holes near, magnetic and gravitational forces heat the remaining gas, producing light astronomers should be able to see.
Scientists have detected merging stellar-mass black holes, ranging from around three to several dozen solar masses, using the National Science Foundation's Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). Gravitational waves are space-time ripples traveling at the speed of light. They are created when massive orbiting objects like black holes and neutron stars spiral together and merge.
Shenzhou-19 Crew Completes Third Spacewalk | China Space Station
Astronauts Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong, and Wang Haoze worked for more than seven hours to complete multiple tasks, including the installation of space-debris protection and auxiliary devices, and the checks of extravehicular components. They were assisted by the space station's robotic arm and a ground team in Beijing.
Cai and Song, the two crew members assigned to spacewalk (EVA) duties, have returned safely to the Wentian lab module. Wang assisted the pair throughout the mission from the space station.
The spacewalk mission was a complete success, said the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).
Cai, having completed his fifth extravehicular activity, now ranks first among Chinese astronauts in the number of spacewalks performed.
During their first extravehicular mission in December, the Shenzhou-19 crew spent over nine hours outside the Tiangong space station, the longest spacewalk by Chinese astronauts. They primarily installed protective devices for the external pipelines and cables of the Tianhe core module.
Their second spacewalk in January this year lasted about 8.5 hours and put a focus on strengthening the Wentian lab module.
The three astronauts of China's Shenzhou-19 spaceflight mission entered the Tiangong Space Station on October 30, 2024 for a six-month stay. They will return to Earth after another month.
Shenzhou-19 Crew:
Commander Cai Xuzhe (蔡旭哲)
Mission Specialist Wang Haoze (王浩泽)
Mission Specialist Song Lingdong (宋令东)
Video Credit: CCTV Duration: 41 seconds Release Date: March 21, 2025
Crew-9 & Crew-10 Dragon Spacecraft: Departure/Arrival | International Space Station
The SpaceX Dragon Freedom spacecraft, with its nose cone open, is pictured shortly after undocking from the International Space Station's space-facing port on the Harmony module. Inside Dragon, were SpaceX Crew-9 Commander Nick Hague with Misssion Specialists Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, all three from NASA, and Mission Specialist Aleksander Gorbunov from Roscosmos (Russia).
The SpaceX Dragon Endurance crew spacecraft approaches the International Space Station carrying Commander Anne McClain and Pilot Nichole Ayers, both from NASA, and Mission Specialists Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Kirill Peskov of Roscosmos (Russia), all four representing NASA's SpaceX Crew-10 mission.
The SpaceX Dragon Endurance crew spacecraft approaches the International Space Station.
The SpaceX Dragon Endurance crew spacecraft approaches the International Space Station.
At 1:05 a.m. EDT Tuesday, March 18, 2025, Crew-9, consisting of NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov of Russia, undocked from the space-facing port of International Space Station’s Harmony module aboard their SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission with NASA astronauts Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov of Russia autonomously docked to the forward-facing port of the Harmony module of the International Space Station at 12:04 a.m. EDT on March 16 , 2025 in their Dragon spacecraft.
An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada.
Image Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) Image Dates: March 16 & 18, 2025
