NASA

Northern Japan, especially the island of Hokkaido, is home to some of the snowiest cities in the world. Sapporo, the island's largest city and host of an annual snow festival, typically sees more than 140 days of snowfall, with nearly 6 meters (20 feet) accumulating on average each year. The ski resorts surrounding the city delight in the relatively dry, powdery "sea-effect" snow that often falls when frigid air from Siberia flows across the relatively warm waters of the Sea of Japan. However, despite the region’s familiarity with heavy snowfall, winter 2026 got off to a disruptive start. A series of intense storms in January and February repeatedly paralyzed transportation systems, closing airports, snarling roadways, and suspending trains. Following storms that dropped more than ...

ALTOn this day last year, the Artemis I rocket and spacecraft lit up the sky and embarked on the revolutionary mission to the Moon and back. The first integrated flight test of the rocket and spacecraft continued for 25.5 days, validating NASA’s deep exploration systems and setting the stage for humanity’s return to the lunar surface.ALTOn Nov. 16, 2022, the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket met or exceeded all expectations during its debut launch on Artemis I. The twin solid rocket booster motors responsible for producing more than 7 million pounds of thrust at liftoff reached their performance target, helping SLS and the Orion spacecraft reach a speed of about 4,000 mph in just over two minutes before the boosters separated.ALTQuite a few payloads caught a ride aboard the Orion spacecraft...

WASHINGTON — NASA officials defended their preparations for the Artemis 2 mission after a fueling test experienced the same type of hydrogen leaks that bedeviled Artemis 1 more than three years ago. NASA wrapped up the wet dress rehearsal, or WDR, for Artemis 2 in the early morning hours Feb. 3 after a hydrogen leak was detected during the terminal phase of the practice countdown. The agency announced shortly afterward that it would not attempt to launch the mission, the first crewed flight to the vicinity of the moon in more than 50 years, during the current launch period, which closes Feb. 11. The leak during the terminal countdown was the second encountered during the WDR. The first occurred hours earlier during the “fast fill” of the liquid hydrogen tank in the core stage of ...

Each year, the space community pauses to honor the astronauts and crew members who lost their lives in the pursuit of exploration. Their stories are not only part of history; they are reminders of the extraordinary courage required to push beyond what is known and to accept risk in the service of discovery. Human spaceflight has never been easy. It demands precision, discipline, teamwork, and an unwavering belief that expanding humanity’s reach is worth the challenge. The lives remembered on this day represent more than missions or milestones. They reflect people who understood the danger and chose to move forward anyway, driven by curiosity and commitment to something larger than themselves. At Space Center Houston, these stories are central to how space exploration is sha...

The mountains of the western United States are sporting thin winter coats in early 2026. Although most regions saw average or above-average precipitation in fall and early winter, warmer temperatures meant that much of it fell as rain. The result has been an unusually low snowpack for this time of year, constituting a snow drought. This image, acquired with the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA’s Terra satellite, provides a wide view of meager western snow cover on January 15. On that day, measurements derived from satellite observations showed that snow blanketed 142,700 square miles (369,700 square kilometers) of the west. That’s the lowest coverage for that date in the MODIS record dating back to 2001 and less than one-third of the median. Coverage ha...