Santa Claus (NASA engineer Guy Naylor) poses with NASA’s Artemis II Orion spacecraft and SLS (Space Launch System) rocket in the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Dec. 11, 2025. The Orion spacecraft was stacked atop the SLS in October 2025.

Set to launch in early 2026, the Artemis II test flight will be NASA’s first mission with crew under Artemis. Astronauts on their first flight aboard Orion will confirm all the spacecraft’s systems operate as designed with crew aboard in the actual environment of deep space. Through the Artemis campaign, NASA will send astronauts to explore the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and to build the foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars – for the benefit of all.

Image credit: NASA/Adeline Morgan

For most, getting into a car is a task that can be done without assistance. Yet for those whose destination is the Moon, the process of getting inside and secured – in this case, in NASA’s Orion spacecraft – requires help. That’s the role of the Artemis closeout crew.

Trained to support Artemis II and future Moon missions, the five closeout crew members will be the last people to see NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen before their lunar journey.

The Artemis II closeout team consists of a lead, Taylor Hose; an astronaut support person, astronaut Andre Douglas; one technician specially trained on Orion crew survival system spacesuits, Bill Owens; and two Orion technicians, Christian Warriner and Ricky Ebaugh.

Think of them like a pit crew for car races.

When the astronauts arrive on launch day at Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the closeout crew will already be in place. First, the team will help the astronauts don their helmets and gloves before entering the Orion spacecraft.

Once inside, Owens and Douglas will assist each crew member with buckling up – except instead of using just one seatbelt like in a car, the crew needs several more intricate connections. Each seat includes five straps to secure the astronauts inside the crew module and several additional connections to the environmental control and life support systems and communications system aboard.

After the astronauts are secured, the hatch technicians will begin closing the spacecraft hatch. Unlike a car door that easily opens and closes with the pull of a handle, Orion’s hatch requires more effort to securely close.

“The hatch is pneumatically driven so we have to have air lines hooked up to it, and we need the help of the ground support system to close it,” said Hose.

On launch day, it will take about four hours for the crew to get situated inside Orion and for the closeout process, including buttoning up both the crew module hatch and an exterior launch abort system hatch, to be complete. Even a single strand of hair inside the hatch doors could potentially pose issues with closing either hatch, so the process is carefully done.

“We have a lot of work to do with the seals alone – greasing, cleaning, taking the hatch cover off – and then we get into crew module hatch closure,” Hose said. “So after latching the hatch, we take window covers off, install thermal protection panels, and remove the purge barrier in between the vehicle and the ogive panels, which help protect the crew module during launch and ascent.”

The team then closes the launch abort system hatch and finishes final preparations before launch. Following the abort system hatch closure, the closeout crew departs the launch pad but stays nearby in case they need to return for any reason.

After launch, several team members will head to San Diego, to help with post-splashdown efforts once the mission concludes.

As part of a Golden Age of innovation and exploration, the Artemis II test flight is the first crewed flight under NASA’s Artemis campaign. It is another step toward new U.S.-crewed missions on the Moon’s surface that will help the agency prepare to send the first astronauts – Americans – to Mars.

Introduction

The Observational Products for End-Users from Remote Sensing Analysis (OPERA) project represents a strategic initiative designed to address critical satellite data needs identified by federal agencies. Established in 2021 by the NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), OPERA responds to priorities identified by the Satellite Needs Working Group (SNWG), an interagency body convened by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). SNWG surveys federal agencies every two years to determine their top satellite data needs. This article summarizes OPERA, including its mandate, and then presents a case study demonstrating how the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is using OPERA to monitor agricultural health in the Midwestern United States.

OPERA Mandate and Approach

The core mandate for the OPERA project lies in its commitment to delivering data products in formats that are immediately usable and analysis-ready. Rather than providing raw satellite data that requires extensive processing expertise, OPERA transforms complex satellite observations into standardized, accessible products that federal agencies can quickly integrate into their existing workflows to support national security, environmental monitoring, disaster response, and infrastructure management. This approach eliminates the technical barriers that often prevent agencies from effectively using satellite data, allowing them to focus on their mission-critical applications rather than data processing challenges.

To achieve this goal at the scale required by federal agencies, OPERA has developed a sophisticated cloud-based production system capable of generating data products efficiently and consistently to meet the dynamic needs of federal users. As of 2025, OPERA has successfully released dynamic surface water extent, surface disturbance, and surface displacement data through various NASA Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs). The vertical land motion product will be OPERA’s next offering beginning in 2028 – see Figure 1.

OPERA Mission

OPERA delivers high-quality, ready-to-use satellite-derived information to enable federal agencies to better monitor environmental changes, respond to natural disasters, assess infrastructure risks, and make data-driven decisions. To illustrate this goal, OPERA’s 5th Annual Stakeholder Engagement Workshop detailed real-world applications of this approach on Sept. 11, 2025.

Case Study: Harnessing OPERA Data to Map Crop Health in Midwest United States

When water lingers on farmland, the consequences often ripple outward, resulting in crop losses, changes in soil health, and shifting carbon storage. In the rolling landscape of central Iowa’s South Fork watershed, these challenges are a daily reality for farmers, researchers, and crop insurance companies. To address these concerns, scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture–Agriculture Research Service’s (USDA–ARS) National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment (NLAE) are partnering with NASA’s OPERA project.

Using OPERA’s Dynamic Surface Water Extent (DSWx) and Surface Disturbance (DIST) product suites, USDA–NLAE researchers began the process of identifying depressions where water consistently ponds across fields – see Figure 2.

These sites are often more than nuisance puddles; they signal areas of reduced yield, risk for crop mortality, and hotspots for carbon and nutrient accumulation. By combining OPERA’s cloud-free, high-resolution mosaics with field-based measurements from USDA and university partners, the joint OPERA-NLAE team is producing actionable maps that pinpoint waterlogged zones – see Figure 3. Farmers can use these maps to improve soil health and guide land-management decisions.

The OPERA products also support broader watershed management. Analyses of river migration, oxbow lake formation, and storm damage from powerful Midwestern derecho events show how OPERA data extend beyond field plots to larger areas. By detecting both persistent inundation and shifts in vegetation health, DSWx and DIST together provide synergistic information identifying areas where improved tile drainage may result in better crop health and increased yields. This approach can also be used to mitigate topsoil erosion and nutrient transport to control the development of harmful algal blooms and the occurrence of anoxic zones with implications far beyond the Mississippi Delta.

Conclusion

The use of OPERA data by USDA–ARS to map and monitor crop health in the Midwest United States highlights how this vital data product bridges the gap between Earth science and agricultural resilience. The outcome of this collaboration underscores OPERA’s mission – translating cutting-edge satellite observations into usable tools that support farmers, improve soil and water conservation, and strengthen the resilience of U.S. agriculture. This collaboration signifies the mandate of OPERA as an SNWG solution provider to fulfill the observation needs of federal users. All OPERA’s data products are freely available to the public from various NASA DAACs and are discoverable from the NASA Earthdata Search platform. The team welcomes direct engagement with individual federal, state, academic, and commercial stakeholders and can be reached via opera.sep@jpl.nasa.gov.

Steven K. Chan
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
steven.k.chan@jpl.nasa.gov

Renato Prata de Moraes Frasson
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
renato.prata.de.moraes.frasson@jpl.nasa.gov

Al Handwerger
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
alexander.handwerger@jpl.nasa.gov

From left to right, CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen and NASA astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover, and Reid Wiseman stand outside before boarding their Orion spacecraft inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida as part of the Artemis II countdown demonstration test, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025. Because the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket upon which they will launch is not yet at the launch pad, the crew boarded Orion inside NASA Kennedy’s Vehicle Assembly Building, where engineers are conducting final preparations on the spacecraft, rocket, and ground systems. During the rehearsal, teams went through all the steps that will be taken on launch day, winding the clock down to just a few seconds before liftoff.

Through the Artemis campaign, NASA will send astronauts to explore the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and to build the foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars, for the benefit of all.

See more photos from the countdown demonstration test.

Image credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani

NASA’s launch and mission teams, along with the Artemis II crew, completed a key test Dec. 20, a countdown demonstration test, ahead of the Artemis II flight around the Moon early next year. The astronauts, supported by launch and flight control teams, dressed in their launch and entry suits, boarded their spacecraft on top of its towering rocket at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to validate their launch date timeline.

Winding the clock down to a point just before liftoff, the rehearsal enabled NASA teams to practice the exact steps teams will take as they move toward launch of the test flight.

While launch teams in the firing rooms of Kennedy’s Launch Control Center ran through procedures just as they would on launch day, the Artemis II crew members – NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen – donned their Orion crew survival system spacesuits in the Astronaut Crew Quarters inside Kennedy’s Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building.

Once suited, the crew made the same walk taken by Gemini, Apollo, space shuttle, and Commercial Crew Program astronauts launching from Florida’s Space Coast during the last six decades. Through the suit-up room, down the hallway, and after a quick ride on an elevator, the Artemis II crew exited the building through the double doors featuring dozens of human spaceflight mission patch stickers.

The Artemis astronaut van waited outside to take the crew members to their SLS (Space Launch System) rocket. On the actual launch day, the four astronauts will complete a 20-minute ride to Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39B ahead of liftoff. But, for the countdown test the destination was High Bay 3 of Kennedy’s Vehicle Assembly Building, where the Artemis II Moon rocket is undergoing final processing and checkouts before rolling out to the launch pad. A convoy of support vehicles, as well as Artemis II backup crew members, NASA astronaut Andre Douglas and CSA astronaut Jenni Gibbons, escorted the crew to its destination.

After a short trip to the building, the flight crew rode the mobile launcher’s elevator up nearly 300 feet to the crew access arm and the White Room, the enclosed area where the crew enters the spacecraft. The closeout crew, whose job it is to ensure the flight crew enters the spacecraft without issue, helped the astronauts enter Orion, which they have named Integrity. The closeout team assisted the astronauts by strapping them into their seats and closed the hatch once all closeout operations were completed. With the crew secured in Orion, teams conducted suit leak and communications checks, just as they will on launch day.

Throughout the testing, teams ran through the final 5.5 hours of launch day procedures, completing the countdown test about 30 seconds before what will be the time of liftoff on launch day. As they may encounter on launch day, teams navigated through several real-time issues, including audio communications and environmental control and life support systems closeout activities during the test. All objectives were met, and the countdown demonstration provided a valuable opportunity to conduct operations in a day-of-launch configuration to minimize first-time learnings on launch day.

Although Artemis II teams have performed parts of the launch countdown testing previously, this test was the first full end-to-end rundown with the crew and Orion in the launch configuration. The crew will participate in additional countdown testing after the rocket arrives to the launchpad, focusing on emergency operations.

As part of a Golden Age of innovation and exploration, the Artemis II test flight is the first crewed mission under NASA’s Artemis campaign. It is another step toward new U.S.-crewed missions on the Moon’s surface that will help the agency prepare to land American astronauts on Mars.

NASA astronaut Brig. Gen. Nick Hague has retired from the agency, concluding a distinguished career that included two spaceflight missions, 374 days in space, and multiple spacewalks in support of the International Space Station. Hague continues service in the U.S. Space Force.

Hague launched aboard the Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft in March 2019 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for his first long-duration mission, serving as a flight engineer during Expeditions 59/60. During this 203-day mission, he conducted three spacewalks to upgrade the station’s power systems and support ongoing maintenance of the orbiting laboratory. Hague also contributed to a wide range of scientific investigations, spanning biology, human physiology, materials science, and technology demonstrations.
 
Hague originally was assigned to fly in 2018 as part of the Soyuz MS-10 crew. The mission experienced a launch anomaly shortly after liftoff, and Hague and his crewmate executed a high-G ballistic abort. The two landed safely and Hague returned to flight status within months, ultimately completing his 2019 mission.
 
He flew again during NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission, launching in September 2024 alongside Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. It was the first human spaceflight mission launched from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, and it also marked the first time a Space Force Guardian launched to space. Hague then joined the Expedition 72 crew, spending 171 days aboard the station before returning in March 2025 along with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. During the mission, he conducted another spacewalk, bringing his career total to 25 hours and 56 minutes across four spacewalks.
 
“Nick’s determination and dedication to human space exploration are truly phenomenal,” said Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “His leadership and commitment to mission excellence have supported progress aboard the International Space Station and prepared us for future missions as we continue to explore farther into the solar system.”
 
Beyond his flight experience, Hague served in several technical and leadership roles within NASA. He supported the development of future spacecraft operations, contributed to astronaut training, and played a key role in human spaceflight safety initiatives, drawing on his firsthand experience during the MS-10 launch abort.
 
“Nick brought calm, clarity, and a spirit of teamwork to every situation,” said Scott Tingle, chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA Johnson. “From his work in orbit to his support of crew operations here on Earth, he exemplified what it means to be an astronaut. His impact will continue to shape the missions and the astronauts who follow.”
 
A native of Hoxie, Kansas, Hague is a brigadier general in the U.S. Space Force where he is responsible for the development and implementation of policy for all U. S. Space Force global operations, sustainment, training and readiness. He earned a bachelor’s degree in astronautical engineering from the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado and a master’s degree in astronautical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Before joining NASA in 2013, he served in developmental and test engineer roles supporting advanced Air Force technologies and operations at home and abroad.
 
“It has been an honor to serve as a NASA astronaut,” said Hague. “Working alongside incredible teams, on the ground and in space, has been the privilege of a lifetime. The International Space Station represents the very best of what humanity can accomplish when we work together. I am grateful to have contributed to that mission, and I look forward to watching NASA, our partners, and the next generation of explorers push even farther as we return to the Moon and journey on to Mars.”
 
To learn more about NASA’s astronauts and their contributions to space exploration, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts

-end-

Shaneequa Vereen
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
shaneequa.y.vereen@nasa.gov

Listen to this audio excerpt from Grace Lauderdale, exploration project manager for the Training Systems Office at NASA Johnson:

In preparation for their mission around the Moon inside NASA’s Orion spacecraft, the Artemis II crew will spend countless hours training inside the Orion Mission Simulator. The simulator replicates what the crew will experience inside the spacecraft and allows the astronauts and flight controllers to rehearse every phase of the mission.

As the exploration project manager for the Training Systems Office at Johnson, Grace Lauderdale leads the team that develops and operates the Orion Mission Simulator at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, playing a key role in making sure astronauts and flight control teams are ready for the first crewed mission of the Artemis campaign.

The simulator is more than a mock-up. It connects directly to Johnson’s Mission Control Center, sending real-time data, audio, and video — just like the spacecraft will during flight. That means the flight control team trains in parallel, seeing and hearing exactly what they would throughout the mission.

“One of our major goals is to make the data they see on their displays look like the real vehicle,” Lauderdale said. “We also simulate the near space and deep space networks, including all the communication delays. It’s all about realism.”

That realism is powered by a complex software system developed in collaboration with partners like Lockheed Martin. Lauderdale’s team works behind the scenes to ensure the simulator runs smoothly — writing code, troubleshooting issues, and even creating custom malfunctions to challenge the crew during training.

To prepare astronauts for the unexpected, instructors work with Lauderdale’s team to simulate problems that could occur during the mission, some of which require creative solutions.

“There are times when the instructors will ask for malfunctions or capabilities that the sim doesn’t automatically do,” she said. “Part of our role is to come up with ways to make that happen.”

Her team plans, develops, and executes training scenarios in the Orion Mission Simulator across multiple Artemis missions, often simultaneously. “Currently, we’re planning for future crewed missions, developing Artemis III, and executing Artemis II,” she said.

The work is demanding, but deeply personal, according to Lauderdale.

That passion shows in her leadership. Her team often works nights, weekends, and holidays to ensure the simulator is ready. During a recent 30-hour simulation, they spent days preparing, fixing memory issues, and ensuring the system wouldn’t crash. It didn’t.

“I’m very proud of my team,” she said. “They’ve put in countless hours of work to make sure this simulator reacts exactly as it would in the real mission.”

For Lauderdale, helping send astronauts around the Moon isn’t just a job—it’s a dream realized.

“Being part of getting us back to the Moon is very personal to me,” she said. “And I’m proud to be part of the team that will help get our astronauts there.”

Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have imaged the largest protoplanetary disk ever observed circling a young star. For the first time in visible light, Hubble has revealed the disk is unexpectedly chaotic and turbulent, with wisps of material stretching much farther above and below the disk than astronomers have seen in any similar system. Strangely, more extended filaments are only visible on one side of the disk. The findings, which published Tuesday in The Astrophysical Journal, mark a new milestone for Hubble and shed light on how planets may form in extreme environments, as NASA’s missions lead humanity’s exploration of the universe and our place in it.

Located roughly 1,000 light-years from Earth, IRAS 23077+6707, nicknamed “Dracula’s Chivito,” spans nearly 400 billion miles — 40 times the diameter of our solar system to the outer edge of the Kuiper Belt of cometary bodies. The disk obscures the young star within it, which scientists believe may be either a hot, massive star, or a pair of stars. And the enormous disk is not only the largest known planet-forming disk; it’s also shaping up to be one of the most unusual.

“The level of detail we’re seeing is rare in protoplanetary disk imaging, and these new Hubble images show that planet nurseries can be much more active and chaotic than we expected,” said lead author Kristina Monsch of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA). “We’re seeing this disk nearly edge-on and its wispy upper layers and asymmetric features are especially striking. Both Hubble and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have glimpsed similar structures in other disks, but IRAS 23077+6707 provides us with an exceptional perspective — allowing us to trace its substructures in visible light at an unprecedented level of detail. This makes the system a unique, new laboratory for studying planet formation and the environments where it happens.”

The nickname “Dracula’s Chivito” playfully reflects the heritage of its researchers—one from Transylvania and another from Uruguay, where the national dish is a sandwich called a chivito. The edge-on disk resembles a hamburger, with a dark central lane flanked by glowing top and bottom layers of dust and gas.

Puzzling asymmetry

The impressive height of these features wasn’t the only thing that captured the attention of scientists. The new images revealed that vertically imposing filament-like features appear on just one side of the disk, while the other side appears to have a sharp edge and no visible filaments. This peculiar, lopsided structure suggests that dynamic processes, like the recent infall of dust and gas, or interactions with its surroundings, are shaping the disk.

“We were stunned to see how asymmetric this disk is,” said co-investigator Joshua Bennett Lovell, also an astronomer at the CfA. “Hubble has given us a front row seat to the chaotic processes that are shaping disks as they build new planets — processes that we don’t yet fully understand but can now study in a whole new way.”

All planetary systems form from disks of gas and dust encircling young stars. Over time, the gas accretes onto the star, and planets emerge from the remaining material. IRAS 23077+6707 may represent a scaled-up version of our early solar system, with a disk mass estimated at 10 to 30 times that of Jupiter — ample material for forming multiple gas giants. This, plus the new findings, makes it an exceptional case for studying the birth of planetary systems.

“In theory, IRAS 23077+6707 could host a vast planetary system,” said Monsch. “While planet formation may differ in such massive environments, the underlying processes are likely similar. Right now, we have more questions than answers, but these new images are a starting point for understanding how planets form over time and in different environments.”

The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.

Written by Lucy Thompson, Planetary Scientist and APXS team member, University of New Brunswick, Canada

Earth planning date: Monday, Dec. 22, 2025

As we all prepare for the holiday season here on Earth, we have been planning a few last activities before Curiosity and the team of scientists and engineers take a well-deserved, extended break. This holiday season coincides with conjunction — every two years, because of their different orbits, Earth and Mars are obstructed from one another by the Sun; this one will last from Dec. 27 to Jan. 20. We do not like to send commands through the Sun in case they get scrambled, so we have been finishing up a few last scientific observations before preparing Curiosity for its quiet conjunction break.

As part of a pre-planned transect between our two recent drill holes, “Valle de la Luna” (hollow) and “Nevado Sajama” (ridge), we successfully completed chemical analyses and imaging of a ridge wall. These observations were acquired to document changes in texture, structure, and composition between the two drill holes and to elucidate why we see such contrasting physical features of resistant ridges and eroded hollows in this region. Mastcam and ChemCam also imaged a little further afield. ChemCam continued observations of the “Mishe Mokwa” butte and captured textures in the north facing wall of the next, adjacent hollow. Mastcam imaged the central fracture along the “Altiplano” ridge above the wall we were parked at, as well as polygonal features in our previous workspace.

The rover engineers then successfully orchestrated Curiosity’s drive back up onto the nearby ridge to ensure a safe parking spot over conjunction. We documented the drive with a MARDI sidewalk video, tracking how the terrain beneath the rover changes as we drive. Although we could not use APXS and MAHLI on the robotic arm from Friday on, owing to constraints that need to be in place prior to conjunction, we were able to use the rover’s Mastcam to image areas of interest in the near field, which will help us with our planned activities when we return from conjunction. These will hopefully include getting chemistry (with APXS and ChemCam) and imaging (with MAHLI) of some freshly broken rock surfaces that we drove over.

The environmental scientists were also very busy. Navcam observations included: Navcam suprahorizon and zenith movies to monitor clouds; Navcam line-of-sight observations; and Navcam dust-devil movies and surveys as we enter the dust storm season on Mars. Mastcam tau observations were acquired to monitor the optical depth of the atmosphere, and APXS analyses of the atmosphere were also planned to monitor seasonal variations in argon.

Today we are uplinking the last plan before Mars disappears behind the Sun and we all take a break (the actual conjunction plan to take us through sols 4763-4787 was uplinked a couple of weeks ago). Because of constraints put in place to make sure Curiosity stays safe and healthy, we were limited to very few activities in today’s plan. These include more APXS atmospheric argon measurements and Hazcam and Navcam imaging including monitoring for dust-devil activity.

As usual, our plans also included background DAN, RAD, and REMS observations, which continue through conjunction.

It has been a pleasure to be a part of this amazing team for another year. We are all looking forward to coming back in January, when Mars reappears from behind the Sun, to another exciting year of roving in Gale crater.