NASA has lost about 500 people via normal attrition as well since Trump took office in January. Counting those losses, NASA's workforce will shrink to about 14,000 by Jan. 9, 2026, when the employees who said yes during the DRP's second phase will come off the rolls, Warner said in the statement.

Senegal has become the 56th country to sign the Artemis Accords for peaceful space exploration, NASA announced. The accords pledge care in space exploration.

One of these ride-along NASA efforts is the Athena EPIC (Economical Payload Integration Cost) SmallSat, which will demonstrate a new way of more efficiently placing remote-sensing (or rather, Earth-observing) instruments into orbit.

House and Senate appropriations bills would preserve SLS, Orion, and the Gateway. However, the House version of NASA's budget has an interesting paragraph directing NASA to explore cheaper, faster options for a new SLS upper stage.

The helicopters will scout the Martian surface to help prepare for a human landing on the Red Planet.

Along with launching two NASA probes, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carried five other satellites into orbit with goals ranging from basic science to technology development.

Current and former NASA employees have co-signed a declaration protesting changes at the agency that some say pose a grave risk to astronauts.

More than 200 current and former NASA employees have signed an open letter known as the Voyager Declaration pushing back on "harmful" proposed cuts.

Visible on the planet itself is a dark patch near the top, marking the frigid northern polar cap, where temperatures dip to about -190 degrees Fahrenheit. A circular region shows Elysium Mons, one of Mars’ giant volcanoes.