Goddard Engineering and Technology Directorate

Projects In Operation and Historical Missions

  • The Laser Communications Relay Demonstration payload is attached to the LCRD Support Assembly Flight (LSAF), which can be seen in this image. The LSAF serves as the backbone for the LCRD components. Attached to the LSAF are the two optical modules, which generate the infrared lasers that transmit data to and from Earth. A star tracker is also attached here. These components are visible on the left side of this image. Other LCRD components, such as the modems that encode data into laser signals, are attached to the back of the LSAF. Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

    Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD)

    The Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) aims to showcase the unique capabilities of optical communications. Currently, most NASA missions use radio frequency communications to send data to and from…

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  • A 3D simulation showing the evolution of turbulent flows in the upper layers of the Sun. The more saturated and bright reds represent the most vigorous upward or downward twisting motions. Clear areas represent areas where there are only relatively slow up-flows, with very little twisting. NASA/Irina Kitiashvili and Timothy A. Sandstrom

    Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)

    NASA supercomputers are shedding light on what causes some of the Sun’s most complex behaviors. Using data from the suite of active Sun-watching spacecraft currently observing the star at the heart of our solar system, researchers can explore solar…

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  • The Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) configuration is as March 2019 with 10 in-orbit TDRS in space.

    Tracking and Data Relay Satellites (TDRS)

    NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellites (TDRS) provide communications services to NASA’s most storied missions. Since 1983, NASA has launched a constellation of TDRS that reside in geosynchronous orbit, which is a high-altitude…

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  • PACE's primary sensor, Ocean Color Instrument (OCI), Engineering Test Unit (ETU) rolls into the TVAC chamber.

    The Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud Ocean Ecosystem (PACE)

    The Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud Ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission is a NASA mission that will collect information on the processes behind carbon dioxide exchange in the ocean. By monitoring aerosols in the atmosphere along with plankton on the surface…

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  • Engineer conducts an inspection on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.

    James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)

    The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is an observatory that uses infrared light to capture images of the way the universe looked approximately 200 million years after the big bang. Currently, the James Webb Space Telescope is the largest…

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  • An artist’s concept of NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft. NASA/JPL-Caltech

    Europa Clipper

    Europa Clipper is a robotic solar-powered spacecraft built to conduct the first detailed investigations of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa. The spacecraft will orbit Jupiter and make nearly 50 flybys of Europa to determine whether there are places below Europa’s surface that could support life. With its solar…

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  • This illustration shows the MAVEN spacecraft and the limb of Mars. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

    Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN)

    The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission will determine how much of the Martian atmosphere has been lost over time by measuring the current rate of escape to space and gathering enough information about the relevant processes to allow extrapolation backward in time…

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  • Side-by-side images from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft of the robotic arm as it descended towards the surface of asteroid Bennu (left) and as it tapped it to stir up dust and rock for sample collection (right). OSIRIS-REx touched down on Bennu at 6:08pm EDT on October 20, 2020. Credit NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

    OSIRIS-REx

    Launched on Sept. 8, 2016, the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx, spacecraft traveled to a near-Earth asteroid named Bennu (formerly 1999 RQ36). It collected a sample of rocks and dust from Bennu’s surface on October 20, 2020. The spacecraft delivered the…

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  • Delta IV Heavy Propellant Loading Underway for Parker Solar Probe.

    Parker Solar Probe

    The NASA Parker Solar Probe mission is a mission designed to help humanity better understand the Sun, where changing conditions can propagate out into the solar system, affecting Earth and other worlds. As such, the primary goals are to examine the acceleration of solar wind through the movement of heat and energy in the Sun’s…

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  • Lucy Spacecraft Telescope in the Lockheed Martin clean room.

    Lucy

    NASA’s Lucy mission will study the Trojan asteroids for the purpose of helping humanity understand the formation of planets and the solar system. Lucy is the first space mission to study the Trojans and was launched on Oct. 16, 2021. Overall, the mission is a 12-year endeavor with the spacecraft using gravity assistance form Earth.…

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  • A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket carrying the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) GOES-U (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite U) lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, June 25, 2024.

    GOES-U Satellite

    The NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) team received telemetry from GOES-U (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite U), indicating the spacecraft is functioning nominally and is power positive. The NOAA GOES-U satellite has now safely deployed, and NOAA has acquired a signal. GOES-U will…

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  • NASA's four Magnetospheric Multiscale, or MMS, satellites in a clean room at the Astrotech Space Operations facility in Titusville, Florida, where they are being processed for launch.

    Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS)

    Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) is a NASA mission aimed at understanding how the Sun’s and Earth’s magnetic fields connect and disconnect. These processes known as magnetic reconnection facilitate energy transfers that effect the Earth, Sun and universe. MMS sensors measure charged…

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  • In this photo the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System instrument, which flies on the ICESat-2 satellite, sits in a clean room at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Credits: NASA/Jeffrey Twum

    Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2)

    The Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite-2, or ICESat-2, measures the height of a changing Earth, one laser pulse at a time, 10,000 laser pulses a second. Launched September 15, 2018, ICESat-2 carries a photon-counting laser altimeter that allows scientists to measure the elevation of ice sheets, glaciers, sea ice…

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  • In this photo of Hubble, taken after its release at the end of Servicing Mission 3B, the spacecraft’s two high-gain antenna dishes are extended above and below the telescope. The high-gain antennas are used to transmit large amounts of data, including the telescope’s images. Credit NASA

    Hubble Space Telescope

    Throughout the history of science, revolutionary instruments propel our understanding with their landmark discoveries. The Hubble Space Telescope is a testament to that concept. Its design, technology and serviceability have made it one of NASA’s most transformative observatories. From determining the…

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  • Animation still depicting the PUNCH Narrow Field Imager, or NFI instrument, from low Earth orbit. The NFI is designed to capture high-resolution images of the Sun's corona.Animation depicting the PUNCH Narrow Field Imager, or NFI instrument, from low Earth orbit. The NFI is designed to capture high-resolution images of the Sun's corona. Credit: NASA’s Conceptual Image Lab/Kim Dongjae, Walt Feimer

    Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH)

    The PUNCH mission will use four suitcase-sized satellites to observe the Sun and its environment. Working together, the four PUNCH satellites will create a combined field of view and map the region where the Sun’s corona (or outer atmosphere) transitions to the solar wind (the constant outflow of…

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  • Three-unit (3U) CubeSats orbit above the Earth.

    BurstCube

    BurstCube is a 6U CubeSat project that is designed to automatically detect gamma-ray transients onboard (astrophysical, solar, and terrestrial) while sending rapid alerts to the ground to enable follow-up observations. BurstCube also increases the sky coverage for short, less than 2 second gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) which in recent years have been…

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