After the first test flights in 2025, Lockheed Martin will transfer the plane to NASA. Then, after acoustic testing over California's Edwards Air Force Base and Armstrong Flight Research Center, NASA will fly the X-plane over select U.S. cities in 2026 and 2027.

The SPHEREx comprises two main sections — the bottom half is the spacecraft with the onboard computer, telecom system, solar array, and other parts, while the top half is the payload, which includes the BAE Systems-built telescope and also the cones that act as thermal shields to keep the observatory cool.

In new photos, the X-59 performs afterburner tests at Lockheed Martin's legendary Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California.

NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen and NASA astronaut Christina Hammock Koch pose for pictures after a news conference about the NASA's Artemis II mission outside the U.S. Capitol May 18, 2023 at Washington, DC. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

NASA recently paid tribute to the Challenger crew and other fallen astronauts during its annual Day of Remembrance.

Day of Remembrance service will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday at the Space Mirror Memorial at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

In a letter to his replacement, outgoing NASA leader Bill Nelson emphasizes the agency’s activities ‘transcend the length of a single administration.’

To comply, NASA has sought to sanitize Mars rovers at a threshold of no more than 300,000 bacterial spores on any surface. That process has revealed plenty of microbes that can survive high temperatures, low nutrients, and a lack of moisture.

The orders in question, Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing, as well as one titled Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions, are aimed at eliminating "immense public waste and shameful discrimination," according to the White House.

Caltech scientists published a study using NASA Curiosity rover imagery showing the past existence of warm water on Mars.

NASA’s plans to return to the moon continue to highlight goals of landing the first woman and first person of color on the lunar surface even amid the agency’s recent shutdown of