NASA News – Week Ending January 12th 2024

NASA News – Week Ending January 12th 2024

• Rollout of our experimental supersonic X-plane.
• Schedule updates for future Artemis missions.
• And another year of global record heat.

A few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at NASA!

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On Jan. 12, we officially unveiled the fully completed and freshly painted X-59
aircraft during a rollout ceremony hosted by Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale
California. The X-59 is a one-of-a-kind experimental aircraft that, as part of our
Quesst mission, will demonstrate the ability to fly supersonic while generating
a gentle “sonic thump” rather than the typical loud sonic boom. For more
information about Quesst, visit nasa.gov/Quesst.

NASA has adjusted the schedules for our Artemis II and Artemis III missions.
Artemis II, the first crewed Artemis mission around the Moon, is now targeted
for September 2025. Artemis III, which is planned to land the first astronauts
near the lunar South Pole, is now being targeted for September 2026. The schedule
adjustments were made to allow teams to work through challenges associated with
first-time developments, operations, and integration.

According to an analysis by NASA, Earth’s average surface temperature
in 2023 was the warmest on record. Global temperatures last year were around
2.1 degrees Fahrenheit above the average for NASA’s baseline period of 1951 through
1980. Independent analyses by NOAA and the United Kingdom’s Hadley Centre concluded
the global surface temperatures for 2023 were the highest since modern
record-keeping began.  For more about NASA’s Earth science efforts, visit nasa.gov/earth.

Astronomers using our James Webb Space Telescope have discovered a new,
previously unseen structure in the Beta Pictoris system, about 63 light-years from
Earth. The structure is a branch of dust, shaped like a cat’s tail. It extends from
the system’s secondary debris disk that has been produced by collisions between
asteroids, comets, and planetesimals. This and other NASA news was featured at the
243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in New Orleans.

That’s what’s up this week @NASA.  For more about what else we’re up to, check out nasa.gov.