With a look back at 2024, NASA is celebrating its many innovative and inspiring accomplishments this year including for the first time, landing new science and technology on the Moon with an American company, pushing the boundaries of exploration by launching a new mission to study Jupiter's icy moon Europa; maintaining 24 years of continuous human exploration off the Earth aboard the International Space Station, and unveiling the first look at its supersonic quiet aircraft for the benefit of humanity.
The agency also shared the wonder of a total eclipse with millions of Americans, conducted the final flight of its Ingenuity helicopter on the Red Planet, demonstrated the first laser communications capability in deep space, tested the next generation solar sail in space, made new scientific discoveries with its James Webb Space Telescope, completed a year-long Mars simulation on Earth with crew, announced the newest class of Artemis Generation astronauts, and much more.
"In 2024, NASA made leap after giant leap to explore, discover, and inspire - all while bringing real, tangible, and substantial benefits to the American people and to all of humanity," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. "We deepened the commercial and international partnerships that will help NASA lead humanity back to the Moon and then to the red sands of Mars. We launched new missions to study our solar system and our universe in captivating new ways. We observed our changing Earth through our eyes in the sky - our ever-growing fleet of satellites and instruments - and shared that data with all of humanity. And we opened the doors to new possibilities in aviation, new breakthroughs on the International Space Station, and new wonders in space travel."
Through its Moon to Mars exploration approach, the agency continued moving forward with its Artemis campaign, including progress toward its first mission around the Moon with crew in more than 50 years and advancing plans to explore more of the Moon than ever before. So far in 2024, 15 countries signed the Artemis Accords, committing to the safe, transparent, and responsible exploration of space with the United States.
As part of efforts to monitor climate change, the agency launched multiple satellites to study our changing planet and opened its second Earth Information Center to provide data to a wider audience.
With the release of its latest Economic Impact Report, NASA underscored the agency's $75.6 billion impact on the U.S. economy, value to society, and return on investment for taxpayers.
"To invest in NASA is to invest in American workers, American innovation, the American economy, and American economic competitiveness. Through continued investments in our workforce and our infrastructure, NASA will continue to propel American leadership on Earth, in the skies, and in the stars," said Nelson.
Key 2024 agency highlights across its mission areas include:
Preparing for Moon, Mars
This year, NASA made strides toward the Artemis Generation of scientific discovery at the Moon while validating operations and systems to prepare for human missions to Mars. The agency advanced toward Artemis II, the first crewed flight under Artemis:
- NASA announced results of its Orion heat shield investigation and updated its timelines for Artemis II and III.
- Teams delivered the core stage and launch vehicle stage adapter of the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket from NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida and began stacking the rocket's booster segments.
- Engineers carried out a series of tests of the mobile launcher and systems at NASA Kennedy's Launch Pad 39B ahead of the test flight and added an emergency egress system to keep crew and other personnel at the launch pad safe in the case of an emergency.
- NASA performed key integrated testing of the Orion spacecraft that will send four astronauts around the Moon and bring them home, including testing inside an altitude chamber simulating the vacuum conditions of deep space.
- The crew and other teams performed key training activities to prepare for flight, including practicing recovery operations at sea, as well as launch countdown and mission simulations.
- In February, the first Moon landing through the agency's CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative brought NASA science to the lunar surface on Intuitive Machines' Nova-C lander successfully capturing data that will help us better understand the Moon's environment and improve landing precision and safety.
- In August, NASA announced that a new set of NASA science experiments and technology demonstrations will arrive at the lunar South Pole in 2027 following the agency's latest CLPS initiative delivery award.
- To return valuable samples from Mars to Earth, NASA sought innovative designs and announced a new strategy review team to assess various design studies to reduce cost, risk, and complexity.
- NASA's MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) spacecraft celebrated 10 years of exploration of the Red Planet's upper atmosphere.
- After three years, NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter ended its mission in January, with dozens more flights than planned.
- In September, the NASA Space Communications and Navigation team awarded a contract to Intuitive Machines to support the agency's lunar relay systems as part of the Near Space Network, operated by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
- NASA identified an updated set of nine potential landing regions near the lunar South Pole for its Artemis III mission.
- Capturing the current state of the Moon to Mars architecture, NASA released the second revision of its Architecture Definition Document.
- NASA formalized two international agreements for key Artemis elements, including with the United Arab Emirates for the Gateway airlock module, and with Japan to provide a pressurized rover for the lunar surface.
- Astronauts, scientists, and engineers took part in testing key technologies and evaluating hardware needed to work at the Moon, including simulating moonwalks in geologically Moon-like areas of Arizona, practiced integration between the crew and mission controllers, participated in human factors testing for Gateway, and evaluated the developmental hardware.
- NASA worked collaboratively with SpaceX and Blue Origin on their human lunar landers for Artemis missions, exercising an option under existing contracts to develop cargo variants of their human landers.
- In August, as part of its commitment to a robust, sustainable lunar exploration program for the benefit of all, NASA announced
