NASA Minute: Nov. 21, 2025

This week, President Trump nominated commercial astronaut and entrepreneur Jared Isaacman to lead our agency, NASA released new images of the third known interstellar object to pass through our solar system, the 3I/ATLAS comet, and preparations for next year’s Artemis II mission reached a major milestone.

What is said in the film

From new images of a rare comet, a couple of successful launches to a major step towards America's return to the moon. I'm back, and we have a lot of space to cover. So here is your NASA minute, covering all the breakthroughs and progress we've made since we last talked in September. Earlier this month, President Trump nominated Jared Isaacman, a commercial astronaut and entrepreneur, to lead our agency. On Wednesday, NASA released new images of the 3I/ATLAS comet, the third known interstellar object that's passed through our solar system.

We've been closely monitoring 3I/ATLAS on its journey through our solar system from the moment of discovery, using our fleet of space and Earth based telescopes to give us multiple views of this rare interstellar visitor. What we learn will help us to unlock some of the outstanding mysteries of our galaxy. Preparation for next year's Artemis II mission has passed a major milestone, as teams at the Kennedy Space Center stacked the Orion spacecraft and Launch Abort System on top of the SLS rocket. Early next year, this spacecraft, named Integrity by its crew, will carry four astronauts on the Artemis II mission, a 10-day journey around the moon that sets the stage for our return to the lunar surface. Earlier this month, a Blue Origin New Glenn rocket took off from Florida's Space Coast, carrying ESCAPADE, a set of twin satellites that are bound for Mars.

Set to enter Martian orbit in 2028, this mission will study the Red Planet's magnetic field and how it interacts with the solar wind, giving us crucial information about how to protect future human missions to Mars. This week, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying Sentinel-6B satellite lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. An international collaboration between NASA and our European partners, Sentinel-6B will provide data about our oceans that is precise, down to the inch, helping us improve hurricane forecasts and protect tidal infrastructure here on Earth. Earlier this month, NASA completed the first flight of the X-59 supersonic aircraft at the Armstrong Flight Research Center in California. By flying faster than the speed of sound without a sonic boom, the groundbreaking engineering of the X-59 will pave the way for a new generation of commercial supersonic aircraft, sustaining America's place as the world leader in aviation.

And finally, this month, we marked 25 years of continuous human presence on board the International Space Station. For a quarter of a century, the ISS has been a symbol of America's leadership in space alongside our international partners, having been visited by 290 people from 26 different countries and hosting thousands of experiments that have advanced scientific research and technological development here on Earth. Safe to say, we've had an eventful few weeks here at NASA. That's a wrap on your NASA minute. See you next week.

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