Don't miss @missiontopsyche.bsky.social's closest approach to Mars this afternoon at 12:28 Pacific Time. eyes.nasa.gov/apps/solar-s...

SSL Director Lindy Elkins-Tanton spoke to @sciam.bsky.social on her new book, Mission Ready: How to Build Teams That Perform under Pressure. "The ability that one in a leadership position has to try to help everyone else succeed is an incredible gift," says Elkins-Tanton. tinyurl.com/54tvnepz

Thanks to Evgenya Shkolnik, professor of astrophysics at the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University, who delivered our final talk of the semester on the SPARKS mission, which is seeking out habitable exoplanets in our galaxy. 🙏 to @mathmoves.bsky.social for hosting.

NASA's @missiontopsyche.bsky.social is approaching Mars for a gravity assist—a great chance to image the Red Planet.🔴 "...if...we can do important testing and calibration..., that would be the icing on the cake,” said Psyche PI and SSL Director Lindy Elkins-Tanton. science.nasa.gov/blogs/psyche...

#FOXSI-5, a NASA-led sounding rocket mission that will study the X-rays produced by large solar flares, is ready for launch. Principal investigator Milo Buitrago-Casas is at @uafairbanks.bsky.social's Poker Flat Research Range, preparing for launch. 🚀 www.gi.alaska.edu/news/poker-f...

DESI has completed its planned 3D map of the universe. Much of the cutting-edge technology that made the survey possible was developed at SSL. www.ssl.berkeley.edu/cutting-edge...

Victoria Coleman, Associate Provost of the Berkeley Air & Space Center, stopped by SSL to tell us about forthcoming opportunities with Berkeley's 36-acre innovation center at NASA's Ames campus. She stayed on for lunch and heard ideas for the center from SSL researchers.

Thanks to Dr. Umaa Rebbapragada for the amazing talk on AI and machine learning applications the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Thanks also to @mathmoves.bsky.social for hosting us again.

SSL's contributions to the Artemis 2 mission were featured in the @dailycal.bsky.social. “Even though we’re playing a small role, it still feels good to be part of it in some way,” said ground station engineer Warren Rexroad. www.dailycal.org/news/campus/...

Great talk by Matt Gialich founder and CEO of @astroforge.bsky.social at SSL this afternoon. The conference room was standing room only as we all packed inside to learn more about DeepSpace-2 and its upcoming mission to land on an asteroid. 🙏 for flying up to the Bay to tell us about it.

The Berkeley Ground Station dish is tracking ARTEMIS 2! We're collecting doppler data to send back to the NASA SCaN project.

We're supporting Artemis 2 by providing tracking support for the Orion capsule. Per ground station engineer Warren Rexroad, our first opportunity will be tomorrow at 1AM. "We're all excited to be able to contribute to this historic return to the moon," says Rexroad. Go Artemis 2!

Jupiter’s lightning isn’t just bigger—it’s hundreds of times more powerful. Using new Nasa Juno data, @ucbssl.bsky.social scientists revealed storms far more extreme than anything on Earth. news.berkeley.edu/2026/03/23/l...

Check out this @science.org story on SSL planetary scientist Mike Wong's study of Jovian lightning. Wong analyzed data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft and found that lightning storms on Jupiter can release energy equivalent to multiple nuclear bombs. www.science.org/content/arti...

Meet NASA’s COmpton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI). Launching in 2027, COSI is a wide-field gamma-ray telescope that will study extreme objects, environments, and events in the Milky Way and beyond. science.nasa.gov/mission/cosi/

Big Give is TODAY! 🎉Learn more about SSL's history below, and please consider donating to support our mission in education, innovation and discovery.👇 #CalBigGive givingday.berkeley.edu/giving-day/1...

Robert Lillis discusses the unique advantages of pursuing a career in space science at Berkeley. 🚀 Support space education, innovation and discovery by donating to SSL. #CalBigGive begins tonight at 9PM.👇 givingday.berkeley.edu/giving-day/1...

NASA's ESCAPADE mission is now studying Earth's magnetotail. PI Robert Lillis describes this first ever visit to a distant region of the magnetosphere. Read more 👇 ssl.berkeley.edu/escapade-mag...

NASA's Mars-bound ESCAPADE mission is currently exploring Earth's magnetotail. "This is a great opportunity for us to test the operation of the ESCAPADE instruments and explore a brand-new region of space..." said principal investigator Rob Lillis. news.berkeley.edu/2026/03/04/b...

SSL leads the auroral imaging instrument for NASA's forthcoming CINEMA mission, which will explore the connection between auroras and Earth's magnetotail. 👇Read more here: ssl.berkeley.edu/cinema-missi... 🙏 @jhuapl.bsky.social, @dartmouthartsci.bsky.social and also @vincentledvina.bsky.social

John Tomsick explains how COSI will search the skies for gamma rays in hopes of learning more about black holes and neutron stars.

Thanks to professor Francis Nimmo of @ucsc-eps.bsky.social, who launched our special Friends of SSL colloquium series with a talk on the Moon's formation. A big thanks also to our friends at @mathmoves.bsky.social for hosting the talk in your beautiful auditorium.

There's a lot of antimatter at the center of our galaxy. Where's it coming from? John Tomsick, PI of COSI, aims to find out.

What's a Compton telescope? John Tomsick, PI of COSI, explains.

Berkeley Professor Walter Alvarez, who developed the theory that the dinosaurs were killed by an asteroid impact, stopped by SSL to present his research. We had a lively debate on the likely composition of the body that created the Chicxulub crater.

SSL has been selected (along with 33 other volunteer institutions) to track Artemis II radio communications during the Orion spacecraft's 10-day journey around the moon. We're proud to support this historic mission.

The ESCAPADE mission has won an @erdayastronaut.bsky.social Astro Award! 🎉 We're proud to be recognized for our role in making interplanetary science and exploration possible at unprecedented speeds and for a fraction of the cost of traditional missions.

Our director of mission operations, Abhishek Tripathi, provided @sfgate.com some context on the return of Crew-11 aboard the SpaceX dragon capsule that streaked across Northern California skies early this morning. www.sfgate.com/bayarea/arti...

The @gaps-experiment.bsky.social 's landing only miles from its launch point is an amazing accomplishment! Looking forward to learning more about the data it gathered.

The Carruthers mission, led by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's Lara Waldrop and managed by SSL, has arrived at an L1 orbit between the Earth and the Sun. Its 2-year science mission observing Earth's exosphere begins in March.

🚀 “It’s about this unbelievable, gigantic, aspirational, inspirational moment in human history.” Planetary scientist Lindy Elkins-Tanton shares NASA’s goals for a crewed mission to Mars. Plus, the irresistible endeavor to learn more about the Psyche asteroid: buff.ly/O5osV30

ESCAPADE's Gold spacecraft executed a near-perfect burn on Jan 6, putting it on the kidney bean path that will bring both spacecraft back to Earth for interplanetary slingshot in November. Instrument commissioning activities begin next week.🙏to @rocketlabcorp.com and Blue Origin.

SSL Director Lindy Elkins-Tanton spoke with @scifri.bsky.social on science objectives for Mars exploration, NASA's @missiontopsyche.bsky.social and how to build teams that perform under pressure.

The ESCAPADE mission was among the top @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social stories of 2025! news.berkeley.edu/2025/12/15/n...

Physics World's Top 10 Breakthroughs of the Year for 2025 includes research by SSL's Zack Gainsforth on Asteroid Bennu samples. Congratulations Zack! physicsworld.com/a/top-10-bre...

SSL Director Lindy Elkins-Tanton co-chaired a @nationalacademies.org committee that identified 11 science goals for human exploration of Mars. Seeking past/present life tops the list. “This is the millennia-old question: Are we alone in the universe?” said Elkins-Tanton spacenews.com/report-ident...

Scientists with @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social's SSL, @berkeleylab.lbl.gov and NASA discovered compounds in Asteroid Bennu samples not known to occur in nature, showing how molecules thought necessary for life may have first emerged in cryogenic environments.👇 www.ssl.berkeley.edu/berkeley-sci...

Commissioning of NASA's twin ESCAPADE spacecraft, currently operated by @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social and @rocketlabcorp.com, is proceeding smoothly. ESCAPADE snapped this selfie in visible and infrared light. 👇 ssl.berkeley.edu/escapade-sen...

Our associate director for planetary science Robert Lillis spoke with the @nytimes.com about the long journey getting the trailblazer ESCAPADE mission into space. "This mission has nine lives," Lillis said. The story also features @missiontopsyche.bsky.social. 👇 www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/s...

Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket has successfully launched NASA’s ESCAPADE mission to Mars from Cape Canaveral. ESCAPADE is the first UC Berkeley–led planetary mission, using two twin satellites, Blue and Gold, to map Mars’ magnetic field and atmosphere in 3D.

John Tomsick, PI of NASA's COSI mission, describes the practical applications resulting from gamma ray detectors. From PET scans to radiation monitoring to protecting astronauts, Compton imaging technology has a profound impact on our health and safety.

With sadness and gratitude, we honor George F. Smoot III—Berkeley Lab scientist since 1974 and 2006 Nobel Laureate in Physics—who has passed away at 80. His “baby picture” of the universe changed cosmology. https://elements.lbl.gov/news/honoring-the-legacy-of-george-smoot/ @nobelprize.bsky.social

The Carruthers mission and SSL were featured by KQED. Of the mission, our director Lindy Elkins-Tanton said, “Our big strength over time has been space weather...How does it affect our Earth’s atmosphere?... And that’s exactly what we’re going to be looking at." www.kqed.org/science/1998...

Scenes from our Mission Operations Center during launch of NASA's Carruthers, IMAP and SWFO-L1 on Sept 24. SSL operates Carruthers, built the instrumentation and contributes to the science. We also built an instrument for SWFO-L1 and lead an experiment on IMAP.

NASA's Carruthers mission launched this morning and is communicating with the Mission Operations Center at the @UCBerkeley Space Sciences Laboratory. Read more 👇 ssl.berkeley.edu/nasas-carrut...

Carruthers and ESCAPADE were featured in this @berkeleyside.org story on SSL's many contributions to space science and exploration.

It's a big week here at SSL. We built instruments for all three of the spacecraft that are scheduled to launch this week and expand our understanding of harmful space weather (IMAP, SWFO-L1 and Carruthers). www.nasa.gov/news-release...

Space science benefits every American. University space science programs are part of a vast aerospace economy that boosts local economies in every state in the country. #SpeakUp4Science #StandUpForUC

Space science is important for all Americans. Private aerospace ventures benefit immensely from the training pipeline made possible by university space science programs. #SpeakUp4Science

NASA's PADRE mission, led and built by SSL, measures X-rays emitted by solar flares at a fraction of the cost of previous missions. Its launch marks 45 years of SSL missions aimed at understanding the Sun and harmful space weather. #SpeakUp4Science www.ssl.berkeley.edu/padre-aims-t...