For 75 years, CU Boulder has been a leader in space exploration and innovation. We travel to space to monitor sea level rise, melting ice, weather patterns and more. Our researchers explore how to track and remove dangerous debris in space. We research the health of humans in space to inform medical applications for people on Earth. Learn more about the latest in space research and science at CU Boulder.
 

Earth sunrise, aurora and cities in northern Europe

LASP team advances in NASA mission concept competition

Aug. 8, 2024

A team at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics has received a $2 million award to develop a concept study for a NASA mission that will investigate how Earth’s lower atmosphere influences the upper atmosphere.

Goddard Space Center Director Makenzie Lystrup and LASP Director Dan Baker signing the collaborative Space Act Agreement

New agreement with NASA to advance national space weather capabilities

Aug. 5, 2024

Bolstering its longstanding collaboration with NASA, the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics enacted a collaborative Space Act Agreement with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center focused on space weather.

A concept drawing of CEDA, a Rubik's cube-sized dust analyzer

LASP team awarded NASA technology grant to develop dust analyzer

July 30, 2024

NASA has awarded $1 million to a team led by LASP and CU Boulder physics scientist Xu Wang to develop a Rubik’s cube-sized instrument capable of measuring the speed, size and charge of tiny dust particles on small rocky bodies.

Sean Peters

New approach to aerial ground penetrating radar for Mars research

July 2, 2024

Sean Peters is leading a $2.45 million initiative to develop power efficient passive radar systems that could peek under the surface of Mars.

launch of NOAA’s GOES-U satellite

LASP team attends launch of space weather instrument

July 1, 2024

On June 25, more than 50 LASP employees, family and friends attended the Kennedy Space Center launch of NOAA’s GOES-U satellite carrying the fourth and final Extreme Ultraviolet and X-Ray Irradiance Sensors instrument aboard.

illustration depicting Dynamical Neutral Atmosphere-Ionosphere Coupling

CU Boulder, Johns Hopkins team advances in space weather competition

June 26, 2024

A joint proposal of CU Boulder and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory has earned a $2 million award for a NASA mission concept study.

Abhi Doddi

Atmospheric research in the most extreme place on Earth: Antarctica

June 25, 2024

Postdoctoral researcher Abhi Doddi is collecting scientific data outdoors in a 70 mph whiteout blizzard. It is just another day of life in Antarctica.

Satellite labeled "GOES" sits next to a large hangar labeled "NASA" at night time

Space instruments provide early warnings for solar flares

June 21, 2024

On June 25, the last instrument in a series designed and built in Colorado, is scheduled to launch aboard an orbiting satellite. It's part of a program that spots flares leaping out from around the sun before they can cause trouble on Earth.

Stars in the night sky above sand dunes

It’s Dark Sky Month in Colorado. Here’s how to enjoy the stars

June 21, 2024

Light pollution from streetlights and other sources is making dark skies harder to find. CU Boulder astronomer Erica Ellingson gives her take on where you can still go in Colorado to see brilliant displays of stars.

Image looking down at the legs of a spacecraft with gray rocks below

In new experiment, scientists record Earth’s radio waves from the moon

June 10, 2024

Odysseus, a tenacious lander built by the company Intuitive Machines, almost didn't make it to the moon. But an experiment aboard the spacecraft managed to capture an image of Earth as it might look to observers on a planet far from our own.

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