SSL Director Lindy Elkins-Tanton andAssociate Provost of the Berkeley Air & Space Center Victoria Coleman posing for a photo as the UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory.

Victoria Coleman, Associate Provost of the Berkeley Air & Space Center, speaking at the UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory.

Victoria Coleman, Associate Provost of the Berkeley Air & Space Center, speaking at the UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory.

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.

Dr. Umaa Rebbapragada speaking on machine learning applications at the Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute as part of a UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory event.

The auditorium of the at the Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute in shades of orange and brown. Dr. Umaa Rebbapragada speaking on machine learning applications before attendees from the UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory.

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/...

Matt Gialich, Founder and CEO of AstroForge, speaking behind the podium at the UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory conference room and standing beside a slide displaying the AstroForge DeepSpace bus.

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.

A spectrum analyzer in there UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory mission operations center with many buttons on the right and a waveform display on the left showing signal from the Orion capsule.

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

Per Rexroad, we'll now make our first tracking attempt at around 6AM tomorrow.

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!

Lightning bolts on Jupiter pack more than 100 times the power of Earth’s flashes - Berkeley News Larger, more powerful storms on Jupiter produce stronger lightning than on Earth. New measurements could shed light on electrical phenomena associated with thunderstorms on our planet.

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...

Jupiter’s weather forecast: cloudy with a chance of nukes The planet’s lightning storms can unleash the force of multiple nuclear weapons every minute

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...

COSI - NASA Science COSI is an Astrophysics Small Explorer satellite mission that will probe the origins of our galaxy’s antimatter, uncover sites in our galaxy where complex

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...

ESCAPADE spacecraft are now flying through Earth’s magnetotail With their instruments now fired up and recording data, the twin ESCAPADE satellites are undertaking a test run before they head to Mars later this year. On Wednesday, Mar. 4, they will plow throug…

Thanks for the heads up Daniel. Apologies for the error. The link is missing that pesky "www"
www.ssl.berkeley.edu/escapade-mag...

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...

Berkeley’s Blue and Gold satellites are now flying through Earth's magnetotail — a first - Berkeley News Launched to Mars in November, NASA’s ESCAPADE probes — operated by UC Berkeley’s Space Sciences Lab — are now testing their instruments in a never-before-visited region of Earth's magnetic field.

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.

Francis Nimmo, Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at UC Santa Cruz, smiling for a photo after a talk at the Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute at UC Berkeley.

Francis Nimmo, Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at UC Santa Cruz, speaking in front of a crowd at the Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute at UC Berkeley.

Francis Nimmo, Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at UC Santa Cruz, speaking behind a podium at the Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute at UC Berkeley.

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.

Prof. Lung S. Chan and Prof. Walter Alvarez, both of the Berkeley Department of Earth & Planetary Science, pose for a photo after a talk at the UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory.

Prof. Walter Alvarez of the Berkeley Department of Earth & Planetary Science delivering a presentation entitled The End of the Dinosaurs.

Prof. Walter Alvarez of the Berkeley Department of Earth & Planetary Science delivering a presentation entitled The End of the Dinosaurs.

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.

NASA Selects Participants to Track Artemis II Mission - NASA NASA has selected 34 global volunteers to track the Orion spacecraft during the crewed Artemis II mission’s journey around the Moon.

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.

Why NASA astronauts just splashed down off San Diego The crew returned to Earth earlier than expected.

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.

An image of the planet Mars against a black background, plus text reading, "When humans finally land on Mars, what should they do?"

🚀 “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

Kidney bean-shaped spacecraft trajectory plot showing Earth, L2 and spacecraft course. Created on January 8, 2026.

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.

Nobel wins, psychedelic lilies and a mission to Mars: UC Berkeley's top stories of 2025 - Berkeley News A look at some of the campus's biggest stories chronicled by UC Berkeley News.

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