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Lauren Leese
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NASA Publishes New Horizons Extended Mission Data 

The New Horizons mission was the first probe to explore Pluto up close, and it is currently exploring the outskirts of the Solar System. On June 26, the NASA Planetary Data System (PDS) Small Bodies Node released the New Horizons Kuiper Belt Extended Mission 2 (KEM2) K7 dataset, which features downlinked observations through April 2024. 

This delivery adds additional data taken around the spacecraft’s January 2019 encounter with the Kuiper Belt object Arrokoth, and additional data taken as New Horizons continues to cruise through the Kuiper Belt and beyond. 

Explore New Horizons data at the PDS Small Bodies Node. 

OSDR Releases Ten New Datasets 

The Open Science Data Repository (OSDR) released ten new datasets, including four newly processed bulk RNA sequencing studies and six newly published investigations spanning behavioral science, transcriptomics, microbiome research, and cell viability assays. Supported by multiple NASA programs and partner organizations, these releases continue to expand the collection of openly available space biology data for the research community. 

New Datasets

  • OSD-980 – Behavioral study, “Cold stress during room temperature housing alters skeletal response to simulated microgravity (hindlimb unloading) in growing female C57BL6 mice.”  
  • OSD-964 – Alamar Blue assay dataset, “BioSentinel: Validating Sensitivity of Yeast Biosensors to Deep Space Relevant Radiation.”  
  • OSD-993 – Bulk RNA-seq dataset, “Space radiation induces distinct senescent phenotypes: Implications for space travel.”  
  • OSD-766 – Amplicon sequencing datasets, “The microbial communities of a tomato crop grown in Veggie under different lighting regimes on the International Space Station.”  
  • OSD-992 – Single-cell RNA-seq dataset, “Space radiation induces distinct senescent phenotypes: Implications for space travel.” 
  • OSD-979 – Behavioral study, “Small changes in thermoregulation influence cancellous bone turnover balance in distal femur metaphysis in growing female mice.” 

Processed Datasets

  • OSD-145 – “BRIC-23 GeneLab Process Verification Test: Staphylococcus aureus transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic data.”
  • OSD-185 – “BRIC-21 Bacillus subtilis transcriptome profile data.”  
  • OSD-95 – “A Molecular Genetic Basis Explaining Altered Bacterial Behavior in Space.” 
  • OSD-554 – “Characterization of Biofilm Formation, Growth, and Gene Expression on Different Materials and Environmental Conditions in Microgravity (Gene expression of Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms).” 

Explore these and additional datasets through the OSDR portal. 

NASA FIRMS Adds Satellite Swath Outlines for Better Wildfire Detection 

NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) provides global near real-time satellite data to help the broader fire management community identify the location, extent, and intensity of wildfire activity. In the month of June, NASA’s Earthdata website announced that FIRMS now provides swath outlines, showing the extent of Earth's surface within view of a sensor. 

This map on the NASA FIRMS interface shows swath outlines and orbit tracks for the MODIS instrument aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite during daytime observations on May 31, 2026.
This map on the NASA FIRMS interface shows swath outlines and orbit tracks for the MODIS instrument aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite during daytime observations on May 31, 2026.

FIRMS gathers data from different instruments — most notably the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) instrument aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite and the VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) instrument carried by multiple NASA and NOAA satellites. The addition of swath outlines helps users understand the differences between satellite sensors, get a better idea of when and if a particular area was or will be imaged, and identify gaps and overlaps in daily observations by satellite sensors.  

Read the full story on the Earthdata website. Access FIRMS data and tools online. 

HEASARC Launches Living X-ray Point Source Catalog for NASA’s Swift Mission 

NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory is a space telescope that observes high-energy astronomical events in visible, ultraviolet, X-ray, and gamma-ray wavelengths. On June 11, NASA’s High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC) announced the release of the Live Swift X-ray Point Source (LSXPS) catalog, which lists observations from Swift’s X-ray Telescope (XRT) instrument. 

Unlike previous Swift X-ray point-source catalogs, this living catalog is updated in near-real time, and transient searches are carried out on each dataset as it is received. On an average day, the LSXPS catalog grows by 49 new sources and the unique sky coverage increases by 0.94 square degrees. 

Learn more by visiting the LSXPS catalog page. See all HEASARC updates on the HEASARC News page.

OSDR Visualization Platforms Updates: New Datasets, Enhanced Analysis Features and Improved Metrics Tracking 

The Open Science Data Repository (OSDR) released updates across several visualization platforms, expanding access to mission telemetry data, improving data analysis capabilities, and enhancing usage monitoring to better understand community engagement.  

The Environmental Data App 

  • The Environmental Data App (EDA) added telemetry data from Rodent Research missions (RR-7, RR-10, RR-18, RR-20, RR-25 and RR-28).
  • Users can now customize mission views by toggling individual mission milestones within the Mission Dashboard.  
  • Additional updates include standardized milestone display across missions, improved mission descriptions, normalized date formatting, and infrastructure enhancements that support application performance.  

The OSDR Biological Data and Visualization Portal 

  • Users can now apply multiple filters simultaneously when performing Differential Gene Expression (DGE) analyses in the Multi-study Visualization tool, providing greater flexibility when exploring datasets across studies. 
  • This release also resolved issues affecting normalization after sample subset selection and restores functionality for OSD-289 visualizations.

The OSDR Biological Data API and RadLab

New back-end capabilities have been added to both the OSDR Biological Data API and RadLab platforms to track data download metrics. This helps the OSDR team better understand how repository resources are being utilized by the scientific community. 

NBISC Biospecimen Search Tool

Users of the NBISC (NASA Biological Institutional Scientific Collection) Biospecimen Search Tool can now directly download tutorial materials from the NBISC website, making it easier to access guidance for navigating the platform.  

The VizApps Environment 

New automated scripts now generate monthly metrics reports across visualization applications and distribute email notifications.  

Explore all OSDR visualization applications at the OSDR Visualization Portal.

A screenshot of new telemetry data for RR-28 mission as presented on the EDA app. The graph is showing temperature changes across the duration of the mission. Launch date, Animal transfer to ISS, LAR sample return, and sacrifice date mission milestones are shown on the graph.
A screenshot of new telemetry data for RR-28 mission as presented on the EDA app. The graph is showing temperature changes across the duration of the mission. Launch date, Animal transfer to ISS, LAR sample return, and sacrifice date mission milestones are shown on the graph.