![APL, which manages and is building NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), led the installation of NEXT-C onto the spacecraft on Nov. 10, with team members from Aerojet Rocketdyne on hand to support the process. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman](/sites/default/files/2023-01/20201124b_image1_lg.jpg)
Press Release
Nov 24, 2020
DART Spacecraft Outfitted with Next-Gen Technology Demonstration Propulsion System
The APL-built Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft will be outfitted with several new technologies for its journey toward its asteroid target. One of those systems — NASA’s NEXT-C ion propulsion engine — was installed last week.
![APL intern Jordan Bretzfelder used data from several instruments to discover rocks within the Moon’s Imbrium Basin — the largest of the dark areas visible from Earth, pictured here — that are consistent with the minerals believed to make up the lunar mantle. Credit: "Mare Imbrium" by Stephan Brunker is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0](/sites/default/files/2023-01/20201124_image1_lg.jpg)
News
Nov 24, 2020
Johns Hopkins APL Intern’s Rocky Discovery Could Offer Clues to Moon’s Formation
There aren’t many interns who can say that they made a discovery about the Moon before they finished their undergraduate degree, but that’s not the case for Jordan Bretzfelder, an APL intern. In a recent study, Bretzfelder announced the discovery of rocks within the Moon’s Imbrium Basin — the largest of the dark areas visible to us on Earth — that are consistent with the minerals scientists expect to make up the lunar mantle.
![Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory provide essential data collection, curation and aggregation for the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, which delivers the most accurate information available on the pandemic. Credit: Johns Hopkins](/sites/default/files/2023-01/20201123_image1_lg.jpg)
Press Release
Nov 23, 2020
Johns Hopkins COVID-19 Resource Center Named as a Time Magazine Best Invention of 2020
Time named the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center to its list of 2020 Best Inventions, calling it “2020’s Go-To Data Source.” Researchers at Johns Hopkins APL provide essential data collection, curation and aggregation for the site, which delivers the most accurate information available on the COVID-19 pandemic.
![An ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) composite panel is fastened to the frame with bolts and washers. Credit: Johns Hopkins APL](/sites/default/files/2023-01/20201120_image1_lg.jpg)
News
Nov 20, 2020
Johns Hopkins APL Materials Experts Explore Ways to Fortify Vehicles, Buildings
APL is working with the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Diplomatic Security to increase the safety of our ambassadors, dignitaries and foreign service staff and their families.
![An SM-3 Block IIA is launched from the USS John Finn, an Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System-equipped destroyer, as part of Flight Test Aegis Weapons System-44 (FTM-44) on Nov. 16.](/sites/default/files/2023-01/20201118b_image3_med_0.jpg)
Press Release
Nov 18, 2020
Johns Hopkins APL Assists in Historic Standard Missile-3 Takedown of an ICBM Target
FTM-44 was a key demonstration of the Aegis Weapons System, using the Standard Missile-3 Block IIA missile to defeat a simple intercontinental ballistic missile threat. This facilitates the potential contribution of Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense to a layered homeland defense architecture and augments the Ground-based Midcourse System.
![Owen Brooks, a former naval officer, joined the Laboratory in 2019. Credit: Johns Hopkins APL](/sites/default/files/2023-01/20201118_image1_lg.jpg)
News
Nov 18, 2020
Veterans Find a Home at Johns Hopkins APL
APL works hard to recruit and retain veterans and currently employs more than 800 former service members.
![Images of our solar system’s ice giants, Uranus (left) and Neptune (right), from NASA’s Voyager 2, the only spacecraft to ever explore these planets. The image of Neptune shows the Great Dark Spot and its accompanying bright smudge. Credit: Left, NASA/JPL-Caltech; right, NASA](/sites/default/files/2023-01/20201116_image1_lg.jpg)
News
Nov 16, 2020
Special Journal Issue Spotlights Future Exploration of Ice Giants and Their Moons
A special journal issue from the Royal Society highlights a conference organized in part by APL researchers on the current knowledge and future exploration of the solar system’s ice giants, Uranus and Neptune, and their moons.
![Artist’s depiction of a red, M-dwarf star with three exoplanets orbiting it.](/sites/default/files/2023-01/20201110_image1_lg.jpg)
Press Release
Nov 10, 2020
NASA Selects Johns Hopkins APL's Kevin Stevenson to Lead New Astrobiology Research Team
APL researcher Kevin Stevenson leads one of eight teams selected to kick off NASA's new Interdisciplinary Consortia for Astrobiology Research program. The team will focus on finding potentially habitable — but so far undetectable — exoplanets around small red dwarf stars.
![Clockwise, from top left: Doug Adams, Mike Ryschkewitsch, Bradley Wheaton, Matthew Zuber, and Justin Likar](/sites/default/files/2023-01/20201106_image1_cover2.jpg)
Press Release
Nov 6, 2020
Five Johns Hopkins APL Staff Members Named AIAA Associate Fellows
Five technical experts and leaders from APL’s Space Exploration and Force Projection sectors have earned a place in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ associate fellows class of 2021.
![The Lucy LORRI instrument is a high-resolution imager](/sites/default/files/2023-01/20201105_image1_lg_0.jpg)
News
Nov 5, 2020
Despite Obstacles, Johns Hopkins APL Team Delivers First Instrument for NASA’s Lucy Mission
Despite technical hurdles, the COVID-19 pandemic and a snowstorm, the APL team building L’LORRI — the imaging and navigational instrument for NASA’s Lucy mission — delivered their instrument last Monday, eight weeks earlier than was expected near the start of the pandemic.