College of the Canyons will host its Fall 2026 Star Party on Friday, Oct. 16, featuring a keynote presentation by Dave Margrave, chief engineer of the RS-25 Rocket Engine program at L3Harris Technologies. Margrave will present “Artemis II and the Core Stage Rocket Engine,” offering insights into the RS-25 engines that power NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and support ...

For the past 10 years, the sky has been the limit for the College of the Canyons Aerospace and Science Team (AST), which has provided students with hands-on research opportunities through NASA student spaceflight programs, including the High Altitude Student Platform  (HASP), RockSat-X and RockOn. As the only community college to successfully be selected to participate in NASA’s HASP program ...

College of the Canyons student team CARE-D3 earned second place and a $25,000 prize at the 2026 NASA ORBIT Challenge, held in July at Space Center Houston in Texas. Led by students Sophia Cranshaw and Tatiana Torrecampo, CARE-D3 was the only community college team competing in the challenge’s Space Track and one of more than 100 teams from colleges and ...

June’s full moon, known as the Strawberry Moon, offers Santa Clarita residents a view of a special summer sky phenomenon. This month, the halfway point of the lunar cycle falls on June 29 at 7:57 p.m, “when the lunar disk will pass opposite the sun in Earth’s sky, appearing fully lit by the sun’s rays,” according to space.com. Though the ...

On April 18, 2013, Richard Cook, a Canyon Country resident, was honored in the “100 Most Influential” list from TIME Magazine for his achievements in NASA’s rover missions. Cook shared the spotlight with his teammate Peter Theisinger. Both have been collaborators since 2003-2004, when they worked on the twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity. Together or separately, Theisinger and Cook oversaw ...

Some Californians may hear or feel a sonic boom Friday evening as NASA’s Artemis II mission reenters Earth’s atmosphere, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The Orion spacecraft carrying four astronauts from Artemis II is expected to splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast near San Diego between 5:07 p.m. and 5:15 p.m. PST. Sailors aboard the USS ...

On January 3, 2004, NASA’s Spirit rover successfully touched down on Mars after a perilous six-minute descent through the planet’s thin atmosphere — a milestone made even more significant for the Santa Clarita Valley, as several local residents played central roles in the mission. Spirit, part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Mission managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, landed inside ...

Early risers in Santa Clarita are set to be treated to one of the most dazzling celestial shows of the year as a rare planetary parade stretches across the pre-dawn sky. Six planets, along with a delicate crescent Moon, are set to appear in a graceful arc above the eastern horizon, creating a cosmic lineup that won’t return again this ...

The Perseid meteor shower will once again light up the skies over Santa Clarita from Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. Known for their bright streaks and high activity, the Perseids can produce 50–100 meteors per hour under ideal conditions. However, this year’s display coincides with a waning gibbous moon, whose glare will make spotting all but the brightest meteors more ...

Monday, Rep. George Whitesides (CA-27) celebrated the House passage of his DOE and NASA Interagency Research Coordination Act, a bipartisan bill co-sponsored by Congressman Nick Begich (AK-AL), to formally strengthen collaboration between the Department of Energy (DOE) and NASA.  This legislation will ensure continued U.S. leadership in space exploration and energy innovation by codifying a long-standing partnership between the two ...