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Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researcher Isaiah Santistevan led the development of three-dimensional simulations exploring how a nuclear device could deflect or disrupt an asteroid threatening Earth. (Photo: Blaise Douros/LLNL)

LLNL simulations explore nuclear mitigation of asteroid threats

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers are developing three-dimensional simulations to examine how a nuclear device could be used to deflect or potentially disrupt an asteroid threatening Earth. The work, published recently in The Planetary Science Journal, uses LLNL’s Spheral simulation code to more accurately model how an asteroid might respond when X…

Illustration showing what exoplanet 55 Cancri e could look like, based on current understanding of the planet. (Artwork: NASA, ESA, CSA, Dani Player/STScI)

Examine an exoplanet in the latest episode of the Big Ideas Lab podcast

What if you could walk on an exoplanet? Molten rock stretches toward the horizon beneath your feet, and the air around you wobbles with heat like a mirage stretching across a desert land. Vapor rises from the magma. You look up through the haze. High above the surface, some of it may cool enough to condense into lava droplets for a moment before falling back toward the…

Clarence Cannon received “Best in Class” award from the Department of Energy’s Technology Transfer Working Group iin 2026 for his non-federal partnership work with space companies. Portrait photograph (left) and monolithic telescope image (top right) by Garry McLeod, space satellite image (bottom right) courtesy of Terran Orbital, image by Melissa Lewelling.

Innovation and Partnerships Office professional wins national tech transfer award

The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Technology Transfer Working Group (TTWG) annually recognizes TTWG professionals at DOE national laboratories for “Best in Class” work involving licensing, intellectual property (IP) management, partnering and excellence in technology transfer supporting mission innovation commercialization. In 2026, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s …

Anup Singh selected as Principal Associate Director for LLNL’s Strategic Threat Analysis and Response Directorate

Anup Singh selected to lead LLNL's Strategic Threat Analysis and Response Directorate

Anup Singh has been named Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL) principal associate director (PAD) for the Strategic Threat Analysis and Response (STAR) Directorate, effective Oct. 1, 2026. Singh will serve as the first PAD for the new organization. In this role, Singh will be responsible for bringing together strategic partnership programs outside LLNL’s core…

The partnership between LLNL and Advanced Space on CAPSTONE 02 brings together complementary technical capabilities, a shared commitment to rigorous engineering, and a common focus on advancing reliable, cost-effective cislunar mission operations. (Artist rendering: Dan Herchek/LLNL)

Advanced Space and LLNL to collaborate on CAPSTONE 02 spacecraft

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) will provide an advanced tri-optical imaging payload for the CAPSTONE 02 spacecraft. Led by Advanced Space’s mission-integration team, CAPSTONE 02 will demonstrate and characterize capabilities needed for future operations in the complex cislunar environment. The mission, planned to be ready to launch in 2027, will fly two…

The Innovation and Partnerships Office (IPO) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is the focal point of industry engagement at the Laboratory and facilitates partnerships that support national security and grow the U.S. economy. IPO releases LLNL’s Technology Transfer report annually. Image by Dan Hercheck/LLNL.

Annual LLNL tech transfer report highlights mission innovation impact

As a Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory within the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) enterprise, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)’s mission-focused research yields cutting-edge scientific breakthroughs with applications for both national security and U.S. economic competitiveness. The Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) Technology Transfer Annual…

The Big Ideas Lab podcast takes a deep dive on the CODA telescope, developed jointly by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Corning Incorporated. Listen to the episode now available on Apple and Spotify. (Photo: Garry McLeod)

Discover the telescope redefining small-satellite optics in the Big Ideas Lab podcast

CODA, an all-aluminum, compact optics system designed for a new class of low-cost, high-impact missions, launched into orbit for the first time aboard NASA’s Pandora mission in January 2026. Built in partnership with Corning Incorporated, the telescope is an ambitious piece of precision engineering made from a material more commonly found in a hardware store. The latest…

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman’s remarks focused on achieving NASA’s goals of returning to the Moon through the Artemis missions, future efforts to explore Mars and beyond, and the potential for nuclear-powered propulsion for those missions. Photo: Blaise Douros.

NASA administrator Isaacman visits LLNL on ‘Inspiration Tour’

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman led a return visit to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) on Sept. 2 as part of NASA’s “Inspiration Tour,” meeting with Lab scientists and engineers to highlight LLNL’s capabilities in areas including space science, national security, fusion, computing and other advanced technologies. Isaacman, who was joined by Department of…

LLNL collaborated with Rocket Lab and the U.S. Space Force to rapidly deploy an advanced optical payload for the VICTUS HAZE mission, demonstrating a new inspection capability for space domain awareness. (Photo: Garry McLeod/LLNL)

LLNL supports successful demonstration of a new space inspection capability

Over the past decade, global space launch cadences have grown dramatically, frequently placing multiple payloads into orbit on a single booster. Robust Space Domain Awareness (SDA) and precise characterization of resident space objects are vital to safeguarding the orbital environment. To confront this emerging national security risk, a team of scientists at Lawrence…

A new episode of the Big Ideas Lab podcast takes listeners inside STARMOC at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Available now on Apple and Spotify.

Big Ideas Lab podcast explores STARMOC: LLNL’s mission operations center

From off-roading in rural Nevada to commuting during rush hour on the 405 in Los Angeles, the space domain has undergone a rapid transformation over the past five years. What began as a vast landscape with a few high-profile, large-scale missions is now a heavily trafficked orbital freeway, rife with accident debris and security risks. To navigate this new environment,…

The LLNL-designed tri-optics payload, featuring wide and narrow field-of-view telescopes, enables advanced navigation and high-resolution lunar imaging for the CAPSTONE 02 mission. (Artist rendering: Dan Herchek)

Advanced Space selects LLNL to provide optics system for CAPSTONE 02

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) will support the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment 02 (CAPSTONE 02), led by Advanced Space’s mission integration team. Building on the Laboratory’s optics expertise, the tri-optical imaging payload will enable advanced imaging for the mission’s rendezvous and proximity…

The meteor (left) shot through the sky in the eastern U.S. One fragment punched through the roof of a house in New Jersey (center), leaving behind a primitive meteorite (right) that scientists were able to analyze.

Scientists measure chemistry of meteorite that struck New Jersey home

On July 16, 2024, a daytime meteor shook New York City with a sonic boom as it passed just south of the Statue of Liberty. A short time later, a more than two-pound meteorite crashed through the roof of a house in the town of Hillsborough, New Jersey. Now, an international team, including scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), has analyzed that…

NASA’s Psyche mission successfully tested a gamma-ray sensor developed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory during a Mars gravity assist. The mission aims to study the asteroid Psyche, believed to be an exposed planetary core, with the spacecraft scheduled to arrive in 2029. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU)

NASA’s Psyche mission tests LLNL-built gamma-ray sensor on Mars flyby

On a multi-billion-mile journey to the asteroid Psyche, a gamma-ray sensor developed by a team at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) took its first measurements of a planetary surface after 2.6 years in deep space. NASA’s Psyche spacecraft flew behind Mars for a gravity assist, with the red planet’s gravitational field acting as a slingshot to change the flight…

In the latest episode of the Big Ideas Lab, discover how LLNL researchers prepared and analyzed samples retrieved from the asteroid Bennu. (Photo: Garry McLeod/LLNL)

Analyze an asteroid sample in the latest episode of the Big Ideas Lab

In the early 2000s, a team of planetary scientists at NASA began planning something audacious. They would build a spacecraft. Aim it at an asteroid. Launch it across more than a billion miles of space. Map the asteroid’s rugged terrain at an unprecedented, centimeter-level resolution. Hover over the surface to collect a sample. And then bring it all the way home. The…

LLNL’s advanced optics system for Ocula, featuring the Lab’s state-of-the-art monolithic telescope, will capture high-resolution ultraviolet and visible images of the lunar surface onboard Firefly’s Elytra spacecraft in lunar orbit. (Photographer: Gary McLeod)

LLNL optics system set to fly to the moon with Firefly Aerospace for Ocula imaging service

A team of scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) recently delivered a high-resolution optics system to Firefly Aerospace in support of Firefly’s Ocula commercial lunar imaging service. The payload is scheduled to fly onboard Firefly’s Elytra spacecraft in lunar orbit as part of Blue Ghost Mission 2, targeted to launch no earlier than late 2026. The…

Artist’s depiction of NASA’s Dragonfly rotorcraft exploring the icy, hydrocarbon-rich landscapes of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. (Courtesy image: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben)

LLNL delivers advanced gamma-ray spectrometer for NASA’s Dragonfly mission to explore Titan

Hundreds of millions of miles away from Earth, the landscape of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, bears a striking resemblance to our own planet — but with dunes of hydrocarbon sands rather than silica sands, and rain, rivers, lakes and seas of liquid methane and ethane rather than liquid water. The NASA Dragonfly mission is set to explore this world in unprecedented detail…

Researchers presented proposals for future LDRD projects to an audience of peers and program leads.

Mission challenge ideas day turns bold concepts into space security capabilities

Exploring new frontiers of space requires innovative approaches to anticipate and identify paths for integrating space domain awareness capabilities. To deliver solutions for these emergent challenges, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL) Global Security Directorate recently hosted a “Space LDRD Ideas Day.” Researchers from a broad range of disciplines attended…

National Ignition Facility (NIF) Director Gordon Brunton (right foreground) shows NNSA Administrator Brandon Williams a target used for inertial confinement fusion experiments at NIF on Feb. 9.

NNSA Administrator Williams visits LLNL to discuss stockpile modernization, AI and future deterrence

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Under Secretary for Nuclear Security and Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Brandon Williams visited Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) Feb. 9 for briefings and tours focused on stockpile modernization, AI, supercomputing and the future of deterrence. During the visit, Williams met with LLNL…

The moon’s orbit is shown in light gray. The spacecraft follows the colored path over the six-year simulation period.

Simulations and supercomputing calculate one million orbits in cislunar space

Satellites and spacecraft in the vast region between the earth and moon and just beyond — called cislunar space — are crucial for space exploration, scientific advancement and national security. But figuring out where exactly to put them into a stable orbit can be a huge, computationally expensive challenge. In an open-access database and with publicly available code,…

Dark matter warps space-time, creating distortions in images like the mysterious arcs

What is dark matter? Explore the possibilities in the Big Ideas Lab podcast

Galaxies spin faster than they should. Clusters of those galaxies hold themselves intact against all expectations. By every visible measure, the universe should not look the way it does. Something is holding galaxies, stars and entire clusters together. Something we can’t see. And although it’s invisible to the naked eye, there are clues everywhere that allude to its…