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After an almost five-year journey to the solar system’s largest planet, NASA’s Juno spacecraft — carrying an instrument suite that includes the Jupiter Energetic Particle Detector Instrument (JEDI), built by the ����ֱ�� Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) — successfully entered Jupiter’s orbit during a 35-minute engine burn.

Stamatios “Tom” Krimigis, a ����ֱ�� University Applied Physics Laboratory scientist whose storied professional career has closely paralleled American space exploration, has been awarded NASA’s highest service honor.

The APL team that designed and implemented the Balloon Observation Platform for Planetary Science (BOPPS) in 2014 was awarded NASA’s prestigious Group Achievement Award for its work and successes.

A new program called Pelagos — developed as an independent research and development project by the Sea Control Mission Area of the ����ֱ�� University Applied Physics Laboratory — provides U.S. submariners with a wide array of new data about their environment, as well as improved methods to utilize this data to make tactically relevant decisions.

U.S. postage stamps featuring a pair of prominent ����ֱ�� University Applied Physics Laboratory space missions debuted recently. The “Pluto — Explored!” set commemorates the July 2015 flyby of Pluto by the New Horizons spacecraft; “Views of Our Planets” features iconic images of the planets in our solar system, including an image of Mercury from the MESSENGER mission.

The ����ֱ�� Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, has received a $375,000 grant from the Office of Naval Research to use virtual reality to educate the children of wounded warriors in the use of prosthetics, and to stimulate interest in STEM topics.

New findings based on a year’s worth of observations from NASA’s Van Allen Probes have revealed that the ring current — an electrical current carried by energetic ions that encircles our planet — behaves in a much different way than previously understood.

A cost-effective, multifunctional water purification membrane that can simultaneously remove pathogens and toxic heavy metals, such as lead, arsenic, mercury and cadmium, was selected as the ����ֱ�� University Applied Physics Laboratory’s Invention of the Year.