Bringing the excitement of NASA science into the nation’s community colleges.

Join NCCN as a (select type below)

Registering as a CCI, you will gain access to a suite of curated NASA resources, recent missions, citizen science activities, etc... all chosen with introductory college astronomy students in mind. Search through our database of resources to find just the right ones for your class.

Who knows -- you might even score a visit from a NASA SME!

SME registrants can share their expertise through presentations, data sets, videos or even reach out to visit a classroom.

The sky's the limit -- it's up to each SME on what they want to provide.

Come join us!

By registering for Resource Access, you will receive news, updates and information about the NCCN project.

If you are a community college instructor (CCI), or a NASA subject matter expert (SME) click on the adjacent box to find out how to get involved.

Thank you for your interest and consideration!

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What is the NCCN Project ?

NASA Community College Network

The SETI Institute’s NASA Community College Network (NCCN) is a major initiative to bring NASA Subject Matter Experts (SME), research findings, and science resources into the nation’s community college system. NCCN is a constituent team of the Science Activation program, part of NASA’s Science Mission Directive (SMD).

Guided by needs assessments of both community college instructors (CCIs) and SMEs to engage in outreach, NCCN will consist of three key engagement deliverables:

1) To broker direct partnerships between NASA science subject matter experts and community college instructors teaching astronomy, space science and related courses.

2) To provide a set of high-quality, curated, audience-appropriate NASA resources created with or by NASA scientists to support their outreach and engagement and implemented by the community college instructor.

3) To provide professional development and training for both groups:

a) Community college instructors: we want to support or extend their knowledge of NASA science or research topics and help them communicate new or more engaging concepts to their students.

b) NASA subject matter experts: we want to help them engage effectively with the instructors and students at community colleges. For scientists new to outreach, we want to help them understand community college audiences and how best to work with them.

NCCN is funded by NASA SMD Cooperative Agreement 80NSSC21M0009

News & Events

Fri, Mar 14, 2025

NCCN Meeting & Events Calendar

View upcoming NCCN Meetings & Industry Events on our NCCN Calendar of Events

American Astronomical Society - AA 246 - June 8-12th 2025, Anchorage, Alaska

Upcoming Webinars in 2025, look for zoom registration links in your email:

March 25th, 1pm PST: Introduction to the Jupiter System, presented by Carl Schmidt
April 9th, 1pm PST: Harvard Astronomy and Celestial Navigation, presented by Max Mulhern
April 14th, 3pm PST: AGISETI, Presented by Vishal Gajjar and Joel Earwicker

Fri, Mar 14, 2025

Lunar Eclipse from the Moon

As we had hoped, the Blue Ghost lander on the Moon captured images of the lunar eclipse last night FROM THE MOON.

From the Moon, the Earth covered the Sun during the eclipse. Here you see the Sun just starting to emerge again from behind the Earth as the eclipse drew to a close.

The private company that landed Blue Ghost hopes to release other eclipse images soon, but we wanted to share this historic first release with you as soon as it came out.

Things may be crazy here on Earth, but it might be a bit reassuring for your students to know that the cycles of the solar system continue on in a predictable way.

Mon, Dec 16, 2024

NASA’s Webb Finds Planet-Forming Disks Lived Longer in Early Universe

In 2003, Hubble provided evidence of a massive planet around a very old star, almost as old as the universe. Such stars possess only small amounts of heavier elements that are the building blocks of planets. This implied that some planet formation happened when our universe was very young, and those planets had time to form and grow big inside their primordial disks, even bigger than Jupiter. But how? This was puzzling.

For more information, click here for the NASA article.

Mon, Oct 14, 2024

Europa Clipper Launch - Signal Acquired !!

NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft — designed to explore its namesake, Jupiter’s moon Europa — launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket Monday at 12:06 p.m. ET from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The event streamed live on NASA’s website.

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launches the Europa Clipper mission October 14 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida to study one of Jupiter's moons, which could hold the ingredients for life. (Photo credit: Joe Skipper/Reuters)

Mon, Jul 01, 2024

NCCN Community College Receives NASA MUREP Project Funding

NASA has selected 23 minority-serving institutions to receive $1.2 million to grow their research and technology capabilities, collaborate on research projects, and contribute to the agency’s missions for the benefit of humanity.

While most of the funding is usually awarded to four-year universities, this cohort includes one of NCCN's community colleges - Delgado Community College, New Orleans, Louisiana, which will use their funding to provide education and access to learning about CubeSat projects.

Congratulations !!

NASA.gov link

Thu, Jun 13, 2024

NASA planned spacewalk

NASA astronauts Tracy C. Dyson and Matt Dominick will exit the station’s Quest airlock to begin their spacewalk outside of the International Space Station (ISS) scheduled at 8am, Thursday, June 13, 2024. NASA coverage begins at 6 am EDT on NASA+, NASA app, and YouTube .

Click here for NASA mission updates.

Mon, Apr 08, 2024

NASA Solar Eclipse Events 2024

On April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse moved across North America, passing over parts of Mexico, cutting through the United States, and the edge of Canada.

View the official NASA Solar Eclipse website

Thu, Feb 22, 2024

NASA Science Returns to the Moon with Intuitive Machines-1 Lunar Landing

Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 mission made history on Feb. 22, with the first successful Moon landing by a company.

Carrying NASA science and technology to the Moon, Intuitive Machines’ uncrewed lunar lander touched down at 5:23 p.m. CST on Thursday. The instruments aboard Odysseus will prepare NASA for future human exploration of the Moon under Artemis.

Updates here: blogs.NASA.gov/Artemis

Fri, Oct 13, 2023

2023 Annular Eclipse: Where and When

The Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023, annular solar eclipse will cross North, Central, and South America. It will be visible in parts of the United States, Mexico, and many countries in South and Central America.

https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/future-eclipses/eclipse-2023/where-when/