National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA released reports (NOAA, NASA) showing that 2014 was the warmest year on record for temperatures of both land and ocean surfaces. Japan’s Meteorological Agency confirmed that their records also show 2014 as the warmest year.

On December 16, NASA and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists released separate studies reporting significant declines in groundwater in the Western U.S.

On December 5, NASA successfully tested its new Orion capsule, designed to carry humans to deep space destinations like Mars or an asteroid.

On October 16, President Obama nominated MIT professor Dava Newman as Deputy Administrator of NASA. Previous Deputy Administrator Lori Garver resigned in September 2013 to manage the Air Line Pilots Association.

NASA’s Langley Research Center and the Department of the Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) have entered into a one-year agreement to test small unmanned aerial systems (UAS) for detecting brush and forest fires in the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in Suffolk, VA.

On September 23, NASA announced that they have contracted two private companies, Boeing and SpaceX, to transport American astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).

On June 25, the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology held a full committee hearing on the future of space exploration and NASA’s goal of landing humans on Mars.

NASA is asking the public for help in identifying asteroids suitable for study in its Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM), with the goal of capturing an asteroid with a robotic spacecraft, redirecting it to orbit the moon, and ultimately sending astronauts to study it.

During this Atlantic summer hurricane season, NASA plans to widen its tropical storm studies with the addition of two unmanned Global Hawk aircraft ideal for flying over storms and monitoring the conditions under which they form and intensify.

The House passed the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act (H.R. 4660) on May 30 by a vote of 321-87.