NASA has announced the availability of Athena, its newest and most powerful supercomputer, housed at the Ames Research Center in California. Rolled out to users in January 2026 after beta testing, Athena strengthens NASA’s ability to support complex space, aeronautics, and science missions while improving energy efficiency and lowering computing costs.

BulletsIn

• Athena is NASA’s most powerful supercomputer, delivering over 20 petaflops of peak computational performance.

• Installed at NASA’s Modular Supercomputing Facility, Ames Research Center, in California’s Silicon Valley.

• Surpasses earlier NASA systems Aitken and Pleiades in both computing power and energy efficiency.

• Supports critical tasks such as rocket launch simulations, aircraft design, and large-scale artificial intelligence model training.

• Developed under NASA’s High-End Computing Capability project, managed by the Office of the Chief Science Data Officer.

• Available to NASA researchers and external scientists supporting NASA programs through an application-based access system.

• Part of a hybrid computing strategy combining in-house supercomputers with commercial cloud platforms.

• Named Athena after the Greek goddess of wisdom, reflecting its role in powering future space exploration and discovery.