A hand-drawn engineering design package, or sketchbook, offers a look at the early engineering days at Sandia. The sketchbooks for the Vela satellite program, dated from the 1960s, are housed in Sandia’s National Security Technology Gallery. They were on display at the Labs as a part of National Engineers Week in February 2026. Learn more at bit.ly/4rzrsoR Photo by Craig Fritz

F.E. Thompson holds Sandia’s engineering design package as he and W.B. Goldrick assemble logics systems in a Vela Hotel satellite frame. The first Vela Hotel satellite pair was launched in 1963. These 1960s sketchbooks for the Vela satellite program are housed in Sandia’s National Security Technology Gallery. They were on display at the Labs as a part of National Engineers Week in February 2026. Learn more at bit.ly/4rzrsoR Photo courtesy of the Lab News archives

The ability to rapidly design and manufacture hardware for nuclear weapons and other missions is essential to develop new systems at pace to meet the nation’s security needs. On Feb. 12, 2026, leaders from Sandia, the National Nuclear Security Administration and Kansas City National Security Campus cut the ribbon on the Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Innovation, or CAMINO, a capability that enables rapid prototyping and shortens development life cycles. Learn more at bit.ly/4cOSgwH Photo by Craig Fritz

Labs Director Laura McGill welcomed NNSA Administrator Brandon Williams for a daylong visit in February 2026, marking his first trip to Sandia since the Senate confirmed him as DOE Under Secretary for Nuclear Security. “It’s really incredible, the capabilities that you practice here at Sandia,” said Williams. “My focus is deterrence. That’s what I think about when I wake up. That’s what I think about when I go to bed.” Learn more at bit.ly/4sdIFUO Photo by Craig Fritz

Mechanical engineer David Krawczyk places multi-contact probes into a cryogenic probe station for environmental printed circuit board tests. Engineers at Sandia ensure that innovation is not just a theory but that the highest technical and operational standards are put into practice. In honor of National Engineers Week, hosted by the National Society of Professional Engineers in February 2026, Sandia selected a few photos of engineering happening around the Labs. See more photos at bit.ly/4b0XnZr Photo by Craig Fritz

Sandia California was established in 1956 with a small group of employees focused on coordinating nuclear weapons projects with the University of California Radiation Laboratory, Livermore Branch — now Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory — across the street. The site is now home base for more than 2,000 workforce members. The photo shows Sandia California’s current front entrance sign along Greenville Road. Learn more at bit.ly/3OBJJ6p Photo by Spencer Toy

Sandia California celebrates 70 years on March 8, 2026. The site in Livermore was established in 1956 with a small group of employees focused on coordinating nuclear weapons projects with the University of California Radiation Laboratory, Livermore Branch — now Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory — across the street. The site is now home base for more than 2,000 workforce members. This historical photo shows Sandia California’s original entrance on East Avenue, taken before 1970 when the logo changed to the modern version. The entrance is no longer accessible to traffic, though the buildings are still in use. Learn more at bit.ly/3OBJJ6p Photo courtesy of Lab News archives

Sandia researchers design porous liquids that can selectively trap methane and other valuable chemicals from food scraps, manure and other waste. The team has already created dozens of porous liquids that could one day support biogas capture at places like wastewater treatment plants and agricultural facilities. Sandia materials engineer Jessica Rimsza uses a sonication probe to thoroughly mix powder in a solvent to make porous liquid for further testing. Learn more at bit.ly/4cAiiEb Photo by Craig Fritz

Sandia researchers design porous liquids that can selectively trap methane and other valuable chemicals from food scraps, manure and other waste. The team has already created dozens of porous liquids that could one day support biogas capture at places like wastewater treatment plants and agricultural facilities, potentially providing a supplemental domestic energy source to support U.S. energy independence. Learn more at bit.ly/4cAiiEb Photo by Craig Fritz

Eight teams from Sandia, one individual and two NNSA-led teams received one of National Nuclear Security Administration’s most prestigious awards: the Defense Programs Award of Excellence. NNSA said that Sandia is demonstrating it can move at a pace that responds to new threats. Learn more at bit.ly/4rSoT0U Photo by Craig Fritz

Sandia hosted a Future City Competition, where middle school students presented their visions for cities where food was not only abundant, but also responsibly stewarded from farm to table. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency, nearly 40% of food produced in the U.S. is wasted and accounts for 28% of the world’s agricultural land use and 25% of agricultural water use. Learn more at bit.ly/4bSRNcC Photo by Craig Fritz

More than 50 Albuquerque high school students gathered at Explora Science Center and Children’s Museum for Sandia’s 2026 Thunderbird Hacks. The hackathon introduced students to artificial intelligence models and STEM careers during a full day of learning about computer science, coding and AI. Learn more at bit.ly/4bd53I4 Photo by David Lienemann

NASA’s VIPER rover, designed to map water at the moon’s south pole, reached a major milestone with help from Sandia and its Superfuge, a unique facility with one-of-a-kind testing capabilities. The Superfuge can subject test items to inertial forces up to 300 times the force of the Earth’s gravity. It can also accommodate a 16,000-pound payload capacity while integrating vibration, spin, thermal and shock environments simultaneously, mimicking flight conditions from launch to reentry. “There is not another machine in the world that has the capabilities we do here,” said Orlando Abeyta, Sandia operations engineer at the Superfuge. Learn more at bit.ly/49JuMGn Photo by Craig Fritz

NASA’s VIPER rover, designed to map water at the moon’s south pole, reached a major milestone with help from Sandia and its Superfuge, a unique facility with one-of-a-kind testing capabilities. Sandia operations engineer Orlando Abeyta works on wiring prior to placing a cage around and attaching VIPER to the arm of the Superfuge. Learn more at bit.ly/49JuMGn Photo by Craig Fritz

NASA’s VIPER rover, designed to map water at the moon’s south pole, reached a major milestone with help from Sandia and its Superfuge, a unique facility with one-of-a-kind testing capabilities. To get the rover ready for tests, an engineer and technologist work on sensor connections while VIPER is suspended in a cage at the end of the Superfuge arm at Sandia. Learn more at bit.ly/49JuMGn Photo by David Lienemann

NASA’s VIPER rover, designed to map water at the moon’s south pole, reached a major milestone with help from Sandia and its Superfuge, a unique facility with one-of-a-kind testing capabilities. To power up the test, a team of technologists set up electrical connections. Sandia’s Superfuge can subject test items to inertial forces up to 300 times the force of Earth’s gravity and mimic flight conditions from launch to reentry. Learn more at bit.ly/49JuMGn Photo by David Lienemann

After accelerating innovation across the Labs through a focus on design thinking principles, Sandia is now targeting three new goals to meet national security challenges head-on. “Sandia is different now than it was in September 2023,” Labs Director Laura McGill said. “We have made significant progress since that time as a result of efforts across the Labs, driven by the urgency of the moment as we deter nuclear peer adversaries and a host of other threats.” Learn more at bit.ly/3ZCUpDZ Photo by Craig Fritz

Sandia’s Roberta Rivera watched her mom, Esther Montoya, nurture hundreds of students during her career at West Mesa High School. Roberta remembers being in awe of her mom and, as often happens with children, picked up lessons along the way. Now a community relations specialist at the Labs, Roberta reflects on a decades-long career dedicated to helping people and serving the community. Learn more at bit.ly/4r77Ybb Photo by Craig Fritz

Sandia’s newest supercomputer, Spectra, is the first to incorporate specialized chips that analyze code to prioritize tasks in real time. The potential payoff is increased performance and reduced power consumption. The collaboration between Sandia, NextSilicon and Penguin Computing could reshape how the nation performs high-stakes simulations critical to its nuclear deterrence mission. Learn more at bit.ly/49XEjep Photo by Craig Fritz