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Digital content creators are invited to register to attend the launch of the ninth SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket that will carry astronauts to the International Space Station for a science expedition mission. This mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Launch of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission is targeted for no earlier than mid-August from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The launch will carry NASA astronauts Zena Cardman, commander; Nick Hague, pilot; and Stephanie Wilson, mission specialist; along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov, mission specialist. If your passion is to communicate and engage the world online, then this is the event for you! Seize the opportunity to see and share the #Crew9 mission launch. A maximum of 50 social media users will be selected to attend this two-day event and will be given access similar to news media. NASA Social participants will have the opportunity to: View a crewed launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft Tour NASA facilities at Kennedy Space Center Meet and interact with Crew-9 subject matter experts Meet fellow space enthusiasts who are active on social media Registration for this event opens on Wednesday, July 17, and the deadline to apply is at 10 a.m. EDT on Monday, July 22. All social applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis. APPLY NOW Do I need to have a social media account to register? Yes. This event is designed for people who: Actively use multiple social networking platforms and tools to disseminate information to a unique audience. Regularly produce new content that features multimedia elements. Have the potential to reach a large number of people using digital platforms, or reach a unique audience, separate and distinctive from traditional news media and/or NASA audiences. Must have an established history of posting content on social media platforms. Have previous postings that are highly visible, respected and widely recognized. Users on all social networks are encouraged to use the hashtag #NASASocial and #Crew9. Updates and information about the event will be shared on X via @NASASocial and @NASAKennedy, and via posts to Facebook and Instagram. How do I register? Registration for this event opens on Wednesday, July 17, and the deadline to apply is at 10 a.m. EDT on Monday, July 22. All social applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Can I register if I am not a U.S. citizen? Because of the security deadlines, registration is limited to U.S. citizens. If you have a valid permanent resident card, you will be processed as a U.S. citizen. When will I know if I am selected? After registrations have been received and processed, an email with confirmation information and additional instructions will be sent to those selected. We expect to send the acceptance notifications by August 7. What are NASA Social credentials? All social applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Those chosen must prove through the registration process they meet specific engagement criteria. If you do not make the registration list for this NASA Social, you still can attend the launch offsite and participate in the conversation online. Find out about ways to experience a launch here. What are the registration requirements? Registration indicates your intent to travel to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and attend the two-day event in person. You are responsible for your own expenses for travel, accommodations, food, and other amenities. Some events and participants scheduled to appear at the event are subject to change without notice. NASA is not responsible for loss or damage incurred as a result of attending. NASA, moreover, is not responsible for loss or damage incurred if the event is cancelled with limited or no notice. Please plan accordingly. Kennedy is a government facility. Those who are selected will need to complete an additional registration step to receive clearance to enter the secure areas. IMPORTANT: To be admitted, you will need to provide two forms of unexpired government-issued identification; one must be a photo ID and match the name provided on the registration. Those without proper identification cannot be admitted. For a complete list of acceptable forms of ID, please visit: NASA Credentialing Identification Requirements. All registrants must be at least 18 years old. What if the launch date changes? Many different factors can cause a scheduled launch date to change multiple times. If the launch date changes, NASA may adjust the date of the NASA Social accordingly to coincide with the new target launch date. NASA will notify registrants of any changes by email. If the launch is postponed, attendees will be invited to attend a later launch date. NASA cannot accommodate attendees for delays beyond 72 hours. NASA Social attendees are responsible for any additional costs they incur related to any launch delay. We strongly encourage participants to make travel arrangements that are refundable and/or flexible. What if I cannot come to the Kennedy Space Center? If you cannot come to the Kennedy Space Center and attend in person, you should not register for the NASA Social. You can follow the conversation online using #NASASocial. You can watch the launch on NASA+ or plus.nasa.gov. NASA will provide regular launch and mission updates on @NASA, @NASAKennedy, and @Commercial_Crew, as well as on NASA’s Commercial Crew Program blog. If you cannot make this NASA Social, don’t worry; NASA is planning many other Socials in the near future at various locations! Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA International Space Station Launch Pad 39B Kennedy Space Center Commercial Crew Program View the full article

The crew of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission to the International Space Station poses for a photo during training in Hawthorne, California.Credit: SpaceX Media accreditation now is open for the launch of NASA’s ninth rotational mission of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft that will carry astronauts to the International Space Station for a science expedition. This mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Launch of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission is targeted for no earlier than mid-August from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, pending completion of the company’s ongoing Falcon 9 investigation. Crew safety and mission assurance are top priorities for NASA and its partners. The launch will carry NASA astronauts Zena Cardman, commander; Nick Hague, pilot; and Stephanie Wilson, mission specialist; along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov, mission specialist. This is the first spaceflight for Cardman and Gorbunov, the second mission to the orbiting laboratory for Hague, and fourth spaceflight for Wilson, who has spent 42 days in space aboard three space shuttle Discovery missions – STS-120, STS-121, and STS-131. U.S. media, international media without U.S. citizenship, and U.S. citizens representing international media organizations must apply by 11:59 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, July 31. All accreditation requests must be submitted online at: [Hidden Content] NASA’s media accreditation policy is online. For questions about accreditation or special logistical requests, email: ksc*****@*****.tld. Requests for space for satellite trucks, tents, or electrical connections are due by Thursday, Aug. 1. For other questions, please contact NASA Kennedy’s newsroom at: 321-867-2468. Para obtener información sobre cobertura en español en el Centro Espacial Kennedy o si desea solicitar entrevistas en español, comuníquese **** Antonia Jaramillo: 321-501-8425, o Messod Bendayan: 256-930-1371. For launch coverage and more information about the mission, visit: [Hidden Content] -end- Joshua Finch / Claire O’Shea Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1100 *****@*****.tld / claire.a.o’*****@*****.tld Steve Siceloff / Danielle Sempsrott / Stephanie Plucinsky Kennedy Space Center, Florida 321-867-2468 steven.p*****@*****.tld / *****@*****.tld / *****@*****.tld Leah Cheshier Johnson Space Center, Houston 281-483-5111 *****@*****.tld Share Details Last Updated Jul 17, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related TermsHumans in SpaceCommercial CrewCommercial SpaceInternational Space Station (ISS)ISS ResearchJohnson Space CenterKennedy Space Center View the full article

23 Min Read The Next Full Moon is the Buck or Thunder Moon Mule deer buck, Yellowstone National Park The Next Full Moon is the Buck or Thunder Moon; the Hay or Mead Moon; Guru Purnima; Asalha Puja (aka Dharma Day or Esala Poya); and the start of Vassa. The next full Moon will be Sunday morning, July 21, 2024, appearing opposite the Sun (in Earth-based longitude) at 6:17 AM EDT. For the International Date Line West and the ********* Samoa and Midway time zones this will be late Saturday night. For Line Islands Time this will be early Monday morning. The Moon will appear full for about three days around this time, from Friday evening through Monday morning, making this a full Moon weekend. The Maine Farmers’ Almanac began publishing “Indian” names for full Moons in the 1930s and these names are now widely known and used. According to this almanac, as the full Moon in June the Algonquin tribes of what is now the northeastern ******* States called this the Buck Moon. Early summer is normally when the new antlers of buck deer push out of their foreheads in coatings of velvety fur. They also called this the Thunder Moon because of early Summer’s frequent thunderstorms. Europeans called this the Hay Moon for the haymaking of early summer, and sometimes the Mead Moon (although this name was also used for the previous full Moon). Mead is created by fermenting honey mixed with water, sometimes adding fruits, spices, grains, or hops. For Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains, this is the Guru Full Moon (Guru Purnima), celebrated as a time for clearing the mind and honoring the guru or spiritual master. For Theravada Buddhists this full Moon is Asalha Puja, also known as Dharma Day or Esala Poya, an important festival celebrating the Buddha’s first sermon after reaching nirvana, which started Buddhism. This sermon became the core of Buddhist teachings and includes the four noble truths. In addition, with this full Moon the Buddhist Monks start Vassa, the annual three-month retreat during the rainy season. In many traditional lunisolar and lunar calendars full Moons fall on or near the middle of the lunar months. This full Moon is near the middle of the sixth month of the ******** year of the Dragon, Tammuz in the Hebrew calendar, and Muharram in the Islamic calendar. Muharram is one of the four sacred months during which warfare is forbidden. Since this is the Thunder Moon, a quick note on lightning safety. Most of the lightning that strikes the ground arcs from the negatively charged bottom of the storm to the ground underneath the storm. Much rarer is positive lightning, which arcs from the top of a thunderstorm to strike much farther away. Positive lightning can sometimes strike areas where the sky is clear (hence the term “bolt out of the blue”). NOAA’s Lightning FAQ Page says that almost all lightning will occur within 10 miles of its parent thunderstorm, but that lightning detection equipment has confirmed bolts striking up to almost 50 miles away. Because positive lightning arcs across a greater distance it tends to be 5 to 10 times more powerful than regular ground strikes. It can strike dry areas outside of the storm’s rainfall, so positive lightning tends to start more fires than negative lightning. Although positive lightning is rare (less than 5% of all lightning strikes), the lack of warning and its greater power make it more lethal. A good rule to follow is, if you can hear the thunder, you can be struck by lightning. As a bicycle enthusiast and daily commuter (before I retired) I am well aware that the inch or so of rubber tire between my metal bicycle and the ground will make little difference to a bolt that can arc across miles of air from the top of a thunderstorm to where I am riding. As usual, the wearing of suitably celebratory celestial attire is encouraged in honor of the full Moon. Be safe (especially during thunderstorms), avoid starting wars, and take a moment to clear your mind. As for other celestial events between now and the full Moon after next (with specific times and angles based on the location of NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.): As summer continues the daily periods of sunlight continue to shorten from their longest on the summer solstice on June 20, 2024. On Sunday, July 21, (the day of the full Moon), morning twilight will begin at 4:52 AM, sunrise will be at 6:00 AM, solar noon at 1:15 PM when the Sun will reach its maximum altitude of 71.4 degrees, sunset will be at 8:28 PM, and evening twilight will end at 9:37 PM. By Monday, Aug. 21, (the day of the full Moon after next), morning twilight will begin at 5:24 AM, sunrise will be at 6:26 AM, solar noon at 1:11 PM when the Sun will reach its maximum altitude of 63.6 degrees, sunset will be at 7:57 PM, and evening twilight will end at 8:58 PM. Six meteor showers are predicted to peak during this lunar cycle, including one of the best meteor showers of the year for the Southern Hemisphere and one of the best meteor showers of the year for the Northern Hemisphere. On July 31, 2024, the Southern Delta Aquariids (005 SDA) meteor shower is predicted to peak at 25 meteors per hour (under ideal conditions). This shower is one of the most active annual sources for the Southern Hemisphere, but viewing it from our more northern latitudes will be difficult. As reported by the International Meteor Organization, this shower has a broad peak, and in past years observers from Australia (in 1977) and Crete (in 2003) have reported outbursts of 40 meteors per hour several days before the predicted peak. On the morning of the predicted peak (July 31), the best time to look (from the Washington, D.C. area) will likely be from after midnight until about 2 AM. The radiant (the point from which the meteors appear to radiate out from) will rise on the east-southeastern horizon on July 30 at about 10:15 PM. Since half of the meteors are hidden by the horizon at radiant rise, waiting until the radiant is higher in the sky should make more meteors visible. But moonrise will be at 1:58 AM (when the radiant will be about 30 degrees above the south-southeastern horizon). After moonrise moonlight will interfere with seeing these meteors, making our window for seeing these meteors fairly short. The parent body for this meteor shower is not certain, but they are caused by dust entering our atmosphere at 41 kilometers per second (92,000 miles per hour), so fast that air gets compressed and heated until it glows white-hot. This should be a good year for the annual Perseid meteor shower. The Perseids (007 PER) meteor shower is predicted to peak on Monday, Aug. 12, 2024, between 9 AM and Noon EDT (when we can’t see them). At its peak (under ideal conditions) the Perseids can produce about 100 visible meteors per hour, making it one of the three best meteor showers of the year for the Northern Hemisphere (the others being the Quadrantids in early January and the Geminids in mid December). The time closest to the predicted peak that we can see will be the early morning of Aug. 12. Moonset will be a little before midnight on Aug. 11, and the radiant will rise higher in the north-northeastern sky until the sky shows the first signs of dawn (before morning twilight begins at 5:16 AM). The peak is broad, and in past years high activity has been reported well after the peak, so keep an eye on the sky between moonset and the first hints of dawn for the nights before and after the predicted peak. The Perseid meteor shower is caused by dust from the comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle entering our atmosphere at 59 kilometers per second (132,000 miles per hour) – as previously noted, so fast that air gets compressed and heated until it glows white-hot. The best conditions for viewing these meteors would be if the weather is clear with no clouds or high hazes, you go to a place far from any light sources or urban light pollution, and you have a clear view of a wide expanse of the sky. Be sure to give your eyes plenty of time to adapt to the dark. The rod cells in your eyes are more sensitive to low light levels but play little role in ****** vision. Your ******-sensing cone cells are concentrated near the center of your view with more of the rod cells on the edge of your view. Since some meteors are faint, you will tend to see more meteors from the “corner of your eye” (which is why you need a view of a large part of the sky). Your ****** vision (cone cells) will adapt to darkness in about 10 minutes, but your more sensitive night vision will continue to improve for an hour or more (with most of the improvement in the first 35 to 45 minutes). The more sensitive your eyes are, the more chance you have of seeing meteors. Even a short exposure to light (from passing car ***********, etc.) will start the adaptation over again (so no turning on a light or your cell phone to check what time it is). The other four meteor showers, the July Gamma Draconids (184 GDR), Alpha Capricornids (001 CAP), Eta Eridanids (191 ERI), and Kappa Cygnids (012 KCG), are all expected to produce less than five meteors per hour under ideal conditions (which most of us don’t have in our urban and suburban environs) but if you happen to be out with a clear sky late at night or in the early morning, your odds of spotting a meteor are a little higher than usual. No comets are expected to be visible this lunar cycle. Evening Sky Highlights On the evening of Sunday, July 21, 2024 (the evening of the day of the full Moon), as twilight ends (at 9:37 PM EDT), the rising Moon will be 3 degrees above the east-southeastern horizon. The bright planet Mercury will be 1 degree above the west-northwestern horizon and six minutes away from setting. The planet Venus will set 22 minutes before twilight ends, but will be bright enough to see in the glow of dusk, low on the west-northwestern horizon before it sets. The bright object appearing closest to overhead will be Vega, the brightest star in the constellation Lyra the lyre, at 65 degrees above the eastern horizon. Vega is one of the three bright stars in the “Summer Triangle,” along with Deneb and Altair. It is the fifth-brightest star in our night sky, about 25 light-years from Earth, has twice the mass of our Sun, and shines 40 times brighter than our Sun. As this lunar cycle progresses the background of stars will appear to shift westward each evening (as the Earth moves around the Sun), while the planet Mercury will initially dwell low on the west-northwestern horizon, shifting towards the left. On July 24 Mercury will be 2 degrees below the bright star Regulus, and this will be the last evening Mercury will be above the horizon as twilight ends (although it may remain visible in the glow of dusk before twilight ends into early August). The bright planet Venus will also be visible in the glow of dusk, gradually shifting away from the Sun, but will not be above the horizon as twilight ends until late August. The bright star Regulus will appear about 1 degree to the lower right of Venus on Aug. 4, low on the west-northwestern horizon, with Regulus setting 17 minutes before evening twilight ends. The waxing Moon will pass by Venus and Regulus on Aug. 5 (setting before evening twilight ends), Spica on Aug. 9 and 10, and Antares on Aug. 13. Aug. 16 will be the first evening that the planet Saturn will be above the eastern horizon as evening twilight ends. By the evening of Monday, Aug. 19 (the evening of the day of the full Moon after next), as twilight ends (at 8:58 PM), the rising Moon will be 7 degrees above the east-southeastern horizon. The only visible planet in the sky will be Saturn at 1.5 degrees above the eastern horizon. The planet Venus will set four minutes before twilight ends but will be bright enough to see in the glow of dusk, low on the western horizon before it sets. The bright object appearing closest to overhead will still be Vega at 80 degrees above the eastern horizon. Morning Sky Highlights On the morning of Sunday, July 21, 2024 (the morning of the day of the full Moon), as twilight begins (at 4:52 AM EDT), the setting Moon will be 7 degrees above the southwestern horizon. The brightest planet in the sky will be Jupiter at 25 degrees above the eastern horizon. Mars will be 33 degrees above the eastern horizon and Saturn 45 degrees above the southern horizon. The bright object appearing closest to overhead will be the star Deneb at 56 degrees above the west-northwestern horizon. Deneb is the 19th brightest star in our night sky and is the brightest star in the constellation Cygnus the swan. Deneb is one of the three bright stars of the Summer Triangle (along with Vega and Altair). It is about 20 times more massive than our Sun but has used up its hydrogen, becoming a blue-white supergiant about 200 times the diameter of the Sun. If Deneb were where our Sun is, it would extend to about the orbit of Earth. Deneb is about 2,600 light-years from us. As this lunar cycle progresses, Jupiter, Saturn, and the background of stars will appear to shift westward each evening, with Mars shifting more slowly and to the left toward Jupiter. The waning Moon will pass by Saturn on July 25, Mars on July 30, Jupiter on July 31, and Pollux on Aug. 2 and 3. Jupiter and Mars will appear at their closest on Aug. 14, after which they will separate again. By the morning of Monday, Aug. 19 (the morning of the day of the full Moon after next), as twilight begins (at 5:24 AM), the setting full Moon will be 5 degrees above the southwestern horizon. The brightest planet in the sky will be Jupiter at 49 degrees above the eastern horizon. Near Jupiter will be Mars at 47 degrees above the eastern horizon. Saturn will be 29 degrees above the southwestern horizon. The bright object appearing closest to overhead will be the star Capella, the brightest star in the constellation Auriga the charioteer, at 55 degrees above the east-northeastern horizon. Although we see Capella as a single star (the sixth-brightest in our night sky), it is actually four stars (two pairs of stars orbiting each other). Capella is about 43 light-years from us. Detailed Daily Guide Here for your reference is a day-by-day listing of celestial events between now and the full Moon after next. The times and angles are based on the location of NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., and some of these details may differ for where you are (I use parentheses to indicate times specific to the D.C. area). Wednesday night into early Thursday morning, July 17 to 18, 2024, the bright star Antares will appear near the waxing gibbous Moon. As evening twilight ends (at 9:40 PM EDT) Antares will be 3 degrees to the upper right of the Moon. The Moon will reach its highest in the sky 27 minutes later (at 10:07 PM). As Antares sets (at 2:21 AM) it will be 5 degrees to the lower right of the Moon. For much of the southern part of ******* the Moon will pass in front of Antares earlier on Wednesday. See [Hidden Content] (external link) for a map and information on the locations that will see this occultation. As mentioned above, the full Moon will be Sunday morning, July 21, 2024, appearing opposite the Sun (in Earth-based longitude) at 6:17 AM EDT. This will be late Saturday night in the International Date Line West and the ********* Samoa and Midway time zones, and early Monday morning in the Line Islands Time zone. The Moon will appear full for about three days around this time, from Friday evening through Monday morning, making this a full Moon weekend. Early Monday morning, July 22, 2024, will be when the planet Mercury reaches its greatest angular separation from the Sun as seen from Earth for this apparition (called greatest elongation). Because the angle between the line from the Sun to Mercury and the line of the horizon changes with the seasons, the date when Mercury and the Sun appear farthest apart as seen from Earth is not always the same as when Mercury appears highest above the horizon as evening twilight ends (which occurred on July 13). Early Wednesday morning, July 24, 2024, at 1:43 AM EDT, the Moon will be at perigee, its closest to Earth for this orbit. Wednesday evening, July 24, 2024, will be the last evening that the planet Mercury will be above the west-northwestern horizon as evening twilight ends (at 9:34 PM EDT), setting one minute later. This will also be the evening when Mercury will appear closest to the bright star Regulus, which will be 2 degrees above Mercury on the horizon. Wednesday night into Thursday morning, July 24 to 25, 2024, the planet Saturn will appear near the waning gibbous Moon. At moonrise on the eastern horizon (at 10:45 PM EDT) Saturn will be 4 degrees to the upper right of the Moon. By the time the Moon reaches its highest (at 4:42 AM) Saturn will be 7 degrees to the lower right, with morning twilight beginning 14 minutes later. See [Hidden Content] (external link) for a map and information on where the Moon will block Saturn from view. Saturday evening July 27, 2024, the waning Moon will appear half-full as it reaches its last quarter at 10:52 PM EDT (when we can’t see it). Tuesday, July 30, 2024, the planet Mars will appear 4 degrees to the lower right of the waning crescent Moon with the Pleiades star cluster to the upper right of the Moon. Mars will rise on the east-northeastern horizon (at 1:39 AM EDT) with the Pleiades star cluster 5 degrees to the upper right of the Moon. Morning twilight will begin more than three hours later (at 5:01 AM) with the Pleiades 7 degrees to the upper right. As described earlier in this posting, early Wednesday morning, July 31, 2024, from about midnight until moonrise (at 1:58 AM EDT) will likely be the best time to look toward the southeast for the Southern Delta Aquariids (005 SDA) meteor shower. Although viewing from our more northern latitudes will be limited, this shower is one of the most active annual sources for the Southern Hemisphere (with a predicted peak of 25 meteors per hour under ideal conditions). This shower has a broad peak, and rare outbursts of up to 40 meteors per hour have been reported days before the predicted peak (in 1977 and 2003). You might have an increased chance of seeing meteors in the early mornings from after midnight to before moonrise around this date. Friday morning, Aug. 2, 2024, the bright star Pollux (the brighter of the twin stars in the constellation Gemini) will appear 8 degrees to the lower left of the waning crescent Moon. Pollux will rise after the Moon on the northeastern horizon (at 4:24 AM EDT) and morning twilight will begin 41 minutes later (at 5:05 AM). The next morning, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024, the thin, waning crescent Moon will have shifted to 7 degrees below Pollux. The Moon will rise (at 4:59 AM EDT) on the east-northeastern horizon just six minutes before morning twilight begins. Throughout this lunar cycle the planet Mars will be passing above the bright star Aldebaran as it moves towards the bright planet Jupiter. Sunday morning, Aug. 4, 2024, will be when Mars and Aldebaran will be at their closest, about 5 degrees apart. Jupiter, Mars, and Aldebaran will form a triangle, with Mars above, Aldebaran to the lower right (matching Mars in brightness), and bright Jupiter to the lower left. Aldebaran will rise last (at 1:53 AM EDT) on the east-northeastern horizon and will be 37 degrees above the eastern horizon as morning twilight begins (at 5:07 AM). The constellation Orion will appear on the horizon below this triangle. Sunday morning, Aug. 4, 2024, at 7:13 AM EDT, will be the new Moon, when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun and will not be visible from the Earth. The day of, or the day after the New Moon marks the start of the new month for most lunisolar calendars. Aug. 4 is the start of the seventh month of the ******** Year of the Dragon. Sundown on Aug. 4 is the start of Av in the Hebrew calendar. In the Islamic calendar the months traditionally start with the first sighting of the waxing crescent Moon. Many ******* communities now follow the Umm al-Qura Calendar of Saudi Arabia, which uses astronomical calculations to start months in a more predictable way. Using this calendar, sundown on Sunday, Aug. 4, will probably mark the start of Safar, the second month of the Islamic calendar. Monday evening, Aug. 5, 2024, if you have a very clear view of the western to west-northwestern horizon (particularly with binoculars), you might be able to see the thin, waxing crescent Moon less than a degree above the bright planet Venus, with the bright star Regulus 1.5 degrees below Venus. The planet Mercury (less bright than Regulus) will be 6 degrees to the lower left of Venus. There may only be a short window between when dusk will have faded enough to see Mercury and when Mercury sets 36 minutes after sunset (at 8:50 PM EDT). Regulus will set next nine minutes after Mercury (45 minutes after sunset), followed by Venus eight minutes later (53 minutes after sunset), and the Moon six minutes after that (59 minutes after sunset), six minutes before evening twilight ends (at 9:19 PM). Venus and Regulus will have been at their closest (1 degree apart) the evening before and Mercury and Venus will be at their closest (6 degrees apart) two evenings later, but these will be hard to spot, low on the horizon in the glow of dusk. Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024, at 9:32 PM EDT, the Moon will be at apogee, its farthest from the Earth for this orbit. Friday evening, Aug. 9, 2024, the bright star Spica will appear 5 degrees to the upper left of the waxing crescent Moon. The Moon will be 14 degrees above the west-southwestern horizon as evening twilight ends (at 9:13 PM EDT). The Moon will set first a little more than an hour later (at 10:35 PM). Saturday morning, for part of the western Pacific north of Australia and Indonesia, the Moon will block Spica from view. See [Hidden Content] (external link) for a map and information on locations that can see this occultation. By Saturday evening, Aug. 10, 2024, the waxing crescent Moon will have shifted to 7 degrees to the left of the star Spica as evening twilight ends and the pair will separate as the night progresses. Saturday night, Aug. 10, 2024, will be the night of the seventh day of the seventh month of the ******** calendar, known as the double seventh festival, Qixi in China, Chilseok in Korea, and Thất Tịch in Vietnam. The double seventh festival is sometimes called the ******** Valentine’s Day. There are many variations on the legend, but basically they involve the Milky Way and the three bright stars we know as the Summer Triangle. The star Vega represents the weaver girl and the star Altair represents the cowherd. They fall in love and neglect their duties, so the Goddess of Heaven puts a wide river in the sky, the Milky Way, to keep them apart. They are allowed to meet only one night a year, on the seventh night of the seventh month, when the star Deneb forms a bridge across the Milky Way. In some versions of the legend, the bridge is formed by magpies, so another name is the Magpie Festival. The ********* Tanabata or Star Festival is related, but is no longer tied to the lunisolar date (it is now celebrated on July 7, the double seventh of the Gregorian Calendar). On average there are a little more than seven days between each quarter of the Moon, so the first quarter Moon tends to occur a day or two after the seventh day of the lunisolar month. As described earlier in this post, this should be a good year for the annual Perseids (007 PER) meteor shower, which can peak at more than 100 meteors per hour (under ideal conditions). The time closest to the predicted peak that we can see (from the Washington, D.C. area) will be the early morning of Monday, Aug. 12, 2024. Moonset will be a little before midnight on Aug. 11 and the radiant will rise higher in the north-northeastern sky until the sky shows the first signs of dawn (before morning twilight begins at 5:16 AM). The peak is broad, and in past years high activity has been reported well after the peak, so keep an eye on the sky from moonset to the first hints of dawn on the nights before and after as well. See the meteor shower summary near the beginning of this post for more information on viewing these meteors. Monday morning, Aug. 12, 2024, the Moon will appear half-full as it reaches its first quarter at 11:19 AM EDT (when we can’t see it). Tuesday night, Aug. 13, 2024, the bright star Antares will appear near the waxing gibbous Moon. Antares will be 2.5 degrees to the upper left as evening twilight ends (at 9:08 PM EDT). By the time of moonset on the southwestern horizon (Wednesday morning at 12:30 AM) Antares will be 1 degree above the Moon. Viewers in the southern part of South America and the Antarctic Peninsula will see the Moon pass in front of Antares. See [Hidden Content] (external link) for a map and information on areas that can see this occultation. Throughout this lunar cycle the planet Mars will drift toward the bright planet Jupiter. They will be at their closest on Wednesday morning, Aug. 14, 2024, just a third of a degree apart, which should be a good show! Bright Jupiter will rise early in the morning (at 1:18 AM EDT) on the east-northeastern horizon below Mars. They will be 45 degrees above the eastern horizon as morning twilight begins four hours later (at 5:18 AM). Friday evening, Aug. 16, 2024, will be the first evening that the planet Saturn will be above the eastern horizon as evening twilight ends (at 9:03 PM EDT). Sunday evening, Aug. 18, 2024, the planet Mercury will be passing between Earth and the Sun as seen from Earth, called inferior conjunction. Planets that orbit inside of the orbit of Earth can have two types of conjunctions with the Sun, inferior (when passing between the Earth and the Sun) and superior (when passing on the far side of the Sun as seen from the Earth). Mercury will be shifting from the evening sky to the morning sky and will begin emerging from the glow of dawn on the east-northeastern horizon at the end of August. The full Moon after next will be Monday afternoon, Aug. 19, 2024, at 2:26 PM EDT. This will be Tuesday morning from Nepal Standard Time eastward across the rest of Asia and Australia to the International Date Line. The Moon will appear full for about three days around this time, from Sunday morning through early Wednesday morning. As the third full Moon in a season with four full Moons, this will be a Blue Moon (by the older, more traditional definition). View the full article

3 min read Science Activation’s PLACES Team Facilitates Second Professional Learning Institute The NASA Science Activation Program’s Place-Based Learning to Advance Connections, Education, and Stewardship (PLACES) team successfully led their second Professional Learning (PL) Summer Institute (SI) at Northern Arizona University (NAU) in Flagstaff, Arizona from June 11-13, 2024. The team led a group of 13 educators through a variety of powerful place-based data-rich (PBDR) experiences across the three-day SI. PL kicked off with teachers engaging in an intensive field experience at Hat Ranch that leveraged the ecological expertise of NAU’s subject matter expert, Jared Litson Begay, and using data collection protocols from the NASA-sponsored program, GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) to better understand piñon pine populations in Flagstaff ecosystems. Following this, teachers moved from their primary data collection experiences to exploring secondary data that expanded on the piñon pine focus by leveraging data and the Data Literacy Cubes from My NASA Data (MND). Using and reflecting on GLOBE protocols created powerful conversations where teachers saw how place influenced how they engaged in data collection and how data can help develop new place-based knowledge and connections in their contexts. One teacher even shared that “collecting data using the GLOBE app and making observations about data helped me better understand how I can use these practices with my students.” The MND data and Data Literacy Cubes offered educators the pathways to move from their primary data collection experiences to ask and answer new and exciting questions. In the follow-up survey, teachers shared that they are interested in exploring “additional resources from NASA,” using “local experts or data for small town/rural areas through NASA,” and implementing PBDR instruction using NASA assets in the coming months. 100% of teachers who were surveyed after the PL indicated (1) they agree or strongly agree that they feel greater connection to NASA and knowledge of NASA assets, and (2) they would recommend the PLACES PL to a colleague. In the coming months, the teachers will participate in a virtual Community of Practice where they will implement PBDR experiences in their own contexts, share examples of student work, and elicit feedback from one another to continue improving their practice. The PLACES team would like to give a huge shout-out to those who contributed to planning, developing, and implementing the NAU Summer Institute! Facilitation Team: Sean Michael Ryan (NAU), Lori Rubino-Hare (NAU), Karen Lionberger (WestEd), Frieda Richsman (Concord Consortium) Support Team: Lauren Schollenberger (NAU) Team Member Participants: Barbie Buckner (NASA Langley), Tracy Ostrom (GLOBE, UC Berkeley), Sara Salisbury (WestEd) Observers: Kirsten Dehler, Nicole Wong (WestEd) PLACES is supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number 80NSSC22M0005 and is part of NASA’s Science Activation Portfolio. Learn more about how Science Activation connects NASA science experts, real content, and experiences with community leaders to do science in ways that activate minds and promote deeper understanding of our world and beyond: [Hidden Content] Summer Institute participant uses the GLOBE observer app in the field to gather data on the height of trees at Hat Ranch in Flagstaff, AZ. Share Details Last Updated Jul 17, 2024 Editor NASA Science Editorial Team Related Terms Earth Science Science Activation Explore More 2 min read Celebrate the Heliophysics Big Year with Free Heliophysics and Math Webinars from NASA HEAT Article 1 week ago 2 min read NASA’s Neurodiversity Network Interns Speak at National Space Development Conference Article 1 week ago 1 min read NASA Science Activation Teams Present at National Rural STEM Summit Article 2 weeks ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA James Webb Space Telescope Webb is the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It studies every phase in the… Perseverance Rover This rover and its aerial sidekick were assigned to study the geology of Mars and seek signs of ancient microbial… Parker Solar Probe On a mission to “touch the Sun,” NASA’s Parker Solar Probe became the first spacecraft to fly through the corona… Juno NASA’s Juno spacecraft entered orbit around Jupiter in 2016, the first explorer to peer below the planet’s dense clouds to… View the full article

2 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) An image of a new lodge on Anishnaabe lands in Ontario, Canada, 2023. NASA NASA has been selected by the International Astronautical Federation to receive its 2024 “3G” Diversity Award, which recognizes organizations for their contributions to fostering geographic, generational, and gender diversity in the space sector. NASA’s Indigenous Community-Based Education (CBE) Program is a consortium of partnerships between NASA and numerous, diverse Indigenous communities which co-create unique educational programs for the youth. Through these partnerships, which have been cultivated for the past two decades, Indigenous Knowledge and Western science come together in a community-based way to support the development of learners’ cultural and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) identities. The Indigenous CBE Program is part of NASA’s ********* University Research and Education Project (MUREP) ********* Indian and Alaska Native STEM Engagement activity and is supported by NASA’s Astrobiology Program and Planetary Science Division. The Indigenous CBE Program also works toward more equitable practices in science and supports a diverse workforce by offering working groups that connect Indigenous and Western scientists and educators, as well as mentoring for emerging Indigenous STEM scholars. “Relationships and collaboration are at the heart of this work,” said Daniella Scalice, NASA lead for the Indigenous CBE Program. “This award is shared with all my community-based partners. The women I work with who are serving their youth and community every day – they are the real heroes.” “NASA has had a longstanding commitment to equity in STEM education and research.” said Torry Johnson, deputy associate administrator of STEM Engagement Programs at NASA Headquarters. “MUREP ********* Indian and Alaska Native STEM Engagement provides avenues for NASA to build and nurture relationships, new partnerships, and collaborations with Indigenous communities, and to empower the next generation of Indigenous STEM leaders.” Starting in January, awardees were nominated to the International Astronautical Federation by representatives from other member organizations. NASA will receive the award during the International Astronautical Federation’s annual conference in October. For more information on NASA’s MUREP ********* Indian and Alaska Native STEM Engagement program, visit: [Hidden Content] Share Details Last Updated Jul 17, 2024 Related TermsGeneral Explore More 1 min read Robotic Assembly and Outfitting for NASA Space Missions Article 22 hours ago 1 min read Telepong Article 2 days ago 3 min read NASA Transmits Hip-Hop Song to Deep Space for First Time Article 2 days ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics Missions Humans in Space Climate Change Solar System View the full article

4 min read Discovery Alert: With Six New Worlds, 5,500 Discovery Milestone Passed! NASA’s Exoplanet Archive confirmed four new worlds, bringing the total past 5,500. On Aug. 24, 2023, more than three decades after the first confirmation of planets beyond our own solar system, scientists announced the discovery of six new exoplanets, stretching that number to 5,502. From zero exoplanet confirmations to over 5,500 in just a few decades, this new milestone marks another major step in the journey to understand the worlds beyond our solar system. The Discovery With the discovery of six new exoplanets, scientists have tipped the scales and surpassed 5,500 exoplanets found (there are now 5,502 known exoplanets, to be exact). Just about 31 years ago, in 1992, the first exoplanets were confirmed when scientists detected twin planets Poltergeist and Phobetor orbiting the pulsar PSR B1257+12. In March 2022, just last year, scientists celebrated passing 5,000 exoplanets discovered. Key Facts Scientists have discovered six new exoplanets — HD 36384 b, TOI-198 b, TOI-2095 b, TOI-2095 c, TOI-4860 b, and MWC 758 c — this has pushed the total number of confirmed exoplanets discovered to 5,502. Details HD 36384 b is a super-Jupiter that orbits an enormous M giant star. This planet was discovered using the radial velocity method, which measures the “wobble” of far-off stars that is caused by the gravitational tug of orbiting planets. Orbits a star so large that it clocks in at nearly 40 times the size of our Sun. TOI-198 b is a potentially rocky planet that orbits on the innermost edge of the habitable zone around its star, an M dwarf. This planet was discovered using the transit method, which detects exoplanets as they cross the face of their stars in their orbit, causing the star to temporarily dim. TOI-2095 b and TOI-2095 c are both large, hot super-Earths that orbit in the same system around a shared star, an M dwarf. Planets were both discovered using the transit method. Are close enough to their star that they are likely more similar to Venus than Earth. TOI-4860 b is a Jupiter-sized gas giant, or a “hot Jupiter,” that orbits an M dwarf star. This planet was discovered using the transit method. Completes an orbit every 1.52 days, meaning it is very close to its star. While it is extremely rare for giant planets like this to orbit so closely to Sun-like stars, it is even rarer for them to orbit M-dwarf stars as is the case here. MWC 758 c is a giant protoplanet that orbits a very young star. This star still has its protoplanetary disk, which is a rotating disc of gas and dust that can surround a young star. This planet was discovered using direct imaging. Was found carving spiral arms into its star’s protoplanetary disk. Is one of the first exoplanets discovered in a system where the star has a protoplanetary disk. The field of exoplanet science has exploded since the first exoplanet confirmation in 1992, and with evolving technology, the future for this field looks brighter than ever. In March 2022, NASA passed 5,000 confirmed exoplanets. Tis data sonification allows us to hear the pace of the discovery of those worlds. In this animation, exoplanets are represented by musical notes played across decades of discovery. Circles show location and size of orbit, while their ****** indicates the detection method. Lower notes mean longer orbits, higher notes mean shorter orbits. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/M. Russo, A. Santaguida (SYSTEM Sounds) Watch this video in 3D There are a number of both space and ground-based instruments and observatories that scientists have used to detect and study exoplanets. NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) launched in 2018 and has identified thousands of exoplanet candidates and confirmed over 320 planets. NASA’s flagship space telescopes Spitzer, Hubble, and most recently the James Webb Space Telescope have also been used to discover and study exoplanets. NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is set to launch in May 2027. Roman will be carrying a technology demonstration called the Roman Coronagraph Instrument. This coronagraph will work by using a series of complex masks and mirrors to distort the light coming from far-away stars. By distorting this starlight, the instrument will reveal and directly-image hidden exoplanets. With the success of the Roman Coronagraph Instrument, NASA could push the envelope even further with is a concept for the mission the Habitable Worlds Observatory, which would search for “signatures of life on planets outside of our solar system,” according to the 2020 Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics. The Discoverers These six exoplanets were discovered by different teams as part of five separate studies: TOI-4860 b TOI-2095 b & c HD 36384 b TOI-198 b MWC 758 c Share Details Last Updated Jul 16, 2024 Related Terms Exoplanet Discoveries Exoplanet Exploration Program Exoplanets Gas Giant Exoplanets Studying Exoplanets Super-Earth Exoplanets Terrestrial Exoplanets Explore More 6 min read NASA’s Webb Investigates Eternal Sunrises, Sunsets on Distant World Article 2 days ago 5 min read Webb Finds Plethora of Carbon Molecules Around Young Star Article 1 month ago 4 min read Discovery Alert: Spock’s Home Planet Goes ‘Poof’ Article 2 months ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Exoplanets Universe Roman Exoplanet Catalog View the full article

NASA’s Galileo spacecraft took this image of Earth’s Moon on Dec. 7, 1992, on its way to explore the Jupiter system in 1995-97. The distinct bright ray crater at the bottom of the image is the Tycho impact basin.Credit: NASA NASA will hold a media teleconference at 4 p.m. EDT, Wednesday, July 17, to provide an update on a program within NASA’s Exploration Science Strategy and Integration Office. Audio of the teleconference will stream live on the agency’s website at: [Hidden Content] Participants in the teleconference include: Nicola Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters To ask questions during the teleconference, media must RSVP no later than two hours before the event to Erin Morton at: *****@*****.tld. NASA’s media accreditation policy is available online. The Exploration Science Strategy Integration Office in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate ensures science is infused into all aspects of lunar exploration. Through researching the Moon and its environment, and by using the Moon as an observation platform, NASA strives to gain a greater understanding of the Moon itself, the solar system, the universe, and the deep space environment. To learn more about NASA’s missions for lunar discovery, visit: [Hidden Content] -end- Karen Fox / Erin Morton Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1275 / 202-805-9393 *****@*****.tld / *****@*****.tld Share Details Last Updated Jul 16, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related TermsLunar ScienceScience & ResearchScience Mission Directorate View the full article

Move teams with NASA and Boeing, the SLS (Space Launch System) core stage lead contractor, position the massive rocket stage for NASA’s SLS rocket on special transporters to strategically guide the flight hardware the 1.3-mile distance from the factory floor onto the agency’s Pegasus barge on July 16. The core stage will be ferried to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where it will be integrated with other parts of the rocket that will power NASA’s Artemis II mission. Pegasus is maintained at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility. Credit: NASA NASA rolled out the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket’s core stage for the Artemis II test flight from its manufacturing facility in New Orleans on Tuesday for shipment to the agency’s spaceport in Florida. The rollout is key progress on the path to NASA’s first crewed mission to the Moon under the Artemis campaign. Using highly specialized transporters, engineers maneuvered the giant core stage from inside NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to the agency’s Pegasus barge. The barge will ferry the stage more than 900 miles to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where engineers will prepare it in the Vehicle Assembly Building for attachment to other rocket and Orion spacecraft elements. “With Artemis, we’ve set our sights on doing something big and incredibly complex that will inspire a new generation, advance our scientific endeavors, and move U.S. competitiveness forward,” said Catherine Koerner, associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “The SLS rocket is a key component of our efforts to develop a long-term presence at the Moon.” Technicians moved the SLS rocket stage from inside NASA Michoud on the 55th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11 on July 16, 1969. The move of the rocket stage for Artemis marks the first time since the Apollo Program that a fully assembled Moon rocket stage for a crewed mission rolled out from NASA Michoud. The SLS rocket’s core stage is the largest NASA has ever produced. At 212 feet tall, it consists of five major elements, including two huge propellant tanks that collectively hold more than 733,000 gallons of super-chilled liquid propellant to feed four RS-25 engines. During launch and flight, the stage will operate for just over eight minutes, producing more than 2 million pounds of thrust to propel four astronauts inside NASA’s Orion spacecraft toward the Moon. “The delivery of the SLS core stage for Artemis II to Kennedy Space Center signals a shift from manufacturing to launch readiness as teams continue to make progress on hardware for all major elements for future SLS rockets,” said John Honeycutt, SLS program manager at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “We are motivated by the success of Artemis I and focused on working toward the first crewed flight under Artemis.” After arrival at NASA Kennedy, the stage will undergo additional outfitting inside the Vehicle Assembly Building. Engineers then will join it with the segments that form the rocket’s twin solid rocket boosters. Adapters for the Moon rocket that connect it to the Orion spacecraft will be shipped to NASA Kennedy this fall, while the interim cryogenic propulsion stage is already in Florida. Engineers continue to prepare Orion, already at Kennedy, and exploration ground systems for launch and flight. All major structures for every SLS core stage are fully manufactured at NASA Michoud. Inside the factory, core stages and future exploration upper stages for the next evolution of SLS, called the Block 1B configuration, currently are in various phases of production for Artemis III, IV, and V. Beginning with Artemis III, to better optimize space at Michoud, Boeing, the SLS core stage prime contractor, will use space at NASA Kennedy for final assembly and outfitting activities. Building, assembling, and transporting the SLS core stage is a collaborative effort for NASA, Boeing, and lead RS-25 engines contractor Aerojet Rocketdyne, an L3Harris Technologies company. All 10 NASA centers contribute to its development with more than 1,100 companies across the ******* States contributing to its production. NASA is working to land the first woman, first person of ******, and its first international partner astronaut on the Moon under Artemis. SLS is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration, along with the Orion spacecraft, supporting ground systems, advanced spacesuits and rovers, the Gateway in orbit around the Moon, and commercial human landing systems. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single launch. For more on NASA’s Artemis campaign, visit: [Hidden Content] -end- Madison Tuttle/Rachel Kraft Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1600 madison.e*****@*****.tld/rachel.h*****@*****.tld Corinne Beckinger Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala. 256-544-0034 *****@*****.tld Share Details Last Updated Jul 16, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related TermsSpace Launch System (SLS)ArtemisArtemis 2Common Exploration Systems Development DivisionExploration Systems Development Mission DirectorateMarshall Space Flight CenterMichoud Assembly Facility View the full article

NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy and senior NASA leaders conduct the first bilateral meeting with KASA’s administrator, Dr. Young-bin Yoon on Monday, July 15, 2024 in Busan, Korea. NASA/Amber Jacobson NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy conducted the first bilateral meeting on Monday with Dr. Young-bin Yoon, administrator of the newly established KASA (Korea AeroSpace Administration), which opened on May 27. The creation of KASA underscores the Republic of Korea’s commitment to advancing space exploration. The bilateral meeting marks a pivotal moment for a NASA’s relationship with KASA, building upon decades of bilateral ties with several Korean ministries and institutions. Melroy emphasized enhancing cooperation under the Artemis program and expanding science collaboration during discussions with Yoon. Looking ahead, NASA and KASA are exploring a wide range of opportunities and fostering innovation in new areas. Over the past year, the U.S.-Korea space relationship has seen significant progress, highlighted by increased engagements and collaborative initiatives across various space disciplines. These efforts include sharing data from the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter and leveraging NASA’s Deep Space Network, showcasing Korea’s commitment to open science, and enabling scientists globally to access valuable data for future lunar activities. Historically, NASA has collaborated across a wide range of disciplines with KARI (Korea Aerospace Research Institute) and KASI (Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute). The establishment of KASA allows Korea to focus its space efforts under one agency, further enhancing space collaboration and cooperation. View the full article

4 Min Read NASA Celebrates 20 Years of Earth-Observing Aura Satellite The Aura spacecraft, shown in this artist’s concept, is a NASA atmospheric chemistry mission that monitors Earth’s protective atmosphere. Credits: NASA Earth (ESD) Earth Home Explore Climate Change Science in Action Multimedia Data For Researchers From monitoring the ***** in the ozone above the Antarctic to studying air quality around the entire planet, NASA’s Aura satellite has provided scientists with essential measurements during its two decades in orbit. “The Aura mission has been nothing short of transformative for scientific research and applied sciences,” said Bryan Duncan, project scientist for NASA’s Aura satellite mission. “The mission’s data have given scientists and applied scientists an unparalleled view of air pollution around the world.” Aura has revealed the effects of industrialization, environmental regulations, wildfires, the COVID-19 pandemic, and many other aspects of the air we breathe. The satellite paved the way for recent missions to study the atmosphere and its inner workings, including PACE and TEMPO. As the Aura mission team celebrates its launch anniversary of July 15, 2004, here are a few of the many highlights from the last 20 years. Aura Eyes Ozone ***** over Antarctica The first publicly released image from the Aura mission (autumn 2004) showed dramatically depleted levels of ozone in the stratosphere over Antarctica. NASA Study: First Direct Proof of Ozone ***** Recovery Due to Chemicals Ban In a 2018 study, scientists showed for the first time through direct satellite observations that levels of chlorine in the atmosphere declined, resulting in less ozone depletion. Because of an international ban on chlorine-containing manmade chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons, there was about 20% less ozone depletion during the Antarctic winter in 2016 than there was in 2005. New NASA Satellite Maps Show Human Fingerprint on Global Air Quality This global map shows the concentration of nitrogen dioxide in the troposphere as detected by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument aboard the Aura satellite, averaged over 2014. NASA Using high-resolution global maps of air quality indicators made with data from the Aura satellite, NASA scientists tracked air pollution trends between 2005 and 2015 in various regions and 195 cities around the globe. The study found that the ******* States, Europe, and Japan saw improved air quality due to emission control regulations, while China, India, and the Middle East, with their fast-growing economies and expanding industry, saw more air pollution. How NASA is Helping the World Breathe More Easily Many of NASA’s Earth-observing satellites, including Aura, can see what the human eye can’t — including potentially harmful pollutants lingering in the air we breathe. These satellites help us measure and track air pollution as it moves around the globe and have contributed significantly to a decades-long quest for cleaner air. For example, data from Aura’s Ozone Monitoring Instrument helped the EPA and NASA identify a drop in nitrogen dioxide that researchers cited as evidence of the success of the Clean Air Act. Air Quality: A Tale of Three Cities Air quality in Beijing, Los Angeles, and Atlanta — like air quality across the globe — is dynamic. This video describes how scientists use instruments like Aura’s Ozone Monitoring Instrument to study questions including what causes ozone, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide emissions. It also explores why reductions in volatile organic carbon pollution worked to reduce ground-level ozone in Los Angeles, but not in Atlanta. Seeing the COVID-19 Pandemic from Space Economic and social shutdowns in response to the COVID-19 pandemic led to noticeable changes in Earth’s environment, at least in the short term. NASA researchers used satellite and ground-based observations – including nitrogen dioxide levels from Ozone Monitoring Instrument – to track these impacts on our air, land, water, and climate. A Satellite’s View of Ship Pollution With natural-****** satellite imagery of the atmosphere over the ocean, scientists have observed “ship tracks” — bright, linear trails amidst the cloud layers that are created by particles and gases from ships. Scientists used Ozone Monitoring Instrument data to detect the almost invisible tracks of nitrogen dioxide along several shipping routes from 2005 to 2012. First Global Maps of Volcanic Emissions Use NASA Satellite Data Volcanic sulfur dioxide emissions from Indonesia’s many volcanoes are shown in shades of orange. The data was produced from observations from NASA’s Aura satellite. With the Ozone Monitoring Instrument data, researchers compiled emissions data from 2005 to 2015 create the first global inventory for volcanic sulfur dioxide emissions. The data set helped refine climate and atmospheric chemistry models and provided more insight into human and environmental health risks. Scientists Show Connection Between Gas Flaring and Arctic Pollution Flaring of excess natural gas from industrial oil fields in the Northern Hemisphere was found to be a potentially significant source of nitrogen dioxide and ****** carbon emissions polluting the Arctic, according to a 2016 NASA study that included data from Aura. 2023 Ozone ***** Ranks 16th Largest, NASA and NOAA Researchers Find Researchers continue to rely on Aura data to monitor the Antarctic ozone *****, two decades after the satellite launched. Each Southern Hemisphere spring, NASA and NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) use satellite and balloon-based measurements to measure the maximum size of the ozone *****. The story above notes the 2023 result; stay tuned for what Aura helps us discover in 2024 and beyond. This map shows the size and shape of the ozone ***** over the South Pole on Sept. 21, 2023, the day of its maximum extent that year, as calculated by the NASA Ozone Watch team. Moderate ozone losses (orange) are visible amid widespread areas of more potent ozone losses (red). By Erica McNamee and Kate Ramsayer NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Share Details Last Updated Jul 16, 2024 Editor Erica McNamee Contact Erica McNamee *****@*****.tld Location Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms Aura Earth Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) Explore More 5 min read Alphabet Soup: NASA’s GOLD Finds Surprising C, X Shapes in Atmosphere Article 3 weeks ago 4 min read NASA Announces New System to Aid Disaster Response Article 1 month ago 2 min read North Carolina Volunteers Work Toward Cleaner Well Water When the ground floods during a storm, floodwaters wash bacteria and other contaminants into private… Article 1 month ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Aura Earth Orbiter Earth Your home. Our Mission. And the one planet that NASA studies more than any other. Climate Change NASA is a global leader in studying Earth’s changing climate. PACE PACE will help us better understand our ocean and atmosphere by measuring key variables associated with cloud formation, particles and… View the full article

NASA 55 years ago on July 16, 1969, NASA’s Apollo 11 spacecraft launched from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, as seen in this photo. Astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin were aboard. Apollo 11’s primary mission objective was to fulfill a national goal set by President John F. Kennedy on May 25, 1961: perform a crewed lunar landing and return safely to Earth before the decade ended. Additional flight objectives included scientific exploration by the lunar module (LM) crew, deployment of a television camera to transmit signals to Earth, and deployment of a solar wind composition experiment, seismic experiment package, and a Laser Ranging Retroreflector. During the exploration, Armstrong and Aldrin were to gather samples of lunar-surface materials for return to Earth. They also were to extensively photograph the lunar terrain, the deployed scientific equipment, the LM spacecraft, and each other, both with still and motion picture cameras. Experience the countdown to liftoff. Image credit: NASA View the full article

The International Space Station is pictured from the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour during a fly around of the orbiting lab that took place following its undocking from the Harmony module’s space-facing port on Nov. 8, 2021. NASA is planning for the future in low Earth orbit for science, research, and commercial opportunities as the agency and its international partners maximize the use of the International Space Station. As the agency fosters new commercial space stations, leadership from NASA and SpaceX will participate in a media teleconference at 2 p.m. EDT Wednesday, July 17, to discuss the company’s selection to develop and deliver the U.S. Deorbit Vehicle, which will safely move the International Space Station out of orbit and into a remote area of an ocean at the end of its operations. Audio of the teleconference will stream live on the agency’s website: [Hidden Content] Participants include: Ken Bowersox, associate administrator, NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate Dana Weigel, manager, NASA’s International Space Station Program Sarah Walker, director, Dragon mission management, SpaceX Media interested in participating must contact the newsroom at NASA Johnson no later than one hour prior to the start of the call at 281-483-5111 or *****@*****.tld. A copy of NASA’s media accreditation policy is online. As the agency transitions to commercially owned space destinations, it is crucial to prepare for the safe and responsible deorbit of the space station in a controlled manner after the end of its operational life in 2030. Read more about the agency’s International Space Station Deorbit Analysis Summary white paper. Learn more about space station operations at: [Hidden Content] -end- Josh Finch / Jimi Russell Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1100 *****@*****.tld / *****@*****.tld Sandra Jones Johnson Space Center, Houston 281-483-5111 sandra.p*****@*****.tld View the full article

NASA is turning to the 3D modeling experts in the community for ideas and designs to use or enhance the current state of modular robotic construction techniques. Robotic building of structures in space is an active area of research for NASA and might prove to be a path towards sustainable and scalable space exploration. This technology is essential for establishing critical long-term orbital and Lunar surface infrastructure including power/communication towers, research stations, radiation shielding for habitats, and more. Award: $2,000 in total prizes Open Date: July 15, 2024 Close Date: September 9, 2024 For more information, visit: [Hidden Content] View the full article

Curiosity Navigation Curiosity Mission Overview Where is Curiosity? Mission Updates Science Overview Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Curiosity Raw Images Mars Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions All Planets Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto & Dwarf Planets 3 min read Sols 4243-4245: Exploring Stubblefield Canyon This image was taken by Left Navigation Camera onboard NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 4241 (2024-07-11 20:34:05 UTC). Earth planning date: Friday, July 12, 2024 Curiosity, now heading uphill from the Mammoth Lakes drill site, has focused on a very interesting exposure of conglomerate rocks, consisting of pebbles cemented together by a fine-grained matrix material. On Earth, conglomerate rock is associated with downhill flows of rock and soil mixtures, often in a water-rich environment, so our science team is excited to find similar rocks on Mars. The local exposure of this unusual Martian ******** has been named “Stubblefield Canyon,” honoring the headwaters of the stream forming Rancheria Falls, which tumbles into Yosemite National Park’s Hetch Hetchy reservoir. All targets in this area of Mount Sharp are named after geological features near the town of Bishop, California, which sits at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Owens Valley of California. Curiosity’s last drive ended at a detached, rubbly conglomerate slab, dubbed “Wishbone Lake” after a Y-shaped lake in upper Lamarck Lake Canyon near Mono Lake. The image above shows the Wishbone Lake slab of conglomerate rock in the rover workspace. Over the weekend, the team will investigate this target and image the surrounding terrain, collecting evidence about the formation of conglomerate rocks on Mars. On Wednesday, Curiosity successfully completed its MAHLI imaging of “Donohue Pass” and ChemCam laser spectroscopy of “Negit Island,” followed by a 3-meter drive (about 10 feet) to Wishbone Lake. During the current plan, APXS will analyze two pebbles within the Wishbone Lake slab, “Arrowhead Spire” and “Cattle Creek.” Arrowhead Spire honors a 100-foot vertical spike of granite near Yosemite Point, above Yosemite Valley. Cattle Creek is named for a stream that flows from a hanging valley into the Twin Lakes canyon near Bridgeport, California. MAHLI will image Cattle Creek, then do a 4×1 mosaic from a distance of 25 centimeters (about 10 inches) along the edges of Wishbone Lake, centered on the Arrowhead Spire pebble. ChemCam will take laser spectra of Arrowhead Spire, as well as the “Eocene Peak” matrix material target, named for an 11,500-foot peak in the Sawtooth Ridge along the northeastern boundary of Yosemite National Park. Using its telescopic RMI camera, ChemCam will image upper Gediz Vallis Ridge and a distant ridgeline along our future drive path. Mastcam will photograph the ChemCam laser targets, as well as interesting portions of the Stubblefield Canyon conglomerate exposure, the Mammoth Lakes drill site as seen from our new location, and an interesting linear ridge. On sol 4244, Curiosity will drive 20 meters (about 66 feet) along our path toward “Fairview Dome,” followed by post-drive imaging and AEGIS observations. Atmospheric studies during the current plan include a Navcam dust ****** movie and large dust ****** survey, early morning Navcam zenith and suprahorizon cloud movies, Navcam deck imaging, Navcam and Mastcam dust opacity measurements, and a late afternoon Mastcam sky survey. Next week, we expect to explore Fairview Dome, then resume our climb up Mount Sharp. Written by Deborah Padgett, Curiosity Operations Product Generation Subsystem Task Lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory Share Details Last Updated Jul 16, 2024 Related Terms Blogs Explore More 2 min read Sols 4241–4242: We Can’t Go Around It…We’ve Got To Go Through It! Article 4 days ago 2 min read Sols 4239-4240: ‘Vuggin’ Out’ Article 6 days ago 2 min read Sols 4236-4238: One More Time… for Contact Science at Mammoth Lakes Article 1 week ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, and the seventh largest. It’s the only planet we know of inhabited… All Mars Resources Explore this collection of Mars images, videos, resources, PDFs, and toolkits. Discover valuable content designed to inform, educate, and inspire,… Rover Basics Each robotic explorer sent to the Red Planet has its own unique capabilities driven by science. Many attributes of a… Mars Exploration: Science Goals The key to understanding the past, present or future potential for life on Mars can be found in NASA’s four… View the full article

6 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video In this time-lapse video of a test conducted at JPL in June 2023, an engineering model of the Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL) instrument aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover places itself against a rock to collect data. NASA/JPL-Caltech Artificial intelligence is helping scientists to identify minerals within rocks studied by the Perseverance rover. Some scientists dream of exploring planets with “smart” spacecraft that know exactly what data to look for, where to find it, and how to analyze it. Although making that dream a reality will take time, advances made with NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover offer promising steps in that direction. For almost three years, the rover mission has been testing a form of artificial intelligence that seeks out minerals in the Red Planet’s rocks. This marks the first time AI has been used on Mars to make autonomous decisions based on real-time analysis of rock composition. PIXL, the white instrument at top left, is one of several science tools located on the end of the robotic arm aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover. The Mars rover’s left navcam took the images that make up this composite on March 2, 2021NASA/JPL-Caltech The software supports PIXL (Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry), a spectrometer developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. By mapping the chemical composition of minerals across a rock’s surface, PIXL allows scientists to determine whether the rock formed in conditions that could have been supportive of microbial life in Mars’ ancient past. Called “adaptive sampling,” the software autonomously positions the instrument close to a rock target, then looks at PIXL’s scans of the target to find minerals worth examining more deeply. It’s all done in real time, without the rover talking to mission controllers back on Earth. “We use PIXL’s AI to home in on key science,” said the instrument’s principal investigator, Abigail Allwood of JPL. “Without it, you’d see a hint of something interesting in the data and then need to rescan the rock to study it more. This lets PIXL reach a conclusion without humans examining the data.” This image of a rock target nicknamed “Thunderbolt Peak” was created by NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover using PIXL, which determines the mineral composition of rocks by zapping them with X-rays. Each blue dot in the image represents a spot where an X-ray hit.NASA/JPL-Caltech/DTU/QUT Data from Perseverance’s instruments, including PIXL, helps scientists determine when to drill a core of rock and seal it in a titanium metal tube so that it, along with other high-priority samples, could be brought to Earth for further study as part of NASA’s Mars Sample Return campaign. Adaptive sampling is not the only application of AI on Mars. About 2,300 miles (3,700 kilometers) from Perseverance is NASA’s Curiosity, which pioneered a form of AI that allows the rover to autonomously zap rocks with a laser based on their shape and ******. Studying the gas that burns off after each laser zap reveals a rock’s chemical composition. Perseverance features this same ability, as well as a more advanced form of AI that enables it to navigate without specific direction from Earth. Both rovers still rely on dozens of engineers and scientists to plan each day’s set of hundreds of individual commands, but these digital smarts help both missions get more done in less time. “The idea behind PIXL’s adaptive sampling is to help scientists find the needle within a haystack of data, freeing up time and energy for them to focus on other things,” said Peter Lawson, who led the implementation of adaptive sampling before retiring from JPL. “Ultimately, it helps us gather the best science more quickly.” Using AI to Position PIXL AI assists PIXL in two ways. First, it positions the instrument just right once the instrument is in the vicinity of a rock target. Located at the end of Perseverance’s robotic arm, the spectrometer sits on six tiny robotic legs, called a hexapod. PIXL’s camera repeatedly checks the distance between the instrument and a rock target to aid with positioning. Temperature swings on Mars are large enough that Perseverance’s arm will expand or contract a microscopic amount, which can throw off PIXL’s aim. The hexapod automatically adjusts the instrument to get it exceptionally close without coming into contact with the rock. “We have to make adjustments on the scale of micrometers to get the accuracy we need,” Allwood said. “It gets close enough to the rock to raise the hairs on the back of an engineer’s neck.” Making a Mineral Map Once PIXL is in position, another AI system gets the chance to shine. PIXL scans a postage-stamp-size area of a rock, ******* an X-ray beam thousands of times to create a grid of microscopic dots. Each dot reveals information about the chemical composition of the minerals present. Minerals are crucial to answering key questions about Mars. Depending on the rock, scientists might be on the hunt for carbonates, which hide clues to how water may have formed the rock, or they may be looking for phosphates, which could have provided nutrients for microbes, if any were present in the Martian past. There’s no way for scientists to know ahead of time which of the hundreds of X-ray zaps will turn up a particular mineral, but when the instrument finds certain minerals, it can automatically stop to gather more data — an action called a “long dwell.” As the system improves through machine learning, the list of minerals on which PIXL can focus with a long dwell is growing. “PIXL is kind of a Swiss army ****** in that it can be configured depending on what the scientists are looking for at a given time,” said JPL’s David Thompson, who helped develop the software. “Mars is a great place to test out AI since we have regular communications each day, giving us a chance to make tweaks along the way.” When future missions travel deeper into the solar system, they’ll be out of contact longer than missions currently are on Mars. That’s why there is strong interest in developing more autonomy for missions as they rove and conduct science for the benefit of humanity. More About the Mission A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust). Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (********* Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis. The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover. For more about Perseverance: mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/ News Media Contacts Andrew Good Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 818-393-2433 *****@*****.tld Karen Fox / Alana Johnson NASA Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1600 / 202-358-1501 *****@*****.tld / alana.r*****@*****.tld 2024-099 Share Details Last Updated Jul 16, 2024 Related TermsPerseverance (Rover)AstrobiologyHigh-Tech ComputingJet Propulsion LaboratoryMarsMars 2020Radioisotope Power Systems (RPS)RoboticsScience-enabling Technology Explore More 1 min read NASA Science Activation Teams Present at National Rural STEM Summit NASA Science Activation (SciAct) teams participated in the National Rural STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, &… Article 2 weeks ago 4 min read NASA’s Planetary Radar Tracks Two Large Asteroid Close Approaches Article 2 weeks ago 3 min read NASA’s ECOSTRESS Maps ***** Risk Across Phoenix Streets Article 2 weeks ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics Missions Humans in Space Climate Change Solar System View the full article

Clayton Turner, director of NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia (left), and Dawn Schaible, deputy director of NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland (right).Credit: NASA NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced Tuesday Dr. Kurt Vogel, associate administrator for the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD), is retiring from the agency. NASA Langley Research Center Director Clayton Turner will become the acting associate administrator for STMD, and NASA Glenn Research Center Deputy Director Dawn Schaible will become acting Langley center director. The changes are effective immediately, and for Turner and Schaible, these will be temporary assignments. “I’d like to thank Dr. Vogel for his service at NASA and wish him well in the future,” said Nelson. “Our Space Technology Mission Directorate and Langley Research Center are in good hands with Clayton and Dawn, and I look forward to continuing to work with them as we lead NASA into the future.” Dr. Vogel has served as the head of STMD since January. Before leading STMD, Vogel served as director of space architectures and was chair of NASA’s Agency Cross-Directorate Federated Board. Vogel has more than 30 years of U.S. government service, primarily in the Defense Department, as a technical leader, senior program manager, and chief technologist. Turner has been Langley’s center director since September 2019 and has served the agency for more than 30 years. He has held several roles at NASA Langley, including engineering director, associate center director, and deputy center director. Throughout his NASA career, he has worked on many projects for the agency, including: the Earth Science Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation Project; the materials technology development Gas Permeable Polymer Materials Project; the Space Shuttle Program’s Return to Flight work; the flight test of the Ares 1-X rocket; the flight test of the Orion Launch Abort System; and the entry, descent, and landing segment of the Mars Science Laboratory. At NASA Langley, Schaible will lead a diverse group of more than 3,000 civil ******** and contractor scientists, researchers, engineers, and support staff, who work to advance aviation, expand understanding of Earth’s atmosphere, and develop technology for space exploration. At NASA Glenn, Schaible has shared with the center director responsibility for planning, organizing, and managing the agency level programs and projects assigned to the center. Before becoming Glenn’s deputy director in February 2023, Schaible was the director of engineering for Langley. Prior to that, Schaible was appointed the NASA deputy chief engineer after serving as the manager of the Systems Engineering Office for the NASA Engineering and Safety Center. She began her career with NASA at the Kennedy Space Center in 1987, where she held a number of lead engineering and management positions for the Space Shuttle and International Space Station Programs. To learn more about NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, NASA’s Langley Research Center, and NASA’s Glenn Research Center, visit: [Hidden Content] -end- Meira Bernstein / Allard Beutel Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1600 meira.b*****@*****.tld / *****@*****.tld Share Details Last Updated Jul 16, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related TermsSpace Technology Mission DirectorateGlenn Research CenterLangley Research Center View the full article

Rebekah Hounsell is an assistant research scientist working on ways to optimize and build infrastructure for future observations made by the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. The mission will shed light on many astrophysics topics, like dark energy, which are currently shrouded in mystery. Rebekah also works as a support scientist for the TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) mission, helping scientists access and analyze data. Name: Rebekah Hounsell Title: Assistant Research Scientist Formal Job Classification: Support Scientist for the TESS mission and Co-Principal Investigator of the Roman Supernova Project Infrastructure Team (PIT) Organization: Code 667.0 Rebekah Hounsell knew she wanted to study space from a very young age. Now, she’s a scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. NASA/Chris Gunn What do you do and what is most interesting about your role at Goddard? I am fortunate to have several roles at Goddard. I am a support scientist for TESS. Here I aid the community in accessing and analyzing TESS data. I am a co-principal investigator of a Roman project infrastructure team, focusing on building infrastructure to support supernova cosmology with the Roman HLTDS (High Latitude Time-Domain Survey). In addition, I am part of the Physics of the Cosmos program analysis group executive committee, co-chairing both the Cosmic Structure Science interest group and the Time-Domain and Multi-Messenger Astrophysics Science interest group. In these roles I have been fortunate enough to get a glimpse into how missions such as TESS and Roman work and how we can make them a success for the community. Missions like TESS are paving the way for future wide area surveys like Roman, providing a plethora of high cadence transient and variable star data, which can be used to gain a better understanding of our universe and our place within it. How will your current work influence the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s future observations? The Roman team I am leading is tasked with developing a pixels-to-cosmology pipeline for the analysis of supernova data from the HLTDS. What this means is that we will develop tools to aid the community in obtaining supernova lightcurves and prism spectra, which are precise enough to be used in testing various cosmological modes. We are also working to develop tools which will allow the community to test various HLTDS designs, adjusting cadence, filters, exposure times, etc., to best optimize its output for their science. What got you interested in astrophysics? What was your path to your current role? When I was a child I lived in a very rural area in England, with little to no light pollution. I had a wonderful view of the night sky and was fascinated by stars. I remember when I found out that the universe was expanding and my first thought was “into what?” I think it was that which fueled my curiosity about space and pushed me into astrophysics. At about 10 years old, I decided astrophysics was the path for me, and after that I really started to focus on physics and math at school. At 18, 19 I went to Liverpool University/Liverpool John Moores and completed my master’s in astrophysics in 2008. I then went on to obtain my Ph.D., focusing on classical and recurrent novae. In 2012 I received my first postdoc at STScI (the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore). It was at STScI that I learned about how the instruments operating on Hubble worked and figured out that what I really loved doing was working on data and improving it. At the time however, I wasn’t ready to leave academia altogether, so I took another postdoc at the University of Illinois Champaign Urbana/UC Santa Cruz. It was here that I first started working on Roman, only back then it was known as WFIRST. I was a member of a Supernova Science Investigation Team for WFIRST and worked to optimize the design of what was then known as the SN survey, later to become the HLTDS. During this time I published a paper that created some of the most realistic simulations of the survey, including various statistical and systematic effects. After this I headed to the University of Pennsylvania to work on core collapse supernovae from the Dark Energy Survey. This was an exciting data set, but again I realized what I really liked doing was working on data from or for a mission. As such I took my current job at NASA. Rebekah stands by a model of NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. The observatory’s deployable aperture cover, or sun shade, is visible in the background in the largest clean room at Goddard.NASA/David Friedlander What are you most looking forward to exploring through Roman’s eyes? Given the nature of the mission, Roman is going to discover a plethora of transient events. Some of these will be extremely rare and if caught in one of Roman’s high cadenced, deep fields, the data obtained will be able to shed new light on the physics driving these phenomena. I am also excited about these data being used with those from other observatories including the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. What has surprised you the most about the universe as you’ve learned more about it? We are still discovering so many new things which shed new light on the universe, its evolution, and our place in it. In recent years we have learned about kilonovae, gravitational waves, and we’ve discovered various diverse supernovae. There are so many extreme and complex events that we are still trying to understand, and I suspect that Roman will reveal even more. What is your favorite thing about working for NASA? There is no one path to working at NASA. I have met so many people who entered into the field following completely different paths than myself. I love this. We all have something different to bring to the table and those differences are what makes NASA what it is today. A portrait of Rebekah in front of the NASA meatball.NASA/David Friedlander What hobbies fill your time outside of work? I like to paint and draw. I also enjoy looking after animals. I also love participating in outreach events. When I lived in Philly I helped to set up the Astronomy on Tap branch there. I think it is important to talk about what we do and why it is needed. What advice do you have for others who are interested in working in astronomy? There is no one path. Don’t think you have to complete x, y, z steps and then you make it. That is not true. Do what you are passionate about, what you enjoy to learn about. And most importantly ask questions! Learn about what others are doing in the field, how they got there, and figure out what works for you. By Ashley Balzer NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Conversations With Goddard is a collection of Q&A profiles highlighting the breadth and depth of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s talented and diverse workforce. The Conversations have been published twice a month on average since May 2011. Read past editions on Goddard’s “Our People” webpage. Share Details Last Updated Jul 16, 2024 ContactAshley Balzer*****@*****.tldLocationGoddard Space Flight Center Related TermsPeople of NASACareersGoddard Space Flight CenterNancy Grace Roman Space TelescopePeople of GoddardWomen at NASA Explore More 10 min read Ken Carpenter: Ensuring Top-Tier Science from Moon to Stars Article 2 months ago 8 min read Joshua Schlieder: Feet on the Ground, Head in the Stars Goddard astrophysicist Dr. Joshua Schlieder supports NASA's Roman Space Telescope and Swift Observatory with creativity,… Article 6 months ago 8 min read Melissa Vess: Triathlete and Roman Spacecraft Systems Engineer Article 3 years ago View the full article

“Houston, Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed.” “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.” “Magnificent desolation.” Three phrases that recall humanity’s first landing on and exploration of the lunar surface. In July 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin completed humanity’s first landing on the Moon. They fulfilled President John F. Kennedy’s national goal, set in May 1961, to land a man on the Moon and return him safely to the Earth before the end of the decade. Scientists began examining the first Moon rocks two days after the Apollo 11 splashdown while the astronauts began a three-week postflight quarantine. Just another day at the office. Apollo 11 astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, left, Michael Collins, and Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin arrive for work at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida four days before launch. Left: Buzz, Mike, and Neil study their flight plans one more time. Middle: Neil and Buzz in the Lunar Module simulator. Right: Mike gets in some flying a few days before launch. Buzz, Neil, and Mike look very relaxed as they talk to reporters in a virtual press conference on July 14. Left: The crew. Middle: The patch. Right: The crew conquer the Moon, a TIME LIFE photograph. Left: Breakfast, the most important meal if you’re going to the Moon. Middle: Proper attire for lunar travel. Right: Wave good-bye to all your friends and supporters before you head for the launch pad. Left: Engineers in the Launch Control Center at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida monitor the countdown. Middle: Once the rocket clears the launch tower, they turn control over to another team and they can watch it ascend into the sky. Right: Engineers in the Mission Control Center at the Manned Spacecraft Center, now NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, take over control of the flight once the tower is clear. Left: Lady Bird, LBJ, and VP Agnew in the VIP stands. Right: A million more camped out along the beaches to see the historic launch. July 16, 1969. And we’re off!! Liftoff from Launch Pad 39A. Left: The ********* flag is pictured in the foreground as the Saturn V rocket for the historic Apollo 11 mission soars through the sky. Middle: First stage separation for Apollo 11. Right: Made it to orbit! Left: Hey, don’t forget your LM! Middle: Buzz in the LM: “S’allright?” “S’allright!” Right: As the world turns smaller. Left: Hello Moon! Middle left: Hello Earth! Middle right: See you soon, Columbia! Right: See you soon, Eagle! Happy landing! July 20, 1969. Left: Magnificent desolation, from Buzz’s window after landing. Middle: Neil takes THE first step. Right: First image taken from the lunar surface. Left: Neil grabs a contingency sample, just in case. Middle left: Buzz joins the party. Middle right: Neil and Buzz read the plaque. Right: Buzz sets up the solar wind experiment. Left: Buzz and Neil set up the flag. Middle left: Neil takes that famous photo of Buzz. Middle right: You know, this famous photo! Right: Often misidentified as Neil’s first footprint, it’s actually Buzz’s to test the lunar soil. Left: Buzz had the camera for a while and snapped one of the few photos of Neil on the surface. Middle left: Buzz, the seismometer, and the LM. Middle right: The LM and the laser retroreflector. Right: One of two photos from the surface that show both Buzz, the main subject, and Neil, the reflection. Neil took a stroll to Little West Crater and took several photos, spliced together into this pano. Left: Neil after the spacewalk, tired but satisfied. Middle left: Ditto for Buzz. Middle right: The flag from Buzz’s window before they went to sleep. Right: The same view, and the flag moved! Not aliens, it settled in the loose lunar regolith overnight. July 21, 1969. Left: Liftoff, the Eagle has wings again! Middle left: Eagle approaches Columbia, and incidentally everyone alive at the time is in this picture, except for Mike who took it. Middle right: On the way home, the Moon gets smaller. Right: And the Earth gets *******. July 24, 1969. Left: Splashdown, as captured from a recovery helicopter. Middle: Upside down in Stable 2, before balloons inflated to right the spacecraft. Right: Wearing his Biological Isolation Garment (BIG), Clancy Hatleberg, the decontamination officer, sets up his decontamination canisters. He’s already handed the astronauts their BIGs, who are donning them inside the spacecraft. Left: Hatleberg, left, with Neil, Buzz, and Mike in the decontamination raft. Middle: Taken by U.S. Navy UDT swimmer Mike Mallory in a nearby raft, Hatleberg prepares to capture the Billy Pugh net for Neil, while Buss and Mike wave to Mallory. Right: The same scene, taken from the recovery helicopter, the Billy Pugh net visible at the bottom of the photo. Left: Once aboard the U.S.S. Hornet, Mike, Neil, and Buzz wearing their BIGs walk the 10 steps from the Recovery One helicopter to the Mobile Quarantine Facility (MQF), with NASA flight surgeon Dr. William Carpentier, in orange suit, following behind. Middle left: NASA engineer John Hirasaki filmed the astronauts as they entered the MQF. Middle right: Changed from their BIGs into flight suits, Mike, Neil, and Buzz chat with President Nixon through the MQF’s window. Right: Neil, playing the ukelele, Buzz, and Mike inside the MQF. Follow the Moon rocks from the Hornet to Ellington AFB. Left: NASA technician receives the first box of Moon rocks from the MQF’s transfer lock. Middle Left: Within a few hours of splashdown, the first box of Moon rocks departs Hornet bound for Johnston Island, where workers transferred it to a cargo plane bound for Houston. Middle right: Workers at Houston’s Ellington Air Force Base unload the first box of Moon rocks about eight hours later. Right: Senior NASA managers hold the first box of Moon rocks. July 25, 1969. Follow the Moon rocks from Ellington to the glovebox in the Lunar Receiving Laboratory (LRL). Left: NASA officials Howard Schneider and Gary McCollum carry the first box of Moon rocks from the cargo plane to a waiting car for transport to the LRL at MSC. Middle right: In the LRL, technicians at MSC unpack the first box of Moon rocks. Middle right: Technicians weigh the box of Moon rocks. Right: The first box of Moon rocks inside a glovebox. July 26, 1969. Follow the Moon rocks in the LRL glovebox. Left: The first box of Moon rocks has been unwrapped. Middle: The box has been opened, revealing the first lunar samples. Right: The first rock to be documented, less than 48 hours after splashdown. July 26, 1969. Follow the astronauts from Hornet to Honolulu. Left: Two days after splashdown, the U.S.S. Hornet docks at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu. Middle left: Workers lift the MQF, with Neil, Mike, and Buzz inside, onto the pier. Middle right: A large welcome celebration for the Apollo 11 astronauts. Right: The MQF seen through a lei. Follow the astronauts from Pearl Harbor to Ellington AFB. Left: Workers truck the MQF from Pearl Harbor to nearby Hickam AFB. Middle left: Workers load the MQF onto a cargo plane at Hickam for the flight to Houston. Middle right: During the eight-hour flight, NASA recovery team members pose with Neil, Mike, and Buzz, seen through the window of the MQF. Right: Workers unload the MQF at Houston’s Ellington AFB. July 27, 1969. Follow the astronauts from Ellington to working in the LRL. Left: At Ellington, Neil, Mike, and Buzz reunite with their wives Jan, Pat, and TBS. Middle left: The MQF docks at the LRL. Middle right: Neil, Mike, and Buzz address the workers inside the LRL. Right: It’s back to work for Neil, Mike, and Buzz as they hold their debriefs in a glass-walled conference room in the LRL. Follow the spacecraft from splashdown to Hawaii. Left: Sailors hoist the Command Module Columbia onto the deck of the U.S.S. Hornet. Middle left: The flexible tunnel connects the CM to the MQF, allowing for retrieval of the Moon rocks and other items. Center: U.S. Marines guard Columbia aboard the Hornet. Middle right: Columbia brought on deck as Hornet docks in Pearl Harbor. Right: NASA engineers safe Columbia on Ford Island in Honolulu. July 31, 1969. Follow the spacecraft from Hawaii to the LRL. Left: Airmen load Columbia onto a cargo plane at Hickam AFB for the flight to Houston. Middle: Columbia arrives outside the LRL, where the MQF is still docked. Right: Hirasaki opens the hatch to Columbia in the LRL. To be continued … News from around the world in July 1969: July 1 – Investiture of Prince Charles, age 21, as The Prince of Wales. July 3 – 78,000 attend the Newport Jazz Festival in Newport, Rhode Island. July 4 – John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band release the single “Give Peace a Chance.” July 11 – David Bowie releases the single “Space Oddity.” July 11 – The Rolling Stones release “****** Tonk Woman.” July 14 – “Easy Rider,” starring Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, and Jack Nicholson, premieres. July 18 – NASA Administrator Thomas O. Paine approves the “dry” workshop concept for the Apollo Applications Program, later renamed Skylab. July 26 – Sharon Sites Adams becomes the first woman to solo sail the Pacific Ocean. July 31 – Mariner 6 makes close fly-by of Mars, returning photos and data. Explore More 13 min read 15 Years Ago: STS-127 Delivers ********* External Platform to Space Station Article 19 hours ago 9 min read 45 Years Ago: Skylab Reenters Earth’s Atmosphere Article 5 days ago 8 min read 30 Years Ago: STS-65, the Second International Microgravity Lab Mission Article 6 days ago View the full article

Credit: NASA The ******* States and Saudi Arabia signed a framework agreement that opens new possibilities for cooperation with NASA in areas such as space science, exploration, aeronautics, space operations, education, and Earth science. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson signed on behalf of the U.S., and CEO of the Saudi Space Agency Mohammed bin Saud Al-Tamimi signed on behalf of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. “Building on my visit to Saudi Arabia earlier this year, I look forward to strengthening our cooperation for the future of exploration,” said Nelson. “We are living in the golden era of exploration – one that is rooted in partnership. This new agreement outlines how we’ll work together, and explore together, for the benefit of humanity.” Known as the “Framework Agreement Between the Government of the ******* States of America and the Government of The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on Cooperation in Aeronautics and the Exploration and Use of Airspace and Outer Space for Peaceful Purposes,” it establishes the overall legal framework to facilitate and strengthen mutually beneficial collaboration between the two countries. “The agreement represents a turning point in the Kingdom’s journey towards building a strong and prosperous space sector,” said Saudi Space Agency Chairman Abdullah bin Amer Al-Swaha. “It reflects the Kingdom’s firm commitment to progress and innovation in the field of space, and its continuous efforts to enhance its position as an important partner on the global stage for space exploration and scientific discovery.” The agreement also acknowledges the importance of the Artemis Accords, which Saudi Arabia signed in July 2022, for the transparent, safe, and responsible exploration of space. The commitments of the Artemis Accords, and efforts by the signatories to advance implementation of all its principles, support NASA’s Artemis campaign with its partners and other activities of the accords signatories. The signing comes two months after Nelson’s visit to Saudi Arabia, where he met with Saudi Space Agency and other senior officials to discuss future partnerships and civil space cooperation for the broader U.S. and Saudi Arabia relationship. In May 2023, two Saudi mission specialists, Ali Alqarni and Rayyanah Barnawi, were among a group of Axiom Mission-2 private astronauts who launched into orbit aboard a SpaceX Dragon from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, highlighting international cooperation. The Axiom Space astronauts conducted scientific research, outreach, and commercial activities aboard the International Space Station. For more information about NASA’s international partnerships, visit: [Hidden Content] -end- Meira Bernstein / Elizabeth Shaw Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1600 meira.b*****@*****.tld / *****@*****.tld Share Details Last Updated Jul 16, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related TermsOffice of International and Interagency Relations (OIIR)Artemis Accords View the full article

4 Min Read Prepare for Perseids! A view of the 2023 Perseid meteor shower from the southernmost part of Sequoia National Forest, near Piute Peak. Credits: NASA/Preston Dyches Are you ready for the 2024 Perseids? Their peak is expected to be on the night of August 11 through the morning of the 12th, with good seeing to be had the nights before and after. You may have already spotted a few Perseids streaking across the summer skies! This shower, part of the debris stream of comet Swift-Tuttle, actually starts in mid to late July and lasts through most of August. While most of these nights only showcase a few meteors each hour, the peak of the Perseids brings many, many more. How much more? The number actually varies every year; there can be as little as a few dozen per hour, but some rare years bring a brief “burst’ of up to two hundred beautiful “********* stars” an hour. Image of a Perseid meteor streaking over Joshua Tree National Park. Brad Sutton/National Parks Service This year’s Perseids will be slightly impacted by a 53% waxing Moon, but the Moon will set right as the Perseids begin to peak! This means that if you are in an area free from light pollution and enjoy clear skies, you may be able to see quite a few meteors over the course of the night! How many will you be able to see? There’s only one way to find out for yourself how strong the Perseids will be this year: go outside and patiently watch! We have a few tips on how to make the most of your meteor shower viewing experience: If you trace the meteor trails of the Perseids back to their source, you will find they seem to come from a spot near the constellation Perseus – hence their name, and the name of most meteor showers. What’s Up: August 2023, NASA/JPL Get out of the city! Try to get to the darkest location you can. The darker it is where you are, the more meteors you will see streaking across the sky. Check the weather forecast for that night. You may need to check out two or three areas for predictions on fog, clouds, and temperature. Some weather sites even offer forecasts specially tailored for sky watching. Make sure you have clear skies to go along with those dark ones. Find a meteor shower party! Go to a gathering of like-minded folks in a local park, or an event hosted by a local astronomy club – especially if it’s your first time! Find a Perseids party by searching the Night Sky Network for clubs near you, or by searching for events near you Stay warm and comfortable outside-be prepared! You will be out for a good long while and will want to lie flat on your back to soak up as much of the sky as possible. To stay cozy, bring a blanket, jacket, hat, a warm drink, and water. You may think it’s silly to bring some warm clothes in the middle of the summer, but late at night the temperature can drop just enough to be chilly. If you are in a buggy area, you will want to apply some bug spray to avoid irritating bites Bring your friends and family! Company under starry skies is wonderful, and they provide a bonus since there are more eyes on the sky! Groups can spot more meteors than single individuals and help each other find ‘hot spots” in the sky. (Also- if you are out in the wilderness in the dark, good company helps you feel safer.) For more information on one of our favorite meteor showers, check out NASA’s Perseid page and EarthSky’s great observing guide. You should also check out JPL’s August 2023 “What’s Up? video as Preston Dyches offers great tips on how to watch for the Perseids, as well as other objects to look for in the night skies while you wait for these brilliant streaks. You can also use NASA’s “Fluximator” meteor shower activity application to try to predict when the peak activity will be for your location. We also have a handout you can use at your star parties and outreach events: Heads up! It’s a Meteor Shower resource page. Have fun and may you have clear skies and great weather for your meteor shower party! Originally posted by Dave Prosper: August 2018 Last Updated by Kat Troche: May 2024 View the full article

A portrait of Dorothy Vaughan, a mathematician, computer programmer, and NASA’s first ****** manager.Credit: NASA NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston will recognize legendary human computer Dorothy Vaughan and the women of Apollo with activities marking their achievements, including a renaming and ribbon-cutting ceremony at the center’s “Building 12,” on Friday, July 19, the eve of the 55th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. At 9 a.m. CDT, NASA Johnson Director Vanessa Wyche will begin with a discussion about the importance of Vaughan and the women of Apollo’s contributions to the agency’s lunar landing program and their significance to today’s Artemis campaign. Other highlights include a poetry reading, a recital by Texas Southern University’s Dr. Thomas F. Freeman Debate Team, and a “Women in Human Spaceflight” panel discussion. The panel in NASA Johnson’s Teague Auditorium will be moderated by Debbie Korth, the agency’s Orion Program deputy manager, and include: Christina Koch, NASA astronaut Sandy Johnson, Barrios Technology CEO Lara Kearney, NASA Extravehicular Activity and Human Surface Mobility Program manager Andrea Mosie, NASA Lunar Materials Repository Laboratory manager and senior sample processor Dr. Shirley Price, former NASA Equal Opportunity specialist Following the program, the ribbon-cutting ceremony will begin at Building 12, which will thereafter be named the “Dorothy Vaughan Center in Honor of the Women of Apollo.” The dedication is a tribute to the people who made humanity’s first steps on the Moon possible. All interested media must request credentials by 12 p.m. Thursday, July 18, by email at *****@*****.tld or by calling the Johnson newsroom at 281-483-5111. Media should arrive onsite for setup by 8:15 a.m. July 19, at the Teague Auditorium in Building 2 South. U.S. media are invited to attend and will have an opportunity to ask questions during the panel discussion and may request brief interviews with available NASA officials following the ribbon cutting. Distinguished guests are expected to include local elected officials, NASA senior leadership, members of NASA’s Alumni League, and the families of Dorothy Vaughan and the women of Apollo. “On behalf of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, we are proud to host this historic event as the agency honors the significant contributions women have made to the space industry, particularly trailblazers who persevered against many challenges of their era,” Wyche said. “As we prepare to return to the Moon for long-term science and exploration, NASA’s Artemis missions will land the first woman and first person of ****** on the Moon. It’s a privilege to dedicate Johnson’s Building 12 to the innovative women who ***** the foundation to our nation’s space program.” Vaughan’s personal commitment and determination during the Apollo missions advanced the agency’s current diverse workforce and leadership – particularly at Johnson — as human computers transitioned from Langley Research Center in Virginia to Houston, supporting Mission Control from Building 12. She was a steadfast advocate for the women who worked as human computers, and for all the individuals under her leadership. Learn about the life and legacy of Dorothy Vaughan here: [Hidden Content] -end- Tiernan Doyle Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1600 *****@*****.tld Laura Rochon Johnson Space Center, Houston 281-483-5111 *****@*****.tld Share Details Last Updated Jul 15, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related TermsJohnson Space CenterApolloLangley Research CenterWomen at NASA View the full article

Image from the NESC Honor Awards Ceremony held May 2024 in Newport News, VA. Let to right: Front Row) Nga Pham (Jenlyn Solutions); Charles Dischinger (MSFC Retiree), John Puryear (Applied Physical Sciences Corporation), Timothy Wray (MSFC), Brain Tulaba (Jacob’s Technology, Inc.)(Second row) David J. Alexander (JSC), Ari Brown (GSFC), Stephen Scotti (LaRC), David Dawicke (Analytical Services & Materials, Inc.), Jesse Couch (Adaptive Aerospace Group, Inc.), Joseph Anderson (JSC), James Bontempo (Analytical Mechanics Associates) NESC Director’s Award David J. Alexander In recognition of his determination to communicate critical concerns with spacesuit helmet washout performance test methods, analysis, and interpretation. NESC Leadership Award H. Charles Dischinger In recognition of outstanding leadership and sustained commitment to the NESC Human Factors Technical Discipline Team. NESC Engineering Excellence Award Joseph B. Anderson In recognition of engineering excellence and technical expertise employed to abate the Orion flywheel exercise device acoustic emissions. Michael Beamesderfer In recognition of engineering excellence and technical leadership in conducting the Assessment of Degradation in Microfabricated Detectors and MEMS Devices. Richard Blank In recognition of engineering excellence in investigating the Commercial Crew Program Pyro Initiator lot acceptance test ********. James Bontempo In recognition of engineering excellence in technical analysis and problem resolution to some of NASA’s most challenging issues in human space flight. Ari D. Brown In recognition of engineering excellence and technical leadership in conducting the Assessment of Degradation in Microfabricated Detectors and MEMS Devices. Jesse C. Couch In recognition of engineering excellence in the development and analysis of an innovative and cost-effective solution to improve crew safety by reducing Commercial Crew Program software erroneous output risk. Edward B. Jackson In recognition of engineering excellence and technical leadership in establishing innovative approaches and applying sound engineering rigor in analyzing the Commercial Crew Program software erroneous output risk. Karl Kahre In recognition of engineering excellence for the rigorous development of Artemis I and II test-based loads predictions for the Orion Crew Module Uprighting System. Jayanta Panda In recognition of engineering excellence in the innovative implementation of a Microphone Phased Array demonstrating the feasibility to measure launch vehicle engine acoustic energy intensity. John Puryear In recognition of engineering excellence in the development of a continuous multibody uprighting model of the Orion Crew Module with wave coupling and soft goods deformability. Stephen J. Scotti In recognition of engineering excellence in the development and ********** of analyses and test approaches for the Orion Heat Shield Char Loss Investigation. Brian K. Tulaba In recognition of engineering excellence demonstrated in the development of micrometeoroid and orbital debris risk assessments for the Mars Sample Return Capture, Containment, and Return System. Timothy J. Wray In recognition of engineering excellence in the evaluation of methods and measurement uncertainty for dynamics-based liquid mass gauging. NESC Administrative Award Ella Mamtsis In recognition of exceptional leadership in the NESC Portal redesign project exhibited by driving quality outputs, ensuring stakeholder alignment, and promoting cross-functional teamwork. NESC Group Achievement Award Unconservatism of Linear-Elastic Fracture Mechanics Analysis Post-Autofrettage Assessment Team In recognition of outstanding technical achievement in the evaluation of compressive stresses in thin-walled COPVs and the relationship to liner damage tolerance. (award accepted by David Dawicke on behalf of the team) NESC Portal Integration Team In recognition of outstanding achievement in the development and redesign of the NESC Portal. (award accepted by Nga Pham on behalf of the team) View the full article

1 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Next Generation Science Standards: Engineering Design (MS-PS4-1, MS-ETS1) Grades 5+ In this activity, students will create an “antenna” or “receiver” out of re-used materials. After construction is complete, the students test their design by throwing “data” (in this case, ping pong ******) across the room and comparing the message to test the success of their receivers. Downloads View All Telepong Part 1 Jul 15, 2024 PDF (3.73 MB) Telepong Part 2 Jul 15, 2024 PDF (1.12 MB) Telepong Part 3 Jul 15, 2024 PDF (7.84 MB) Share Details Last Updated Jul 15, 2024 Related TermsGeneral Explore More 3 min read NASA Transmits Hip-Hop Song to Deep Space for First Time Article 2 hours ago 1 min read Attention Civil ******** Retirees Article 4 days ago 5 min read Surfing NASA’s Internet of Animals: Satellites Study Ocean Wildlife Article 5 days ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics Missions Humans in Space Climate Change Solar System View the full article

On July 15, 2009, space shuttle Endeavour began its 23rd trip into space, on the 2JA mission to the International Space Station, the 29th shuttle flight to the orbiting lab. During the 16-day mission, the seven-member STS-127 crew, working with Expedition 20, the first six-person crew aboard the station, completed the primary objectives of the mission. The flight marked the first time 13 people worked about the station at the same time. They added the Exposed Facility (EF) to the Kibo ********* Experiment Module (JEM), including its first three payloads, and performed a crew exchange of long-duration crew members. The tasks involved five complex space walks and extensive robotic activities using three different manipulator systems during 11 days of docked operations. Left: The STS-127 crew patch. Middle: Official photograph of the STS-127 crew of David A. Wolf, left, Christopher J. Cassidy, Douglas G. Hurley, Julie Payette of Canada, Mark L. Polansky, Thomas H. Marshburn, and Timothy L. Kopra. Right: The patch for the 2J/A mission. The seven-person STS-127 crew consisted of Commander Mark L. Polansky, Pilot Douglas G. Hurley, and Mission Specialists David A. Wolf, Christopher J. Cassidy, Julie Payette of the ********* Space Agency (CSA), Thomas H. Marshburn, and Timothy L. Kopra. Primary objectives of the mission included the addition of the Exposed Facility (EF) to the Kibo ********* Experiment Module (JEM) and the long-duration crew member exchange of Kopra for Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), who had been aboard the space station since March 2009 as a member of Expeditions 18, 19, and 20. Left: The STS-127 crew during their preflight press conference at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Middle: The STS-127 payloads in Endeavour’s cargo bay at Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Right: Space shuttle Endeavour on Launch Pad 39A a few days before launch. Endeavour returned from its previous mission, STS-126, on Nov. 28, 2008. It arrived in the Orbiter Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on Dec. 13, moved to the Vehicle Assembly Building on April 10, 2009, and rolled out to Launch Pad 39B seven days later to serve as the Launch on Need vehicle for STS-125 in May 2009. When that mission flew without issues, on May 31, workers rolled Endeavour around to Pad 39A to begin preparations for STS-127, planned for launch on June 13. A gaseous hydrogen ***** scrubbed this first launch attempt. A similar ***** halted the second attempt on June 17 and managers reset the launch date to July 11. Managers scrubbed that launch when 11 lightning strikes struck the launch pad area, requiring a review of Endeavour’s and ground systems. With the seven-member crew aboard Endeavour, weather once again halted the launch attempt on July 12. They tried again the next day, but weather conditions led to a fifth scrubbed launch attempt. The charm came on the sixth try. Liftoff of space shuttle Endeavour on STS-127 carrying the Exposed Facility for the ********* Kibo module. On July 15, 2009, at 6:03 p.m. EDT, space shuttle Endeavour lifted off from KSC’s Launch Pad 39A to begin its 23rd trip into space, beginning the 2JA mission to the space station. Eight and a half minutes later, Endeavour and its crew had reached orbit. This marked Wolf’s fourth time in space, Polansky’s third, Payette’s second, while Hurley, Cassidy, Marshburn, and Kopra enjoyed their first taste of true weightlessness. Left: NASA astronauts Timothy L. Kopra, left, and Thomas H. Marshburn enjoy the first few minutes of weightlessness after Endeavour reached orbit. Middle: On the mission’s second day, the Shuttle Remote Manipulator System (SRMS) uses the Orbiter ***** Sensor System to image Endeavour’s Thermal Protection System (TPS). Right: ********* Space Agency astronaut Julie Payette operates the SRMS during the TPS inspection. After reaching orbit, the crew opened the payload bay doors and deployed the shuttle’s radiators, and removed their bulky launch and entry suits, stowing them for the remainder of the flight. The astronauts spent five hours on their second day in space conducting a detailed inspection of Endeavour’s nose cap and wing leading edges, with Payette operating the Shuttle Remote Manipulator System (SRMS), or robotic arm, and the Orbiter ***** Sensor System (OBSS). Left: NASA astronaut Christopher J. Cassidy uses a laser range finder during Endeavour’s rendezvous with the space station. Middle: Endeavour as seen from the space station during the rendezvous. Right: Close up of the Kibo ********* Experiment Module – the astronauts attached the Exposed Facility at the left end of the module. On July 17, the 34th anniversary of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project docking, Polansky assisted by his crewmates brought Endeavour in for a docking with the space station. During the rendezvous, Polansky stopped the approach at 600 feet and completed the Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver so astronauts aboard the station could photograph Endeavour’s underside to look for any damage to the tiles. Shortly after docking, the crews opened the hatches between the two spacecraft and the six-person station crew welcomed the seven-member shuttle crew. Expedition 20 Commander Gennady I. Padalka of Roscosmos stated, “This is a remarkable event for the whole space program.” Polansky responded, “Thirteen is a big number, but we are thrilled to be here.” After exchanging Soyuz seat liners, Kopra joined the Expedition 20 crew and Wakata the STS-127 crew. Left: Expedition 20, the space station’s first six-person crew and the first, and so far only, time that each of the five space station partners had crew members on board at the same time. Middle: The first time two Canadians were in space at the same time. Right: A medical convention in space – the first time four medical doctors flew in space at the same time. STS-127 marked not only the first time that a space shuttle arrived at the station with a six-person crew living aboard, but as it happened, each of the five space station partners had a crew member aboard, a feat not repeated since. The flight also marked the first time that two CSA astronauts worked aboard the space station at the same time. And for the true trivia buffs, the mission marked the first time that four medical doctors worked in space together – an out of this world medical convention! Left: Transfer of the Exposed Facility from the shuttle to the station. Middle: Timothy L. Kopra, left, and David A. Wolf work on the station’s truss during the mission’s first spacewalk. Right: Douglas G. Hurley, left, and Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency operate the station’s robotic arm during the first spacewalk. On July 18, the mission’s fourth day, Hurley and Wakata grappled the JEM-EF using the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) or robotic arm, handed it off temporarily to the SRMS operated by Polansky and Payette, moved the station arm into position to grapple it again, and installed it on the end of the Kibo module. Meanwhile, Wolf, with red stripes on his spacesuit, and Kopra, wearing a suit with no stripes, began the mission’s first spacewalk. During the excursion that lasted 5 hours 32 minutes, Wolf and Kopra prepared the JEM for the EF installation and performed other tasks in the shuttle’s payload bay and on the station. Left: During the second spacewalk, David A. Wolf, left, and Thomas H. Marshburn transfer spare parts to the space station. Right: NASA astronaut Douglas G. Hurley, left, and ********* Space Agency astronaut Julie Payette operate the station’s robotic arm during the second spacewalk. The mission’s fifth day involved internal transfers of equipment from the shuttle to the station and the robotic transfer of the Integrated Cargo Carrier (ICC) from the payload bay to the station truss. The ICC carried spare parts that the next day Wolf and Marshburn, wearing dashed red stripes on his spacesuit, transferred to a stowage platform on the station’s exterior during the mission’s second spacewalk, lasting 6 hours and 53 minutes. Left: An Apollo 11 Moon rock brought to the station to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the first Moon landing. Middle: Nine of the 13 Expedition 20 and STS-127 crew members share a meal, as NASA astronaut Michael R. Barratt holds the Apollo 11 Moon rock. Right: Transfer of the Kibo Experiment Logistics Module from the shuttle to the station. The second spacewalk took place on July 20, the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 landing on the Moon. To commemorate the event, NASA selected a Moon rock returned on that mission and flew it to the space station on STS-119 in March 2009. Expedition 20 astronaut Michael Barratt recorded a video message about the Moon rock, played at a 40th anniversary celebration hosted by the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., and attended by the Apollo 11 astronauts. The following day, the ****** crews continued their work by robotically transferring the JEM Experiment Logistics Module (JEM ELM) and temporarily installing it on the Exposed Facility. Later in the mission, astronauts robotically transferred the three payloads from the ELM to EF. Left: Christopher J. Cassidy, left, and David A. Wolf during the mission’s third spacewalk. Right: Cassidy, left, and Wolf during a battery changeout. Flight Day 8 saw the mission’s third spacewalk, with Wolf making his final excursion, this time accompanied by Cassidy, wearing diagonal red stripes on his suit. Prior to the start of the spacewalk, Hurley and Payette used the station’s arm to relocate the ICC to a different workstation for Wolf and Cassidy to transfer the batteries to the station. As their first task, Wolf and Cassidy prepared the JEM EF for the transfer of the three payload the following day. They managed to transfer two of the four batteries before mission managers decided to shorten the spacewalk due to a slight buildup of carbon dioxide in Cassidy’s suit. The excursion lasted 5 hours and 59 minutes. Left: Installation of one of the payloads onto the Kibo Exposed Facility (EF). Right: Mark J. Polansky, left, and Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, one of the three teams that transferred the EF payloads using Kibo’s robotic arm. On Flight Day 9, Wakata, assisted by Kopra, inaugurated the operational use of the JEM’s robotic arm by transferring the first payload from the ELM to the EF. Three separate two-person teams transferred each of the three payloads. Left: Christopher J. Cassidy, left, and Thomas H. Marshburn exchange space station batteries during the mission’s fourth spacewalk. Right: ********* Space Agency astronaut Julie Payette, left, and NASA astronaut Douglas G. Hurley operate the station’s robotic arm during the fourth spacewalk. On Flight Day 10, Marshburn and Cassidy transferred the remaining four batteries and completed other tasks during the mission’s fourth spacewalk, lasting 7 hours and 12 minutes. Following the battery transfers, Hurley and Payette used the station’s arm to transfer the ICC to Polansky and Hurley operating the shuttle arm, who then stowed it in Endeavour’s payload bay. Left: The Seattle-Tacoma area. Middle left: The central Florida coast including NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Middle right: Sicily with Mt. Etna, left, and the “toe” of Italy at right. Right: Istanbul straddling Europe, left, and Asia. With Flight Day 11 given as a crew off duty day, many of the astronauts took part in a favorite activity: looking at and photographing the Earth. They also used the time to catch up on other activities. Left: Return of the empty Exposed Logistics Module to Endeavour’s payload bay. Middle: Fisheye view of Christopher J. Cassidy, left, and Thomas H. Marshburn in the U.S. Airlock preparing for the mission’s fifth and final spacewalk. Right: Marshburn, left, and Cassidy install cameras on the Kibo Exposed Facility during the fifth and final spacewalk. First thing on Flight Day 12, Payette and Polansky returned the now empty ELM to Endeavour’s payload bay, using the station and shuttle robotic arms. The next day, Marshburn and Cassidy teamed up again for the flight’s fifth and final spacewalk. During the 4-hour 54-minute excursion, they installed a pair of cameras on the Kibo module to help guide future H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) cargo spacecraft, the first planned to arrive in September 2009. They also completed a few get ahead tasks. Their excursion brought the total spacewalking time for the mission to 30 hours 30 minutes and marked only the second time that a shuttle mission to the space station completed five spacewalks. Left: The 13 members of Expedition 20 and STS-127 pose for a final photograph before saying their farewells. Middle: The crew members exchange farewells, with Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, left, appearing a little reluctant to leave after spending 133 days aboard the space station. Right: Photograph of the newly installed Exposed Facility on the Kibo ********* Experiment Module. On July 28, the mission’s 14th day, the 13-member ****** crew held a brief farewell ceremony, parted company, and closed the hatches between the two spacecraft. With Hurley at the controls, Endeavour undocked from the space station, having spent nearly 11 days as a single spacecraft. Hurley completed a flyaround of the station, with the astronauts photographing it to document its condition. A final separation ***** sent Endeavour on its way. The International Space Station, with the newly added Exposed Facility and its first payloads, as seen from Endeavour during the departure flyaround. Endeavour casts its shadow on the solar arrays. Left: The shuttle’s robotic arm grapples the Orbiter ***** Sensor System for the late inspection of Endeavour’s heat shield. Middle: Deploy of the DRAGONSAT microsatellite. Right: Deploy of the ANDE microsatellites. The next day, Polansky, Payette, and Hurley used the shuttle’s arm to pick up the OBSS and perform a late inspection of Endeavour’s thermal protection system. On Flight Day 16, the astronauts deployed two satellites. The first, called Dual RF Astrodynamic GPS Orbital Navigation Satellite, or DRAGONSAT, designed by students at the University of Texas, Austin, and Texas A&M University, College Station, consisted of a pair of picosatellites to look at independent rendezvous of spacecraft using GPS. The second, called Atmospheric Neutral Density Experiment-2, or ANDE-2, consisted of a set of Department of Defense microsatellites to look at the density and composition of the atmosphere 200 miles above the Earth. Polansky and Hurley tested Endeavour’s reaction control system thrusters and flight control surfaces in preparation for the next day’s entry and landing. The entire crew busied themselves with stowing all unneeded equipment. Left: Endeavour touches down on the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Right: The welcome home ceremony for the STS-127 crew at Ellington Field in Houston. On July 31, the astronauts closed Endeavour’s payload bay doors, donned their launch and entry suits, and strapped themselves into their seats, a special recumbent seat for Wakata who had spent the last four months in weightlessness. Polansky fired Endeavour’s two Orbital Maneuvering System engines to bring them out of orbit and heading for a landing half an orbit later. He guided Endeavour to a smooth touchdown at KSC’s Shuttle Landing Facility, capping off a very successful STS-127 mission of 15 days, 16 hours, 45 minutes. They orbited the planet 248 times. Wakata spent 137 days, 15 hours, 4 minutes in space, completing 2,166 orbits of the Earth. Workers at KSC began preparing Endeavour for its next flight, STS-130 in February 2010. Enjoy the crew narrate a video about the STS-127 mission. 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2 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) HyAxiom’s 440-kilowatt phosphoric acid fuel cell is now its flagship product, and it still builds on technical know-how developed under the Apollo and space shuttle programs.Credit: HyAxiom Inc. NASA’s investment in fuel cells dates to the 1960s when most of the world was still reliant on fossil fuels. A fuel cell generates electricity and heat when hydrogen and oxygen bond through an electrolyte. Because its only by-product is water, it’s an environmentally friendly power source. The agency’s interest in fuel cells came when NASA needed to fuel missions to the Moon. Engineers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston looked to fuel cells because they could provide more energy per pound than batteries could over the course of a long mission. At that time, fuel cells were just a concept that had never been put to practical use. NASA funded development of the first practical fuel cells because they were necessary to cut weight from the Apollo spacecraft for Moon missions. Three fuel cells in the Apollo service module provided electricity for the capsule containing the astronauts. The division of Pratt & Whitney that made the fuel cells later became UTC Power, now a subsidiary of Doosan Group known as HyAxiom Inc.Credit: NASA NASA funded three companies, including a portion of Pratt & Whitney, to develop prototypes. For Apollo mission fuel cells, NASA selected the Pratt & Whitney group, which soon became UTC Power, as the supplier of all the space shuttle fuel cells. With the agency funding and shaping its technology development, UTC Power eventually started offering commercial fuel cells. The company is now known as HyAxiom Inc. and operates from the same plant in South Windsor, Connecticut, that produced fuel cells for the agency. The company released its first commercial fuel cell in the mid-1990s and introduced its current product line about a decade later. “The models they built for these products we use today had a lot of the electrochemistry understanding from the space program,” said Sridhar Kanuri, HyAxiom’s chief technology officer. HyAxiom now produces around 120 units per year but expects to ramp up as government investments in fuel cells increase. The U.S. government plans to use fuel cells to store energy from renewable sources. Today’s commercial fuel cell companies received much of their knowledge base from NASA. John Scott, NASA’s principal technologist for power and energy storage said, “All these companies trace their intellectual property heritage, their corporate heritage, even the generations of personnel to those companies NASA funded back in the early 1960s.” Read More Share Details Last Updated Jul 15, 2024 Related TermsTechnology Transfer & SpinoffsApolloJohnson Space CenterSpinoffsTechnology Transfer Explore More 2 min read Sky High Sustainability: NASA Johnson’s Pocket Prairie Flourishes Atop Building 12 Article 6 hours ago 6 min read Voyagers of Mars: The First CHAPEA Crew’s Yearlong Journey Article 4 days ago 5 min read From Polar Peaks to Celestial Heights: Christy Hansen’s Unique Path to Leading NASA’s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program Article 6 days ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics The Apollo Program Technology Transfer & Spinoffs Exploring the Moon Technology View the full article