NASA

A person watches the annular solar eclipse of October 14, 2023, in Kerrville, Texas.Credits: NASA Millions of people across North America will experience a rare celestial sight on Monday, April 8: a total solar eclipse. NASA will host a media briefing with other government agencies at 10 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, March 26, at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The briefing will air live on NASA+, NASA Television, and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms including social media. Over the course of about an hour, viewers in 15 states across the United States will experience up to four and half minutes of darkness when the Moon moves fully in front of the Sun, revealing the Sun’s faint outer atmosphere: the corona. Outside of the path of totality, people in the contiguous United States will have the opportunity to see a partial eclipse, when the Moon covers only a portion of the Sun. Learn how to safely view this celestial event on NASA’s eclipse website. NASA is joining with scientific and transportation agencies to engage the public, share safety information, and conduct science during the upcoming total solar eclipse. Representatives from these agencies will brief media about plans for the solar eclipse. Briefing participants include: NASA Administrator Bill Nelson NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free Kelly Korreck, eclipse program manager, NASA Headquarters Shailen Bhatt, administrator, Federal Highway Administration Elsayed Talaat, director, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Space Weather Observations Media interested in attending in person must RSVP by 5 p.m., Monday, March 25, to Tiernan Doyle at tiernan.doyle@nasa.gov. All media interested in participating by phone must request details no later than two hours before the start of the event. NASA’s media accreditation policy is online. On April 8, NASA will host live coverage of the eclipse on NASA+, the agency’s website, and the NASA app beginning at 1 p.m. NASA will also stream the broadcast live on its Facebook, X, YouTube, and Twitch social media accounts, as well as have a telescope-only feed of eclipse views on the NASA TV media channel and YouTube. To learn more about the total solar eclipse, visit: go.nasa.gov/Eclipse2024 -end- Karen Fox Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1100 karen.c.fox@nasa.gov Sarah Frazier Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 202-853-7191 sarah.frazier@nasa.gov Share Details Last Updated Mar 22, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related TermsSolar Eclipses2024 Solar EclipseEclipsesNASA Headquarters View the full article

From the search for habitable worlds beyond our solar system to Earth science missions closer to home, NASA shared its goals for the next decades of exploration at this year’s Goddard Space Science Symposium, held March 20-22, 2024, at the University of Maryland in College Park. “We wanted to help bring focus to this long-term vision by gathering people from all areas of the industry to discuss the plan, the associated opportunities and challenges, and how we will all work together to succeed,” said Jim Way, executive director at the American Astronautical Society (AAS), which co-hosted the symposium with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. NASA Goddard and AAS collaborated to develop this year’s theme, “Space 2040: Pathways to the Future.” About 340 in-person attendees participated in panels featuring NASA scientists, researchers, and experts, as well as government and industry partners. Goddard Center Director Makenzie Lystrup kicked off the symposium by emphasizing the role partnerships have to play in science and space exploration. “The world is changing, and the space industry in particular; we’ve got to adapt to that,” Lystrup said. “Goddard needs to adapt to that, NASA needs to adapt, and I think that that can be scary. But also, this is the time when innovation can really come out. And so, I think that the sharing of ideas, and the willingness to try new things, is more important now than it ever has been.” Makenzie Lystrup, center director at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., gives opening remarks at the 61st Goddard Space Science Symposium sponsored by the American Astronautical Society on March 20, 2024, at the University of Maryland in College Park.NASA/Tabatha Luskey During the symposium, Goddard employees, students, and members of the industry and government workforce listened to discussions on space weather, climate science, interplanetary missions, and more. Nicola Fox, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, gave the opening keynote address on March 20. Fox spoke about NASA’s current and future missions, highlighting the intersections between NASA sciences. “I love to think about the interconnections in the science that we do,” Fox said. “Everybody knows that all the really interesting stuff – it’s not even just science – interesting stuff happens on the boundaries.” NASA Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate Nicola Fox speaks about NASA’s operating and future science fleet during her keynote address at the symposium on March 20.NASA/Tabatha Luskey The symposium concluded with early science results from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, which returned a sample from the asteroid Bennu in September 2023. Mission scientists brought a small piece of the sample for attendees to view. “That smudge you see is a pristine sample of the early solar system that we took 200 million miles away, and they’re finding some little preliminary results already,” said Michelle Thaller, co-chair of the 2024 planning committee and assistant director for science communication at Goddard. This year marked the 61st symposium, making it the longest running event hosted by AAS. Formerly known as the Robert H. Goddard Memorial Symposium, the event demonstrates the longstanding relationship between Goddard and AAS. By Julia Tilton NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Share Details Last Updated Mar 22, 2024 EditorRob GarnerContactRob Garnerrob.garner@nasa.govLocationGoddard Space Flight Center Related TermsGoddard Space Flight Center View the full article

2 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Media are invited to apply for accreditation to attend a pre-launch media day to learn about a sounding rocket mission set to launch from Virginia’s Eastern Shore during the 2024 solar eclipse. The April 2 media day event includes opportunities to hear from subject matter experts, tour the facility, and interview members of the research team. Media day activities will take place on Tuesday, April 2, from 9 a.m.- noon at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia. A sounding rocket launches from White Sands, New Mexico, during the Oct. 14, 2024, annular solar eclipse for the APEP mission.U.S. Army/Judy Hawkins The application deadline for media who are U.S. citizens is Friday, March 29, at 2 p.m. EDT. All media must send their accreditation request to the Wallops Office of Communications. Media must arrive at Wallops no later than 9 a.m. on Tuesday, April 2, to complete the badging process prior to the media day tour and interviews. This NASA mission, known as Atmospheric Perturbations around Eclipse Path (APEP), is led by Dr. Aroh Barjatya, a professor of engineering physics at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida. Three sounding rockets will be launched during the solar eclipse on April 8 to study how the sudden drop in sunlight affects our upper atmosphere. Media Contact Amy Barra NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Virginia Share Details Last Updated Mar 20, 2024 EditorJamie AdkinsContactAmy Barraamy.l.barra@nasa.govLocationWallops Flight Facility Related TermsWallops Flight Facility2024 Solar Eclipse View the full article

3 min read International Space Station welcomes biological and physical science experiments NASA is sending several biological and physical sciences experiments and equipment aboard SpaceX’s 30th commercial resupply services mission. Studying biological and physical phenomena under extreme conditions allows researchers to advance the fundamental scientific knowledge required to go farther and stay longer in space, while also benefitting life on Earth. Not only can these experiments provide pioneering scientific discovery – they enable sustainable deep space exploration and support transformative engineering. The commercial resupply launch took place Thursday, March 21, at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Understanding Antibiotic Resistance in Space The emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria poses a significant threat to human health, both on Earth and in space. Common, harmless bacteria like Enterococcus faecalis (EF) and Enterococcus faecium, can be found on the International Space Station just as they are on Earth — and yet, they exhibit resistance to antibiotics and are hardier than their counterparts down on the ground. This raises concerns about potential more harmful bacteria causing infections for astronauts, especially during long-duration missions, as standard antibiotic treatments might prove ineffective. To address this issue, Genomic Enumeration of Antibiotic Resistance in Space will survey the space station for antibiotic-resistant microbes. By analyzing the genetic makeup of these bacteria, scientists hope to understand how they adapt to the unique environment of space. This knowledge will be instrumental in developing protective measures for astronauts’ health on future long-duration missions. Additionally, it could contribute to a broader understanding of antibiotic resistance, benefiting healthcare practices on Earth. Principal Investigator: Dr. Christopher Carr, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA Cold Atom Lab Science Module – 1 A temporary replacement module for the Cold Atom Lab will be aboard SpaceX-30. The module will enable NASA to continue pioneering quantum experiments aboard the International Space Station while researchers troubleshoot upgraded equipment delivered to station in August 2023 that they were unable to bring online. The Cold Atom Laboratory quad locker sitting in a fixture that will allow the hardware to be packaged for shipment to the launch facility. Levitation of High Temperature Metals Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) partner-lead investigation The objective of the Electrostatic Levitation Furnace-1 reflight is to investigate the effects of the interfacial phenomena between molten steel and slag (oxide) melts during processing from the viewpoint of the thermophysical properties. During steel making processes, such as continuous casting, the impurity in the cast steel is influenced by the interplay between the molten steel and molten slags. Understanding the interfacial phenomena could help produce higher purity steels. Success could increase the space station’s commercial utilization and improve oxide melt manufacturing and application on Earth. Flow Boiling Condensation Module Power Filter Module (support hardware) During the initial checkouts following launch of the Condensation Module Power Filter hardware on NG-19 in August 2023, an anomaly was observed in the test section thermocouple readings. The team investigated the issue and recommended replacement of the power filter module to fix the anomalous thermocouple readings. The PFM filters out undesirable electromagnetic emissions noise for the payload electronics. Top view of the FBCE-CM-HT hardware. This investigation gathers data to characterize the function of condensation surfaces and to validate flow velocity models. Results could identify optimal flow rates at various gravitational levels to safely dissipate heat, supporting design of systems for use in space and on Earth. Image courtesy of NASA Glenn Research Center. NASA Glenn Research Center About NASA’s Biological and Physical Sciences NASA’s Biological and Physical Sciences Division pioneers’ scientific discovery and enables exploration by using space environments to conduct investigations not possible on Earth. Studying biological and physical phenomena under extreme conditions allows researchers to advance the fundamental scientific knowledge required to go farther and stay longer in space, while also benefitting life on Earth. Share Details Last Updated Mar 22, 2024 Related Terms Biological & Physical Sciences International Space Station (ISS) ISS Research Science & Research View the full article

2 min read Hubble Spots the Spider Galaxy This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the irregular galaxy UGC 5829. ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Tully, M. Messa This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the gauzy-looking celestial body UGC 5829, an irregular galaxy that lies about 30 million light-years away. Despite the lack of observations of this relatively faint galaxy, UGC 5829 has a distinct and descriptive name: the Spider Galaxy. Perhaps its distorted galactic arms with their glowing, star-forming tips hint at the clawed legs of an arachnid. The data in this image come from two Hubble observing programs. The first used Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys to look at relatively nearby galaxies in an effort to build color versus brightness diagrams of the stars in these galaxies. Each observation only took one Hubble orbit (about 95 minutes) but provided a valuable archival record of the types of stars in different galaxies and therefore different environments. The second program used Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 to look at star clusters in dwarf galaxies. Their observations leveraged Hubble’s ultraviolet capabilities along with its ability to see fine details to better understand the environment where stars form in dwarf galaxies. The star-forming regions of UGC 5829 are readily visible in this image as bright-pink nebulae or clouds. Text credit: European Space Agency (ESA) Download this image Media Contact: Claire Andreoli NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD claire.andreoli@nasa.gov Share Details Last Updated Mar 22, 2024 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Related Terms Astrophysics Galaxies Goddard Space Flight Center Hubble Space Telescope Irregular Galaxies Missions The Universe Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Hubble Space Telescope Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe. Galaxies Stories Stars Stories NASA Astrophysics View the full article

On March 24, 1979, space shuttle Columbia arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) for the very first time. Following Presidential direction to build the space shuttle in 1972, Congress quickly approved and funded the program later that year. Construction of the first orbital vehicle, later named Columbia, began in 1975. Four years later, Columbia completed its first transcontinental flight, arriving at KSC to begin preparations for its first mission. The first shuttle flight in April 1981 ushered in an era of reusable space transportation. Left: NASA Administrator James C. Fletcher, left, presents a model of the space shuttle to President Richard M. Nixon in January 1972. Right: Apollo 16 astronauts John W. Young, left, and Charles M. Duke on the Moon in April 1972. On Jan. 5, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon directed NASA to build the space shuttle, formally called the Space Transportation System (STS), stating that “it would revolutionize transportation into near space.” NASA Administrator James C. Fletcher hailed the President’s decision as “an historic step in the nation’s space program,” adding that it would change what humans can accomplish in space. Apollo 16 astronauts John W. Young and Charles M. Duke learned of the space shuttle’s approval while exploring the Moon in April 1972. Mission Control informed them that Congress had authorized the development of the space shuttle. Young and Duke both enthusiastically responded to the positive news with “Beautiful! Wonderful! Beautiful!” Young added with some foresight, “The country needs that shuttle mighty bad. You’ll see.” He had no way of knowing that nine years later, he would command the first ship of the space shuttle fleet, Columbia, on its maiden voyage. Left: Columbia’s crew compartment during assembly in 1976. Middle: Columbia’s aft fuselage and wings during assembly in November 1977. Right: Columbia just prior to rollout from Rockwell’s plant in Palmdale in March 1979. Once Congress authorized the funds, on July 26, 1972, NASA awarded the contract to the North American Rockwell Corporation of Downey, California, to begin construction of the first orbital vehicle. Officially known as Orbital Vehicle-102 (OV-102), in January 1979 NASA named it Columbia after Captain Robert Gary’s sloop that explored the Pacific Northwest in the 1790s and took the honor as the first American ship to circumnavigate the globe, as well as after the Apollo 11 Command Module. Construction of Columbia’s first components at Rockwell’s Palmdale, California, plant began on March 25, 1975. Left: Workers roll Columbia out from its hangar at Rockwell’s Palmdale, California, plant. Middle: Workers transport Columbia from Rockwell’s Palmdale facility to NASA’s Dryden, now Armstrong, Flight Research Center. Right: Columbia atop the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft takes off from Dryden to begin the cross-country ferry flight. Nearly four years later, on March 8, 1979, Columbia rolled out of the Palmdale facility to begin its multi-day transcontinental journey to KSC. For the first step of the journey, workers towed Columbia from Palmdale overland to NASA’s Dryden, now Armstrong, Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) 36 miles away. Two days later, workers there hoisted Columbia onto the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), a Boeing 747 aircraft modified to transport space shuttle orbiters. During a test flight, thousands of the orbiter’s thermal protection system tiles fell off. Workers returned Columbia to a hangar where over 100 men and women worked for nine days reapplying the tiles. Weather then delayed Columbia’s departure until March 20, when the SCA/shuttle duo flew from Dryden to Biggs AFB in El Paso, Texas. Left: Space shuttle Columbia atop its Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) touches down at Kelly Air Force Base (AFB) in San Antonio for an overnight stop. Middle: Head on view of Columbia atop the SCA. Right: Tina Aguilar, age nine, an aspiring young reporter, interviews astronaut Donald K. “Deke” Slayton in front of Columbia and the SCA at Kelly AFB. Weather delayed Columbia’s departure for the planned refueling stop at Kelly AFB in San Antonio, until the next day. About 200,000 people went to view the shuttle during its overnight layover in San Antonio prior to its departure on March 23. Left: The past meets the future, as space shuttle Columbia atop its Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) flies over the Saturn V display at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Middle: Columbia atop the SCA touches down at KSC’s Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF), with the Vehicle Assembly Building visible in the background. Right: At the SLF, NASA Administrator Robert A. Frosch addresses the crowd assembled to welcome Columbia to KSC, as other dignitaries listen. After another overnight stop at Eglin AFB in Florida, Columbia atop the SCA touched down at KSC’s Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) on March 24, a crowd of about 3,000 cheering its arrival. Dignitaries in attendance at a brief welcoming ceremony at the SLF included NASA Administrator Robert A. Frosch, KSC Director Lee R. Scherer, SCA pilots Joseph S. Algranti and Fitzhugh L. Fulton, program manager for Shuttle Flight Test Operations NASA astronaut Donald K. “Deke” Slayton, and astronauts John W. Young and Robert L. Crippen, designated as the commander and pilot for STS-1, the first space shuttle mission. Also in attendance, U.S. Congressman C. William “Bill” Nelson whose district included KSC and now serves as NASA’s 14th administrator, and Florida Lieutenant Governor J. Wayne Mixson. Left: Columbia in the Orbiter Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Middle: Workers hoist Columbia in KSC’s Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) for mating with its external tank and solid rocket boosters. Right: Columbia rolls out of the VAB on its way to Launch Pad 39A. The next day, after removing Columbia from the back of the SCA, workers towed it into the Orbiter Processing Facility, where the orbiter spent the next 19 months preparing for its first flight. Rollover to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) for mating with its External Tank and the two Solid Rocket Boosters took place Nov. 24, 1980. After a series of integrated tests, the shuttle stack rolled out of the VAB and made the 3.5-mile trip to Launch Pad 39A on Dec. 29, 1980. Young and Crippen flew Columbia’s historic first mission, STS-1, in April 1981, ushering in an era of reusable space transportation. Share Details Last Updated Mar 21, 2024 Related TermsNASA HistorySpace Shuttle Explore More 21 min read 55 Years Ago: Four Months Until the Moon Landing Article 1 day ago 11 min read 20 Years Ago: First Image of Earth from Mars and Other Postcards of Home Article 2 weeks ago 4 min read More Planets than Stars: Kepler’s Legacy Article 2 weeks ago View the full article

4 min read NASA’s Tiny BurstCube Mission Launches to Study Cosmic Blasts BurstCube, shown in this artist’s concept, will orbit Earth as it hunts for short gamma-ray bursts. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab NASA’s BurstCube, a shoebox-sized satellite designed to study the universe’s most powerful explosions, is on its way to the International Space Station. The spacecraft travels aboard SpaceX’s 30th Commercial Resupply Services mission, which lifted off at 4:55 p.m. EDT on Thursday, March 21, from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. After arriving at the station, BurstCube will be unpacked and later released into orbit, where it will detect, locate, and study short gamma-ray bursts – brief flashes of high-energy light. “BurstCube may be small, but in addition to investigating these extreme events, it’s testing new technology and providing important experience for early career astronomers and aerospace engineers,” said Jeremy Perkins, BurstCube’s principal investigator at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The BurstCube satellite sits in its flight configuration in this photo taken in the Goddard CubeSat Lab in 2023. NASA/Sophia Roberts Download high-resolution images and videos of BurstCube. Short gamma-ray bursts usually occur after the collisions of neutron stars, the superdense remnants of massive stars that exploded in supernovae. The neutron stars can also emit gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of space-time, as they spiral together. Astronomers are interested in studying gamma-ray bursts using both light and gravitational waves because each can teach them about different aspects of the event. This approach is part of a new way of understanding the cosmos called multimessenger astronomy. The collisions that create short gamma-ray bursts also produce heavy elements like gold and iodine, an essential ingredient for life as we know it. Currently, the only joint observation of gravitational waves and light from the same event – called GW170817 – was in 2017. It was a watershed moment in multimessenger astronomy, and the scientific community has been hoping and preparing for additional concurrent discoveries since. “BurstCube’s detectors are angled to allow us to detect and localize events over a wide area of the sky,” said Israel Martinez, research scientist and BurstCube team member at the University of Maryland, College Park and Goddard. “Our current gamma-ray missions can only see about 70% of the sky at any moment because Earth blocks their view. Increasing our coverage with satellites like BurstCube improves the odds we’ll catch more bursts coincident with gravitational wave detections.” BurstCube’s main instrument detects gamma rays with energies ranging from 50,000 to 1 million electron volts. (For comparison, visible light ranges between 2 and 3 electron volts.) When a gamma ray enters one of BurstCube’s four detectors, it encounters a cesium iodide layer called a scintillator, which converts it into visible light. The light then enters another layer, an array of 116 silicon photomultipliers, that converts it into a pulse of electrons, which is what BurstCube measures. For each gamma ray, the team sees one pulse in the instrument readout that provides the precise arrival time and energy. The angled detectors inform the team of the general direction of the event. BurstCube belongs to a class of spacecraft called CubeSats. These small satellites come in a range of standard sizes based on a cube measuring 10 centimeters (3.9 inches) across. CubeSats provide cost-effective access to space to facilitate groundbreaking science, test new technologies, and help educate the next generation of scientists and engineers in mission development, construction, and testing. Engineers attach BurstCube to the platform of a thermal vacuum chamber at Goddard ahead of testing. NASA/Sophia Roberts “We were able to order many of BurstCube’s parts, like solar panels and other off-the-shelf components, which are becoming standardized for CubeSats,” said Julie Cox, a BurstCube mechanical engineer at Goddard. “That allowed us to focus on the mission’s novel aspects, like the made-in-house components and the instrument, which will demonstrate how a new generation of miniaturized gamma-ray detectors work in space.” BurstCube is led by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. It’s funded by the Science Mission Directorate’s Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters. The BurstCube collaboration includes: the University of Alabama in Huntsville; the University of Maryland, College Park; the University of the Virgin Islands; the Universities Space Research Association in Washington; the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington; and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. By Jeanette Kazmierczak NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Media Contact: Claire Andreoli (301) 286-1940 claire.andreoli@nasa.gov NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Share Details Last Updated Mar 21, 2024 Related Terms Astrophysics BurstCube CubeSats Gamma Rays Gamma-Ray Bursts Gravitational Waves International Space Station (ISS) Neutron Stars Sensing the Universe & Multimessenger Astronomy The Universe Explore More 4 min read NASA’s Hubble Finds that Aging Brown Dwarfs Grow Lonely Article 8 hours ago 2 min read Hubble Views a Galaxy Under Pressure Article 6 days ago 3 min read Hubble Tracks Jupiter’s Stormy Weather Article 1 week ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Missions Humans in Space Climate Change Solar System View the full article

NASA’s SpaceX 30th commercial resupply mission launched at 4:55 p.m. EDT, Thursday, March 21 , from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.Credit: NASA/Madison Tuttle Following a successful launch of NASA’s SpaceX 30th commercial resupply mission, new scientific experiments and technology demonstrations for the agency are on the way to the International Space Station, including studies of technologies to measure sea ice and plant growth in space. SpaceX’s Dragon resupply spacecraft, carrying more than 6,000 pounds of cargo to the orbiting laboratory, launched on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket at 4:55 p.m. EDT Thursday, from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The cargo spacecraft is scheduled to autonomously dock at the space station on Saturday, March 23, at approximately 7:30 a.m. and remain at the orbital outpost for about a month. Live coverage of the arrival will begin at 5:30 a.m. on NASA+, NASA Television, and on the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms. The Dragon will deliver a new set of sensors for Astrobee robots to support automated 3D sensing, mapping, and situational awareness functions. These systems could support future Gateway and lunar surface missions by providing automated maintenance and surface scanning using rovers. Additionally, the spacecraft will deliver BurstCube, a small satellite that is designed to study gamma-ray bursts that occur when two neutron stars collide. This satellite could widen our coverage of the gamma-ray sky, improving our chances of studying bursts both with light and gravitational waves, or ripples in space-time, detected by ground-based observatories. Finally, the spacecraft also will deliver sampling hardware for Genomic Enumeration of Antibiotic Resistance in Space (GEARS), an initiative that will test different locations of the space station for antibiotic-resistant microbes. In-flight gene sequencing could show how these bacteria adapt to the space environment, providing knowledge that informs measures to protect astronauts on future long-duration missions. These are just a few of the hundreds of investigations conducted aboard the orbiting laboratory in the areas of biology and biotechnology, physical sciences, and Earth and space science. Advances from this scientific research will help keep astronauts healthy during long-duration space travel and demonstrate technologies for future human and robotic exploration beyond low Earth orbit to the Moon through NASA’s Artemis campaign, in advance of the first crewed mission to Mars. Get breaking news, images and features from the space station on Instagram, Facebook, and X. Learn more about NASA commercial resupply services missions at: https://www.nasa.gov/international-space-station/commercial-resupply/ -end- Josh Finch / Julian Coltre / Claire O’Shea Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1100 joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / julian.n.coltre@nasa.gov / claire.a.o’shea@nasa.gov Stephanie Plucinsky / Steven Siceloff Kennedy Space Center, Florida 321-876-2468 stephanie.n.plucinsky@nasa.gov / steven.p.siceloff@nasa.gov Sandra Jones Johnson Space Center, Houston 281-483-5111 sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov Share Details Last Updated Mar 21, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related TermsISS ResearchCommercial ResupplyInternational Space Station (ISS)SpaceX Commercial Resupply View the full article

Key adapters for the first crewed Artemis missions are manufactured at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The cone-shaped payload adapter, left, will debut on the Block 1B configuration of the SLS rocket beginning with Artemis IV, while the Orion stage adapters, right, will be used for Artemis II and Artemis III. NASA/Sam Lott A test version of the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket’s payload adapter is ready for evaluation, marking a critical milestone on the journey to the hardware’s debut on NASA’s Artemis IV mission. Comprised of two metal rings and eight composite panels, the cone-shaped payload adapter will be part of the SLS Block 1B configuration and housed inside the universal stage adapter atop the rocket’s more powerful in-space stage, called the exploration upper stage. The payload adapter is an evolution from the Orion stage adapter used in the Block 1 configuration of the first three Artemis missions that sits at the topmost portion of the rocket and helps connect the rocket and spacecraft. “Like the Orion stage adapter and the launch vehicle stage adapter used for the first three SLS flights, the payload adapter for the evolved SLS Block 1B configuration is fully manufactured and tested at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama,” said Casey Wolfe, assistant branch chief for the advanced manufacturing branch at Marshall. “Marshall’s automated fiber placement and large-scale integration facilities provide our teams the ability to build composite hardware elements for multiple Artemis missions in parallel, allowing for cost and schedule savings.” Teams at Marshall manufactured, prepared, and move the payload adapter test article. The payload adapter will undergo testing in the same test stand that once housed the SLS liquid oxygen tank structural test article.NASA Teams at Marshall manufactured, prepared, and move the payload adapter test article. The payload adapter will undergo testing in the same test stand that once housed the SLS liquid oxygen tank structural test article.NASA Teams at Marshall manufactured, prepared, and move the payload adapter test article. The payload adapter will undergo testing in the same test stand that once housed the SLS liquid oxygen tank structural test article.NASA Teams at Marshall manufactured, prepared, and move the payload adapter test article. The payload adapter will undergo testing in the same test stand that once housed the SLS liquid oxygen tank structural test article. NASA At about 8.5 feet tall, the payload adapter’s eight composite sandwich panels, which measure about 12 feet each in length, contain a metallic honeycomb-style structure at their thickest point but taper to a single carbon fiber layer at each end. The panels are pieced together using a high-precision process called determinant assembly, in which each component is designed to fit securely in a specific place, like puzzle pieces. After manufacturing, the payload adapter will also be structurally tested at Marshall, which manages the SLS Program. The first structural test series begins this spring. Test teams will use the engineering development unit – an exact replica of the flight version of the hardware – to check the structure’s strength and durability by twisting, shaking, and applying extreme pressure. While every Block 1B configuration of the SLS rocket will use a payload adapter, each will be customized to fit the mission’s needs. The determinant assembly method and digital tooling ensure a more efficient and uniform manufacturing process, regardless of the mission profile, to ensure hardware remains on schedule. Data from this test series will further inform design and manufacturing processes as teams begin manufacturing the qualification and flight hardware for Artemis IV. NASA is working to land the first woman, first person of color, 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 and Gateway in orbit around the Moon and commercial human landing systems, next-generational spacesuits, and rovers on the lunar surface. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single launch. News Media Contact Corinne Beckinger Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala. 256.544.0034 corinne.m.beckinger@nasa.gov View the full article

6 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Everyday physical activities keep the cardiovascular system healthy. The human cardiovascular system, which includes the heart and blood vessels, has evolved to operate in Earth’s gravity. When astronauts travel to space, their bodies begin to adjust to the microgravity of their spacecraft. Blood and other bodily fluids previously pulled downward by gravity now move toward the head, so the cardiovascular system doesn’t have to work as hard to maintain blood flow to the brain. This adaptation to weightlessness can result in reduced blood volume and reduced function of the heart and blood vessels. When astronauts return to Earth, gravity once again pulls their body fluids downward. The cardiovascular system is now challenged to regulate blood pressure, causing some astronauts to feel weak, dizzy, or faint when they stand immediately upon arrival on Earth. These symptoms can last for a few days until they get used to spending time back in Earth’s gravity. What we learn while aboard the space station has important applications on Earth. Many of the changes seen in space resemble those caused by aging on Earth. As we age, particularly if we don’t remain physically active, the efficiency of the heart and blood vessels to maintain blood pressure while standing may decrease and some people may develop heart disease. Because spending time in space affects the heart and circulatory system, research on the space station looks at these effects in both the short and long term. Research aims to develop and test countermeasures to cardiovascular adaptations to spaceflight to benefit both astronauts and people on the ground. Below are some examples of studies performed on the station involving cardiovascular research. NASA astronaut Jessica Meir conducts EHT-2 in the Life Sciences Glovebox aboard the space station.NASA Monitor Fluids Shifting Using 3D ultrasound technology, Vascular Echo, an investigation from CSA (Canadian Space Agency), examined changes in blood vessels and the hearts of crew members in space and followed their recovery upon return to Earth. 3D images of blood vessels using ultrasounds show more detail than 2D images, just like how a model car is a better representation than a flat picture of that car. Astronauts used a motorized ultrasound probe to scan crucial body parts. Meanwhile on the ground, scientists could adjust the angle of the ultrasound beam emitted by the probe to collect the best image possible. Using this technology allowed crews to collect high-quality scans even though they’re not necessarily expert sonographers.1 An investigation called Fluid Shifts demonstrated how much fluid—including water and blood—moves from the lower body to the upper body in space. The study also evaluated the impact these shifts have on the structure and function of the eyes and brain. Results showed that several measurements of body fluids shifting towards the upper body were elevated during spaceflight but were reduced to preflight levels when using methods to reverse these fluid shifts.2 Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut David Saint-Jacques performs an ultrasound for Vascular Echo which study the effects of weightlessness on astronauts’ blood vessels and hearts.Canadian Space Agency/NASA Culturing Stem Cells An investigation completed in 2018, Cardiac Myocytes examined how stem cells differentiate into specialized heart cells (cardiac myocytes). The experiment evaluated cell maturation in microgravity and tested the ability of the cells to repair damaged heart tissues. This study advances the development of possible regenerative therapies for both astronauts and patients on Earth. Subsequent experiments took advantage of microgravity’s effects on cell behavior and growth to create tools for further research, model disease, and test potential treatments for heart damage. MVP Cell-03 examined whether microgravity increased production of heart cells from human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs). Pluripotent cells have started to differentiate, making them more specialized than stem cells, but they retain the ability to develop into multiple types of cells. Any observed increase in production of heart cells could make it possible to use cultured cells to help treat spaceflight-induced cardiac abnormalities and create personalized therapies to replenish heart cells damaged or lost due to disease on Earth. Project EAGLE, a related experiment, grows 3D cultures of heart cells in microgravity and could provide a heart tissue model that mimics heart disease and assesses potential drug therapies. Beating cardiac spheres produced from cells cultured on the space station for the MVP Cell-03 investigation. Emory University School of Medicine Tiny Organ-like Devices Many studies aboard the space station use tissue chips, small devices that mimic functions of human organs. These tools include 3D cultures of specific cell types, tissues engineered to reproduce specific cellular characteristics, as well as 3D structures made from many different cell types in a particular organ such as the heart. These stand-ins for actual hearts enable new types of research and drug testing. Engineered Heart Tissues (EHT) used 3D tissues derived from hiPSCs to study cardiac function in microgravity. A magnet-based sensor underneath the culture chamber allowed real-time, non-destructive analysis of the functional performance and maturation of the tissues in space. Engineered Heart Tissues-2 builds on its predecessor using 3D cultures of cardiac muscle tissue to test therapies that may prevent these changes. Cardinal Heart, a study using engineered heart tissues to understand effects of change in gravitational force on cardiovascular cells, confirmed that microgravity exposure causes significant changes in heart cell function and gene expression that could lead to damage.3 Cardinal Heart 2.0 took this research to the next level. It used a beating heart organoid containing different kinds of stem-cell-derived cardiac cells to test whether certain drugs can reduce or prevent microgravity-induced changes. Using tissue chips to test new drugs could help reduce the need for the animal studies required before clinical trials in humans, potentially shortening the time between the discovery of a drug candidate and its clinical use. This biocell contains beating cardiac spheroids derived from iPSCs.Stanford Cardiovascular Institute. Andrea Lloyd International Space Station Research Communications Team Johnson Space Center Resources for Additional Learning Search this database of scientific experiments to learn more about those mentioned above. Citations Patterson C, Greaves DK, Robertson AD, Hughson RL, Arbeille P. Motorized 3D ultrasound and jugular vein dimension measurement on the International Space Station. Aerospace Medicine and Human Performance. 2023 June 1; 94(6): 466-469. DOI: 10.3357/AMHP.6219.2023.PMID: 37194183 Arbeille P, Zuj KA, Macias BR, Ebert DJ, Laurie SS, Sargsyan AE, Martin DS, Lee SM, Dulchavsky SA, Stenger MB, Hargens AR. Lower body negative pressure reduces jugular and portal vein volumes, and counteracts the cerebral vein velocity elevation during long-duration spaceflight. Journal of Applied Physiology. 2021 September; 131(3): 1080-1087. DOI: 10.1152/japplphysiol.00231.2021.PMID: 34323592. Wnorowski, A., Sharma, A., Chen, H., Wu, H., Shao, N.-Y., Sayed, N., Liu, C., Countryman, S., Stodieck, L. S., Rubins, K. H., Wu, S. M., Lee, P. H. U., & Wu, J. C. (2019). Effects of spaceflight on human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocyte structure and function. Stem Cell Reports, 13(6), 960–969. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stemcr.2019.10.006 Keep Exploring Discover More Topics Station Science 101: Human Research Latest News from Space Station Research Station Benefits for Humanity Human Research Program View the full article

The year 2023 was productive for the Loads & Dynamics (L&D) Technical Discipline Team (TDT). New shock and modal analysis techniques were developed and mentoring the next generation of NASA discipline experts continued. Additionally, NESC Technical Bulletin No. 23-3, New Transient Finite Energy Shock Prediction Methodology, was released. Early Career Community Nurtures Development of NASA’s Future Discipline Leaders NASA has acknowledged the need for “attracting and advancing a highly skilled, competent, and diverse workforce in order to cultivate an innovative work environment…” as stated in Objective 3.1 of the 2014 NASA Strategic Plan. A survey conducted in 2014 by Emerge, the early-career professional group at JSC, showed that recent hires believe that “communication and collaboration amongst organizations” is a key area of improvement, while “lack of opportunities for professional growth” is the top reason why they would consider leaving the Agency. This, when coupled with NASA’s aging workforce (the average age as of 2016 was 49), stresses the importance of capturing knowledge to pass along to the next generation of NASA engineers. The Structures, Loads and Dynamics, Mechanical Systems, and Materials (SLAMMS) disciplines have also been identified as critical fields for the advancement of NASA’s strategic vision, which emphasizes the importance of developing and retaining engineers in those areas. Consequently, the SLAM(M)S Steering Committee (Materials was not initially included), comprising center SLAMS Division/Branch Chiefs and NASA Technical Fellows, formed the Young Professionals Forum in 2012, which evolved into the current Early Career Forum (ECF) in 2017, and was expanded to provide year-round activities (e.g., monthly meetings, training opportunities) for the Early Career Community (ECC). Over the lifetime of the ECC, the SLAMS Steering Committee was dissolved, and the stewardship of the ECC relied on the Technical Fellows, who empowered ECC leaders to take on the primary responsibility of planning and running the ECC and ECF events. Today’s SLAMMS Early Career Community Within the past few years, a new SLAMMS Division/Branch Chief collaboration group was formed, called the SLAMMS Leadership Working Group (LWG), and is led by James Loughlin, GSFC Mechanical Systems Division Chief, with co-lead Elonso Rayos, JSC Structures Engineering Assistant Division Chief. The LWG is a forum focused on capability sustainment, discipline technical challenges, and workforce concerns. For example, disparate Agency technical resource access is discussed, collaboration is coordinated, and critical gaps in expertise are filled using cross-Agency cooperation. The current SLAMMS ECE leadership team includes Khadijah Shariff (JSC-Structures), Dr. Matthew Chamberlain (LaRC- Loads & Dynamics), Dr. Jonathan Sauder (JPL-Mechanical Systems), and Cassie Smith (JPL-Mechanical Systems). NASA Technical Fellows supporting SLAMMS are Deneen Taylor (Structures), Dr. Dexter Johnson (Loads & Dynamics), Dr. Michael Dube (Mechanical Systems), and Dr. Bryan McEnerney (Materials). The SLAMMS Early Career Forum The ECF is the annual “face-to-face” workshop for the community. The ECF is held at a different NASA center each year and features technical presentations by early career engineers (ECE), splinter sessions with NASA Technical Fellows, mentor presentations, facility tours, networking events, design challenges, and evening social activities to advance the SLAMMS disciplines and develop NASA’s future workforce. The ECF features technical presentations given by the ECEs to their peers, senior engineers, and Technical Fellows. The 12th Annual SLAMMS ECF was held at MSFC and virtually. Sixty-six ECEs, Technical Fellows, TDT mentors, and discipline managers from the SLAMMS LWG were in attendance. ECEs from 8 centers made 16 technical presentations and 18 posters, which were ranked by mentors for the top awards. Multiple splinter sessions provided ECEs with opportunities to ask career-related advice from Technical Fellows, project and systems management, and individuals experienced in design, analysis, and testing. In addition, there was a detailed discussion for each of the technical disciplines represented at the forum, and multiple site tours were provided. Attendees of the 12th annual SLAMMS EFC at MSFC 2023. The Future of the SLAMMS ECC The SLAMMS ECC will continue to evolve as discussions with the ECE leadership team and Technical Fellows continue towards mapping its future. SLAMMS is igniting cross-Agency collaboration for future generations. Its current goals include communication and collaboration among organizations, professional growth of early career engineers, knowledge capturing for the next generation of NASA engineers, and developing and retaining engineers in the specific SLAMMS disciplines. It will nurture the technical, professional, and personal development of NASA’s next generation of SLAMMS discipline leaders. Awards presented by Dr. Dexter Johnson. Left: “Best Presentation” (Mitchell Haglund-GSFC) Right: “Best Poster” (Tessa Fedotowsky-MSFC). Updating Guidance on Shock Qualification and Acceptance Test Requirements The L&D TDT has completed work that will have a positive impact on shock testing of NASA flight hardware. Pyroshock is the transient response of a structure to loading induced by activation of attached or incorporated pyrotechnic devices. Typical pyrotechnic devices include frangible bolts, separation nuts, and pin pullers that are used to assemble, separate, and reconfigure spaceflight hardware during a mission. Shocks can easily propagate through structure and damage sensitive components. Thus, successful pyroshock testing is considered essential to mission success. At the request of the Gateway Program Chief Engineer, the NASA Chief Engineer initiated an inquiry to reevaluate shock testing approaches for both unit and major assembly flight hardware and requested recommendations for potential revisions to NASA-STD-7003B, Pyroshock Test Criteria, that would clarify the guidance and applicability to new programs. The work delves into topics of shock acceptance and qualification testing for unit and major assemblies, shock test tolerances, shaker shock testing, and the distinction between mechanical shock and pyroshock testing. It also provides recommendations for their inclusion in the next Agency-wide revision of NASA-STD-7003B. Current NASA-STD-7003B Requirements Unit and major assembly flight hardware acceptance and qualification testing are discussed in NASA-STD-7003B. It requires that all units go through shock qualification testing, with few exceptions. The purpose of a qualification test is to verify the design integrity of the flight hardware. The standard calls for pyroshock qualification testing of nonflight hardware for externally induced environments to be performed with a 3 dB margin added to the maximum predicted environment (MPE), with two shocks per each orthogonal axis. Qualification tests are performed on hardware that will not be flown but is manufactured using the same drawings, materials, tooling, processes, inspection methods, and personnel competency as used for the flight hardware. The flight hardware is not recommended to go through shock test, therefore, it lacks workmanship screening testing. The required random vibration (RV) test is considered to be a partial workmanship screening, covering only up to 2000 Hz. A full workmanship screening test for unique and sensitive hardware that may have modes above 2000 Hz needs to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis by an expert in pyroshock dynamics and approved within a program’s risk management system and/or governing board. The major assembly acceptance and qualification testing are not recommended, considering that the MPE and design margin cannot be demonstrated at the system-level tests. The major assembly unmargined testing, however, may achieve three objectives. First, the functional demonstration of shock separation devices—probably the most important part of the major assembly level testing—demonstrates the source electrical and mechanical hardware functions as expected, and the interface separates without any issues. Second, the major assembly testing provides the validation of the unit shock environments. Third, the major assembly testing provides transfer functions (TF) that may help to estimate the attenuation—and in some cases structural amplifications—throughout the system with all assemblies in flight configuration. NASA-STD-7003B contains discussions for the first two major assembly test objectives. However, there are no discussions on the third test objective related to the TFs. The TFs provide qualitative assessment of shock propagation paths and attenuations at joints and interfaces. The TFs may be used qualitatively as attenuation is highly dependent on the materials and joint construction and may be different if there are changes in the system configuration. Suggestions for Improving NASA-STD-7003B The shock tolerance specified in NASA-STD-7003B is ±6 dB from 100 Hz to 3 kHz and +9/-6 dB above 3 kHz. The constant ±6 dB tolerance bandwidths across all frequencies are possible, as many existing shock simulation systems are able to simulate shock signatures that fall within these tolerances without difficulty. These tolerances are based on practical test implementation and shock simulation equipment consideration. The tolerance tightening should be considered at the flight hardware resonant frequencies to avoid over/under testing. However, if detonator or explosive shock simulation systems are used to qualify flight hardware, the shock tolerances above 3 kHz may be kept at +9/-6 dB. Measurements from many different pyro/non-pyro separation systems have been shown to have broader shock signatures and do not support the mechanical shock as being applicable to low- and mid-frequency shocks only. The standard discusses this topic and has an example of far field SRS indicating shock energy above 2 kHz. The future revision should clarify the applicability of the mechanical shocks to be broader and not to be limited to 2 kHz and below (see figure below). An example shock response spectrum (SRS) obtained from a mechanical shock separation system, indicating a broad signature is produced by pyro devices. The Gateway Program has benefitted from the updated guidance recommended for NASA-STD-7003B. Even though shaker shock testing has been used in the past and is still used by some NASA organizations and contractors, there are multiple technical issues with this type of testing. The shaker-generated shock signatures in the low- and mid-frequency range (typically up to ~2 kHz) provide severe shock environments that may lead to structural failures. Most shakers are also not able to generate SRS above ~2 kHz, therefore, shaker shock test is deficient in meeting the shock requirement up to 10 kHz frequency. NASA-STD-7003B does not recommend the shaker method of shock testing due to the above limitations. This should be emphasized more in the standard. The shaker shock simulation test may be used if it is able to generate time histories that resemble signatures generated by space separation devices, and SRS levels meet the entire frequency range requirements. For the next NASA-STD-7003B revision, recommendations are being made to include acceptance RV testing for partial workmanship screening testing, add the TFs to be used as qualitative information in assessing the attenuation in the structural shock paths, change the shock tolerance to ±6 dB across all frequencies, and consider mechanical shocks to be broader and not limited to low- and mid-frequency SRSs. In summary, the updated guidance provides clarification to the question/uncertainty of the applicability of historical guidance to current programs, while ensuring proper applicability to future programs. This work directly benefitted the Gateway Program, and could potentially benefit the Human Lander System (HLS). References: Kolaini, A.R., Kinney, T., and Johnson, D.: Guidance on Shock Qualification and Acceptance Test Requirements. SCLV, June 27-29, 2023, EL Segundo, CA. Available from: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20230009008 NASA-STD-7003B, “Pyroshock Test Criteria,” June 11, 2020. HLS could benefit from the updated guidance recommended for NASA-STD-7003B. Credit: Blue Origin View the full article

4 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) By Daniel Boyette Jeremy Kenny squinted his eyes as he looked toward the brilliant light. Then came the deafening sound waves that vibrated his body. This was the moment he’d dreamed about since childhood. It was Nov. 16, 2009, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and Kenny and his wife were watching space shuttle Atlantis embark on a mission to the International Space Station. Kenny, who was less than two years into his NASA career, had the opportunity to see the liftoff from Launch Pad 39A as part of receiving the Space Flight Awareness Award for supporting the Space Shuttle Program’s solid rocket booster flight program. “That was the first launch I ever witnessed in person,” said Kenny, whose inspiration for working at NASA came from watching televised shuttle launches as a youth. “It was amazing and made me appreciate how such a powerful system could be designed and flown so successfully.” Jeremy Kenny, manager of NASA’s Cryogenic Fluid Management Portfolio Project, holds a model spacecraft for the proposed large cryogenic demonstration mission. The mission aims to demonstrate liquid hydrogen management, including near-zero propellant boil off and highly efficient propellant transfer, needed to achieve long-duration transit to/from Mars and spacecraft loitering during on-surface campaigns.Credit: NASA/Danielle Burleson With the final shuttle mission two years later, NASA set its sights on designing and building its future Artemis rocket: SLS (Space Launch System). Kenny was selected to lead the SLS Modal Acoustic Test program, which helped engineers understand how loud the rocket would be during liftoff. He later joined another key Artemis effort, the Human Landing System program, as a technical manager, overseeing the development of lander systems that will transport astronauts to the Moon’s surface. “Artemis is an inspiring campaign for future human spaceflight exploration,” Kenny said. “I worked with SLS, Orion, and Exploration Ground Systems, and it was very fulfilling to see all the pieces come together for the successful Artemis I launch.” In January, Kenny was named manager of NASA’s Cryogenic Fluid Management (CFM) Portfolio project, where he oversees a cross-agency team based at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. The CFM portfolio includes innovative technologies to store, transfer, and measure ultra-cold fluids – such as liquid hydrogen, liquid oxygen, and liquid methane. These cryogens are the most common propellants in space exploration, making CFM integral to NASA’s future exploration and science efforts. “We must mature CFM technologies to support future flight mission architectures,” said Kenny. “The strong partnership between Marshall and Glenn in CFM maturation continues to produce excellent results, enabling in-space cryogenic systems vital to NASA’s Moon to Mars vision.” Kenny’s choice of profession comes as little surprise, given his family background. He had a grandfather and an uncle who worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the family’s hometown of Vicksburg, Mississippi. From them, Kenny learned how math and physics could be implemented in real-world applications. He earned three degrees in mechanical engineering: a bachelor’s from Mississippi State University in Starkville, a master’s from Georgia Tech in Atlanta, and a doctorate from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. “My grandfather showed me various engineering software programs he worked on to simulate ground terrains for military transportation systems,” Kenny said. “My uncle worked on engineering developments for various military systems; he was a key influence for me to pursue graduate degrees in mechanical engineering.” When Kenny’s not working to evolve technology for NASA’s future deep space exploration missions, he’s spending time with his wife and their two daughters, who are involved in choir and dance. “Watching them practice and perform inspires me,” Kenny said with a smile. “My biggest challenge is balancing my professional work, which I love, and spending time with my family, who I love. With work comes many exciting opportunities, and solving hard problems is fun. But that excitement should not detract from keeping your personal relationships healthy. One day, I’ll retire and spend all my free time with family.” The CFM Portfolio Project’s work is under NASA’s Technology Demonstration Missions Program, part of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, which oversees a broad portfolio of technology development and demonstration projects across NASA centers and American industry partners. Learn more about CFM Ramon J. Osorio Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama 256-544-0034 ramon.j.osorio@nasa.gov Share Details Last Updated Mar 21, 2024 Related TermsMarshall Space Flight CenterCryogenic Fluid Management (CFM)Technology Demonstration Missions Program Explore More 22 min read The Marshall Star for March 20, 2024 Article 22 hours ago 3 min read NASA Artemis Mission Progresses with SpaceX Starship Test Flight Article 7 days ago 4 min read NASA Lights ‘Beacon’ on Moon With Autonomous Navigation System Test Article 1 week ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Missions Humans in Space Climate Change Solar System View the full article

The Thermal and Fluids Analysis Workshop (TFAWS) is an annual event cosponsored by the NESC’s Thermal Control & Protection, Environmental Control & Life Support, Aerosciences, and Cryogenics Technical Discipline Teams in collaboration with the TFAWS Steering Committee. It is well known for a diverse set of events and remains a model for Community of Practice technical discipline workshops. Originally devised as an analysis tool training opportunity for new engineers, TFAWS has grown in scope over more than three decades to include a variety of activities including training, theory-based short courses, paper sessions, student posters, center tours, and vendor presentations. Most important though, it remains an excellent forum for technical interchange between thermal, fluids, cryogenics, and aerothermal professionals from across NASA, other U.S. government agencies, industry, and academia. After three virtual workshops due to the COVID pandemic, TFAWS resumed as an in-person event in 2023 under the planning leadership of GSFC, this year’s host center. TFAWS has become known as a forum to train the next generation of engineers. A poster session gave students an opportunity to showcase their work and build connections with engineers in government and industry. A “speed mentoring” event was initiated this year and gave many early career engineers and students an opportunity to benefit from the experience of senior engineers and leaders. This year’s event drew a total of 350 attendees representing NASA, the aerospace industry, academia, and international participants from 23 countries. The 4-day workshop consisted of 80 paper presentations, 16 short courses and panel discussions, 7 analysis tool and hardware hands-on short courses, 14 vendor participants, and 13 hardware and analysis tool vendor presentations. Tours highlighting GSFC facilities were provided the day after the workshop adjourned. GSFC’s Jordan Effron builds a multi-layer insulation blanket during a hands-on short course Dr. Bhanu Sood discusses GSFC technology development strategy and technical thrusts during a lunchtime talk. Students and early career engineers meet with senior NASA engineers during the inaugural “speed mentoring” session.View the full article

NASA/Joel Kowsky A fast boat crosses the waters several hours after NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 splashdown on March 12, 2024. The SpaceX Dragon Endurance spacecraft landed in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida. The Crew-7 members spent nearly six months in space as part of Expedition 70 on the International Space Station. Throughout their mission, the Crew-7 members contributed to a host of science and maintenance activities and technology demonstrations. Moghbeli conducted one spacewalk, joined by NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara, replacing one of the 12 trundle bearing assemblies on the port solar alpha rotary joint, which allows the arrays to track the Sun and generate electricity to power the station. Image Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky View the full article

As NASA continues to pursue new human missions to low Earth orbit, lunar orbit, the lunar surface, and on to Mars, the NESC continues to provide a robust technical resource to address critical challenges. The NESC Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS), Crew Systems, and Extravehicular Activity (EVA) discipline is led by the NASA Technical Fellow for ECLS, Dr. Morgan Abney, ECLSS & Crew Systems Deputy Dave Williams, Extravehicular & Human Surface Mobility Deputy Danielle Morris, and EVA Deputy Colin Campbell. In 2023, this team led assessments and provided support to the Commercial Crew Program, ISS, Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, Extravehicular and Human Mobility Program, Gateway International Habitat, and Moon-to-Mars Program. Three of the most notable activities in 2023 are briefly described below. Mitigation for Water in the Helmet During EVA During EVA22 in 2013, water was observed in the helmet and assumed to be the result of a “burp” from the drink bag. No further investigation was pursued because water had been observed to some degree (water on visor, wet hair, etc.) on eight previous occasions. The result was a nearly catastrophic event during EVA23, where astronaut Luca Parmitano experienced dangerous quantities of water in his helmet. Both EVA23 and EVA35 in 2016 contributed to identification of drowning as a key risk, which resulted in several water mitigation approaches. Based on these approaches, the program determined the risk level to be acceptable for nominal EVA. However, in March 2022, a crewmember returning from EVA80 noticed water accumulated on the visor of his helmet obstructing ~30-50% of his field of view. Due to the increasing complexity of EVA objectives on EVA80 and forward, the ISS Program identified loss or reduction of visibility as a greater risk than previously recognized and sought to identify methods to prevent even small quantities of liquid water from forming in the helmet during EVA. The NESC was asked to provide support to the activity through modeling of the helmet and two-phase (water and oxygen) flow behavior in microgravity, through model validation testing, and through testing of mitigation hardware identified by the larger team. The model predictions provided a map (Figure 1) of anticipated liquid water formations based on the contact angle between the face or head and the helmet surface. Based on the ISS helmet with no water mitigations, the model predicted that large blobs would most likely form bridges between the helmet and face and that rupture of those bridges would result in the majority of liquid transferring to the face. To mitigate this risk, the ISS EVA80 team devised a solution to add absorbent materials in the path of the oxygen and water entering the helmet. Following EVA23, the helmet absorption pad (HAP) was added for bulk water collection. The improved mitigation strategy based on EVA80 included a HAP extender (HAP-E) and a helmet absorption band (HAB) (Figure 2). The NESC provided modeling of the mitigation hardware and validation testing of the HAB configuration using flow conditions anticipated in ISS operation (Figure 3). The testing provided ground validation of the HAB performance. The HAB and HAP-E have both been implemented in flight. Figure 1. Map of predicted water formations within a helmet as a function of face/head and helmet contact angles. Dashed rectangle indicates the expected domain of the ISS helmet with no water mitigations. Figure 2. Water mitigation strategy for the ISS helmet: a) sketch of HAP, HAP-E, and HAB, b) side view of early prototype, c) bottom view of early prototype. Figure 3. HAB ground validation testing under trickle water flow conditions. Evaluation of Terrestrial Portable Fire Extinguishers for Microgravity Applications The tragic fire of Apollo 1 has, of necessity, instilled in NASA an enduring respect for the risk of fire in spacecraft. As such, robust fire detection and response systems have been a cornerstone of NASA-designed vehicles. Portable fire extinguishers (PFE) are a fundamental fire response capability of spacecraft and both carbon dioxide and water-based PFEs have been used by NASA historically. However, terrestrial-based PFEs, particularly those using new halon-based suppressants, may provide improved capability beyond the NASA state-of-the-art. In 2023, the NESC sought to evaluate the effectiveness of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) PFEs in microgravity. The team developed an analytical model to predict the discharge rate of three terrestrial COTS PFEs containing CO2, HFC-227ea, and Novec 1230. The model considered the internal geometry of the PFEs, the material properties of the suppressants and their corresponding PFE tanks, and the effects of microgravity and in-flight perturbations. The results predicted that for PFE tanks containing dip tubes, like those for HFC-227ea and Novec 1230 where nitrogen gas is used as a pressurant, microgravity plays a significant role in the discharge performance due to two-phase flow. Figure 4 shows the various equilibrium configurations based on gravity and perturbations. As a comparison, the analysis predicts >80% discharge of the HFC-227ea in the COTS PFE within ~30 seconds with the remainder discharging over ~0.5-1 hours when discharged in a terrestrial fire (Figure 4A), while only 60-80% discharges in 30 seconds with the remainder discharging over 1-2 hours in microgravity (Figure 4C). Figure 4. Equilibrium two-phase configurations of nitrogen (white)-pressurized liquid suppressant (blue). A) PFE held nominally with nozzle up in 1-g with no perturbations, B) PFE held inverted in 1-g or in 0-g where liquid preferentially accumulates away from the dip tube entrance with no perturbations, C) PFE in 0-g at the statistically most probable state with no perturbations, D) PFE in 0-g where nitrogen preferentially accumulates at ends of the PFE with no perturbations, E) PFE in any level gravity with significant perturbations (shaken up), and F) statistically most probable state in 0-g following complete discharge. Based on this analysis, the use of terrestrially designed PFEs containing gaseous pressurant over a liquid suppressant will likely result in decreased initial discharge of the suppressant and significantly longer total discharge times in microgravity as compared to terrestrial discharge performance. Testing is ongoing to validate the models using a custom-designed PFE test stand (Figures 5 and 6) that enables multi-configuration testing of COTS PFEs. Figure 5. (left) PFE test stand for model validation. Design prevents directional load effects to enable accurate mass measurement during PFE discharge. Figure 6. (right) Insulated PFE housing and remote discharge control allows for accurate, real-time thermal measurements during validation testing. Standardized Abrasion, Cut, and Thermal Testing for Spacesuit Gloves and Materials State-of-the-art spacesuit gloves have been optimized for the challenges of ISS. Artemis missions call for high-frequency EVAs at the lunar south pole, where temperatures in the permanently shadowed region (PSR) will expose crew gloves to temperatures lower than ever previously experienced and where frequent and repeated exposure to regolith dust and rocks will present significantly increased risk for abrasion and cuts. With the development of new spacesuits by commercial partners, inexpensive and repeatable test methods are needed to characterize, evaluate, and compare gloves and glove materials for their thermal performance at PSR temperatures and for their resistance to lunar regolith abrasion and cuts. To address these needs, the NESC is leading a team to develop standardized test methods in coordination with ASTM International Committee F47 on Commercial Spaceflight. Three standardized methods are currently in development. The first method seeks to standardize lunar dust abrasion testing of glove (and suit) materials based on adapted “tumble testing” first proposed at NASA in 1990. The NASA-designed tumbler (Figure 7) enables testing of six samples per run and compares pre- and post-tumbled tensile strength of materials to compare abrasion resistance. The method is highly controlled using a commercially available tumble medium and lunar regolith simulant. Because material properties change with temperature, the second method seeks to develop a standardized approach to evaluate the cut resistance of glove materials at relevant cryogenic temperatures. The method is an adaptation of ASTM F2992 Standard Test Method for Measuring Cut Resistance of Materials Used in Protective Clothing with Tomodynamometer (TDM-100) Test Equipment. In order to allow for cut evaluation at cryogenic temperatures, the TDM-100 cut fixture was modified to include channels for liquid nitrogen flow (Figure 8A), thereby cooling the test material to 77 K. Figure 7. Hardware used in the tumble test method. Tumbler apparatus (left). Tumbler with panel removed to show lunar regolith simulant and commercially available tumbler media (top right). Tumbler panel showing lunar regolith simulant (bottom right). The third method seeks to evaluate the thermal performance of gloves down to PSR requirement temperature of 48 K. Historical thermal testing of gloves was conducted with human-in-the-loop (HITL) testing for both radiative and conductive cooling. Conductive cooling was accomplished by having the test subject grab thermally controlled “grasp objects” and maintain contact until their skin temperature reached 283 K (50 ºF) or until they felt sufficient discomfort to end the test themselves. While HITL testing is critical for final certification of gloves, iterative design and development testing would benefit from a faster, less expensive test. To meet this need, the NESC is developing a glove thermal test that uses a custom manikin hand designed by Thermetrics, LLC (Figure 8B). Figure 8. A) Mandrel used in cut testing as designed for ambient testing (left) and cryogenic testing (right). Flow channels allow for liquid nitrogen flow to cool the material sample to cryogenic temperatures. B) Prototype of Thermetrics, LLC custom manikin hand for spacesuit glove thermal testing. The manikin hand is outfitted with temperature and heat flux sensors to monitor heat transfer to the hand. The hand is placed within a spacesuit glove and thermally controlled with internal water flow to simulate human heat generation. The Cryogenic Ice Transfer, Acquisition, Development, and Excavation Laboratory (CITADEL) chamber at JPL is then used to test the glove thermal performance at a range of temperatures from 200 K down to 48 K. Thermal performance is evaluated to mimic historical HITL testing under both radiative and conductive cooling. Conductive cooling is accomplished through a temperature-controlled touch object and is evaluated using two touch pressures. All three methods will be incorporated as ASTM F47 standard test procedures following NASA and ASTM committee review and approvals (targeting 2024). ASA astronaut and Expedition 68 Flight Engineer Nicole Mann is pictured in her Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) during an EVA. The NESC has recently contributed to astronaut safety investigations of water accumulating in EMU helmets during EVAs, and developing EMU gloves for use in the harsh conditions of the lunar south pole.View the full article

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson delivers remarks during an event with Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra to highlight how the agencies are making progress toward President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden’s Cancer Moonshot initiative, Thursday, March 21, 2024, in the Earth Information Center at the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building in Washington. NASA is working with agencies and researchers across the federal government to help cut the nation’s cancer death rate by at least 50% in the next 25 years, a goal of the Cancer Moonshot Initiative. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber During an event at NASA Headquarters in Washington Thursday, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra united to note progress their respective agencies are making in space and on Earth toward President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden’s Cancer Moonshot initiative. “We go to space not just to explore the stars, but to improve life here on Earth,” said Nelson. “In that microgravity environment, NASA is studying cancer growth—and the effect of cancer treatments— much faster than we can on Earth. I am grateful for President Biden’s leadership as we continue to make moonshot after moonshot to end cancer as we know it.” Also participating in the event was Dr. W. Kimryn Rathmell, director of the National Cancer Institute, as well as NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Frank Rubio, both of whom each recently served extended science missions 250 miles off the Earth aboard the International Space Station where they conducted cancer-related research. As the second leading cause of death in the United States, the President and First Lady’s Cancer Moonshot is a national effort to end cancer. Nelson noted several related experiments space station astronauts have conducted aboard the orbital laboratory for the benefit of all including protein crystal growth, nanoparticle drug delivery, tissue engineering, and stem cell research. In addition to $2.9 billion across HHS in the President’s fiscal year 2025 budget proposal, Becerra discussed his agency’s capabilities to accelerate progress toward the President’s moonshot goals. “Eliminating cancer as we know it is a goal that unifies the country,” said Becerra. “We all know someone, and most of us love someone, who has battled this terrible disease. As we did during the race to the Moon, we believe our technology and scientific community are capable of making the impossible a reality when it comes to ending cancer as we know it.” The backdrop for the event was NASA’s Earth Information Center, which provides access to NASA satellites and other data to see how our planet is changing. NASA is working with HHS and researchers across the federal government to help cut the nation’s cancer death rate by at least 50% in the next 25 years, a goal of the Cancer Moonshot Initiative. Learn more about Cancer Moonshot at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/cancermoonshot/ -end- Faith McKie / Cheryl Warner Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1600 faith.d.mckie@nasa.gov / cheryl.m.warner@nasa.gov Renata Miller Health and Human Services, Washington 202-570-8194 renata.miller@hhs.gov Share Details Last Updated Mar 21, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related TermsScience in the AirAstronautsISS ResearchNASA Headquarters View the full article

Sea level rise is affecting coastal communities around the world, especially those like Honolulu, pictured, that are located on islands.NOAA Teacher at Sea Program, NOAA Ship HI’IALAKAI A long-term sea level dataset shows ocean surface heights continuing to rise at faster and faster rates over decades of observations. Global average sea level rose by about 0.3 inches (0.76 centimeters) from 2022 to 2023, a relatively large jump due mostly to a warming climate and the development of a strong El Niño. The total rise is equivalent to draining a quarter of Lake Superior into the ocean over the course of a year. This NASA-led analysis is based on a sea level dataset featuring more than 30 years of satellite observations, starting with the U.S.-French TOPEX/Poseidon mission, which launched in 1992. The Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich mission, which launched in November 2020, is the latest in the series of satellites that have contributed to this sea level record. The data shows that global average sea level has risen a total of about 4 inches (9.4 centimeters) since 1993. The rate of this increase has also accelerated, more than doubling from 0.07 inches (0.18 centimeters) per year in 1993 to the current rate of 0.17 inches (0.42 centimeters) per year. This graph shows global mean sea level (in blue) since 1993 as measured by a series of five satellites. The solid red line indicates the trajectory of this increase, which more than doubled over the past three decades. The dotted red line projects future sea level rise.NASA/JPL-Caltech “Current rates of acceleration mean that we are on track to add another 20 centimeters of global mean sea level by 2050, doubling the amount of change in the next three decades compared to the previous 100 years and increasing the frequency and impacts of floods across the world,” said Nadya Vinogradova Shiffer, director for the NASA sea level change team and the ocean physics program in Washington. Seasonal Effects Global sea level saw a significant jump from 2022 to 2023 due mainly to a switch between La Niña and El Niño conditions. A mild La Niña from 2021 to 2022 resulted in a lower-than-expected rise in sea level that year. A strong El Niño developed in 2023, helping to boost the average amount of rise in sea surface height. La Niña is characterized by cooler-than-normal ocean temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. El Niño involves warmer-than-average ocean temperatures in the equatorial Pacific. Both periodic climate phenomena affect patterns of rainfall and snowfall as well as sea levels around the world. “During La Niña, rain that normally falls in the ocean falls on the land instead, temporarily taking water out of the ocean and lowering sea levels,” said Josh Willis, a sea level researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “In El Niño years, a lot of the rain that normally falls on land ends up in the ocean, which raises sea levels temporarily.” To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video This animation shows the rise in global mean sea level from 1993 to 2023 based on data from a series of five international satellites. The spike in sea level from 2022 to 2023 is mostly a consequence of climate change and the development of El Niño conditions in the Pacific Ocean. Credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio A Human Footprint Seasonal or periodic climate phenomena can affect global average sea level from year to year. But the underlying trend for more than three decades has been increasing ocean heights as a direct response to global warming due to the excessive heat trapped by greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere. “Long-term datasets like this 30-year satellite record allow us to differentiate between short-term effects on sea level, like El Niño, and trends that let us know where sea level is heading,” said Ben Hamlington, lead for NASA’s sea level change team at JPL. These multidecadal observations wouldn’t be possible without ongoing international cooperation, as well as scientific and technical innovations by NASA and other space agencies. Specifically, radar altimeters have helped produce ever-more precise measurements of sea level around the world. To calculate ocean height, these instruments bounce microwave signals off the sea surface, recording the time the signal takes to travel from a satellite to Earth and back, as well as the strength of the return signal. The researchers also periodically cross-check those sea level measurements against data from other sources. These include tide gauges, as well as satellite measurements of factors like atmospheric water vapor and Earth’s gravity field that can affect the accuracy of sea level measurements. Using that information, the researchers recalibrated the 30-year dataset, resulting in updates to sea levels in some previous years. That includes a sea level rise increase of 0.08 inches (0.21 centimeters) from 2021 to 2022. When researchers combine space-based altimetry data of the oceans with more than a century of observations from surface-based sources, such as tide gauges, the information dramatically improves our understanding of how sea surface height is changing on a global scale. When these sea level measurements are combined with other information, including ocean temperature, ice loss, and land motion, scientists can decipher why and how seas are rising. Learn more about sea level and climate change: https://sealevel.nasa.gov/ News Media Contacts Jane J. Lee / Andrew Wang Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 818-354-0307 / 626-379-6874 jane.j.lee@jpl.nasa.gov / andrew.wang@jpl.nasa.gov 2024-031 Share Details Last Updated Mar 21, 2024 Related TermsOceansClimate ChangeEarthJet Propulsion LaboratorySentinel-6 Michael Freilich SatelliteTOPEX / Poseidon (ocean TOPography EXperiment) Explore More 5 min read US, Germany Partnering on Mission to Track Earth’s Water Movement Article 2 days ago 5 min read NASA Study: Asteroid’s Orbit, Shape Changed After DART Impact Article 2 days ago 3 min read Student-Built Robots Clash at Competition Supported by NASA-JPL Article 3 days ago View the full article

Quasar H1821+643.X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Nottingham/H. Russell et al.; Radio: NSF/NRAO/VLA; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk This image shows a quasar, a rapidly growing supermassive black hole, which is not achieving what astronomers would expect from it, as reported in our latest press release. Data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue) and radio data from the NSF’s Karl G. Jansky’s Very Large Array (red) reveal some of the evidence for this quasar’s disappointing impact on its host galaxy. Known as H1821+643, this quasar is about 3.4 billion light-years from Earth. Quasars are a rare and extreme class of supermassive black holes that are furiously pulling material inwards, producing intense radiation and sometimes powerful jets. H1821+643 is the closest quasar to Earth in a cluster of galaxies. Quasars are different than other supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxy clusters in that they are pulling in more material at a higher rate. Astronomers have found that non-quasar black holes growing at moderate rates influence their surroundings by preventing the intergalactic hot gas from cooling down too much. This regulates the growth of stars around the black hole. The influence of quasars, however, is not as well known. This new study of H1821+643 that quasars — despite being so active — may be less important in driving the fate of their host galaxy and cluster than some scientists might expect. To reach this conclusion the team used Chandra to study the hot gas that H1821+643 and its host galaxy are shrouded in. The bright X-rays from the quasar, however, made it difficult to study the weaker X-rays from the hot gas. The researchers carefully removed the X-ray glare to reveal what the black hole’s influence is, which is reflected in the new composite image showing X-rays from hot gas in the cluster surrounding the quasar. This allowed them to see that the quasar is actually having little effect on its surroundings. Using Chandra, the team found that the density of gas near the black hole in the center of the galaxy is much higher, and the gas temperatures much lower, than in regions farther away. Scientists expect the hot gas to behave like this when there is little or no energy input (which would typically come from outbursts from a black hole) to prevent the hot gas from cooling down and flowing towards the center of the cluster. A paper describing these results has been accepted into the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and is available online. The authors are Helen Russell (University of Nottingham, UK), Paul Nulsen (Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian), Andy Fabian (University of Cambridge, UK), Thomas Braben (University of Nottingham), Niel Brandt (Penn State University), Lucy Clews (University of Nottingham), Michael McDonald (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Christopher Reynolds (University of Maryland), Jeremy Saunders (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Research), and Sylvain Veilleux (University of Maryland). NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science from Cambridge Massachusetts and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts. Read more from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. For more Chandra images, multimedia and related materials, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/mission/chandra-x-ray-observatory/ Visual Description: This composite image shows a quasar, a rare and extreme class of supermassive black hole, that’s located about 3.4 billion light-years from Earth. At the center of the image is a bright, white, circular light, similar to the beam of a flashlight if it was pointed directly toward you. A fuzzy, bar-shaped structure of red-colored radio light, slightly larger than the width of the white light, surrounds the circular structure. The red bar also extends above and below the white light, stretching in a somewhat straight line from about the one o’clock position to the seven o’clock position on a clock face. On either side of the red bar, X-ray light is present as blue, wispy clouds of hot gas that are brighter closer to the red and white features. The brighter clouds represent more dense gas. News Media Contact Megan Watzke Chandra X-ray Center Cambridge, Mass. 617-496-7998 Jonathan Deal Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, Ala. 256-544-0034 View the full article

“Not only was I going to school, raising a family, and working a full-time job, but I was also the state director for my sorority [and was responsible for] over 1,200 members at one time. And I think it comes down to perseverance. At the end of the day, you’re going to do what needs to be done if you truly want to get it done. You’re going to make the sacrifices that you need to make in order to be successful. “I’m a night person. So my big homework hours were between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m. I made the time because it was important. And we all do that — we make the time for what’s important to us. I hear people say, ‘There’s no way I could have done that.’ Well, it’s easy when you truly want something with your whole heart. “…When I actually defended my dissertation and my family was able to attend, that’s when it hit them. They were like, ‘You did all this while we were asleep? You did all this while we were on family vacation?’ I could feel the pride from them because for them, it seemed like it was seamless. But for me, it was heavy. It was heavy, but necessary. “I believe in giving people their roses while they’re still here to collect them. A few years before I started my doctorate program, my mother had a medical issue and we thought we were going to lose her. And that was the point that I said, ‘I need to go to school and I need to do this for her, because I want her to see me walk across that stage.’ “[Getting my doctorate] made me sit up a little straighter. It’s made me smile a little bit more. It’s made me feel like I can do anything. Not many people can say that. “…It is something that at the end of the day, no one could ever take away from me. Ever. No matter how much money I have in the bank, no matter where I live or if I have a roof over my head, no one can ever take that away.” – Dr. Danielle May, Contract Specialist, NASA’s Langley Research Center Image Credit: NASA/Mark Knopp Interviewer: NASA/Thalia Patrinos Check out some of our other Faces of NASA. View the full article

4 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) A total solar eclipse creates stunning celestial views for people within the path of the Moon’s shadow. This astronomical event is a unique opportunity for scientists to study the Sun and its influence on Earth, but it’s also a perfect opportunity to capture unforgettable images. Whether you’re an amateur photographer or a selfie master, try out these tips for photographing the eclipse. A total solar eclipse is a unique opportunity for scientists studying in the shadow of the Moon, but it’s also a perfect opportunity to capture unforgettable images. Whether you’re an amateur photographer or a selfie master, try out these tips for photographing the eclipse. NASA/Beth Anthony #1 – Safety First Looking directly at the Sun is dangerous to your eyes and your camera. To take images when the Sun is partially eclipsed, you’ll need to use a special solar filter to protect your camera, just as you’ll need a pair of solar viewing glasses (also called eclipse glasses) to protect your eyes. However, at totality, when the Moon completely blocks the Sun, make sure to remove the filter so you can see the Sun’s outer atmosphere – the corona. #2 – Any Camera Is a Good Camera Taking a stunning photo has more to do with the photographer than the camera. Whether you have a high-end DLSR or a camera phone, you can take great photos during the eclipse; after all, the best piece of equipment you can have is a good eye and a vision for the image you want to create. If you don’t have a telephoto zoom lens, focus on taking landscape shots and capture the changing environment. Having a few other pieces of equipment can also come in handy during the eclipse. Using a tripod can help you stabilize the camera and avoid taking blurry images when there is low lighting. Additionally, using a delayed shutter release timer will allow you to snap shots without jiggling the camera. People watch a partial eclipse in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on March 20, 2015.Credits: Robin Cordiner #3 – Look Up, Down, All Around While the Sun is the most commanding element of a solar eclipse, remember to look around you. As the Moon slips in front of the Sun, the landscape will be bathed in eerie lighting and shadows. As light filters through the overlapping leaves of trees, it creates natural pinholes that project miniature eclipse replicas on the ground. Anywhere you can point your camera can yield exceptional imagery, so be sure to compose some wide-angle photos that can capture your eclipse experience. NASA photographer Bill Ingalls recommends focusing on the human experience of watching the eclipse. “The real pictures are going to be of the people around you pointing, gawking, and watching it,” Ingalls noted. “Those are going to be some great moments to capture to show the emotion of the whole thing.” #4 – Practice Be sure you know the capabilities of your camera before eclipse day. Most cameras, and even some camera phones, have adjustable exposures, which can help you darken or lighten your image during the tricky eclipse lighting. Make sure you know how to manually focus the camera for crisp shots. For DSLR cameras, the best way to determine the correct exposure is to test settings on the uneclipsed Sun beforehand. Using a fixed aperture of f/8 to f/16, try shutter speeds between 1/1000 to 1/4 second to find the optimal setting, which you can then use to take images during the partial stages of the eclipse. During totality, the corona has a wide range of brightness, so it’s best to use a fixed aperture and a range of exposures from approximately 1/1000 to 1 second. #5 – Share! Share your eclipse experience with friends and family afterwards. Tag @NASA to connect your photos on social media to those taken around the country and share them with NASA. While you’re snapping those eclipse photos, don’t forget to stop and look at the eclipse with your own eyes. Just remember to wear your solar viewing glasses (also called eclipse glasses) for all stages of the eclipse before and after totality! Related Links Learn more about the 2024 total solar eclipse Eclipse Photographers Will Help Study Sun During Its Disappearing Act By Mara Johnson-Groh NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Share Details Last Updated Mar 21, 2024 Related TermsScience & Research2017 Solar Eclipse2024 Solar EclipseEclipsesHeliophysicsHeliophysics DivisionScience Mission DirectorateSkywatchingSolar EclipsesThe Sun Explore More 6 min read Sketch the Shape of the Sun for Science During the Solar Eclipse Calling all eclipse admirers! The SunSketcher team is looking for one million volunteers to capture… Article 2 days ago 5 min read Casey Honniball: Finding Her Space in Lunar Science Article 2 days ago 5 min read NASA Study: Asteroid’s Orbit, Shape Changed After DART Impact Article 2 days ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics Missions Humans in Space Climate Change Solar System View the full article

4 min read NASA’s Hubble Finds that Aging Brown Dwarfs Grow Lonely It takes two to tango, but in the case of brown dwarfs that were once paired as binary systems, that relationship doesn’t last for very long, according to a recent survey from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Brown dwarfs are interstellar objects larger than Jupiter but smaller than the lowest-mass stars. They are born like stars – out of a cloud of gas and dust that collapses – but do not have enough mass to sustain the fusion of hydrogen like a normal star. This is an artist’s concept of a brown dwarf. This class of object is too large to be a planet (and did not form in the same way), but is too small to be a star because it cannot sustain nuclear fusion, since it is less massive than even the smallest stars. A brown dwarf is marked by wind-driven horizontal bands of thick clouds that may alternate with relatively cloud-free bands, giving the object a striped appearance. Whirling storm systems as big as terrestrial continents, or even small planets, might exist. The name “brown dwarf” is a misnomer because the object would typically appear red to the naked eye. It is brightest in infrared light. Many brown dwarfs have binary companions. But as they age, the binary system gravitationally falls apart, and each dwarf goes its separate way, according to a recent Hubble Space Telescope study. The background stars in this illustration are a science visualization assembled from the Gaia spacecraft star catalog. The synthesized stars are accurate in terms of position, brightness, and color. Because this is not an image of the Milky Way, missing are glowing nebulae and dark dust clouds. NASA, ESA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI) Astronomers using Hubble confirm that companions are extremely rare around the lowest-mass and coldest brown dwarfs. Hubble can detect binaries as close to each other as a 300-million-mile separation – the approximate separation between our Sun and the asteroid belt. But they didn’t find any binary pairs in a sample of brown dwarfs in the solar neighborhood. This implies that a binary pair of dwarfs is so weakly linked by gravity that they drift apart over a few hundred million years due to the pull of bypassing stars. “Our survey confirms that widely separated companions are extremely rare among the lowest-mass and coldest isolated brown dwarfs, even though binary brown dwarfs are observed at younger ages. This suggests that such systems do not survive over time,” said lead author Clémence Fontanive of the Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets, Université de Montréal, Canada. In a similar survey Fontanive conducted a couple of years ago, Hubble looked at extremely young brown dwarfs and some had binary companions, confirming that star-forming mechanisms do produce binary pairs among low-mass brown dwarfs. The lack of binary companions for older brown dwarfs suggests that some may have started out as binaries, but parted ways over time. The new Hubble findings, published in The Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, further support the theory that brown dwarfs are born the same way as stars, through the gravitational collapse of a cloud of molecular hydrogen. The difference being that they do not have enough mass to sustain nuclear fusion of hydrogen for generating energy, whereas stars do. More than half of the stars in our galaxy have a companion star that resulted from these formation processes, with more massive stars more commonly found in binary systems. “The motivation for the study was really to see how low in mass the trends seen among multiple stars systems hold up,” said Fontanive. “Our Hubble survey offers direct evidence that these binaries that we observe when they’re young are unlikely to survive to old ages, they’re likely going to get disrupted. When they’re young, they’re part of a molecular cloud, and then as they age the cloud disperses. As that happens, things start moving around and stars pass by each other. Because brown dwarfs are so light, the gravitational hold tying wide binary pairs is very weak, and bypassing stars can easily tear these binaries apart,” said Fontanive. The team selected a sample of brown dwarfs previously identified by NASA’s Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer. It sampled some of the coldest and lowest-mass old brown dwarfs in the solar neighborhood. These old brown dwarfs are so cool (a few hundred degrees warmer than Jupiter in most cases) that their atmospheres contain water vapor that condensed out. To find the coolest companions, the team used two different near-infrared filters, one in which cold brown dwarfs are bright, and another covering specific wavelengths where they appear very faint due to water absorption in their atmospheres. “This is the best observational evidence to date that brown dwarf pairs drift apart over time,” said Fontanive. “We could not have done this kind of survey and confirmed earlier models without Hubble’s sharp vision and sensitivity.” The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. Goddard also conducts mission operations with Lockheed Martin Space based in Denver, Colorado. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA. Learn More NASA Telescopes See Weather Patterns in Brown Dwarf Small Companion to Brown Dwarf Media Contacts: Claire Andreoli NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD claire.andreoli@nasa.gov Ray Villard Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD Science Contact: Clémence Fontanive Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets at Université de Montréal Share Details Last Updated Mar 21, 2024 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Related Terms Brown Dwarfs Goddard Space Flight Center Hubble Space Telescope Missions The Universe Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Hubble Space Telescope Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe. Stars Stories Galaxies Stories Eclipse 2024 Science View the full article

2 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility supported the successful launch of a Rocket Lab Electron rocket at X:XX a.m. EDT, Thursday, March 21, from Virginia’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia.  The rocket carried three collaborative research missions for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). The mission, dubbed NROL-123, was the first NRO mission to fly on a Rocket Lab rocket launched from the United States. ​Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket lifts off from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility March 21, 2024, at X a.m. EDT. The rocket carried small research satellites for the NROL-123 mission for National Reconnaissance Office. NASA/Jamie Adkins “We are proud to support our commercial and government launch partners with world-class launch range, safety and support services,” said David L. Pierce, Wallops Flight Facility director. “It was a picture perfect launch following a smooth countdown.” This was the third Electron launch from Wallops and the fourth launch from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex-2 in Virginia.  The next launch from Wallops is scheduled April 8, 2024, during the solar eclipse. The Atmospheric Perturbations around Eclipse Path (APEP) mission will launch three sounding rockets before, during, and after peak eclipse time to study how the sudden drop in sunlight affects the Earth’s upper atmosphere.  NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility provides agile, low-cost flight and launch range services to meet government and commercial sector needs for accessing flight regimes worldwide from the Earth’s surface to the Moon and beyond. Wallops’ flight assets – ranging from research aircraft, unmanned aerial systems, and high-altitude balloons to suborbital and orbital rockets – provide a dynamic range of flight capabilities. In addition, operational launch range and airfield assets at the facility enable science, aerospace, defense, and industry sectors. Share Details Last Updated Mar 21, 2024 EditorJamie AdkinsContactJeremy Eggers Related TermsWallops Flight Facility View the full article

12 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA is partnered with other government agencies, industry, and academia to conduct Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) research to benefit a future transportation system with routine flight of air taxis and drones. See the current partnerships below and in the map above. Aerostar Sioux Falls, South Dakota NASA and Aerostar are conducting collaborative evaluation of a NASA prototype simulated Upper Class E Traffic Management (ETM) system. AeroVironment Simi Valley, California NASA and AeroVironment are conducting research, development, testing, and evaluation of a NASA prototype simulated Upper Class E Traffic Management (ETM) system. AFWERX – U.S. Air Force Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio NASA and AFWERX have ongoing information exchange efforts across multiple AAM areas. NASA is using Joby’s air taxi aircraft for testing at Edwards Air Force Base in partnership with the U.S. Air Force’s AFWERX program. Air Force Research Laboratory Aerospace Systems Directorate (AFRL) Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio NASA and AFRL are sharing data about autonomous systems in AAM vehicles, airspace management systems, and infrastructure. Research includes configuration of formal methods, control systems validation, and flight critical software verification and validation. AIRT Miami, Florida NASA and AIRT are developing a safety management system to enable highly-automated AAM-focused aviation for emergency response. A&P Technology Cincinnati, Ohio NASA and A&P Technology are developing new braided composite materials to improve the crash safety of composite aircraft. A&P Technology and NASA will work together from the design phase, to fabrication, to dynamic crush test experiments on the materials. Archer Aviation San Jose, California NASA and Archer will focus on testing the safety, energy and power performance capabilities of the Archer air taxi’s battery cells at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. The goal is to jointly improve overall safety of AAM and human spacecraft battery applications. AURA Network Systems McLean, Virginia NASA and AURA Network Systems will perform AAM flight test evaluations of Communication, Navigation, and Surveillance (CNS) technologies to advance the maturity of these technologies for AAM aircraft. The City of Orlando Orlando, Florida NASA is working with city and state governments to brainstorm the ways that air taxis and drones, and the infrastructure for this new transportation system, could be integrated into city planning. NASA is exchanging information with these governments to identify the best practices for how a local government could design this system. Each city or state government involved will create a joint document with NASA using computer modeling software to describe how this could work in their locality. Boeing Huntsville, Alabama NASA and Boeing are researching the integration, demonstration, and evaluation of autonomous systems and tools to support AI standardization. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Arlington, Virginia NASA and Lockheed Martin – Sikorsky are working together with DARPA under a DARPA agreement to research air taxi automation technology using Sikorsky helicopters. In a separate effort, NASA is working with DARPA on the Automated Rapid Certification Of Software (ARCOS) program, which will aid in developing the criteria for automation software certification. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Daytona Beach, Florida NASA and Embry-Riddle are examining existing mishap data collected from the NASA Human Contribution to Safety (HC2S) test bed, and data collected independently, to identify realistic, actionable methods to promote better response to disturbances in flight. DLR – German Aerospace Center Braunschweig, Germany Cologne, Germany NASA and DLR researchers are designing algorithms and conducting fast-time simulations to help address the challenges of a future air traffic management system with more aircraft. In a separate effort, NASA and DLR are researching the air flow generated by rotary wing aircraft. The team is using visual tools like schlieren and shadowgraph techniques to see the directions of airflow invisible to the naked eye. General Electric Company Niskayuna, New York NASA and General Electric Company are researching flight safety in autonomous systems. Efforts focus on assurance of flight-critical systems (including airborne and ground software systems), human autonomy teaming, and efficient airspace operations. George Washington University Washington, D.C. NASA and several universities are demonstrating a NASA-created safety management system called “In-Time Learning-Based Safety Management for Scalable Heterogeneous AAM Operations.” This is a combined effort with George Washington University, Vanderbilt University, MIT/Lincoln Labs, and UT-Austin. Iowa State Ames, Iowa NASA, Iowa State and Notre Dame University are developing and evaluating automated techniques for predicting, detecting, diagnosing, and mitigating diverse configuration problems and runtime failures in small Uncrewed Aerial Systems (sUAS), also called drones. Joby Aviation Santa Cruz, California NASA and Joby are testing the human response to autonomy to find management solutions for autonomous air taxis using only a small number of human ground operators. This research will lead to a better understanding of technology solutions needed to ensure safe, routine, multi-aircraft AAM flights. In another effort, in partnership with the U.S. Air Force’s AFWERX program, NASA is using Joby’s aircraft for testing at Edwards Air Force Base. Lockheed Martin – Sikorsky Bridgeport, Connecticut NASA and Lockheed Martin – Sikorsky are conducting dynamic crush and ballistic impact testing of new woven composite materials. The test material will be provided by Lockheed Martin and NASA will conduct the testing. The goal is to improve NASA’s impact modeling capabilities and to improve the crash safety of future composite aircraft. Lone Star UAS Center of Excellence and Innovation at Texas A&M University Corpus Christi, Texas NASA and the Lone Star UAS Center of Excellence and Innovation are developing and testing new AAM technologies through experiments, measurements, and flight tests. Longbow Hampton, Virginia NASA and Longbow will conduct collaborative flight tests and use NASA-developed prognostic services to increase situational awareness and decrease exposure to hazards. Massachusetts Department of Transportation Boston, Massachusetts NASA is working with city and state governments to brainstorm the ways that air taxis and drones, and the infrastructure for this new transportation system, could be integrated into city planning. NASA is exchanging information with these governments to identify the best practices for how a local government could design this system. Each city or state government involved will create a joint document with NASA using computer modeling software to describe how this could work in their locality. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Cambridge, Massachusetts NASA and MIT are capturing the human contribution to safety and are developing methods to increase safety in autonomous systems like training a machine to “see” the obstacles that a human would see. Minnesota Department of Transportation St. Paul, Minnesota NASA is working with city and state governments to brainstorm the ways that air taxis and drones, and the infrastructure for this new transportation system, could be integrated into city planning. NASA is exchanging information with these governments to identify the best practices for how a local government could design this system. Each city or state government involved will create a joint document with NASA using computer modeling software to describe how this could work in their locality. MIT/Lincoln Labs Lexington, Massachusetts NASA and several universities are demonstrating a NASA-created safety management system called “In-Time Learning-Based Safety Management for Scalable Heterogeneous AAM Operations.” This is a combined effort with George Washington University, Vanderbilt University, MIT/Lincoln Labs, and UT-Austin. Mitre Bedford, Massachusetts NASA and Mitre are researching the accuracy of positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) of different aviation navigation systems in modeling and simulation. In a separate agreement, NASA and Mitre are developing a service to predict GPS connectivity in urban areas to help adapt pre-flight and in flight routes for AAM aircraft. Moog East Aurora, New York NASA is partnered with Moog to conduct acoustic testing of their SureFly aircraft. Moog is providing the test vehicle and executing the flight test, while NASA is collecting acoustic data during the tests using an array of ground microphones. These acoustic measurements will provide valuable data used to improve NASA’s noise prediction tools for air taxis. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Gaithersburg, Maryland NASA and NIST are investigating software for autonomous vehicles to improve the software verification and coordination. North Central Texas Council of Governments Arlington, Texas NASA is working with city and state governments to brainstorm the ways that air taxis and drones, and the infrastructure for this new transportation system, could be integrated into city planning. NASA is exchanging information with these governments to identify the best practices for how a local government could design this system. Each city or state government involved will create a joint document with NASA using computer modeling software to describe how this could work in their locality. Northrop Grumman West Falls Church, Virginia Palmdale, California NASA and Northrop Grumman are investigating the use of large Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) for cargo transportation between airports and/or other National Airspace System (NAS) access points. Notre Dame University South Bend, Indiana NASA, Notre Dame and Iowa State are developing and evaluating automated techniques for predicting, detecting, diagnosing, and mitigating diverse configuration problems and runtime failures in small Uncrewed Aerial Systems (sUAS), also called drones. Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) Springfield, Ohio NASA and ODOT will share critical flight and ground operations safety data during flight tests. These flight tests will help evaluate safety management systems for highly-automated aircraft. In a separate effort, NASA and ODOT are exchanging information to advance autonomous cargo aircraft operations. NASA is also working with ODOT to brainstorm the ways that air taxis and drones, and the infrastructure for this new transportation system, could be integrated into city planning by creating a joint document with NASA using computer modeling software to describe how this could work in their locality. Old Dominion University Norfolk, Virginia NASA and Old Dominion University are conducting studies focusing on the collaboration between humans and autonomous systems to see how the two would work together to manage large numbers of autonomous AAM flights. NASA is developing a Human Autonomy Teaming Task Battery to evaluate performance and workload for a human working with an autonomous system. ONERA (Office National d’Etudes et de Recherches Aérospatiales) – The French Aerospace Lab Palaiseau, France In one effort, NASA and ONERA are using computational fluid dynamics (CFD), or the use of mathematics, physics and computational software to visualize how a gas or liquid flows, for broadband noise prediction of a hovering rotor to advance broadband noise prediction capabilities for AAM aircraft. In another effort, NASA and ONERA are collaborating on the acoustics modeling of ducted rotors with optimized liners. These findings will be used to improve the acoustic performance of future tilt-duct aircraft. Penn State University State College, Pennsylvania NASA and Penn State are developing safe role allocations and communication between human-to-human or human-to-machine communication to assure new delegations of authority and responsibility will work in autonomous systems. Stanford University Stanford, California NASA and Stanford are developing and demonstrating a framework for providing algorithmic assurances and designing fault detection, isolation, and recovery (FDIR) methods for those components of the autonomy stack that rely on data-driven methods based on machine learning. University Of Central Florida (UCF) Orlando, Florida NASA is working with UCF to improve the safety of drones through data-driven predictive analytics. Université de Sherbrooke Quebec, Canada NASA and Université de Sherbrooke are investigating the noise generated by fundamental airfoil shapes. NASA will provide customized test articles that will be tested in the University’s anechoic wind tunnel facility. The findings will be used to improve noise predictions for a wide variety of aircraft. U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) and U.S. Navy Office of Naval Research (ONR) Moffett Field, California Arlington, Virginia Effort between NASA, DEVCOM and ONR to fund the Vertical Lift Research Centers of Excellence (VLRCOE). The VLRCOE program was renewed in 2021, with three awardees selected to receive approximately $22M in funding over five years. The Georgia Institute of Technology, Penn State University, and the University of Maryland were selected to perform research on a wide variety of vertical lift technology topics. In addition to establishing a workforce pipeline, this effort will help improve the safety, performance and affordability of civilian and military helicopters and other vertical lift aircraft. University of Texas Austin, Texas NASA and several universities are demonstrating a NASA-created safety management system called “In-Time Learning-Based Safety Management for Scalable Heterogeneous AAM Operations.” This is a combined effort with George Washington University, Vanderbilt University, MIT/Lincoln Labs, and UT-Austin. Vanderbilt University Nashville, Tennessee NASA and several universities are demonstrating a NASA-created safety management system called “In-Time Learning-Based Safety Management for Scalable Heterogeneous AAM Operations.” This is a combined effort with George Washington University, Vanderbilt University, MIT/Lincoln Labs, and UT-Austin. Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Richmond, Virginia NASA, VCU and NIST are developing and evaluating an integrated model- and data-driven approach for risk monitoring to identify and predict elevated risk states for known risk(s) in autonomous technology. Wisk Mountain View, California NASA and Wisk are testing the human response to autonomy to find management solutions for autonomous air taxis using only a small number of human ground operators. This research will lead to a better understanding of technology solutions needed to ensure safe, routine, multi-aircraft AAM flights. Xwing San Francisco, California NASA and Xwing are sharing critical flight and ground operations data, algorithms, and evaluating safety management systems to ensure autonomous aircraft operations are safe. Zipline San Francisco, California NASA and Zipline are testing the human response to autonomy to find management solutions for autonomous air taxis using only a small number of human ground operators. This research will lead to a better understanding of technology solutions needed to ensure safe, routine, multi-aircraft AAM flights. Active NASA Space Act Agreements and NASA Interagency Agreements that relate to Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) are listed here. NASA does not endorse any entity listed here. NASA works with research partners under these agreements to improve technology for the entire AAM industry’s benefit. AAM Partners List (PDF) Partnerships Contact Jamie Turner jamie.m.turner@nasa.gov Media Contact Teresa Whiting teresa.whiting@nasa.gov Facebook logo @NASA@NASAaero@NASA_es @NASA@NASAaero@NASA_es Instagram logo @NASA@NASAaero@NASA_es Linkedin logo @NASA Explore More 4 min read NASA Autonomous Flight Software Successfully Used in Air Taxi Stand-Ins Article 2 months ago 3 min read NASA Flies Drones Autonomously for Air Taxi Research Researchers at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia recently flew multiple drones beyond visual… Article 3 months ago 3 min read NASA, Joby Pave the Way for Air Taxis in Busy Airports Article 3 months ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Missions Humans In Space Solar System Exploration Solar System Overview The solar system has one star, eight planets, five dwarf planets, at least 290 moons, more than… Explore NASA’s History Share Details Last Updated Mar 20, 2024 EditorLillian GipsonContactJim Bankejim.banke@nasa.gov Related TermsAdvanced Air Mobility View the full article

22 Min Read The Marshall Star for March 20, 2024 Marshall Technologist Talks Solar Sail Technology in Rocket Center Exhibit By Jessica Barnett Space enthusiasts at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center were treated to a special exhibit featuring technologist Les Johnson of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and a look at the future of solar sail technology. NASA technologist Les Johnson, on stage, discusses how the solar sail can use solar propulsion to travel farther in space than anyone has traveled before during an exhibit held March 12 at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. NASA/Charles Beason Johnson shared the latest updates on the solar sail technology through brief presentations onstage in the Rocket Center’s atrium as well as one-on-one interactions with museum guests at the various displays set up near the stage. He discussed how the technology will work, showed a video of the solar sail team testing one of the sail’s four quadrants, and discussed what it could mean for the future of space exploration. “I’m excited about this type of propulsion, because it’s free, it doesn’t run out of fuel, and you can use it to do amazing things in the future,” Johnson said. “We could build really big sails – 10 to 100 times bigger than the Solar Cruiser sail – and instead of using sunlight, we could shine lasers on it and go out in the solar system, literally where we’ve never been before.” NASA continues to unfurl plans for solar sail technology as a promising method of deep space transportation. The agency cleared a key technology milestone in January with one of four identical solar sail quadrants successfully deploying. Together, the solar sail quadrants will make up the 17,800-square-foot sail. Marshall leads the solar sail team, which includes Florida-based Redwire Corporation as prime contractor and Huntsville-based NeXolve as subcontractor. Barnett, a Media Fusion employee, supports the Marshall Office of Communications. › Back to Top Robert Champion Named Manager of SLS Exploration Upper Stage Office at Marshall Robert Champion has been named as manager of the SLS (Space Launch System) Exploration Upper Stage Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, effective March 24th. In his role, he will be responsible for the continued development of the exploration upper stage on the more powerful SLS Block 1B rocket, which is set to debut for the Artemis IV mission. Marshall manages the SLS Program. Robert Champion has been named as manager of the SLS (Space Launch System) Exploration Upper Stage Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.NASA Champion has been director of the Office of Center Operations at Marshall since 2021. In that role, he managed center services that included industrial labor relations, environmental engineering, occupational health, facility management, logistics and transportation, protective services, emergency management, and subordinate site operations. Champion previously served as the director of NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans from 2019 to 2021; deputy director of Marshall’s Propulsion Systems Department from 2015 to 2019; deputy director of Marshall’s Space Systems Department from 2014 to 2015; and deputy director at Michoud from 2010 to 2014. His 37-year career at NASA has included leadership roles in engineering, program and project organizations focused on launch vehicle development, system engineering, and propulsion systems. Champion has received several of NASA’s highest awards, including the Presidential Rank Award, the Exceptional Achievement Medal, the Medal for Exceptional Service, Space Flight Awareness Honoree, Director’s Commendation, and the Contracting Officers Technical Representative of the Year. He was selected as an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Associate fellow and received the organization’s 2018-2019 Holger Toftoy Award for outstanding technical management in the fields of aeronautics and astronautics. A native of Woodstock, Alabama, Champion holds a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from Auburn University. He lives in Hazel Green with his wife, Maria Shelby. They have five adult children and six grandchildren. › Back to Top June Malone Named Director of the Office of Center Operations at Marshall June Malone has been named as director of the Office of Center Operations at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, effective March 24. With an annual budget of approximately $94 million, the organization includes 120 engineers and specialized civil servants and more than 500 contractors. Services provided by Center Operations include industrial labor relations, environmental engineering, occupational health, facility management, logistics and transportation, protective services, emergency management, and subordinate site operations. June Malone has been named as director of the Office of Center Operations at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.NASA Malone has been director of the Office of Strategic Analysis & Communications at Marshall since 2021. In that role, she led the organization in providing strategic planning, objective analysis, and comprehensive communication to support the policy, program, and budget decisions for the center. Malone has worked in a variety of leadership roles throughout her 30-year NASA career. She previously was manager for Marshall’s Office of Communications from 2019 to 2021, overseeing the center’s full communications portfolio, including media, social media, website content, exhibits, history, and employee communications. Previously in 2019, she worked in Marshall’s Office of Human Capital, where she established a new Human Resources Business Partner organization and operating model. She also held a year-long position in 2016-2017 as deputy director of the Office of Strategic Analysis & Communications. From 2014-2016 and again 2017-2019, Malone was manager of Marshall’s Office of Communication, guiding media and social media for all center projects, programs, and activities, including crisis and risk communication. She has managed public affairs and media relations activities for the Space Shuttle Propulsion Projects Office, the Space Launch Initiative, the Advanced Space Transportation Program, and the full suite of science and engineering work at Marshall. She was the primary NASA spokesperson for the Space Shuttle Propulsion Projects Office, communicating with media and the public on technical subjects and controversial issues that included the Columbia accident and Return to Flight. Prior to joining NASA in 1991, Malone was an active-duty Air Force officer from 1985-1991. She worked at the Pentagon on the secretary of the Air Force staff in the Office of Public Affairs as a public affairs officer, and subsequently at Tactical Air Command at Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Virginia, during Operation Desert Storm. She formulated and implemented public affairs and media relations policy, strategic public affairs activities, and media relations plans. Malone holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from Southern Illinois University and a master’s degree in communications research from The Florida State University in Tallahassee. Her awards include a Silver Snoopy, NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, Air Force Meritorious Service Medal, and Rotary National Award for Communication. An Illinois native, Malone and her husband, Roy, reside in Huntsville. Their son, Wil, is a NASA engineer, and their daughter, Madison, is a medical doctor in San Francisco. › Back to Top NASA Lights ‘Beacon’ on Moon with Autonomous Navigation System Test By Rick Smith For 30 total minutes in February, NASA lit a beacon on the Moon – successfully testing a sophisticated positioning system that will make it safer for Artemis-era explorers to visit and establish a permanent human presence on the lunar surface. Evan Anzalone, at lower left, principal investigator for the Lunar Node-1 demonstrator payload, monitors the LN-1 mission from the Lunar Utilization Control Area in the Huntsville Operations Support Center at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. LN-1 successfully tested an autonomous navigation and geo-positioning system that will make Artemis-era lunar explorers safer as they work to establish a permanent human presence on the lunar surface.NASA The Lunar Node 1 demonstrator, or LN-1, is an autonomous navigation system intended to provide a real-time, point-to-point communications network on the Moon. The system – tested during Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 mission as part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative – could link orbiters, landers, and even individual astronauts on the surface, digitally verifying each explorer’s position relative to other networked spacecraft, ground stations, or rovers on the move. That system would be a marked improvement over conventional, Earth-based radio data relays, NASA researchers said – even more so compared to Apollo-era astronauts trying to “eyeball” distance and direction on the vast, mostly grey lunar surface. “We’ve lit a temporary beacon on the lunar shore,” said Evan Anzalone, LN-1 principal investigator at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. “Now, we seek to deliver a sustainable local network – a series of lighthouses that point the way for spacecraft and ground crews to safely, confidently spread out and explore.” The experiment was launched Feb. 15 as a payload on the IM-1 mission. The Nova-C lander, named Odysseus, successfully touched down Feb. 22 near Malapert A, a lunar impact crater near the Moon’s South Pole region, executing the first American commercial uncrewed landing on the Moon. The lander spent its subsequent days on the surface conducting six science and technology demonstrations, among them LN-1, before it officially powered down on Feb. 29. “This feat from Intuitive Machines, SpaceX, and NASA demonstrates the promise of American leadership in space and the power of commercial partnerships under NASA’s CLPS initiative,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement after the landing. “Further, this success opens the door for new voyages under Artemis to send astronauts to the Moon, then on to Mars.” During IM-1’s translunar journey, the Marshall team conducted daily tests of the LN-1 beacon. The original plan was for the payload to transmit its beacon around the clock upon landing. NASA’s Deep Space Network, the international giant radio antenna array, would have received that signal for, on average, 10 hours daily. Instead, due to the lander’s touchdown orientation, LN-1 conducted two 15-minute transmissions from the surface. DSN assets successfully locked on the signal, feeding telemetry, navigation measurements, and other data to researchers at Marshall, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Morehead State University in Morehead, Kentucky. The team continues to evaluate the data. LN-1 even provided critical backup to IM-1’s onboard navigation system, noted Dr. Susan Lederer, CLPS project scientist at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. The LN-1 team “really stepped up to the task,” she said, by relaying spacecraft positioning data during translunar flight to NASA’s Deep Space Network satellites at the Goldstone and Madrid Deep Space Communications Complexes in Fort Irwin, California, and Robledo de Chavela, Spain, respectively. Taken on Feb. 27, Odysseus captured an image using its narrow-field-of-view camera.Intuitive Machines In time, navigation aids such as Lunar Node-1 could be used to augment navigation and communication relays and surface nodes, providing increased robustness and capability to a variety of users in orbit and on the surface. As the lunar infrastructure expands, Anzalone envisions LN-1 evolving into something akin to a network that monitors and maintains a busy metropolitan subway system, tracking every “train” in real time, and operating as one part of a larger, LunaNet-compatible architecture, augmenting other NASA and international investments, including the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Lunar Navigation Satellite System. And the technology promises even greater value to NASA’s Moon to Mars efforts, he said. LN-1 may improve data delivery to lunar explorers by just a matter of seconds over conventional relays – but real-time navigation and positioning becomes much more vital on Mars, where transmission delays from Earth can take up to 20 minutes. “That’s a very long time to wait for a spacecraft pilot making a precision orbital adjustment, or humans traversing uncharted Martian landscapes,” Anzalone said. “LN-1 can make lighthouse beacons of every explorer, vehicle, temporary or long-term camp, and site of interest we send to the Moon and to Mars.” Marshall engineers designed, developed, integrated, and tested LN-1 as part of the NPLP (NASA-Provided Lunar Payloads) project funded by the agency’s Science Mission Directorate. Marshall also developed MAPS (Multi-spacecraft Autonomous Positioning System), the underlying networked computer navigation software. MAPS previously was tested on the International Space Station in 2018, using NASA’s Space Communications and Navigations (SCaN) Testbed. NASA’s CLPS initiative oversees industry development, testing, and launch of small robotic landers and rovers supporting NASA’s Artemis campaign. Learn more here. Smith, an Aeyon/MTS employee, supports the Marshall Office of Communications. › Back to Top NASA Artemis Mission Progresses with SpaceX Starship Test Flight As part of NASA’s Artemis campaign to return humans to the Moon for the benefit of all, the agency is working with SpaceX to develop the company’s Starship human landing system (HLS), which will land astronauts near the Moon’s South Pole during the Artemis III and Artemis IV missions. On March 14, SpaceX launched the third integrated flight test of its Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage, an important milestone toward providing NASA with a Starship HLS for its Artemis missions. SpaceX launched the third integrated flight test of its Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage from the company’s Starbase orbital launch pad at 8:25 a.m. CT on March 14. This flight test is an important milestone toward providing NASA with a Starship HLS for its Artemis missions.SpaceX A complement of 33 Raptor engines, fueled by super-cooled liquid methane and liquid oxygen, powered the Super Heavy booster with Starship stacked on top, from the company’s Starbase orbital launch pad at 8:25 a.m. CDT. Starship, using six Raptor engines, separated from the Super Heavy booster employing a hot-staging technique to fire the engines before separation at approximately three minutes into the flight, in accordance with the flight plan. This was the third flight test of the integrated Super Heavy-Starship system. “With each flight test, SpaceX attempts increasingly ambitious objectives for Starship to learn as much as possible for future mission systems development. The ability to test key systems and processes in flight scenarios like these integrated tests allows both NASA and SpaceX to gather crucial data needed for the continued development of Starship HLS,” said Lisa Watson-Morgan, HLS Program Manager at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. This test accomplished several important firsts that will contribute to the development of Starship for Artemis lunar landing missions. The spacecraft reached its expected orbit and Starship completed the full-duration ascent burn. One objective closely tied to future Artemis operations is the transfer of thousands of pounds of cryogenic propellant between internal tanks during the spacecraft’s coast phase as part of NASA’s Space Technology Missions Directorate 2020 Tipping Point awards. The propellant transfer demonstration operations were completed, and the NASA-SpaceX team is currently reviewing the flight data that was received. This Tipping Point technology demonstration is one of more than 20 development activities NASA is undertaking to solve the challenges of using cryogenic fluids during future missions. As a key step toward understanding how super-cooled propellant sloshes within the tanks when the engines shut down, and how that movement affects Starship’s stability while in orbit, engineers will study flight test data to assess the performance of thrusters that control Starship’s orientation in space. They are also interested to learn more about how the fluid’s movement within the tanks can be settled to maximize propellant transfer efficiency and ensure Raptor engines receive needed propellant conditions to support restart in orbit. “Storing and transferring cryogenic propellant in orbit has never been attempted on this scale before,” said Jeremy Kenny, project manager, NASA’s Cryogenic Fluid Management Portfolio at Marshall. “But this is a game-changing technology that must be developed and matured for science and exploration missions at the Moon, Mars, and those that will venture even deeper into our solar system.” Under NASA’s Artemis campaign, the agency will land the first woman, first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the lunar surface and prepare for human expeditions to Mars. Commercial human landing systems are critical to deep space exploration, along with the Space Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft, advanced spacesuits and rovers, exploration ground systems, and the Gateway space station. Read more about NASA’s Human Landing System. › Back to Top Evolved Adapter for Future NASA SLS Flights Readied for Testing A test article of the universal stage adapter for NASA’s more powerful version of its SLS (Space Launch System) rocket arrived to Building 4619 at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center on Feb. 22 from Leidos in Decatur, Alabama. A test article of the universal stage adapter for NASA’s more powerful version of its SLS (Space Launch System) rocket arrived to Building 4619 at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center on Feb. 22 from Leidos in Decatur, Alabama.NASA/Sam Lott The universal stage adapter will connect the rocket’s upgraded in-space propulsion stage, called the exploration upper stage, to NASA’s Orion spacecraft as part of the evolved Block 1B configuration of the SLS rocket. It will also serve as a compartment capable of accommodating large payloads, such as modules or other exploration spacecraft. The SLS Block 1B variant will debut on Artemis IV and will increase SLS’s payload capability to send more than 84,000 pounds to the Moon in a single launch. In Building 4619’s Load Test Annex High Bay at Marshall, the development test article will first undergo modal testing that will shake the hardware to validate dynamic models. Later, during ultimate load testing, force will be applied vertically and to the sides of the hardware. Unlike the flight hardware, the development test article has flaws intentionally included in its design, which will help engineers verify that the adapter can withstand the extreme forces it will face during launch and flight. The test article joins an already-rich history of rocket hardware that has undergone high-and-low pressure, acoustic, and extreme temperature testing in the multipurpose, high-bay test facility; it will be tested in the same location that once bent, compressed, and torqued the core stage intertank test article for SLS rocket’s Block 1 configuration. Leidos, the prime contractor for the universal stage adapter, manufactured the full-scale prototype at its Aerospace Structures Complex in Decatur. NASA is working to land the first woman, first person of color, 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 and Gateway in orbit around the Moon and commercial human landing systems, next-generational spacesuits, and rovers on the lunar surface. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single launch. Marshall manages the SLS and human landing system programs. › Back to Top NASA Study: Asteroid’s Orbit, Shape Changed After DART Impact When NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) deliberately smashed into a 560-foot-wide asteroid on Sept. 26, 2022, it made its mark in more ways than one. The demonstration showed that a kinetic impactor could deflect a hazardous asteroid should one ever be on a collision course with Earth. Now a new study published in the Planetary Science Journal shows the impact changed not only the motion of the asteroid, but also its shape. The asteroid Dimorphos was captured by NASA’s DART mission just two seconds before the spacecraft struck its surface on Sept. 26, 2022. Observations of the asteroid before and after impact suggest it is a loosely packed “rubble pile” object.NASA/Johns Hopkins APL DART’s target, the asteroid Dimorphos, orbits a larger near-Earth asteroid called Didymos. Before the impact, Dimorphos had a roughly symmetrical “oblate spheroid” shape – like a squashed ball that is wider than it is tall. With a well-defined, circular orbit at a distance of about 3,900 feet from Didymos, Dimorphos took 11 hours and 55 minutes to complete one loop around Didymos. “When DART made impact, things got very interesting,” said Shantanu Naidu, a navigation engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, who led the study. “Dimorphos’ orbit is no longer circular: Its orbital period” – the time it takes to complete a single orbit – “is now 33 minutes and 15 seconds shorter. And the entire shape of the asteroid has changed, from a relatively symmetrical object to a ‘triaxial ellipsoid’ – something more like an oblong watermelon.” Naidu’s team used three data sources in their computer models to deduce what had happened to the asteroid after impact. The first source was aboard DART: The spacecraft captured images as it approached the asteroid and sent them back to Earth via NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN). These images provided close-up measurements of the gap between Didymos and Dimorphos while also gauging the dimensions of both asteroids just prior to impact. The second data source was the DSN’s Goldstone Solar System Radar, located near Barstow, California, which bounced radio waves off both asteroids to precisely measure the position and velocity of Dimorphos relative to Didymos after impact. Radar observations quickly helped NASA conclude that DART’s effect on the asteroid greatly exceeded the minimum expectations. The third and most significant source of data: ground telescopes around the world that measured both asteroids’ “light curve,” or how the sunlight reflecting off the asteroids’ surfaces changed over time. By comparing the light curves before and after impact, the researchers could learn how DART altered Dimorphos’ motion. As Dimorphos orbits, it periodically passes in front of and then behind Didymos. In these so-called “mutual events,” one asteroid can cast a shadow on the other, or block our view from Earth. In either case, a temporary dimming – a dip in the light curve – will be recorded by telescopes. See the DART impact with NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System. “We used the timing of this precise series of light-curve dips to deduce the shape of the orbit, and because our models were so sensitive, we could also figure out the shape of the asteroid,” said Steve Chesley, a senior research scientist at JPL and study co-author. The team found Dimorphos’ orbit is now slightly elongated, or eccentric. “Before impact,” Chesley continued, “the times of the events occurred regularly, showing a circular orbit. After impact, there were very slight timing differences, showing something was askew. We never expected to get this kind of accuracy.” This illustration shows the approximate shape change that the asteroid Dimorphos experienced after DART hit it. Before impact, left, the asteroid was shaped like a squashed ball; after impact it took on a more elongated shape, like a watermelon.NASA/JPL-Caltech The models are so precise, they even show that Dimorphos rocks back and forth as it orbits Didymos, Naidu said. The team’s models also calculated how Dimorphos’ orbital period evolved. Immediately after impact, DART reduced the average distance between the two asteroids, shortening Dimorphos’ orbital period by 32 minutes and 42 seconds, to 11 hours, 22 minutes, and 37 seconds. Over the following weeks, the asteroid’s orbital period continued to shorten as Dimorphos lost more rocky material to space, finally settling at 11 hours, 22 minutes, and 3 seconds per orbit – 33 minutes and 15 seconds less time than before impact. This calculation is accurate to within 1 ½ seconds, Naidu said. Dimorphos now has a mean orbital distance from Didymos of about 3,780 feet – about 120 feet closer than before impact. “The results of this study agree with others that are being published,” said Tom Statler, lead scientist for solar system small bodies at NASA Headquarters. “Seeing separate groups analyze the data and independently come to the same conclusions is a hallmark of a solid scientific result. DART is not only showing us the pathway to an asteroid-deflection technology, it’s revealing new fundamental understanding of what asteroids are and how they behave.” These results and observations of the debris left after impact indicate that Dimorphos is a loosely packed “rubble pile” object, similar to asteroid Bennu. ESA’s (European Space Agency) Hera mission, planned to launch in October 2024, will travel to the asteroid pair to carry out a detailed survey and confirm how DART reshaped Dimorphos. DART was designed, built, and operated by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, for NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, which oversees the agency’s ongoing efforts in planetary defense. The mission is a project of the agency’s Planetary Mission Program Office, which is at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. DART was humanity’s first mission to intentionally move a celestial object. JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the DSN for NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program within the Space Operations Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters. › Back to Top Crew, Cargo Launches to Space Station Scheduled for March 21 Equipment installs, health investigations, and training occupied the schedule aboard the International Space Station on March 19 as the seven orbital residents near the arrival of three crew members and a cargo delivery. NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, and spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus pose for a portrait at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center on Nov. 2, 2023.Credits: GCTC/Andrey Shelepin NASA’s SpaceX 30th commercial resupply mission to the station is scheduled for launch at 3:55 p.m. CDT March 21 from Space Launch Complex 40 in Florida. The Dragon cargo craft will deliver food, supplies, and new science investigations to the crew, including a set of sensors for the free-flying Astrobee robots and a new botany experiment to examine how two types of grass capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Dragon will autonomously dock to the zenith port of the Harmony module at 6:30 a.m. March 23. Ahead of Dragon’s liftoff, three crew members – NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky, and Flight Engineer Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus – will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 8:21 a.m. March 21. The international crew will take a short ride to the station, docking only a few hours later at 11:39 p.m., before opening the hatch and joining the Expedition 70 crew in microgravity. Dyson will begin a six-month microgravity research mission once aboard, while Novitsky and Vasilevskaya will spend 12 days on station before departing back to Earth with NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara. NASA TV will cover both launches beginning at 7:20 a.m. and 3:35 p.m. respectively. Aboard station, the crew returned to work March 19 following a few days off-duty. Throughout the day, O’Hara and two of her NASA crewmates, Michael Barratt and Matthew Dominick, completed a round of SpaceX Dragon rendezvous training ahead of Dragon’s cargo arrival. The HOSC (Huntsville Operations Support Center) at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center provides engineering and mission operations support for the space station, the Commercial Crew Program, and Artemis missions, as well as science and technology demonstration missions. The Payload Operations Integration Center within the HOSC operates, plans, and coordinates the science experiments onboard the space station 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. › Back to Top Europa Clipper Mission Highlighted on ‘This Week at NASA’ Technicians at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center recently fully extended the first of two five-panel solar arrays for the agency’s Europa Clipper spacecraft. The mission is featured in “This Week @ NASA,” a weekly video program broadcast on NASA-TV and posted online. The 46.5-foot arrays also will be inspected and cleaned as part of assembly, test, and launch operations. Targeted for launch in October 2024, the mission will study Jupiter’s moon Europa, which is believed to have a global ocean beneath its icy crust that has more water than all of Earth’s oceans combined. Managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California, JPL leads the development of the Europa Clipper mission in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. APL designed the main spacecraft body in collaboration with JPL and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. The Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center executes program management of the Europa Clipper mission. View this and previous episodes at “This Week @NASA” on NASA’s YouTube page. › Back to Top View the full article

The four crew members of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 mission are seated inside the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft after landing in the Gulf of Mexico on March 12, 2024.Credits: NASA/Joel Kowsky After spending 199 days in space, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 crew members will discuss their science mission aboard the International Space Station during a news conference at 2:30 p.m. EDT Monday, March 25, at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov returned to Earth aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, splashing down at 5:47 a.m., March 12, off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, before flying back to Houston. Crew will answer media questions about their mission aboard the space station and their return to Earth. Event coverage will stream live on NASA+, NASA Television, and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms including social media. Media are invited to attend in-person or virtually. Media must RSVP to the Johnson newsroom no later than 12:30 p.m. March 25 at jsccommu@mail.nasa.gov or 281-483-5111. Media should dial-in to the news conference by 2 p.m. the day of the event to ask a question. Questions also may be submitted on social media using #AskNASA. A copy of NASA’s media accreditation policy is online. The crew spent six-and-a-half months in space, with 197 days total aboard the space station. During the mission, Moghbeli completed a spacewalk, a first in her career, alongside NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara. It was the first spaceflight for Moghbeli and Borisov, and the second for Furukawa and Mogensen. The crew lived and worked aboard the station since Aug. 26, 2023. During the mission, crew contributed to hundreds of experiments and technology demonstrations, including studying plant immune function in microgravity, testing materials in the space environment, and observing thunderstorms to understand the effects of lightning and electrical activity on Earth’s climate and atmosphere. These experiments are helping to prepare for exploration beyond low Earth orbit and to benefit life on Earth. They spent five days with the newly arrived crew of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission, who docked to the station on March 5, and conducted a direct handover introducing three first-time flyers to the space station, discussing ongoing tasks and system statuses. Get the latest NASA space station news, images and features on Instagram, Facebook, and X. Learn more about NASA’s Commercial Crew Program: https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew -end- Josh Finch / Claire O’Shea Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1100 joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / claire.a.o’shea@nasa.gov Chelsey Ballarte Johnson Space Center, Houston 281-483-5111 chelsey.n.ballarte@nasa.gov Share Details Last Updated Mar 20, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related TermsInternational Space Station (ISS)AstronautsHumans in SpaceISS ResearchJasmin MoghbeliJohnson Space Center View the full article