NASA

NASA astronauts Suni Williams (pictured left) and Butch Wilmore (pictured right) launched at 10:52 a.m. EDT June 5 as the first crewed flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft on the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.Credits: NASA Following their safe arrival at the International Space Station, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will participate in a pair of Earth to space calls Monday, June 10, regarding their historic mission aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft: Known as NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test, the duo will speak first at 1 p.m. EDT with NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy, Associate Administrator Jim Free, and Johnson Space Center Director Vanessa Wyche. Coverage of the call 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. At 2:40 p.m., the astronauts will participate in a Q&A moderated by Chirag Parikh, deputy assistant to President Joe Biden and executive secretary for the White House’s National Space Council. Coverage of the call will stream live on NASA+, NASA Television, and the agency’s website. Wilmore and Williams launched at 10:52 a.m. June 5, on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida for NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test mission. They docked to the orbiting laboratory at 1:34 p.m., June 6, and will remain for a week-long stay, testing Starliner and its subsystems as the next step in the spacecraft’s certification for rotational missions as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. NASA’s Commercial Crew Program is delivering on its goal of safe, reliable, and cost-effective transportation to and from the International Space Station from the United States through a partnership with American private industry. This partnership is opening access to low-Earth orbit and the International Space Station to more people, science, and commercial opportunities. The space station remains the springboard to NASA’s next great leap in space exploration, including future missions to the Moon under Artemis, and ultimately, to Mars. For more information about the mission, visit: www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew -end- Faith McKie / Josh Finch Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1100 faith.d.mckie@nasa.gov / joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov Share Details Last Updated Jun 07, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related TermsHumans in SpaceCommercial CrewCommercial SpaceInternational Space Station (ISS)ISS Research View the full article

NASA will roll the fully assembled core stage for the agency’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket that will launch the first crewed Artemis mission out of NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans in mid-July. The 212-foot-tall stage will be loaded on the agency’s Pegasus barge for delivery to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Media will have the opportunity to capture images and video, hear remarks from agency and industry leadership, and speak to subject matter experts with NASA and its Artemis industry partners as crews move the rocket stage to the Pegasus barge. The core stage is the backbone of the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket that will help power NASA’s Artemis II mission to send a crew of four astronauts around the Moon in 2025. Here, the core stage is currently behind scaffolding to allow work to continue at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The stage’s two massive propellant tanks hold a collective 733,000 gallons of liquid propellant to power the four RS-25 engines at its base. Following hardware acceptance reviews and final checkouts, the stage will be readied for delivery via the agency’s Pegasus barge to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for Artemis II launch preparations. NASA will provide additional information on specific timing later, along with interview opportunities. This event is open to U.S. and international media. International media must apply by June 14. U.S. media must apply by July 3. The agency’s media credentialing policy is available online. Interested media must contact Corinne Beckinger at corinne.m.beckinger@nasa.gov and Craig Betbeze at craig.c.betbeze@nasa.gov. Registered media will receive a confirmation by email. The rocket stage with its four RS-25 engines will provide more than 2 million pounds of thrust to send astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft for the Artemis II mission. Once at Kennedy, teams with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program will finish outfitting the stage and prepare it for stacking and launch. Artemis II is currently scheduled for launch in September 2025. Building, assembling, and transporting the core stage is a collaborative process for NASA, Boeing, the core stage lead contractor, and lead RS-25 engines contractor Aerojet Rocketdyne, an L3 Harris Technologies company. NASA is working to land the first woman, first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the Moon under the agency’s Artemis campaign. The SLS rocket is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration, along with the Orion spacecraft, supporting ground systems, advanced spacesuits and rovers, the Gateway in orbit around the Moon, and commercial human landing systems. The SLS rocket is the only rocket designed to send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single launch. Learn more about NASA’s Artemis campaign: News Media Contact Rachel Kraft NASA Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1100 rachel.h.kraft@nasa.gov Corinne Beckinger Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala. 256-544-0034 corinne.m.beckinger@nasa.gov View the full article

Timothy Lang (ST11) is a coauthor on an article titled, “Employing Optical Lightning Data to identify lightning flashes associated to Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes,” which was recently accepted for publication in the Bulletin of Atmospheric Science and Technology. Rich Blakeslee, formerly of the NASA MSFC Emeritus program, is also a coauthor on the study. The study – which was led by Christoph Köhn of the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) – used data from the International Space Station Lightning Imaging Sensor (ISS LIS) and the Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM; also on the ISS) to improve our understanding of what types of lightning flashes are associated with terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs), which emit high-energy radiation from thunderstorms. The team developed an algorithm that accurately reduced the total population of LIS-observed lightning to a much smaller population of candidate TGF-related flashes by looking for unique characteristics within the flashes. ASIM, which can observe TGFs, was used to validate the algorithm. This study is important because instruments like ASIM only observe 300-400 TGFs per year, while LIS observed on average ~1 million lightning flashes per year. This difference of four orders of magnitude in frequency of occurrence means that data-reduction algorithms are necessary to facilitate studying the relationships between TGFs and lightning. In addition, a recent NASA field campaign demonstrated that TGF occurrence may be significantly higher than what can be measured from space, particularly within tropical thunderstorms. Thus, an algorithm that identifies possible characteristics TGF-related lightning may help us later in understanding differences between lightning associated with strong TGFs (observable from space) and lightning associated with weaker TGFs (not currently observable from space). Read the paper at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42865-024-00065-y. Graphic showing the integration of the Lightning Imaging Sensor with the International Space Station.View the full article

Patrick Duran (SPoRT/ST11) participated in the annual Tropical Cyclone Operations and Research Forum (TCORF) at the NOAA Aircraft Operations Center in Lakeland, FL 3/5-6/24. TCORF brings together hurricane researchers, forecasters, and aircraft reconnaissance personnel from NOAA, the US Navy, and the US Air Force to discuss recent research results and plans for operational hurricane forecasting and aircraft reconnaissance during the upcoming hurricane season. The forum provided an opportunity to get initial stakeholder feedback from the hurricane aircraft reconnaissance community on real-time situational awareness products currently being developed by SPoRT. These products are designed to be used aboard an aircraft while it’s in the storm to make decisions on whether to modify the flight track and instrument deployments to accommodate a pre-planned research experiment called a “module.” Conversations at the forum also led to an enhanced collaboration with the NOAA Hurricane Research Division that will incorporate SPoRT into a module designed to perform cal/val for NASA’s TROPICS constellation. A new collaboration also was formed with NOAA’s Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere to better understand the Geostationary Lightning Mapper’s detection efficiency in the hurricane inner core. View the full article

Christopher Schultz (ST11) led a team consisting of Phillip Bitzer (UAH), Michael Antia (Jacobs), Jonathan Case (Ensco), and Christopher Hain (MSFC) to examine 26-years of lightning-initiated wildfires (LIW) to understand the types of lightning that were producing wildfire events within the United States. Twenty-six years of lightning data were paired with over 68,000 LIW reports to understand lightning flash characteristics responsible for ignition in between 1995 and 2020. Results indicate that 92% of LIW were started by negative cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning flashes and 57% were single stroke flashes. Moreover, 62% of LIW reports did not have a positive CG within 10 km of the start location, contrary to the science literature’s suggestion that positive CG flashes are a dominant fire-starting mechanism. Nearly 1/3rd of wildfire events were holdovers, meaning one or more days elapsed between lightning occurrence and fire report. However, fires that were reported less than a day after lightning occurrence statistically burned more acreage. Peak current was not found to be a statistically significant delineator between fire starters and non-fire starters for -CGs but was for positive CGs. Results highlighted the need for reassessing the role of positive CG lightning and subsequently long continuing current in wildfire ignition started by lightning. One outcome of this study’s results is the development of real-time tools to identify ignition potential during lightning events to aid in fire mitigation efforts. Furthermore, the findings of this study should lead to new science in defining the continuing current duration needed to ignite a fire as a function of the underlying land surface. View the full article

Star Cluster Westerlund 1.X-ray: NASA/CXC/INAF/M. Guarcello et al.; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare Westerlund 1 is the biggest and closest “super” star cluster to Earth. New data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, in combination with other NASA telescopes, is helping astronomers delve deeper into this galactic factory where stars are vigorously being produced. This is the first data to be publicly released from a project called the Extended Westerlund 1 and 2 Open Clusters Survey, or EWOCS, led by astronomers from the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics in Palermo. As part of EWOCS, Chandra observed Westerlund 1 for about 12 days in total. Currently, only a handful of stars form in our galaxy each year, but in the past the situation was different. The Milky Way used to produce many more stars, likely hitting its peak of churning out dozens or hundreds of stars per year about 10 billion years ago and then gradually declining ever since. Astronomers think that most of this star formation took place in massive clusters of stars, known as “super star clusters,” like Westerlund 1. These are young clusters of stars that contain more than 10,000 times the mass of the Sun. Westerlund 1 is between about 3 million and 5 million years old. This new image shows the new deep Chandra data along with previously released data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. The X-rays detected by Chandra show young stars (mostly represented as white and pink) as well as diffuse heated gas throughout the cluster (colored pink, green, and blue, in order of increasing temperatures for the gas). Many of the stars picked up by Hubble appear as yellow and blue dots. Only a few super star clusters still exist in our galaxy, but they offer important clues about this earlier era when most of our galaxy’s stars formed. Westerlund 1 is the biggest of these remaining super star clusters in the Milky Way and contains a mass between 50,000 and 100,000 Suns. It is also the closest super star cluster to Earth at about 13,000 light-years. These qualities make Westerlund 1 an excellent target for studying the impact of a super star cluster’s environment on the formation process of stars and planets as well as the evolution of stars over a broad range of masses. This new deep Chandra dataset of Westerlund 1 has more than tripled the number of X-ray sources known in the cluster. Before the EWOCS project, Chandra had detected 1,721 sources in Westerlund 1. The EWOCS data found almost 6,000 X-ray sources, including fainter stars with lower masses than the Sun. This gives astronomers a new population to study. One revelation is that 1,075 stars detected by Chandra are squeezed into the middle of Westerlund 1 within four light-years of the cluster’s center. For a sense of how crowded this is, four light-years is about the distance between the Sun and the next closest star to Earth. The diffuse emission seen in the EWOCS data represents the first detection of a halo of hot gas surrounding the center of Westerlund 1, which astronomers think will be crucial in assessing the cluster’s formation and evolution, and giving a more precise estimate of its mass. A paper published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, led by Mario Guarcello from the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics in Palermo, discusses the survey and the first results. Follow-up papers will discuss more about the results, including detailed studies of the brightest X-ray sources. This future work will analyze other EWOCS observations, involving NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and NICER (Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer). 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 is an image of the Westerlund 1 star cluster and the surrounding region, as detected in X-ray and optical light. The black canvas of space is peppered with colored dots of light of various sizes, mostly in shades of red, green, blue, and white. At the center of the image is a semi-transparent, red and yellow cloud of gas encircling a grouping of tightly packed gold stars. The shape and distribution of stars in the cluster call to mind effervescent soda bubbles dancing above the ice cubes of a recently poured beverage. 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

Astronaut waves during a spacewalk outside of the International Space Station (Credits: NASA) NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station will conduct three spacewalks targeted for June. NASA will discuss the upcoming spacewalks during a news conference at 4 p.m. EDT Tuesday, June 11.Live coverage will air on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms including social media. Participants in the news conference include: Dina Contella, deputy program manager, International Space Station Rebecca Wingfield, flight director, spacewalk 90 Nicole McElroy, flight director, spacewalk 91 Sandy Fletcher, spacewalk officer, spacewalk 90 Faruq Sabur, spacewalk officer, spacewalk 91 and 92 U.S. media interested in participating in person must contact the Johnson newsroom no later than 4 p.m. Monday, June 10, at: 281-483-5111 or jsccommu@mail.nasa.gov. To ask questions, media must dial in no later than 15 minutes before the start of the news conference. Questions also may be submitted on social media using #AskNASA. For the first spacewalk, NASA astronauts Tracy C. Dyson and Matt Dominick will exit the station’s Quest airlock to complete the removal of a faulty electronics box, called a radio frequency group, from a communications antenna on the starboard truss of the space station. The pair also will collect samples for analysis to understand the ability of microorganisms to survive and reproduce on the exterior of the orbiting laboratory. Dyson will serve as spacewalk crew member 1 and will wear a suit with red stripes. Dominick will serve as spacewalk crew member 2 and will wear an unmarked suit. U.S. spacewalk 90 will be the fourth for Dyson and the first for Dominick. NASA will announce participating crew members for U.S. spacewalks 91 and 92 following the completion of the first and will provide additional coverage details. For the second spacewalk, astronauts will remove and replace the external high-definition camera located at camera port nine on the orbiting laboratory. This camera is one of several to provide external views of the space station. Additionally, crew members will complete a cable connection fit check for the alpha magnetic spectrometer, a particle physics experiment on the station’s exterior. If not completed during U.S. spacewalk 90, the astronauts will begin by collecting microorganism samples. For the third spacewalk, crew members will remove and replace a rate gyro assembly, which provides data on the orientation of the space station. Astronauts will then attach a support bracket, called a modification kit, in preparation for future installation of the orbiting laboratory’s next International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Array on the 2A power channel on the port truss. Learn more about the space station, its research, and crew, at: https://www.nasa.gov/station -end- Josh Finch / Claire O’Shea Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1100 joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / claire.a.o’shea@nasa.gov Sandra Jones / Anna Schneider Johnson Space Center, Houston 281-483-5111 sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov / anna.c.schneider@nasa.gov View the full article

3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Credit: NASA/Ryan Fitzgibbons What do you give to an ocean that has everything? This year, for National Ocean Month, NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) satellite— is gifting us a unique look at our home planet. The visualizations created with data from the satellite, which launched on Feb. 8, are already enhancing the ways that we view our seas and skies. The PACE satellite views our entire planet every day, returning data at a cadence that allows scientists to track and monitor the rapidly changing atmosphere and ocean, including cloud formation, aerosol movement, and differences in microscopic ocean life over time. The visualization starts with a view of swaths of Earth from PACE’s Ocean Color Instrument. The Ocean Color Instrument observes Earth in ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared light — over 200 wavelengths. With this level of detail, scientists can now, from space, regularly identify specific communities of phytoplankton — tiny organisms floating near the surface of the ocean that serve as the center of the marine food web. This is a major advance, as different types of phytoplankton play different roles in ocean ecosystems and health. PACE orbits Earth in this visualization, exposing a swath of true color imagery. NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio Zooming in, the visualization shows the ecosystems and surrounding atmosphere off the United States’ East Coast and The Bahamas on March 21. Like previous satellites, the Ocean Color Instrument can detect chlorophyll in the ocean, which indicates the presence and abundance of phytoplankton. The Ocean Color Instrument adds to this by allowing scientists to determine the types of phytoplankton present, such as the three different types of phytoplankton identified in the visualization. False color data visualization of phytoplankton (Picoeukaryotes and Prochlorococcus), as observed by PACE’s Ocean Color instrument (OCI).NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio The portion of the swirls in green indicate the presence of picoeukaryotes, organisms which are smaller than 0.3 micrometers in size — 30 times smaller than the width of a human hair. In light blue are prochlorococcus, the smallest known organism to turn sunlight into energy (photosynthesis); they account for a major fraction of all photosynthesis that occurs in the ocean. The portion of the bloom in bright pink indicates synechococcus, a phytoplankton group that can color the water light pink when many are present in a small area. False color data visualization of phytoplankton (Picoeukaryotes and Synechococcus), as observed by PACE’s OCI instrument. NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio These are just three of the thousands of types of phytoplankton, and just the start of what the Ocean Color Instrument will be able to identify. The PACE satellite’s two polarimeters, Hyper-Angular Rainbow Polarimeter #2 (HARP2) and Spectro-polarimeter for Planetary Exploration one (SPEXone), provide a unique view of Earth’s atmosphere, helping scientists learn more about clouds and small particles called aerosols. The polarimeters measure light that reflects off of these particles. By learning more about the interactions between clouds and aerosols, these data will ultimately help make climate models more accurate. Additionally, aerosols can degrade air quality, so monitoring their properties and movement is important for human health. Aerosols, as observed by PACE’s HARP2 and SPEXone instruments.NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio In the visualization, the large swath of HARP2 data shows the concentration of aerosols in the air for that particular day. These data — a measure of the light scattering and absorbing properties of aerosols — help scientists not only locate the aerosols, but identify the type. Near the coast, the aerosols are most likely smoke from fires in the U.S. southeast. Adding detail to the visualization and the science, the thin swath of SPEXone data furthers the information by showing the aerosol particle size. Over the next year, PACE scientists aim to create the first global maps of phytoplankton communities and glean new insights into how fisheries and aquatic resources are responding to Earth’s changing climate. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) spacecraft was specifically designed to study the invisible universe of Earth’s sea and sky from the vantage point of space. We’ve measured 4-6 colors of the rainbow for decades, which has enabled us to “see” phytoplankton from space through the lens of its primary photosynthetic pigment, chlorophyll-a. PACE’s primary instrument is the first of its kind to measure all the colors of the rainbow, every day, everywhere. That means we can identify the type of phytoplankton behind the chlorophyll-a. Different types of phytoplankton have different effects on the food web, on water management, and on the climate, via their impact on the carbon cycle.NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio By Erica McNamee NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Share Details Last Updated Jun 07, 2024 EditorKate D. RamsayerContactErica McNameeerica.s.mcnamee@nasa.govLocationGoddard Space Flight Center Related TermsEarthAerosolsGoddard Space Flight CenterOceansPACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem) Explore More 4 min read NASA’s PACE Data on Ocean, Atmosphere, Climate Now Available Article 2 months ago 5 min read Early Adopters of NASA’s PACE Data to Study Air Quality, Ocean Health From the atmosphere down to the surface of the ocean, data from NASA’s PACE (Plankton,… Article 2 months ago 6 min read NASA’s PACE To Investigate Oceans, Atmosphere in Changing Climate Earth’s oceans and atmosphere are changing as the planet warms. Some ocean waters become greener… Article 5 months ago View the full article

The National Weather Service in Huntsville hosted a visit by the NWS Office of Science and Technology Integration. OSTI is the main office within the NWS that manages and plans research to operations projects for the NWS and the integration of technology across NWS field offices. The visit by OSTI leadership and management started with discussions with NWS Huntsville and highlighted an afternoon session to learn more about SPoRT, R2O projects, and partnerships within the NWS. OSTI values the efforts of SPoRT in transitioning NASA research to NWS offices and plans to continue collaborative discussions and knowledge sharing on R2O/O2R and SPoRT products that have been successfully integrated into NWS operations. View the full article

Dennis Gallagher (ST13) reports receiving on 3/1/24, one gram of Apollo 16 regolith of 1 mm and smaller dust regolith from the Johnson Space Center (JSC) Apollo Archive. The material request is motivated by the planned NASA Artemis missions to the Moon’s south polar region where the surface is generally expected to be like that found at the Apollo 16 landing site. Electrostatic charging driven by the solar wind and ultraviolet light from the Sun is known to be important for small particles of lunar regolith that must be understood for potentially dust coated struts of the Human Lander System (HLS) that will cycle between the surface and Gateway. Presently, the charging properties of individual dust grains are not adequately characterized for this purpose. The measurements to be obtained by the MSFC Dusty Plasma Laboratory using Apollo 16 dust are intended to fill this knowledge gap are being obtained in support of the Gateway Cis-Lunar Dust Transfer Modeling and Analysis Task and HLS at JSC. The surface of the Moon.View the full article

On 3/7/24, Astrophysical Journal published online “X-ray Polarimetry of the Dipping Accreting Neutron Star 4U 1624–49” by M. Lynne Saade (Astrophysics Branch) et al. This is the 51st discovery paper published by the IXPE Science Team. The first author, Lynnie Saade, is a new postdoc working on IXPE and this is her first IXPE paper, which was submitted only a few months after arriving at MSFC. Illustration of the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry ExplorerView the full article

NASA’s Transform to Open Science (TOPS) initiative aims to transform agencies, organizations, and communities to an inclusive culture of open science. A set of TOPS Champions at selected NASA Centers have developed the open science curriculum that they will teach at Centers, conferences, science meetings, etc. A first TOPS meeting with all Center Champions was held at Kennedy Space Center 2/27-29/24. Plans for how to continue developing and teaching the Open Science curriculum were made during the meeting. A goal is set to teach the curriculum to 20,000 researchers. View the full article

Rahul Ramachandran (ST11) met with the World Food Program’s Head of Geospatial Support Unit. The focus was on his team’s work in Geospatial AI Foundation Models, specifically discussing the upcoming second version of the HLS Foundation Model. This new iteration promises an advanced architecture and extended training on global time sequences, offering unprecedented capabilities. The World Food Program’s Geospatial Support Unit expressed keen interest in leveraging this model to develop applications that could transform their operations. Ramachandran invited the World Food Program to join this open effort, highlighting the potential for these collaborations to revolutionize geospatial analytics and support global humanitarian efforts. View the full article

NASA’s Transform to Open Science (TOPS; https://nasa.github.io/Transform-to-Open-Science/) initiative aims to transform agencies, organizations, and communities to an inclusive culture of open science. TOPS’s first priority is to develop an open science curriculum to train scientists and researchers as part of our 5-year program. A set of TOPS Champions at selected NASA Centers have developed the open science curriculum that they will teach at Centers, conferences, science meetings, etc. Pontus Olofsson (ST11) is a TOPS Champion at MSFC; he taught the first module of the open science curriculum to all branches of MSFC on 2/21/24. This was the first instructor-led TOPS workshop at MSFC. View the full article

As part of his NASA SERVIR research project, Pontus Olofsson (ST11) co-authored a paper for publication in IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing. The paper, titled Applications of Remote Sensing for Land Use Planning Scenarios With Suitability Analysis, presents results from a suitability analysis model using time series of Landsat data for land use planning in West Africa in light of a growing population and management of natural resources. The research was carried out by SERVIR-funded research groups at NASA MSFC, University of Florida, and Boston University. The paper is available here: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10449341. Results from the land use suitability analyses for (a) agriculture, (b) forest, and (c) urban land uses.View the full article

NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test Starliner Tour

From 2/12-16/24, representatives of SERVIR’s Science Coordination Office participated in an Inclusive Climate Action Workshop in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Hosted by SERVIR’s Southeast Asia program, along with USAID, the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center, and the World Wildlife Fund, the event was organized as a space to exchange ideas on how Earth and climate information can be more actionable for and inclusive of Indigenous communities, women, youth, and other underrepresented communities. The event convened nearly 100 participants from across five Southeast Asian countries who provided insight on how SERVIR and its partners can better serve the region on issues like deforestation, air quality, and disaster risk reduction. View the full article

3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA’s Break the Ice Lunar Challenge will conclude with a final competition, open to the public and media, this June in Huntsville, Alabama.NASA NASA will announce the winners of the final phase of its Break the Ice Lunar Challenge on Wednesday, June 12 at Alabama A&M University’s (AAMU) Agribition Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The challenge aims to develop new technologies that could support a sustained human presence on the Moon by the end of the decade. Media and the public are invited to watch the six finalists test their robots in live competitions. Opening remarks from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center leadership in Huntsville will begin at 8 a.m. CDT on Tuesday, June 11. Teams will compete from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day during the two-day event, with the winner announcement at 5 p.m. in a ceremony on June 12 at the Agribition Center. Media interested in covering the event should confirm their attendance with Jonathan Deal by 3 p.m. Monday, June 10, at jonathan.e.deal@nasa.gov. Each team will focus on mastering two components during the two-day event: excavation and transportation. Six identically sized concrete slabs, measuring about 300 cubic feet, will be placed inside the arena for the finalists’ robots to dig. The slabs will have qualities like the icy regolith found in permanently shadowed craters at the Moon’s South Pole. A gravity-offloading crane system will apply the counterweights on the excavating robots to simulate the one-sixth gravity experienced on the Moon. Each team will have one hour to dig as much material as possible or until they reach the payload capacity of their excavation robot. Up to three top-performing teams can test their solution inside one of NASA Marshall’s thermal vacuum chambers, which can simulate the temperature and vacuum conditions at the lunar South Pole. Outside the Agribition Center, challenge teams will take turns on a custom-built track outfitted with slopes, boulders, pebbles, rocks, and gravel to simulate the lunar surface. This volatile surface will stretch approximately 300 meters and include several twists and turns for more intermediate handling. Each team will get one hour on the track to deliver a payload and return to the starting point. Times, distances, and pitfalls will be recorded independently. After this event, the first-place winner will receive $1 million, and the second-place winner will receive $500,000. The awards ceremony will be livestreamed on Marshall YouTube and NASA Prize Facebook. Since 2020, competitors have worked to design, build, and test icy regolith excavation and transportation technologies for near-term lunar missions that address key operational elements and environmental constraints. The six finalists who succeeded in Phase 2: Level 2 of the challenge were announced in December 2023. On Earth, the mission architectures developed in this challenge aim to help guide machine design and operation concepts for future mining and excavation operations and equipment for decades. Located a few miles east of the AAMU campus, the Agribition (“agriculture” plus “exhibition”) Center is managed by the Alabama Cooperative Extension System with support from AAMU and its College of Agricultural, Life, and Natural Sciences. The Break the Ice Lunar Challenge is a NASA Centennial Challenge led by the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center, supported by NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Centennial Challenges are part of the Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing program led by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate and managed at NASA Marshall. Ensemble Consultancy supports the management of competitors for this challenge. Learn more about Break the Ice. Jonathan Deal Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala. 256-544-0034 jonathan.e.deal@nasa.gov Facebook logo @nasaprize @NASAPrize Instagram logo @nasaprize Share Details Last Updated Jun 07, 2024 LocationMarshall Space Flight Center Related TermsCentennial ChallengesMarshall Space Flight Center Explore More 1 min read SERVIR Co-hosts Regional Workshop on Inclusive Climate Action Article 11 mins ago 1 min read SPoRT Undertakes New Collaboration with the United Nations (U.N.) Satellite Centre Article 27 mins ago 6 min read NASA, Global Astronomers Await Rare Nova Explosion Article 23 hours ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics Centennial Challenges Break the Ice Challenge NASA Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing Get Involved View the full article

Patrick Duran and Anita LeRoy (ST11) met with Samir Belabbes from the United Nations Institute for Training and Research to investigate ways for SPoRT to provide NASA remote sensing products to the UN Satellite Centre. The new collaboration springs from a presentation given by Belabbes at last year’s Joint Applications Workshop of NASA’s CYGNSS and TROPICS missions, which was organized by Duran and Jason Dunion from the University of Miami. The UN Satellite Centre maintains a 24/7 operational forecasting and disaster response center that serves UN member states. The Centre has a need for remote sensing datasets that enhance their ability to anticipate and respond to disasters, and data from new NASA missions such as TROPICS could be particularly beneficial for monitoring high-impact events. A key takeaway from the discussion is that the UN and its member states will be much better able to use NASA data if it is provided in GeoTIFF format. SPoRT will investigate ways to provide data products from current and upcoming NASA missions in this format for dissemination to UN member states and use at the UN operational forecasting and response centers. SPoRT ProcessView the full article

2 min read Hubble Examines a Barred Spiral’s Light This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the barred spiral galaxy NGC 3059. ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the barred spiral galaxy NGC 3059, which lies about 57 million light-years from Earth. Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 collected the data in May 2024 as part of an observing program that studied a number of galaxies. All of the observations used the same range of filters: partially transparent materials that allow only very specific wavelengths of light to pass through. Astronomers use filters extensively in their observations. These filters may allow either extremely narrow or somewhat broader ranges of light through to the telescope’s instruments. Narrow-band filters are invaluable from a scientific perspective because they filter specific wavelengths of light that are associated with specific physical and chemical processes. For example, under certain conditions, hydrogen atoms emit red light with a wavelength value of 656.46 nanometers called H-alpha emission, or the ‘H-alpha line’. It is very useful to astronomers because its presence indicates certain physical processes and conditions and is often a tell-tale sign of newly forming stars. The data in this image used a narrow-band filter that allowed H-alpha emission through to the telescope’s detectors. The particular filter, called F657N (F for filter, N for narrow, and 657 for the wavelength in nanometers) or the H-alpha filter, lets through light very close to the 656.46 nanometer H-alpha line’s wavelength. It reveals pinkish star-forming regions in the galaxy. Data from five other wide-band filters also contributed to this image. As their name implies, wide-band filters allow a wider range of wavelengths through to Hubble’s instruments. They isolate sections of the electromagnetic spectrum allowing astronomers to explore different aspects of the object Hubble is looking at. In the case of this image, wide-band filters revealed the bluish patches that hold older stars. In addition, information from multiple filters provides image processors with the data to make beautiful and informative images such as this one. Text Credit: European Space Agency (ESA) Download this image Explore More Hubble Space Telescope Tracing the Growth of Galaxies Galaxy Details and Mergers Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubble Media Contact: Claire Andreoli NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD claire.andreoli@nasa.gov Share Details Last Updated Jun 07, 2024 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms Astrophysics Astrophysics Division Galaxies Goddard Space Flight Center Hubble Space Telescope Missions Spiral Galaxies 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 Dark Matter & Dark Energy View the full article

Launching a Pair of Earth-Observing Small Satellites on This Week @NASA – May 31, 2024

NASA has awarded contracts to six companies to supply liquid nitrogen and liquid oxygen in support of operations at agency centers and facilities across the United States. The indefinite-delivery/fixed-price contract runs from Monday, July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2029. The awards and approximate maximum contract values are: Air Products and Chemicals Inc., Allentown, Pennsylvania, $36.9 million Airgas USA LLC (South), Kennesaw, Georgia, $4.7 million Airgas USA LLC (Central), Tulsa, Oklahoma, $5.1 million Linde Inc., Danbury, Connecticut, $42.2 million Matheson Tri-Gas Inc., Warren, New Jersey, $1.8 million Messer LLC, Bridgewater, New Jersey, $62.3 million The total maximum delivery of liquid nitrogen, which NASA uses for pneumatic actuation, purging and inerting, pressurization, and cooling, will be about 656.8 tons, 30.4 million gallons, and 740,000 liters. The total maximum delivery of liquid oxygen, which is used as an oxidizer in cryogenic rocket engines, will be about 2.1 million gallons and 243,000 tons. The commodities will support current and future aerospace flight, simulation, research, development, testing, and other operations at the following NASA centers and facilities: Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley; Glenn Research Center in Cleveland and Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio; Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland; Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California; Johnson Space Center in Houston and White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico; Kennedy Space Center in Florida; Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia; Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama; Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans; and Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. For more information about NASA programs and missions, visit: https://www.nasa.gov -end- Abbey Donaldson Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1600 abbey.a.donaldson@nasa.gov View the full article

5 Min Read Webb Finds Plethora of Carbon Molecules Around Young Star This is an artist’s impression of a young star surrounded by a disk of gas and dust. An international team of astronomers has used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to study the disk of gas and dust around a young, very low-mass star. The results reveal the largest number of carbon-containing molecules seen to date in such a disk. These findings have implications for the potential composition of any planets that might form around this star. Rocky planets are more likely than gas giants to form around low-mass stars, making them the most common planets around the most common stars in our galaxy. Little is known about the chemistry of such worlds, which may be similar to or very different from Earth. By studying the disks from which such planets form, astronomers hope to better understand the planet formation process and the compositions of the resulting planets. Planet-forming disks around very low-mass stars are difficult to study because they are smaller and fainter than disks around high-mass stars. A program called the MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) Mid-INfrared Disk Survey (MINDS) aims to use Webb’s unique capabilities to build a bridge between the chemical inventory of disks and the properties of exoplanets. Image A: Artist’s Concept of Protoplanetary Disk This is an artist’s impression of a young star surrounded by a disk of gas and dust. An international team of astronomers has used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to study the disk around a young and very low-mass star known as ISO-ChaI 147. The results reveal the richest hydrocarbon chemistry seen to date in a protoplanetary disk. “Webb has better sensitivity and spectral resolution than previous infrared space telescopes,” explained lead author Aditya Arabhavi of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. “These observations are not possible from Earth, because the emissions from the disk are blocked by our atmosphere.” In a new study, this team explored the region around a very low-mass star known as ISO-ChaI 147, a 1 to 2 million-year-old star that weighs just 0.11 times as much as the Sun. The spectrum revealed by Webb’s MIRI shows the richest hydrocarbon chemistry seen to date in a protoplanetary disk – a total of 13 different carbon-bearing molecules. The team’s findings include the first detection of ethane (C2H6) outside of our solar system, as well as ethylene (C2H4), propyne (C3H4), and the methyl radical CH3. “These molecules have already been detected in our solar system, like in comets such as 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko and C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy),” added Arabhavi. “Webb allowed us to understand that these hydrocarbon molecules are not just diverse but also abundant. It is amazing that we can now see the dance of these molecules in the planetary cradles. It is a very different planet-forming environment than we usually think of.” Image B: Protoplanetary disk of ISO-ChaI 147 (MIRI emission spectrum) The team indicates that these results have large implications for the chemistry of the inner disk and the planets that might form there. Since Webb revealed the gas in the disk is so rich in carbon, there is likely little carbon left in the solid materials that planets would form from. As a result, the planets that might form there may ultimately be carbon-poor. (Earth itself is considered carbon-poor.) “This is profoundly different from the composition we see in disks around solar-type stars, where oxygen bearing molecules like water and carbon dioxide dominate,” added team member Inga Kamp, also of the University of Groningen. “This object establishes that these are a unique class of objects.” “It’s incredible that we can detect and quantify the amount of molecules that we know well on Earth, such as benzene, in an object that is more than 600 light-years away,” added team member Agnés Perrin of Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in France. Next, the science team intends to expand their study to a larger sample of such disks around very low-mass stars to develop their understanding of how common or exotic such carbon-rich terrestrial planet-forming regions are. “The expansion of our study will also allow us to better understand how these molecules can form,” explained team member and principal investigator of the MINDS program, Thomas Henning, of the Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy in Germany. “Several features in the Webb data are also still unidentified, so more spectroscopy is required to fully interpret our observations.” This work also highlights the crucial need for scientists to collaborate across disciplines. The team notes that these results and the accompanying data can contribute towards other fields including theoretical physics, chemistry, and astrochemistry, to interpret the spectra and to investigate new features in this wavelength range. The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency). Downloads Right click any image to save it or open a larger version in a new tab/window via the browser’s popup menu. View/Download full resolution images for this article from the Space Telescope Science Institute. Media Contacts Laura Betz – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov, Rob Gutro – rob.gutro@nasa.gov NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Christine Pulliam – cpulliam@stsci.edu Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md. Related Information Infographic: Destiny of Dust Infographic: Recipe for Planet Formation Animation: Exploring Star and Planet Formation Video: Scientists’ Perspective: Science Snippets More Webb News – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/latestnews/ More Webb Images – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/multimedia/images/ Webb Mission Page – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/ Related For Kids What is the Webb Telescope? SpacePlace for Kids En Español Ciencia de la NASA NASA en español Space Place para niños Keep Exploring Related Topics James Webb Space Telescope Webb is the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It studies every phase in the… Exoplanets Stars Universe Share Details Last Updated Jun 06, 2024 Editor Stephen Sabia Contact Laura Betz laura.e.betz@nasa.gov Related Terms Astrophysics Exoplanet Science Exoplanets James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Missions Planetary Nebulae Planetary Science Planets Science & Research Studying Exoplanets The Universe View the full article

As part of his new role as JPL’s chief scientist, Jonathan Lunine has also been appointed professor of planetary science with the Division of Geological and Planetary Science at Caltech.NASA/JPL-Caltech In his new role, his leadership will be critical in fostering an environment of scientific innovation and excellence, ensuring that JPL remains at the forefront of discovery. Distinguished planetary scientist and astrophysicist Jonathan I. Lunine has been appointed chief scientist of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He will officially assume his role Aug. 16. As chief scientist, Lunine will guide the laboratory’s scientific research and development efforts, drive innovation across JPL’s missions and programs, and enhance collaborations with NASA Headquarters, NASA centers, Caltech, academia, the science community, government agencies, and industry partners. In addition, he will oversee the formulation of JPL’s scientific policies and priorities and guide the integrity of missions that JPL manages for NASA. “I’m elated that Jonathan is joining JPL,” said Laurie Leshin, director of JPL. “As chief scientist, he will play a critical role in fostering innovation and excellence, ensuring that JPL remains at the forefront of scientific discovery and innovation as we dare mighty things together.” Lunine currently serves as the David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences and chair of the Department of Astronomy at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. A Caltech alumnus, he has performed pioneering research on the formation and evolution of planetary systems, the nature of planetary interiors and atmospheres, and where environments suited for life might exist in the solar system and beyond. His deep expertise will help JPL continue to seek answers to fundamental questions that crosscut the diverse science portfolio of the laboratory. “My first experience working with scientists and engineers at JPL was over 40 years ago as a Caltech graduate student,” said Lunine. “From that time to the present, it has been clear to me that no other institution matches its combination of scientific breadth and engineering capability. JPL’s portfolio of missions and research projects across the gamut — from our home planet to the solar system, heliosphere, and universe beyond — is an extraordinary resource to the nation. I am thrilled to be able to play a leadership role on the science side of this remarkable institution.” Lunine has collaborated with JPL on numerous missions. He was a guest investigator for the ultraviolet spectrometer on NASA’s Voyager 2 Neptune encounter and an interdisciplinary scientist on the Cassini/Huygens mission, and he is co-investigator on the agency’s Juno mission to Jupiter as well as for the MISE (Mapping Imaging Spectrometer for Europa) instrument on NASA’s Europa Clipper mission. Lunine is also a member of the gravity science team for Europa Clipper and the Gravity & Geophysics of Jupiter and Galilean Moons gravity experiment on the ESA (European Space Agency) JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) mission. In addition, he served on the science working group as an interdisciplinary scientist for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and has contributed to concept studies for solar system and exoplanet characterization missions. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, he has chaired or co-chaired numerous advisory and strategic planning committees for the Academy, NASA, and the National Science Foundation. As part of his new role, Lunine has also been appointed professor of planetary science with the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at Caltech. “Jonathan will bring a tremendous amount of experience in planetary science to the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences and the broader Caltech community,” said John Grotzinger, chair of the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at Caltech. “He has worked on a remarkably diverse set of science questions spanning the solar system and extending to exoplanets. We are thrilled to have him join our faculty.” A division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, JPL began in 1936 and ultimately built and helped launch America’s first satellite, Explorer 1, in 1958. By the end of that year, Congress established NASA and JPL became a part of the agency. Since then, JPL has managed such historic missions as Voyager, Galileo, Cassini, the Mars Exploration Rover program, the Perseverance Mars rover, and many more. News Media Contact Veronica McGregor / Matthew Segal Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 818-354-9452 / 818-354-8307 veronica.c.mcgregor@jpl.nasa.gov / matthew.j.segal@jpl.nasa.gov 2024-078 Share Details Last Updated Jun 06, 2024 Related TermsJet Propulsion Laboratory Explore More 2 min read New Energy Source Powers Subsea Robots Indefinitely Power modules driven by ocean temperatures save money, reduce pollution Article 2 days ago 5 min read Twin NASA Satellites Ready to Help Gauge Earth’s Energy Balance Article 1 week ago 6 min read NASA to Measure Moonquakes With Help From InSight Mars Mission Article 1 week ago View the full article

NASA/Aubrey Gemignani NASA astronauts Victor Glover (left), Reid Wiseman (middle left), and Christina Koch (middle right), and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen (right), pose for a photo after a Moon Tree dedication ceremony, Tuesday, June 4, 2024, at the United States Capitol in Washington. The American Sweetgum tree pictured was grown from a seed that was flown around the Moon during the Artemis I mission. Moon Trees originated with the Apollo 14 mission, when NASA astronaut Stuart Roosa carried tree seeds into lunar orbit. In a nod to the legacy of Apollo 14, and a celebration of the future of space exploration with NASA’s Artemis Program, a “new generation” of Moon Tree seeds traveled into lunar orbit aboard the Orion spacecraft. The seeds travelled thousands of miles beyond the Moon, spending about 4 weeks in space before returning to Earth. Organizations from across the United States will receive the seedlings and plant them in their communities. Image Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani View the full article