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Dr. Guy Bluford Reflects on 40th Anniversary of Historic Shuttle Flight
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By NASA
Earth Observer Earth Home Earth Observer Home Editor’s Corner Feature Articles Meeting Summaries News Science in the News Calendars In Memoriam More Archives 3 min read
Summary of Aura 20th Anniversary Event
Snippets from The Earth Observer’s Editor’s Corner
The last of NASA’s three EOS Flagships – Aura – marked 20 years in orbit on July 15, 2024, with a celebration on September 18, 2024, at the Goddard Space Flight Center’s (GSFC) Recreational Center. The 120 attendees – including about 40 virtually – reminisced about Aura’s (originally named EOS-CHEM) tumultuous beginning, from the instrument and Principal Investigator (PI) selections up until the delayed launch at the Vandenberg Space Force Base (then Vandenberg Air Force Base) in California. They remembered how Bill Townsend, who was Deputy Director of GSFC at the time, and Ghassem Asrar, who was NASA’s Associate Administrator for Earth Science, spent many hours on site negotiating with the Vandenberg and Boeing launch teams in preparation for launch (after several delays and aborts). The Photo shows the Aura mission program scientist, project scientists (PS), and several instrument principal investigators (PI) shortly before launch.
Photo 1. The Aura (formerly EOS CHEM) mission program scientist, project scientists (PS), and several of instrument principal investigators (PI) at Vandenberg Space Force Base (then Air Force Base) shortly before launch on July 15, 2004. The individuals pictured [left to right] are Reinhold Beer [NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)—Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) PI]; John Gille [University of Colorado, Boulder/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)—High Resolution Dynamics Limb Sounder (HIRDLS) PI]; Pieternel Levelt [Koninklijk Nederlands Meteorologisch Instituut (KNMI), Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute—Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) PI]; Ernest Hilsenrath [NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)—Aura Deputy Scientist and U.S. OMI Co-PI];Anne Douglass [GSFC—Aura Deputy PS]; Mark Schoeberl [GSFC—Aura Project Scientist]; Joe Waters [NASA/JPL—Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) PI]; P.K. Bhartia [GSFC—OMI Science Team Leader and former Aura Project Scientist]; and Phil DeCola [NASA Headquarters—Aura Program Scientist]. NOTE: Affiliations/titles listed for individuals named were those at the time of launch. Photo Credit: Ernest Hilsenrath At the anniversary event, Bryan Duncan [GSFC—Aura Project Scientist] gave formal opening remarks. Aura’s datasets have given a generation of scientists the most comprehensive global view of gases in Earth’s atmosphere to better understand the chemical and dynamic processes that shape their concentrations. Aura’s objective was to gather data to monitor Earth’s ozone layer, examine trends in global air pollutants, and measure the concentration of atmospheric constituents contributing to climate forcing. To read more about Aura’s incredible 20 years of accomplished air quality and climate science, see the anniversary article “Aura at 20 Years” in The Earth Observer.
Bill Guit [GSFC—Aqua and Aura Program Manager and former Aura Mission Operations Lead] gave brief remarks focusing on how Aura became part of the international Afternoon Constellation, or “A-Train,” of satellites, including Aqua, which launched in 2002, and joined by several other NASA and international missions. Aura and Aqua have provided data for over two decades of multidisciplinary Earth science discovery and enhancement.
Both current and former Aura instrument PIs gave brief remarks. Each discussed Aura’s scientific legacy and their instrument’s contributions. They thanked their engineering teams for the successful development and operation of their instruments, and the members of the instrument science teams for developing the algorithms, discovering new science, and demonstrating how the science will serve the public. The PIs were particularly grateful that their instruments or the variants thereof will continue to fly on current and/or future NASA science missions or on international operational satellites.
Steve Platnick
EOS Senior Project Scientist
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Last Updated Nov 14, 2024 Related Terms
Earth Science View the full article
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By NASA
2 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA/Quincy Eggert The design and build of a unique NASA pod, produced to advance computer vision for autonomous aviation, was recently completed in-house at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, by using the center’s unique fabrication capabilities. The pod is called the NASA Airborne Instrumentation for Real-world Video of Urban Environments (AIRVUE). NASA Armstrong can take an idea from a drawing to flight with help from the center’s Experimental Fabrication Shop.
NASA researcher James Cowart adds the top back onto the NASA Airborne Instrumentation for Real-world Video of Urban Environments (AIRVUE) sensor pod at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, in late February 2024. The pod houses sensors, wiring and cameras. The AIRVUE pod was flown on a helicopter at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and is used to collect data for future autonomous aircraft.NASA/Genaro Vavuris NASA subject matter experts developed the idea for the project, after which engineers drew up plans and selected materials. The Experimental Fabrication Shop received those plans and gathered the materials to fabricate the pod.
After the pod was built, it moved to NASA Armstrong’s Engineering Support Branch, where electronics technicians and other specialists installed instruments inside of it. Once completed, the pod went through a series of tests at NASA Armstrong to make sure it was safe to fly at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on an Airbus H135 helicopter. The engineering team made final adjustments to ensure the pod would collect the correct data prior to installation. More about the design and fabrication process, and the pod’s capabilities, is available to view in a NASA video.
NASA researchers James Cowart and Elizabeth Nail add sensors, wiring and cameras, to the NASA Airborne Instrumentation for Real-world Video of Urban Environments (AIRVUE) sensor pod at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, in late February 2024. The AIRVUE pod was flown on a helicopter at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and is used to collect data for future autonomous aircraft.NASA/Genaro Vavuris Share
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Last Updated Nov 12, 2024 EditorDede DiniusContactTeresa Whitingteresa.whiting@nasa.gov Related Terms
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By NASA
NASA NASA pilot Joe Walker sits in the pilot’s platform of the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV) number 1 on Oct. 30, 1964. The LLRV and its successor the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle (LLTV) provided the training tool to simulate the final 200 feet of the descent to the Moon’s surface.
The LLRVs, humorously referred to as flying bedsteads, were used by NASA’s Flight Research Center, now NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in California, to study and analyze piloting techniques needed to fly and land the Apollo lunar module in the moon’s airless environment.
Learn more about the LLRV’s first flight.
Image credit: NASA
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