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Ariane 6 launches: splashdown for Nyx Bikini
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By NASA
Twelve-year-old, Aadya Karthik of Seattle, Washington; nine-year-old, Rainie Lin of Lexington, Kentucky; and eighteen-year-old, Thomas Lui, winners of the 2023-2024 Power to Explore Student Writing Challenge observe testing at a NASA Glenn cleanroom during their prize trip to Cleveland. Credit: NASA NASA’s fourth annual Power to Explore Student Challenge kicked off November 7, 2024. The science, engineering, technology, and mathematics (STEM) writing challenge invites kindergarten through 12th grade students in the United States to learn about radioisotope power systems, a type of nuclear battery integral to many of NASA’s far-reaching space missions.
Students are invited to write an essay about a new nuclear-powered mission to any moon in the solar system they choose. Submissions are due Jan. 31, 2025.
With freezing temperatures, long nights, and deep craters that never see sunlight on many of these moons, including our own, missions to them could use a special kind of power: radioisotope power systems. These power systems have helped NASA explore the harshest, darkest, and dustiest parts of our solar system and enabled spacecraft to study its many moons.
“Sending spacecraft into space is hard, and it’s even harder sending them to the extreme environments surrounding the diverse moons in our solar system,” said Nicola Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “NASA’s Power to Explore Student Challenge provides the incredible opportunity for our next generation – our future explorers – to design their own daring missions using science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to explore space and discover new science for the benefit of all, while also revealing incredible creative power within themselves. We cannot wait to see what the students dream up!”
Entries should detail where students would go, what they would explore, and how they would use radioisotope power systems to achieve mission success in a dusty, dark, or far away moon destination.
Judges will review entries in three grade-level categories: K-4, 5-8, and 9-12. Student entries are limited to 275 words and should address the mission destination, mission goals, and describe one of the student’s unique powers that will help the mission.
One grand prize winner from each grade category will receive a trip for two to NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland to learn about the people and technologies that enable NASA missions. Every student who submits an entry will receive a digital certificate and an invitation to a virtual event with NASA experts where they’ll learn about what powers the NASA workforce to dream big and explore.
Judges Needed
NASA and Future Engineers are seeking volunteers to help judge the thousands of contest entries anticipated submitted from around the country. Interested U.S. residents older than 18 can offer to volunteer approximately three hours to review submissions should register to judge at the Future Engineers website.
The Power to Explore Student Challenge is funded by the NASA Science Mission Directorate’s Radioisotope Power Systems Program Office and managed and administered by Future Engineers under the direction of the NASA Tournament Lab, a part of the Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing Program in NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate.
To learn more about the challenge, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/power-to-explore
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Karen Fox / Molly Wasser
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov
Kristin Jansen
Glenn Research Center, Cleveland
216-296-2203
kristin.m.jansen@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Nov 07, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
Opportunities For Students to Get Involved Science Mission Directorate STEM Engagement at NASA View the full article
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By NASA
Members of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission from right to left, NASA astronauts Jeanette Epps, mission specialist; Matthew Dominick, commander; Michael Barratt, pilot; and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, mission specialist; participate in the Crew Equipment Interface Test at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Friday, Jan. 12, 2024. SpaceX NASA and SpaceX are targeting no earlier than 7:05 a.m. EDT Sunday, Oct. 13, for the agency’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission to undock from the International Space Station. Pending weather conditions, the earliest splashdown time is targeted for 3:38 p.m. Monday, Oct. 14, at one of the multiple zones available off the coast of Florida.
NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, are completing a seven-month science expedition aboard the orbiting laboratory and will return important and time-sensitive research to Earth.
Mission managers continue monitoring weather conditions in the area, as Dragon’s undocking depends on various factors, including spacecraft readiness, recovery team readiness, weather, sea states, and other factors. NASA will select a specific splashdown time and location closer to the Crew-8 spacecraft undocking.
Watch Crew-8 return activities on NASA+. Learn how to stream NASA content through a variety of additional platforms, including social media. For schedule information, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/live
For the planned Oct. 13 undocking, NASA’s live return operations coverage is as follows (all times Eastern and subject to change based on real-time operations):
Sunday, Oct. 13
5 a.m. – Hatch closure coverage begins on NASA+
5:30 a.m. – Hatch closing
6:45 a.m. – Undocking coverage begins on NASA+
7:05 a.m. – Undocking
Following the conclusion of undocking, NASA coverage will switch to audio only.
Pending weather conditions at the splashdown sites, continuous coverage will resume Oct. 14, on NASA+ prior to the start of deorbit burn.
Monday, Oct. 14
2:30 p.m. – Return coverage begins on NASA+
2:53 p.m. – Deorbit burn (time is approximate)
3:38 p.m. – Splashdown (time is approximate)
5:15 p.m. – Return to Earth media teleconference with the following participants:
Richard Jones, deputy manager, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program Bill Spetch, operations and integration manager, NASA’s International Space Station Program William Gerstenmaier, vice president, Build & Flight Reliability, SpaceX To participate in the teleconference, media must contact the NASA Johnson newsroom by 3 p.m. Oct. 14 at: jsccommu@mail.nasa.gov or 281-483-5111. To ask questions, media must dial in no later than 10 minutes before the start of the call. The agency’s media credentialing policy is available online.
Find full mission coverage, NASA’s commercial crew blog, and more information about the Crew-8 mission at:
https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew
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Jimi Russell / Claire O’Shea
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
james.j.russell@nasa.gov / claire.a.o’shea@nasa.gov
Raegan Scharfetter / Sandra Jones
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
raegan.r.scharfetter@nasa.gov / sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov
Steve Siceloff / Danielle Sempsrott
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
321-867-2468
steven.p.siceloff@nasa.gov / danielle.c.sempsrott@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Oct 11, 2024 LocationKennedy Space Center Related Terms
Humans in Space Astronauts Commercial Space International Space Station (ISS) ISS Research Missions View the full article
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By NASA
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission launched at 1:17 p.m. EDT Sept. 28, 2024, from Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Credits: NASA The two crew members of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission launched at 1:17 p.m. EDT Saturday, for a science expedition aboard the International Space Station. This is the first human spaceflight mission launched from Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, and the agency’s ninth commercial crew rotation mission to the space station.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket propelled the Dragon spacecraft into orbit carrying NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. The spacecraft will dock autonomously to the forward-facing port of the station’s Harmony module at approximately 5:30 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 29, where Hague and Gorbunov will join Expedition 72 for a five-month stay aboard the orbiting laboratory.
“This mission required a lot of operational and planning flexibility. I congratulate the entire team on a successful launch today, and godspeed to Nick and Aleksandr as they make their way to the space station,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “Our NASA wizards and our commercial and international partners have shown once again the success that comes from working together and adapting to changing circumstances without sacrificing the safe and professional operations of the International Space Station.”
During Dragon’s flight, SpaceX will monitor a series of automatic spacecraft maneuvers from its mission control center in Hawthorne, California. NASA will monitor space station operations throughout the flight from the Mission Control Center at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
NASA will provide live coverage of rendezvous, docking, and hatch opening, beginning at 3:30 p.m., Sept. 29, on NASA+ and the agency’s website. NASA also will broadcast the crew welcome ceremony once Hague and Gorbunov are aboard the orbital outpost. Learn how to stream NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.
The duo will join the space station’s Expedition 72 crew of NASA astronauts Michael Barratt, Matthew Dominick, Jeanette Epps, Don Pettit, Butch Wilmore, and Suni Williams, as well as Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexander Grebenkin, Alexey Ovchinin, and Ivan Vagner. The number of crew aboard the space station will increase to 11 for a short time until Crew-8 members Barratt, Dominick, Epps, and Grebenkin depart the space station in early October.
The crewmates will conduct more than 200 scientific investigations, including blood clotting studies, moisture effects on plants grown in space, and vision changes in astronauts during their mission. Following their stay aboard the space station, Hague and Gorbunov will be joined by Williams and Wilmore to return to Earth in February 2025.
With this mission, NASA continues to maximize the use of the orbiting laboratory, where people have lived and worked continuously for more than 23 years, testing technologies, performing science, and developing the skills needed to operate future commercial destinations in low Earth orbit and explore farther from Earth. Research conducted at the space station benefits people on Earth and paves the way for future long-duration missions to the Moon under NASA’s Artemis campaign, and beyond.
More about Crew-9
Hague is the commander of Crew-9 and is making his second trip to the orbital outpost since his selection as an astronaut in 2013. He will serve as a mission specialist during Expedition 72/73 aboard the space station. Follow @AstroHague on X and Instagram.
Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov is flying on his first mission. He will serve as a flight engineer during Expeditions 72/73.
Learn more about NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission and the agency’s Commercial Crew Program at:
https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew
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Josh Finch / Jimi Russell
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / james.j.russell@nasa.gov
Steven Siceloff / Danielle Sempsrott / Stephanie Plucinsky
Kennedy Space Center, Florida
321-867-2468
steven.p.siceloff@nasa.gov / danielle.c.semprott@nasa.gov / stephanie.n.plucinsky@nasa.gov
Leah Cheshier / Sandra Jones
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
leah.d.cheshier@nasa.gov / sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Sep 28, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
Missions Humans in Space International Space Station (ISS) ISS Research View the full article
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