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By NASA
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA operations engineer Daniel Velasquez, left, is reviewing the Mobile Vertipad Sensor Package system as part of the Air Mobility Pathways test project at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, on Oct. 17, 2023.NASA/Steve Freeman Lee esta historia en Español aquí.
Born and raised in Peru, Daniel Velasquez moved to the United States when was 10 years old. While that decision was a big transition for his family, it also created many opportunities for him. Now Velasquez is an operations engineer for NASA’s Air Mobility Pathfinders project at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California.
Velasquez develops flight test plans for electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, specifically testing how they perform during various phases of flight, such as taxi, takeoff, cruise, approach, and landing. He was drawn to NASA Armstrong because of the legacy in advancing flight research and the connection to the Space Shuttle program.
“Being part of a center with such a rich history in supporting space missions and cutting-edge aeronautics was a major motivation for me,” Velasquez said. “One of the biggest highlights of my career has been the opportunity to meet (virtually) and collaborate with an astronaut on a possible future NASA project.”
Daniel Velasquez stands next to the main entrance sign at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, in 2022.Daniel Velasquez Velasquez is incredibly proud of his Latino background because of its rich culture, strong sense of community and connection to his parents. “My parents are my biggest inspiration. They sacrificed so much to ensure my siblings and I could succeed, leaving behind the comfort of their home and family in Peru to give us better opportunities,” Velasquez said. “Their hard work and dedication motivate me every day. Everything I do is to honor their sacrifices and show them that their efforts weren’t wasted. I owe all my success to them.”
Velasquez began his career at NASA in 2021 as an intern through the Pathways Internship Program while he was studying aerospace engineering at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Through that program, he learned about eVTOL modeling software called NASA Design and Analysis of Rotorcraft to create a help guide for other NASA engineers to reference when they worked with the software.
At the same time, he is also a staff sergeant in the U.S Army Reserves and responsible for overseeing the training and development of junior soldiers during monthly assemblies. He plans, creates, and presents classes for soldiers to stay up-to-date and refine their skills while supervising practical exercises, after action reviews, and gathering lessons learned during trainings.
Daniel Velasquez graduated in 2023 from Rutgers University in New Jersey while he was an intern at NASA. Behind him is the New York City skyline.Daniel Velasquez “This job is different than what I do day-to-day at NASA, but it has helped me become a more outspoken individual,” he said. “Being able to converse with a variety of people and be able to do it well is a skill that I acquired and refined while serving my country.”
Velasquez said he never imagined working for NASA as it was something he had only seen in movies and on television, but he is so proud to be working for the agency after all the hard work and sacrifices he made that lead him to this point. “I am incredibly proud to work every day with some of the most motivated and dedicated individuals in the industry.”
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Last Updated Oct 16, 2024 Related Terms
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By NASA
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Daniel Velásquez, ingeniero de operaciones de la NASA, a la izquierda, revisa el sistema Mobile Vertipad Sensor Package como parte del proyecto de pruebas Air Mobility Pathways en el Centro de Investigación de Vuelo Armstrong de la NASA en Edwards, California, el 17 de octubre de 2023.NASA/Steve Freeman Read this story in English here.
Nacido y criado en Perú, Daniel Velásquez se estableció en los Estados Unidos cuando tenía 10 años. Aunque esa decisión fue una gran transición para su familia, también le creó muchas oportunidades. Ahora Velásquez es ingeniero de operaciones del proyecto Pathfinders de Movilidad Aérea de la NASA en el Centro de Investigación de Vuelo Armstrong de la NASA en Edwards, California.
Velásquez desarrolla ensayos de vuelo para aeronaves eléctricas de despegue y aterrizaje vertical (eVTOL, por sus siglas en inglés), poniendo a prueba específicamente su rendimiento durante varias fases del vuelo, como el rodaje, el despegue, el crucero, la aproximación y el aterrizaje. Se interesó en el centro Armstrong de la NASA debido a su legado en el avance de la investigación de vuelo y a su contribución al programa del Transbordador Espacial.
“Formar parte de un centro con una historia tan rica en el apoyo a las misiones espaciales y la aeronáutica avanzada fue una motivación importante para mí,” dice Velásquez. “Uno de los mayores hitos de mi carrera ha sido la oportunidad de conocer (virtualmente) y colaborar con un astronauta en un posible proyecto de la NASA.”
Daniel Velásquez se encuentra junto al letrero de la entrada principal del Centro de Investigación de Vuelo Armstrong de la NASA en Edwards, California.Daniel Velásquez Velásquez está increíblemente orgulloso de su origen latino por su rica cultura, su fuerte sentido de comunidad y la conexión a sus padres. “Mis padres son mi mayor inspiración. Sacrificaron mucho para asegurarse de que mis hermanos y yo pudiéramos tener éxito, dejando atrás la comodidad de su hogar y su familia en Perú para darnos mejores oportunidades,” dice Velásquez. “Su esfuerzo y dedicación me motivan cada día. Todo lo que hago es para honrar sus sacrificios y demostrarles que sus esfuerzos no fueron un vano. Todo mi éxito se lo debo a ellos.”
Velásquez comenzó su carrera en la NASA en 2021 como un pasante en el Programa de Pasantías Pathways mientras estudiaba ingeniería aeroespacial en la Universidad Rutgers en New Brunswick, New Jersey. A través de ese programa, el aprendió sobre un software de modelado eVTOL que se llama Diseño y Análisis de Aeronaves de Alas Giratorias de la NASA y creó una guía de ayuda que otros ingenieros de la NASA pudieran consultar cuando trabajaban con el software.
Al mismo tiempo, también es un sargento primero de la Reserva del Ejército de EE. UU. y es responsable de supervisar el entrenamiento y el desarrollo de los soldados subalternos durante las reuniones mensuales. Planifica, crea y presenta clases para que los soldados se mantengan al día y refinen sus habilidades, a la vez que supervisa los ejercicios prácticos, las revisiones posteriores de acción y recopila lecciones aprendidas durante los entrenamientos.
Daniel Velásquez se graduó en la Universidad Rutgers en mayo de 2023 mientras trabajaba como pasante en la NASA. Aquí está posando con el horizonte de Nueva York al fondo.Daniel Velásquez “Este trabajo es diferente de lo que hago día a día en la NASA, pero me ha ayudado a convertirme en una persona más franca,” dice. “Ser capaz de conversar con una variedad de personas y poder hacerlo bien es una habilidad que adquirí y refiné mientras servía a mi país.”
Velásquez explica que nunca imaginó trabajar para la NASA, ya que era algo que sólo había visto en las películas y en la televisión, pero está muy orgulloso de trabajar para la agencia después de todo el trabajo duro y los sacrificios que lo llevaron hasta aquí. “Estoy increíblemente orgulloso de trabajar cada día con algunas de las personas más motivadas y dedicadas en la industria.”
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Last Updated Oct 16, 2024 EditorDede DiniusContactElena Aguirreelena.aguirre@nasa.govLocationArmstrong Flight Research Center Related Terms
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By NASA
The Progress Pride flag is seen flying at the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters Building, June 9, 2022, in Washington.Credits: NASA/Joel Kowsky NASA is announcing the relaunch of the NASA Acquisition Innovation Launchpad (NAIL), a framework to drive innovation and modernize acquisition processes across the agency, after piloting the program for a year.
NASA spends approximately $21 billion or 85% of its budget on acquiring goods and services. Managed by NASA’s Office of Procurement, the NAIL was established to identify ways to manage risk-taking and encourage innovation through the submission, review, and approval of ideas from anyone who engages in the acquisition process.
Since launching last year, the goal of the NAIL has been to build an innovation-focused culture that can produce ideas from team members in the Office of Procurement or across the agency, as well as from industry.
“The success of the NAIL inaugural year has laid a strong foundation for the future,” said Karla Smith Jackson, deputy chief acquisition officer and assistant administrator for the Office of Procurement.
Over the past year, the NAIL has achieved numerous milestones, allowing NASA to approach various procurement challenges and implement diverse solutions. Key accomplishments include improving procurement processes and technological automations and developing an industry feedback forum. The program update will leverage industry’s feedback to continue fostering innovative solutions and optimize the agency’s procurement efforts.
As NASA’s Office of Procurement embarks on fiscal year 2025, the NAIL relaunch will use information from the program’s pilot year to focus on the following priorities:
Providing additional engagement opportunities for the agency’s network of innovators Enhancing the framework to improve internal outcomes for the agency Promoting procurement success stories Investing in talent and technology “We are incredibly proud of the program’s achievements and are even more excited about the opportunities ahead with the relaunch,” said Kameke Mitchell, NAIL chair and director for the Procurement Strategic Operations Division. “We encourage everyone to get involved and make fiscal year 2025 a standout year for innovation.”
In addition to programmatic updates, NAIL’s program manager, Brittney Chappell, will lead new engagements and framework enhancements moving forward.
“I am thrilled to step into this role and lead the program, using everything our team has learned from the last year,” said Chappell. “Together with internal and external stakeholders, we will turn bold ideas into impactful solutions that drive real change.”
To collaborate or share innovative ideas, reach out to the NAIL Procurement team at hq-op-nail@mail.nasa.gov.
For more information about the NAIL framework, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/procurement-nail-framework
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Last Updated Oct 16, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
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By NASA
Hubble Space Telescope Home NASA’s Hubble Sees a… Hubble Space Telescope Hubble Home Overview About Hubble The History of Hubble Hubble Timeline Why Have a Telescope in Space? Hubble by the Numbers At the Museum FAQs Impact & Benefits Hubble’s Impact & Benefits Science Impacts Cultural Impact Technology Benefits Impact on Human Spaceflight Astro Community Impacts Science Hubble Science Science Themes Science Highlights Science Behind Discoveries Hubble’s Partners in Science Universe Uncovered Explore the Night Sky Observatory Hubble Observatory Hubble Design Mission Operations Missions to Hubble Hubble vs Webb Team Hubble Team Career Aspirations Hubble Astronauts News Hubble News Hubble News Archive Social Media Media Resources Multimedia Multimedia Images Videos Sonifications Podcasts E-books Lithographs Fact Sheets Glossary Posters Hubble on the NASA App More Online Activities 3 Min Read NASA’s Hubble Sees a Stellar Volcano
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captures a spectacular view the star R Aquarii. Credits:
NASA, ESA, Matthias Stute , Margarita Karovska , Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble), Mahdi Zamani (ESA/Hubble) NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has provided a dramatic and colorful close-up look at one of the most rambunctious stars in our galaxy, weaving a huge spiral pattern among the stars.
Located approximately 700 light-years away, a binary star system called R Aquarii undergoes violent eruptions that blast out huge filaments of glowing gas. The twisted stellar outflows make the region look like a lawn sprinkler gone berserk. This dramatically demonstrates how the universe redistributes the products of nuclear energy that form deep inside stars and jet back into space.
R Aquarii belongs to a class of double stars called symbiotic stars. The primary star is an aging red giant and its companion is a compact burned-out star known as a white dwarf. The red giant primary star is classified as a Mira variable that is over 400 times larger than our Sun. The bloated monster star pulsates, changes temperature, and varies in brightness by a factor of 750 times over a roughly 390-day period. At its peak the star is blinding at nearly 5,000 times our Sun’s brightness.
This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image features the binary star system R Aquarii. NASA, ESA, Matthias Stute , Margarita Karovska , Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble), Mahdi Zamani (ESA/Hubble) When the white dwarf star swings closest to the red giant along its 44-year orbital period, it gravitationally siphons off hydrogen gas. This material accumulates on the dwarf star’s surface until it undergoes spontaneous nuclear fusion, making that surface explode like a gigantic hydrogen bomb. After the outburst, the fueling cycle begins again.
This outburst ejects geyser-like filaments shooting out from the core, forming weird loops and trails as the plasma emerges in streamers. The plasma is twisted by the force of the explosion and channeled upwards and outwards by strong magnetic fields. The outflow appears to bend back on itself into a spiral pattern. The plasma is shooting into space over 1 million miles per hour – fast enough to travel from Earth to the Moon in 15 minutes! The filaments are glowing in visible light because they are energized by blistering radiation from the stellar duo.
Hubble first observed the star in 1990. R Aquarii was resolved into two very bright stars separated by about 1.6 billion miles. The ESA/Hubble team now has made a unique timelapse of R Aquarii’s dynamic behavior, from observations spanning from 2014 to 2023. Across the five images, the rapid and dramatic evolution of the binary star and its surrounding nebula can be seen. The binary star dims and brightens due to strong pulsations in the red giant star.
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This video features five frames spanning from 2014 to 2023 of R Aquarii. These frames show the brightness of the central binary changing over time due to strong pulsations in the red giant star. The central structures spiral outward due to their interaction with material previously ejected by the binary. This timelapse highlights the value of Hubble’s high resolution optical observations in the changing universe, known as time-domain astronomy. NASA, ESA, Matthias Stute , Margarita Karovska , Davide De Martin , Mahdi Zamani , N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble) The scale of the event is extraordinary even in astronomical terms. Space-blasted material can be traced out to at least 248 billion miles from the stars, or 24 times our solar system’s diameter. Images like these and more from Hubble are expected to revolutionize our ideas about such unique stellar “volcanoes” as R Aquarii.
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 and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, Colorado, also supports mission operations at Goddard. 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.
Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubble Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD
Bethany Downer
ESA/Hubble
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Last Updated Oct 16, 2024 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
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By NASA
2 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
The Ohio State University Marching Band pays tribute to NASA with a NASA worm logo formation. Credit: NASA/Brian Newbacher The Ohio State University (OSU) teamed up with NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland for a multi-faceted tribute to NASA on Sept 21. During a home football game against Marshall University, OSU’s Marching Band recognized the agency with a NASA-themed halftime show, in-game salute, and tribute to Glenn and two alums who play significant roles in NASA’s spaceflight operations.
NASA Glenn Center Director Dr. Jimmy Kenyon and NASA employees and Ohio State alums Jeff and Molly Radigan are recognized by more than 100,000 fans in Ohio Stadium. Credit: NASA/Brian Newbacher The event kicked off in the morning during the Skull Session (pep rally) at St. John Arena on OSU’s campus. Public Address Announcer Wes Clark talked with Center Director Dr. Jimmy Kenyon, who shared information about Glenn and thanked OSU for the honor. During a special spotlight, Kenyon and OSU alums who now work at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center – Jeff Radigan, a NASA flight director, and Molly Radigan, deputy chief of Space Flight Systems – came onto the field to be recognized.
The Ohio State University Marching Band pays tribute to NASA while in formation of an astronaut on the Moon. Credit: NASA/Brian Newbacher At halftime, a special astronaut video from the International Space Station introduced the NASA-themed show. The band then blasted off with its space-themed performance that included several songs — from “Fly Me to the Moon” to “Starman.” The talented band members marched in formations that included an astronaut and spaceship blasting off, garnering excitement for NASA and cheers from the audience.
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