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By NASA
Learn Home NASA HEAT Student Activity… Heliophysics Overview Learning Resources Science Activation Teams SME Map Opportunities More Science Activation Stories Citizen Science 3 min read
NASA HEAT Student Activity Featured in TIME’s Top 100 Photos of 2024
On April 8, 2024, tens of millions experienced a solar eclipse from Mexico through the United States and into Canada. Astronomers, educators, and organizations had been preparing the public for this grand celestial event. Learning from engagement experiences in 2017, the NASA Heliophysics Education Activation Team (NASA HEAT) promoted an activity called “Eclipse Essentials: Safe and Stylish Solar Viewing Glasses.” The activity was first tested in Albuquerque, New Mexico during the Balloon Fiesta around the October 2023 annular eclipse. Using solar viewing glasses, a paper plate, some drawing and decoration supplies, visitors – minors and adults alike – crowded around the heliophysics tables in the NASA tent. That positive experience led NASA HEAT to modify and perfect the design of their “face shield” activity before offering trainings to numerous educators and outreach personnel in the weeks leading up to the April 2024 engagement events.
Note: The glasses and the art activity are not only useful for solar eclipses. They can be used anytime to safely observe the Sun. While it is never safe to look directly at the sun with unprotected eyes, eclipse glasses are perfect for observing sunspots!
One proof of positive impact can be found at the Myers Elementary School in Grand Blanc, Michigan. Students from two kindergarten classes, escorted outside by their teachers Amy Johnston and Wendy Sheridan, stared toward the sky with their solar viewing glasses using paper plates to watch the solar eclipse on Monday, April 8, 2024. The paper plates, which helped provide additional safety measures to protect their eyes, were attached to solar eclipse glasses and decorated by each student in their classrooms as a project leading up to the big day. A photo of the students was so captivating that multiple media outlets shared it on or shortly after the day of the eclipse.
The global media brand, TIME, selected a photo of these kindergarten students wearing their NASA HEAT-designed solar eclipse-viewing “face shields” during the April 8th solar eclipse as one of “TIME’s Top 100 Photos of 2024”. When sharing about the top 100 photos on Instagram, TIME had this to say:
“Every year the TIME photo department sits down to curate the strongest images that crossed our path over the previous 12 months. And every year, sitting with the images, we find ourselves mulling the ways this collection feels heavier than the last, how the year produced images unlike what we’ve seen before.
But this year something else, a tautness, runs through the collection – the tension of conflict, the anxiety over outcome, anticipation of excitement or in possibility. Somehow, these photographers are able to capture that coiled feeling and hold it within the four walls of a frame. Be it by impeccable timing or intentional framing, they have created a time capsule that feels as if it’s about to be opened.”
NASA HEAT is part of NASA’s Science Activation Portfolio. Learn more about how Science Activation connects NASA science experts, real content, and experiences with community leaders to do science in ways that activate minds and promote deeper understanding of our world and beyond: https://science.nasa.gov/learn
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Kindergarten students at Myers Elementary School in Grand Blanc, Michigan watched the solar eclipse with special solar viewing glasses on Monday, April 8, 2024. The paper plates, which helped provide additional safety for their eyes, were added on and decorated by each student prior to the big day. Jake May/MLive.com/The Flint Journal Share
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Last Updated Jan 13, 2025 Editor NASA Science Editorial Team Related Terms
2024 Solar Eclipse Heliophysics Science Activation Explore More
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By NASA
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, left, and Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy, right, present Bob Cabana, who served as a NASA associate administrator, astronaut, and a colonel in the United States Marine Corps, the President’s Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service, recognizing his exceptional achievements and public service to the nation, Jan. 10, 2025, at the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters in Washington. The award, signed by President Biden, is the highest honor the federal government can grant to a federal civilian employee.Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls Robert Cabana, who served as a NASA associate administrator, astronaut, and a colonel in the United States Marine Corps, received the President’s Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service, recognizing his exceptional achievements and public service to the nation. The award, signed by President Biden, is the highest honor the federal government can grant to a federal civilian employee.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy presented Cabana with the award during a ceremony at NASA Headquarters in Washington on Jan. 10. Cabana most recently served as NASA’s associate administrator, which is the agency’s highest ranking civil servant, from 2021 until he retired from the agency at the end of 2023.
“A true public servant, Bob has spent his entire career in service to his country. I can think of no one more deserving of this rare honor than Bob,” said Nelson. “From his time as a naval aviator to his role as associate administrator of NASA, Bob has dedicated his life to improving his country. I join with President Biden in thanking Bob for his dedication and commitment.”
The award recognized Cabana for his roles as a Marine aviator, test pilot, astronaut and becoming the first American to enter the International Space Station. He was further recognized for continuing to push for the bounds of the possible, launching the James Webb Space Telescope, the Artemis I mission and the Orion spacecraft which will send humans back to the Moon for the first time in decades.
As a NASA astronaut, Cabana flew in space four times, including twice as commander. His final space shuttle flight in 1998 was the first International Space Station assembly mission. Cabana also was the director of the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for more than a decade. There he led its transition from retirement of the space shuttle to a multi-user spaceport once again launching NASA astronauts to low Earth orbit, and for the first time, doing so with commercial partners.
As NASA associate administrator, Cabana led the agency’s 10 center directors, as well as the mission directorate associate administrators at NASA Headquarters. He was the agency’s chief operating officer for more than 18,000 employees and oversaw an annual budget of more than $25 billion.
Cabana was selected as an astronaut candidate in June 1985 and completed training in July 1986. He logged 38 days in space during four shuttle missions. Cabana was a pilot aboard space shuttle Discovery on both the STS-41 mission in October 1990 that deployed the Ulysses spacecraft and the STS-53 mission in December 1992. He was the mission commander aboard space shuttle Columbia for the STS-65 mission in July 1994 that conducted experiments as part of the second International Microgravity Laboratory mission. He commanded space shuttle Endeavour for the STS-88 mission in December 1998.
Cabana was appointed a member of the Federal Senior Executive Service in 2000 and served in numerous senior management positions at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, ultimately becoming deputy director. He was named director of NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi in October 2007 and a year later was selected as NASA Kennedy director.
Born in Minneapolis, Cabana graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1971 with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics. He became a naval aviator and graduated with distinction from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in 1981. In his career, Cabana logged over 7,000 hours in more than 50 different kinds of aircraft. He retired as a colonel from the U.S. Marine Corps in September 2000.
In addition to receiving the President’s Award for Distinguished Federal Service, Cabana’s accomplishments have been recognized with induction into the Astronaut Hall of Fame and being named an Associate Fellow in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a Fellow in the Society of Experimental Test Pilots. He has received numerous personal awards and decorations, including the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Presidential Distinguished Rank Award. He also is a recipient of the Rotary National Award for Space Achievement’s National Space Trophy.
For Cabana’s full bio, visit:
https://go.nasa.gov/3u9hGB2
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Meira Bernstein / Jennifer Dooren
Headquarters, Washington
202-615-1747 / 202-358-1600
meira.b.bernstein@nasa.gov / jennifer.m.dooren@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Jan 13, 2025 EditorJessica TaveauLocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
Robert D. Cabana Bill Nelson Johnson Space Center Kennedy Space Center NASA Headquarters Pamela A. Melroy Space Shuttle Stennis Space Center View the full article
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By NASA
4 min read
Astronaut Set to Patch NASA’s X-ray Telescope Aboard Space Station
NASA astronaut Nick Hague will install patches to the agency’s NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer) X-ray telescope on the International Space Station as part of a spacewalk scheduled for Jan. 16. Hague, along with astronaut Suni Williams, will also complete other tasks during the outing.
NICER will be the first NASA observatory repaired on-orbit since the last servicing mission for the Hubble Space Telescope in 2009.
Hague and other astronauts, including Don Pettit, who is also currently on the space station, rehearsed the NICER patch procedures in the NBL (Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory), a 6.2-million-gallon indoor pool at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, in 2024.
NASA astronaut Nick Hague holds a patch for NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer) at the end of a T-handle tool during a training exercise on May 16, 2024, in the NBL (Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory) at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA/NBL Dive Team Astronaut Nick Hague removes a patch from the caddy using a T-handle tool during a training exercise in the NBL at NASA Johnson on May 16, 2024. The booklet on his wrist has a schematic of the NICER telescope and where the patches will go.NASA/NBL Dive Team “We use the NBL to mimic, as much as possible, the conditions astronauts will experience while preforming a task during a spacewalk,” said Lucas Widner, a flight controller at KBR and NASA Johnson who ran the NICER NBL sessions. “Most projects outside the station focus on maintenance and upgrades to components like solar panels. It’s been exciting for all of us to be part of getting a science mission back to normal operations.”
From its perch near the space station’s starboard solar array, NICER studies the X-ray sky, including erupting galaxies, black holes, superdense stellar remnants called neutron stars, and even comets in our solar system.
But in May 2023, NICER developed a “light leak.” Sunlight began entering the telescope through several small, damaged areas in the telescope’s thin thermal shields. During the station’s daytime, the light reaches the X-ray detectors, saturating sensors and interfering with NICER’s measurements of cosmic objects. The mission team altered their daytime observing strategy to mitigate the effect.
UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi captured this view of NICER from a window in the space station’s Poisk Mini-Research Module 2 in July 2023. Photos like this one helped the NICER team map the damage to the telescope’s thermal shields.NASA/Sultan Alneyadi Some of NICER’s damaged thermal shields (circled) are visible in this photograph.NASA/Sultan Alneyadi The team also developed a plan to cover the largest areas of damage using wedge-shaped patches. Hague will slide the patches into the telescope’s sunshades and lock them into place.
“We designed the patches so they could be installed either robotically or by an astronaut,” said Steve Kenyon, NICER’s mechanical engineering lead at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “They’re installed using a tool called a T-handle that the astronauts are already familiar with.”
The NBL contains life-size mockups of sections of the space station. Under the supervision of a swarm of scuba divers, a pair of astronauts rehearse exiting and returning through an airlock, traversing the outside of the station, and completing tasks.
For the NICER repair, the NBL team created a full-scale model of NICER and its surroundings near the starboard solar array. Hague, Pettit, and other astronauts practiced taking the patches out of their caddy, inserting them into the sunshades, locking them into place, and verifying they were secure.
The task took just under an hour each time, which included the time astronauts needed to travel to NICER, set up their tools, survey the telescope for previously undetected damage, complete the repair, and clean up their tools.
Practice runs also provided opportunities for the astronauts to troubleshoot how to position themselves so they could reach NICER without touching it too often and for flight controllers to identify safety concerns around the repair.
Astronaut Don Pettit simulates taking pictures of the NICER telescope mockup during a training exercise in the NBL at NASA Johnson on May 16, 2024.NASA/NBL Dive Team Astronaut Don Pettit removes a patch from the caddy during a training exercise in the NBL at NASA Johnson on May 16, 2024.NASA/NBL Dive Team Being fully submerged in a pool is not the same as being in space, of course, so some issues that arose were “pool-isms.” For example, astronauts sometimes drifted upward while preparing to install the patches in a way unlikely to happen in space.
Members of the NICER team, including Kenyon and the mission’s principal investigator, Keith Gendreau at NASA Goddard, supported the NBL practice runs. They helped answer questions about the physical aspects of the telescope, as well as science questions from the astronauts and flight controllers. NICER is the leading source of science results on the space station.
“It was awesome to watch the training sessions and be able to debrief with the astronauts afterward,” Gendreau said. “There isn’t usually a lot of crossover between astrophysics science missions and human spaceflight. NICER will be the first X-ray telescope serviced by astronauts. It’s been an exciting experience, and we’re all looking forward to the spacewalk where it will all come together.”
The NICER telescope is an Astrophysics Mission of Opportunity within NASA’s Explorers Program, which provides frequent flight opportunities for world-class scientific investigations from space utilizing innovative, streamlined, and efficient management approaches within the heliophysics and astrophysics science areas. NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate supported the SEXTANT component of the mission, demonstrating pulsar-based spacecraft navigation.
Download high-resolution images and videos of NICER at NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio. By Jeanette Kazmierczak
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli
301-286-1940
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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Last Updated Jan 08, 2025 Related Terms
Astrophysics Black Holes Goddard Space Flight Center International Space Station (ISS) ISS Research Johnson Space Center Neutron Stars NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer) Pulsars The Universe View the full article
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By European Space Agency
On 8 January 2025, the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission will fly just 295 km above Mercury's surface, with a closest approach scheduled for 06:59 CET (05:59 UTC). It will use this opportunity to photograph Mercury, make unique measurements of the planet’s environment, and fine-tune science instrument operations before the main mission begins. This sixth and final flyby will reduce the spacecraft’s speed and change its direction, readying it for entering orbit around the tiny planet in late 2026.
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By NASA
NASA astronaut and Expedition 72 Flight Engineer Don Pettit points a camera outside a window on the International Space Station’s Poisk module for a sun photography session. (Credit: NASA) Students from Hawthorne Elementary School in Boise, Idaho, will have the chance to hear NASA astronaut Don Pettit answer their prerecorded science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) related questions from aboard the International Space Station.
Watch the 20-minute space-to-Earth call at 12:30 p.m. EST Friday, Jan. 10, on NASA+ and learn how to watch NASA content on various platforms, including social media.
Media interested in covering the event must RSVP by 5 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 7, to
Dan Hollar at dan.hollar@boiseschools.org or 208-854-4064.
For more than 24 years, astronauts have continuously lived and worked aboard the space station, testing technologies, performing science, and developing skills needed to explore farther from Earth. Astronauts aboard the orbiting laboratory communicate with NASA’s Mission Control Center in Houston 24 hours a day through SCaN’s (Space Communications and Navigation) Near Space Network.
Important research and technology investigations taking place aboard the space station benefit people on Earth and lays the groundwork for other agency missions. As part of NASA’s Artemis campaign, the agency will send astronauts to the Moon to prepare for future human exploration of Mars; inspiring Artemis Generation explorers and ensuring the United States continues to lead in space exploration and discovery.
See videos and lesson plans highlighting space station research at:
https://www.nasa.gov/stemonstation
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Abbey Donaldson
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
Abbey.a.donaldson@nasa.gov
Sandra Jones
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov
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