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By NASA
Insights into metal alloy solidification
Researchers report details of phase and structure in the solidification of metal alloys on the International Space Station, including formation of microstructures. Because these microstructures determine a material’s mechanical properties, this work could support improvements in techniques for producing coatings and additive manufacturing or 3D printing processes.
METCOMP, an ESA (European Space Agency) investigation, studied solidification in microgravity using transparent organic mixtures as stand-ins for metal alloys. Conducting the research in microgravity removed the influence of convection and other effects of gravity. Results help scientists better understand and validate models of solidification mechanisms, enabling better forecasting of microstructures and improving manufacturing processes.
Image from the METCOMP investigation of how a metal alloy could look like as it solidifies. E-USOC Measuring the height of upper-atmospheric electrical discharges
Researchers determined the height of a blue discharge from a thundercloud using ground-based electric field measurements and space-based optical measurements from Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM). This finding helps scientists better understand how these high-altitude lightning-related events affect atmospheric chemistry and could help improve atmospheric models and climate and weather predictions.
ESA’s ASIM is an Earth observation facility that studies severe thunderstorms and upper-atmospheric lighting events and their role in the Earth’s atmosphere and climate. Upper-atmospheric lightning, also known as transient luminous events, occurs well above the altitudes of normal lightning and storm clouds. The data collected by ASIM could support research on the statistical properties of many upper atmosphere lightning events, such as comparison of peak intensities of blue and red pulses with reports from lightning detection networks.
An artist’s impression of a blue jet as observed from the International Space Station.Mount Visual/University of Bergen/DTU Modeling a complex neutron star
Scientists report that they can use modeling of neutron star PSRJ1231−1411’s X-ray pulses to infer its mass and radius and narrow the possible behaviors of the dense matter at its core. This finding provides a better understanding of the composition and structure of these celestial objects, improving models that help answer questions about conditions in the universe.
The Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer provides high-precision measurements of pulses of X-ray radiation from neutron stars. This particular neutron star presented challenges in finding a fit between models and data, possibly due to fundamental issues with its pulse profile. The authors recommend a program of simulations using synthetic data to determine whether there are fundamental issues with this type of pulse profile that could prevent efforts to obtain tighter and more robust constraints.
Concentrators on the Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer instrument.NASAView the full article
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By European Space Agency
Week in images: 13-17 January 2025
Discover our week through the lens
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By NASA
Teams with NASA are gaining momentum as work progresses toward future lunar missions for the benefit of humanity as numerous flight hardware shipments from across the world arrived at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the first crewed Artemis flight test and follow-on lunar missions. The skyline at Kennedy will soon see added structures as teams build up the ground systems needed to support them.
Crews are well underway with parallel preparations for the Artemis II flight, as well as buildup of NASA’s mobile launcher 2 tower for use during the launch of the SLS (Space Launch System) Block 1B rocket, beginning with the Artemis IV mission. This version of NASA’s rocket will use a more powerful upper stage to launch with crew and more cargo on lunar missions. Technicians have begun upper stage umbilical connections testing that will help supply fuel and other commodities to the rocket while at the launch pad.
In summer 2024, technicians from NASA and contractor Bechtel National, Inc. completed a milestone called jack and set, where the center’s mega-mover, the crawler transporter, repositioned the initial steel base assembly for mobile launcher 2 from temporary construction shoring to its six permanent pedestals near the Kennedy’s Vehicle Assembly Building.
Teams at Bechtel National, Inc. use a crane to lift Module 4 into place atop the mobile launcher 2 tower chair at its park site on Jan. 3, 2025, at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Module 4 is the first of seven modules that will be stacked vertically to make up the almost 400-foot launch tower that will be used beginning with the Artemis IV mission.Betchel National Inc./Allison Sijgers “The NASA Bechtel mobile launcher 2 team is ahead of schedule and gaining momentum by the day,” stated Darrell Foster, ground systems integration manager, NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program at NASA Kennedy. “In parallel to all of the progress at our main build site, the remaining tower modules are assembled and outfitted at a second construction site on center.”
As construction of the mobile launcher 2’s base continues, the assembly operations shift into integration of the modules that will make up the tower. In mid-October 2024, crews completed installation of the chair, named for its resemblance to a giant seat. The chair serves as the interface between the base deck and the vertical modules which are the components that will make up the tower, and stands at 80-feet-tall.
In December 2024, teams completed the rig and set Module 4 operation where the first of a total of seven 40-foot-tall modules was stacked on top of the chair. Becthel crews rigged the module to a heavy lift crane, raised the module more than 150-feet, and secured the four corners to the tower chair. Once complete, the entire mobile launcher structure will reach a height of nearly 400 feet – approximately the length of four Olympic-sized swimming pools placed end-to-end.
On the opposite side of the center, test teams at the Launch Equipment Test Facility are testing the new umbilical interfaces, which will be located on mobile launcher 2, that will be needed to support the new SLS Block 1B Exploration Upper Stage. The umbilicals are connecting lines that provide fuel, oxidizer, pneumatic pressure, instrumentation, and electrical connections from the mobile launcher to the upper stage and other elements of SLS and NASA’s Orion spacecraft.
“All ambient temperature testing has been successfully completed and the team is now beginning cryogenic testing, where liquid nitrogen and liquid hydrogen will flow through the umbilicals to verify acceptable performance,” stated Kevin Jumper, lab manager, NASA Launch Equipment Test Facility at Kennedy. “The Exploration Upper Stage umbilical team has made significant progress on check-out and verification testing of the mobile launcher 2 umbilicals.”
https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/eusu-test-3-5b-run-1.mp4 Exploration Upper Stage Umbilical retract testing is underway at the Launch Equipment Test Facility at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Oct. 22, 2024. The new umbilical interface will be used beginning with the Artemis IV mission. Credit: LASSO Contract LETF Video Group The testing includes extension and retraction of the Exploration Upper Stage umbilical arms that will be installed on mobile launcher 2. The test team remotely triggers the umbilical arms to retract, ensuring the ground and flight umbilical plates separate as expected, simulating the operation that will be performed at lift off.
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By NASA
NASA has selected Mary Beth Schwartz as director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center Center Operations directorate. Schwartz previously served as the directorate’s deputy director.
“I’m excited to embark on my new role as director for Johnson’s Center Operations directorate,” Schwartz said. “It is an honor to lead an organization that is foundational to the center’s mission success.”
Ms. Schwartz began her NASA career as a NASA intern and has since held a variety of key roles. These include serving as a space shuttle flight controller, chair of the PSRP (Payload Safety Review Panel) for both the International Space Station and Space Shuttle programs, where she led establishment of PSRP franchises with international partners. She also served as the manager of the Safety and Mission Assurance business office, leading efforts in consolidation and budget integration, and as the associate director of Johnson engineering responsible for budget and facility functions.
Throughout her career, Schwartz has been recognized for her contributions to NASA, receiving the NASA Exceptional Service medal, as well as the NASA Honor and Silver Snoopy awards.
“Mary Beth has a unique perspective of Center Operations, not only as a mission and customer-focused organization, but as an organization that is key to employee experience,” said Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center. “I appreciate her vision for the organization, commitment to the mission, and overall genuine respect of the workforce. I am extremely pleased to announce her selection for this position.”
Ms. Schwartz earned her Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Houston.
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By NASA
If you ask Johnson Space Center employees why they work for NASA, many will tell you it was always their dream. For others, landing a job at NASA was an unexpected stop on their career path. Here is a look at where five Johnson team members worked before NASA and how they are helping to advance the agency’s mission today.
Michelle Wood
How it started: Michelle Wood working as an American Sign Language interpreter (left). How it’s going: Wood as a flight controller in Johnson Space Center’s Mission Control Center in Houston. Images courtesy of Wood Wood worked as an American Sign Language interpreter before joining NASA about seven years ago. Today, she is an Operational Support Officer flight controller and instructor in the Mission Control Center.
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Warnecke Miller
How it started: Miller is shown completing firearms training as a Federal Bureau of Investigation intern in the summer of 1998 (left). How it’s going: Miller emceeing a retirement celebration for a Johnson colleague in April 2024. Images courtesy of Miller Miller has been an attorney in Johnson’s Office of the General Counsel for 12 years. Before that, she served as an administrative law judge for Social Security and adjudicated disability cases.
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Celeste Budwit-Hunter
How it started: Celeste Budwit-Hunter is pictured as a school counselor (left). How it’s going: Budwit-Hunter with NASA astronauts Mike Finke, Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore and her Procedures Group editorial team members in Johnson’s Space Vehicle Mockup Facility. Images courtesy of Budwit-Hunter Budwit-Hunter was a technical writer in the oil and gas industry before earning a master’s degree in family therapy. She went on to work for The Council on Alcohol and Drugs (now The Council on Recovery) and then as a private school counselor for students with learning disabilities. She returned to technical writing while starting a private family therapy practice. After several years of treatment and recovery following a cancer diagnosis, Budwit-Hunter applied to become an editor in the Flight Operations Director’s Procedures Group. She is now the group’s lead editor and is training to become a book manager.
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Don Walker
How it started: A photo of a young Don Walker standing in front of an Apollo lunar module mockup on the Johnson campus in the early 1970s (left). How it’s going: Walker’s official NASA portrait. Walker worked as a freelancer in television production before joining the Johnson team 38 years ago. Today, Walker is an engineering technician in the Office of the Chief Information Officer, working master control for the center’s television operations.
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Donna Coyle
How it started: Donna Coyle as a college student in Rome (left). How it’s going: Coyle outside Space Center Houston prior to the Expedition 68 crew debrief and awards ceremony in 2023. Images courtesy of Coyle Coyle earned a bachelor’s degree in international relations before switching gears to work as an expeditor in the oil and gas industry. That role involved working with cross-functional teams to ensure the smooth and timely delivery of equipment and materials to worksites. After visiting locations and seeing how equipment, piping, and steel were made, she was inspired to go back to school to become an engineer. Coyle’s grandfather worked at NASA during the Apollo missions, and she decided to follow in his footsteps. She joined the Johnson team in 2021 as a crew time engineer, analyzing astronaut time as a resource to help with decision-making before and during expeditions to the International Space Station.
Do you want to join the NASA team? Visit our Careers site to explore open opportunities and find your place with us!
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