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Wallops Electrical Engineer Named NASA Goddard’s 2022 ‘Innovator of Year’
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By NASA
Credit: NASA NASA has selected SpaceX of Starbase, Texas, to provide launch services for the Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor mission, which will detect and observe asteroids and comets that could potentially pose an impact threat to Earth.
The firm fixed price launch service task order is being awarded under the indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity NASA Launch Services II contract. The total cost to NASA for the launch service is approximately $100 million, which includes the launch service and other mission related costs. The NEO Surveyor mission is targeted to launch no earlier than September 2027 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Florida.
The NEO Surveyor mission consists of a single scientific instrument: an almost 20-inch (50-centimeter) diameter telescope that will operate in two heat-sensing infrared wavelengths. It will be capable of detecting both bright and dark asteroids, the latter being the most difficult type to find with existing assets. The space telescope is designed to help advance NASA’s planetary defense efforts to discover and characterize most of the potentially hazardous asteroids and comets that come within 30 million miles of Earth’s orbit. These are collectively known as near-Earth objects, or NEOs.
The mission will carry out a five-year baseline survey to find at least two-thirds of the unknown NEOs larger than 140 meters (460 feet). These are the objects large enough to cause major regional damage in the event of an Earth impact. By using two heat-sensitive infrared imaging channels, the telescope can also make more accurate measurements of the sizes of NEOs and gain information about their composition, shapes, rotational states, and orbits.
The mission is tasked by NASA’s Planetary Science Division within the agency’s Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Program oversight is provided by NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, which was established in 2016 to manage the agency’s ongoing efforts in planetary defense. NASA’s Planetary Missions Program Office at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, provides program management for NEO Surveyor. The project is being developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
Multiple aerospace and engineering companies are contracted to build the spacecraft and its instrumentation, including BAE Systems SMS (Space & Mission Systems), Space Dynamics Laboratory, and Teledyne. The Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder, will support operations, and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, California, is responsible for processing survey data and producing the mission’s data products. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. Mission team leadership includes the University of California, Los Angeles. NASA’s Launch Services Program at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida is responsible for managing the launch service.
For more information about NEO Surveyor, visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/neo-surveyor/
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Tiernan Doyle / Joshua Finch
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600 / 202-358-1100
tiernan.doyle@nasa.gov / joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov
Patti Bielling
Kennedy Space Center, Florida
321-501-7575
patricia.a.bielling@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Feb 21, 2025 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
Kennedy Space Center Launch Services Office Launch Services Program NEO Surveyor (Near-Earth Object Surveyor Space Telescope) Planetary Defense Coordination Office Planetary Science Division Science Mission Directorate Space Operations Mission Directorate View the full article
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By NASA
Gateway’s HALO (Habitation and Logistics Outpost) in a cleanroom at Thales Alenia Space in Turin, Italy. After final installations are complete, it will be packaged and transported to the United States for final outfitting before being integrated with Gateway’s Power and Propulsion Element and launched to lunar orbit. Thales Alenia Space Through the Artemis campaign, NASA will send astronauts on missions to and around the Moon. The agency and its international partners report progress continues on Gateway, the first space station that will permanently orbit the Moon, after visiting the Thales Alenia Space facility in Turin, Italy, where initial fabrication for one of two Gateway habitation modules is nearing completion.
Leaders from NASA, ESA (European Space Agency), and the Italian Space Agency, as well as industry representatives from Northrop Grumman and Thales Alenia Space, were in Turin to assess Gateway’s HALO (Habitation and Logistics Outpost) module before its primary structure is shipped from Italy to Northrop Grumman’s Gilbert, Arizona site in March. Following final outfitting and verification testing, the module will be integrated with the Power and Propulsion Element at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
“Building and testing hardware for Gateway is truly an international collaboration,” said Jon Olansen, manager, Gateway Program, at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “We’re excited to celebrate this major flight hardware milestone, and this is just the beginning – there’s impressive and important progress taking shape with our partners around the globe, united by our shared desire to expand human exploration of our solar system while advancing scientific discovery.”
Gateway’s HALO (Habitation and Logistics Outpost) in a cleanroom at Thales Alenia Space in Turin, Italy. After final installations are complete, it will be packaged and transported to the United States for final outfitting before being integrated with Gateway’s Power and Propulsion Element and launched to lunar orbit.Thales Alenia Space To ensure all flight hardware is ready to support Artemis IV — the first crewed mission to Gateway – NASA is targeting the launch of HALO and the Power and Propulsion Element no later than December 2027. These integrated modules will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket and spend about a year traveling uncrewed to lunar orbit, while providing scientific data on solar and deep space radiation during transit.
Launching atop HALO will be ESA’s Lunar Link communication system, which will provide high-speed communication between the Moon and Gateway. The system is undergoing testing at another Thales Alenia Space facility in Cannes, France.
Once in lunar orbit, Gateway will continue scientific observations while awaiting the arrival of Artemis IV astronauts aboard an Orion spacecraft which will deliver and dock Gateway’s second pressurized habitable module, the ESA-led Lunar I-Hab. Thales Alenia Space, ESA’s primary contractor for the Lunar I-Hab and Lunar View refueling module, has begun production of the Lunar I-Hab, and design of Lunar View in Turin.
Teams from NASA and ESA (European Space Agency), including NASA astronaut Stan Love (far right) and ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano (far left) help conduct human factors testing inside a mockup of Gateway’s Lunar I-Hab module.Thales Alenia Space Northrop Grumman and its subcontractor, Thales Alenia Space, completed welding of HALO in 2024, and the module successfully progressed through pressure and stress tests to ensure its suitability for the harsh environment of deep space.
Maxar Space Systems is assembling the Power and Propulsion Element, which will make Gateway the most powerful solar electric propulsion spacecraft ever flown. Major progress in 2024 included installation of Xenon and chemical propulsion fuel tanks, and qualification of the largest roll-out solar arrays ever built. NASA and its partners will complete propulsion element assembly, and acceptance and verification testing of next-generation electric propulsion thrusters this year.
The main bus of Gateway’s Power and Propulsion Element undergoes assembly and installations at Maxar Space Systems in Palo Alto, California.Maxar Space Systems SpaceX will provide both the Starship human landing system that will land astronauts on the lunar surface during NASA’s Artemis III mission and ferry astronauts from Gateway to the lunar South Pole region during Artemis IV, as well as provide logistics spacecraft to support crewed missions.
NASA also has selected Blue Origin to develop Blue Moon, the human landing system for Artemis V, as well as logistics spacecraft for future Artemis missions. Having two distinct lunar landing designs provides flexibility and supports a regular cadence of Moon landings in preparation for future missions to Mars.
CSA (Canadian Space Agency) is developing Canadarm3, an advanced robotics system, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) is designing and testing Lunar I-Hab’s vital life support systems, batteries, and a resupply and logistics vehicle called HTV-XG.
NASA’s newest Gateway partner, the Mohammad Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) of the United Arab Emirates, kicked off early design for the Gateway Crew and Science Airlock that will be delivered on Artemis VI. The selection of Thales Alenia Space as its airlock prime contractor was announced by MBRSC on Feb. 4.
Development continues to advance on three radiation-focused initial science investigations aboard Gateway. These payloads will help scientists better understand unpredictable space weather from the Sun and galactic cosmic rays that will affect astronauts and equipment during Artemis missions to the Moon and beyond.
The Gateway lunar space station is a multi-purpose platform that offers capabilities for long-term exploration in deep space in support of NASA’s Artemis campaign and Moon to Mars objectives. Gateway will feature docking ports for a variety of visiting spacecraft, as well as space for crew to live, work, and prepare for lunar surface missions. As a testbed for future journeys to Mars, continuous investigations aboard Gateway will occur with and without crew to better understand the long-term effects of deep space radiation on vehicle systems and the human body as well as test and operate next generation spacecraft systems that will be necessary to send humans to Mars.
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Last Updated Feb 21, 2025 ContactLaura RochonLocationJohnson Space Center Related Terms
Artemis Artemis 4 Earth's Moon Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate Gateway Space Station Humans in Space Johnson Space Center Explore More
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By Space Force
The DARC partnership is completing construction at the first of three sites that will host a global network of advanced ground-based sensors.
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By NASA
Official portrait of NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free, taken on Nov. 22, 2024, at the agency’s headquarters in Washington.Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free announced Wednesday his retirement, effective Saturday, Feb. 22. As associate administrator, Free has been the senior advisor to NASA Acting Administrator Janet Petro and leads NASA’s 10 center directors, as well as the mission directorate associate administrators at NASA Headquarters in Washington. He is the agency’s chief operating officer for more than 18,000 employees and oversaw an annual budget of more than $25 billion.
During his tenure as associate administrator since January 2024, NASA added nearly two dozen new signatories of the Artemis Accords, enabled the first Moon landing through the agency’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative to deliver NASA science to the lunar surface, launched the Europa Clipper mission to study Jupiter’s icy ocean moon, and found molecules containing the ingredients for life in samples from asteroid Bennu delivered to Earth by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security–Regolith Explorer) spacecraft.
“Throughout his career, Jim has been the ultimate servant leader – always putting the mission and the people of NASA first,” said Petro. “A remarkable engineer and a decisive leader, he combines deep technical expertise with an unwavering commitment to this agency’s mission. Jim’s legacy is one of selfless service, steadfast leadership, and a belief in the power of people.”
Among the notable contributions to the nation during his NASA career, Free also championed a new path forward to return samples from Mars ahead of human missions to the Red Planet, supported the crews living and working aboard the International Space Station as they conduct hundreds of experiments and technology demonstrations, and engaged industry in new ways to secure a public/private partnership for NASA’s VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) mission on the Moon.
“It has been an honor to serve NASA and walk alongside the workforce that tackles the most difficult engineering challenges, pursues new scientific knowledge in our universe and beyond, develops technologies for future exploration endeavors, all while prioritizing safety every day for people on the ground, in the air, and in space,” Free said. “I am grateful for the opportunity to be part of the NASA family and contribute to the agency’s mission for the benefit of humanity.”
During his more than three decades of service, Free has held several leadership roles at the agency. Before being named NASA associate administrator, Free served as associate administrator of the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, where he oversaw the successful Artemis I mission and the development of NASA’s Moon to Mars architecture, defining and managing the systems development for the agency’s Artemis missions and planning for NASA’s integrated deep space exploration approach.
Free began his NASA career in 1990 as an engineer, working on Tracking and Data Relay Satellites at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. He later transferred to the agency’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland and served in a variety of roles supporting the International Space Station and the development of the Orion spacecraft before transferring to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston in 2008. Free returned to NASA Glenn in 2009 and was promoted to chief of the Space Flight Systems Directorate, where he oversaw the center’s space work. Free was named deputy center director in November 2010 and then served as center director from January 2013 until March 2016, when he was appointed to the NASA Headquarters position of deputy associate administrator for Technical [sic] in the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate.
A native of Northeast Ohio, Free earned his bachelor’s degree in aeronautics from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and his master’s degree in space systems engineering from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.
Free is the recipient of the Presidential Rank Award, NASA Distinguished Service Medal, NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, NASA Exceptional Service Medal, NASA Significant Achievement Medal, and numerous other awards.
For more information about NASA, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov
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Kathryn Hambleton / Cheryl Warner
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
kathryn.hambleton@nasa.gov / cheryl.m.warner@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Feb 19, 2025 EditorJessica TaveauLocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
Leadership View the full article
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By NASA
Official crew portrait for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission with NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov.Credit: NASA NASA and its partners will discuss the upcoming Expedition 73 mission aboard the International Space Station during a pair of news conferences on Monday, Feb. 24, from the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Mission leadership will participate in an overview news conference at 2 p.m. EST live on NASA+, covering preparations for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 launch in March and the agency’s crew member rotation launch on Soyuz in April. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.
NASA also will host a crew news conference at 4 p.m. and provide coverage on NASA+, followed by individual crew member interviews beginning at 5 p.m. This is the final media opportunity with Crew-10 before the crew members travel to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for launch.
The Crew-10 mission, targeted to launch Wednesday, March 12, will carry NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov to the orbiting laboratory.
NASA astronaut Jonny Kim, scheduled to launch to the space station on the Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft no earlier than April 8, also will participate in the crew briefing and interviews. Kim will be available again on Tuesday, March 18, for limited virtual interviews prior to launch. NASA will provide additional details on that opportunity when available.
For the Crew-10 mission, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft will launch from Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy. The three-person crew of Soyuz MS-27, including Kim and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky, will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
United States-based media seeking to attend in person must contact the NASA Johnson newsroom no later than 5 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 21, at 281-483-5111 or at jsccommu@mail.nasa.gov. U.S. and international media interested in participating by phone must contact NASA Johnson by 9:45 a.m. the day of the event.
U.S. and international media seeking remote interviews with the crew must submit requests to the NASA Johnson newsroom by 5 p.m. on Feb. 21. A copy of NASA’s media accreditation policy is available online.
Briefing participants include (all times Eastern and subject to change based on real-time operations):
2 p.m.: Expedition 73 Overview News Conference
Ken Bowersox, associate administrator, Space Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington Steve Stich, manager, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, NASA Kennedy Bill Spetch, operations integration manager, NASA’s International Space Station Program, NASA Johnson William Gerstenmaier, vice president, Build & Flight Reliability, SpaceX Mayumi Matsuura, vice president and director general, Human Spaceflight Technology Directorate, JAXA 4 p.m.: Expedition 73 Crew News Conference
Jonny Kim, Soyuz MS-27 flight engineer, NASA Anne McClain, Crew-10 spacecraft commander, NASA Nichole Ayers, Crew-10 pilot, NASA Takuya Onishi, Crew-10 mission specialist, JAXA Kirill Peskov, Crew-10 mission specialist, Roscosmos 5 p.m.: Crew Individual Interview Opportunities
Crew-10 members and Kim available for a limited number of interviews Official portrait of NASA astronaut Jonny Kim, who will serve as a flight engineer during Expedition 73.Credit: NASA Kim is making his first spaceflight after selection as part of the 2017 NASA astronaut class. A native of Los Angeles, Kim is a U.S. Navy lieutenant commander and dual designated naval aviator and flight surgeon. Kim also served as an enlisted Navy SEAL. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from the University of San Diego and a medical degree from Harvard Medical School in Boston. He completed his internship with the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. After completing the initial astronaut candidate training, Kim supported mission and crew operations in various roles, including the Expedition 65 lead operations officer, T-38 operations liaison, and space station capcom chief engineer. Follow @jonnykimusa on X and @jonnykimusa on Instagram.
Selected by NASA as an astronaut in 2013, this will be McClain’s second spaceflight. A colonel in the U.S. Army, she earned her bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, and holds master’s degrees in Aerospace Engineering, International Security, and Strategic Studies. The Spokane, Washington, native was an instructor pilot in the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopter and is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in Patuxent River, Maryland. McClain has more than 2,300 flight hours in 24 rotary and fixed-wing aircraft, including more than 800 in combat, and was a member of the U.S. Women’s National Rugby Team. On her first spaceflight, McClain spent 204 days as a flight engineer during Expeditions 58 and 59, and completed two spacewalks, totaling 13 hours and 8 minutes. Since then, she has served in various roles, including branch chief and space station assistant to the chief of NASA’s Astronaut Office. Follow @astroannimal on X and @astro_annimal on Instagram.
The Crew-10 mission will be the first spaceflight for Ayers, who was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2021. Ayers is a major in the U.S. Air Force and the first member of NASA’s 2021 astronaut class named to a crew. The Colorado native graduated from the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs with a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and a minor in Russian, where she was a member of the academy’s varsity volleyball team. She later earned a master’s in Computational and Applied Mathematics from Rice University in Houston. Ayers served as an instructor pilot and mission commander in the T-38 ADAIR and F-22 Raptor, leading multinational and multiservice missions worldwide. She has more than 1,400 total flight hours, including more than 200 in combat. Follow @astro_ayers on X and @astro_ayers on Instagram.
With 113 days in space, this mission also will mark Onishi’s second trip to the space station. After being selected as an astronaut by JAXA in 2009, he flew as a flight engineer for Expeditions 48 and 49, becoming the first Japanese astronaut to robotically capture the Cygnus spacecraft. He also constructed a new experimental environment aboard Kibo, the station’s Japanese experiment module. After his first spaceflight, Onishi became certified as a JAXA flight director, leading the team responsible for operating Kibo from JAXA Mission Control in Tsukuba, Japan. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the University of Tokyo, and was a pilot for All Nippon Airways, flying more than 3,700 flight hours in the Boeing 767. Follow astro_onishi on X.
The Crew-10 mission will also be Peskov’s first spaceflight. Before his selection as a cosmonaut in 2018, he earned a degree in Engineering from the Ulyanovsk Civil Aviation School and was a co-pilot on the Boeing 757 and 767 aircraft for airlines Nordwind and Ikar. Assigned as a test cosmonaut in 2020, he has additional experience in skydiving, zero-gravity training, scuba diving, and wilderness survival.
Learn more about how NASA innovates for the benefit of humanity through NASA’s Commercial Crew Program at:
https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew
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Joshua Finch / Jimi Russell
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / james.j.russell@nasa.gov
Kenna Pell / Sandra Jones
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
kenna.m.pell@nasa.gov / sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Feb 18, 2025 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
Humans in Space Anne C. McClain Astronauts Commercial Crew International Space Station (ISS) ISS Research Johnson Space Center Jonny Kim Nichole Ayers View the full article
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