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By NASA
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
A team from University High School of Irvine, California, won the 2025 regional Science Bowl at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on March 1. From left, co-coach Nick Brighton, sophomores Shloke Kamat and Timothy Chen, juniors Feodor Yevtushenko and Angelina Yan, senior Sara Yu, and coach David Knight.NASA/JPL-Caltech In a fast-paced competition, students showcased their knowledge across a wide range of science and math topics.
What is the molecular geometry of sulfur tetrafluoride? Which layer of the Sun is thickest? What is the average of the first 10 prime numbers? If you answered “see-saw,” “radiation zone,” and “12.9,” respectively, then you know a tiny fraction of what high school students must learn to compete successfully in the National Science Bowl.
On Saturday, March 1, students from University High School in Irvine answered enough of these kind of challenging questions correctly to earn the points to defeat 19 other high school teams, winning a regional Science Bowl competition hosted by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Troy High, from Fullerton, won second place, while Arcadia High placed third.
Some 100 students gathered at JPL for the fast-paced event, which drew schools from across Los Angeles, Orange, and San Bernardino counties. Teams are composed of four students and one alternate, with a teacher serving as coach. Two teams at a time face off in a round robin tournament, followed by tie-breaker and double-elimination rounds, then final matches.
Students, coaches, and volunteers gathered on March 1 for the annual regional Science Bowl competition held at JPL, which has hosted the event since 1993.NASA/JPL-Caltech The questions — in biology, chemistry, Earth and space science, energy, mathematics, and physics — are at a college first-year level. Students spend months preparing, studying, quizzing each other, and practicing with “Jeopardy!”-style buzzers.
It was the third year in a row for a University victory at the JPL-hosted event, and the championship round with Troy was a nail-biter until the very last question. The University team only had one returning student from the previous year’s team, junior Feodor Yevtushenko. Both he and longtime team coach and science teacher David Knight said the key to success is specialization — with each student focusing on particular topic areas.
“I wake up and grind math before school,” Feodor said. “Being a jack-of-all-trades means you’re a jack-of-no-trades. You need ruthless precision and ruthless speed.”
University also won for four years in row from 2018 to 2021. The school’s victory this year enables its team to travel to Washington in late April and vie for ultimate dominance alongside other regional event winners in the national finals.
More than 10,000 students compete in some 115 regional events held across the country. Managed by the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Science Bowl was created in 1991 to make math and science fun for students, and to encourage them to pursue careers in those fields. It’s one of the largest academic competitions in the United States.
JPL’s Public Services Office coordinates the regional contest with the help of volunteers from laboratory staff and former Science Bowl participants in the local community. This year marked JPL’s 33rd hosting the event.
News Media Contact
Melissa Pamer
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
626-314-4928
melissa.pamer@jpl.nasa.gov
2025-030
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Last Updated Mar 03, 2025 Related Terms
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By NASA
NASA’s Space X Crew-9 members pose together for a portrait.Credit: NASA Students from Ohio and Texas will have the chance to hear NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station answer their prerecorded questions this week.
At 12:55 p.m. EST, Wednesday, March 5, NASA astronauts Suni Williams, Nick Hague, Butch Wilmore, and Don Pettit will respond to questions submitted by students from Puede Network, in partnership with The Achievery in Dallas.
At 10:30 a.m., Thursday, March 6, a separate call with NASA astronauts Williams, Hague, and Wilmore, will answer questions posed by students at Saint Ambrose Catholic School in Brunswick, Ohio.
Watch the 20-minute space-to-Earth calls on NASA+. Learn how to watch NASA content on various platforms, including social media.
The Puede Network, a Dallas-based youth organization, is collaborating with the Achievery, an online platform for connecting students with digital learning opportunities. Media interested in covering the event must RSVP by 5 p.m. Tuesday, March 4 to Rodrigo Oshiro at: rodrigo@happytogether.studio or +54 9 113068 7121.
Saint Ambrose Catholic School, part of Saint Ambrose Catholic Church, is a preschool through 8th grade school focused on science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. Media interested in covering the event must RVSP by 5 p.m., Wednesday, March 5 to Breanne Logue at: BLogue@StASchool.us or 330-460-7318.
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
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Sandra Jones
Johnson Space Center, Houston
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Last Updated Mar 03, 2025 EditorJessica TaveauLocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
In-flight Education Downlinks For Colleges & Universities Learning Resources Outside the Classroom View the full article
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By NASA
On March 3, 1915, the United States Congress created the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). Although the NACA’s founding took place just over 11 years after the Wright Brothers’ first powered flightfirst powered flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Congress took the action in response to America lagging behind other world powers’ advances in aviation and aeronautics. From its modest beginnings as an advisory committee, over the years, the NACA established research centers and test facilities that enabled groundbreaking advances in civilian and military aviation, as well as the fledgling discipline of spaceflight. With the creation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 1958, the new agency incorporated the NACA’s facilities, its employees, and its annual budget. The NACA provided NASA with a strong foundation as it set out to explore space.
The first meeting of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics on April 23, 1915.NASA The NACA executive committee in 1934. NASA The Congressional action that created the NACA, implemented as a rider to the 1915 Naval Appropriations Bill, reads in part, “…It shall be the duty of the advisory committee for aeronautics to supervise and direct the scientific study of the problems of flight with a view to their practical solution. …”. In its initial years, the NACA fulfilled its intended role, coordinating activities already in place in the area of aeronautics research, reporting directly to the president. The committee, made up of 12 representatives from government agencies, academia, and the military, first met on April 23 in the Office of the Secretary of War in Washington, D.C. It established a nine-member executive committee to oversee day-to-day operations and spent the first few years establishing its headquarters in Washington.
The committee’s logo, approved in 1941.NASA The committee’s seal, approved by presidential executive order in 1953.NASA
Hangars at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory in Hampton, Virginia, in 1931. NASA The Variable Density Tunnel at Langley. NASA Aerial view of the Ames Aeronautical Laboratory in Sunnyvale, California, in 1944. NASA Aerial view of the Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1945.NASA Within a few years, the NACA’s role began to expand with the establishment of research facilities. The Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, today NASA’s Langley Research Center, in Hampton, Virginia, opened on June 11, 1920. Over the next few decades, Langley served as a testing facility for new types of aircraft, using wind tunnels and other technological advances. The Ames Aeronautical Laboratory in Sunnyvale, California, today NASA’s Ames Research Center, opened in 1940 and the Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory in Cleveland, today NASA’s Glenn Research Center, in 1941. The three labs achieved many breakthroughs in civilian and military aviation before, during, and after World War II. The Cleveland lab, renamed the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory in 1948, concentrated most of its efforts on advances in jet propulsion.
The NACA High-Speed Flight Station, now NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center, at Edwards Air Force Base in California’s Mojave Desert. NASA The Bell X-1, the first aircraft to break the sound barrier in 1947.NASA The first sounding rocket launch from the Pilotless Aircraft Research Station at Wallops Island, Virginia, in 1945.NASA After World War II, the NACA began work on achieving supersonic flight. In 1946, the agency established the Muroc Flight Test Unit at the Air Force’s Muroc Field, later renamed Edwards Air Force Base, in California’s Mojave Desert. In a close collaboration, the NACA, the Air Force, and Bell Aircraft developed the X-1 airplane that first broke the sound barrier in 1947. Muroc Field underwent several name changes, first to the High-Speed Flight Station in 1949, then in 1976 to NASA’s Dryden, and in 2014 to Armstrong Flight Research Center. In 1945, the NACA established the Pilotless Aircraft Research Station on Wallops Island, Virginia, now NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, as a test site for rocketry research, under Langley’s direction. From the first launch in 1945 through 1958, the NACA launched nearly 400 different types of rockets from Wallops.
Shadowgraph of finned hemispherical model in free flight shows shock waves produced by blunt bodies.NACA Meeting of the NACA’s Special Committee on Space Technology in May 1958.NASA In the 1950s, the NACA began to study the feasibility of spaceflight, including sending humans into space. In 1952, NACA engineers developed the concept of a blunt body capsule as the most efficient way to return humans from space. The design concept found its way into the Mercury capsule and all future American spacecraft. Following the dawn of the space age in 1957, the NACA advocated that it take the lead in America’s spaceflight effort. The Congress passed, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation to create a new civilian space agency, and on Oct. 1, 1958, NASA officially began operations. The new organization incorporated the NACA’s research laboratories and test facilities, its 8,000 employees, and its $100 million annual budget. Many of NASA’s key early leaders and engineers began their careers in the NACA. The NACA’s last director, Hugh Dryden, served as NASA’s first deputy administrator.
For more information about the NACA and its transition to NASA, read former NASA Chief Historian Roger Launius’ book NASA to NASA to Now: The Frontiers of Air and Space in the American Century. Watch this video narrated by former NASA Chief Historian Bill Barry about the NACA.
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By NASA
On Feb. 28, 1990, space shuttle Atlantis took off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on STS-36, the sixth shuttle mission dedicated to the Department of Defense. As such, many of the details of the flight remain classified. The mission marked the 34th flight of the space shuttle, the sixth for Atlantis, and the fourth night launch of the program. The crew of Commander John Creighton, Pilot John Casper, Mission Specialists Mike Mullane, David Hilmers, and Pierre Thuot flew Atlantis to the highest inclination orbit of any human spaceflight to date. During the four-day mission, the astronauts deployed a classified satellite, ending with a landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
The STS-36 crew, from left, was Mission Specialist Pierre Thuot, left, Pilot John Casper, Commander John Creighton, and Mission Specialists Mike Mullane and David Hilmers.NASA The STS-36 crew patch. NASA In February 1989, NASA assigned astronauts Creighton, Casper, Mullane, Hilmers, and Thuot to the STS-36 mission. The mission marked the second spaceflight for Creighton, selected as an astronaut in 1978. He previously served as the pilot on STS-51G. Mullane, also from the class of 1978, previously flew on STS-41D and STS-27, while Hilmers, from the class of 1980, previously flew on STS-51J and STS-26. For Casper and Thuot, selected as astronauts in the classes of 1984 and 1985, respectively, STS-36 marked their first trip into space.
The STS-36 crew poses outside the crew compartment trainer at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA Space shuttle Atlantis during the rollout to Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.NASA The STS-36 crew participates in a simulation.NASA STS-36 Commander John Creighton and Pilot John Casper in the shuttle simulator. NASA The STS-36 crew exits crew quarters for the ride to Launch Pad 39A.NASA Atlantis returned from its previous flight, STS-34, in October 1989. The orbiter spent a then-record 75 days in the processing facility and assembly building, rolling out to Launch Pad 39A on Jan. 25, 1990. The astronauts arrived on Feb. 18 for the planned launch four days later. First Creighton, then Casper and Hilmers, came down with colds, delaying the launch to Feb. 25. Weather and hardware problems pushed the launch back to Feb. 28, giving the astronauts time to return to Houston for some simulator training. On launch day, winds and rain delayed the liftoff for more than two hours before launch controllers gave Atlantis the go to launch.
Liftoff of space shuttle Atlantis on STS-36. NASA With mere seconds remaining in the launch window, Atlantis lifted off at 2:50 a.m. EST Feb. 28, to begin the STS-36 mission. Atlantis flew an unusual dog leg maneuver during ascent to achieve the mission’s 62-degree inclination. Once Atlantis reached orbit, the classified nature prevented any more detailed public coverage of the mission. The astronauts likely deployed the classified satellite on the mission’s second day. During the remainder of their mission, the astronauts conducted several experiments and photographed preselected areas and targets of opportunity on planet Earth. Their high-inclination orbit enabled them to photograph areas not usually seen by shuttle crews.
In-flight photo of the STS-36 crew on Atlantis’ flight deck.NASA STS-36 crew members David Hilmers, left, Pierre Thuot, and John Casper work in the shuttle’s middeck. NASA Mission Specialist Mike Mullane takes photographs from Atlantis’ flight deck.NASA
A selection of crew Earth observation photographs from STS-36. The coast of Greenland.NASA New York City at night.NASA The Nile River including Cairo and the Giza pyramidsNASA The coast of Antarctica. NASA John Creighton prepares drink bags for prelanding hydration. NASA Atlantis touches down at Edwards Air Force Base in California. NASA NASA officials greet the STS-36 astronauts as they exit Atlantis.NASA To maintain the mission’s confidentiality, NASA could reveal the touchdown time only 24 hours prior to the event. On March 4, Creighton and Casper brought Atlantis to a smooth landing at Edwards Air Force Base after 72 orbits of the Earth and a flight of four days, 10 hours, and 18 minutes. About an hour after touchdown, the astronaut crew exited Atlantis for the ride to crew quarters and the flight back to Houston. Later in the day, ground crews prepared Atlantis for the ferry ride back to Kennedy. Atlantis left Edwards on March 10 and three days later arrived at Kennedy, where workers began to prepare it for its next flight, STS-38 in November 1990.
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By NASA
1 min read
An Ocean in Motion: NASA’s Mesmerizing View of Earth’s Underwater Highways
Earth (ESD) Earth Explore Explore Earth Science Climate Change Science in Action Multimedia Image Collections Videos Data For Researchers About Us This data visualization showing ocean currents around the world uses data from NASA’s ECCO model, or Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean. The model pulls data from spacecraft, buoys, and other measurements.
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Last Updated Mar 03, 2025 Editor Earth Science Division Editorial Team Related Terms
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