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By NASA
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
This article is for students grades 5-8.
Alan Shepard was the first American in space. He was one of NASA’s first seven astronauts. Later, he walked on the moon during the Apollo program.
What Was Shepard’s Early Life Like?
Alan Shepard was born on Nov. 18, 1923. He was born in East Derry, N.H., and grew up there. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Naval Academy. He served on a Navy ship in the Pacific Ocean during World War II. After the war, Shepard entered flight training and earned his pilot’s wings. He graduated from Naval Test Pilot School and Naval War College. In April 1959, NASA selected Shepard as a member of its first group of seven astronauts.
What Happened on Alan Shepard’s First Spaceflight?
On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American in space. He flew on a one-person Mercury spacecraft that he named Freedom 7. It launched on a Redstone rocket. On this flight, Shepard did not orbit Earth. He flew 116 miles high and then returned safely. The flight lasted about 15 ½ minutes. The mission was a success.
What Happened After Shepard’s First Spaceflight?
After his first flight, Shepard developed a medical problem. An inner ear problem stopped him from flying in space. NASA named Shepard as chief of the Astronaut Office. He helped select new astronauts, plan missions and make sure astronauts were ready to fly. Later, he had surgery to fix the ear problem, and he was able to fly again. Almost 10 years passed between his first and second flights.
What Happened on Alan Shepard’s Second Spaceflight?
Shepard’s second spaceflight was on the Apollo 14 mission to the moon. He was commander of a crew that included Stuart Roosa and Edgar Mitchell. The Apollo spacecraft was launched on a Saturn V (5) rocket.
On Feb. 15, 1971, Shepard and Mitchell landed on the moon. (Roosa stayed in orbit around the moon while the other two landed.) During two moonwalks, Shepard and Mitchell collected more than 100 pounds of moon rocks. They conducted scientific experiments on the lunar surface. Shepard also became the first person to hit a golf ball on the moon, showing how far it would go in the moon’s lower gravity.
What Happened After Shepard’s Second Spaceflight?
After his second flight, Shepard returned to his job as head of the Astronaut Office. He retired from NASA in 1974. Shepard worked in private business. He also did volunteer work to support education and to help people learn about spaceflight. Shepard died of leukemia in 1998.
More About Alan Shepard
Alan Shepard: First American in Space
Alan Shepard – Ambassador of Exploration
Freedom 7
Apollo 14
What Was Project Mercury?
What Was the Apollo Program?
What Was the Saturn V?
Read Who Was Alan Shepard? (Grades K-4)
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By NASA
NASA logo. NASA has awarded SpaceX of Starbase, Texas, a modification under the NASA Launch Services (NLS) II contract to add Starship to their existing Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch service offerings.
The NLS II contracts provide a broad range of commercial launch services for NASA’s planetary, Earth-observing, exploration, and scientific satellites. These high-priority, low and medium risk tolerant missions have full NASA technical oversight and mission assurance, resulting in the highest probability of launch success.
The NLS II contracts are multiple award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, with an ordering period through June 2030 and an overall period of performance through December 2032. The contracts include an on-ramp provision that provides an opportunity annually for new launch service providers to add their launch service on an NLS II contract and compete for future missions and allows existing contractors to introduce launch services not currently on their NLS II contracts.
The contracts support the goals and objectives of the agency’s Science Mission Directorate, Space Operations Mission Directorate, Explorations Systems Development Mission Directorate, and the Space Technology Mission Directorate. Under the contracts, NASA also can provide launch services to other federal government agencies.
NASA’s Launch Services Program Office at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida manages the NLS II contracts. For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov
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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 Mar 28, 2025 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
NASA Directorates Space Operations Mission Directorate View the full article
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By Space Force
The U.S. Space Force and ULA launch team successfully completed the certification process of the Vulcan rocket. The first NSSL mission on Vulcan is expected this summer.
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By NASA
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Overview
Welcome to the Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) services page. Provided here are different resources to support informed steps toward a new career opportunity in the public or private sector.
Transition Assistance
NASA is partnering with OPM to offer a 1-day workshop covering multiple areas associated with career transitions. The workshop will be offered virtually on pre-scheduled dates and will include:
Career Exploration (1 Hour) Job Search Strategy (1 Hour) Resume Writing (2 Hours) Interview Techniques (2 Hours) One-On-One Counseling NASA will follow-up with employees eligible for CTAP to enroll them in the workshop and share participation details.
Transition Resources
Below are links to guidance, resources, and tools that are helpful during a career move, including resume preparation, interview preparation, networking strategies, job search assistance, and more.
Resume Preparation
Resources to help craft strong professional resumes that showcase personal skills and experience, including specialized training and tools.
General
Resume Tips Brochure to Launch Your Career
JPL Resume Workshop
Writing an Effective Resume
CareerOneStop
Federal/State/Local Government
Federal employees who have been displaced due to a Reduction in Force (RIF) may be eligible for priority selection for another federal job under the CTAP. In their USAJOBS profiles, they can indicate their CTAP eligibility under the Federal Service section and make their resume and profile searchable for Agency Talent Portal (ATP) users by selecting a saved resume under the Documents tab.
How to Build a Resume
What Should I Include in My Resume
How to Make Your Resume and Profile Searchable
Private Sector
Creating A Successful Private Sector Resume from Your Federal Resume
Beyond Federal Service: How to Transition to the Private Sector
Interview Coaching
Resources to prepare for job interviews and improve interview skills, including information about the interview process, how to prepare and respond to interview questions, and platforms to conduct practice interviews and receive feedback on responses.
Interview Process
Interview Tips from Department of Labor
Interview Tips from DOL’s CareerOneStop
Interview Responses
STAR Method: How to Use This Technique to Ace Your Next Job Interview
Interview Practice
Barclays Virtual Interview Practice Tool (Free)
Google Interview Warmup (Free)
Pramp (Free)
Networking
Guidance on how to leverage LinkedIn for job search and professional networking, and providing feedback on LinkedIn profiles, optimizing keywords, and increasing visibility to recruiters.
Rock Your LinkedIn Profile Learning Series Videos
LinkedIn Profile Best Practices
LinkedIn Profile Summary Best Practices
Leveraging LinkedIn for Job Search Success
Make the Most of LinkedIn for Your Job Search
Forming a Network
Job Information/Job Search Assistance
Free online resources for identifying adjacent or new career opportunities, including job matching websites and websites offering personality or career assessments.
Career Search
CareerOneStop
O*NET Online
Self-Assessment
CareerExplorer Assessment
CareerOneStop Self-Assessments
O*NET Interest Profiler
USAJOBS Career Explorer
Job Search
Apprenticeship Job Finder
CareerOneStop Job Search
Indeed
Monster
USAJOBS
ZipRecruiter
Other
CareerOneStop Find American Job Centers
Retraining
Free and fee-based online e-learning resources to enhance current skills or acquire new skills.
Codeacademy
Coursera
edX
Harvard Online Learning
Khan Academy
LinkedIn Learning
MasterClass
MIT OpenCourseWare
Skillshare
Stanford Online
Udemy
Employment Counseling
NASA’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP) offers free, confidential counseling that can be used to obtain employment counseling and support during a career transition, as well as referrals to other needed resources.
NASA Enterprise EAP Page
NASA Center EAP Pages
Additional Transition Resources
There are also additional career transition resources available through OPM including:
The Employee’s Guide to Career Transition
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Last Updated Mar 24, 2025 Related Terms
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By NASA
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Researcher Ann Raiho measures sunlight interacting with yellow Coreopsis gigantea flowers during field work in the Jack and Laura Dangermond Preserve in California’s Santa Barbara County in 2022.NASA/Yoseline Angel For many plant species, flowering is biologically synced with the seasons. Scientists are clocking blooms to understand our ever-changing planet.
NASA research is revealing there’s more to flowers than meets the human eye. A recent analysis of wildflowers in California shows how aircraft- and space-based instruments can use color to track seasonal flower cycles. The results suggest a potential new tool for farmers and natural-resource managers who rely on flowering plants.
In their study, the scientists surveyed thousands of acres of nature preserve using a technology built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. The instrument — an imaging spectrometer — mapped the landscape in hundreds of wavelengths of light, capturing flowers as they blossomed and aged over the course of months.
It was the first time the instrument had been deployed to track vegetation steadily through the growing season, making this a “first-of-a-kind study,” said David Schimel, a research scientist at JPL.
In this illustration, an imaging spectrometer aboard a research plane measures sunlight reflecting off California coastal scrub. In the data cube below, the top panel shows the true-color view of the area. Lower panels depict the spectral fingerprint for every point in the image, capturing the visible range of light (blue, green, and red wavelengths) to the near-infrared (NIR) and beyond. Spatial resolution is around 16 feet (5 meters).NASA For many plant species from crops to cacti, flowering is timed to seasonal swings in temperature, daylight, and precipitation. Scientists are taking a closer look at the relationship between plant life and seasons — known as vegetation phenology — to understand how rising temperatures and changing rainfall patterns may be impacting ecosystems.
Typically, wildflower surveys rely on boots-on-the-ground observations and tools such as time-lapse photography. But these approaches cannot capture broader changes that may be happening in different ecosystems around the globe, said lead author Yoseline Angel, a scientist at the University of Maryland-College Park and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
“One challenge is that compared to leaves or other parts of a plant, flowers can be pretty ephemeral,” she said. “They may last only a few weeks.”
To track blooms on a large scale, Angel and other NASA scientists are looking to one of the signature qualities of flowers: color.
NASA’s AVIRIS sensors have been used to study wildfires, World Trade Center wreckage, and critical minerals, among numerous airborne missions over the years. AVIRIS-3 is seen here on a field campaign in Panama, where it helped analyze vegetation in many wavelengths of light not visible to human eyes.NASA/Shawn Serbin Mapping Native Shrubs
Flower pigments fall into three major groups: carotenoids and betalains (associated with yellow, orange, and red colors), and anthocyanins (responsible for many deep reds, violets, and blues). The different chemical structures of the pigments reflect and absorb light in unique patterns.
Spectrometers allow scientists to analyze the patterns and catalog plant species by their chemical “fingerprint.” As all molecules reflect and absorb a unique pattern of light, spectrometers can identify a wide range of biological substances, minerals, and gases.
Handheld devices are used to analyze samples in the field or lab. To survey moons and planets, including Earth, NASA has developed increasingly powerful imaging spectrometers over the past 45 years.
One such instrument is called AVIRIS-NG (short for Airborne Visible/InfraRed Imaging Spectrometer-Next Generation), which was built by JPL to fly on aircraft. In 2022 it was used in a large ecology field campaign to survey vegetation in the Jack and Laura Dangermond Preserve and the Sedgwick Reserve, both in Santa Barbara County. Among the plants observed were two native shrub species — Coreopsis gigantea and Artemisia californica — from February to June.
The scientists developed a method to tease out the spectral fingerprint of the flowers from other landscape features that crowded their image pixels. In fact, they were able to capture 97% of the subtle spectral differences among flowers, leaves, and background cover (soil and shadows) and identify different flowering stages with 80% certainty.
Predicting Superblooms
The results open the door to more air- and space-based studies of flowering plants, which represent about 90% of all plant species on land. One of the ultimate goals, Angel said, would be to support farmers and natural resource managers who depend on these species along with insects and other pollinators in their midst. Fruit, nuts, many medicines, and cotton are a few of the commodities produced from flowering plants.
Angel is working with new data collected by AVIRIS’ sister spectrometer that orbits on the International Space Station. Called EMIT (Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation), it was designed to map minerals around Earth’s arid regions. Combining its data with other environmental observations could help scientists study superblooms, a phenomenon where vast patches of desert flowers bloom after heavy rains.
One of the delights of researching flowers, Angel said, is the enthusiasm from citizen scientists. “I have social media alerts on my phone,” she added, noting one way she stays on top of wildflower activity around the world.
The wildflower study was supported as part of the Surface Biology and Geology High-Frequency Time Series (SHIFT) campaign. An airborne and field research effort, SHIFT was jointly led by the Nature Conservancy, the University of California, Santa Barbara, and JPL. Caltech, in Pasadena, manages JPL for NASA.
The AVIRIS instrument was originally developed through funding from NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office.
News Media Contacts
Andrew Wang / Jane J. Lee
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
626-379-6874 / 818-354-0307
andrew.wang@jpl.nasa.gov / jane.j.lee@jpl.nasa.gov
Written by Sally Younger
2025-041
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Last Updated Mar 24, 2025 Related Terms
Earth Earth Science Jet Propulsion Laboratory Explore More
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