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By NASA
1 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA Marshall will hold a candle-lighting ceremony and wreath placement at 9:30 a.m. CST. The ceremony will include remarks from Larry Leopard, associate director, and Bill Hill, director of Marshall’s Office of Safety and Mission Assurance. NASA/ Krisdon Manecke NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, invites media to attend its observance of the agency’s Day of Remembrance at 9:30 a.m. CST Thursday, Jan. 23, in the lobby of Building 4221.
Day of Remembrance honors the members of the NASA family who lost their lives while furthering the cause of exploration and discovery.
The event will include brief remarks from NASA Marshall leaders, followed by a candle lighting and moment of silence for the crews of Apollo 1 and space shuttles Challenger and Columbia. Speakers will include:
Larry Leopard, associate director, technical. Bill Hill, director, Office of Safety and Mission Assurance. Media interested in attending the event must confirm by 12 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 22, with Molly Porter at: molly.a.porter@nasa.gov.
The agency will also pay tribute to its fallen astronauts with special online content, updated on NASA’s Day of Remembrance, at:
https://www.nasa.gov/dor/
Molly Porter
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256-424-5158
molly.a.porter@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Jan 21, 2025 EditorBeth RidgewayContactMolly Portermolly.a.porter@nasa.govLocationMarshall Space Flight Center Related Terms
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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
NASA’s SPHEREx observatory will use a technique called spectroscopy across the entire sky, capturing the universe in more than 100 colors.Credit: BAE Systems Media accreditation is open for the launch of two NASA missions that will explore the mysteries of our universe and Sun.
The agency is targeting late February to launch its SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) observatory, a space telescope that will create a 3D map of the entire sky to help scientists investigate the origins of our universe. NASA’s PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) mission, which will study origins of the Sun’s outflow of material, or the solar wind, also will ride to space with the telescope.
NASA and SpaceX will launch the missions aboard the company’s Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
Accredited media will have the opportunity to participate in a series of prelaunch briefings and interviews with key mission personnel, including a science briefing the week of launch. NASA will communicate additional details regarding the media event schedule as the launch date approaches.
Media interested in covering the launch must apply for media accreditation. The application deadline for U.S. citizens is 11:59 p.m. EST, Thursday, Feb. 6, while international media without U.S. citizenship must apply by 11:59 p.m., Monday, Jan. 20.
NASA’s media accreditation policy is available online. For questions about accreditation, please email: ksc-media-accreditat@mail.nasa.gov. For other mission questions, please contact the newsroom at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 321-867-2468.
Para obtener información sobre cobertura en español en el Centro Espacial Kennedy o si desea solicitar entrevistas en español, comuníquese con Antonia Jaramillo: 321-501-8425, o Messod Bendayan: 256-930-1371.
Updates about spacecraft launch preparations are available on the agency’s SPHEREx blog and PUNCH blog.
The SPHEREx mission will observe hundreds of millions of stars and galaxies in infrared light, a range of wavelengths not visible to the human eye. With this map, SPHEREx will enable scientists to study inflation, or the rapid expansion of the universe a fraction of a second after the big bang. The observatory also will measure the collective glow from galaxies near and far, including light from hidden galaxies that individually haven’t been observed, and look for reservoirs of water, carbon dioxide, and other key ingredients for life in our home galaxy.
Launching as a rideshare with SPHEREx, the agency’s PUNCH mission is made up of four suitcase-sized satellites that will spread out around Earth’s day-night line to observe the Sun and space with a combined field of view. Working together, the four satellites will map out the region where the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona, transitions to the solar wind, or the constant outflow of material from the Sun.
The SPHEREx observatory is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California for the Astrophysics Division within the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The mission principal investigator is based jointly at NASA JPL and Caltech. Formerly Ball Aerospace, BAE Systems built the telescope, supplied the spacecraft bus, and performed observatory integration. The science analysis of the SPHEREx data will be conducted by a team of scientists located at 10 institutions in the U.S., two in South Korea, and one in Taiwan. Data will be processed and archived at IPAC at Caltech. The SPHEREx data set will be publicly available.
The agency’s PUNCH mission is led by Southwest Research Institute’s office in Boulder, Colorado. The mission is managed by the Explorers Program Office at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at NASA Kennedy, manages the launch service for the SPHEREx and PUNCH missions.
For more details about the SPHEREx mission and updates on launch preparations, visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/spherex
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Alise Fisher (SPHEREx)
Headquarters, Washington
202-617-4977
alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov
Sarah Frazier (PUNCH)
Goddard Space Flight Center, Maryland
202-853-7191
sarah.frazier@nasa.gov
Laura Aguiar
Kennedy Space Center, Florida
321-593-6245
laura.aguiar@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Jan 13, 2025 EditorJessica TaveauLocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe and Ices Explorer) Goddard Space Flight Center Heliophysics Jet Propulsion Laboratory Kennedy Space Center Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) Science Mission Directorate View the full article
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By European Space Agency
Video: 01:22:54 Watch the replay of ESA's start-of-the-year press briefing looking ahead to 2025.
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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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