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    • By NASA
      “Trying to do stellar observations from Earth is like trying to do birdwatching from the bottom of a lake.” James B. Odom, Hubble Program Manager 1983-1990.

      The third servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, placed in orbit in 1990, occurred during the STS-103 mission in December 1999. During the mission, originally planned for June 2000 but accelerated by six months following unexpected failures of the telescope’s attitude control gyroscopes, the astronauts restored the facility to full functionality. During their eight-day mission that featured the first space shuttle crew to spend Christmas in space, the seven-member U.S. and European crew rendezvoused with and captured Hubble, and four astronauts in rotating teams of two conducted three lengthy and complex spacewalks to service and upgrade the telescope. They redeployed the telescope with greater capabilities than ever before to continue its mission to help scientists unlock the secrets of the universe.
      Schematic showing the Hubble Space Telescope’s major components. Workers inspect the Hubble Space Telescope’s 94-inch diameter primary mirror prior to assembly. Astronauts release the Hubble Space Telescope in April 1990 during the STS-31 mission. The discovery after the Hubble Space Telescope’s launch in 1990 that its primary mirror suffered from a flaw called spherical aberration disappointed scientists who could not obtain the sharp images they had expected. But thanks to the Hubble’s built-in feature of on-orbit servicing, NASA devised a plan to correct the telescope’s optics during the first planned repair mission in 1993. A second servicing mission in 1997 upgraded the telescope’s capabilities until the next mission planned for three years later. But after three of the telescope’s six gyroscopes failed in 1997, 1998, and 1999, mission rules dictated a call up mission in case additional gyroscope failures sent Hubble into a safe mode. NASA elected to move up some of the servicing tasks from the third mission, splitting it into missions 3A and 3B, planning to fly 3A in October 1999 on Discovery’s STS-103 mission primarily to replace the failed gyroscopes. Delays to the shuttle fleet resulting from anomalies during the launch of STS-93 in July 1993 slipped STS-103 first into November and ultimately into December. Technical issues with Discovery itself pushed the launch date to mid-December, and raised concerns about having a shuttle in orbit during the Y2K transition. Once the launch had slipped to Dec. 19, mission planners cut the mission from 10 to eight days, deleting one of the four spacewalks, to ensure a return before the end of the calendar year. The servicing mission couldn’t come soon enough, as a fourth gyroscope failed aboard Hubble in mid-November, with Discovery already poised on the launch pad to prepare for STS-103. Controllers placed Hubble in a safe mode until the astronauts arrived.
      The STS-103 crew of C. Michael Foale, left, Claude Nicollier, Scott J. Kelly, Curtis L. Brown, Jean-François A. Clervoy, John M. Grunsfeld, and Steven L. Smith. The STS-103 crew patch. The mission patch for the Hubble Servicing Mission-3A. To execute the third Hubble Servicing Mission, in July 1998 NASA selected an experienced four-person team to carry out a record-breaking six spacewalks on the flight then planned for June 2000. The spacewalkers included Mission Specialists Steven L. Smith serving as payload commander, John M. Grunsfeld, C. Michael Foale, and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Claude Nicollier from Switzerland. The addition in March 1999 of Commander Curtis L. Brown, Pilot Scott J. Kelly, and Mission Specialist ESA astronaut Jean-François A. Clervoy of France rounded out the highly experienced crew with 18 previous spaceflights among them. Brown earned the distinction as only the fifth person to fly in space six times. For Kelly, STS-103 marked his first spaceflight. Smith, Clervoy, and Grunsfeld each had flown two previous missions, Foale four including a long-duration mission aboard Mir, and Nicollier three. Smith participated in three spacewalks during the second Hubble Servicing Mission and Nicollier served as the Remote Manipulator System (RMS) or robotic arm operator during the first.
      The STS-103 crew at the traditional prelaunch breakfast at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Suited up, the STS-103 astronauts leave crew quarters for the trip to Launch Pad 39B. Space shuttle Discovery on Launch Pad 39B, awaiting launch. Discovery arrived back to KSC at the end of the STS-96 mission on June 6, 1999, and workers towed it to the Orbiter Processing Facility the same day to begin readying it for STS-103. The vehicle rolled over to the Vehicle Assembly Building on Nov. 4, where workers mated it with its external tank and twin solid rocket boosters, before rolling the stack out to Launch Pad 39B on Nov. 13.
      Liftoff of space shuttle Discovery on the STS-103 Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission 3A. The Hubble Space Telescope as Discovery approaches. The STS-103 crew berthing the Hubble into the payload bay. Beginning its 27th trip into space, Discovery lifted off from Launch Pad 39B at 7:50 p.m. EST on Dec. 19 to fix the ailing space telescope. Two days later, Brown and Kelly maneuvered Discovery to within range of Hubble so Clervoy operating the 50-foot-long RMS could grapple the telescope and berth it into the payload bay.
      During the first spacewalk, astronauts John M. Grunsfeld, left, and Steven L. Smith replacing one of the Rate Sensor Units containing two gyroscopes. Smith gives a thumbs up with his image reflected in the Hubble Space Telescope. Smith and Grunsfeld conducted the mission’s first spacewalk on Dec. 22, the flight’s fourth day in space. The duo, aided by Clervoy operating the RMS from inside Discovery, completed two of mission’s highest priority objectives. They replaced the failed gyroscopes, installing three new Rate Sensor Units, each containing two gyroscopes, to return control to the ailing telescope. They also installed six Voltage/Temperature Improvement Kits to prevent the telescope’s batteries from overheating as they aged. The excursion lasted eight hours 15 minutes, at the time the second longest spacewalk.
      During the second spacewalk, astronauts C. Michael Foale, left, and Claude Nicollier during the changeout of the fine guidance sensor. Foale at the end of the Remote Manipulator System services the Hubble Space Telescope. The next day, Nicollier and Foale conducted the mission’s second spacewalk. The main task for this excursion involved installing a new computer aboard Hubble, replacing the original 1970s vintage unit. The new radiation-hardened system ran 20 times faster and carried six times more memory while using one-third the electrical power. They also installed a fine guidance sensor before concluding the eight-hour 10-minute spacewalk.
      Astronauts Steven L. Smith, left, and John M. Grunsfeld begin their servicing activities during the third spacewalk. At the end of the third and final spacewalk, Grunsfeld, left, and Smith provide closing comments about the work the mission accomplished to service the Hubble Space Telescope. Smith and Grunsfeld ventured outside for a second time to complete the flight’s third and final spacewalk on Dec. 24, the first spacewalk conducted on Christmas Eve day. First, they replaced an old reel-to-reel tape recorder with a solid state unit providing a 10-fold increase in recording capability and replaced a failed data transmitter. They installed seven new covers on Hubble’s electronics bay doors for added protection of the telescope’s insulation. This third spacewalk lasted eight hours eight minutes.
      The first space shuttle crew to celebrate Christmas in space, the STS-103 astronauts pose wearing Santa hats. The Hubble Space Telescope shortly after the STS-103 crew released it. The next day, the STS-103 astronauts earned the distinction as the first space shuttle crew to spend Christmas Day in space. Clervoy grappled Hubble, lifted it out of the payload bay and released it to continue its mission. Hubble Space Telescope Program Manager John H. Campbell said after the release, “The spacecraft is being guided by its new gyros under the control of its brand new computer. [It] is now orbiting freely and is in fantastic shape.” After deploying Hubble, the astronauts enjoyed a well-deserved Christmas dinner, with Clervoy providing French delicacies. The crew spent Dec. 26 readying Discovery for its return to Earth, including testing its reaction control system thrusters and aerodynamic surfaces and stowing unneeded gear.
      Astronauts Steven L. Smith, left, Claude Nicollier, and John M. Grunsfeld complete their fluid loading protocol and put on their launch and entry suits prior to reentry. Space shuttle Discovery makes a perfect night landing at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew welcome home ceremony at Ellington Field in Houston. On Dec. 27, the astronauts donned their launch and entry suits and prepared for the return to Earth. They closed the payload bay doors and fired Discovery’s engines to bring them out of orbit. Just before landing, Kelly lowered the craft’s landing gear and Brown guided Discovery to a smooth night landing at KSC, concluding a flight of seven days, 23 hours, 11 minutes. They circled the Earth 119 times. The flight marked Discovery’s last solo flight as all its subsequent missions docked with the International Space Station. Workers at KSC began readying it for its next mission, STS-92 in October 2000.

      The Hubble Space Telescope continues to operate today, far exceeding the five-year life extension expected from the last of the servicing missions in 2009. Joined in space by the James Webb Space Telescope in 2021, the two instruments together continue to image the skies across a broad range of the electromagnetic spectrum to provide scientists with the tools to gain unprecedented insights into the universe and its formation.

      Watch the STS-103 crew narrate a video of their Hubble servicing mission.
      View the full article
    • By European Space Agency
      Image: Hera asteroid mission in your house View the full article
    • By NASA
      7 min read
      Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
      2024 intro: As NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley enters its 85th year since its founding, join us as we take a look back at some of our highlights of science, engineering, research, and innovation from 2024.
      Ames Arc Jets Play Key Role in Artemis I Orion Spacecraft Heat Shield Findings 
      A block of Avcoat undergoes testing inside an arc jet test chamber at NASA Ames. The test article, configured with both permeable (upper) and non-permeable (lower) Avcoat sections for comparison, helped to confirm understanding of the root cause of the loss of charred Avcoat material that engineers saw on the Orion spacecraft after the Artemis I test flight beyond the Moon. NASA Researchers at Ames were part of the team tasked to better understand and identify the root cause of the unexpected char loss across the Artemis I Orion spacecraft’s heat shield. Using Avcoat material response data from Artemis I, the investigation team was able to replicate the Artemis I entry trajectory environment — a key part of understanding the cause of the issue — inside the arc jet facilities at NASA Ames. 
      Starling Swarm Completes Primary Mission 
      The four CubeSat spacecraft that make up the Starling swarm have demonstrated success in autonomous operations, completing all key mission objectives. NASA After ten months in orbit, the Starling spacecraft swarm successfully demonstrated its primary mission’s key objectives, representing significant achievements in the capability of swarm configurations in low Earth orbit, including distributing and sharing important information and autonomous decision making. 
      Another Step Forward for BioNutrients 
      Research scientists Sandra Vu, left, Natalie Ball, center, and Hiromi Kagawa, right, process BioNutrients production packs.NASA/Brandon Torres Navarrete NASA’s BioNutrients entered its fifth year in its mission to investigate how microorganisms can produce on-demand nutrients for astronauts during long-duration space missions. Keeping astronauts healthy is critical and as the project comes to a close, researchers have processed production packs on Earth on the same day astronauts processed production packs in space on the International Space Station to demonstrate that NASA can produce nutrients after at least five years in space, providing confidence it will be capable of supporting crewed missions to Mars.  
      Hyperwall Upgrade Helps Scientists Interpret Big Data
      The newly upgraded hyperwall visualization system provides four times the resolution of the previous system. NASA/Brandon Torres Navarrete Ames upgraded its powerful hyperwall system, a 300-square foot wall of LCD screens with over a billion pixels to display supercomputer-scale visualizations of the very large datasets produced by NASA supercomputers and instruments. The hyperwall is just one way researchers can utilize NASA’s high-end computing technology to better understand their data and advance the agency’s missions and research. 
      Ames Contributions to NASA Artificial Intelligence Efforts 
      NASA public affairs officer Melissa Howell moderates as chief scientist Kate Calvin speaks alongside chief technologist AC Charania, chief artificial intelligence officer David Salvagnini, and chief information officer Jeff Seaton at the agency’s first artificial intelligence town hall.NASA/Bill Ingalls Ames contributes to the agency’s artificial intelligence work through ongoing research and development, agencywide collaboration, and communications efforts. This year, NASA announced David Salvagnini as its inaugural chief artificial intelligence officer and held the first agencywide town hall on artificial intelligence sharing how the agency is safely using and developing artificial intelligence to advance missions and research. 
      Advanced Composite Solar Sail System Successfully Launches, Deploys Sail
      NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System seeks to advance future space exploration and expand our understanding of our Sun and Solar System.  NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System successfully launched from Māhia, New Zealand, in April, and successfully deployed its sail in August to begin mission operations. The small satellite represents a new future in solar sailing, using lightweight composite booms to support a reflective polymer sail that uses the pressure of sunlight as propulsion. 
      Understanding Our Planet 
      Samuel Suleiman, an instructor on NASA’s OCEANOS student training program, gathers loose corals to place around an endangered coral species to help attract fish and other wildlife, giving the endangered coral a better chance of survival.NASA/Milan Loiacono In 2024, Ames researchers studied Earth’s oceans and waterways from multiple angles – from supporting NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem, or PACE, mission to bringing students in Puerto Rico experiences in oceanography and the preservation of coral reefs. Working with multiple partners, our scientists and engineers helped inform ecosystem management by joining satellite measurements of Earth with animal tracking data. In collaboration with the U.S. Geological Survey, a NASA team continued testing a specialized instrument package to stay in-the-know about changes in river flow rates. 
      Revealing the Mysteries of Asteroids in Our Solar System 
      NASA Ames researchers used a series of supercomputer simulations to reveal a potential new explanation for how the moons of Mars may have formed: The first step, the findings say, may have involved the destruction of an asteroid. 
      Using NASA’s powerful James Webb Space Telescope, another Ames scientist helped reveal the smallest asteroids ever found in the main asteroid belt. 
      Ames Helps Emerging Space Companies ‘Take the Heat’
      A heat shield made by NASA is visible on the blunt, upward-facing side of a space capsule after its landing in the Utah desert.Varda Space Industries/John Kraus A heat shield material invented and made at Ames helped to safely return a spacecraft containing the first product processed on an autonomous, free-flying, in-space manufacturing platform. February’s re-entry of the spacecraft from Varda Space Industries of El Segundo, California, in partnership with Rocket Lab USA of Long Beach, California, marked the first time a NASA-manufactured thermal protection material, called C-PICA (Conformal Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator), ever returned from space. 
      Team Continues to Move Forward with Mission to Learn More about Our Star
      This illustration lays a depiction of the sun’s magnetic fields over an image captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory on March 12, 2016. NASA/SDO/AIA/LMSAL HelioSwarm’s swarm of nine spacecraft will provide deeper insights into our universe and offer critical information to help protect astronauts, satellites, and communications signals such as GPS. The mission team continues to work toward launching in 2029. 
      CAPSTONE Continues to Chart a New Path Around the Moon 
      CAPSTONE revealed in lunar Sunrise: CAPSTONE will fly in cislunar space – the orbital space near and around the Moon. The mission will demonstrate an innovative spacecraft-to-spacecraft navigation solution at the Moon from a near rectilinear halo orbit slated for Artemis’ Gateway.Credits: Illustration by NASA/Daniel Rutter The microwave sized CubeSat, CAPSTONE, continues to fly in a cis-lunar near rectilinear halo orbit after launching in 2022. Flying in this unique orbit continues to pave the way for future spacecraft and Gateway, a Moon-orbiting outpost that is part of NASA’s Artemis campaign, as the team continues to collect data. 
      NASA Moves Drone Package Delivery Industry Closer to Reality 
      A drone is shown flying during a test of Unmanned Aircraft Systems Traffic Management (UTM) technical capability Level 2 (TCL2) at Reno-Stead Airport, Nevada in 2016. During the test, five drones simultaneously crossed paths, separated by different altitudes. Two drones flew beyond visual line of sight and three flew within line-of-sight of their operators. More UTM research followed, and it continues today. Dominic Hart NASA’s uncrewed aircraft system traffic management concepts paved the way for newly-approved package delivery drone flights in the Dallas area. 
      NASA Technologies Streamline Air Traffic Management Systems 
      This image shows an aviation version of a smartphone navigation app that makes suggestions for an aircraft to fly an alternate, more efficient route. The new trajectories are based on information available from NASA’s Digital Information Platform and processed by the Collaborative Departure Digital Rerouting tool.NASA Managing our busy airspace is a complex and important issue, ensuring reliable and efficient movement of commercial and public air traffic as well as autonomous vehicles. NASA, in partnership with AeroVironment and Aerostar, demonstrated a first-of-its-kind air traffic management concept that could pave the way for aircraft to safely operate at higher altitudes. The agency also saw continued fuel savings and reduction in commercial flight delays at Dallas Fort-Worth Airport, thanks to a NASA-developed tool that allows flight coordinators to identify more efficient, alternative takeoff routes.
      Small Spacecraft Gathers Big Solar Storm Data from Deep Space 
      Illustration of NASA’s BioSentinel spacecraft as it enters a heliocentric orbit.NASA/Daniel Rutter BioSentinel – a small satellite about the size of a cereal box – is currently more than 30 million miles from Earth, orbiting our Sun. After launching aboard NASA’s Artemis I more than two years ago, BioSentinel continues to collect valuable information for scientists trying to understand how solar radiation storms move through space and where their effects – and potential impacts on life beyond Earth – are most intense. In May 2024, the satellite was exposed to a coronal mass ejection without the protection of our planet’s magnetic field and gathered measurements of hazardous solar particles in deep space during a solar storm. 
      NASA, FAA Partner to Develop New Wildland Fire Technologies
      Artist’s rendering of remotely piloted aircraft providing fire suppression, monitoring and communications capabilities during a wildland fire. NASA NASA researchers continued to develop and test airspace management technologies to enable remotely-piloted aircraft to fight and monitor wildland fires 24 hours a day.  
      The Advanced Capabilities for Emergency Response Operations (ACERO) project seeks to use drones and advanced aviation technologies to improve wildland fire coordination and operations. 
      NASA and Forest Service Use Balloon to Help Firefighters Communicate
      The Aerostar Thunderhead balloon carries the STRATO payload into the sky to reach the stratosphere for flight testing. The balloon appears deflated because it will expand as it rises to higher altitudes where pressures are lower.Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control Center of Excellence for Advanced Technology Aerial Firefighting/Austin Buttlar  The Strategic Tactical Radio and Tactical Overwatch (STRATO) technology is a collaborative effort to use high-altitude balloons to improve real-time communications among firefighters battling wildland fires. Providing cellular communication from above can improve firefighter safety and firefighting efficiency.
      A Fully Reimagined Visitor Center 
      The NASA Ames Visitor Center includes exhibits and activities, sharing the work of NASA in Silicon Valley with the public. NASA/Don Richey The NASA Ames Visitor Center at Chabot Space & Science Center in Oakland, California includes a fully reimagined 360-degree experience, featuring new exhibits, models, and more. An interactive exhibit puts visitors in the shoes of a NASA Ames scientist, designing and testing rovers, planes, and robots for space exploration. 
      Ames Collaborations in the Community
      Former NASA astronauts Yvonne Cagle and Kenneth Cockrell pose with Eli Toribio and Rhydian Daniels at the University of California, San Francisco Bakar Cancer Hospital. Patients gathered to meet the astronauts and learn more about human spaceflight and NASA’s cancer research effortsNASA/Brandon Torres Navarrete NASA astronauts, scientists, and researchers, and leadership from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) met with cancer patients and gathered in a discussion about potential research opportunities and collaborations as part of President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden’s Cancer Moonshot initiative on Oct. 4. During the visit with patients, NASA astronaut Yvonne Cagle and former astronaut Kenneth Cockrell answered questions about spaceflight and life in space. 
      Ames and the University of California, Berkeley, expanded their partnership, organizing workshops to exchange on their areas of technical expertise, including in Advanced Air Mobility, and to develop ideas for the Berkeley Space Center, an innovation hub proposed for development at Ames’ NASA Research Park. Under a new agreement, NASA also will host supercomputing resources for UC Berkeley, supporting the development of novel computing algorithms and software for a wide variety of scientific and technology areas.
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      Last Updated Dec 17, 2024 Related Terms
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    • By NASA
      5 min read
      Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
      The Orion Environmental Test Article photographed inside the Thermal Vacuum Chamber on April 11, 2024, in the Space Environments Complex at NASA’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio. Credit: NASA/Quentin Schwinn  Making the voyage 1.4 million miles around the Moon and back — the farthest a spacecraft built for humans has ever gone — the Orion spacecraft has faced a battery of tests over the years. Though Orion successfully proved its capabilities in the harsh environment of space during the Artemis I mission, Orion’s evaluation did not end at splashdown.  

      The crew module, now known as the Orion Environmental Test Article (ETA), returned to NASA’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio, in January 2024 and completed an 11-month test campaign necessary for the safety and success of Artemis II, the first crewed mission under NASA’s Artemis campaign.  
      Engineers and technicians from NASA and Lockheed Martin subjected the test article to the extreme conditions Orion may experience in a launch abort scenario. In the event of an emergency, Orion — and astronauts inside — will jettison away from the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for a safe landing in the ocean.  
      Experts at NASA’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio, conducted a lightning test, which simulates the electromagnetic effects of a lightning strike to the vehicle on the launch pad awaiting liftoff. The Feb. 20, 2024 test proved the grounding path of the vehicle is operating as designed and protecting the vehicle from damage to any of its equipment or systems. Credit: NASA/Quentin Schwinn Experts installed NASA’s Launch Abort System, designed to carry the crew to safety in the event of an emergency during launch or ascent. The Orion test article was subjected to acoustic levels simulating both a nominal ascent and a launch abort scenario. The acoustic test chamber at NASA’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio, blasted the test article at a volume of almost 164 decibels on Sept. 9, 2024. Credit: NASA/Jordan Salkin On Nov. 11, 2024, experts successfully at NASA’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility completed the docking mechanism jettison test, designed to connect and disconnect the Orion spacecraft to Gateway, a small space station that will orbit the Moon. They also completed the forward bay cover jettison test on Nov. 23, 2024, which is the last piece that must eject right before parachutes deploy, and successfully tested Orion’s uprighting system. Credit: NASA/Jordan Salkin “This event would be the maximum stress and highest load that any of the systems would see,” said Robert Overy, Orion ETA project manager, NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. “We’re taking a proven vehicle from a successful flight and pushing it to its limits. The safety of the astronaut crew depends on this test campaign.” 
      Experts conducted tests that simulated the noise levels of an abort during launch in addition to the electromagnetic effects of lightning strikes. The test campaign also jettisoned the test article’s docking module and parachute covers, as well as the crew module uprighting system, which consists of five airbags on top of the spacecraft that inflate upon splashdown.  
      “It’s been a successful test campaign,” Overy said. “The data has matched the prediction models, and everything operated as expected after being subjected to nominal and launch abort acoustic levels. We are still analyzing data, but the preliminary results show the vehicle and facility operated as desired.” 
      On. Nov. 23, 2024, after subjecting the Orion test article to launch abort-level acoustics, experts tested the functionality of the forward bay cover, which is the last piece that must eject before parachutes deploy. Credit: NASA/Jordan Salkin and Quentin Schwinn Testing Orion at such high acoustic levels was a major milestone for Artemis. The Reverberant Acoustic Test Facility, the world’s most powerful spacecraft acoustic test chamber, was built in 2011 in anticipation of this specific test campaign.   
      “These tests are absolutely critical because we have to complete all of these tests to say the spacecraft design is safe and we’re ready to fly a crew for the first time on Artemis II,” said Michael See, ETA vehicle manager, Orion Program. “This is the first time we’ve been able to test a spacecraft on the ground in such an extreme abort-level acoustic environment.” 
      The Orion Environmental Test Article with Launch Abort System installed moves to the Reverberant Acoustic Test Facility, the most powerful spacecraft acoustic test chamber in the world, on Sept. 9, 2024, at NASA’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio. Credit: NASA/Jordan Salkin and Quentin Schwinn  Part of NASA Glenn, Armstrong Test Facility is home to the world’s largest and most powerful space environment simulation chambers capable of testing full-sized spacecraft for all the extreme conditions of launch and spaceflight. The facility not only houses an acoustic test chamber, but also a thermal-vacuum chamber and spacecraft vibration system.  
      “The facility is unique because there’s no other place in the world capable of testing spacecraft like this,” Overy said. “Armstrong Test Facility is a one-stop-shop for all your testing needs to prepare your spacecraft for the severe and challenging journey to and from space.” 
      Orion’s Round-Trip Journey to Ohio 
      This is not the first time Orion has been inside the walls of the Space Environments Complex at Armstrong Test Facility. The spacecraft underwent mission-critical testing in 2019, where it was subjected to extreme temperatures and an electromagnetic environment before it launched on Artemis I in 2022. 
      “I remember when it first arrived, the gravity of its importance really hit home,” said Joshua Pawlak, test manager, NASA Glenn. “I thought to myself, on future Artemis missions, astronauts will be inside Orion heading to the Moon, and they’ll be depending on it for survival.” 
      Pawlak was a mechanical test engineer when Orion made its first trip to the Sandusky facility. He participated in planning and coordinating testing of the vehicle and trained personnel. He managed the vehicle from the moment it arrived, through testing, and up until it departed for NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.  
      Joshua Pawlak poses in front of the Artemis I Space Launch System rocket on Nov. 16, 2022, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Credit: Joshua Pawlak “When it returned, I felt like I had a small part in this really big and exciting thing,” Pawlak said. “Seeing it come back blackened and scarred from the harsh environment of space was incredible. Space is not a friendly space, and I felt proud knowing that if there were astronauts on that vehicle, they would have survived. 
      After the Orion test article departs from Glenn, it will head to Kennedy for additional testing. 
      “When Artemis II launches and those astronauts are sitting on board, I’ll know that I did everything I could to ensure the vehicle is ready for them and going to perform as expected,” Pawlak said. “That’s why I do what I do.” 
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    • By European Space Agency
      Video: 00:11:10 In 2024, ESA continued to drive Europe’s innovation and excellence in space, equipping the continent with advanced tools and knowledge to address global and local challenges. The year saw pioneering missions, cutting-edge satellites and the pivotal restoration of Europe’s independent access to space. 
      The first Ariane 6 launch was perhaps ‘the’ highlight of the year but it was only one of many achievements. We saw the last Vega launch and then the return to flight of Vega-C, the more powerful, upgraded version carrying Sentinel-1C.
      Far away in our Solar System, the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo spacecraft performed twoMercury flybys in 2024, needed so that it can enter orbit around Mercury in 2026. Juice also performed a crucial gravity assist, this time becoming the first spacecraft to conduct a Moon-Earth double flyby on its way to Jupiter. 
      Twenty years after ESA’s Rosetta was launched and 10 years since its historic arrival at the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, we launched another spacecraft to a small body, the Hera planetary defence mission to investigate asteroid Dimorphos.
      2024 was an important year for Europe’s Galileo constellation which continued to expand with the launch of four new satellites and an updated Galileo ground system. The year also saw the launch of ESA’s Proba-3 mission: two precision formation-flying satellites forming a solar coronagraph to study the Sun’s faint corona. 
      In human spaceflight, Europe continues to contribute to science from the ISS as Andreas Mogensen’s Huginn mission continued into 2024. Andreas even met up in space with ESA project astronaut Marcus Wandt who was launched on his Muninn mission, making it the first time two Scandinavians were in space together. 
      Meanwhile the latest class of ESA astronauts completed basic training and graduated in April. Two of them, Sophie and Raphaël, were then assigned to long-duration missions to the ISS in 2026.
      We made crucial steps for Europe in gaining access to the Moon: the inauguration of our LUNA facility with DLR, and the delivery of a third European Service Module for NASA’s Orion spacecraft as part of the Artemis programme.
      Europe is also contributing to the international Lunar Gateway and developing and ESA lunar lander called Argonaut. These landers will rely on ESA Moonlight, the programme to establish Europe’s first dedicated satellite constellation for lunar communication and navigation.
      As 2024 draws to a close, ESA’s achievements this year have reinforced Europe’s role in space. ESA’s journey continues to explore new frontiers, shaping the space landscape for generations to come.
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