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President Biden Congratulates NASA on the Perseverance Mars Rover Touchdown
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By NASA
NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy (left) and Center Director at NASA’s Ames Research Center Eugene Tu (right) hear from Ames employees Sept. 16, 2024.NASA/Brandon Torres Navarrete NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy spent time at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, on Sept. 16, 2024, engaging with center leaders and employees to discuss strategies that could drive meaningful changes to ensure NASA remains the preeminent institution for research, technology, and engineering, and to lead science, aeronautics, and space exploration for humanity. Melroy’s visit also provided an opportunity to meet with early- and mid-career employees, who shared their perspectives and feedback.
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By NASA
On Sept. 18, 2024, five Congressional Gold Medals were awarded to women who contributed to the space race, including the NASA mathematicians who helped land the first astronauts on the Moon under the agency’s Apollo Program.Credit: NASA NASA Administrator Bill Nelson released his remarks as prepared for Wednesday’s Hidden Figures Congressional Gold Medal ceremony in Washington. The awards recognized the women who contributed to the space race, including the NASA mathematicians who helped land the first astronauts on the Moon under the agency’s Apollo Program.
“Good afternoon.
“The remarkable things that NASA achieves…and that America achieves…build on the pioneers who came before us.
“People like the women of Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo.
“People like Mary Jackson. Dr. Christine Darden. Dorothy Vaughan. Katherine Johnson.
“Thanks to all the Members of Congress who made today possible. The late Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, who we miss, and who led the effort in 2019 alongside Senator Chris Coons to bring these medals to life. Thanks to the champions for the legislation, then-Senator Kamala Harris, Senators Lisa Murkowski and Shelley Moore Capito, and Congressman Frank Lucas.
“The women we honor today made it possible for Earthlings to lift beyond the bounds of Earth, and for generations of trailblazers to follow.
“We did not come this far only to come this far.
“We continue this legacy, as one member of the audience here with us does every single day – the remarkable Andrea Mosie.
“Andrea, who has worked at NASA for nearly 50 years, is the lead processor for the Apollo sample program. She oversees the Moon rocks and lunar samples NASA brought back from Apollo, 842 pounds of celestial science! These samples are national treasures. So is Andrea.
“The pioneers we honor today, these Hidden Figures – their courage and imagination brought us to the Moon. And their lessons, their legacy, will send us back to the Moon… and then…imagine – just imagine – when we leave our footprints on the red sands of Mars.
“Thanks to these people who are part of our NASA family, we will continue to sail on the cosmic sea to far off cosmic shores.”
For more information about NASA missions, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov
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Meira Bernstein / Cheryl Warner
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
meira.b.bernstein@nasa.gov / cheryl.m.warner@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Sep 18, 2024 EditorJessica TaveauLocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
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By NASA
As the hub of human spaceflight, NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston holds a variety of unique responsibilities and privileges. Those include being the home of NASA’s astronaut corps.
One of those astronauts – Nick Hague – is now preparing to launch to the International Space Station along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov on the ninth rotational mission under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. This will be the third launch and second mission to the space station for Hague, who was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2013 and has spent 203 days in space.
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 Commander Nick Hague smiles and gives two thumbs up during the crew equipment interface test at SpaceX’s Dragon refurbishing facility at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.SpaceX Hague was born and raised in Kansas but has crisscrossed the country for college and career. He earned degrees from the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, and he attended the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Hague’s military career has taken him to New Mexico, Colorado, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., and included a five-month deployment to Iraq. Hague transferred from the Air Force to the U.S. Space Force in 2020 after serving as the Space Force’s director of test and evaluation at the Pentagon.
No stranger to new places, Hague vividly recalls making his first trip to Johnson when he was interviewing to join NASA’s astronaut corps. “I had no idea what to expect, and it was a bit overwhelming. I knew everyone was watching me and judging me,” he said. “Luckily, even though I wasn’t selected then, I got another chance a few years later. It’s a pretty magical place.”
Hague completed his astronaut training in July 2015 as part of NASA’s 21st astronaut class. He was the first astronaut from that group to be assigned to a mission, which launched in October 2018 but was aborted shortly after takeoff. His next spaceflight occurred in 2019, when he joined three of his classmates – NASA astronauts Jessica Meir, Christina Koch, and Andrew Morgan – aboard the International Space Station for Expeditions 59 and 60.
NASA astronaut Nick Hague suits up for spacewalk training in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory. NASA/James Blair Hague has made many memories at Johnson, but one that stands out is his experience working onsite amid the 2013 government shutdown. “I’m active-duty military so I still came to work,” he explained. “I remember being onsite and the center being completely empty. Being able to ride around an empty campus on the free-range bikes – it was peaceful and surreal.” It was also a preview of what many Johnson employees experienced during the pandemic and how NASA maintains round-the-clock support for spaceflight operations regardless of extenuating circumstances.
Hague now looks ahead to another journey to low Earth orbit. NASA and SpaceX officials currently plan to launch the Crew-9 mission no earlier than Wednesday, Sept. 25. The crew will lift off from Launch Complex 40 from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft.
Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov (left) and NASA astronaut Nick Hague during a visit to Kennedy Space Center for training. SpaceX Hague and Gorbonov will become members of the Expedition 72 crew aboard the station. They will join NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore, Suni Williams, and Don Pettit, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, and will spend about six months conducting scientific research in microgravity and completing a range of operational activities before returning home.
More details about the mission and crew can be found by following the Crew-9 blog, @commercial_crew on X, or commercial crew on Facebook. You can also follow @astrohague on X and Instagram.
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By NASA
Students are recognized for their hard work in STEM-related extended-day programs at their school through a partnership with NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.Credit: NASA Media are invited to the kickoff event of a collaboration between NASA and the U.S. Department of Education at 4 p.m. EDT Monday, Sept. 23, at the Wheatley Education Campus in Washington. The interagency project, 21st Century Community Learning Centers, aims to engage students in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education during after-school hours.
During the event, media will have the opportunity to learn about the STEM collaboration, hear remarks from leadership, and have one-on-one interviews with NASA and Education Department officials upon request. Additionally, students will have the opportunity to engage in educational activities, as well as participate in an engineering design challenge.
Officials providing remarks at the event include:
Kris Brown, deputy associate administrator, NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement, Headquarters in Washington Cindy Marten, deputy secretary, U.S. Department of Education Media interested in covering the event must RSVP no later than Friday, Sept. 20, to Abbey Donaldson: abbey.a.donaldson@nasa.gov.
Through the project, NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland and the Education Department will align resources to provide STEM activities, professional development, and funding for after-school programs nationwide. NASA will offer staff training, continuous program support, and opportunities for students to engage with NASA scientists and engineers. The initiative also will include student activities that demonstrate practical applications of STEM concepts.
In May 2023, NASA and the Education Department signed a Memorandum of Understanding, strengthening the collaboration between the two agencies, and expanding efforts to increase access to high-quality STEM and space education to students and schools across the nation. NASA Glenn signed a follow-on Space Act Agreement in 2024 to support the 21st Century Community Learning Centers.
Learn more about how NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement is inspiring the next generation of explorers at:
https://www.nasa.gov/stem
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Abbey Donaldson
Headquarters, Washington
202-269-1600
abbey.a.donaldson@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Sep 18, 2024 EditorJessica TaveauLocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
STEM Engagement at NASA Learning Resources Opportunities For Students to Get Involved Partner with NASA STEM View the full article
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By NASA
4 Min Read NASA’s Webb Provides Another Look Into Galactic Collisions
This composite image of Arp 107 reveals a wealth of information about the star-formation and how these two galaxies collided hundreds of million years ago (full image below). Credits:
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI Smile for the camera! An interaction between an elliptical galaxy and a spiral galaxy, collectively known as Arp 107, seems to have given the spiral a happier outlook thanks to the two bright “eyes” and the wide semicircular “smile.” The region has been observed before in infrared by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope in 2005, however NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope displays it in much higher resolution. This image is a composite, combining observations from Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) and NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera).
Image A: Arp 107 (NIRCam and MIRI Image)
This composite image of Arp 107, created with data from the James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), reveals a wealth of information about the star-formation and how these two galaxies collided hundreds of million years ago. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI NIRCam highlights the stars within both galaxies and reveals the connection between them: a transparent, white bridge of stars and gas pulled from both galaxies during their passage. MIRI data, represented in orange-red, shows star-forming regions and dust that is composed of soot-like organic molecules known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. MIRI also provides a snapshot of the bright nucleus of the large spiral, home to a supermassive black hole.
Image B: Arp 107 (MIRI Image)
This image of Arp 107, shown by Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), reveals the supermassive black hole that lies in the center of the large spiral galaxy to the right. This black hole, which pulls much of the dust into lanes, also display’s Webb’s characteristic diffraction spikes, caused by the light that it emits interacting with the structure of the telescope itself. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI The spiral galaxy is classified as a Seyfert galaxy, one of the two largest groups of active galaxies, along with galaxies that host quasars. Seyfert galaxies aren’t as luminous and distant as quasars, making them a more convenient way to study similar phenomena in lower energy light, like infrared.
This galaxy pair is similar to the Cartwheel Galaxy, one of the first interacting galaxies that Webb observed. Arp 107 may have turned out very similar in appearance to the Cartwheel, but since the smaller elliptical galaxy likely had an off-center collision instead of a direct hit, the spiral galaxy got away with only its spiral arms being disturbed.
The collision isn’t as bad as it sounds. Although there was star formation occurring before, collisions between galaxies can compress gas, improving the conditions needed for more stars to form. On the other hand, as Webb reveals, collisions also disperse a lot of gas, potentially depriving new stars of the material they need to form.
Webb has captured these galaxies in the process of merging, which will take hundreds of millions of years. As the two galaxies rebuild after the chaos of their collision, Arp 107 may lose its smile, but it will inevitably turn into something just as interesting for future astronomers to study.
Arp 107 is located 465 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Leo Minor.
Video: Tour the Arp 107 Image
Video tour transcript
Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Danielle Kirshenblat (STScI) The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
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Media Contacts
Laura Betz – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov, Rob Gutro – rob.gutro@nasa.gov
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Matthew Brown – mabrown@stsci.edu, Christine Pulliam – cpulliam@stsci.edu
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
Related Information
Video: What happens when galaxies collide?
Interactive: Explore “Interacting Galaxies: Future of the Milky Way”
Other images: Hubble’s view of Arp 107 and Spitzer’s view of Arp 107
Video: Galaxy Collisions: Simulations vs. Observations
Article: More about Galaxy Evolution
Video: Learn more about galactic collisions
More Webb News
More Webb Images
Webb Science Themes
Webb Mission Page
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Last Updated Sep 17, 2024 Editor Marty McCoy Contact Laura Betz laura.e.betz@nasa.gov Related Terms
Active Galaxies Astrophysics Galaxies Galaxies, Stars, & Black Holes Goddard Space Flight Center James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Science & Research Seyfert Galaxies The Universe View the full article
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