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By NASA
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Diana Oglesby’s love for NASA began long before she started working for the agency. A native of Decatur, Texas, Oglesby knew at the age of eight that she would make NASA her future destination. That dream became a reality when Oglesby joined the agency, first as an intern and later as a NASA full-time employee, marking the beginning of a career that would span over two decades.
From left, Richard Jones, CCP (Commercial Crew Program) deputy program manager at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston; Steve Stich, program manager for CCP; Dana Hutcherson, CCP deputy program manager at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida; and Diana Oglesby, director, Strategic Integration and Management Division, Space Operations Mission Directorate, pose with the agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission flag near the countdown clock at the NASA News Center at the Kennedy on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024.NASA/Cory S Huston Oglesby currently serves as director of the Strategic Integration and Management Division within NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. The division plays a key role in ensuring the effectiveness and efficiency of space operations, providing essential business support such as programmatic integration, strategic planning, information technology and cybersecurity leadership, stakeholder outreach, and administrative services.
Before her current role, Oglesby led the business management function for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. She had a front-row seat to history during NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission, which successfully launched astronauts to the International Space Station in the first commercially built and operated American rocket and spacecraft, marking a significant milestone in NASA’s space exploration efforts.
“It was an honor of a lifetime,” she says, reflecting on her role in this historic achievement.
Oglesby’s ability to foster teamwork and genuine care for others has been a hallmark of her career, whether serving in NASA’s Commercial Crew Program or now guiding the Strategic Integration and Management Division.
While reflecting on her new role as division director, Oglesby is most excited about the people. As someone who thrives on diverse activities and complex challenges, she looks forward to the strategic aspects of her role and the opportunity to lead a dynamic team helping to shape NASA’s future.
The future is bright. We are actively building the future now with each choice as part of the agency's strategic planning and transition from current International Space Station operations to the new commercial low Earth orbit destinations.
Diana Oglesby
Director, Strategic Integration and Management Division, Space Operations Mission Directorate
“The future is bright,” said Oglesby. “We are actively building the future now with each choice as part of the agency’s strategic planning and transition from current International Space Station operations to the new commercial low Earth orbit destinations.”
While Oglesby is deeply committed to her work, she also believes in “work-life harmony” rather than a work-life balance, by giving her attention to the sphere of life she is currently in at that moment in time. She remains ever focused on harmonizing between her NASA duties and her life outside of work, including her three children. Oglesby enjoys spending time with her family, baking, crafting, and participating in her local church and various causes to support community needs.
Known for her positive energy, passion, and innovation, Oglesby always seeks ways to improve systems and make a difference in whatever project she is tackling. Her attention to detail and problem-solving approach makes her an invaluable leader at NASA.
NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate maintains a continuous human presence in space for the benefit of people on Earth. The programs within the directorate are the heart of NASA’s space exploration efforts, enabling Artemis, commercial space, science, and other agency missions through communication, launch services, research capabilities, and crew support.
To learn more about NASA’s Space Operation Mission Directorate, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/space-operations
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Last Updated Nov 14, 2024 Related Terms
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By NASA
Credit: NASA NASA, on behalf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has selected Southwest Research Institute of San Antonio to build three coronagraphs for the Lagrange 1 Series project, part of NOAA’s Space Weather Next program.
Once operational, the coronagraphs will provide critical data to NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, which issues forecasts, warnings, and alerts that help mitigate space weather impacts, including electric power outages and interruption to communications and navigation systems.
This cost-plus-fixed-fee contract is valued at approximately $60 million, and the anticipated period of performance is from this November through January 2034, concluding after launch of the second coronagraph aboard a NOAA spacecraft. The third coronagraph will be delivered as a flight spare.
This contract award marks a transfer of coronagraph development from the government to the U.S. commercial sector. The contract scope includes design, analysis, development, fabrication, integration, test, verification, and evaluation of the coronagraphs; launch support; supply and maintenance of ground support equipment; and support of post-launch instrument operations at the NOAA Satellite Operations Facility. The work will take place at Southwest Research Institute’s facility in San Antonio.
The coronagraphs will observe the density structure of the Sun’s faint outermost atmosphere — the corona — and will detect Earth-directed coronal mass ejections shortly after they erupt, providing the longest possible lead time for geomagnetic storm watches. With this forewarning, public and private organizations affected by space weather can take actions to protect their assets. The coronagraphs will also provide data continuity from the Space Weather follow-on Lagrange 1 mission.
NASA and NOAA oversee the development, launch, testing and operation of all the satellites in the project. NOAA is the program owner providing the requirements and funding along with managing the program, operations, data products, and dissemination to users. NASA and its commercial partners develop and build the instruments, spacecraft, and provide launch services on behalf of NOAA.
For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov
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Abbey Donaldson
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
Abbey.a.donaldson@nasa.gov
Jeremy Eggers
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
757-824-2958
jeremy.l.eggers@nasa.gov
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By NASA
Continuing his engagement to deepen international collaboration and promote the peaceful use of space, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson will travel to Lima on Wednesday.
Nelson will meet with Maj. Gen. Roberto Melgar Sheen, director of Peru’s National Commission for Aerospace Research and Development (CONIDA) Thursday, Nov. 14, and sign a non-binding memorandum of understanding to enhance space cooperation. The memorandum of understanding between NASA and CONIDA will include safety training, a joint feasibility study for a potential sounding rockets campaign, and technical assistance for CONIDA on sounding rocket launches.
Nelson will discuss the importance of international partnerships and collaboration in space and celebrate Peru’s signing of the Artemis Accords earlier this year.
For more information about NASA’s international partnerships, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/oiir
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Meira Bernstein
Headquarters, Washington
202-615-1747
meira.b.bernstein@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Nov 13, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
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By NASA
This illustration shows a red, early-universe dwarf galaxy that hosts a rapidly feeding black hole at its center. Using data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory, a team of astronomers have discovered this low-mass supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy just 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang. It is pulling in matter at a phenomenal rate — over 40 times the theoretical limit. While short lived, this black hole’s “feast” could help astronomers explain how supermassive black holes grew so quickly in the early universe.NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva/M. Zamani A rapidly feeding black hole at the center of a dwarf galaxy in the early universe, shown in this artist’s concept, may hold important clues to the evolution of supermassive black holes in general.
Using data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory, a team of astronomers discovered this low-mass supermassive black hole just 1.5 billion years after the big bang. The black hole is pulling in matter at a phenomenal rate — over 40 times the theoretical limit. While short lived, this black hole’s “feast” could help astronomers explain how supermassive black holes grew so quickly in the early universe.
Supermassive black holes exist at the center of most galaxies, and modern telescopes continue to observe them at surprisingly early times in the universe’s evolution. It’s difficult to understand how these black holes were able to grow so big so rapidly. But with the discovery of a low-mass supermassive black hole feasting on material at an extreme rate so soon after the birth of the universe, astronomers now have valuable new insights into the mechanisms of rapidly growing black holes in the early universe.
The black hole, called LID-568, was hidden among thousands of objects in the Chandra X-ray Observatory’s COSMOS legacy survey, a catalog resulting from some 4.6 million Chandra observations. This population of galaxies is very bright in the X-ray light, but invisible in optical and previous near-infrared observations. By following up with Webb, astronomers could use the observatory’s unique infrared sensitivity to detect these faint counterpart emissions, which led to the discovery of the black hole.
The speed and size of these outflows led the team to infer that a substantial fraction of the mass growth of LID-568 may have occurred in a single episode of rapid accretion.
LID-568 appears to be feeding on matter at a rate 40 times its Eddington limit. This limit relates to the maximum amount of light that material surrounding a black hole can emit, as well as how fast it can absorb matter, such that its inward gravitational force and outward pressure generated from the heat of the compressed, infalling matter remain in balance.
These results provide new insights into the formation of supermassive black holes from smaller black hole “seeds,” which current theories suggest arise either from the death of the universe’s first stars (light seeds) or the direct collapse of gas clouds (heavy seeds). Until now, these theories lacked observational confirmation.
The new discovery suggests that “a significant portion of mass growth can occur during a single episode of rapid feeding, regardless of whether the black hole originated from a light or heavy seed,” said International Gemini Observatory/NSF NOIRLab astronomer Hyewon Suh, who led the research team.
A paper describing these results (“A super-Eddington-accreting black hole ~1.5 Gyr after the Big Bang observed with JWST”) appears in the journal Nature Astronomy.
About the Missions
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.
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).
Read more from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Learn more about the Chandra X-ray Observatory and its mission here:
https://www.nasa.gov/chandra
https://chandra.si.edu
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Elizabeth Laundau
NASA Headquarters
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202-923-0167
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Lane Figueroa
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
256-544-0034
lane.e.figueroa@nasa.gov
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By NASA
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Note: The following article is part of a series highlighting propulsion testing at NASA’s Stennis Space Center. To access the entire series, please visit: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/propulsion-powering-space-dreams/.
An aerial image from 1965 shows the dual flame trenches of the Thad Cochran Test Stand (B-1/B-2) under construction at NASA’s Stennis Space Center (then known as Mississippi Test Operations) taking shape.NASA/Stennis Since the United States sent the first humans to the Moon more than 60 years ago, NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, has answered the call to help power the nation’s space dreams.
“History shows NASA Stennis is the country’s premier rocket engine test site and the go-to place for propulsion testing,” NASA Stennis Director John Bailey said. “It started with Apollo and continued through space shuttle. Now, we are going back to the Moon and beyond with Artemis – and it all comes through NASA Stennis.”
As the nation raced to send the first humans to the Moon, NASA selected a remote location in Hancock County, Mississippi, in October 1961 to test the needed rocket stages. Thanks to a massive construction project, the site conducted its first Saturn V rocket stage test in April 1966. In the next four-plus years, NASA Stennis tested 27 Saturn V stages, including those that launched 12 astronauts to walk on the Moon.
“Talking to people working here during those years, you hear how much they believed in the mission,” said Joe Schuyler, director of the NASA Stennis Engineering and Test Directorate. “Their hard work helped America reach the Moon and showed us the possibilities for NASA Stennis.”
Construction workers bring down a tree during the early days of construction for NASA’s Stennis Space Center. Tree-cutting to start what was the largest construction project in Mississippi – and one of the largest in the United States – at the time began May 17, 1963.NASA/Stennis NASA Stennis (then known as the Mississippi Test Facility) conducts its first-ever test firing – a 15-second hot fire of the Saturn V S-II-C second stage prototype – on the A-2 Test Stand on April 23, 1966.NASA/Stennis An aerial image from early 1967 shows the completed A-2 Test Stand in the foreground and the Thad Cochran Test Stand (B-1/B-2) in the background at NASA’s Stennis Space Center, then known as the Mississippi Test Facility.NASA/Stennis NASA officials view the first space shuttle main engine test on the Fred Haise Test Stand (formerly the A-1 Test Stand) at NASA’s Stennis Space Center (then known as National Space Technology Laboratories) on May 19, 1975.NASA/Stennis A 1979 image offers a close-up view of a space shuttle main propulsion test article hot fire on the B-2 side of the Thad Cochran Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center (then known as National Space Technology Laboratories). Main propulsion test article testing involved installing a shuttle fuel tank, a mockup of the shuttle orbiter and the vehicle’s three-engine configuration on the stand, then firing all three engines simultaneously, as would be done during an actual launch.NASA/Stennis As Apollo missions neared an end, plans were underway to drastically reduce the NASA Stennis footprint. Enter the space shuttle. NASA considered three locations to test engines for its new reusable vehicle before selecting NASA Stennis on March 1, 1970, ensuring the center’s future for the next several decades.
Space shuttle main engine testing proved challenging as the site transitioned from handling full rocket stages to firing single engines. “A big part of the challenge was the fact that teams were testing an entire engine from the very start,” NASA Test Operations Chief Maury Vander said. “Typically, you begin testing components, then progress to a full engine. Teams had a lot to learn in real time.”
NASA Stennis teams also tested the shuttle Main Propulsion Test Article with three engines firing simultaneously. The testing was particularly critical given the first shuttle mission would carry astronauts.
NASA Stennis teams worked diligently to demonstrate the shuttle system would operate safely, an effort characterized as one of the site’s finest hours. Following the first shuttle mission in 1981, astronauts Robert Crippen and John Young visited the south Mississippi site. “The effort that you contributed made it possible for us to sit back and ride,” Crippen told NASA Stennis employees.
From 1975 to 2009, NASA Stennis tested every main engine to help power 135 shuttle missions that enabled historic missions, such as those that deployed and repaired the Hubble Space Telescope and assembled the International Space Station, enabling its many scientific experiments and spinoff technologies. The site also tested every engine and component upgrade and helped troubleshoot performance issues. It led test campaigns following shuttle accidents to help ensure safe returns to flight. In total, the site conducted 2,307 tests for 820,475.68 seconds of accumulated hot fire.
NASA conducts the final test of a space shuttle main engine on the A-2 Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center on July 29, 2009. The Space Shuttle Program concluded two years later with the STS-135 shuttle mission. NASA / Stennis An on-stand camera offers a closeup view of the first test of an RS-25 engine on the Fred Haise Test Stand (formerly the A-1 Test Stand) at NASA’s Stennis Space Center on Jan. 9, 2015. RS-25 engines power the core stage of NASA’s powerful SLS (Space Launch System) rocket.NASA/Stennis Crews at NASA’s Stennis Space Center install the first core stage of NASA’s powerful SLS (Space Launch System) on the B-2 side of the Thad Cochran Test Stand on Jan. 21-22, 2020. Following testing, the stage would help launch the Artemis I mission in November 2022.NASA/Stennis NASA conducts a full-duration RS-25 hot fire April 3, 2024, on the Fred Haise Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center, achieving a major milestone for future Artemis flights of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket. It marked the final hot fire of a 12-test series to certify production of new RS-25 engines by lead contractor L3Harris (formerly known as Aerojet Rocketdyne) to help power NASA’s SLS rocket on Artemis missions to the Moon and beyond, beginning with Artemis V.NASA/Stennis Even as NASA Stennis tested main engines to power shuttle missions, the site led in testing next-generation engines, including the Fastrac, XRS-2200 linear aerospike, and J-2X. It also developed its E Test Complex, with multiple test stands and cells, to support a range of component and engine test projects, including those of commercial aerospace companies.
A landmark agreement between NASA Stennis and Aerojet Rocketdyne (now known as L3Harris) in 1998 marked the site’s first test partnership with such a company. “That was the starting point,” said Vander. “Today, we are a preferred partner for multiple companies and test projects, large and small.”
NASA Stennis also is testing RS-25 engines and related systems to help power NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket on Artemis missions to the Moon. When the agency travels to Mars, it is expected the missions will launch with engines tested at the Mississippi site as well.
“The Gulf Coast of Mississippi helped achieve our space dreams of the past, and NASA Stennis continues supporting today’s dreams,” Bailey said. “It is a true testament to the expertise and dedication of our entire team and the incredible support of surrounding communities and the whole state.”
For information about NASA’s Stennis Space Center, visit:
Stennis Space Center – NASA
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Last Updated Nov 13, 2024 EditorNASA Stennis CommunicationsContactC. Lacy Thompsoncalvin.l.thompson@nasa.gov / (228) 688-3333LocationStennis Space Center Related Terms
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