NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and space research.
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4 Min Read Cheers! NASA’s Webb Finds Ethanol, Other Icy Ingredients for Worlds Webb MIRI image of a region near the protostar known as IRAS 23385. IRAS 23385 and IRAS 2a. Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, W. Rocha (Leiden University) What do margaritas, vinegar, and ant stings have in common? They contain chemical ingredients that NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has identified surrounding two young protostars known as IRAS 2A and IRAS 23385. Although planets are not yet forming around those stars, these and other molecules detected there by Webb represent key ingredients for making potentially habitable worlds. An internation…
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1 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA Glenn Research Center’s Public Affairs Specialist Nikki Welch discusses use and safety factors of NASA-branded safety glasses for viewing solar eclipses with media representatives. Credit: NASA/John Oldham NASA Glenn Research Center’s Office of Communications invited media to an Eclipse Preview at Great Lakes Science Center (GLSC), home of the NASA Glenn Visitor Center, on Feb. 13. During the event, news outlets previewed the Science Center’s Total Eclipse Fest 2024, which is scheduled to take place April 6-8, and learned everything they need to know to cover the event and the total s…
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1 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA Glenn aerospace engineer Jonah Sachs-Wetstone, right, explains to Cuyahoga Community College student Rayan Jami how 3D printers in the Innovation Lab produce rapid prototyping. Credit: NASA/Jef Janis Students from Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C) visited NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland on Feb. 15 to shadow NASA professionals in a variety of career areas – from offices to laboratories. During the event, students and their advisor acquired knowledge about the NASA Internship Program, Pathways Internship Program, and NASA Community College Aerospace Scholars program. …
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1 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Event Coordinator Wyatt Clark, left, and NASA Glenn NextGen Ambassador Emily Armbrust, right, talk with students about internships and the upcoming total solar eclipse. Credit: NASA/Kelly DiFrancesco On Feb. 23, NASA’s Glenn Research Center representatives were on hand to help celebrate the ribbon cutting and opening of Great Lakes Science Center’s Cleveland Creates Gallery. The gallery highlights the extraordinary breakthroughs being made by the city of Cleveland’s diverse industries. During the opening, several hundred middle and high school students and museum visitors stopped by …
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1 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) A Monster Jam fan shows off a pair of NASA-branded solar eclipse glasses during an event in Milwaukee. Credit: NASA/Heather Brown Few things rev the engines of Monster Jam fans more than tires—including lunar tires. NASA’s Glenn Research Center recently gained traction with amplified audiences at Monster Jams in Milwaukee, Jan. 20-21, and in Cleveland, Feb. 16-17. During pit parties, NASA’s outreach team rolled out its replica lunar rover tire to show visitors the work NASA is doing on space tires. A young Monster Jam enthusiast gets some traction out of a NASA lunar tire. Credit: NASA/H…
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SXSW 2024: NASA Astronauts & Your Work in Orbit
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A final round of certification testing for production of new RS-25 engines to power the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket, beginning with Artemis V, is underway at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Block 1B will also be built to house new-production RS-25 core stage engines that will operate routinely at 111% of their rated power versus the Block 1 RS-25 engines that operate at 109%, providing almost 2,000 more pounds of payload to the Moon.NASA By: Martin Burkey As NASA prepares for its first crewed Artemis missions, the agency is making preparations to build, test, and assemble the next evolution of its SLS (Space Launch System) rocket. …
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2 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System is an example of a concentrated solar power plant, which works by having hundreds of reflective panels heating up a central tower. The problem of keeping sunlight directed at the receiver throughout the day brought Jim Clair to request NASA’s help in validating the suspended design now used in Skysun solar power systems.Credit: Cliff Ho/U.S. Department of Energy In the 80 years since the shocking collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington, engineers have designed suspended structures to minimize their universal weakness: resonance. If no…
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Overview NASA’s Communications Services Project, known as CSP, is pioneering a new era of space communications by partnering with industry to provide commercial space relay communications services for NASA missions near Earth. CSP’s goal is to validate and deliver these commercial communication services to the Near Space Network by 2030. To meet this goal, CSP provided $278.5 million in funding to six domestic partners to develop and demonstrate space relay communication capabilities. CSP aims to deliver innovative capabilities to meet NASA mission needs, while simultaneously supporting the growing commercial space communications market in the United States. C…
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NASA/Loral O’Hara In this image from Jan. 12, 2024, NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli (left) and Loral O’Hara pose with a copy of “First Woman”, NASA’s first graphic novel, inside the International Space Station’s cupola. The interactive graphic novel chronicles the adventures of fictional astronaut Callie Rodriguez, the first woman to explore the Moon. Through Callie’s journey, “First Woman” features real-life technologies developed by NASA to enable future missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Moghbeli and O’Hara were interviewed by the graphic novel’s writers, and their experiences helped develop Callie’s character. O’Hara, a former Girl Scout, launched to the sp…
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Technicians working inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida unfolded and fully extended the first of two five-panel solar arrays built for NASA’s Europa Clipper in preparation for inspection and cleaning as part of assembly, test, and launch operations. On March 6, technicians working inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida unfolded and fully extended the first of two five-panel solar arrays for the agency’s Europa Clipper spacecraft. Each solar array measures 46.5 feet in length. For the operation, the team suspended the solar array on a gravity offload support sys…
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10 Min Read Zero-Boil-Off Tank Experiments to Enable Long-Duration Space Exploration Figure 1. The Gateway space station—humanity’s first space station around the Moon—will be capable of being refueled in space. Credits: NASA Do we have enough fuel to get to our destination? This is probably one of the first questions that comes to mind whenever your family gets ready to embark on a road trip. If the trip is long, you will need to visit gas stations along your route to refuel during your travel. NASA is grappling with similar issues as it gets ready to embark on a sustainable mission back to the Moon and plans future m…
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The plane of our Milky Way galaxy, as seen by ESA’s Gaia space mission. It contains more than a billion stars, along with darker, dusty regions Gaia couldn’t see through. With its greater sensitivity and longer wavelength coverage, NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s galactic plane survey will peer through more of the dust and reveal far more stars.Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team has announced plans for an unprecedented survey of the plane of our Milky Way galaxy. It will peer deeper into this region than any other survey, mapping more of our galaxy’s stars than all previous observations combined. “There’s a really broad ra…
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The software discipline has broad involvement across each of the NASA Mission Directorates. Some recent discipline focus and development areas are highlighted below, along with a look at the Software Technical Discipline Team’s (TDT) approach to evolving discipline best practices toward the future. Understanding Automation Risk Software creates automation. Reliance on that automation is increasing the amount of software in NASA programs. This year, the software team examined historical software incidents in aerospace to characterize how, why, and where software or automation is mostly likely to fail. The goal is to better engineer software to minimize th…
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Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov, left, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa are seen inside the SpaceX Dragon Endurance spacecraft onboard the SpaceX recovery ship MEGAN shortly after having landed in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, Tuesday, March 12, 2024. Moghbeli, Mogensen, Furukawa, and Borisov are returning after nearly six-months in space as part of Expedition 70 aboard the International Space Station. NASA/Joel Kowsky NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 completed the agency’s seventh commercial crew rotation mission to the In…
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By Andrew Chaikin, Independent Space Historian and member of the NESC Human Factors Technical Discipline Team I recently watched NESC Deputy Director Mike Kirsch stand before a roomful of engineers at the Langley Research Center and tell them that with every passing day, NASA breaks a record: the longest stretch without a major accident in the nation’s human spaceflight program since the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry on February 1, 2003. NASA’s challenge, he told them, was to make sure the record keeps being broken. Mike’s sobering message set the perfect tone for my presentation of “Principles of Success in Spaceflight,” the class I…
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Operational modal analysis (OMA) techniques have been used to identify the modal characteristics of the Artemis I launch vehicle during the Dynamic Rollout Test (DRT) and Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR) configuration prior to launch. Forces induced during rollout and on the launch pad are not directly measurable, thus necessitating a unique approach. NASA is developing the SLS to support lunar and deep space exploration. SLS is integrated inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) on the mobile launcher (ML), which supports the integrated SLS launch vehicle during transport to the pad through lift-off. The ML also provides the fuel, power, and data umbilicals running t…
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Interview with NESC Director, Tim Wilson NESC Director, Tim Wilson Upon reaching its 20th year of operations at NASA in 2023, the NESC is busier than it has ever been. With a portfolio of more than 160 in-progress requests from Agency programs, NESC Director Tim Wilson spends much of his day prioritizing, allocating funds from the organization’s fixed budget to NASA’s most pressing issues. Of late, the NESC has focused on priority-one requests—projects in the flight phase—such as the Artemis missions and those of NASA’s commercial partners, while lower priority requests like discipline-advancing activities have been placed on hold until the next fiscal year. For Mr…
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NASA Technical Memorandums (TM), NASA Technical Publications (TP), and NASA Contractor Reports (CR) NASA/TP-20220015152 Optimization Approach for Wind Tunnel Fan Blade Strain Gage Correlation with Test Fixture Unknowns. NASA/TM-20220015363 Technology Maturation Report for Dam- age Arresting Composites under the Environmentally Responsible Aviation Project. NASA/TM-20220017053 Unique Science from the Moon in the Artemis Era NASA/TM-20220018183 Recommendations on Use of Commercial- Off-The-Shelf (COTS) Guidance for all Mission Risk Classifications – Phase II NASA/CR-20230002635 Assessment of Coated Particle Fuels for Space Nuclear Power and Prop…
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NESC Honor Awards are given each year to NASA employees, industry representatives, and other stakeholders for their efforts and achievements in engineering, leadership, teamwork, and communication. These awards formally recognize those who have made outstanding contributions to the NESC mission, demonstrate engineering and technical excellence, and foster an open environment. 2022 Honorees from left to right: (Front Row) Tim Wilson (NESC Director); Yuan Chen (LaRC), Elspeth Peterson (KSC), Grace Belancik (ARC), Jing Pei (LaRC), Mark Vande Hei (NESC Chief Astronaut); (Second row) James Walker (MSFC), Carlton Faller (JSC), Jason Vaughn (MSFC), Shane Cravens (Syncom Spac…
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After reflecting on the more than 1,200 assessments completed by the NESC over the last 20 years, Director Tim Wilson selected these assessments as his top three. They were selected because they would likely have the greatest and most lasting impact on human life and the furtherance of the NESC mission. He shared why their effects were so far-reaching. 2013-2019 Assessing Risks of Frangible Joint Designs At the request of the Commercial Crew Program, the NESC took on an empirical test program of frangible joints to provide confidence in their use for human spaceflight. “Many programs use these joints, so understanding the margins and what drives their …
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NASA NASA has selected Bastion Technologies Inc. of Houston to provide support services in four broad technical areas including environmental, institutional operational safety, occupational health, aeronautics and space systems, and ground support equipment mission assurance. The Environmental, Safety, Health, and Mission Assurance contract is cost-plus-fixed-fee with indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity task orders with a maximum value of approximately $125.4 million. The performance period is from May 1, 2024, to April 30, 2029. Services will be provided at NASA’s Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field in Cleveland and Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusk…
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The Value of NASA (2024 State of NASA Highlights)
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5 min read Total Solar Eclipse 2024: The Moon’s Moment in the Sun Artist’s representation of a total solar eclipse, with a new moon in the foreground and the Sun’s corona visible in the background. Download the Poster NASA/Vi Nguyen On April 8, 2024, much of North America will experience a solar eclipse: a cosmic alignment of Sun, Moon, and Earth, in that order. The Moon’s shadow path will make landfall on Mexico’s Pacific coast, cross the United States from Texas to Maine, and exit North America via Newfoundland, Canada, continuing into the Atlantic Ocean. Learn how to safely observe the 2024 Solar Eclipse It’s All About Perspective Solar eclipses on Earth …
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NASA Kennedy Space Center Director Janet Petro. NASA/Cory Huston “The rollout of the President’s 2025 budget offers the opportunity to highlight some of the exciting happenings that are helping launch humanity’s future at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Every dollar spent on the agency goes toward U.S. prosperity and improving life on Earth. In the state of Florida, more than 27,000 jobs can be attributed to work performed here. “Kennedy is proud to support the administration’s goals and priorities for NASA, including the Artemis campaign, an American presence in low Earth orbit, and the development of new space technologies. Through Artemis, NASA is returni…
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