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By NASA
15 Min Read The Marshall Star for November 29, 2023
Artemis II Crew Enjoys Visit with Marshall Team Members
By Wayne Smith
From talking about continuing the legacy of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in space exploration to describing their roles in an upcoming historic mission, Artemis II astronauts enjoyed visiting with center team members Nov. 27.
The crew will be the first to ride aboard NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft. They will launch atop the rocket to venture around the Moon on Artemis II, the first crewed flight for Artemis. Their mission around the Moon will verify capabilities for humans to explore deep space and pave the way for long-term exploration and science on the lunar surface. Marshall manages the SLS Program.
From left, Artemis II astronauts Jeremy Hansen, Christina Koch, and Victor Glover listen as Commander Reid Wiseman talks during an employee event at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center on Nov. 27. NASA/Charles Beason The four-member crew answered questions from a standing-room only crowd for about an hour inside Activities Building 4316 before taking photos with Marshall team members. The crew consists of NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, who will be the Artemis II commander, Victor Glover (pilot) and Christina Koch (mission specialist), and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen (mission specialist).
They even took the time to send a personalized Christmas greeting to the grandmother of Corey Walker, an atmospheric science programmer at Marshall with Jacobs, who said it would be the perfect gift for her. During the question and answer portion of the event, the astronauts had Walker join them on stage and made a short greeting for his grandmother, Brenda Lowery, who lives on Sand Mountain.
“I can’t wait to give this to her because she loves the space program,” Walker said. “She was young when the astronauts went to the Moon the first time. She has lots of mementos at her house of the space program.”
After acting Center Director Joseph Pelfrey welcomed team members to the event, SLS Program Manager John Honeycutt talked about Marshall’s reputation of excellence in rocket propulsion and the success of Artemis I before introducing the astronauts.
Glover, third from left, makes a point during the Artemis II crew event with Marshall team members. NASA/Charles Beason “Since the beginning, NASA astronauts have launched on historic missions and on rockets designed, developed, and built right here at Marshall Space Flight Center and our Michoud Assembly Facility,” Honeycutt said. “… It seems only fitting that when a new era of human space flight launches on a rocket developed here, that that’s the way it should be. We’ve been entrusted not just with an incredibly powerful and capable rocket, but with the lives of four astronauts. Their safety and return are chief among our responsibilities.”
Wiseman acknowledged Marshall’s rocket excellence, but also pointed out the center’s role in research for future missions to the Moon and working in the lunar environment. The Payload Operations Integration Center at Marshall is the control center for scientific operations on the International Space Station.
“(Marshall) means a lot more to us than getting us off this planet,’ Wiseman said. “It’s also our human research side when we are off the planet. When we are working sustainably in the lunar area, and we see humans on Mars, it’s built on the shoulders of POIC (Payload Operations Integration Center), of human research in orbit. That is the bread and butter of what we’re doing. We’re launching humans and living in space, and that is built right here at Marshall.”
Glover, who will be the first African American on a lunar mission, thanked Marshall team members for their work with SLS and the space station. He spent 168 days in space as a flight engineer aboard the space station for Expedition 64.
SLS Program Manager John Honeycutt, left, and acting Center Director Joseph Pelfrey, right, join the Artemis II crew for a photo at the employee event in Activities Building 4316. NASA/Charles Beason “Thank you for your work supporting our friends who are working on the space station now and for that amazing legacy that we’ve all had the opportunity to be a part of in one facet or another,” Glover said. “We’re here to do the work and be a part of this team. We hope that what we’re doing makes you proud.”
Koch and Hansen also will make history with the Artemis II mission. Koch will be the first woman on a lunar mission, while Hansen will be the first Canadian.
Andy Buehler, a rocket propulsion engineer at Marshall with Boeing, asked Koch what her message to young girls is as they see a female going to the Moon for the first time.
“Surround yourself with people who are encouraging,” Koch said. “Tell yourself you’re going to do great things one day. You can be that voice for yourself. Don’t just strive to be a part of something, strive to be excellent at what you’re doing.”
Corey Walker, an atmospheric science programmer at Marshall with Jacobs, smiles with the astronauts as they record a video wishing Walker’s grandmother, Brenda Lowery, merry Christmas. During a question and answer session with the astronauts, Walker asked if he could get a video of them for his grandmother as a Christmas gift for her. Walker said his grandmother loves the space program. At far left is Lance D. Davis, Marshall’s news chief, who served as moderator for the event. NASA/Charles Beason Hansen said he is excited about the future of Artemis. He told Marshall team members they are part of something that brings value to the world with NASA’s leadership.
“You’re doing that with partners around the world because you’re choosing to lead,” Hansen said. “We need that kind of leadership and that vision more than ever. We really need to be focused on things that lift up humanity. We have a lot of reason for hope for our future.”
Learn more about the Artemis II crew.
Smith, a Media Fusion employee and the Marshall Star editor, supports the Marshall Office of Communications.
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Artemis II Crew Signs NASA Moon Rocket Hardware at Marshall
Brent Gaddes, lead for the Orion stage adapter in the Spacecraft Payload Integration & Evolution Office in the SLS Program at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, far left, talks with NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, center, and Christina Koch near the SLS Orion stage adapter for the Artemis II mission during their visit to Marshall on Nov. 27.NASA/Charles Beason Artemis II astronauts Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Christina Koch of NASA, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen signed the Orion stage adapter for the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center on Nov. 27. The hardware is the topmost portion of the SLS rocket that they will launch atop during Artemis II when the four astronauts inside NASA’s Orion spacecraft will venture around the Moon.
The Orion stage adapter is a small ring structure that connects NASA’s Orion spacecraft to the SLS rocket’s interim cryogenic propulsion stage and fully manufactured at Marshall. At five feet tall and weighing 1,800 pounds, the adapter is the smallest major element of the SLS rocket. During Artemis II, the adapter’s diaphragm will serve as a barrier to prevent gases created during launch from entering the spacecraft.
From left, Artemis II astronauts Jeremy Hansen, Christina Koch, Victor Glover, and Reid Wiseman sign the SLS Orion stage adapter for the Artemis II mission.
NASA/Charles Beason
In addition to signing the Orion stage adapter, Wiseman and Koch also visited the Systems Integration Lab at Marshall prior to an employee event.
Dan Mitchell, lead SLS integrated avionics and software engineer, talks with Wiseman and Koch as they visit the Systems Integration Lab at Marshall. NASA/Charles Beason NASA is working to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon under Artemis. SLS is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration, along with the Orion spacecraft, advanced spacesuits and rovers, the Gateway in orbit around the Moon, and commercial human landing systems. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single mission. Through Artemis, NASA will explore more of the lunar surface than ever before and prepare for the next giant leap: sending astronauts to Mars.
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Monthly Brown Bag Seminars Shine Spotlight on Marshall’s Business Units
By Jessica Barnett
With thousands of employees across hundreds of departments and teams, there’s no shortage of cool things happening at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. To help keep Marshall team members up to date, the center recently started a series of monthly brown bag seminars aimed at highlighting its business units.
Each month features a different business unit. On Nov. 7, nearly 300 Marshall team members attended the first seminar, which focused on Marshall’s Moon/Mars Surface Technologies and Systems. In doing so, the participants learned more about the center’s strategy.
Geologist Jennifer Edmunson, from right, discusses lunar regolith and infrastructure plans during a brown bag seminar Nov. 7 at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center that highlighted the center’s Moon/Mars Surface Technologies and Systems business unit. NASA/Charles Beason “We’re in between the hopes and dreams of what you might find out there or what the vision of the future on the lunar surface might look like, and what is actually practical,” said Michael Zanetti, a lunar and planetary geologist at Marshall who was also one of the speakers during the Nov. 7 seminar.
Zanetti discussed GPS-denied LiDAR navigation systems, including KNaCK (Kinematic Navigation and Cartography Knapsack), a proof-of-concept 3D terrain mapping, navigation, and algorithm development tool that can be used to determine the layout of portions of the lunar or Martian surface even when there is no light source or GPS to guide it.
He also talked about Marshall’s Lunar Regolith Terrain Facility – a 125-by-125-foot area covered in 500 tons of lunar regolith simulant that can be quickly modified as needed for robotics testing.
“If we’re going to send anything to the lunar surface, we need to make sure that technology is going to be able to function when it gets there,” said Jennifer Edmunson, project manager for Marshall’s Moon-to-Mars Planetary Autonomous Construction Technology Project, or MMPACT. “Testing with regolith is important to do that, but since we don’t have enough regolith material from the Apollo missions, we rely on simulants.”
Materials test engineer Annette Gray, far left at table, explains how participants in Marshall’s MERCRII (Metallic Environmentally Resistant Coatings Rapid Innovation Initiative) worked with other centers and NASA partners to develop a radiation-resistant coating to improve the wear resistance of mechanism joints on the lunar or Martian surface. MMPACT is currently working to determine how best to build infrastructure on the lunar surface using the regolith and resources already available there. Edmunson shared how the project aims to build landing pads and even habitats on the Moon, but that it’s important to find ways of building that can withstand the extreme temperature variations, lengthy moonquakes, and other challenges that would be faced on the lunar surface.
Joining Edmunson and Zanetti at the seminar was Annette Gray, a materials test engineer who was part of MERCRII (Metallic Environmentally Resistant Coatings Rapid Innovation Initiative). Gray explained how the early career initiative project worked with other centers and NASA partners to develop a radiation-resistant coating to improve the wear resistance of mechanism joints on the lunar or Martian surface.
Part of the initiative included acquiring a Planetary, Lunar, and Asteroid Natural Environment Testbed, or PLANET. Gray said the PLANET was a 2-meter-by-3-meter chamber with up to 1 ton of regolith simulant inside that could test high vacuum, low-density plasma, and various atmospheric conditions.
Attendees at Marshall’s first brown bag seminar check out lunar regolith samples, view informational displays, and further discuss the featured topics following the seminar.NASA/Ray Osorio The seminar ended with a question-and-answer session and a chance for in-person attendees to check out regolith simulant samples.
“It was an excellent way to showcase how the varied work we do at Marshall is enabling future NASA missions and addressing critical gaps,” said MMSTS Strategy Lead Shawn Maynor. “The excitement was palpable, and the discussion was lively. I truly feel that Marshall is in a unique position to capitalize on the evolving space industry.”
The next brown bag seminar is set for January 2024, after the winter holiday season.
Barnett, a Media Fusion employee, supports the Marshall Office of Communications.
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NASA Releases Its First International Space Station Tour in Spanish
Lee esta nota de prensa en español aquí.
Record-breaking NASA astronaut Frank Rubio provides the agency’s first Spanish-language video tour of humanity’s home in space – the International Space Station.
Rubio welcomes the public aboard the microgravity science laboratory in a behind-the-scenes look at living and working in space recorded during his 371-day mission aboard the space station, the longest single spaceflight in history by an American.
The station tour is available to watch on the agency’s NASA+ streaming platform, NASA app, NASA Television, YouTube, and the agency’s website.
Continuously inhabited for more than 23 years, the space station is a scientific platform where crew members conduct experiments across multiple disciplines of research, including Earth and space science, biology, human physiology, physical sciences, and technology demonstrations that could not be performed on Earth.
The Payload Operations Integration Center at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center operates, plans, and coordinates the science experiments onboard the space station 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.
The crew living aboard the station are the hands of thousands of researchers on the ground conducting more than 3,300 experiments in microgravity. During his record-breaking mission, Rubio spent many hours contributing to scientific activities aboard the orbiting laboratory, conducting everything from human health studies to plant research.
Rubio returned to Earth in September, having completed approximately 5,936 orbits of the Earth and a journey of more than 157 million miles during his first spaceflight, roughly the equivalent of 328 trips to the Moon and back.
Get the latest NASA space station news, images and features on Instagram, Facebook, and X.
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NASA’s Dragonfly to Proceed with Final Mission Design Work
NASA’s Dragonfly mission has been authorized to proceed with work on final mission design and fabrication – known as Phase C – during FY (fiscal year) 2024. The agency is postponing formal confirmation of the mission (including its total cost and schedule) until mid-2024, following the release of the FY 2025 President’s Budget Request.
Earlier this year, Dragonfly – a mission to send a rotorcraft to explore Saturn’s moon Titan – passed all the success criteria of its Preliminary Design Review. The Dragonfly team conducted a re-plan of the mission based on expected funding available in FY 2024 and estimate a revised launch readiness date of July 2028. The agency will officially assess the mission’s launch readiness date in mid-2024 at the agency Program Management Council.
Artist’s impression of Dragonfly heading off toward its next landing spot on Titan.NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben “The Dragonfly team has successfully overcome a number of technical and programmatic challenges in this daring endeavor to gather new science on Titan,” said Nicola Fox, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. “I am proud of this team and their ability to keep all aspects of the mission moving toward confirmation.”
Dragonfly takes a novel approach to planetary exploration, for the first time employing a rotorcraft-lander to travel between and sample diverse sites on Titan. Dragonfly’s goal is to characterize the habitability of the moon’s environment, investigate the progression of prebiotic chemistry in an environment where carbon-rich material and liquid water may have mixed for an extended period, and even search for chemical indications of whether water-based or hydrocarbon-based life once existed on Titan.
Dragonfly is being designed and built under the direction of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, which manages the mission for NASA. The team includes key partners at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center; Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado; Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company; NASA’s Ames Research Center; NASA’s Langley Research Center; Penn State University in State College, Pennsylvania; Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, California; Honeybee Robotics in Pasadena, California; NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory; CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales), the French space agency, in Paris, France; DLR (German Aerospace Center) in Cologne, Germany; and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) in Tokyo, Japan.
Dragonfly is the fourth mission in NASA’s New Frontiers Program, managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center for the Science Mission Directorate.
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Webb Telescope: A Prominent Protostar in Perseus
A new Picture of the Month from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope reveals intricate details of the Herbig Haro object 797, known as HH 797.
Herbig-Haro objects are luminous regions surrounding newborn stars (known as protostars), and are formed when stellar winds or jets of gas spewing from these newborn stars form shockwaves colliding with nearby gas and dust at high speeds. HH 797, which dominates the lower half of the image, is located close to the young open star cluster IC 348, which is located near the eastern edge of the Perseus dark cloud complex. The bright infrared objects in the upper portion of the image are thought to host two further protostars.
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope reveals intricate details of the Herbig Haro object 797, or HH 797. HH 797, which dominates the lower half of this image, is located close to the young open star cluster IC 348, which is located near the eastern edge of the Perseus dark cloud complex. The bright infrared objects in the upper portion of the image are thought to host two further protostars. This image was captured with Webb’s Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam).ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, T. Ray (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies) The image was captured with Webb’s NIRCam (Near-InfraRed Camera). Infrared imaging is powerful in studying newborn stars and their outflows, because the youngest stars are invariably still embedded within the gas and dust from which they are formed. The infrared emission of the star’s outflows penetrates the obscuring gas and dust, making Herbig-Haro objects ideal for observation with Webb’s sensitive infrared instruments. Molecules excited by the turbulent conditions, including molecular hydrogen and carbon monoxide, emit infrared light that Webb can collect to visualize the structure of the outflows. NIRCam is particularly good at observing the hot (thousands of degree Celsius) molecules that are excited as a result of shocks.
Using ground-based observations, researchers have previously found that for cold molecular gas associated with HH 797, most of the red-shifted gas (moving away from us) is found to the south (bottom right), while the blue-shifted gas (moving towards us) is to the north (bottom left). A gradient was also found across the outflow, such that at a given distance from the young central star, the velocity of the gas near the eastern edge of the jet is more red-shifted than that of the gas on the western edge. Astronomers in the past thought this was due to the outflow’s rotation. In this higher resolution Webb image, however, we can see that what was thought to be one outflow is in fact made up of two almost parallel outflows with their own separate series of shocks (which explains the velocity asymmetries). The source, located in the small dark region (bottom right of center), and already known from previous observations, is therefore not a single but a double star. Each star is producing its own dramatic outflow. Other outflows are also seen in this image, including one from the protostar in the top right of center along with its illuminated cavity walls.
HH 797 resides directly north of HH 211 (separated by approximately 30 arcseconds), which was the feature of a Webb image release in September 2023.
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 the Canadian Space Agency. Several NASA centers contributed to the project, including NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
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By NASA
NASA/Charles Beason Artemis II NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Christina Koch of NASA, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen signed the Orion stage adapter for the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, Nov. 27. The hardware is the topmost portion of the SLS rocket that they will launch atop during Artemis II when the four astronauts inside NASA’s Orion spacecraft will venture around the Moon.
From left, Artemis II astronauts Jeremy Hansen, Christina Koch, Victor Glover, and Reid Wiseman sign the SLS Orion stage adapter for the Artemis II mission during their visit to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, Nov. 27.
Image credits: NASA/Charles Beason
The Orion stage adapter is a small ring structure that connects NASA’s Orion spacecraft to the SLS rocket’s interim cryogenic propulsion stage and fully manufactured at Marshall. At five feet tall and weighing 1,800 pounds, the adapter is the smallest major element of the SLS rocket. During Artemis II, the adapter’s diaphragm will serve as a barrier to prevent gases created during launch from entering the spacecraft.
NASA is working to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon under Artemis. SLS is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration, along with the Orion spacecraft, advanced spacesuits and rovers, the Gateway in orbit around the Moon, and commercial human landing systems. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single mission. Through Artemis, NASA will explore more of the lunar surface than ever before and prepare for the next giant leap: sending astronauts to Mars.
For more on NASA SLS visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/sls
News Media Contact
Corinne Beckinger
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256.544.0034
corinne.m.beckinger@nasa.gov
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By NASA
19 Min Read The Marshall Star for November 22, 2023
Artemis II Astronauts View SLS Core Stage at Michoud
Artemis II NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman and Christina Koch of NASA, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen viewed the core stage for the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket at the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility on Nov. 16. The three astronauts, along with NASA’s Victor Glover, will launch atop the rocket stage to venture around the Moon on Artemis II, the first crewed flight for Artemis.
From left, Artemis II NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, NASA astronaut Christina Koch, and Boeing’s Amanda Gertjejansen view the core stage for the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket at the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility on Nov. 16.NASA / Michael DeMocker The SLS core stage, towering at 212 feet, is the backbone of the Moon rocket and includes two massive propellant tanks that collectively hold 733,000 gallons of propellant to help power the stage’s four RS-25 engines. NASA, Boeing, the core stage lead contractor, along with Aerojet Rocketdyne, an L3Harris Technologies company and the RS-25 engines lead contractor, are in the midst of conducting final integrated testing on the fully assembled rocket stage. At launch and during ascent to space, the Artemis astronauts inside NASA’s Orion spacecraft will feel the power of the rocket’s four RS-25 engines producing more than 2 million pounds of thrust for a full eight minutes. The mega rocket’s twin solid rocket boosters, which flank either side of the core stage, will each add an additional 3.6 million pounds of thrust for two minutes.
Artemis II NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman and Christina Koch of NASA, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen view the core stage for the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket at the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans on Nov. 16. NASA / Michael DeMocker The astronauts’ visit to Michoud coincided with the first anniversary of the launch of Artemis I. The uncrewed flight test of SLS and Orion was the first in a series of increasingly complex missions for Artemis as the agency works to return humans to the lunar surface and develop a long-term presence there for discovery and exploration.
NASA is working to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon under Artemis. SLS is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration, along with the Orion spacecraft, advanced spacesuits and rovers, the Gateway in orbit around the Moon, and commercial human landing systems. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single mission.
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Mission Success is in Our Hands: Jeramie Broadway
Mission Success is in Our Hands is a safety initiative collaboration between NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and Jacobs. As part of the initiative, eight Marshall team members are featured in new testimonial banners placed around the center. This is the first in a Marshall Star series profiling team members featured in the testimonial banners.
Jeramie Broadway is the center strategy lead for the Office of the Center Director.
Jeramie Broadway is center strategy lead at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.NASA/Charles Beason Before assuming this role, Broadway was senior technical assistant to the Marshall associate director, technical, from September 2021 to October 2022. In that capacity, he supported the development, coordination, and implementation of Marshall strategic planning and partnering within NASA and across industry and academia. Prior to that detail, he was the assistant manager of Marshall’s Partnerships and Formulation Office, providing strategic planning and business development support and creating new partnering and new mission opportunities for the center.
Broadway, a Dallas, Texas, native who joined NASA full-time in 2008, began his career in Marshall’s Materials and Processes Laboratory, supporting and leading production operations for the Ares I and Space Launch System program. Over the years, he served as project engineer or deputy project manager for a variety of work, including the Nuclear Cryogenic Propulsion Stage Project, for which he led development of advanced, high-temperature nuclear fuel materials. He was assistant chief engineer for launch vehicles for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and assistant chief engineer for NASA’s Technology Demonstration Mission Program, managed for the agency at Marshall.
Question: What are some of your key responsibilities?
Broadway: Leading and implementing the center director’s strategic vision, leveraging, and integrating the strategic business units across the Marshall Center, one of NASA’s largest field installations, with nearly 7,000 on-site and near-site civil service and contractor employees and an annual budget of approximately $4 billion. Working closely in coordination and collaboration with every center organization to ensure Marshall’s planning, workflow, and business tactics align with the agency’s strategic priorities.
Question: How does your work support the safety and success of NASA and Marshall missions?
Broadway: My work as the center strategy lead is focused on the success and viability for the Marshall of the future. I work to pursue and capture programs, projects, and opportunities for Marshall to maintain ourselves as an engineering center of excellence. We work hard capturing opportunities to develop the skills, capabilities, and expertise to safely deliver on the vision and mission of the agency.
Question: What does the Mission Success Is In Our Hands initiative mean to you?
Broadway: Mission success is the responsibility of every single person at Marshall Space Flight Center, regardless of grade, position, or civil servant or support contractor. Everyone has a vital role in the success of Marshall and our ability to deliver on our mission. We all have the ability to lean forward, break down barriers, and strive for a culture that that says ‘yes, and…’.
Question: How can we work together better to achieve mission success?
Broadway: In this pursuits culture, it will take all of us to achieve the goals and objectives set forward by the agency and center leadership. We have a vibrant future with many opportunities coming our way and it will take all of us to make that vision a reality. It will take both our mission execution and our mission support organizations to get us there.
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Marshall Makes Impact at University of Alabama’s 8th Annual Space Days
By Celine Smith
Team members from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center participated in the 8th annual Space Days at UA (University of Alabama) on Nov 14-16, where more than 500 students met with experts from NASA and aerospace companies to learn more about the space industry.
During the three-day program, Marshall team members conducted outreach presentations and updates about the Artemis missions, HLS (Human Landing System), and other NASA programs, as well as how students can get involved in NASA’s internship program.
NASA astronaut Bob Hines delivers a presentation entitled, “An Astronaut’s Journey,” during the 8th annual Space Days at the UA on Nov. 16.Matthew Wood Kicking off the event was Aaron Houin, an engineer on the aerospace vehicle design and mission analysis team at Marshall. Houin delivered a detailed presentation on orbital mechanics and vehicle properties. Houin is no stranger to the classroom, as he is currently earning his doctorate at UA’s Astrodynamics and Space Research Laboratory and was eager to give back to his alma mater.
“Having been in their position studying the same theories, I emphasized how their coursework directly applies to physics-based modeling and trajectory design,” Houin said. “I’m hopeful sharing my experiences of transitioning from the classroom to the workplace will help others find similar success.”
The Marshall team also conducted an hour-long panel discussion and Q&A segment allowing students to learn more about the fields of aerospace and aeronautic research. Panelists included Christy Gattis, cross-program integration lead, and Kent Criswell, lead systems engineer, both representing the HLS team, as well as Tim Smith, senior mission manager of the TDM (Technology Demonstration Missions) program.
From left, Tim Smith, senior mission manager of the Technology Demonstration Missions Program, joins Human Landing System team members Christy Gattis, cross-program integration lead, and Kent Criswell, lead systems engineer, in speaking with attendees following a NASA panel discussion at the University of Alabama Space Days on Nov. 16.NASA/Christopher Blair During the panel discussion, attendees were treated with a surprise guest speaker as Eric Vanderslice, stages structures sub element lead with SLS (Space Launch System), connected virtually from the Michoud Assembly Facility. Vanderslice shared insight about “America’s Rocket Factory” and progress for the agency’s Artemis II missions, including the recent installation of all four RS-25 engines onto the 212-ft-tall SLS core stage.
UA students also received a Tech Talk presentation focused on the SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation) program and related internship opportunities from team members from NASA’s Glenn Research Center and NASA Headquarters. Panelists included Dawn Brooks, program specialist at NASA Headquarters; Timothy Gallagher, senior project lead, and Molly Kearns, digital media specialist, all three representing SCaN’s Policy and Strategic Communications office.
And in true “One NASA” collaboration, joining the Glenn contingency for this Tech Talk was once again, Tim Smith, providing related updates on the Deep Space Optical Communications and the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration experiments.
Holly Ellis, communication specialist, and Tim Smith, senior mission manager, both of the Technology Demonstration Missions Program, speak with students during Space Days at the University of Alabama on Nov. 15. NASA/Christopher Blair The annual Space Days event concluded with NASA astronaut Bob Hines delivering a special presentation entitled, “An Astronaut’s Journey” to nearly 100 students, staff and industry partners. Hines completed his first spaceflight as a mission specialist for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4 mission, serving as flight engineer of Expedition 67/68 aboard the International Space Station.
Space Days is hosted by the UA College of Engineering and their staff shared how crucial it is to have support from aerospace industry partners willing to visit campus and meet students. Key partners exhibiting and presenting included Lockheed Martin, United Launch Alliance, Alabama Space Grant Consortium, and others.
“By the time our students attend a career fair, apply for an internship, or pursue cooperative education, they will have learned about these companies in a smaller setting and begin to consider the many pathways to success,” said Tru Livaudais, director of external affairs for UA College of Engineering. “This event offers all UA students – regardless of majors and specialties – a chance to explore future career possibilities and how to be a part of the cutting-edge research and opportunities in the space industry.”
Smith, a Media Fusion employee, supports the Marshall Office of Communications.
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NASA Telescope Data Becomes Music You Can Play
For millennia, musicians have looked to the heavens for inspiration. Now a new collaboration is enabling actual data from NASA telescopes to be used as the basis for original music that can be played by humans.
Since 2020, the “sonification” project at NASA’s Chandra X-ray Center has translated the digital data taken by telescopes into notes and sounds. This process allows the listener to experience the data through the sense of hearing instead of seeing it as images, a more common way to present astronomical data.
The Galactic Center sonification, using data from NASA’s Chandra, Hubble, and Spitzer space telescopes, has been translated into a new composition with sheet music and score. Working with a composer, this soundscape can be played by musicians. The full score and sheet music for individual instruments is available at: https://chandra.si.edu/sound/symphony.htmlComposition: NASA/CXC/SAO/Sophie Kastner A new phase of the sonification project takes the data into different territory. Working with composer Sophie Kastner, the team has developed versions of the data that can be played by musicians.
“It’s like a writing a fictional story that is largely based on real facts,” said Kastner. “We are taking the data from space that has been translated into sound and putting a new and human twist on it.”
This pilot program focuses on data from a small region at the center of our Milky Way galaxy where a supermassive black hole resides. NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, Hubble Space Telescope, and retired Spitzer Space Telescope have all studied this area, which spans about 400 light-years across.
“We’ve been working with these data, taken in X-ray, visible, and infrared light, for years,” said Kimberly Arcand, Chandra visualization and emerging technology scientist. “Translating these data into sound was a big step, and now with Sophie we are again trying something completely new for us.”
In the data sonification process, computers use algorithms to mathematically map the digital data from these telescopes to sounds that humans can perceive. Human musicians, however, have different capabilities than computers.
Kastner chose to focus on small sections of the image in order to make the data more playable for people. This also allowed her to create spotlights on certain parts of the image that are easily overlooked when the full sonification is played.
“I like to think of it as creating short vignettes of the data, and approaching it almost as if I was writing a film score for the image,” said Kastner. “I wanted to draw listener’s attention to smaller events in the greater data set.”
A musical ensemble performs soundscape that composer Sophie Katsner created using data sonifications from NASA’s Chandra, Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes. Based in Montreal, Ensemble Éclat is dedicated to the performance of contemporary classical music and promoting the works of emerging composers. (NASA/CXC/A. Jubett & Priam David) The result of this trial project is a new composition based upon and influenced by real data from NASA telescopes, but with a human take.
“In some ways, this is just another way for humans to interact with the night sky just as they have throughout recorded history,” says Arcand. “We are using different tools but the concept of being inspired by the heavens to make art remains the same.”
Kastner hopes to expand this pilot composition project to other objects in Chandra’s data sonification collection. She is also looking to bring in other musical collaborators who are interested in using the data in their pieces.
Sophie Kastner’s Galactic Center piece is entitled “Where Parallel Lines Converge.” If you are a musician who wants to try playing this sonification at home, check out the sheet music at: https://chandra.si.edu/sound/symphony.html.
The piece was recorded by Montreal based Ensemble Éclat conducted by Charles-Eric LaFontaine on July 19, 2023, at McGill University.
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.
Read more from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.
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Dietitian Rachel Brown Speaker for Nov. 28 Marshall Association Event
Rachel Brown, registered dietitian and certified diabetes care and education specialist, will be the guest speaker for the Marshall Association Speaker Series on Nov. 28.
The event will be 12-1 p.m. The event is free to attend and open to everyone via Teams. NASA Marshall Space Flight Center team members can attend in Building 4221, Conference Room 1103. The meeting topic follows this year’s theme of Breaking Boundaries.
Rachel Brown, registered dietitian and certified diabetes care and education specialist, will be the guest speaker for the Marshall Association Speaker Series on Nov. 28. NASA A mom of two and a Huntsville resident since 2016, Brown is the owner of Rocket City Dietitian social media channels, where she focuses on promoting local food, fun, and fitness available in the Rocket City. She has a monthly TV segment on TN Valley Living promoting the local food scene and is a regular contributor to Huntsville Magazine, We Are Huntsville, and VisitHuntsville.org.
Email the Marshall Association for questions about the event. For more information on the Marshall Association and how to join, team members can visit their page on Inside Marshall.
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Cube Quest Concludes: Wins, Lessons Learned from Centennial Challenge
By Savannah Bullard
Artemis I launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Nov. 16, 2022, penning a new era of space exploration and inching the agency closer to sending the first woman and first person of color to the lunar surface.
Aboard the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket were 10 small satellites, no bigger than shoeboxes, whose goal was to detach and capably perform operations near and beyond the Moon. One of those satellites was a product of the Cube Quest Challenge, a NASA-led prize competition that asked citizen innovators to design, build, and deliver flight-qualified satellites called CubeSats that could perform its mission independently of the Artemis I mission.
Small satellites, called CubeSats, are shown secured inside NASA’s Orion stage adapter at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Aug. 5, 2021. One of these CubeSats belonged to Team Miles, one of the three finalists in the Cube Quest Centennial Challenge. The ring-shaped stage adapter was connected to the Space Launch System’s Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage, with the Orion spacecraft secured on top. The CubeSats’ mission was to detach from the stage adapter, then fly near and beyond the Moon to conduct a variety of science experiments and technology demonstrations to expand our knowledge of the lunar surface during the Artemis I mission.NASA/Cory Huston Cube Quest is the agency’s first in-space public prize competition. Opened in 2015, the challenge began with four ground-based tournaments, which awarded almost $500,000 in prizes. Three finalists emerged from the ground competition with a ticket to hitch a ride aboard the SLS as a secondary payload – and win the rest of the competition’s $5 million prize purse, NASA’s largest-ever prize offering to date – in 2022.
Of the three finalists, Team Miles was the sole team to make the trip on Artemis I successfully. Shortly after a successful deployment in space, controllers detected downlink signals and processed them to confirm whether the CubeSat was operational. This remains the latest update for the Team Miles CubeSat.
“We’re still celebrating the many wins that were borne out of Cube Quest,” said Centennial Challenges Program Manager Denise Morris. “The intent of the challenge was to reward citizen inventors who successfully advance the CubeSat technologies needed for operations on the Moon and beyond, and I believe we accomplished this.”
Innovation rarely comes without error, but according to Challenge Manager Naveen Vetcha, who supports Centennial Challenges through Jacobs Space Exploration Group, even after everything goes as expected, there is no guarantee that scientists will reach their desired outcomes.
“Given the magnitude of what we can and do accomplish every day at NASA, it comes with the territory that not every test, proposal, or idea will come out with 100 percent success,” Vetcha said. “We have set ambitious goals, and challenging ourselves to change what’s possible will inevitably end with examples of not meeting our stretch goals. But, with each failure comes more opportunities and lessons to carry forward. In the end, our competitors created technologies that will enable affordable deep space CubeSats, which, to me, is a big win.”
Although Team Miles may have made it furthest in the Cube Quest Challenge, having launched its CubeSat as a secondary payload aboard Artemis I, the team continues to participate in the challenge long after launch.
“From Team Miles, Miles Space LLC was created and is still in business,” said Jan McKenna, Team Miles’ project manager and safety lead. “Miles Space is developing and selling the propulsion system designed for our craft to commercial aerospace companies, and we’ve expanded to be able to create hardware for communications along with our CubeSat developments.”
The next steps for Miles Space LLC include seeing through their active patent applications, establishing relationships with potential clients, and continuing to hunt for a connection with their flying CubeSat. Another finalist team, Cislunar Explorers, is currently focused on using their lessons learned to benefit the global small satellite community.
“I utilized the contacts I made through Cube Quest and the other Artemis Secondary Payloads for my thesis research,” said Aaron Zucherman, Cislunar Explorers’ project manager. “This has enabled me to find partnerships and consulting work with other universities and companies where I have shared my experiences learning the best ways to build interplanetary CubeSats.”
This challenge featured teams from diverse educational and commercial backgrounds. Several team members credited the challenge as a catalyst in their graduate thesis or Ph.D. research, but one young innovator says Cube Quest completely redirected his entire career trajectory.
Project Selene team lead, Braden Oh, competed with his peers at La Cañada High School in La Cañada, California. Oh’s team eventually caught the attention of Kerri Cahoy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the designs were similar enough that Cahoy invited the two teams to merge. The exposure gained through this partnership was a powerful inspiration for Oh and his peers.
“I originally intended to apply to college as a computer science major, but my experiences in Cube Quest inspired me to study engineering instead,” Oh said. “I saw similar stories unfold for a number of my teammates; one eventually graduated from MIT and another now works for NASA.”
Cube Quest is managed out of NASA’s Ames Research Center. The competition is a part of NASA’s Centennial Challenges, which is housed at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center. Centennial Challenges is a part of NASA’s Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing program in the Space Technology Mission Directorate.
Bullard, a Manufacturing Technical Solutions Inc. employee, supports the Marshall Office of Communications.
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The Heat is On! NASA’s ‘Flawless’ Heat Shield Demo Passes the Test
A little more than a year ago, a NASA flight test article came screaming back from space at more than 18,000 mph, reaching temperatures of nearly 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit before gently splashing down in the Pacific Ocean. At that moment, it became the largest blunt body – a type of reentry vehicle that creates a heat-deflecting shockwave – ever to reenter Earth’s atmosphere.
The Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator, or LOFTID, launched Nov. 10, 2022, aboard a ULA (United Launch Alliance) Atlas V rocket and successfully demonstrated an inflatable heat shield. Also known as a Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator, or HIAD, aeroshell, this technology could allow larger spacecraft to safely descend through the atmospheres of celestial bodies like Mars, Venus, and even Saturn’s moon, Titan.
The Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator, or LOFTID, spacecraft is pictured after its atmospheric re-entry test in November 2022.NASA/Greg Swanson “Large-diameter aeroshells allow us to deliver critical support hardware, and potentially even crew, to the surface of planets with atmospheres,” said Trudy Kortes, director of Technology Demonstrations at NASA Headquarters. “This capability is crucial for the nation’s ambition of expanding human and robotic exploration across our solar system.”
NASA has been developing HIAD technologies for over a decade, including two smaller scale suborbital flight tests before LOFTID. In addition to this successful tech demo, NASA is investigating future applications, including partnering with commercial companies to develop technologies for small satellite reentry, aerocapture, and cislunar payloads.
“This was a keystone event for us, and the short answer is: It was highly successful,” said LOFTID Project Manager Joe Del Corso. “Our assessment of LOFTID concluded with the promise of what this technology may do to empower the exploration of deep space.”
Due to the success of the LOFTID tech demo, NASA announced under its Tipping Point program that it would partner with ULA to develop and deliver the “next size up,” a larger 12-meter HIAD aeroshell for recovering the company’s Vulcan engines from low Earth orbit for reuse.
The LOFTID team recently held a post-flight analysis assessment of the flight test at NASA’s Langley Research Center. Their verdict?
Upon recovery, the team discovered LOFTID appeared pristine, with minimal damage, meaning its performance was, as Del Corso puts it, “Just flawless.”
View some interesting visual highlights from LOFTID’s flight test.
LOFTID splashed down in the Pacific Ocean several hundred miles off the east coast of Hawaii and only about eight miles from the recovery ship’s bow – almost exactly as modeled. A crew got on a small boat and retrieved and hoisted LOFTID onto the recovery ship.
“The LOFTID mission was important because it proved the cutting-edge HIAD design functioned successfully at an appropriate scale and in a relevant environment,” said Tawnya Laughinghouse, manager of the TDM (Technology Demonstrations Missions) program office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
Marshall supported the Langley-led LOFTID project, providing avionics flight hardware, including the data acquisition system, the inertial measurement unit, and six camera pods. Marshall engineers also performed thermal and fluids analyses and modeling in support of the LOFTID re-entry vehicle inflation system and aeroshell designs.
The LOFTID demonstration was a public private-partnership with ULA funded by STMD and managed by the Technology Demonstration Mission Program, executed by NASA Langley with contributions from across NASA centers. Multiple U.S. small businesses contributed to the hardware. NASA’s Launch Services Program was responsible for NASA’s oversight of launch operations.
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By NASA
27 Min Read The Marshall Star for November 15, 2023
Commercial Crew Program’s Plaque Hanging Tradition Continues, Celebrating Work Done by Marshall Team
By Celine Smith
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center participated in a new tradition last December to honor engineers for their exceptional efforts on CCP (Commercial Crew Program) missions to the International Space Station continued Nov. 13, with a third plaque hanging at the HOSC (Huntsville Operations Support Center).
Team members are nominated at Marshall, Johnson Space Center, and Kennedy Space Center – centers that support CCP – to hang the plaque of the mission they supported. David Gwaltney, LVSO (Launch Vehicle Systems Office) technical assistant, was selected to hang the plaque for Crew-5, and Jonathan Carman, deputy SpaceX Falcon 9 lead engineer, was selected to hang the plaque for Crew-6. The Crew-5 mission launched in October of 2022. Crew-6 launched earlier this year in March.
Dave Gwaltney, left, Launch Vehicle Systems Office technical assistant and Lisa McCollum, Marshall’s Commercial Crew Program Launch Vehicle Safety Office deputy manager, hold the Crew-5 mission plaque together as they smile.NASA/Charles Beason Gwaltney was chosen for the support he provided as a technical assistant for LVSO on the Crew-5 mission. While hardware for the mission was in transit it was damaged. He was critical to ensuring the proper inspections and analysis were completed. He then relayed the risk assessments to the program for acceptance. Gwaltney’s expertise led him to accurately pinpoint major areas of risks and understand them for a successful mission.
“We had good communication lines and an experienced team that allowed us to be ready for what we needed to do,” Gwaltney said.
Crew-5 was the first CCP mission to be led by a female commander, Nicole Mann. Mann also became the first indigenous woman to fly with NASA. Anna Kikina became the first Russian cosmonaut to fly on a U.S. commercial rocket during this mission as well.
Carman was recognized for his coordination of the second launch attempt for the Crew-6 mission that took place during a severe weather warning at HOSC. Carman took preventative measures to ensure the launch was a success. He collaborated with Mission Management and Integration, HOSC personnel, and the Marshall support team. He relocated the launch operations team to the storm shelter while preserving open lines of communication.
Jonathan Carman, left, deputy SpaceX Falcon 9 lead engineer, shakes hands with McCollum before he hangs the Crew-6 mission plaque. NASA/Charles Beason “It’s an honor to have people count on me to take on the role and have trust in me,” Carman said. “I learned that good coordination and teamwork is always a recipe for success.”
The launch of Crew-6 was the first time a Crew Dragon capsule was reused for a fourth time. The mission also featured the first United Arab Emirates astronaut.
“Both Dave and Jonathan have consistently gone above and beyond to meet the need and make sure that the crew has a safe flight to station,” said Lisa McCollum, Marshall’s CCP LVSO deputy manager.
The second plaque hanging took place at HOSC on April 20 earlier this year. Ken Schrock, an avionics system engineer, hung the plaque for the Crew-3 mission, Patrick Mills, liquid propulsion systems engineer, hung the Crew-4 plaque, and Megan Hines, system safety engineer, hung the OFT-2 plaque.
Schrock was selected for critically assessing autonomous flight termination system test products and analyzing their reports for the Crew-3 mission. He also monitors Falcon 9 fleet launches for any issues that could be applicable to other CCP missions.
From left, Patrick Mills, liquid propulsion systems engineer, Megan Hines, systems safety engineer, and Ken Schrock, an avionics systems engineer, smile together after hanging their CCP plaques April 20.NASA/Charles Beason Mills was honored with a plaque hanging for his repair work on Falcon 9’s first stage booster for its fourth launch on the Crew-4 mission. After static fire, the team identified repairs that would be needed before flight. Mills played a key role in measuring the risk of the leaks caused. He led the team that decided patching them would be a suitable resolution preventing any spraying during the engine start up.
Hines was recognized for her safety and mission assurance work on the OFT-2 mission. Due to most of the team being focused on the reused components in the Crew-4 mission, Hines coordinated all the OFT-2 safety and mission assurance work. During the mission she provided support on-console during the launch. The flight met all test objectives, completing the first docking of the Starliner to the space station.
“I’m really proud of this team and how much work, heart and effort goes into each flight,” McCollum said. “It’s important for the folks across the agency and the public to know what our team is doing behind the scenes to make these missions happen.”
Smith, a Media Fusion employee, supports the Marshall Office of Communications.
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National WWII Museum Brings Valor Outreach Event to Michoud Veterans
By Heather Keller
Veterans from the multi-tenant workforce at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility attended a panel discussion featuring two Congressional Medal of Honor recipients Nov. 1 in Michoud’s Hero’s Way – a hall lined with the mission patches for every NASA mission, along with crew photos and mission details.
When the National WWII Museum in New Orleans learned they would be hosting the week-long Medal of Honor Convention in 2023, they began exploring ideas for local Valor Outreach opportunities. Michoud’s beginnings as an aircraft factory producing C-76 and C-46 cargo planes in support of WWII, in addition to its current operations supporting the space program, as well as housing multiple government agencies, including U.S. Coast Guard Base New Orleans, made it a prime location for the event.
From left, NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility Director Lonnie Dutreix, Maj. Gen. David Mize (Ret.), Col. Harvey C. “Barney” Barnum Jr. (Ret.), and Capt. Florent A. “Flo” Groberg (Ret.) participate in a panel discussion during a Valor Outreach event for veterans Nov. 1. NASA/Michael DeMocker “NASA Michoud is a foundation of the American space program and a marvel of scientific and engineering capability,” said event moderator and retired U.S. Marine Corps Gen. David Mize, who now serves as chairman of the Mayor’s Military Advisory Committee of New Orleans. “It is truly an underappreciated American jewel.”
The event afforded a unique opportunity to the attendees to be with the “heroic unicorns of the U.S. military,” according to Mize, noting, “there are about 343 million people in the U.S. … 16.2 million living veterans … two million personnel on active and reserve duty,” yet there are only 65 living Medal of Honor recipients.
The Medal of Honor recipients, retired U.S. Army Capt. Florent Groberg and retired U.S. Marine Corps Col. Harvey Barnum, Jr., visited Michoud as part of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society Valor Outreach Program. They spoke of their individual experiences serving the country in combat and in their civilian life following retirement. Topics of discussion included patriotism, leadership, and a comparison between the foreign affairs from WWII to today, among others. The pair fielded questions from the audience, which was exclusively made up of Michoud veterans, and those currently serving onsite at USCG Base New Orleans.
Both panelists spoke on the weight of the medal, and the struggle of being celebrated as a war hero while their comrades gave the ultimate sacrifice.
“The medal is not ours,” said Groberg, a veteran of the War on Terrorism. “We’re recipients of the medal. We’re a courier of the medal. There’s a story behind each and every one of our medals, that include many, many other people aside from us. Now we have a platform to tell those stories.”
Groberg continued with the names of the four soldiers who lost their lives in Afghanistan on the day he earned his accolade, a personal mission he’s adopted to honor their memory.
Freddie Grass, left, safety manager for Boasso Construction, visits with Mize and Barnum during a factory tour at Michoud. Grass has four Purple Hearts, while Mize has the Distinguished Superior Service Medal.NASA/Michael DeMocker Barnum, a veteran of the Vietnam War, spoke about the 365 Medal of Honor recipients who were alive when he was decorated in 1967. At that time there were honorees who served as far back as the Banana Wars of the 1890s, who became his mentors, and taught him the importance of being a caretaker of the medal. He compared the honor to a brotherhood, saying they have all become family.
“Many of us go to the White House when a new recipient is awarded, and then we also gather at Arlington when we say ‘goodbye,’” Barnum said. “It’s the greatest fraternity that anybody could ever be a member of.”
To Groberg and Barnum, the greatest honor is knowing that their peers nominated them for the recognition, though they noted one aspect where the society falls short. “We need a woman,” Groberg said. “We had some women that went out who walked the walk with us, they fought with us, they did some incredible work, and some of them didn’t come home.”
Drawing on their experience, Groberg and Barnum urged their fellow veterans to talk about their experiences and recalled how opening up to those around them aided in both their physical and emotional recovery.
When asked if they would do it all over again by a Michoud employee, both men agreed they would, without hesitation; however, when asked if they would ever consider going to space, they had a difference of opinion.
“Not me,” Barnum said. “I’ve always wondered why people jump out of good airplanes.”
Groberg, a former Boeing employee said, “A hundred percent… this is the future …especially with ya’ll building the rockets. Count me in.”
Following the panel discussion, the Medal of Honor recipients enjoyed a lunch with Michoud leadership, a small contingency of Michoud veterans, and USCG personnel. Finishing out the day, the WW II staff and Medal of Honor recipients enjoyed a tour of America’s rocket factory while engaging MAF veterans along the tour route.
Keller, a Manufacturing Technical Solutions Inc. employee, works in communications at Michoud Assembly Facility.
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Greg Chavers Named Strategic Architect, Integration Manager of Marshall’s Science and Technology Office
Greg Chavers has been named as the strategic architect and integration manager in the Science and Technology Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
Chavers is returning to Marshall following his role as Mars Campaign Office director in the Moon to Mars Program Office, Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, at NASA Headquarters from April to November 2023. In that role, he led risk reduction and technology development of systems that will lead to human Mars missions. The technologies are being demonstrated on the ground, in Low Earth orbit on the International Space Station, and will be demonstrated on the Moon on future Artemis missions.
Greg Chavers, strategic architect and integration manager in the Science and Technology Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.NASA Before leading the Mars Campaign Office, Chavers was director of the Technical Integration Office at headquarters, starting in 2022. In that role, he led an office consisting of about 70 civil servants and more than 50 support contractors including senior leaders and executives that influence the investments of multi-billions of dollars across all human spaceflight destinations.
In 2020, he was appointed assistant deputy associate administrator for the Human Explorations Office, Systems Engineering and Integration, also at headquarters. From 2019-2020, Chavers was deputy program manager for HLS (Human Lander Systems) at Marshall. He was formulation manager at headquarters for HLS from 2018-2019. In 2012, Chavers was named Lander Technologies project manager.
He joined NASA in 1991 in the Systems Analysis and Integration Lab in Marshall’s Engineering Directorate. Chavers spent more than 20 years in the Engineering Directorate before transitioning to project management in Marshall’s flight projects office.
A native of Flomaton, Alabama, Chavers received a bachelor’s degree in aerospace from Auburn University, and a master’s in astrophysics and a doctorate in physics from the University of Alabama.
He and his wife of 33 years, Denise, live in Decatur. They have three children and two grandchildren.
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Rocket Exhaust on the Moon: NASA Supercomputers Reveal Surface Effects
Through Artemis, NASA plans to explore more of the Moon than ever before with human and robotic missions on the lunar surface. Because future landers will be larger and equipped with more powerful engines than the Apollo landers, mission risks associated with their operation during landing and liftoff is significantly greater. With the agency’s goal to establish a sustained human presence on the Moon, mission planners must understand how future landers interact with the lunar surface as they touch down in unexplored moonscapes.
Landing on the Moon is tricky. When missions fly crew and payloads to the lunar surface, spacecraft control their descent by firing rocket engines to counteract the Moon’s gravitational pull. This happens in an extreme environment that’s hard to replicate and test on Earth, namely, a combination of low gravity, no atmosphere, and the unique properties of lunar regolith – the layer of fine, loose dust and rock on the Moon’s surface.
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Researchers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center produced a simulation of the Apollo 12 lander engine plumes interacting with the lunar surface. This animation depicts the last half-minute of descent before engine cut-off, showing the predicted forces exerted by plumes on a flat computational surface. Known as shear stress, this is the amount of lateral, or sideways, force applied over a set area, and it is the leading cause of erosion as fluids flow across a surface. Here, the fluctuating radial patterns show the intensity of predicted shear stress. Lower shear stress is dark purple, and higher shear stress is yellow. (NASA/Patrick Moran and Andrew Weaver) Each time a spacecraft lands or lifts off, its engines blast supersonic plumes of hot gas toward the surface and the intense forces kick up dust and eject rocks or other debris at high speeds. This can cause hazards like visual obstructions and dust clouds that can interfere with navigation and science instrumentation or cause damage to the lander and other nearby hardware and structures. Additionally, the plumes can erode the surface under the lander. Although craters were not formed for Apollo-scale landers, it is unknown how much the larger landers being planned for upcoming Artemis missions will erode the surface and whether they will rapidly cause cratering in the landing zone, posing a risk to the lander’s stability and astronauts aboard.
To improve its understanding of plume-surface interactions, also known as PSI, researchers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center have developed new software tools to predict PSI environments for NASA projects and missions, including the Human Landing System, Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, and future Mars landers. These tools are already being used to predict cratering and visual obscuration on upcoming lunar missions and are helping NASA minimize risks to spacecraft and crew during future landed missions.
The team at Marshall recently produced a simulation of the Apollo 12 lander engine plumes interacting with the surface and the predicted erosion that closely matched what happened during landing. This animation depicts the last half-minute of descent before engine cut-off, showing the predicted forces exerted by plumes on a flat computational surface. Known as shear stress, this is the amount of lateral, or sideways, force applied over a set area, and it is the leading cause of erosion as fluids flow across a surface. Here, the fluctuating radial patterns show the intensity of predicted shear stress. Lower shear stress is dark purple, and higher shear stress is yellow.
These simulations were run on the Pleaides supercomputer at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing facility at NASA’s Ames Research Center over several weeks of runtime, generating terabytes of data.
NASA is showcasing 42 of the agency’s computational achievements at SC23, the international supercomputing conference, Nov. 12-17, in Denver, Colorado. For more technical information, visit: https://www.nas.nasa.gov/sc23.
Used for this research, the framework for the Descent Interpolated Gas Granular Erosion Model, or DIGGEM, was funded through NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research program within NASA’s STMD (Space Technology Mission Directorate) in Washington, and by the Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume Surface Studies project that is managed by NASA’s Langley Research Center, also funded by STMD. The Loci/CHEM+DIGGEM code was further refined through direct support for flight projects within the Human Landing System program funded by NASA’s ESDMD (Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate) in Washington as well as the Strategy and Architecture Office in ESDMD.
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I am Artemis: Eric Bordelon
As a child, Eric Bordelon had posters of the space shuttle in his room. Now, he takes photos and video for NASA as a multimedia specialist at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility. Known as NASA’s Rocket Factory, the site is where structures for NASA’s Apollo, shuttle, and now, NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft are produced for Artemis missions.
Bordelon joined the NASA team in 2007 working with the external tank program for the space shuttle at Michoud. One of Bordelon’s favorite aspects of the job is being a part of the storytelling involving Michoud’s rich history, including documenting the facility transition from the Space Shuttle Program to the SLS Program.
Eric Bordelon, a multimedia specialist at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility, stands in front of a weld confidence article that forms part of the liquid oxygen tank for the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket’s future exploration upper stage.NASA/Steven Seipel “Many people don’t realize that Michoud has been around since the 40s and NASA has been here since the 60s,” Bordelon said. “A part of my job I really love is meeting and taking photos of the people working behind the scenes on the rocket. They’re turning bolts, welding, spraying foam, and are artists in their own way. One of my goals is to learn what each of these people do, so I can help tell their stories.”
Bordelon grew up in Destrehan, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans, and initially dreamed about being a sound recording engineer. He attended Loyola University New Orleans where he studied music business but soon after went to work for a print shop. During his time there, he met several photographers and soon picked up a new hobby: photography. He purchased his first digital camera in 2005 and started taking photos around New Orleans. When the job at NASA opened, he decided to see if that hobby could turn into a career.
Fast forward to 2022: That young boy with space posters on his wall grew up to be a part of the Artemis Generation. Though he had been capturing how rockets came together for years at Michoud, Bordelon had not seen a launch. That changed in 2022 with Artemis I. Not only did Bordelon watch his first launch at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, but he also photographed and documented it for NASA.
“I watched this powerful rocket’s core stage be built at Michoud,” Bordelon said. “When I first saw the SLS rocket fully assembled with Orion atop, sitting on the launch pad ready for its inaugural flight for Artemis I, I had to pause, take a minute, and revel in just how amazing it was to be a small part of that.”
During Artemis I launch activities in 2022, he captured a stunning photo of the Sun behind the SLS rocket as a Florida storm rolled in. The photo – with its purple, pink, and orange hues – was selected for one of NASA’s “Picture of the Year” awards.
Read other I am Artemis features.
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Arkansas City Welcomes Marshall to Discuss 2024 Total Solar Eclipse
The contiguous United States will see only one total solar eclipse between now and the year 2044, and the citizens of Russellville, Arkansas, are ready.
On Monday, April 8, 2024, the Moon will pass between the Sun and Earth, providing an opportunity for those in the path of the Moon’s shadow to see a total solar eclipse, including the Sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona. With more than 100,000 tourists expected to visit Russellville for this rare experience, elected officials and industry leaders hosted a team of NASA experts from Marshall Space Flight Center to discuss educational outreach opportunities.
More than 1,000 people attended a free solar eclipse presentation in Russellville, Arkansas, featuring experts from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, Oct. 30.Joshua Mashon “Having NASA involved elevates the importance of this eclipse and amplifies the excitement for our community,” said Russellville Mayor Fred Teague. “We are thankful for the rich discussions and insight provided by NASA, and we look forward to hosting them again during the April eclipse.”
Due to the length of the eclipse totality in Russellville, NASA is planning to host part of the agency’s live television broadcast from the city, as well as conduct several scientific presentations and public outreach events for visitors. Additional factors for selecting Russellville included access to a large university, and proximity to Little Rock – the state’s capital – to engage media outlets and key stakeholders representing industry and academia.
The day-long Oct. 30 visit helped NASA learn how the city is preparing for the massive influx of tourists and news media personnel. Christie Graham, director of Russellville Tourism, explained the city’s commitment to the eclipse and how their planning processes started more than a year in advance.
“Months ago, we created our solar eclipse outreach committee, consisting of key stakeholders and thought leaders from across the city,” Graham said. “We’ve developed advanced communication and emergency management plans which will maximize our city’s resources and ensure everyone has a safe and memorable viewing experience.”
Adam Kobelski, a solar astrophysicist with Marshall, shares tips to safely view a total solar eclipse. Many U.S. cities, including Russellville, Arkansas, are planning watch parties to view the April 2024 total solar eclipse.Joshua Mashon This visit also provided NASA an opportunity to share important heliophysics messaging with the public, including the next generation of scientists, engineers, and explorers. To learn how best to interact with local students, Marshall team members met with the Russellville School District Superintendent Ginni McDonald and Arkansas Tech University Acting Interim President Russell Jones.
“Leveraging the eclipse to provide quality learning opportunities will be a valuable and unforgettable experience for all,” McDonald said. “Our staff enjoyed discussing best strategies and look forward to sharing NASA educational content with our students.”
The team also discussed internship opportunities available for students to work at NASA centers across the nation, as well as how to get involved in NASA’s Artemis student challenges, sophisticated engineering design challenges available for middle school, high school, college and university students.
“Our university serves nearly 10,000 students, many pursuing a variety of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) degrees, including mechanical and electrical engineering, biological and computer sciences, nursing, and more,” Jones said. “It is important our students learn of the many unique opportunities available with NASA and how they can get involved.”
Following the NASA public presentation about the April 2024 total solar eclipse, Kobelski chats with guests interested in learning more about NASA and heliophysics.NASA/Christopher Blair The agency’s visit concluded with a free public presentation at The Center for The Arts, where more than 1,000 attendees gained insight on the upcoming eclipse from Dr. Adam Kobelski, a solar astrophysicist at Marshall. Following the presentation, Marshall team members participated in a question-and-answer session with audience members of all ages.
Overall, the visit proved valuable for everyone with NASA team members remarking how enthusiastic and prepared both Russellville and the university are to support the eclipse event.
“It was a refreshing reminder of the public’s excitement for the science we conduct at NASA,” Kobelski said. “This experience established my overall confidence in their readiness to successfully host a quality viewing experience for everyone.”
The April eclipse is part of the Heliophysics Big Year, a global celebration of solar science and the Sun’s influence on Earth and the entire solar system. Everyone is encouraged to participate in solar science events such as watching solar eclipses, experiencing an aurora, participating in citizen science projects, and other fun Sun-related activities.
Cities across the nation are planning eclipse watch parties and other celebrations to commemorate the event. Weather permitting, the April 2024 total eclipse will be visible across 13 states, from Texas to New York.
Learn more about the 2024 eclipse.
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NASA Project Manager Helps Makes Impact in Southeast Asia with SERVIR
By Celine Smith
“As the seedlings were placed in the water, I felt a moment of déjà vu,” NASA scientist Tony Kim said. “I was taken back to when I was a child playing in similar fields in South Korea. It felt like I was meant to be there bringing space to village with satellite data.”
As he looked at rice fields while visiting Bhutan in September 2023, Kim savored the chance to do something meaningful across Southeast Asia and also in his native country. Having seen his childhood home turn from rice fields to a city, Kim knows the importance of sustainably using the land.
Tony Kim in South Korea’s Songdo Central Park standing in front of the statue “Cruising Together” created by Han Jeong-ho.NASA/Tony Kim In Bhutan, Kim and research partners are identifying rice paddies, estimating crop production, predicting shortages, and gauging the health of each harvest. He represents NASA as an international project manager for SERVIR, a partnership between NASA and USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development). It is a flagship program for Earth Action in NASA’s Earth Sciences Division, created in 2005 and rooted at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
SERVIR – which means “to serve” in Spanish – aids more than 50 nations in Asia, Africa, and Latin America in their efforts to address issues like food and water security, droughts, and the negative effects of climate change. SERVIR assists regional, national, and local institutions by using NASA satellite data, models, and products to manage resources sustainably.
NASA and USAID launched its SERVIR Mekong hub in 2015 at the ADPC(Asian Disaster Preparedness Center) in Bangkok, Thailand. The hub has been renamed SERVIR Southeast Asia as of this year. Other SERVIR hubs are in the Himalayas, West Africa, and the Amazon.
In addition to Bhutan, Kim also traveled back home to Seoul, South Korea – nearly 20 years since his last visit – to represent SERVIR Southeast Asia. “When I went back to Korea, I felt like a kid going back in time,” Kim said.
Kim, back row fifth from the right, pictured with other attendees during the 2023 PEER (Partnerships for Enhanced Engagement in Research) Bhutan Symposium where Bhutanese scientists funded by USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development). present their research. Kim’s presentation was, “Advancing STEM in Bhutan through Increased Earth Observation Capacity.”Royal Society for Protection of Nature Bhutan The USAID RDMA (Regional Development Mission for Asia), which funds SERVIR Southeast Asia requested Kim’s presence for a meeting with Korean leaders. He discussed the value of NASA satellite data for environmental decision-making with the Korean Ministry of Environment and USAID RDMA, as well as opportunities for collaboration to solve water issues in the Indo-Pacific region and natural resource management in the Lower Mekong sub-region.
“Korea recovered from war in the 1950’s and developed very quickly as a powerhouse for technology products. Now Korea is helping other developing countries in Asia,” Kim said. “I am so proud of my home country and my adopted country (through NASA) helping people around the world to use satellite data in productive ways.”
Kim was eight years old in 1974 when his family moved from the southern edge of Seoul to the suburbs of Chicago. “Our parents immigrated to the United States to give us the opportunity to better ourselves through education,” he said. After high school, he went to the University of Illinois, where he pursued a degree in aeronautical and astronautical engineering. After graduation, he joined Marshall as a propulsion engineer, testing cryogenic fluid management techniques for advanced rocket propulsion systems.
From there, Kim’s 33-year NASA journey led him through a variety of roles. He served in 1992 as an operations controller for two Spacelab missions. In 1996, he led an operation team for the International Space Station Furnace Facility. From 1998-2001, he was a payload operations manager for space station science payloads.
Tony Kim, SERVIR Science Coordination Office project manager, International Flagship Program for Earth Action.NASA Marshall selected Kim to study at Auburn University in 1997, where he earned his master’s degree in material science. Afterwards, Kim attended the International Space University. Then, he led the ALTUS Cumulus Electrification Study, where an uninhabited aerial vehicle was used to study lightning during a thunderstorm.
Kim was selected in 2003 for the NASA Administrator’s Fellowship Program to teach a design engineering course at Texas A&M in Kingsville for one year. He spent the next year at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Kim returned to Marshall as a deep throttling rocket engine technology manager and then deputy manager for advanced nuclear thermal propulsion technology development.
In 2016, Kim served as deputy program manager for Centennial Challenges, NASA’s premier, large-prize program. Kim worked with Bradley University and Caterpillar in Peoria, Illinois, to conduct NASA’s 3D-printed Habitat Challenge.
“SERVIR was the only organization that could have taken me away from Centennial Challenges,” Kim said.
Kim and his wife, Sonya, live in Huntsville, Alabama, and have three grown children. He said the lessons his parents imparted remain as true today as when he was a small child.
“They taught us to work hard, keep your commitments, and care about what you do and the people you do it with,” he said. “If you do those things, you’ll find success.”Smith, a Media Fusion employee, supports the Marshall Office of Communications.
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Juno Finds Jupiter’s Winds Penetrate in Cylindrical Layers
Gravity data collected by NASA’s Juno mission indicates Jupiter’s atmospheric winds penetrate the planet in a cylindrical manner, parallel to its spin axis. A paper on the findings was recently published in the journal Nature Astronomy.
The violent nature of Jupiter’s roiling atmosphere has long been a source of fascination for astronomers and planetary scientists, and Juno has had a ringside seat to the goings-on since it entered orbit in 2016. During each of the spacecraft’s 55 to date, a suite of science instruments has peered below Jupiter’s turbulent cloud deck to uncover how the gas giant works from the inside out.
NASA’s Juno captured this view of Jupiter during the mission’s 54th close flyby of the giant planet on Sept. 7. The image was made with raw data from the JunoCam instrument that was processed to enhance details in cloud features and colors.Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS Image processing by Tanya Oleksuik CC BY NC SA 3.0 One way the Juno mission learns about the planet’s interior is via radio science. Using NASA’s Deep Space Network antennas, scientists track the spacecraft’s radio signal as Juno flies past Jupiter at speeds near 130,000 mph, measuring tiny changes in its velocity – as small as 0.01 millimeter per second. Those changes are caused by variations in the planet’s gravity field, and by measuring them, the mission can essentially see into Jupiter’s atmosphere.
Such measurements have led to numerous discoveries, including the existence of a dilute core deep within Jupiter and the depth of the planet’s zones and belts, which extend from the cloud tops down approximately 1,860 miles.
To determine the location and cylindrical nature of the winds, the study’s authors applied a mathematical technique that models gravitational variations and surface elevations of rocky planets like Earth. At Jupiter, the technique can be used to accurately map winds at depth. Using the high-precision Juno data, the authors were able to generate a four-fold increase in the resolution over previous models created with data from NASA’s trailblazing Jovian explorers Voyager and Galileo.
“We applied a constraining technique developed for sparse data sets on terrestrial planets to process the Juno data,” said Ryan Park, a Juno scientist and lead of the mission’s gravity science investigation from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “This is the first time such a technique has been applied to an outer planet.”
The measurements of the gravity field matched a two-decade-old model that determined Jupiter’s powerful east-west zonal flows extend from the cloud-level white and red zones and belts inward. But the measurements also revealed that rather than extending in every direction like a radiating sphere, the zonal flows go inward, cylindrically, and are oriented along the direction of Jupiter’s rotation axis. How Jupiter’s deep atmospheric winds are structured has been in debated since the 1970s, and the Juno mission has now settled the debate.
This illustration depicts findings that Jupiter’s atmospheric winds penetrate the planet in a cylindrical manner and parallel to its spin axis. The most dominant jet recorded by NASA’s Juno is shown in the cutout: The jet is at 21 degrees north latitude at cloud level, but 1,800 miles (3,000 kilometers) below that, it’s at 13 degrees north latitude.Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/SWRI/MSSS/ASI/ INAF/JIRAM/Björn Jónsson CC BY 3.0 “All 40 gravity coefficients measured by Juno matched our previous calculations of what we expect the gravity field to be if the winds penetrate inward on cylinders,” said Yohai Kaspi of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, the study’s lead author and a Juno co-investigator. “When we realized all 40 numbers exactly match our calculations, it felt like winning the lottery.”
Along with bettering the current understanding of Jupiter’s internal structure and origin, the new gravity model application could be used to gain more insight into other planetary atmospheres.
Juno is currently in an extended mission. Along with flybys of Jupiter, the solar-powered spacecraft has completed a series of flybys of the planet’s icy moons Ganymede and Europa and is in the midst of several close flybys of Io. The Dec. 30 flyby of Io will be the closest to date, coming within about 930 miles of its volcano-festooned surface.
“As Juno’s journey progresses, we’re achieving scientific outcomes that truly define a new Jupiter and that likely are relevant for all giant planets, both within our solar system and beyond,” said Scott Bolton, the principal investigator of the Juno mission at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “The resolution of the newly determined gravity field is remarkably similar to the accuracy we estimated 20 years ago. It is great to see such agreement between our prediction and our results.”
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech, manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott J. Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Juno is part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program, which is managed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built and operates the spacecraft.
Read more about Juno.
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By NASA
16 Min Read The Marshall Star for November 8, 2023
Still Serving: Honoring Marshall, Michoud Veterans
Many members of the workforce at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and Michoud Assembly Facility served in the U.S. Armed Forces before beginning their NASA careers, and some are still serving in both capacities today.
Their defense careers have been in a range of services, including the Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, National Guard, and Reserves. Today, they continue to serve the nation through their work at NASA. As we approach Veterans Day, we pause to acknowledge their military service and hear their stories.
Get to know some of our Marshall and Michoud veterans.
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Marshall’s First Woman Director of Engineering Directorate Celebrates Retirement
By Celine Smith
Mary Beth Koelbl, the first woman to serve as director of the Engineering Directorate at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, celebrated her retirement among Marshall team members and family Nov. 2. Koelbl retires after serving 37 years at Marshall.
Marshall Associate Director, Technical, Larry Leopard gave a speech in honor of Koelbl’s impactful career. Both Leopard and Holder stressed how Koelbl’s personable character and great collaborative efforts made her career and teams successful.
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center Associate Director, Technical, Larry Leopard, right, presents Mary Beth Koelbl with bookends for her retirement. Encapsulated in them are flags that were flown in space.NASA/Celine Smith “Mary Beth has provided outstanding public service to not only engineering but to the center,” Leopard said. “She has been a standard for everybody to follow.”
Appointed to the position in July 2019, Koelbl helped oversee Marshall’s largest organization, comprised of more than 2,000 civil servants and contractors responsible for the design, testing, evaluation and operation of flight hardware and software associated with space transportation and spacecraft systems, science instruments and payloads now in development at Marshall. The directorate provides critical support to NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) Program, which is managing the construction and testing of the world’s most powerful rocket.
Don Holder was named new director of engineering after previously serving in the role of deputy director under Koelbl.
“Mary Beth Koelbl’s positive attitude toward people and caring about their development has benefited the organization tremendously,” Holder said.
Prior to this appointment, Koelbl was director of the Propulsion Systems Department from 2015 to 2019. In that position, she also served as NASA’s senior executive overseeing the agency’s chemical propulsion capability, leading work across multiple field centers to effectively develop, mature, and apply chemical propulsion capabilities in support of NASA’s missions.
Throughout her NASA career, Koelbl has supported large, complex propulsion systems development and operations efforts for SLS, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, and various planetary lander development activities. She also contributed to historic efforts such as the space shuttle main engine technology test bed, the Fastrac 60K engine, all shuttle propulsion elements, the Altair spacecraft, and the Ares launch vehicle upper stage and upper stage engine.
Koelbl extends a thanks to her team members and fondly speaks about her career during her retirement celebration held Nov. 2 in the Building 4203 cafeteria.NASA/Celine Smith Koelbl joined Marshall in 1986 as an aerospace engineer in the Turbomachinery and Combustion Devices Branch. She was named deputy group lead of the Engineering Directorate’s Engine Systems Engineering Group in 2000 and group leader in 2003. In 2005, following a center wide reorganization, Koelbl was named branch chief of the Engine and Main Propulsion Systems Branch. She was promoted to division chief of the Propulsion Systems Division in 2011, and later that year was named to the Senior Executive Service position of deputy director of the Propulsion Systems Department. The Senior Executive Service is the personnel system covering most of the top managerial positions in federal agencies.
“I have no plans of working after retirement because nothing could be better than this,” Koelbl said in her closing remarks at the reception.
A native of Iowa City, Iowa, Koelbl earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1985 from the University of Iowa. She has been the recipient of many prestigious awards, including a NASA Exceptional Service Medal in 2018, NASA Leadership Medal in 2007, Space Flight Awareness Award in 2005, and Silver Snoopy in 1996.
Koelbl and her husband, Terry, who is also a NASA engineer at Marshall, reside in Madison with their three sons. She plans on enjoying her retirement by spending time with her children and grandchildren.
“I’m surely going to miss the people at Marshall – they’re the best,” Koelbl said.
Smith, a Media Fusion employee, supports the Marshall Office of Communications.
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Don Holder Named Director of Marshall’s Engineering Directorate
Don Holder has been named director of the Engineering Directorate at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
In his new role, Holder will be responsible for the center’s largest organization, comprised of more than 2,000 civil service and contractor personnel, leading the design, testing, evaluation, and operation of flight hardware and software associated with space transportation, spacecraft systems, science instruments, and payloads under development at the center.
Don Holder, director of the Engineering Directorate at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. NASA He previously served as the Engineering Directorate’s deputy director.
Holder joined Marshall in 1986 as a quality engineer supporting the Shuttle Propulsion Office. Since then, he has served in a multitude of technical leadership roles and has distinguished himself as a subject matter expert in ECLSS (Environmental Control and Life Support Systems). From 1989 to 1999, he served as a water recovery systems engineer supporting the development of water recovery technologies for the International Space Station.
Holder supported the ECLSS Project in positions of increasing scope and responsibility, including ECLSS Design team lead, technical assistant, and assistant chief engineer from 2000 to 2008.
In 2008, Holder was assigned as a project chief engineer for the space station, providing leadership for Marshall-provided flight hardware. From 2011 to 2013, he served as chief of the Mechanical Fabrication Branch in the Space Systems Department where he led a workforce of engineers and technicians and managed the numerous facilities required to support Marshall’s manufacturing needs.
Holder served as deputy chief engineer of the FPPO (Flight Programs and Partnerships Office) from 2013 to 2014 until being appointed to the Senior Level position of FPPO chief engineer in mid-2014 and subsequently Human Exploration Development and Operations chief engineer in 2017. He served as deputy director of the Space Systems Department from May 2019 to February 2021.
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Lisa Bates Named Deputy Director of Marshall’s Engineering Directorate
Lisa Bates has been named deputy director of the Engineering Directorate at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
In her new role, Bates will be jointly responsible for the center’s largest organization, comprised of more than 2,000 civil service and contractor personnel, who design, test, evaluate, and operate flight hardware and software associated with Marshall-developed space transportation and spacecraft systems, science instruments, and payloads.
Portrait: Lisa BatesNASA She was previously director of Marshall’s Test Laboratory. Appointed to the position in 2021, Bates provided executive leadership for all aspects of the Laboratory, including workforce, budget, infrastructure, and operations for testing.
She joined Marshall in 2008 as the Ares I Upper Stage Thrust Vector Control lead in the Propulsion Department. Since then, she has served in positions of increasing responsibility and authority. From 2009 to 2017, she served as the first chief of the new TVC Branch, which was responsible for defining operational requirements, performing analysis, and evaluating Launch Vehicle TVC systems and TVC components.
As the Space Launch System (SLS) Program Executive from 2017 to 2018, Bates supported the NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for Exploration Systems Development as the liaison and advocate of the SLS. Upon returning to MSFC in 2018, she was selected as deputy manager of the SLS Booster Element Office. Bates also served as deputy manager of the SLS Stages Office from 2018 to 2021 where she shared the responsibilities, accountability, and authorities for all activities associated with the requirements definition, design, development, manufacturing, assembly, green run test, and delivery of the SLS Program’s Stages Element.
Prior to her NASA career, Bates worked 18 years in private industry for numerous aerospace and defense contractors, including Jacobs Engineering, Marotta Scientific Controls, United Technologies (USBI), United Defense, and Sverdrup Technologies.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. She was awarded a NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal in 2013 and 2022 and has received numerous group and individual achievement awards. Bates and her husband, Don, reside in Madison and have four children.
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Michoud Celebrates Family Day 2023 with Treats and No Tricks
By Matt Higgins
For the second consecutive year, NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility hosted Family Day, a day when team members can invite their families to visit “America’s Rocket Factory.”
This year’s Family Day was Oct. 28.
Thousands attend Michoud Family 2023 on Oct. 28 to observe Artemis production, interact with Michoud tenants, and enjoy Halloween festivities. NASA/Michael DeMocker “Family Day 2023 was a huge success,” said Michoud Director Lonnie Dutreix. “I enjoyed seeing the employees bring their families and seeing the looks of awe and smiling faces all around.”
Family Day occurred the weekend before Halloween. Team members and their families had the opportunity to view the latest stages of production in the 43-acre factory, including the fully assembled core stage for NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for NASA’s Artemis II mission, and were treated to trunk-or-treat as they exited the factory. Michoud passed out candy and Moon Pies to trick-or-treaters of all ages.
“Family Day 2023 was an opportunity to build on last year’s success,” said Heather Keller, Michoud communications strategist and Family Day coordinator. “We even took advantage of the holiday weekend to include a trunk-or-treat for the kids.”
NASA astronaut Stan Love, left, and astronaut candidate Jack Hathaway pose for pictures with a young attendee at Michoud Family Day. NASA/Michael DeMocker Mother Nature spared the heavy rains that occurred during Family Day 2022. The lack of rain and threatening skies allowed for more displays and attractions. There were food trucks outside the factory gates, and a Coast Guard Sikorsky MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter landed on the facility grounds. Attendees viewed the distinct orange and white helicopter up close, sat inside, and took pictures. NASA astronaut Stan Love and astronaut candidate Jack Hathaway took pictures with families in front of the SLS core stage for Artemis II in the Final Assembly area.
Michoud’s tenants, including its prime contractors Boeing and Lockheed Martin, set up booths and provided swag for those who passed by. Some tenants included interactive virtual reality displays and science experiments.
“With the addition of astronauts, a USCG rescue helicopter, food trucks, and emergency and heavy equipment static displays, there really was something for everyone,” Keller said.
Attendees observe a liquid nitrogen demonstration at the Boeing table at Michoud Family Day. NASA/Michael DeMocker Prior to 2022’s celebration, Michoud Family Day hadn’t occurred since before the COVID-19 pandemic, and strong thunderstorms kept many people away in 2022. It meant that this year’s event was the first time many family members had seen Michoud in years and the first for many others. Organizers estimated more than 5,000 attended the event.
For Dutreix, it marked one of the final major events of his tenure. He will retire in December.
“It’s my last Family Day as director,” he said. “I’m going to miss it, but I’m proud of the family atmosphere we have at Michoud. The workforce looks out for each other, and we’re committed to seeing Artemis succeed.”
Higgins, a Manufacturing Technical Solutions Inc. employee, works in communications at Michoud Assembly Facility.
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Watch Crews Add RS-25 Engines to NASA Artemis II SLS Rocket
Artemis II reached a significant milestone as teams fully installed all four RS-25 engines to the 212-foot-tall core stage for NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility.
During Artemis II, the four engines, arranged like legs on a chair at the bottom of the mega rocket, will fire for eight minutes at launch, producing more than 2 million pounds of thrust to send the Artemis II crew around the Moon.
Boeing is the lead contractor for the SLS core stage. Aerojet Rocketdyne, an L3Harris Technologies company, is the lead contractor for the SLS engines. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the SLS Program and Michoud.
For more information about SLS, visit https://www.nasa.gov/sls.
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NASA Telescopes Discover Record-breaking Black Hole
Astronomers have discovered the most distant black hole yet seen in X-rays, using NASA telescopes. The black hole is at an early stage of growth that had never been witnessed before, where its mass is similar to that of its host galaxy.
This result may explain how some of the first supermassive black holes in the universe formed.
By combining data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, a team of researchers was able to find the telltale signature of a growing black hole just 470 million years after the big bang.
Astronomers found the most distant black hole ever detected in X-rays (in a galaxy dubbed UHZ1) using the Chandra and Webb space telescopes. X-ray emission is a telltale signature of a growing supermassive black hole. This result may explain how some of the first supermassive black holes in the universe formed. These images show the galaxy cluster Abell 2744 that UHZ1 is located behind, in X-rays from Chandra and infrared data from Webb, as well as close-ups of the black hole host galaxy UHZ1.NASA/CXC/SAO/Ákos Bogdán; Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare & K. Arcand “We needed Webb to find this remarkably distant galaxy and Chandra to find its supermassive black hole,” said Akos Bogdan of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) who leads a new paper in the journal Nature Astronomy describing these results. “We also took advantage of a cosmic magnifying glass that boosted the amount of light we detected.” This magnifying effect is known as gravitational lensing.
Bogdan and his team found the black hole in a galaxy named UHZ1 in the direction of the galaxy cluster Abell 2744, located 3.5 billion light-years from Earth. Webb data, however, has revealed the galaxy is much more distant than the cluster, at 13.2 billion light-years from Earth, when the universe was only 3% of its current age.
Then over two weeks of observations with Chandra showed the presence of intense, superheated, X-ray emitting gas in this galaxy – a trademark for a growing supermassive black hole. The light from the galaxy and the X-rays from gas around its supermassive black hole are magnified by about a factor of four by intervening matter in Abell 2744 (due to gravitational lensing), enhancing the infrared signal detected by Webb and allowing Chandra to detect the faint X-ray source.
This discovery is important for understanding how some supermassive black holes can reach colossal masses soon after the big bang. Do they form directly from the collapse of massive clouds of gas, creating black holes weighing between about 10,000 and 100,000 Suns? Or do they come from explosions of the first stars that create black holes weighing only between about 10 and 100 Suns?
“There are physical limits on how quickly black holes can grow once they’ve formed, but ones that are born more massive have a head start. It’s like planting a sapling, which takes less time to grow into a full-size tree than if you started with only a seed”, said Andy Goulding of Princeton University. Goulding is a co-author of the Nature Astronomy paper and lead author of a new paper in The Astrophysical Journal Letters that reports the galaxy’s distance and mass using a spectrum from Webb.
Bogdan’s team has found strong evidence that the newly discovered black hole was born massive. Its mass is estimated to fall between 10 and 100 million Suns, based on the brightness and energy of the X-rays. This mass range is similar to that of all the stars in the galaxy where it lives, which is in stark contrast to black holes in the centers of galaxies in the nearby universe that usually contain only about a tenth of a percent of the mass of their host galaxy’s stars.
The large mass of the black hole at a young age, plus the amount of X-rays it produces and the brightness of the galaxy detected by Webb, all agree with theoretical predictions in 2017 by co-author Priyamvada Natarajan of Yale University for an “Outsize Black Hole” that directly formed from the collapse of a huge cloud of gas.
“We think that this is the first detection of an ‘Outsize Black Hole’ and the best evidence yet obtained that some black holes form from massive clouds of gas,” said Natarajan. “For the first time we are seeing a brief stage where a supermassive black hole weighs about as much as the stars in its galaxy, before it falls behind.”
The researchers plan to use this and other results pouring in from Webb and those combining data from other telescopes to fill out a larger picture of the early universe.
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope previously showed that light from distant galaxies is highly magnified by matter in the intervening galaxy cluster, providing part of the motivation for the Webb and Chandra observations described here.
The paper describing the results by Bogdan’s team appears in Nature Astronomy, and a preprint is available online.
The Webb data used in both papers is part of a survey called the Ultradeep Nirspec and nirCam ObserVations before the Epoch of Reionization (UNCOVER). The paper led by UNCOVER team member Andy Goulding appears in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. The co-authors include other UNCOVER team members, plus Bogdan and Natarajan. A detailed interpretation paper that compares observed properties of UHZ1 with theoretical models for Outsize Black Hole Galaxies is forthcoming.
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 the Canadian Space Agency.
Read more from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.
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Lucy Discovery Highlighted on ‘This Week at NASA’
NASA’s Lucy spacecraft got a surprise when it flew by asteroid Dinkinesh on Nov. 1 – the first of multiple asteroids Lucy will visit on its 12-year voyage. The mission is featured in “This Week @ NASA,” a weekly video program broadcast on NASA-TV and posted online.
Images captured by Lucy revealed that Dinkinesh is not just a single asteroid, as was thought, but a binary pair. The primary aim of the Lucy mission is to survey the Jupiter Trojan asteroids, a never-before-explored population of small bodies that orbit the Sun in two “swarms” that lead and follow Jupiter in its orbit.
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center provides overall mission management, systems engineering, and safety and mission assurance. Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado, built the spacecraft. Lucy is the 13th mission in NASA’s Discovery Program. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Discovery Program for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters.
View this and previous episodes at “This Week @NASA” on NASA’s YouTube page.
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