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Media Invited to NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6, Expedition 69 Visit to Marshall


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Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)

The Crew stand in a line in blue flight suits with the mission patch over their photo.
The official Expedition 69 crew portrait with (from left) flight engineers Frank Rubio from NASA, Dmitri Petelin from Roscosmos, Sultan Alneyadi from UAE (United Arab Emirates), Woody Hoburg from NASA, Stephen Bowen from NASA, Andrey Fedyaev from Roscosmos, and Commander Sergey Prokopyev from Roscosmos.
NASA

NASA astronauts Frank Rubio, Stephen Bowen, and Woody Hoburg, as well as UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi will visit the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama at 1 p.m. CST Thursday, Dec. 14, to discuss their recent missions to the International Space Station.

Media are invited to speak with the astronauts at 2 p.m. about their science missions aboard the microgravity laboratory.

Members of the media interested in covering the visit should contact Lance D. Davis in the Marshall Office of Communications no later than 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 13. at 256-640-9065 or lance.d.davis@nasa.gov.

Media must report by 12 p.m. to the Redstone Arsenal Joint Visitor Control Center Gate 9 parking lot, located at the Interstate 565 interchange at Research Park Boulevard. The event will take place in the Activities Building 4316. Vehicles are subject to a security search at the gate, so please allow extra time. All members of media and drivers will need photo identification. Drivers will need proof of insurance if requested.

The crew of Expedition circle around for a group photo.
The seven-member Expedition 69 crew gathers for a portrait inside the International Space Station’s Kibo laboratory module. Clockwise from left are, Flight Engineers Woody Hoburg of NASA and Dmitri Petelin of Roscosmos; Commander Sergey Prokopyev from Roscosmos; Flight Engineers Frank Rubio and Stephen Bowen, both from NASA; and Flight Engineers Sultan Alneyadi from UAE (United Arab Emirates) and Andrey Fedyaev from Roscosmos.
NASA

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission with Bowen, Hoburg, and Alneyadi launched March 2 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and docked to the space station the next day. Marshall’s commercial crew support team provided oversight to safety standards for the Crew-6 mission’s spacecraft, along with monitoring launch conditions.

Rubio launched Sept. 21, 2022, on a Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station. During his mission, he broke the record for longest single spaceflight by a U.S. astronaut having spent 371 days in space.

Marshall’s Payload Operations Integration Center, which operates, plans, and coordinates science experiments onboard the space station 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, also supported Crew-6 and Expedition 69, managing communications between the International Space Station crew and researchers worldwide.

NASA’s Commercial Crew Program has worked with several American aerospace industry companies to facilitate the development of U.S. human spaceflight systems since 2010. The goal is to have safe, reliable, and cost-effective access to and from the International Space Station and foster commercial access to other potential low Earth orbit destinations.

Learn more about NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 and Expedition 69.

Lance D. Davis
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
256-640-9065
lance.d.davis@nasa.gov

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Dec 12, 2023

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      jan.m.wittry-1@nasa.gov
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      NASA rolled out the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket’s core stage for the Artemis II test flight from its Michoud Assembly Facility on Tuesday for shipment to the agency’s Kennedy Space Center. The rollout is key progress on the path to NASA’s first crewed mission to the Moon under the Artemis campaign.
      Using highly specialized transporters, engineers maneuvered the giant core stage from inside Michoud to NASA’s Pegasus barge. The barge will ferry the stage more than 900 miles to Kennedy, where engineers will prepare it in the Vehicle Assembly Building for attachment to other rocket and Orion spacecraft elements.
      Move teams with NASA and Boeing, the SLS core stage lead contractor, position the massive rocket stage for NASA’s SLS rocket on special transporters to strategically guide the flight hardware the 1.3-mile distance from the factory floor onto the agency’s Pegasus barge on July 16. The core stage will be ferried to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where it will be integrated with other parts of the rocket that will power NASA’s Artemis II mission. Pegasus is maintained at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility.Credit: NASA “With Artemis, we’ve set our sights on doing something big and incredibly complex that will inspire a new generation, advance our scientific endeavors, and move U.S. competitiveness forward,” said Catherine Koerner, associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. “The SLS rocket is a key component of our efforts to develop a long-term presence at the Moon.”
      Technicians moved the SLS rocket stage from inside Michoud on the 55th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11 on July 16, 1969. The move of the rocket stage for Artemis marks the first time since the Apollo Program that a fully assembled Moon rocket stage for a crewed mission rolled out from Michoud.
      The NASA Michoud Assembly Facility workforce and with other agency team members take a “family photo” with the SLS (Space Launch System) core stage for Artemis II in the background on July 16 at Michoud. The core stage will help launch the first crewed flight of NASA’s SLS rocket for the agency’s Artemis II mission. NASA The SLS rocket’s core stage is the largest NASA has ever produced. At 212 feet tall, it consists of five major elements, including two huge propellant tanks that collectively hold more than 733,000 gallons of super-chilled liquid propellant to feed four RS-25 engines. During launch and flight, the stage will operate for just over eight minutes, producing more than 2 million pounds of thrust to propel four astronauts inside NASA’s Orion spacecraft toward the Moon.
      “The delivery of the SLS core stage for Artemis II to Kennedy Space Center signals a shift from manufacturing to launch readiness as teams continue to make progress on hardware for all major elements for future SLS rockets,” said John Honeycutt, SLS program manager at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. “We are motivated by the success of Artemis I and focused on working toward the first crewed flight under Artemis.”
      Team members on July 16 move the first core stage that will help launch the first crewed flight of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for the agency’s Artemis II mission. The move marked the first time a fully assembled Moon rocket stage for a crewed mission has rolled out from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans since the Apollo Program. NASA After arrival at Kennedy, the stage will undergo additional outfitting inside the Vehicle Assembly Building. Engineers then will join it with the segments that form the rocket’s twin solid rocket boosters. Adapters for the Moon rocket that connect it to the Orion spacecraft will be shipped to Kennedy this fall, where the interim cryogenic propulsion stage is already. Engineers at Kennedy continue to prepare Orion and exploration ground systems for launch and flight.
      All major structures for every SLS core stage are fully manufactured at Michoud. Inside the factory, core stages and future exploration upper stages for the next evolution of SLS, called the Block 1B configuration, currently are in various phases of production for Artemis III, IV, and V. Beginning with Artemis III, to better optimize space at Michoud, Boeing – the SLS core stage prime contractor – will use space at Kennedy for final assembly and outfitting activities.
      Team members at Michoud Assembly Facility load the first core stage that will help launch the first crewed flight of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for the agency’s Artemis II mission onto the Pegasus barge on July 16. The barge will ferry the core stage on a 900-mile journey from the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to its Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA Building, assembling, and transporting the SLS core stage is a collaborative effort for NASA, Boeing, and lead RS-25 engines contractor Aerojet Rocketdyne, an L3Harris Technologies company. All 10 NASA centers contribute to its development with more than 1,100 companies across the United States contributing to its production. 
      NASA is working to land the first woman, first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the Moon under Artemis. SLS is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration, along with the Orion spacecraft, supporting ground systems, 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 launch.
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      NASA Barge Preparations for Artemis II Rocket Stage Delivery
      Team members installed pedestals aboard NASA’s Pegasus barge to hold and secure the massive core stage of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket, preparing NASA barge crews for their first delivery to support the Artemis II test flight around the Moon. The barge ferried the core stage on a 900-mile journey from the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility to its Kennedy Space Center.
      Team members at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility install pedestals aboard the Pegasus barge to hold and secure the massive core stage of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket ahead.NASA/Eric Bordelon The Pegasus crew began installing the pedestals July 10. The barge, which previously was used to ferry space shuttle external tanks, was modified and refurbished to compensate for the much larger and heavier core stage for the SLS rocket. Measuring 212 feet in length and 27.6 feet in diameter, the core stage is the largest rocket stage NASA has ever built and the longest item ever shipped by a NASA barge.
      Pegasus now measures 310 feet in length and 50 feet in width, with three 200-kilowatt generators on board for power. Tugboats and towing vessels moved the barge and core stage from Michoud to Kennedy, where the core stage will be integrated with other elements of the rocket and prepared for launch. Pegasus is maintained at NASA Michoud.
      NASA is working to land the first woman, first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the Moon under Artemis. SLS is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration, along with the Orion spacecraft, supporting ground systems, 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 launch.
      NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the SLS Program and Michoud.
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      Michoud Marks Artemis II Milestone with Employee Event Featuring NASA Astronaut Victor Glover
      Moon to Mars Program Deputy Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya, left, and NASA astronaut Victor Glover, right, speak to Michoud Assembly Facility team members on July 15 as part of a Space Flight Awareness event marking Artemis II’s core stage completion. The core stage was rolled out of Michoud’s rocket factory on July 16 for transportation to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, where it will be integrated with the Orion spacecraft and the remaining components of the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket. (NASA)
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      Tawnya Laughinghouse Named Director of Marshall’s Materials and Processes Laboratory
      Tawnya Plummer Laughinghouse has been named to the Senior Executive Service position of director of the Materials and Processes Laboratory in the Engineering Directorate at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, effective July 7.
      Tawnya Plummer Laughinghouse has been named to the Senior Executive Service position of director of the Materials and Processes Laboratory in the Engineering Directorate at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.NASA The Materials and Processes Laboratory provides science, technology, and engineering support in materials, processes, and products for use in space vehicle applications, including related ground facilities, test articles and support equipment. As director, Laughinghouse will oversee a workforce of science and engineering experts, as well as several research and development efforts in world-class facilities, including the National Center for Advanced Manufacturing.
      Laughinghouse has more than 20 years of experience at NASA holding various technical leadership, supervisory, and programmatic positions. Since October 2018, she has been manager of the Technology Demonstration Missions (TDM) Program for the Agency, managing the implementation of a diverse portfolio of advanced space technology projects led by NASA Centers and industry partners across the nation with a goal to rapidly develop, demonstrate, and infuse revolutionary, high-payoff technologies. Under her leadership, the program helped expand the boundaries of the aerospace enterprise with the launch of 10 advanced technologies to space between 2018 and 2024. In January 2017, she was competitively selected as deputy manager of the TDM Level 2 Program Office within Marshall’s Science and Technology Office.
      In 2014, she was selected as a member of the NASA Mid-Level Leadership Program. During that time, she completed a detail at NASA Headquarters supporting an Office of Chief Engineer/Office of Chief Technologist joint study on NASA’s Technology Readiness Assessment (TRA) Process.
      Laughinghouse began her NASA career at Marshall in 2004 in the Materials and Processes Laboratory as lead materials engineer for the Space Shuttle Reusable Solid Rocket Motor (RSRM) Booster Separation Motor aft closure assembly. In this role, she also provided technical expertise in advanced materials for high temperature applications and thermal protection systems for solid and liquid rocket propulsion systems. Over the next 12 years, she served the lab in various capacities, including technical lead of the Ceramics & Ablatives team from 2010 to 2016, and developmental assignments such as assistant chief of the Space and Environmental Effects Branch, and chief of the Nonmetallic Materials Branch. Prior to joining Marshall, Laughinghouse spent six years in the U.S. manufacturing industry as a process chemist and product engineer.
      Laughinghouse has been awarded the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal, the NASA Exceptional Service Medal, and a host of group achievement and external awards, including the distinguished Merit Award from the National Alumnae Association of Spelman College in 2021. She has been recognized extensively in the community for her advocacy for women in STEM and mentoring.
      A federally certified senior/expert program and project manager, Laughinghouse is a graduate of several leadership programs, including the Office of Personnel Management Federal Executive Institute’s Leadership for a Democratic Society. She is a May 2024 graduate of Leadership Greater Huntsville’s Connect-26 Class.
      A native of Columbus, Ohio, Laughinghouse was raised in Huntsville and graduated salutatorian of her class at Sparkman High School in Toney, Alabama. After completing a NASA Summer High School Apprenticeship Research Program (SHARP) internship at Marshall, she applied for the NASA Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) dual-degree program and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Spelman College and the Georgia Institute of Technology, respectively. She also holds a Master of Science in management (concentration in management of technology) from the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
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      Marshall Engineers Unveil Versatile, Low-cost Hybrid Engine Testbed
      By Rick Smith
      In June, engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center unveiled an innovative, 11-inch hybrid rocket motor testbed.
      The new hybrid testbed, which features variable flow capability and a 20-second continuous burn duration, is designed to provide a low-cost, quick-turnaround solution for conducting hot-fire tests of advanced nozzles and other rocket engine hardware, composite materials, and propellants.
      Paul Dumbacher, right, lead test engineer for the Propulsion Test Branch at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, confers with Meredith Patterson, solid propulsion systems engineer, as they install the 11-inch hybrid rocket motor testbed into its cradle in Marshall’s East Test Stand.NASA/Charles Beason Solid rocket propulsion remains a competitive, reliable technology for various compact and heavy-lift rockets as well as in-space missions, offering low propulsion element mass, high energy density, resilience in extreme environments, and reliable performance.
      “It’s time consuming and costly to put a new solid rocket motor through its paces – identifying how materials perform in extreme temperatures and under severe structural and dynamic loads,” said Benjamin Davis, branch chief of the Solid Propulsion and Pyrotechnic Devices Branch of Marshall’s Engineering Directorate. “In today’s fast-paced, competitive environment, we wanted to find a way to condense that schedule. The hybrid testbed offers an exciting, low-cost solution.”
      Initiated in 2020, the project stemmed from NASA’s work to develop new composite materials, additively manufactured – or 3D-printed – nozzles, and other components with proven benefits across the spacefaring spectrum, from rockets to planetary landers.
      After analyzing future industry requirements, and with feedback from NASA’s aerospace partners, the Marshall team recognized that their existing 24-inch rocket motor testbed – a subscale version of the Space Launch System booster – could prove too costly for small startups. Additionally, conventional, six-inch test motors limited flexible configuration and required multiple tests to achieve all customer goals. The team realized what industry needed most was an efficient, versatile third option.
      “The 11-inch hybrid motor testbed offers the instrumentation, configurability, and cost-efficiency our government, industry, and academic partners need,” said Chloe Bower, subscale solid rocket motor manufacturing lead at Marshall. “It can accomplish multiple test objectives simultaneously – including different nozzle configurations, new instrumentation or internal insulation, and various propellants or flight environments.”
      Assessing components of the 11-inch hybrid rocket motor testbed in the wake of successful testing are, from left, Chloe Bower, Marshall’s subscale solid rocket motor manufacturing lead; Jacobs manufacturing engineer Shelby Westrich; and Precious Mitchell, Marshall’s solid propulsion design lead.NASA/Benjamin Davis “That quicker pace can reduce test time from months to weeks or days,” said Precious Mitchell, solid propulsion design lead for the project.
      Another feature of great interest is the on/off switch. “That’s one of the big advantages to a hybrid testbed,” Mitchell said. “With a solid propulsion system, once it’s ignited, it will burn until the fuel is spent. But because there’s no oxidizer in hybrid fuel, we can simply turn it off at any point if we see anomalies or need to fine-tune a test element, yielding more accurate test results that precisely meet customer needs.”
      The team expects to deliver to NASA leadership final test data later this summer. For now, Davis congratulates the Marshall propulsion designers, analysts, chemists, materials engineers, safety personnel, and test engineers who collaborated on the new testbed.
      “We’re not just supporting the aerospace industry in broad terms,” he said. “We’re also giving young NASA engineers a chance to get their hands dirty in a practical test environment solving problems. This work helps educate new generations who will carry on NASA’s mission in the decades to come.”
      For nearly 65 years, Marshall teams have led development of the U.S. space program’s most powerful rocket engines and spacecraft, from the Apollo-era Saturn V rocket and the space shuttle to today’s cutting-edge propulsion systems, including NASA’s newest rocket, the Space Launch System. NASA technology testbeds designed and built by Marshall engineers and their partners have shaped the reliable technologies of spaceflight and continue to enable discovery, testing, and certification of advanced rocket engine materials and manufacturing techniques. 
      Smith, an Aeyon/MTS employee, supports the Marshall Office of Communications.
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      NASA Honors 25 Years of Chandra at July National Space Club Breakfast
      Andrew Schnell, acting manager of the Chandra X-ray Observatory at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, honored 25 years of the project’s mission success at National Space Club – Huntsville’s breakfast event on July 16.
      Schnell provided insight into Chandra’s history – sharing photos and stories from the project’s initial development, launch, first light images, and some of the most iconic images captured by the telescope to date.
      Chandra launched on STS-93 Shuttle Columbia July 23, 1999. Originally designed as a five-year mission, the telescope’s prolonged success is a testament to the agency’s engineering capabilities.
      “One of the things that excites me about working with Chandra is that are we not only changing our understanding of the universe today, but the data we collect now may help answer questions astrophysicists haven’t even asked yet.” Schnell said. “One day, an astrophysicist – maybe one that hasn’t been born yet – will have a theory, and our data will be there to help them test that theory.” (Photo Credit: Face to Face Marketing)
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      Take a Summer Cosmic Road Trip with NASA’s Chandra and Webb
      It’s time to take a cosmic road trip using light as the highway and visit four stunning destinations across space. The vehicles for this space get-away are NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and James Webb Space Telescope.
      The first stop on this tour is the closest, Rho Ophiuchi, at a distance of about 390 light-years from Earth. Rho Ophiuchi is a cloud complex filled with gas and stars of different sizes and ages. Being one of the closest star-forming regions, Rho Ophiuchi is a great place for astronomers to study stars. In this image, X-rays from Chandra are purple revealing infant stars that violently flare and produce X-rays. Infrared data from Webb are red, yellow, cyan, light blue and darker blue and provide views of the spectacular regions of gas and dust.
      The first stop on this tour is the closest, Rho Ophiuchi, at a distance of about 390 light-years from Earth.X-ray: NASA/CXC/MIT/C. Canizares; IR: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/K. Pontoppidan; Image Processing: NASA/ESA/STScI/Alyssa Pagan, NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare and J. Major The next destination is the Orion Nebula. Still located in the Milky Way galaxy, this region is a little bit farther from our home planet at about 1,500 light-years away. If you look just below the middle of the three stars that make up the “belt” in the constellation of Orion, you may be able to see this nebula through a small telescope. With Chandra and Webb, however, we get to see so much more. Chandra reveals young stars that glow brightly in X-rays, colored in red, green, and blue, while Webb shows the gas and dust in darker red that will help build the next generation of stars here.
      The Orion Nebula.X-ray: NASA/CXC/Penn State/E.Fei It’s time to leave our galaxy and visit another. Like the Milky Way, NGC 3627 is a spiral galaxy that we see at a slight angle. NGC 3627 is known as a “barred” spiral galaxy because of the rectangular shape of its central region. From our vantage point, we can also see two distinct spiral arms that appear as arcs. X-rays from Chandra in purple show evidence for a supermassive black hole in its center while Webb finds the dust, gas, and stars throughout the galaxy in red, green, and blue. This image also contains optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope in red, green, and blue.
      Spiral galaxy NGC 3627.X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/ESO/STScI, ESO/WFI; Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/JWST; Image Processing:/NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Major Our final landing place on this trip is the farthest and the biggest. MACS J0416 is a galaxy cluster, which are among the largest objects in the Universe held together by gravity. Galaxy clusters like this can contain hundreds or even thousands of individual galaxies all immersed in massive amounts of superheated gas that Chandra can detect. In this view, Chandra’s X-rays in purple show this reservoir of hot gas while Hubble and Webb pick up the individual galaxies in red, green, and blue.
      ACS J0416 galaxy cluster.X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/G. Ogrean et al.; Optical/Infrared: (Hubble) NASA/ESA/STScI; IR: (JWST) NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/Jose M. Diego (IFCA), Jordan C. J. D’Silva (UWA), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI), Jake Summers (ASU), Rogier Windhorst (ASU), Haojing Yan (University of Missouri) NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science from Cambridge Massachusetts and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.
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    • By NASA
      Digital content creators are invited to register to attend the launch of the ninth SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket that will carry astronauts to the International Space Station for a science expedition mission. This mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. 
      Launch of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission is targeted for no earlier than mid-August from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The launch will carry NASA astronauts Zena Cardman, commander; Nick Hague, pilot; and Stephanie Wilson, mission specialist; along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov, mission specialist. 
      If your passion is to communicate and engage the world online, then this is the event for you! Seize the opportunity to see and share the #Crew9 mission launch. 
      A maximum of 50 social media users will be selected to attend this two-day event and will be given access similar to news media. 
      NASA Social participants will have the opportunity to: 
      View a crewed launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft  Tour NASA facilities at Kennedy Space Center  Meet and interact with Crew-9 subject matter experts  Meet fellow space enthusiasts who are active on social media  Registration for this event opens on Wednesday, July 17, and the deadline to apply is at 10 a.m. EDT on Monday, July 22. All social applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
      APPLY NOW 
      Do I need to have a social media account to register? 
       Yes. This event is designed for people who: 
      Actively use multiple social networking platforms and tools to disseminate information to a unique audience.  Regularly produce new content that features multimedia elements.  Have the potential to reach a large number of people using digital platforms, or reach a unique audience, separate and distinctive from traditional news media and/or NASA audiences.  Must have an established history of posting content on social media platforms.  Have previous postings that are highly visible, respected and widely recognized.  Users on all social networks are encouraged to use the hashtag #NASASocial and #Crew9. Updates and information about the event will be shared on X via @NASASocial and @NASAKennedy, and via posts to Facebook and Instagram. 
      How do I register? 
      Registration for this event opens on Wednesday, July 17, and the deadline to apply is at 10 a.m. EDT on Monday, July 22. All social applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
      Can I register if I am not a U.S. citizen? 
      Because of the security deadlines, registration is limited to U.S. citizens. If you have a valid permanent resident card, you will be processed as a U.S. citizen. 
      When will I know if I am selected? 
      After registrations have been received and processed, an email with confirmation information and additional instructions will be sent to those selected. We expect to send the acceptance notifications by August 7.
      What are NASA Social credentials? 
      All social applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Those chosen must prove through the registration process they meet specific engagement criteria. 
      If you do not make the registration list for this NASA Social, you still can attend the launch offsite and participate in the conversation online. Find out about ways to experience a launch here. 
      What are the registration requirements? 
      Registration indicates your intent to travel to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and attend the two-day event in person. You are responsible for your own expenses for travel, accommodations, food, and other amenities. 
      Some events and participants scheduled to appear at the event are subject to change without notice. NASA is not responsible for loss or damage incurred as a result of attending. NASA, moreover, is not responsible for loss or damage incurred if the event is cancelled with limited or no notice. Please plan accordingly. 
      Kennedy is a government facility. Those who are selected will need to complete an additional registration step to receive clearance to enter the secure areas. 
      IMPORTANT: To be admitted, you will need to provide two forms of unexpired government-issued identification; one must be a photo ID and match the name provided on the registration. Those without proper identification cannot be admitted. 
      For a complete list of acceptable forms of ID, please visit: NASA Credentialing Identification Requirements. 
      All registrants must be at least 18 years old. 
      What if the launch date changes? 
      Many different factors can cause a scheduled launch date to change multiple times. If the launch date changes, NASA may adjust the date of the NASA Social accordingly to coincide with the new target launch date. NASA will notify registrants of any changes by email. 
      If the launch is postponed, attendees will be invited to attend a later launch date. NASA cannot accommodate attendees for delays beyond 72 hours. 
      NASA Social attendees are responsible for any additional costs they incur related to any launch delay. We strongly encourage participants to make travel arrangements that are refundable and/or flexible. 
      What if I cannot come to the Kennedy Space Center? 
      If you cannot come to the Kennedy Space Center and attend in person, you should not register for the NASA Social. You can follow the conversation online using #NASASocial.  
      You can watch the launch on NASA+ or plus.nasa.gov. NASA will provide regular launch and mission updates on @NASA, @NASAKennedy, and @Commercial_Crew, as well as on NASA’s Commercial Crew Program blog. 
      If you cannot make this NASA Social, don’t worry; NASA is planning many other Socials in the near future at various locations! 
      Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA
      International Space Station
      Launch Pad 39B
      Kennedy Space Center
      Commercial Crew Program
      View the full article
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