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By NASA
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy visited the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans on Dec. 8, 2021 for tours and briefings on Michoud’s role in the Artemis program and other capabilities that enrich many facets of the nation’s space exploration endeavors. Credit: NASA/Michael DeMocker NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy will lead the agency’s delegation at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) from Monday, Oct. 14, to Thursday, Oct. 17, in Milan.
During the congress, NASA will discuss its Low Earth Orbit Microgravity Strategy, emphasizing the agency’s efforts to advance microgravity science, technology, and exploration. The agency also will highlight its commitment to space sustainability and several missions, including initiatives that support NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach and the Artemis Accords.
NASA will amplify the following talks happening at the congress through its YouTube Channel:
Monday, Oct. 147:45 a.m. EDT (1:45 p.m. CEST): One-to-One with Heads of Agencies featuring Nelson. 12:15 p.m. EDT (6:15 p.m. CEST): Host Plenary on Responsible and Sustainable Space Exploration for Moon to Mars featuring Melroy. Wednesday, Oct. 16 9 a.m. EDT (3 p.m. CEST): A New Era in Human Presence featuring Melroy. A full agenda for this year’s IAC is available online.
Members of the media registered for IAC will have three opportunities to meet with NASA leaders. To register, media must apply through the International Astronautical Federation website. Opportunities include:
Monday, Oct. 14 5:30 p.m. CEST (11:30 a.m. EDT): NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy, Lisa Campbell, president, CSA (Canadian Space Agency), and Teodoro Valente, president, Italian Space Agency, to discuss the 3rd Annual Heads of Agency meeting of the Artemis Accords Signatories. Tuesday, Oct. 15 5 p.m. CEST (11 a.m. EDT): NASA Administrator Bill Nelson to discuss the agency’s international partnerships in the Artemis era. Wednesday, Oct. 16 5 p.m. CEST (11 a.m. EDT): NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy and Robyn Gatens, director of the International Space Station and acting director of Commercial Spaceflight to discuss NASA’s Low Earth Orbit Microgravity Strategy In addition to the events outlined above, NASA will have an exhibit featuring the first sample of the asteroid Bennu to appear publicly in a non-museum setting, as well as information on the Artemis campaign, NASA’s future in low Earth orbit, and several upcoming science and technology missions. NASA also will host subject matter expert talks throughout the week at its exhibit.
NASA will provide photos and updates about its participation in the International Astronautical Congress from its @NASAExhibit account on X.
For more information about NASA participation at IAC, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/nasa-at-iac
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Amber Jacobson
Headquarters, Washington
240-298-1832
amber.c.jacobson@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Oct 10, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
artemis accords Bill Nelson Pamela A. Melroy View the full article
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By NASA
8 Min Read Kathryn Sullivan: The First American Woman to Walk in Space
Astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan checks the latch of the SIR-B antenna in the space shuttle Challenger's open cargo bay during her historic extravehicular activity (EVA) on Oct. 11, 1984. Earlier, America's first woman to perform an EVA and astronaut David C. Leestma, participated in an in-space simulation of refueling a spacecraft in orbit. Credits: NASA Forty years ago, in October 1984, Kathryn D. Sullivan became the first American woman to walk in space. But being the first presented several challenges that started well before she took those historic steps. Things got complicated just after she learned of her assignment.
Questions of Physiology
Biomedical researchers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) raised what they believed was a serious issue with women walking in space and alerted George W.S. Abbey, the head of the Flight Crew Operations Directorate. Females, he learned, were more likely than their male counterparts to develop the bends in the low-pressure environment of the extravehicular mobility unit (EMU), the spacesuit she would wear. To alleviate the possibility of developing decompression syndrome, all spacewalkers had to breathe pure oxygen before a spacewalk to eliminate nitrogen from their bloodstream. Researchers insisted Sullivan (and any future women spacewalkers) spend more time than their male counterparts breathing pure oxygen before going outside of the space shuttle. Sullivan quickly learned that there were flaws in the research, which she countered, and Abbey ended up approving the same requirements for men and women doing an extravehicular activity (EVA).
Setting the Record
After the STS-41G crew had been named in the fall of 1983, a colleague—flush with excitement over the recent flight announcement — congratulated Sally K. Ride and Sullivan on their new titles: Ride being the first woman to fly in space twice and Sullivan the first woman to walk in space. Both shook their heads and explained that it would be many months before launch and that a Soviet woman would fly and do a spacewalk well before the space shuttle Challenger and her crew made it to orbit. As expected, the Soviets assigned cosmonaut Svetlana Y. Savitskaya to a second mission in 1983, less than a month after NASA’s crew announcement. In July 1984, Savitskaya, not Ride, went on to become the first woman to enter space twice and earned the distinction of being the first female to walk in space.
Astronauts Sally K. Ride (right) and Kathryn D. Sullivan, two of three mission specialists, synchronize their watches prior to ingressing the Space Shuttle Challenger on the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center on October 5, 1984.NASA Sullivan was not disappointed at losing the title. As she recalled in an oral history interview, being selected for an EVA was an “extraordinary opportunity,” and it did not matter where she was in the queue. She could not understand how people arrived at the idea that the “seventh, tenth, or thirteenth … is [any] less meaningful … than some historical first.”
Others at the Johnson Space Center still thought there was a way they could best the Soviets. Sullivan’s trainers took note of how short Savitskaya’s EVA was. It was only about three and a half hours. “A little bit more than that,” they explained, and “you’ll get the duration record!” But the idea of breaking her record by a few minutes seemed ludicrous. “I’m certainly not going to go tromping around on dinner speeches … saying, ‘Well yes, but I have the duration record.’”
“Hello, I’m right here!”
While the issue of breaking and setting records remained of interest at NASA more than twenty years after the Soviets sent cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into space, Sullivan found herself grappling with other matters she found equally frustrating. First, there was the sexist media. No journalist asked how she was feeling about her role in the mission. Flying women in space was still new to the American news media in 1983—Ride had only flown her first mission in June, and while Judith A. Resnik had been named to a mission, she had not yet been in orbit. But Ride had not completed an EVA; only men had walked in space, and some found the activity challenging. Astronaut Eugene A. Cernan described his first EVA as the “spacewalk from hell.” Spacewalks can be physically demanding, and it was assumed that women might not have the strength to do so. Reporters asked commander Robert L. Crippen and Ride, “Do you think Kathy can do this?” Sitting at the preflight press conference she reminded reporters that she could speak for herself. “Hello, I’m right here! Hello. Hello.”
The crew assigned to the STS-41G mission included (seated left to right) Jon A. McBride, pilot; mission specialists Sally K. Ride, Kathryn D. Sullivan, and David C. Leestma. Standing in the rear, left to right, are payload specialist Paul D. Scully-Power, mission commander Robert Crippen, and payload specialist Marc Garneau. Launched aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger on October 5, 1984, the STS-41G mission marked the first flight to include two women.NASA There was also the matter of why her spacewalking partner, David C. Leestma, led the EVA. She had two years seniority in the Astronaut Office, arriving in 1978; NASA named Leestma to the corps in 1980. She also worked on spacesuit issues and the mission’s payload longer than he had, but both were rookies on this mission. Sullivan did not think Crippen and Abbey thought she was incapable, but for traditional norms to have been breached in this instance she could not explain why she—the senior ranking astronaut—was playing a support role instead of leading. If anyone asked why, Sullivan told Crippen he—not she—would have to answer the tough questions.
Space Suit Fit
As she prepared for the flight, she began training in the shuttle EMU, which never quite fit her body. The suit’s elbow did not align with hers so when she bent her arm, she had to use extra force. The lower portion of the suit was misaligned, making it difficult to bend her knee. Being the first American woman to do a spacewalk, she decided what was most important was to perform the EVA and demonstrate the EMU worked for women. “I reckoned the wrong thing to do was to turn the first evolution of a woman doing a spacewalk into a controversy. … I just sucked it up and dealt with it.” The suit techs knew the EMU was not quite her size, but she made it work. Later, when assigned to STS-45, one of the techs noticed how poorly the suit fit. “We ought to do something about it. It ought to fit you,” he said. Sullivan responded, “We can start that conversation now, but if you think I was going to make that the conversation on the first EVA you’re crazy.”
Astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan, STS-41G mission specialist, gets some help with her extravehicular mobility unit (EMU) prior to participating in an underwater simulation of an extravehicular activity (EVA) scheduled for her flight aboard the Columbia in October 1984. Dr. Sullivan and David C. Leestma (out of frame) participated in the rehearsal in NASA’s weightless environment training facility (WET-F) at the Johnson Space Center.NASA A Walk to Remember
Two days after Sullivan’s thirty-third birthday, STS-41G launched on October 5, 1984. Once in orbit, the flight plan changed quickly. A problem with a malfunctioning Ku-band antenna meant that the EVA had to be pushed back to the day before reentry. Sullivan worried that the walk might be scrapped, but when they finally began the pre-breathing protocol, she relaxed. “Challenger, Houston: You are GO for EVA,” Sullivan recalled, “were the sweetest words I had ever heard.” Sullivan and Leestma’s EVA was short—only three hours and twenty-nine minutes—but busy. Leestma demonstrated it was possible to refuel satellites in orbit, while Sullivan monitored his work. When he wrapped up his task, Sullivan finally had the opportunity to “do something, not just watch things.” She stowed the malfunctioning antenna and before they went back inside the shuttle, they filmed a scene for an IMAX film, The Dream is Alive—where the two spacewalkers rose from the bottom of the space shuttle’s windows and waved at the crew inside, mimicking the “Kilroy Was Here” meme. When filming concluded, Sullivan and Leestma returned to Challenger. “My first spacewalking adventure,” Sullivan wrote in her memoir, “was over all too soon.” The next day, President Ronald Reagan called to ask Sullivan about her experience. “Kathy, when we met at the White House, I know you were excited about walking in space. Was it what you expected?” he asked. Sullivan responded affirmatively and added, “I think it was the most fantastic experience of my life.”
I think it was the most fantastic experience of my life.
Kathryn Sullivan
NASA Astronaut
When she returned to JSC she learned that the EVA flight team had tried to figure out how to send her a diplomatic message to stay outside longer to beat Savitskaya’s record. There ended up being a “five-or six-minute difference” between Sullivan and Savitskaya, “and in the wrong direction as far as they were concerned.”
Despite all the challenges she faced as the first American woman to walk in space, Sullivan called the EVA “a fabulously cool experience.” She hoped to do another, but she never received another assignment to walk in space. She recognized what a unique opportunity she had—very few people have flown in space, and even fewer “get to sneak outside. I’m not going to diminish one dose of sneaking outside just because I didn’t get two, three, or four.”
Watch Suit Up – 50 Years of Spacewalks About the Author
Jennifer Ross-Nazzal
NASA Human Spaceflight HistorianJennifer Ross-Nazzal is the NASA Human Spaceflight Historian. She is the author of Winning the West for Women: The Life of Suffragist Emma Smith DeVoe and Making Space for Women: Stories from Trailblazing Women of NASA's Johnson Space Center.
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Last Updated Oct 07, 2024 Related Terms
NASA History Astronauts Former Astronauts Humans in Space Kathryn D. Sullivan STS-41G Women at NASA Explore More
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By European Space Agency
ESA engineers have focused microscopes, hardness testers and an X-ray computer aided tomography machine onto a special aluminium weld just a single centimetre across – the historic result of the very first autonomous welding to be performed in space, and the first ESA has been involved with.
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By Space Force
The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle will begin executing a series of novel maneuvers, called aerobraking, to change its orbit around Earth and safely dispose of its service module components in accordance with recognized standards for space debris mitigation.
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By NASA
4 Min Read NASA Terminal Transmits First Laser Communications Uplink to Space
NASA's LCOT (Low-Cost Optical Terminal) located at the agency's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Credits: NASA NASA’s LCOT (Low-Cost Optical Terminal), a ground station made of modified commercial hardware, transmitted its first laser communications uplink to the TBIRD (TeraByte Infrared Delivery), a tissue box-sized payload formerly in low Earth orbit.
During the first live sky test, NASA’s LCOT produced enough uplink intensity for the TBIRD payload to identify the laser beacon, connect, and maintain a connection to the ground station for over three minutes. This successful test marks an important achievement for laser communications: connecting LCOT’s laser beacon from Earth to TBIRD required one milliradian of pointing accuracy, the equivalent of hitting a three-foot target from over eight American football fields away.
The test was one of many laser communications achievements TBIRD made possible during its successful, two-year mission. Prior to its mission completion on Sept. 15, 2024, the payload transmitted at a record-breaking 200 gigabits per second. In an actual use case, TBIRD’s three-minute connection time with LCOT would be sufficient to return over five terabytes of critical science data, the equivalent of over 2,500 hours of high-definition video in a single pass. As the LCOT sky test demonstrates, the ultra-high-speed capabilities of laser communications will allow science missions to maintain their connection to Earth as they travel farther than ever before.
Measurement data of the power, or “fluency,” of the connection between NASA’s LCOT (Low-Cost Optical Terminal) laser beacon and TBIRD’s (TeraByte Infrared Delivery) receiver provided by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory (MIT-LL). LCOT and TBIRD maintained a sufficient connection for over three minutes — enough time for TBIRD to return over five terabytes of data. NASA/Dave Ryan NASA’s SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation) program office is implementing laser communications technology in various orbits, including the upcoming Artemis II mission, to demonstrate its potential impact in the agency’s mission to explore, innovate, and inspire discovery.
“Optical, or laser, communications can transfer 10 to 100 times more data than radio frequency waves,” said Kevin Coggins, deputy associate administrator and SCaN program manager. “Literally, it’s the wave of the future, as it’ll enable scientists to realize an ever-increasing amount of data from their missions and will serve as our critical lifeline for astronauts traveling to and from Mars.”
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A recording of TBIRD’s (TeraByte Infrared Delivery) successful downlink from NASA’s LCOT (Low-Cost Optical Terminal) Wide Field Camera. The light saturation from the downlink caused a secondary reflection in the upper right of the video.NASA Historically, space missions have used radio frequencies to send data to and from space, but with science instruments capturing more data, communications assets must meet increasing demand. The infrared light used for laser communications transmits the data at a shorter wavelength than radio, meaning ground stations on Earth can send and receive more data per second.
The LCOT team continues to refine pointing capabilities through additional tests with NASA’s LCRD (Laser Communications Relay Demonstration). As LCOT and the agency’s other laser communications missions continue to reach new milestones in connectivity and accessibility, they demonstrate laser communications’ potential to revolutionize scientists’ access to new data about Earth, our solar system, and beyond.
“It’s a testament to the hard work and skill of the entire team,” said Dr. Haleh Safavi, project lead for LCOT. “We work with very complicated and sensitive transmission equipment that must be installed with incredible precision. These results required expeditious planning and execution at every level.”
NASA’s LCOT (Low-Cost Optical Terminal) at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, uses slightly modified commercial hardware to reduce the expense of implementing laser communications technology. NASA Experiments like TBIRD and LCRD are only two of SCaN’s multiple in-space demonstrations of laser communications, but a robust laser communications network relies on easily reconfigurable ground stations on Earth. The LCOT ground station showcases how the government and aerospace industry can build and deploy flexible laser communications ground stations to meet the needs of a wide variety of NASA and commercial missions, and how these ground stations open new doors for communications technology and extremely high data volume transmission.
NASA’s LCOT is developed by the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. TBIRD was developed in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory (MIT-LL) in Lexington. TBIRD was flown and operated as a collaborative effort among NASA Goddard; NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley; NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California; MIT-LL; and Terran Orbital Corporation in Irvine, California. Funding and oversight for LCOT and other laser communications demonstrations comes from the (SCaN) Space Communications and Navigation program office within the Space Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
About the Author
Korine Powers
Senior Writer and Education LeadKorine Powers, Ph.D. is a writer for NASA's Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program office and covers emerging technologies, commercialization efforts, education and outreach, exploration activities, and more.
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Last Updated Oct 09, 2024 EditorKorine PowersContactKatherine Schauerkatherine.s.schauer@nasa.govLocationGoddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
Space Communications Technology Communicating and Navigating with Missions Goddard Space Flight Center Space Communications & Navigation Program Space Operations Mission Directorate Technology Technology Demonstration View the full article
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