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By NASA
NASA’s Worm logo is displayed in front of the agency’s headquarters in Washington.Credit: NASA Two NASA employees are being honored as part of the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals, also known as the Sammies, recognizing outstanding federal employees who are addressing many of our country’s greatest challenges.
Rich Burns of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and John Blevins of Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, were selected out of 350 nominees and are among 23 individuals and teams honored for their achievements as federal employees. They will be recognized at a ceremony in Washington on Tuesday, June 17, that also will be live streamed on the Sammies website. The honorees will be commended via videos and presenter remarks and receive medals for their achievements.
Named after the founder of the Partnership for Public Service, the 2025 Service to America Medals awards celebrate federal employees who provided critical public services and made outstanding contributions to the health, safety, and national security of our country.
“Rich and John exemplify the spirit of exploration and service that defines NASA and our nation’s civil servants,” said acting NASA Administrator Janet Petro. “Their leadership, ingenuity, and dedication have not only advanced America’s space program but also inspired the next generation of innovators. We are proud to see their achievements recognized among the very best of federal service.”
Richard Burns, project manager for the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security – Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and honoree of the 2025 Samuel J. Heyman Service to America MedalsCredit: NASA Burns was the project manager of the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security – Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission to collect a sample from an asteroid and oversaw operations from the developmental stage to the successful landing of the spacecraft’s Sample Return Capsule.
The mission launched on Sept. 18, 2016, and after a nearly four-year journey, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully collected a sample from the asteroid Bennu on Oct. 20, 2020, which returned to Earth on Sept. 24, 2023, providing scientists with 120 grams of pristine material to study, the largest amount ever collected from an asteroid. Working to solidify OSIRIS-REx as a success, Burns set up multiple partnerships and communicated frequently with scientists, large and small businesses, NASA centers, and others to ensure the mission’s vision was carried out though each phase.
During the mission, Burns had to handle unique challenges that required adapting to new situations. These included improving flight software to help the spacecraft avoid hazardous parts of Bennu’s rocky surface and working with NASA leaders to find a way to best protect the sample collected from Bennu after a large stone propped the collection canister open. Finally, when the sample was set to return to Earth, Burns worked extensively with NASA and military partners to prepare for the landing, focusing on the safety of the public along with the integrity of the sample to ensure the final part of the mission was a success.
Burns helped OSIRIS-REx exceed its objectives all while under the original budget, allowing NASA to share a portion of the sample with more than 80 research projects and make new discoveries about the possible origins of life on our planet. The spacecraft, now known as Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security – Apophis Explorer, is scheduled to rendezvous with the asteroid Apophis in 2029.
“It’s humbling to accept an award based on the achievements of the amazingly talented, dedicated, and innovative OSIRIS-REx team,” Burns said. “I consider myself privileged to be counted among a team of true explorers who let no obstacle stand in the way of discovery.”
John Blevins, chief engineer for the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, stands inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center in Florida during the stacking of the Artemis I rocket ahead of its first test flight, which successfully launched from Kennedy on Nov. 16, 2022.Credit: NASA Blevins is the chief engineer for the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and is responsible for the various technical decisions that need to be made to ensure each mission is successful. This included calculating structural needs, thermal analyses of the effects, and studies of vibrations, acoustics, propulsion integration, among other work.
Artemis I, the first test flight of the SLS rocket, successfully launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Nov. 16, 2022. In the time leading up to and during launch, Blevins led the team integrating the hardware for the mission working to address unexpected events while SLS was on the pad prior to launch. This included significant lightning storms and two hurricanes impacting Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Blevins built a working coalition of engineering teams across the agency that previously did not exist. His ability to forge strong relationships on the various teams across the agency allowed for the successful launch of Artemis I. He continues to lead the engineering team behind SLS as they prepare for Artemis II, the second flight of SLS and the first crewed lunar mission of the 21st century.
“This is a reflection on the hard work and dedication of the entire Artemis Team,” Blevins said. “I am working with an incredibly competent, dedicated team agencywide that goes above and beyond to promote the space exploration goals of our nation. I am honored to accept the award on their behalf.”
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Last Updated Jun 16, 2025 EditorTiernan P. DoyleContactTiernan P. Doyletiernan.doyle@nasa.govLocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer) Common Exploration Systems Development Division Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate Goddard Space Flight Center Marshall Space Flight Center OSIRIS-APEX (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security – Apophis Explorer) Space Launch System (SLS) View the full article
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By NASA
A new online portal by NASA and the Alaska Satellite Facility maps satellite radar meas-urements across North America, enabling users to track land movement since 2016 caused by earthquakes, landslides, volcanoes, and other phenomena.USGS An online tool maps measurements and enables non-experts to understand earthquakes, subsidence, landslides, and other types of land motion.
NASA is collaborating with the Alaska Satellite Facility in Fairbanks to create a powerful web-based tool that will show the movement of land across North America down to less than an inch. The online portal and its underlying dataset unlock a trove of satellite radar measurements that can help anyone identify where and by how much the land beneath their feet may be moving — whether from earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, or the extraction of underground natural resources such as groundwater.
Spearheaded by NASA’s Observational Products for End-Users from Remote Sensing Analysis (OPERA) project at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the effort equips users with information that would otherwise take years of training to produce. The project builds on measurements from spaceborne synthetic aperture radars, or SARs, to generate high-resolution data on how Earth’s surface is moving.
The OPERA portal shows how land is sinking in Freshkills Park, which is being built on the site of a former landfill on Staten Island, New York. Landfills tend to sink over time as waste decomposes and settles. The blue dot marks the spot where the portal is showing movement in the graph.Alaska Satellite Facility Formally called the North America Surface Displacement Product Suite, the new dataset comes ready to use with measurements dating to 2016, and the portal allows users to view those measurements at a local, state, and regional scales in a few seconds. For someone not using the dataset or website, it could take days or longer to do a similar analysis.
“You can zoom in to your country, your state, your city block, and look at how the land there is moving over time,” said David Bekaert, the OPERA project manager and a JPL radar scientist. “You can see that by a simple mouse click.”
The portal currently includes measurements for millions of pixels across the U.S. Southwest, northern Mexico, and the New York metropolitan region, each representing a 200-foot-by-200-foot (60-meter-by-60-meter) area on the ground. By the end of 2025, OPERA will add data to cover the rest of the United States, Central America, and Canada within 120 miles (200 kilometers) of the U.S. border. When a user clicks on a pixel, the system pulls measurements from hundreds of files to create a graph visualizing the land surface’s cumulative movement over time.
Land is rising at the Colorado River’s outlet to the Gulf of California, as indicated in this screenshot from the OPERA portal. The uplift is due to the sediment from the river building up over time. The graph shows that the land at the blue dot has risen about 8 inches (20 centimeters) since 2016.Alaska Satellite Facility “The OPERA project automated the end-to-end SAR data processing system such that users and decision-makers can focus on discovering where the land surface may be moving in their areas of interest,” said Gerald Bawden, program scientist responsible for OPERA at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “This will provide a significant advancement in identifying and understanding potential threats to the end users, while providing cost and time savings for agencies.”
For example, water-management bureaus and state geological surveys will be able to directly use the OPERA products without needing to make big investments in data storage, software engineering expertise, and computing muscle.
How It Works
To create the displacement product, the OPERA team continuously draws data from the ESA (European Space Agency) Sentinel-1 radar satellites, the first of which launched in 2014. Data from NISAR, the NASA-ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) Synthetic Aperture Radar mission, will be added to the mix after that spacecraft launches later this year.
The OPERA portal shows that land near Willcox, Arizona, subsided about 8 inches (20 centimeters) since between 2016 and 2021, in large part due to groundwater pumping. The region is part of an area being managed by state water officials.Alaska Satellite Facility Satellite-borne radars work by emitting microwave pulses at Earth’s surface. The signals scatter when they hit land and water surfaces, buildings, and other objects. Raw data consists of the strength and time delay of the signals that echo back to the sensor.
To understand how land in a given area is moving, OPERA algorithms automate steps in an otherwise painstaking process. Without OPERA, a researcher would first download hundreds or thousands of data files, each representing a pass of the radar over the point of interest, then make sure the data aligned geographically over time and had precise coordinates.
Then they would use a computationally intensive technique called radar interferometry to gauge how much the land moved, if at all, and in which direction — towards the satellite, which would indicate the land rose, or away from the satellite, which would mean it sank.
“The OPERA project has helped bring that capability to the masses, making it more accessible to state and federal agencies, and also users wondering, ‘What’s going on around my house?’” said Franz Meyer, chief scientist of the Alaska Satellite Facility, a part of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute.
Monitoring Groundwater
Sinking land is a top priority to the Arizona Department of Water Resources. From the 1950s through the 1980s, it was the main form of ground movement officials saw, as groundwater pumping increased alongside growth in the state’s population and agricultural industry. In 1980, the state enacted the Groundwater Management Act, which reduced its reliance on groundwater in highly populated areas and included requirements to monitor its use.
The department began to measure this sinking, called subsidence, with radar data from various satellites in the early 2000s, using a combination of SAR, GPS-based monitoring, and traditional surveying to inform groundwater-management decisions.
Now, the OPERA dataset and portal will help the agency share subsidence information with officials and community members, said Brian Conway, the department’s principal hydrogeologist and supervisor of its geophysics unit. They won’t replace the SAR analysis he performs, but they will offer points of comparison for his calculations. Because the dataset and portal will cover the entire state, they also could identify areas not yet known to be subsiding.
“It’s a great tool to say, ‘Let’s look at those areas more intensely with our own SAR processing,’” Conway said.
The displacement product is part of a series of data products OPERA has released since 2023. The project began in 2020 with a multidisciplinary team of scientists at JPL working to address satellite data needs across different federal agencies. Through the Satellite Needs Working Group, those agencies submitted their requests, and the OPERA team worked to improve access to information to aid a range of efforts such as disaster response, deforestation tracking, and wildfire monitoring.
NASA-Led Project Tracking Changes to Water, Ecosystems, Land Surface News Media Contacts
Andrew Wang / Jane J. Lee
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
626-379-6874 / 818-354-0307
andrew.wang@jpl.nasa.gov / jane.j.lee@jpl.nasa.gov
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Last Updated Jun 06, 2025 Related Terms
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By NASA
NASA NASA astronaut Ed White, pilot of the Gemini IV mission, floats in space on June 3, 1965, while performing the first spacewalk by an American. As White floated outside the spacecraft, he used a Hand-Held Maneuvering Unit, informally called a “zip gun.” The device, seen in White’s right hand in this image, expelled pressurized oxygen to provide thrust for controlling his movements outside the capsule.
“You look beautiful, Ed,” remarked fellow crew member astronaut James A. McDivitt, who remained inside the spacecraft, as he began taking pictures of White tumbling around outside his window. “I feel like a million dollars,” White said. “This is the greatest experience. It’s just tremendous.”
Watch video of the first American spacewalk.
Image credit: NASA
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By NASA
Explore This Section Science NASA STEM Projects NASA Interns Conduct Aerospace… Overview Learning Resources Science Activation Teams SME Map Opportunities More Science Activation Stories Citizen Science 3 min read
NASA Interns Conduct Aerospace Research in Microgravity
The NASA Science Activation program’s STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Enhancement in Earth Science (SEES) Summer Intern Program, hosted by the University of Texas Center for Space Research, continues to expand opportunities for high school students to engage in authentic spaceflight research. As part of the SEES Microgravity Research initiative, four interns were selected to fly with their experiments in microgravity aboard the ZERO-G parabolic aircraft. The students had 11 minutes of weightlessness over 30 parabolas in which to conduct their experiments.
This immersive experience was made possible through a collaboration between SEES, Space for Teachers, the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium, and the International Space Station National Laboratory (CASIS). Together, these partners provide students with access to industry-aligned training and direct experience in aerospace experiment design, testing, and integration.
Congratulations to the 2025 SEES Microgravity Research Team:
Charlee Chandler, 11th grade, Rehobeth High School (Dothan, AL): Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation (GVS) and Vestibular-Ocular Reflex (VOR) in Microgravity Aya Elamrani-Zerifi, 11th grade, Hereford High School (Parkton, MD): Thermocapillary-Induced Bubble Dynamics Lily Myers, 12th grade, Eastlake High School (Sammamish, WA): Propellant Slosh Damping Using Polyurethane Foam Nathan Scalf 11th grade, Lexington Christian Academy (Lexington, KY): Wound Irrigation System for Microgravity Selected from nearly 100 proposals submitted by 2024 SEES interns, these four students spent months preparing for flight through weekly technical mentorship and structured milestones. Their training included proposal development, design reviews, safety assessments, hardware testing, and a full payload integration process, working through engineering protocols aligned with industry and mission standards.
In addition to their individual experiments, the students also supported the flight of 12 team-designed experiments integrated into the ZQube platform, a compact research carrier co-developed by Twiggs Space Lab, Space for Teachers, and NASA SEES. The ZQube enables over 150 SEES interns from across the country to contribute to microgravity investigations. Each autonomous experiment includes onboard sensors, cameras, and transparent test chambers, returning valuable video and sensor data for post-flight analysis.
This microgravity research opportunity supports the broader SEES mission to prepare students for careers in aerospace, spaceflight engineering, and scientific research. Through direct engagement with NASA scientists, academic mentors, and commercial aerospace experts, students gain real-world insight into systems engineering and the technical disciplines needed in today’s space industry.
The SEES summer intern program is a nationally competitive STEM experience for 10th-11th grade high school students. Interns learn how to interpret NASA satellite data while working with scientists and engineers in their chosen area of work, including astronomy, remote sensing, and space geodetic techniques to help understand Earth systems, natural hazards, and climate. It is supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number NNH15ZDA004C and is part of NASA’s Science Activation Portfolio. Learn more about how Science Activation connects NASA science experts, real content, and experiences with community leaders to do science in ways that activate minds and promote deeper understanding of our world and beyond: https://science.nasa.gov/learn/about-science-activation/
Nathan Scalf, one of four NASA SEES interns, from Lexington KY, tests his Wound Irrigation System for Microgravity experiment aboard the ZERO-G G-FORCE ONE® in May 2025. Steve Boxall, ZERO-G Share
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Last Updated May 27, 2025 Editor NASA Science Editorial Team Related Terms
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By European Space Agency
To create a crumbly crater rich in ice and chunky blocks soaked in layers of martian history – like this one recently observed by the European Space Agency’s Mars Express – follow this recipe:
Toss a space rock into Mars to form a classic circular base Layer with molten lava Carve channels with liquid water Chill to create ice, and freeze-thaw multiple times to slowly expand crater edges Sprinkle generously with volcanic dust, and leave to set Serve to hungry Mars fans! View the full article
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