Jump to content

Media Invited to Virtual Briefing on Launch of NASA, USGS Landsat 9


NASA

Recommended Posts

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Similar Topics

    • By NASA
      NASA logo Chile will sign the Artemis Accords during a ceremony at 3 p.m. EDT on Friday, Oct. 25, at NASA’s Headquarters in Washington.
      NASA Administrator Bill Nelson will host Aisén Etcheverry, Chile’s minister of science, technology, knowledge and innovation, and Juan Gabriel Valdés, ambassador of Chile to the United States, along with other officials from Chile and the U.S. Department of State.
      This event is in-person only. U.S. media and U.S. citizens representing international media organizations interested in attending must RSVP no later than 5 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 24, to hq-media@mail.nasa.gov. NASA’s media accreditation policy is online.
      The signing ceremony will take place at the agency’s Glennan Assembly Room inside NASA Headquarters located at 300 E St. SW Washington.
      NASA, in coordination with the U.S. Department of State and seven other initial signatory nations, established the Artemis Accords in 2020. With many countries and private companies conducting missions and operations around the Moon, the Artemis Accords provide a common set of principles to enhance the governance of the civil exploration and use of outer space.
      The Artemis Accords reinforce the commitment by signatory nations to the Outer Space Treaty, the Registration Convention, the Rescue and Return Agreement, as well as best practices and norms of responsible behavior for civil space exploration and use.
      Learn more about the Artemis Accords at:
      https://www.nasa.gov/artemis-accords
      -end-
      Meira Bernstein / Elizabeth Shaw
      Headquarters, Washington
      202-358-1600
      meira.b.bernstein@nasa.gov / elizabeth.a.shaw@nasa.gov
      Share
      Details
      Last Updated Oct 21, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
      Office of International and Interagency Relations (OIIR) artemis accords View the full article
    • By NASA
      NASA has selected four new crew members to participate in the final simulated mission to Mars in 2024 inside the agency’s Human Exploration Research Analog. From left are Kristen Magas, Anderson Wilder, Obaid Alsuwaidi, and Tiffany Snyder.Credit: C7M4 Crew NASA selected a crew of four research volunteers to participate in its last simulated mission to Mars in 2024 within a habitat at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
      Obaid Alsuwaidi, Kristen Magas, Tiffany Snyder, and Anderson Wilder will step into the 650-square-foot HERA (Human Exploration Research Analog) facility on Friday, Nov. 1. Once inside, the team will live and work like astronauts for 45 days. The crew will exit the facility on Monday, Dec. 16, after simulating their return to Earth. Jordan Hundley and Robert Wilson also were named as alternate crew members.
      Scientists use HERA studies to examine how crew members adapt to isolation, confinement, and remote conditions before NASA sends astronauts on deep space missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. The studies provide data about human health and performance in an enclosed environment over time with crews facing different challenges and tasks.
      The four volunteers will carry out scientific research and operational tasks throughout their simulated mission, including raising shrimp, growing vegetables, and “walking” on the surface of Mars using virtual reality. They will also experience communication delays lasting up to five minutes as they “near” Mars, allowing researchers to see how crews may respond to the type of delays astronauts will encounter in deep space. Astronauts traveling to the Red Planet may encounter one-way communication delays lasting as long as 20 minutes.
      As with the previous HERA missions, crew members will conduct 18 human health studies during the mission through NASA’s Human Research Program. Collectively, the work helps scientists understand how a spaceflight-like environment contributes to the physiological, behavioral, and psychological health of crew members. Insights gleaned from the studies will allow researchers to develop and test strategies aimed at helping astronauts overcome obstacles on deep space missions.
      Primary Crew
      Obaid Alsuwaidi
      Obaid Alsuwaidi serves as captain engineer for the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) Ministry of Defense. In this role, he provides guidance in civil and marine engineering and addresses challenges facing the organization. Previously, Alsuwaidi worked as a project manager for the defense ministry, helping to streamline productivity, establish high standards of professionalism, and build a team of experts to serve the UAE’s needs.
      Alsuwaidi earned a bachelor’s degree in Engineering from Western Sydney University in Australia, followed by a master’s degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from George Washington University in Washington.
      In his free time, Alsuwaidi enjoys horseback riding, swimming, and running.

      Kristen Magas
      Kristen Magas is an educator and engineer, currently teaching at Tri-County Regional Vocational Technical High School in Franklin, Massachusetts. She also mentors students involved in a NASA design and prototyping program, helping them develop and fabricate products to improve life in space on both International Space Station and Artemis missions. Magas was a finalist for the 2025 Massachusetts State Teacher of the Year.
      Magas received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. She also holds a master’s degree in Vocational Education from Westfield State University in Massachusetts. She has worked as a community college professor as well as a design engineer in municipal water and wastewater treatment.
      In her spare time, Magas enjoys coaching robotics and track and field, hiking, biking, and staying connected with her community. She has two children and resides in North Attleboro, Massachusetts with her husband of 25 years.

      Tiffany Snyder 
      Tiffany Snyder is a supervisor for the Cybersecurity Mission Integration Office at NASA, helping to ensure agency missions are shielded against cybersecurity threats. She has more than 20 years of information technology and cybersecurity experience, working with the Air National Guard and as a special agent with the Defense Counterintelligence Security Agency. She joined NASA in 2018 as an IT specialist, and later served as the deputy chief information security officer at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, providing cybersecurity oversight.
      Snyder holds a bachelor’s degree in Earth Science from the State University of New York at Buffalo and a master’s degree in Digital Forensics from the University of Central Florida in Orlando.
      In her spare time, she enjoys playing with her dogs — Artemis and Apollo, gardening, running, and visiting the beach with her family.

      Anderson Wilder
      Anderson Wilder is a Florida Institute of Technology graduate student working on his doctorate in Psychology. His research focuses on team resiliency and human-machine interactions. He also works in the campus’s neuroscience lab, investigating how spaceflight contributes to neurobehavioral changes in astronauts.
      Wilder previously served as an executive officer and engineer for an analog mission at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah. There, he performed studies related to crew social dynamics, plant growth, and geology.
      Wilder received his bachelor’s degrees in Linguistics and in Psychology from Ohio State University in Columbus. He also holds master’s degrees in Space Studies from International Space University in Strasbourg, France, and in Aviation Human Factors from the Florida Institute of Technology. He is completing another master’s degree in Cognitive Experimental Psychology at Cleveland State University in Ohio.
      Outside of school, Wilder works as a parabolic flight coach, teaching people how to fly in reduced gravity environments. He also enjoys chess, reading, video games, skydiving, and scuba diving. On a recent dive, he explored a submerged section of the Great Wall of China.
      Alternate Crew
      Jordan Hundley
      Jordan Hundley is a senior consultant at a professional services firm, offering federal agencies technical and programmatic support. Prior to his current position, he focused on U.S. Department of Defense clients, performing model-based system engineering and serving as a subject matter expert for related operations.
      Hundley was commissioned into the U.S. Air Force through the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. While on active duty, he served as an intercontinental ballistic missile operations officer. He later joined the U.S. Air Force Reserve. Currently, he is a space operations officer with experience in space battle management and electromagnetic warfare.
      Hundley earned a master’s degree in Engineering Management from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida. He is currently pursuing a second master’s degree in Systems Engineering at the university.
      Hundley holds a private pilot license and is a certified rescue diver. In his spare time, he enjoys hiking and camping, researching theology, and learning musical instruments.

      Robert Wilson
      Robert Wilson is a senior researcher and project manager at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. He leads work enhancing human-machine collaborations, developing human prediction models, and integrating that technology into virtual reality and robotic systems designed to operate in isolated, constrained, and extreme environments. His human-machine teaming expertise also extends into responsible artificial intelligence development. He recently participated in a United Nations Roundtable discussion about artificial intelligence in security and defense.
      Wilson received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Biomedical Engineering from Purdue University in 2013 and 2015, respectively. He earned his doctorate in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2020.
      Outside of work, Wilson is an avid outdoors enthusiast. He enjoys scuba diving, winter camping, backcountry skiing, and hiking through the woods or mountains throughout the year. At home, he also likes to tinker in computer networking and self-hosted systems.
      ____
      NASA’s Human Research Program pursues the best methods and technologies to support safe, productive human space travel. Through science conducted in laboratories, ground-based analogs, commercial missions, and the International Space Station, the program scrutinizes how spaceflight affects human bodies and behaviors. Such research continues to drive NASA’s mission to innovate ways that keep astronauts healthy and mission-ready as human space exploration expands to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
      For more information about human research at NASA, visit:
      https://www.nasa.gov/hrp
      Explore More
      4 min read NASA to Embrace Commercial Sector, Fly Out Legacy Relay Fleet 
      Article 2 days ago 2 min read Station Science Top News: Oct. 11, 2024
      Article 3 days ago 4 min read Spooky on the Space Station
      Article 3 days ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA
      Living in Space
      Artemis
      Human Research Program
      Space Station Research and Technology
      View the full article
    • By NASA
      NASA and its international partners are launching scientific investigations on SpaceX’s 31st commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station including studies of solar wind, a radiation-tolerant moss, spacecraft materials, and cold welding in space. The company’s Dragon cargo spacecraft is scheduled to launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
      Read more about some of the research making the journey to the orbiting laboratory:
      Measuring solar wind
      The CODEX (COronal Diagnostic EXperiment) examines the solar wind, creating a globally comprehensive data set to help scientists validate theories for what heats the solar wind – which is a million degrees hotter than the Sun’s surface – and sends it streaming out at almost a million miles per hour.
      The investigation uses a coronagraph, an instrument that blocks out direct sunlight to reveal details in the outer atmosphere or corona. The instrument takes multiple daily measurements that determine the temperature and speed of electrons in the solar wind, along with the density information gathered by traditional coronagraphs. A diverse international team has been designing, building, and testing the instrument since 2019 at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
      Multiple missions have studied the solar wind, and CODEX could add important pieces to this complex puzzle. When the solar wind reaches Earth, it triggers auroras at the poles and can generate space weather storms that sometimes disrupt satellite and land-based communications and power grids on the ground. Understanding the source of the solar wind could help improve space-weather forecasts and response.
      A worker prepares the CODEX (COronal Diagnostic EXperiment) instrument for launch.NASA Antarctic moss in space
      A radiation tolerance experiment, ARTEMOSS, uses a live Antarctic moss, Ceratodon purpureus, to study how some plants better tolerate exposure to radiation and to examine the physical and genetic response of biological systems to the combination of cosmic radiation and microgravity. Little research has been done on how these two factors together affect plant physiology and performance, and results could help identify biological systems suitable for use in bioregenerative life support systems on future missions.
      Mosses grow on every continent on Earth and have the highest radiation tolerance of any plant. Their small size, low maintenance, ability to absorb water from the air, and tolerance of harsh conditions make them suitable for spaceflight. NASA chose the Antarctic moss because that continent receives high levels of radiation from the Sun.
      The investigation also could identify genes involved in plant adaptation to spaceflight, which might be engineered to create strains tolerant of deep-space conditions. Plants and other biological systems able to withstand the extreme conditions of space also could provide food and other necessities in harsh environments on Earth.
      A Petri plate holding Antarctic moss colonies is prepared for launch at Brookhaven National Laboratory. SETI Institute Exposing materials to space
      The Euro Material Ageing investigation from ESA (European Space Agency) includes two experiments studying how certain materials age while exposed to space. The first experiment, developed by CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales), includes materials selected from 15 European entities through a competitive evaluation process that considered novelty, scientific merit, and value for the material science and technology communities. The second experiment looks at organic samples and their stability or degradation when exposed to ultraviolet radiation not filtered by Earth’s atmosphere. The exposed samples are recovered and returned to Earth.
      Predicting the behavior and lifespan of materials used in space can be difficult because facilities on the ground cannot simultaneously test for all aspects of the space environment. These limitations also apply to testing organic compounds and minerals that are relevant for studying comets, asteroids, the surface of Mars, and the atmospheres of planets and moons. Results could support better design for spacecraft and satellites, including improved thermal control, and the development of sensors for research and industrial applications.
      Preparation of one of the Euro Material Ageing’s experiments for launch.Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales Repairing spacecraft from the inside
      Nanolab Astrobeat investigates using cold welding to repair perforations in the outer shell or hull of a spacecraft from the inside. Less force is needed to fuse metallic materials in space than on Earth, and cold welding could be an effective way to repair spacecraft.
      Some micrometeoroids and space debris traveling at high velocities could perforate the outer surfaces of spacecraft, possibly jeopardizing mission success or crew safety. The ability to repair impact damage from inside a spacecraft may be more efficient and safer for crew members. Results also could improve applications of cold welding on Earth as well.
      The investigation also involves a collaboration with cellist Tina Guo with support from New York University Abu Dhabi to store musical compositions on the Astrobeat computer. Investigators planned to stream this “Music from Space” from the space station to the International Astronautical Congress in Milan and to Abu Dhabi after the launch.
      The Nanolab Astrobeat computer during assembly prior to launch.Malta College of Arts, Science & Technology/ Leonardo Barilaro Download high-resolution photos and videos of the research mentioned in this article. 
      Melissa Gaskill
      International Space Station Research Communications Team
      Johnson Space Center
      Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA
      Space Station Research and Technology
      Station Benefits for Humanity
      Latest News from Space Station Research
      International Space Station
      View the full article
    • By NASA
      Hubble Space Telescope Home NASA’s Hubble Sees a… Hubble Space Telescope Hubble Home Overview About Hubble The History of Hubble Hubble Timeline Why Have a Telescope in Space? Hubble by the Numbers At the Museum FAQs Impact & Benefits Hubble’s Impact & Benefits Science Impacts Cultural Impact Technology Benefits Impact on Human Spaceflight Astro Community Impacts Science Hubble Science Science Themes Science Highlights Science Behind Discoveries Hubble’s Partners in Science Universe Uncovered Explore the Night Sky Observatory Hubble Observatory Hubble Design Mission Operations Missions to Hubble Hubble vs Webb Team Hubble Team Career Aspirations Hubble Astronauts News Hubble News Hubble News Archive Social Media Media Resources Multimedia Multimedia Images Videos Sonifications Podcasts E-books Lithographs Fact Sheets Glossary Posters Hubble on the NASA App More Online Activities   3 Min Read NASA’s Hubble Sees a Stellar Volcano
      NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captures a spectacular view the star R Aquarii. Credits:
      NASA, ESA, Matthias Stute , Margarita Karovska , Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble), Mahdi Zamani (ESA/Hubble) NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has provided a dramatic and colorful close-up look at one of the most rambunctious stars in our galaxy, weaving a huge spiral pattern among the stars.
      Located approximately 700 light-years away, a binary star system called R Aquarii undergoes violent eruptions that blast out huge filaments of glowing gas. The twisted stellar outflows make the region look like a lawn sprinkler gone berserk. This dramatically demonstrates how the universe redistributes the products of nuclear energy that form deep inside stars and jet back into space.
      R Aquarii belongs to a class of double stars called symbiotic stars. The primary star is an aging red giant and its companion is a compact burned-out star known as a white dwarf. The red giant primary star is classified as a Mira variable that is over 400 times larger than our Sun. The bloated monster star pulsates, changes temperature, and varies in brightness by a factor of 750 times over a roughly 390-day period. At its peak the star is blinding at nearly 5,000 times our Sun’s brightness.
      This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image features the binary star system R Aquarii. NASA, ESA, Matthias Stute , Margarita Karovska , Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble), Mahdi Zamani (ESA/Hubble) When the white dwarf star swings closest to the red giant along its 44-year orbital period, it gravitationally siphons off hydrogen gas. This material accumulates on the dwarf star’s surface until it undergoes spontaneous nuclear fusion, making that surface explode like a gigantic hydrogen bomb. After the outburst, the fueling cycle begins again.
      This outburst ejects geyser-like filaments shooting out from the core, forming weird loops and trails as the plasma emerges in streamers. The plasma is twisted by the force of the explosion and channeled upwards and outwards by strong magnetic fields. The outflow appears to bend back on itself into a spiral pattern. The plasma is shooting into space over 1 million miles per hour – fast enough to travel from Earth to the Moon in 15 minutes! The filaments are glowing in visible light because they are energized by blistering radiation from the stellar duo.
      Hubble first observed the star in 1990. R Aquarii was resolved into two very bright stars separated by about 1.6 billion miles. The ESA/Hubble team now has made a unique timelapse of R Aquarii’s dynamic behavior, from observations spanning from 2014 to 2023. Across the five images, the rapid and dramatic evolution of the binary star and its surrounding nebula can be seen. The binary star dims and brightens due to strong pulsations in the red giant star.
      To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that
      supports HTML5 video
      This video features five frames spanning from 2014 to 2023 of R Aquarii. These frames show the brightness of the central binary changing over time due to strong pulsations in the red giant star. The central structures spiral outward due to their interaction with material previously ejected by the binary. This timelapse highlights the value of Hubble’s high resolution optical observations in the changing universe, known as time-domain astronomy. NASA, ESA, Matthias Stute , Margarita Karovska , Davide De Martin , Mahdi Zamani , N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble) The scale of the event is extraordinary even in astronomical terms. Space-blasted material can be traced out to at least 248 billion miles from the stars, or 24 times our solar system’s diameter. Images like these and more from Hubble are expected to revolutionize our ideas about such unique stellar “volcanoes” as R Aquarii.
      The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, Colorado, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.
      Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubble Media Contact:
      Claire Andreoli
      NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
      claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
      Ray Villard
      Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD
      Bethany Downer
      ESA/Hubble
      Share








      Details
      Last Updated Oct 16, 2024 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
      Astrophysics Astrophysics Division Binary Stars Goddard Space Flight Center Hubble Space Telescope Science Mission Directorate Stars The Universe Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From Hubble
      Hubble Space Telescope


      Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.


      The Death Throes of Stars


      From colliding neutron stars to exploding supernovae, Hubble reveals new details of  some of the mysteries surrounding the deaths of…


      Exploring the Birth of Stars



      Hubble Focus: The Lives of Stars


      NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope team has released a new e-book called “Hubble Focus: The Lives of Stars.” This e-book highlights…

      View the full article
    • By NASA
      6 min read
      Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
      A natural color view from Cassini of Saturn with its Titan moon in the foreground in August 2012. Titan’s diameter is 50% larger than Earth’s moon.Credit: NASA NASA’s ambitious Cassini mission to Saturn in the late 1990s was one of the agency’s greatest accomplishments, providing unprecedented revelations about the esoteric outer planet and its moons. The complex undertaking was also a tremendous, yet bittersweet, achievement for the Lewis Research Center (today, NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland), which oversaw the rockets that propelled Cassini to Saturn. Cassini brought a close to over 35 years of Lewis’ management of NASA’s launch vehicles.
      Cassini Mission: 5 Things to Know About NASA Lewis’ Last Launch
      1. NASA Lewis Launched the Largest and Most Complex Deep-Space Mission to Date
      In the early 1980s, NASA began planning the first-ever in-depth study of the planet Saturn. The mission would use the Cassini orbiter designed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and the European Space Agency’s Huygens lander. It was one of the heaviest and most complex interplanetary spacecraft ever assembled. Cassini’s plutonium power system and intricate flight path further complicated the mission.
      NASA Lewis was responsible for managing the launches of government missions involving the Centaur upper stage and the Atlas and Titan boosters. Cassini’s 6-ton payload forced Lewis to use the U.S. Air Force’s three-stage Titan IV, the most powerful vehicle available, and pair it with the most advanced version of the Centaur, referred to as G-prime.
      The Titan IV shroud in the Space Power Facility in October 1990. It was only the second test since the world-class facility had been brought back online after over a decade in standby conditions.Credit: NASA/Quentin Schwinn 2. Lewis Performed Hardware Testing for the Cassini Launch
      One of NASA Lewis’ primary launch responsibilities was integrating the payload and upper stages with the booster. This involved balancing weight requirements, providing adequate insulation for Centaur’s cryogenic propellants, determining correct firing times for the stages, and ensuring that that the large shroud, which encapsulated both the upper stage and payload, jettisoned cleanly after launch.
      By the time of Cassini, the center had been testing shrouds (including the Titan III fairing) in simulated space conditions for over 25 years. NASA’s Space Power Facility possesses the world’s largest vacuum chamber and was large enough to accommodate the Titan IV’s 86-foot-tall, 16-foot-diameter fairing. In the fall of 1990, the shroud was installed in the chamber, loaded with weights that simulated the payload, and subjected to atmospheric pressures found at an altitude of 72 miles.
      The system was successfully separated in less than half a second. Using simulated Cassini and Centaur vehicles, NASA engineers also redesigned a thicker thermal blanket that would protect Cassini’s power system from acoustic vibrations during liftoff.


      Members of NASA Lewis’ Launch Vehicle Directorate pose with a Centaur model in May 1979 to mark the 50th successful launch of the Atlas/Centaur.Credit: NASA/Martin Brown 3. Lewis Personnel Assisted with the Launch
      In late August 1997, a group of NASA Lewis engineers traveled to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to make final preparations for the Cassini launch, working with Air Force range safety personnel at Patrick Air Force Base to ensure a safe launch under all circumstances.
      After an aborted launch two days earlier, the vehicle was readied for another attempt in the evening of October 14. Lewis personnel took stations in the Launch Vehicle Data Center inside Hangar AE to monitor the launch vehicle’s temperature, pressure, speed, trajectory, and vibration during the launch. The weather was mild, and the countdown proceeded into the morning hours of October 15 without any major issues.
      At 4:43 a.m. EDT, Titan’s first stage and the two massive solid rocket motors roared to life, and the vehicle rose into the dark skies over Florida. The Lewis launch team monitored the flight as the vehicle exited Earth’s atmosphere, Titan burned through its stages, and Centaur sent Cassini out of Earth orbit and on its 2-billion-mile journey to Saturn. After a successful spacecraft separation, Lewis’ responsibilities were complete. The launch had gone exceedingly well. 

      This illustration depicts the Cassini orbiter with the Huygens lander descending to the Titan moon (left) and Saturn in the background.Credit: NASA 4. Cassini-Huygens Brought a Close to Decades of Lewis Launch Operations
      Cassini-Huygens was NASA Lewis’ 119th and final launch, and it brought to a close the center’s decades of launch operations. The center had been responsible for NASA’s upper-stage vehicles since the fall of 1962. The primary stages were the Agena, which had 28 successful launches, and Centaur, which has an even more impressive track record and remains in service today.
      While Lewis continued to handle vehicle integration and other technical issues for launches of NASA payloads, in the 1980s, NASA began transferring launch responsibilities to commercial entities. In the mid-1990s, NASA underwent a major realignment that consolidated all launch vehicle responsibilities at NASA Kennedy.
      So it was with mixed emotions that around 20 Lewis employees and retirees gathered at the Cleveland center in the early morning hours of Oct. 15, 1997, to watch the Cassini launch. The group held its cheers for 40 minutes after liftoff until Lewis’ responsibilities concluded for the last time with the safe separation of Cassini from Centaur. “In many ways, this is the end of an era, across the agency and, in particular, here at Lewis,” noted one engineer from the Launch Vehicle and Transportation Office.

      The Titan IV/Centaur lifts off from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral on Oct. 15, 1997. NASA Lewis engineers were monitoring the launch from Hangar AE, roughly 3.5 miles to the south. Credit: NASA 5. Cassini Made Groundbreaking Discoveries That Inform Today’s NASA Missions
      Cassini’s seven-year voyage to Saturn included flybys of Venus (twice), Earth, and Jupiter so that the planets’ gravitational forces could accelerate the spacecraft. Cassini entered Saturn’s orbit in June 2004 and began relaying data and nearly half a million images back to Earth. Huygens separated from the spacecraft and descended to the surface of the Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, in January 2005. It was the first time a vehicle ever landed on a celestial body in the outer solar system.
      Cassini went on to make plunges into the planet’s upper atmosphere and through Saturn’s rings.  Scientific information on the mysterious planet, its moons, and rings led to the publication of nearly 4,000 technical papers. After over 13 years and nearly 300 orbits, on Sept. 15, 2017, NASA intentionally sent Cassini plummeting into the atmosphere where it burned up, ending its remarkable mission.
      NASA engineers used their experiences from the Cassini mission to help design the Europa Clipper, which is intended to perform flybys of Jupiter’s moon Europa. Europa Clipper launched on Oct. 14.

      Keep Exploring
      Read the “Sending Cassini to Saturn” Series from NASA Glenn Visit NASA’s Cassini-Huygens Website Visit the European Space Agency’s Cassini-Huygens Website Watch NASA Coverage of the Cassini Launch See NASA Glenn’s Historic Centaur Rocket Display
      Explore More
      24 min read NASA Celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month 2024
      Article 4 days ago 3 min read Pioneering NASA Astronaut Health Tech Thwarts Heart Failure
      Article 4 days ago 8 min read Kathryn Sullivan: The First American Woman to Walk in Space
      Article 5 days ago View the full article
  • Check out these Videos

×
×
  • Create New...