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    • By NASA
      NASA/Sam Lott A test version of the universal stage adapter for NASA’s more powerful version of its SLS (Space Launch System) rocket arrived to Building 4619 at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, Feb. 22 from Leidos in Decatur, Alabama. The universal stage adapter will connect the rocket’s upgraded in-space propulsion stage, called the exploration upper stage, to NASA’s Orion spacecraft as part of the evolved Block 1B configuration of the SLS rocket. It will also serve as a compartment capable of accommodating large payloads, such as modules or other exploration spacecraft. The SLS Block 1B variant will debut on Artemis IV and will increase SLS’s payload capability to send more than 84,000 pounds to the Moon in a single launch.
      In Building 4619’s Load Test Annex High Bay at Marshall, the development test article will first undergo modal testing that will shake the hardware to validate dynamic models. Later, during ultimate load testing, force will be applied vertically and to the sides of the hardware. Unlike the flight hardware, the development test article has flaws intentionally included in its design, which will help engineers verify that the adapter can withstand the extreme forces it will face during launch and flight. The test article joins an already-rich history of rocket hardware that has undergone high-and-low pressure, acoustic, and extreme temperature testing in the multipurpose, high-bay test facility; it will be tested in the same location that once bent, compressed, and torqued the core stage intertank test article for SLS rocket’s Block 1 configuration. Leidos, the prime contractor for the universal stage adapter, manufactured the full-scale prototype at its Aerospace Structures Complex in Decatur.
      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 and Gateway in orbit around the Moon and commercial human landing systems, next-generational spacesuits, and rovers on the lunar surface. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single launch.
      News Media Contact
      Corinne Beckinger
      Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
      256.544.0034
      corinne.m.beckinger@nasa.gov
      View the full article
    • By NASA
      1 min read
      Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
      NASA’s C-130 cargo aircraft releases a dart-shaped test vehicle above the U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving Ground on Jan. 9 to begin the testing sequence for a Boeing Starliner parachute system. Credit: U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground NASA’s C-130 Hercules, managed at Wallops Flight Facility’s Aircraft Office in Virginia, provided aerial delivery support for a successful commercial crew parachute airdrop test Jan. 9 at the U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona. This week’s testing was in support of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and partner, Boeing, which are developing crew transportation capability to and from the International Space Station.
      Up for testing was a modified parachute system for Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. The system, which involved two ringsail parachutes, required a demonstration set in stressed conditions to certify successful deployment.
      During the demonstration, the Wallops C-130 team deployed a 27,000-pound payload comprised of the Parachute Compartment Drop Test Vehicle and Mid-Altitude Deployment System. The team released the payload from an altitude of 13,000 feet while coordinating and timing their efforts with U.S. Army UH-60s and a NASA AFRC B-200 aircraft used to capture photos and video documentation of the mission.
      The Wallops C-130 team has supported 16 successful commercial crew parachute airdrop tests since 2018. For more information, visit nasa.gov/wallops.
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      Last Updated Jan 12, 2024 EditorOlivia F. LittletonContactOlivia F. Littletonolivia.f.littleton@nasa.gov Related Terms
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    • By NASA
      5 min read
      Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
      New Shepard, Blue Origin’s reusable suborbital rocket, rising from the company’s Launch Site One in West Texas, on a previous flight in 2021. The vehicle returned to flight on Dec. 19, 2023, carrying payloads supported by NASA’s Flight Opportunities, enabling researchers to test disruptive solutions for space applications.Blue Origin Living and working in space requires getting ready a bit closer to Earth. Through a suborbital flight test on Dec. 19, 2023 with industry provider Blue Origin, NASA’s Flight Opportunities program is helping 14 research payloads move one step toward future space missions and commercial applications. The flown technologies aim to address some of the opportunities and obstacles presented by humanity’s sustained presence in space.
      Launched aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard reusable suborbital rocket from the company’s Launch Site One in West Texas, the payloads reached an altitude of 351,248 feet. During the flight, those payloads experienced about three minutes of microgravity, providing insight into the effect of reduced gravity on both technologies and living things.  
      “NASA relies on emerging commercial spaceflight capabilities to rapidly test disruptive solutions for space applications,” said Danielle McCulloch, program manager for Flight Opportunities at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. “Working with commercial flight providers like Blue Origin allows the agency to make space exploration and commerce more accessible to a broader range of researchers.”
      A strong commercial space industry also helps NASA move forward with scientific exploration of the moon, Mars, and beyond. In addition to the NASA supported research teams, this flight was also a significant milestone for Blue Origin, serving as the return to flight with their New Shepard rocket.
      NASA-Supported Technologies Aboard New Shepard
      Sometimes, everyday products can be the key to advancing space objectives. For example, paraffin and beeswax aren’t just for cosmetics and candles. Researchers are using this flight to evaluate these common materials to determine if they might be keys to safer and cheaper fuel for spacecraft. Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are evaluating in-space manufacturing techniques to turn these wax-based products into alternative options for propelling small spacecraft.
      Also aboard the flight was a project from small business Ecoatoms Inc. in Reno, Nevada, designed to advance the production of biosensors in low Earth orbit. Earth’s gravity often causes the sensors to have rough and uneven layers that adversely affect performance. Fabrication in microgravity could allow for smoother and more uniform development, resulting in improved sensing. The startup expects the flight test with Blue Origin will be a step toward space-based manufacturing of health care tools for patients on Earth and astronauts on long-duration missions, improving crew safety while also leveraging the expanding space economy to benefit life on Earth.
      “We are excited to test at-scale manufacturing of biosensors in space. Coating hundreds of sensors in microgravity will provide us with extremely valuable information to advance our technology,” said Solange Massa, Ecoatoms founder and CEO. “Preparing for suborbital flight with Flight Opportunities gave us experience we will apply to future flights for our clients.”
      In another example of how a common substance can help pave the way to our understanding of space, researchers at Montana State University and the University of Colorado Boulder will use a yeast variant (Candida albicans) as a stepping stone to further understand how microgravity affects humans. Observations of how several minutes of microgravity affect this simple biological organism, made possible by the team’s unique sampling system, may provide a window into the cellular and physiological adaptations of the human body, which will be critical knowledge for planning extended human space missions.
       Other technologies benefiting from this flight testing include:
      An electrophysiological measurement system and lens-free imaging system from imec USA in Kissimmee, Florida as well as two student payloads managed by imec examining gravity’s effect on ultrasonic sound waves and on a variety of sensors An experiment from the University of Central Florida in Orlando to apply electric fields to a dust simulant A tool for evaluating the geophysical properties of soil on near-Earth asteroids developed by Honeybee Robotics Ltd., in Altadena, California A system from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California to assess multiphase reservoirs for sample mixing and bubble migration A system for propellant gauging during on-orbit refueling and transfer operations from Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin A technology from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana for modeling propellant slosh in microgravity The DMEN multi-environment navigator from Draper in Cambridge, Massachusetts An experiment from the University of Alabama in Huntsville to collect thermal data of fluids in microgravity A sensor to measure the volume of water used to keep an astronaut cool in an exploration spacesuit, developed by Creare in Hanover, New Hampshire and funded by NASA’s STTR (Small Business Technology Transfer) program A regenerative technology to provide energy storage for spaceflight applications, developed by Infinity Fuel Cell in Windsor, Connecticut and funded by a NASA Tipping Point award through NASA’s Game Changing Development program Flight Opportunities is managed at NASA Armstrong and funded by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate. This program provides funding for flight tests and technology payload development as well as subject matter expertise to help researchers maximize the impact of their commercial flight tests. The program enables innovators to gather the data they need to advance their work ahead of larger, more expensive missions and applications.
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      Last Updated Dec 19, 2023 EditorCody S. LydonContactSarah Mannsarah.mann@nasa.govLocationArmstrong Flight Research Center Related Terms
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    • By NASA
      4 min read
      NASA Scientific Balloons Ready for Flights Over Antarctica
      A scientific balloon payload is being prepared for launch in McMurdo Station, Antarctica. NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility NASA kicks off its annual Antarctic Long Duration Balloon Campaign around Dec. 1, which includes three scientific balloon flights planned for launch from the long-duration balloon (LDB) Camp near McMurdo Station, Antarctica. NASA’s stadium-sized, zero-pressure balloons will support a total of five missions on the long-duration flights with one mission vying to break NASA’s heavy-lift, long-duration balloon flight record, which stands at 55 days, 1 hour, and 34 minutes.
      “The annual Antarctic long-duration balloon campaign is the program’s flagship event for long-duration missions,” said Andrew Hamilton, acting chief of NASA’s Balloon Program Office (BPO). “The environment and stratospheric wind conditions provide a unique and valuable opportunity to fly missions in a near-space environment for days or weeks at a time. The BPO team is excited to provide support to all our missions this year.”
      Headlining this year’s campaign is the Galactic/Extragalactic ULDB Spectroscopic Terahertz Observatory (GUSTO) mission. This Astrophysics mission is managed by NASA’s Explorers Program Office at Goddard Space Flight Center. The mission is led by principal investigator Christopher Walker from the University of Arizona with support from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. GUSTO will aim for 55-plus days in flight above the southernmost hemisphere’s skies to map a large part of the Milky Way galaxy, including the galactic center, and the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud. The GUSTO telescope is equipped with very sensitive detectors for carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen emission lines. Measuring these emission lines will give the GUSTO team deep insight into the full lifecycle of the interstellar medium, the cosmic material found between stars. GUSTO’s science observations will be performed from Antarctica to allow for enough observation time aloft, access to astronomical objects, and solar power provided by the austral summer in the polar region.
      Additional missions set to fly during the Antarctic LDB campaign include:
      Anti-Electron Sub-Orbital Payload (AESOP-Lite): The mission, led by a team from the University of Delaware and University of California Santa Cruz, will measure cosmic-ray electrons and positrons. These electron measurements will be compared to Voyager I and II, which reached interstellar space and have been measuring cosmic ray electrons since 2012 and 2018, respectively. AESOP-Lite will fly on a 60 million cubic feet balloon, a test flight set to qualify the balloon for reaching altitudes greater than 150,000 feet, which is higher than NASA’s current stratospheric inventory. Long durAtion evalUation solaR hand LAunch (LAURA): This engineering test flight, led by NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility, will utilize solar panels to extend the science capability of the hand launch platform from a few days in flight to long-duration flights. Hand-launched balloons are about 40 times smaller in volume than the heavy-lift balloons and have limited time aloft due to the amount and weight of batteries used for powering the science and balloon instruments. Anihala (Antarctic Infrasound Hand Launch): This piggyback payload on the AESOP-Lite launch, a cooperative mission between the Swedish Institute of Space Physics and Sandia National Lab, aims to measure natural background sound in the stratosphere over a continent where human-generated sound is largely absent. Zero-pressure balloons feature open ducts that allow gas to escape and prevent an increase in pressure from inside the balloon. Gas expansion occurs as it heats during the balloon’s rise above Earth’s surface or by temperature increases from a rising Sun. These balloons, which typically have a shorter flight duration due to the loss of gas from the cycle of day to night, can only fly long-duration missions during the constant daylight of summer in polar regions, where the balloon stays in constant sunlight.
      NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia manages the agency’s scientific balloon flight program with 10 to 15 flights each year from launch sites worldwide. Peraton, which operates NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility (CSBF) in Texas, provides mission planning, engineering services, and field operations for NASA’s scientific balloon program. The CSBF team has launched more than 1,700 scientific balloons over some 40 years of operations. NASA’s balloons are fabricated by Aerostar. The NASA Scientific Balloon Program is funded by the NASA Headquarters Science Mission Directorate Astrophysics Division.
      For mission tracking, click here. For more information on NASA’s Scientific Balloon Program, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/scientificballoons.
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      Last Updated Nov 27, 2023 Editor Olivia F. Littleton Contact Olivia F. Littletonolivia.f.littleton@nasa.gov Location Wallops Flight Facility Related Terms
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    • By NASA
      3 min read
      DART Team Earns Smithsonian Michael Collins Trophy for Successful Planetary Defense Test Mission
      Eric Long, Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) will be honored with the 2024 Michael Collins Trophy for Current Achievement. For its work developing and managing the first-ever planetary defense test mission, the team comprised by NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) is being lauded for outstanding achievements in the fields of aerospace science and technology.
      Designed, built and operated by APL for NASA’s PDCO, which oversees the agency’s ongoing efforts in planetary defense, DART was humanity’s first mission to intentionally move a celestial object, impacting the asteroid Dimorphos on Sept. 26, 2022. DART’s collision with Dimorphos changed the asteroid’s orbit period around its companion asteroid, Didymos, by 33 minutes.
      “Our planetary defense objective is to find any potential asteroid impact many years to decades before it could happen so that, if ever necessary, the object could be deflected with technology tested by DART,” said Lindley Johnson, planetary defense officer at NASA Headquarters. “The DART team was an international collaboration of planetary defenders who turned the kinetic impact concept of asteroid deflection into reality. Their efforts have taken a giant leap forward for humanity’s ability to address the asteroid impact hazard.”
      The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum awards its Michael Collins Trophy yearly for both Current and Lifetime Achievements. The DART mission has earned the former, joining astronaut Peggy Whitson, who will collect the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award for her distinguished space career.  

      Since 1985, the organization has been recognizing extraordinary accomplishments in aeronautics and spaceflight, and it selected DART for its “extraordinary technological advancements and new scientific breakthroughs in space science.”  
      Launched in November 2021 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, DART embarked on a 10-month journey to Dimorphos. This historic mission showcased the world’s first planetary defense technology demonstration in action as it was live streamed by NASA online when the DART spacecraft intentionally collided with its target asteroid.
      Scientists worldwide monitored the aftermath through telescopes and radar facilities to assess the impact on Dimorphos’ orbit around Didymos. Pre-impact projections estimated a range of possible deflections, and the postimpact observations revealed a significant deflection of the target asteroid at the high-end of the pre-impact models, a promising result for applying the technique in the future if needed. 
      Images captured by DART’s onboard Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation(DRACO) and the Italian Space Agency’s ride-along Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroids(LICIACube), complemented by observations from ground-based telescopes as well as NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope and the Lucy spacecraft, provided critical data. These observations allowed scientists to analyze Dimorphos’ surface composition, the material ejection velocity and quantity due to the collision, and the distribution of particle sizes within the ensuing dust cloud. Scientists on the mission confirmed in four subsequent papers published in Nature the effectiveness of the kinetic impactor technique in altering asteroid trajectories, making it a groundbreaking milestone for planetary defense.  Look back at all of DART’s milestones and science successes in the year since impact.  
      More information about the Michael Collins Trophy and a complete list of past winners is available.  The DART team will accept the award on March 21, 2024, at the museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia.
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      Overview Asteroids, sometimes called minor planets, are rocky, airless remnants left over from the early formation of our solar system…
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