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Never seen before; gigantic surface mass ejection SME on red supergiant star Betelgeuse


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Analyzing data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and several other observatories, astronomers have concluded that the bright red supergiant star Betelgeuse quite literally blew its top in 2019, losing a substantial part of its visible surface and producing a gigantic Surface Mass Ejection (SME). This is something never before seen in a normal star's behavior. 

Betelgeuse.jpg

Our Sun routinely blows off parts of its tenuous outer atmosphere, the corona, in an event known as a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). But the Betelgeuse SME blasted off 400 billion times as much mass as a typical CME! 

The monster star is still slowly recovering from this catastrophic upheaval. "Betelgeuse continues doing some very unusual things right now; the interior is sort of bouncing," said Andrea Dupree of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

These new observations yield clues as to how red stars lose mass late in their lives as their nuclear fusion furnaces burn out, before exploding as supernovae. The amount of mass loss significantly affects their fate. However, Betelgeuse's surprisingly petulant behavior is not evidence the star is about to blow up anytime soon. So the mass loss event is not necessarily the signal of an imminent explosion. 

Dupree is now pulling together all the puzzle pieces of the star's petulant behavior before, after, and during the eruption into a coherent story of a never-before-seen titanic convulsion in an aging star.

 

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      “The OSIRIS-REx team’s successful delivery of the asteroid Bennu sample to Earth will enable important scientific discoveries for generations to come,” said Lori Glaze, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters. “I’m so pleased to see the mission team recognized with the Robert H. Goddard Memorial Trophy for their accomplishments.”
      Following its launch in 2016, the OSIRIS-REx mission made U.S. space history when it became the first U.S. spacecraft to touch an asteroid and capture a sample on Oct. 20, 2020, and again when it successfully returned with the sample to Earth on Sept. 24, 2023.
      The sample, which is the largest asteroid sample ever delivered to Earth, is from the ancient asteroid Bennu and will give researchers worldwide a glimpse into the earliest days of our solar system, offering insights into planet formation and the origin of organics that led to life on Earth. Data collected by the spacecraft combined with future analysis of the Bennu sample will also aid our understanding of asteroids that can impact Earth.
      The OSIRIS-REx mission conducted unprecedented centimeter-scale mapping of Bennu, surpassing precision levels achieved for any other planetary body and setting three Guinness World Records for: smallest object orbited by a spacecraft, closest orbit of an asteroid and highest resolution satellite map of any planetary body.
      “The OSIRIS-REx mission rewrote U.S. space exploration history,” said Joe Vealencis, president, NSCF. “The data the spacecraft collected, plus all that we have yet to uncover from the sample it brought back, means scientists and engineers will be reaping the benefits of this mission for years to come.”
      Following its successful sample return, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft was renamed OSIRIS-APEX and will now enter an extended mission to visit and study near-Earth asteroid Apophis in 2029.
      OSIRIS-REx’s success was made possible by the unique contributions of over 1,000 individuals from government and mission partners like the science lead at the University of Arizona, the project team at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the curation team at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, spacecraft design, operations, and recovery by Lockheed Martin, guidance and navigation at KinetX, and the launch provider at United Launch Alliance.
      OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASA’s New Frontiers Program, managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters.
      Read more about NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission.
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      Key Test Drive of Orion on NASA’s Artemis II to Aid Future Missions
      Astronauts will test drive NASA’s Orion spacecraft for the first time during the agency’s Artemis II test flight next year. While many of the spacecraft’s maneuvers like big propulsive burns are automated, a key test called the proximity operations demonstration will evaluate the manual handling qualities of Orion.
      During the approximately 70-minute demonstration set to begin about three hours into the mission, the crew will command Orion through a series of moves using the detached upper stage of the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket as a mark. The in-space propulsion stage, called the interim cryogenic propulsion stage (ICPS), includes an approximately two-foot target that will be used to evaluate how Orion flies with astronauts at the controls.
      “There are always differences between a ground simulation and what an actual spacecraft will fly like in space,” said Brian Anderson, Orion rendezvous, proximity operations, and docking manager within the Orion Program at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. “The demonstration is a flight test objective that helps us reduce risk for future missions that involve rendezvous and docking with other spacecraft.”
      After NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen are safely in space, the Moon rocket’s upper stage will fire twice to put Orion on a high Earth orbit trajectory. Then, the spacecraft will automatically separate from the rocket stage, firing several separation bolts before springs push Orion a safe distance away.
      As the spacecraft and its crew move away, Orion will perform an automated backflip to turn around and face the stage. At approximately 300 feet away, Orion will stop its relative motion. The crew will take control and use the translational and rotational hand controllers and display system to make very small movements to ensure Orion is responding as expected.
      Next, the crew will very slowly pilot Orion to within approximately 30 feet of the stage. A two-foot auxiliary target mounted inside the top of the stage, similar to the docking target used by spacecraft visiting the International Space Station, will guide their aim.
      “The crew will view the target by using a docking camera mounted inside the docking hatch window on the top of the crew module to see how well aligned they are with the docking target mounted to the ICPS,” Anderson said.
      “It’s a good stand in for what crews will see when they dock with Starship on Artemis III and to the Gateway on future missions.”
      About 30 feet from the stage, Orion will stop and the crew will checkout the spacecraft’s fine handling qualities to evaluate how it performs in close proximity to another spacecraft. Small maneuvers performed very close to the ICPS will be done using the reaction control system thrusters on Orion’s European Service Module.
      Orion will then back away and allow the stage to turn to protect its thermal properties. The crew will follow the stage, initiate a second round of manual maneuvers using another target mounted on the side of the stage, approach within approximately 30 feet, perform another fine handling quality check out, then back away.
      At the end of the demonstration, Orion will perform an automated departure burn to move away from the ICPS before the stage then fires to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere over a remote location in the Pacific Ocean. During Orion’s departure burn, engineers will use the spacecraft’s docking camera to gather precise positioning measurements, which will help inform navigation during rendezvous activities on future missions in the lunar environment, where there is no GPS system. 
      Because the Artemis II Orion is not docking with another spacecraft, it is not equipped with a docking module containing lights and therefore is reliant on the ICPS to be lit enough by the Sun to allow the crew to see the targets.
      “As with many of our tests, it’s possible the proximity operations demonstration won’t go exactly as expected,” said Anderson. “Even if we don’t accomplish every part of the demonstration, we’ll continue on with the test flight as planned to accomplish our primary objectives, including evaluating Orion’s systems with crew aboard in the deep space environment and keeping the crew safe during the mission.”
      The approximately 10-day Artemis II flight will test NASA’s foundational human deep space exploration capabilities, the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft, for the first time with astronauts and will pave the way for lunar surface missions, including landing the first woman, first person of color, and first international partner astronaut on the Moon.
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      View the full article
    • By European Space Agency
      ESA’s gamma-ray space telescope Integral has played a decisive role in capturing jets of matter being expelled into space at one-third the speed of light. The material and energy were liberated when huge explosions occurred on the surface of a neutron star. This world-first observation proved to be “a perfect experiment” for exploring astrophysical jets of all descriptions.
      View the full article
    • By NASA
      3 min read
      Hubble Sees New Star Proclaiming Presence with Cosmic Lightshow
      This new image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope features the FS Tau star system. NASA, ESA, and K. Stapelfeldt (NASA JPL); Image Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America) Jets emerge from the cocoon of a newly forming star to blast across space, slicing through the gas and dust of a shining nebula in this new image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.
      FS Tau is a multi-star system made up of FS Tau A, the bright star-like object near the middle of the image, and FS Tau B (Haro 6-5B), the bright object to the far right obscured by a dark, vertical lane of dust. The young objects are surrounded by gently illuminated gas and dust of this stellar nursery. The system is only about 2.8 million years old, very young for a star system. Our Sun, by contrast, is about 4.6 billion years old.
      FS Tau B is a newly forming star, or protostar, surrounded by a protoplanetary disk, a pancake-shaped collection of dust and gas leftover from the formation of the star that will eventually coalesce into planets. The thick dust lane, seen nearly edge-on, separates what are thought to be the illuminated surfaces of the flared disk.
      FS Tau B is likely in the process of becoming a T Tauri star, a type of young variable star that hasn’t begun nuclear fusion yet but is beginning to evolve into a hydrogen-fueled star similar to our Sun. Protostars shine with the heat energy released as the gas clouds from which they are forming collapse, and from the accretion of material from nearby gas and dust. Variable stars are a class of star whose brightness changes noticeably over time.
      FS Tau A is itself a T Tauri binary system, consisting of two stars orbiting each other.
      Protostars are known to eject fast-moving, column-like streams of energized material called jets, and FS Tau B provides a striking example of this phenomenon. The protostar is the source of an unusual asymmetric, double-sided jet, visible here in blue. Its asymmetrical structure may result from the difference in the rates at which mass is being expelled from the object.
      FS Tau B is also classified as a Herbig-Haro object. Herbig–Haro objects form when jets of ionized gas ejected by a young star collide with nearby clouds of gas and dust at high speeds, creating bright patches of nebulosity.
      FS Tau is part of the Taurus-Auriga region, a collection of dark molecular clouds that are home to numerous newly forming and young stars, roughly 450 light-years away in the constellations of Taurus and Auriga. Hubble has previously observed this region, whose star-forming activity makes it a compelling target for astronomers. Hubble took these observations as part of an investigation of edge-on dust disks around young stellar objects.

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      Media Contact:
      Claire Andreoli
      NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
      claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
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    • By NASA
      22 Min Read The Marshall Star for March 20, 2024
      Marshall Technologist Talks Solar Sail Technology in Rocket Center Exhibit
      By Jessica Barnett
      Space enthusiasts at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center were treated to a special exhibit featuring technologist Les Johnson of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and a look at the future of solar sail technology.
      NASA technologist Les Johnson, on stage, discusses how the solar sail can use solar propulsion to travel farther in space than anyone has traveled before during an exhibit held March 12 at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. NASA/Charles Beason Johnson shared the latest updates on the solar sail technology through brief presentations onstage in the Rocket Center’s atrium as well as one-on-one interactions with museum guests at the various displays set up near the stage. He discussed how the technology will work, showed a video of the solar sail team testing one of the sail’s four quadrants, and discussed what it could mean for the future of space exploration.
      “I’m excited about this type of propulsion, because it’s free, it doesn’t run out of fuel, and you can use it to do amazing things in the future,” Johnson said. “We could build really big sails – 10 to 100 times bigger than the Solar Cruiser sail – and instead of using sunlight, we could shine lasers on it and go out in the solar system, literally where we’ve never been before.”
      NASA continues to unfurl plans for solar sail technology as a promising method of deep space transportation. The agency cleared a key technology milestone in January with one of four identical solar sail quadrants successfully deploying. Together, the solar sail quadrants will make up the 17,800-square-foot sail.
      Marshall leads the solar sail team, which includes Florida-based Redwire Corporation as prime contractor and Huntsville-based NeXolve as subcontractor.
      Barnett, a Media Fusion employee, supports the Marshall Office of Communications.
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      Robert Champion Named Manager of SLS Exploration Upper Stage Office at Marshall
      Robert Champion has been named as manager of the SLS (Space Launch System) Exploration Upper Stage Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, effective March 24th.
      In his role, he will be responsible for the continued development of the exploration upper stage on the more powerful SLS Block 1B rocket, which is set to debut for the Artemis IV mission. Marshall manages the SLS Program.
      Robert Champion has been named as manager of the SLS (Space Launch System) Exploration Upper Stage Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.NASA Champion has been director of the Office of Center Operations at Marshall since 2021. In that role, he managed center services that included industrial labor relations, environmental engineering, occupational health, facility management, logistics and transportation, protective services, emergency management, and subordinate site operations.
      Champion previously served as the director of NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans from 2019 to 2021; deputy director of Marshall’s Propulsion Systems Department from 2015 to 2019; deputy director of Marshall’s Space Systems Department from 2014 to 2015; and deputy director at Michoud from 2010 to 2014.
      His 37-year career at NASA has included leadership roles in engineering, program and project organizations focused on launch vehicle development, system engineering, and propulsion systems.
      Champion has received several of NASA’s highest awards, including the Presidential Rank Award, the Exceptional Achievement Medal, the Medal for Exceptional Service, Space Flight Awareness Honoree, Director’s Commendation, and the Contracting Officers Technical Representative of the Year.  He was selected as an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Associate fellow and received the organization’s 2018-2019 Holger Toftoy Award for outstanding technical management in the fields of aeronautics and astronautics.
      A native of Woodstock, Alabama, Champion holds a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from Auburn University. He lives in Hazel Green with his wife, Maria Shelby. They have five adult children and six grandchildren.
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      June Malone Named Director of the Office of Center Operations at Marshall 
      June Malone has been named as director of the Office of Center Operations at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, effective March 24.
      With an annual budget of approximately $94 million, the organization includes 120 engineers and specialized civil servants and more than 500 contractors. Services provided by Center Operations include industrial labor relations, environmental engineering, occupational health, facility management, logistics and transportation, protective services, emergency management, and subordinate site operations.
      June Malone has been named as director of the Office of Center Operations at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.NASA Malone has been director of the Office of Strategic Analysis & Communications at Marshall since 2021. In that role, she led the organization in providing strategic planning, objective analysis, and comprehensive communication to support the policy, program, and budget decisions for the center.
      Malone has worked in a variety of leadership roles throughout her 30-year NASA career. She previously was manager for Marshall’s Office of Communications from 2019 to 2021, overseeing the center’s full communications portfolio, including media, social media, website content, exhibits, history, and employee communications. Previously in 2019, she worked in Marshall’s Office of Human Capital, where she established a new Human Resources Business Partner organization and operating model. She also held a year-long position in 2016-2017 as deputy director of the Office of Strategic Analysis & Communications.
      From 2014-2016 and again 2017-2019, Malone was manager of Marshall’s Office of Communication, guiding media and social media for all center projects, programs, and activities, including crisis and risk communication. She has managed public affairs and media relations activities for the Space Shuttle Propulsion Projects Office, the Space Launch Initiative, the Advanced Space Transportation Program, and the full suite of science and engineering work at Marshall. She was the primary NASA spokesperson for the Space Shuttle Propulsion Projects Office, communicating with media and the public on technical subjects and controversial issues that included the Columbia accident and Return to Flight.
      Prior to joining NASA in 1991, Malone was an active-duty Air Force officer from 1985-1991. She worked at the Pentagon on the secretary of the Air Force staff in the Office of Public Affairs as a public affairs officer, and subsequently at Tactical Air Command at Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Virginia, during Operation Desert Storm. She formulated and implemented public affairs and media relations policy, strategic public affairs activities, and media relations plans.
      Malone holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from Southern Illinois University and a master’s degree in communications research from The Florida State University in Tallahassee. Her awards include a Silver Snoopy, NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, Air Force Meritorious Service Medal, and Rotary National Award for Communication.
      An Illinois native, Malone and her husband, Roy, reside in Huntsville. Their son, Wil, is a NASA engineer, and their daughter, Madison, is a medical doctor in San Francisco.
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      NASA Lights ‘Beacon’ on Moon with Autonomous Navigation System Test
      By Rick Smith
      For 30 total minutes in February, NASA lit a beacon on the Moon – successfully testing a sophisticated positioning system that will make it safer for Artemis-era explorers to visit and establish a permanent human presence on the lunar surface.
      Evan Anzalone, at lower left, principal investigator for the Lunar Node-1 demonstrator payload, monitors the LN-1 mission from the Lunar Utilization Control Area in the Huntsville Operations Support Center at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. LN-1 successfully tested an autonomous navigation and geo-positioning system that will make Artemis-era lunar explorers safer as they work to establish a permanent human presence on the lunar surface.NASA The Lunar Node 1 demonstrator, or LN-1, is an autonomous navigation system intended to provide a real-time, point-to-point communications network on the Moon. The system – tested during Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 mission as part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative – could link orbiters, landers, and even individual astronauts on the surface, digitally verifying each explorer’s position relative to other networked spacecraft, ground stations, or rovers on the move.
      That system would be a marked improvement over conventional, Earth-based radio data relays, NASA researchers said – even more so compared to Apollo-era astronauts trying to “eyeball” distance and direction on the vast, mostly grey lunar surface.
      “We’ve lit a temporary beacon on the lunar shore,” said Evan Anzalone, LN-1 principal investigator at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. “Now, we seek to deliver a sustainable local network – a series of lighthouses that point the way for spacecraft and ground crews to safely, confidently spread out and explore.”
      The experiment was launched Feb. 15 as a payload on the IM-1 mission. The Nova-C lander, named Odysseus, successfully touched down Feb. 22 near Malapert A, a lunar impact crater near the Moon’s South Pole region, executing the first American commercial uncrewed landing on the Moon. The lander spent its subsequent days on the surface conducting six science and technology demonstrations, among them LN-1, before it officially powered down on Feb. 29.
      “This feat from Intuitive Machines, SpaceX, and NASA demonstrates the promise of American leadership in space and the power of commercial partnerships under NASA’s CLPS initiative,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement after the landing. “Further, this success opens the door for new voyages under Artemis to send astronauts to the Moon, then on to Mars.” 
      During IM-1’s translunar journey, the Marshall team conducted daily tests of the LN-1 beacon. The original plan was for the payload to transmit its beacon around the clock upon landing. NASA’s Deep Space Network, the international giant radio antenna array, would have received that signal for, on average, 10 hours daily.
      Instead, due to the lander’s touchdown orientation, LN-1 conducted two 15-minute transmissions from the surface. DSN assets successfully locked on the signal, feeding telemetry, navigation measurements, and other data to researchers at Marshall, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Morehead State University in Morehead, Kentucky. The team continues to evaluate the data.
      LN-1 even provided critical backup to IM-1’s onboard navigation system, noted Dr. Susan Lederer, CLPS project scientist at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. The LN-1 team “really stepped up to the task,” she said, by relaying spacecraft positioning data during translunar flight to NASA’s Deep Space Network satellites at the Goldstone and Madrid Deep Space Communications Complexes in Fort Irwin, California, and Robledo de Chavela, Spain, respectively.
      Taken on Feb. 27, Odysseus captured an image using its narrow-field-of-view camera.Intuitive Machines In time, navigation aids such as Lunar Node-1 could be used to augment navigation and communication relays and surface nodes, providing increased robustness and capability to a variety of users in orbit and on the surface.
      As the lunar infrastructure expands, Anzalone envisions LN-1 evolving into something akin to a network that monitors and maintains a busy metropolitan subway system, tracking every “train” in real time, and operating as one part of a larger, LunaNet-compatible architecture, augmenting other NASA and international investments, including the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Lunar Navigation Satellite System.
      And the technology promises even greater value to NASA’s Moon to Mars efforts, he said. LN-1 may improve data delivery to lunar explorers by just a matter of seconds over conventional relays – but real-time navigation and positioning becomes much more vital on Mars, where transmission delays from Earth can take up to 20 minutes.
      “That’s a very long time to wait for a spacecraft pilot making a precision orbital adjustment, or humans traversing uncharted Martian landscapes,” Anzalone said. “LN-1 can make lighthouse beacons of every explorer, vehicle, temporary or long-term camp, and site of interest we send to the Moon and to Mars.”
      Marshall engineers designed, developed, integrated, and tested LN-1 as part of the NPLP (NASA-Provided Lunar Payloads) project funded by the agency’s Science Mission Directorate. Marshall also developed MAPS (Multi-spacecraft Autonomous Positioning System), the underlying networked computer navigation software. MAPS previously was tested on the International Space Station in 2018, using NASA’s Space Communications and Navigations (SCaN) Testbed.
      NASA’s CLPS initiative oversees industry development, testing, and launch of small robotic landers and rovers supporting NASA’s Artemis campaign. Learn more here.
      Smith, an Aeyon/MTS employee, supports the Marshall Office of Communications.
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      NASA Artemis Mission Progresses with SpaceX Starship Test Flight
      As part of NASA’s Artemis campaign to return humans to the Moon for the benefit of all, the agency is working with SpaceX to develop the company’s Starship human landing system (HLS), which will land astronauts near the Moon’s South Pole during the Artemis III and Artemis IV missions. On March 14, SpaceX launched the third integrated flight test of its Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage, an important milestone toward providing NASA with a Starship HLS for its Artemis missions.
      SpaceX launched the third integrated flight test of its Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage from the company’s Starbase orbital launch pad at 8:25 a.m. CT on March 14. This flight test is an important milestone toward providing NASA with a Starship HLS for its Artemis missions.SpaceX A complement of 33 Raptor engines, fueled by super-cooled liquid methane and liquid oxygen, powered the Super Heavy booster with Starship stacked on top, from the company’s Starbase orbital launch pad at 8:25 a.m. CDT. Starship, using six Raptor engines, separated from the Super Heavy booster employing a hot-staging technique to fire the engines before separation at approximately three minutes into the flight, in accordance with the flight plan. This was the third flight test of the integrated Super Heavy-Starship system.
      “With each flight test, SpaceX attempts increasingly ambitious objectives for Starship to learn as much as possible for future mission systems development. The ability to test key systems and processes in flight scenarios like these integrated tests allows both NASA and SpaceX to gather crucial data needed for the continued development of Starship HLS,” said Lisa Watson-Morgan, HLS Program Manager at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
      This test accomplished several important firsts that will contribute to the development of Starship for Artemis lunar landing missions. The spacecraft reached its expected orbit and Starship completed the full-duration ascent burn.
      One objective closely tied to future Artemis operations is the transfer of thousands of pounds of cryogenic propellant between internal tanks during the spacecraft’s coast phase as part of NASA’s Space Technology Missions Directorate 2020 Tipping Point awards. The propellant transfer demonstration operations were completed, and the NASA-SpaceX team is currently reviewing the flight data that was received. This Tipping Point technology demonstration is one of more than 20 development activities NASA is undertaking to solve the challenges of using cryogenic fluids during future missions.
      As a key step toward understanding how super-cooled propellant sloshes within the tanks when the engines shut down, and how that movement affects Starship’s stability while in orbit, engineers will study flight test data to assess the performance of thrusters that control Starship’s orientation in space. They are also interested to learn more about how the fluid’s movement within the tanks can be settled to maximize propellant transfer efficiency and ensure Raptor engines receive needed propellant conditions to support restart in orbit.
      “Storing and transferring cryogenic propellant in orbit has never been attempted on this scale before,” said Jeremy Kenny, project manager, NASA’s Cryogenic Fluid Management Portfolio at Marshall. “But this is a game-changing technology that must be developed and matured for science and exploration missions at the Moon, Mars, and those that will venture even deeper into our solar system.”
      Under NASA’s Artemis campaign, the agency will land the first woman, first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the lunar surface and prepare for human expeditions to Mars. Commercial human landing systems are critical to deep space exploration, along with the Space Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft, advanced spacesuits and rovers, exploration ground systems, and the Gateway space station.
      Read more about NASA’s Human Landing System.
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      Evolved Adapter for Future NASA SLS Flights Readied for Testing
      A test article 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 on Feb. 22 from Leidos in Decatur, Alabama.
      A test article 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 on Feb. 22 from Leidos in Decatur, Alabama.NASA/Sam Lott 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.
      Marshall manages the SLS and human landing system programs.
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      NASA Study: Asteroid’s Orbit, Shape Changed After DART Impact
      When NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) deliberately smashed into a 560-foot-wide asteroid on Sept. 26, 2022, it made its mark in more ways than one. The demonstration showed that a kinetic impactor could deflect a hazardous asteroid should one ever be on a collision course with Earth. Now a new study published in the Planetary Science Journal shows the impact changed not only the motion of the asteroid, but also its shape.
      The asteroid Dimorphos was captured by NASA’s DART mission just two seconds before the spacecraft struck its surface on Sept. 26, 2022. Observations of the asteroid before and after impact suggest it is a loosely packed “rubble pile” object.NASA/Johns Hopkins APL DART’s target, the asteroid Dimorphos, orbits a larger near-Earth asteroid called Didymos. Before the impact, Dimorphos had a roughly symmetrical “oblate spheroid” shape – like a squashed ball that is wider than it is tall. With a well-defined, circular orbit at a distance of about 3,900 feet from Didymos, Dimorphos took 11 hours and 55 minutes to complete one loop around Didymos.
      “When DART made impact, things got very interesting,” said Shantanu Naidu, a navigation engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, who led the study. “Dimorphos’ orbit is no longer circular: Its orbital period” – the time it takes to complete a single orbit – “is now 33 minutes and 15 seconds shorter. And the entire shape of the asteroid has changed, from a relatively symmetrical object to a ‘triaxial ellipsoid’ – something more like an oblong watermelon.”
      Naidu’s team used three data sources in their computer models to deduce what had happened to the asteroid after impact. The first source was aboard DART: The spacecraft captured images as it approached the asteroid and sent them back to Earth via NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN). These images provided close-up measurements of the gap between Didymos and Dimorphos while also gauging the dimensions of both asteroids just prior to impact.
      The second data source was the DSN’s Goldstone Solar System Radar, located near Barstow, California, which bounced radio waves off both asteroids to precisely measure the position and velocity of Dimorphos relative to Didymos after impact. Radar observations quickly helped NASA conclude that DART’s effect on the asteroid greatly exceeded the minimum expectations.
      The third and most significant source of data: ground telescopes around the world that measured both asteroids’ “light curve,” or how the sunlight reflecting off the asteroids’ surfaces changed over time. By comparing the light curves before and after impact, the researchers could learn how DART altered Dimorphos’ motion.
      As Dimorphos orbits, it periodically passes in front of and then behind Didymos. In these so-called “mutual events,” one asteroid can cast a shadow on the other, or block our view from Earth. In either case, a temporary dimming – a dip in the light curve – will be recorded by telescopes.
      See the DART impact with NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System.
      “We used the timing of this precise series of light-curve dips to deduce the shape of the orbit, and because our models were so sensitive, we could also figure out the shape of the asteroid,” said Steve Chesley, a senior research scientist at JPL and study co-author. The team found Dimorphos’ orbit is now slightly elongated, or eccentric. “Before impact,” Chesley continued, “the times of the events occurred regularly, showing a circular orbit. After impact, there were very slight timing differences, showing something was askew. We never expected to get this kind of accuracy.”
      This illustration shows the approximate shape change that the asteroid Dimorphos experienced after DART hit it. Before impact, left, the asteroid was shaped like a squashed ball; after impact it took on a more elongated shape, like a watermelon.NASA/JPL-Caltech The models are so precise, they even show that Dimorphos rocks back and forth as it orbits Didymos, Naidu said.
      The team’s models also calculated how Dimorphos’ orbital period evolved. Immediately after impact, DART reduced the average distance between the two asteroids, shortening Dimorphos’ orbital period by 32 minutes and 42 seconds, to 11 hours, 22 minutes, and 37 seconds.
      Over the following weeks, the asteroid’s orbital period continued to shorten as Dimorphos lost more rocky material to space, finally settling at 11 hours, 22 minutes, and 3 seconds per orbit – 33 minutes and 15 seconds less time than before impact. This calculation is accurate to within 1 ½ seconds, Naidu said. Dimorphos now has a mean orbital distance from Didymos of about 3,780 feet – about 120 feet closer than before impact.
      “The results of this study agree with others that are being published,” said Tom Statler, lead scientist for solar system small bodies at NASA Headquarters. “Seeing separate groups analyze the data and independently come to the same conclusions is a hallmark of a solid scientific result. DART is not only showing us the pathway to an asteroid-deflection technology, it’s revealing new fundamental understanding of what asteroids are and how they behave.”
      These results and observations of the debris left after impact indicate that Dimorphos is a loosely packed “rubble pile” object, similar to asteroid Bennu. ESA’s (European Space Agency) Hera mission, planned to launch in October 2024, will travel to the asteroid pair to carry out a detailed survey and confirm how DART reshaped Dimorphos.
      DART was designed, built, and operated by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, for NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, which oversees the agency’s ongoing efforts in planetary defense. The mission is a project of the agency’s Planetary Mission Program Office, which is at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. DART was humanity’s first mission to intentionally move a celestial object.
      JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the DSN for NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program within the Space Operations Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters.
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      Crew, Cargo Launches to Space Station Scheduled for March 21
      Equipment installs, health investigations, and training occupied the schedule aboard the International Space Station on March 19 as the seven orbital residents near the arrival of three crew members and a cargo delivery.
      NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, and spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus pose for a portrait at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center on Nov. 2, 2023.Credits: GCTC/Andrey Shelepin NASA’s SpaceX 30th commercial resupply mission to the station is scheduled for launch at 3:55 p.m. CDT March 21 from Space Launch Complex 40 in Florida. The Dragon cargo craft will deliver food, supplies, and new science investigations to the crew, including a set of sensors for the free-flying Astrobee robots and a new botany experiment to examine how two types of grass capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Dragon will autonomously dock to the zenith port of the Harmony module at 6:30 a.m. March 23.
      Ahead of Dragon’s liftoff, three crew members – NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky, and Flight Engineer Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus – will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 8:21 a.m. March 21. The international crew will take a short ride to the station, docking only a few hours later at 11:39 p.m., before opening the hatch and joining the Expedition 70 crew in microgravity. Dyson will begin a six-month microgravity research mission once aboard, while Novitsky and Vasilevskaya will spend 12 days on station before departing back to Earth with NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara.
      NASA TV will cover both launches beginning at 7:20 a.m. and 3:35 p.m. respectively.
      Aboard station, the crew returned to work March 19 following a few days off-duty. Throughout the day, O’Hara and two of her NASA crewmates, Michael Barratt and Matthew Dominick, completed a round of SpaceX Dragon rendezvous training ahead of Dragon’s cargo arrival.
      The HOSC (Huntsville Operations Support Center) at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center provides engineering and mission operations support for the space station, the Commercial Crew Program, and Artemis missions, as well as science and technology demonstration missions. The Payload Operations Integration Center within the HOSC operates, plans, and coordinates the science experiments onboard the space station 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.
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      Europa Clipper Mission Highlighted on ‘This Week at NASA’
      Technicians at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center recently fully extended the first of two five-panel solar arrays for the agency’s Europa Clipper spacecraft. The mission is featured in “This Week @ NASA,” a weekly video program broadcast on NASA-TV and posted online.
      The 46.5-foot arrays also will be inspected and cleaned as part of assembly, test, and launch operations. Targeted for launch in October 2024, the mission will study Jupiter’s moon Europa, which is believed to have a global ocean beneath its icy crust that has more water than all of Earth’s oceans combined.
      Managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California, JPL leads the development of the Europa Clipper mission in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. APL designed the main spacecraft body in collaboration with JPL and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. The Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center executes program management of the Europa Clipper mission.
      View this and previous episodes at “This Week @NASA” on NASA’s YouTube page.
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    • By NASA
      25 Min Read The Marshall Star for March 13, 2024
      Marshall Celebrates Alabama Space Day in Montgomery
      By Jessica Barnett
      Team members from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center joined Montgomery-area students, the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, NASA’s aerospace partners, and elected officials in celebrating the aerospace industry’s impact in Alabama on March 5.
      This year’s event kicked off at the state Capitol in Montgomery with a proclamation from Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey declaring March 5 as Alabama Space Day. Students from the Montgomery area were then invited to take part in various STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) activities, chat with an astronaut, hear what it takes to become a NASA intern or work at Marshall, and check out exhibits highlighting NASA’s many programs, including the Space Launch System, Human Landing System, and Centennial Challenges.
      Joseph Pelfrey, director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, speaks inside the House Chamber of the Alabama State House during Alabama Space Day in Montgomery on March 5. Dionne Whetstone NASA astronaut Raja Chari attended the event and spoke to students about his experience serving as flight engineer of Expedition 66 and 67 aboard the International Space Station for 177 days. 
      Ivey said she felt honored to host the annual event, which aims to highlight Alabama’s contributions to space exploration as well as encourage the next generation of scientists and engineers by pursuing degrees and careers in aerospace.
      Students from middle and high schools in the Montgomery area visit a series of exhibits featuring many NASA programs managed at Marshall. The displays were part of Alabama Space Day, celebrated March 5 at the state Capitol in Montgomery. NASA/Christopher Blair “We are blessed to have such a world-class space and technology presence in our state,” Ivey said. “Alabama is very proud of its historic contributions to the American space program, which go back well over 60 years.”
      Marshall Center Director Joseph Pelfrey echoed the sentiment, calling it “a great day to celebrate space in Alabama.”
      “Alabama Space Day was a huge success, thanks to the workforce at Marshall, as well as our aerospace partners and sponsors,” Pelfrey said. “We truly appreciate the bipartisan support we receive across the state and enjoy highlighting these partnerships through events like this. I especially valued speaking on panels today with my colleagues and engaging with local high school and college students, who will be the first generation to travel to Mars.”
      Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, right, greets Pelfrey during Alabama Space Day as NASA astronaut Raja Chari, center, looks on. The governor issued a proclamation declaring the state holiday in honor of the aerospace industry’s impact on Alabama.Hal Yeager Barnett, a Media Fusion employee, supports the Marshall Office of Communications.
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      President’s NASA Fiscal Year 2025 Funding Supports US Space, Climate Leadership
      The Biden-Harris Administration on March 11 released the President’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2025, which includes funding to invest in America and the American people and will allow NASA to continue advancing our understanding of Earth and space while inspiring the world through discovery.
      “As history has proven, as the present has shown, and as the future will continue to demonstrate, an investment in NASA is an investment in America for the benefit of humanity,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “President Biden’s budget will fund our nation’s abilities and leadership for the future of space exploration, scientific discovery, cutting-edge technology, climate data, the next generation of aeronautics, and inspiring our future leaders – the Artemis Generation.”
      The budget allows NASA to launch the Artemis II mission, which will send astronauts around the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years, research Earth’s changing climate, grow commercial markets to serve America’s interests in space, and inspire the Artemis Generation of science, technology, engineering, and math professionals.
      “This budget shows NASA’s value in contributing to the global leadership of the United States,” said Nelson. “Every dollar supports our ability to continue exploring new cosmic shores and making the impossible possible, all while creating competitive and good-paying jobs in all 50 states.”
      At NASA, the budget request would:
      Invest in the U.S.-led Artemis campaign of lunar exploration: The budget includes $7.8 billion for the Artemis campaign, which will bring astronauts – including the first woman, first person of color, and first international astronaut – to the lunar surface starting this decade as part of a long-term journey of science and exploration. Enhance climate science and information: The budget invests $2.4 billion in the Earth science program for missions and activities that advance Earth systems science and increase access to information to mitigate natural hazards, support climate action, and manage natural resources. Advance U.S. space industry technology development: The budget provides $1.2 billion for NASA’s space technology portfolio to foster innovative technology research and development to meet the needs of NASA, support the expanding U.S. space industry, which is creating a growing number of good jobs, and keep America ahead of competitors at the forefront of space innovation. Support highly efficient and greener commercial airliners: The budget invests $966 million in NASA’s aeronautics program, which will develop hybrid-electric jet engines, lightweight aircraft structures, and a major new flight demonstrator to pave the way for new commercial airliners that would be cheaper to operate and produce less pollution. Continue the transition to commercial space stations:The budget funds continued operation of the International Space Station, a vehicle to safely de-orbit the space station after it is retired in 2030, and the commercial space stations that NASA will use as soon as they become available. Increase STEM opportunities at minority-serving institutions: The budget provides $46 million to the Minority University Research and Education Project, to increase competitive awards to Historically Black Colleges and Universities, tribal colleges and universities, and other minority-serving institutions, and recruit and retain underrepresented and underserved students in STEM fields. Find more information on NASA’s fiscal year 2025 budget request at nasa.gov.
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      Jason Adam Named Deputy Manager of Marshall’s Science and Technology Office
      Jason Adam has been named as deputy manager of the Science and Technology Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
      Adam will assist in leading the organization responsible for projects and programs in support of the Science Mission Directorate and Space Technology Mission Directorate. This includes the Planetary Missions Program Office, the Technology Demonstration Missions Program Office, deep space and planetary exploration, fundamental research in heliophysics, astrophysics, and Earth science, and technology development, including Centennial Challenges and Technology Transfer.
      Jason Adam has been named as deputy manager of the Science and Technology Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.NASA He has been the Cryogenic Fluid Management Portfolio Project manager since the project office’s inception in February 2021. From February 2020 to 2021, Adam worked an executive-level detail as a senior technical assistant in the center director’s office.
      From 2017 to 2021, he was the manager of the Exploration and Systems Development Office in the Science and Technology Office. Adam managed technology and flight projects in support of NASA’s science and human exploration missions from 2008 to 2017.
      In 2014, he was selected as a member of the NASA Mid-level Leadership Program. During that time, Adam completed a detail at NASA Headquarters working for the agency’s associate administrator on the Technical Capability Assessments team.
      He joined Marshall in 2008 to work on the Constellation rocket Ares I. Adam began his NASA career at Stennis Space Center in 2003, focusing on propulsion testing of the space shuttle main engines. He completed a program management detail in 2007, supporting the Space Shuttle Program as a technical assistant.
      A federally certified senior/expert project manager, Adam is a graduate of the Office of Personnel Management Federal Executive Institute’s Leadership for a Democratic Society. He is the recipient of NASA’s Outstanding Leadership Medal.
      An engineering graduate from North Dakota State University in Fargo, North Dakota, Adam and his wife, Jessica, live in Huntsville. They have three children.
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      NASA Expanding Lunar Exploration with Upgraded SLS Mega Rocket Design
      By Martin Burkey
      As NASA prepares for its first crewed Artemis missions, the agency is making preparations to build, test, and assemble the next evolution of its SLS (Space Launch System) rocket. The larger and power powerful version of SLS, known as Block 1B, can send a crew and large pieces of hardware to the Moon in a single launch and is set to debut for the Artemis IV mission.
      “From the beginning, NASA’s Space Launch System was designed to evolve into more powerful crew and cargo configurations to provide a flexible platform as we seek to explore more of our solar system,” said John Honeycutt, SLS Program manager. “Each of the evolutionary changes made to the SLS engines, boosters, and upper stage of the SLS rocket are built on the successes of the Block 1 design that flew first with Artemis I in November 2022 and will, again, for the first crewed missions for Artemis II and III.”
      This graphic shows an expanded view of the larger and power powerful version of SLS, known as Block 1B. It can send a crew and large pieces of hardware to the Moon in a single launch and is set to debut for the Artemis IV mission.NASA Early manufacturing is already underway at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility, while preparations for the green run test series for its upgraded upper stage are in progress at nearby Stennis Space Center. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the SLS Program and Michoud.
      While using the same basic core stage and solid rocket booster design, and related components as the Block 1, Block 1B features two big evolutionary changes that will make NASA’s workhorse rocket even more capable for future missions to the Moon and beyond. A more powerful second stage and an adapter for large cargos will expand the possibilities for future Artemis missions.
      “The Space Launch System Block 1B rocket will be the primary transportation for astronauts to the Moon for years to come,” said James Burnum, deputy manager of the NASA Block 1B Development Office. “We are building on the SLS Block 1 design, testing, and flight experience to develop safe, reliable transportation that will send bigger and heavier hardware to the Moon in a single launch than existing rockets.”
      This graphic shows some of the benefits of the exploration upper stage, which will replace the interim cryogenic propulsion stage on the SLS Block 1B rocket.NASA The in-space stage used to send the first three Artemis missions to the Moon, called the interim cryogenic propulsion stage, uses a single engine and will be replaced by a larger, more powerful four-engine stage called the exploration upper stage. A different battery is among the many changes that will allow the exploration upper stage to support the first eight hours of the mission following launch compared to the current interim cryogenic propulsion stage two hours. All new hardware and software will be designed and tested to meet the different performance and environmental requirements.
      The other configuration change is a universal stage adapter that connects the rocket to the Orion spacecraft. It also offers more than 10,000 cubic feet of space to carry large components, such as modules for NASA’s future Gateway outpost that will be in lunar orbit to support crew between surface missions and unique opportunities for science at the Moon.
      Together, those upgrades will increase the payload capability for SLS from 59,000 pounds to approximately 84,000 pounds. The four RL10 engines that will be used during the exploration upper stage green run test series at Stennis are complete, and work on the Artemis IV core stage is in progress at nearby Michoud.
      Technicians at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility on Feb. 22 prepare elements that will form part of the midbody for the exploration upper stage. The midbody struts, or V-struts, will create the cage-like outer structure of the midbody that will connect the upper stage’s large liquid hydrogen tank to the smaller liquid oxygen tank.NASA The evolved design also gives astronaut explorers more launch opportunities on a path to intercept the Moon. With four times the engines and almost four times the propellant and thrust of interim cryogenic propulsion stage, the exploration upper stage also enables two daily launch opportunities compared to Block 1’s more limited lunar launch availability.
      Among other capabilities, both astronauts and ground teams will be able to communicate with the in-space stage and safely control it while using Orion’s docking system to extract components destined for Gateway from the stage adapter.
      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 Orion and the Gateway in orbit around the Moon and commercial human landing systems, next-generation 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.
      Burkey, a Media Fusion employee, is a technical writer supporting the SLS Program.
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      NASA Continues Artemis Moon Rocket Engine Test Series
      NASA conducted a full-duration RS-25 engine hot fire March 6, continuing a final round of certification testing for production of new engines to help power the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket on future Artemis missions to the Moon and beyond.
      The full-duration test on the Fred Haise Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center, marked the ninth in a scheduled 12-test series. NASA astronauts and Artemis II crew members Reid Wiseman, commander, and Christina Koch, mission specialist, attended the test.
      NASA conducts a full-duration RS-25 engine hot fire March 6 at the agency’s Stennis Space Center.NASA/Danny Nowlin Engineers are collecting test data to certify an updated engine production process, using innovative manufacturing techniques, for lead engines contractor Aerojet Rocketdyne, an L3Harris Technologies company.
      During the March 6 test, operators fired the certification engine for 10 minutes (600 seconds), longer than the amount of time needed to help launch the SLS rocket and send astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft into orbit. The test team also fired the engine at power levels between 80% and 113% to test performance in multiple scenarios. Four RS-25 engines, along with a pair of solid rocket boosters, launch NASA’s powerful SLS rocket, producing more than 8.8 million pounds of thrust at liftoff for Artemis missions.
      While clear skies were over Stennis Space Center on March 6, two special guests experienced a brief “rain shower” from water vapor produced during the RS-25 hot fire test on the Fred Haise Test Stand. NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman and Christina Koch – both of whom will fly around the Moon as Artemis II crew members – were hosted by Acting Center Director John Bailey and Engineering & Test Directorate Director Joe Schuyler to view the test and meet the test team. (NASA) 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.
      NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the SLS and human landing system programs.
      RS-25 tests at NASA Stennis are conducted by a diverse team of operators from NASA, Aerojet Rocketdyne, and Syncom Space Services, prime contractor for site facilities and operations.
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      Splashdown! NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 Finishes Mission, Returns to Earth
      NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 completed the agency’s seventh commercial crew rotation mission to the International Space Station on March 12 after splashing down safely in a Dragon spacecraft off the coast of Pensacola, Florida. The international crew of four spent 199 days in orbit.
      NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov returned to Earth splashing down at 4:47 a.m. CDT. Teams aboard SpaceX recovery vessels retrieved the spacecraft and its crew. After returning to shore, the crew was flown to NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
      Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov, left, European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen, NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Satoshi Furukawa are seen inside the SpaceX Dragon Endurance spacecraft onboard the SpaceX recovery ship MEGAN shortly after having landed in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, March 12. Moghbeli, Mogensen, Furukawa, and Borisov are returning after nearly six months in space as part of Expedition 70 aboard the International Space Station.NASA/Joel Kowsky “After more than six months aboard the International Space Station, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 has safely returned home,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “This international crew showed that space unites us all. It’s clear that we can do more – we can learn more – when we work together. The science experiments conducted during their time in space will help prepare for NASA’s bold missions at the Moon, Mars, and beyond, all while benefitting humanity here on Earth.”
      The Crew-7 mission lifted off at 2:27 a.m. Aug. 26, 2023, on a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. About 30 hours later, Dragon docked to the Harmony module’s space-facing port. Crew-7 undocked at 10:20 a.m. March 11 to begin the trip home.
      Moghbeli, Mogensen, Furukawa, and Borisov traveled 84,434,094 miles during their mission, spent 197 days aboard the space station, and completed 3,184 orbits around Earth. The Crew-7 mission was the first spaceflight for Moghbeli and Borisov. Mogensen has logged 209 days in space over his two flights, and Furukawa has logged 366 days in space over his two flights.
      Throughout their mission, the Crew-7 members contributed to a host of science and maintenance activities and technology demonstrations. Moghbeli conducted one spacewalk, joined by NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara, replacing one of the 12 trundle bearing assemblies on the port solar alpha rotary joint, which allows the arrays to track the Sun and generate electricity to power the station.
      The crew contributed to hundreds of experiments and technology demonstrations, including the first study of human response to different spaceflight durations, and an experiment growing food on the space station.
      This was the third flight of the Dragon spacecraft, named Endurance. It also previously supported the Crew-3 and Crew-5 missions. The spacecraft will return to Florida for inspection and processing at SpaceX’s refurbishing facility at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, where teams will inspect the Dragon, analyze data on its performance, and process it for its next flight.
      The Crew-7 flight is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and its return to Earth follows on the heels of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 launch, which docked to the station March 5, beginning another science expedition.
      The goal of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program is safe, reliable, and cost-effective transportation to and from the space station and low Earth orbit. This already is providing additional research time and has increased the opportunity for discovery aboard humanity’s microgravity testbed for exploration, including helping NASA prepare for human exploration of the Moon and Mars.
      The HOSC (Huntsville Operations Support Center) at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center provides engineering and mission operations support for the space station, the Commercial Crew Program, and Artemis missions, as well as science and technology demonstration missions. The Payload Operations Integration Center within the HOSC operates, plans, and coordinates the science experiments onboard the space station 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.
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      Webb, Hubble Telescopes Affirm Universe’s Expansion Rate, Puzzle Persists
      When you are trying to solve one of the biggest conundrums in cosmology, you should triple check your homework. The puzzle, called the “Hubble Tension,” is that the current rate of the expansion of the universe is faster than what astronomers expect it to be, based on the universe’s initial conditions and our present understanding of the universe’s evolution.
      Scientists using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and many other telescopes consistently find a number that does not match predictions based on observations from ESA’s (European Space Agency’s) Planck mission. Does resolving this discrepancy require new physics? Or is it a result of measurement errors between the two different methods used to determine the rate of expansion of space?
      This image of NGC 5468, a galaxy located about 130 million light-years from Earth, combines data from the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes. This is the farthest galaxy in which Hubble has identified Cepheid variable stars. These are important milepost markers for measuring the expansion rate of the universe. The distance calculated from Cepheids has been cross-correlated with a type Ia supernova in the galaxy. Type Ia supernovae are so bright they are used to measure cosmic distances far beyond the range of the Cepheids, extending measurements of the universe’s expansion rate deeper into space. NASA Hubble has been measuring the current rate of the universe’s expansion for 30 years, and astronomers want to eliminate any lingering doubt about its accuracy. Now, Hubble and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have tag-teamed to produce definitive measurements, furthering the case that something else – not measurement errors – is influencing the expansion rate.
      “With measurement errors negated, what remains is the real and exciting possibility we have misunderstood the universe,” said Adam Riess, a physicist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Riess holds a Nobel Prize for co-discovering the fact that the universe’s expansion is accelerating, due to a mysterious phenomenon now called “dark energy.”
      As a crosscheck, an initial Webb observation in 2023 confirmed that Hubble measurements of the expanding universe were accurate. However, hoping to relieve the Hubble Tension, some scientists speculated that unseen errors in the measurement may grow and become visible as we look deeper into the universe. Stellar crowding could affect brightness measurements of more distant stars in a systematic way.
      The Supernova H0 for the Equation of State of Dark Energy (SH0ES) team, led by Riess, obtained additional observations with Webb of objects that are critical cosmic milepost markers, known as Cepheid variable stars, which now can be correlated with the Hubble data.
      “We’ve now spanned the whole range of what Hubble observed, and we can rule out a measurement error as the cause of the Hubble Tension with very high confidence,” Riess said.
      The team’s first few Webb observations in 2023 were successful in showing Hubble was on the right track in firmly establishing the fidelity of the first rungs of the so-called cosmic distance ladder.
      Astronomers use various methods to measure relative distances in the universe, depending upon the object being observed. Collectively these techniques are known as the cosmic distance ladder – each rung or measurement technique relies upon the previous step for calibration.
      But some astronomers suggested that, moving outward along the “second rung,” the cosmic distance ladder might get shaky if the Cepheid measurements become less accurate with distance. Such inaccuracies could occur because the light of a Cepheid could blend with that of an adjacent star – an effect that could become more pronounced with distance as stars crowd together and become harder to distinguish from one another.
      At the center of these side-by-side images is a special class of star used as a milepost marker for measuring the universe’s rate of expansion – a Cepheid variable star. The two images are very pixelated because they are a very zoomed-in view of a distant galaxy. Each of the pixels represents one or more stars. The image from the James Webb Space Telescope is significantly sharper at near-infrared wavelengths than Hubble, which is primarily a visible-ultraviolet light telescope. By reducing the clutter with Webb’s crisper vision, the Cepheid stands out more clearly, eliminating any potential confusion. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Adam G. Riess (JHU, STScI The observational challenge is that past Hubble images of these more distant Cepheid variables look more huddled and overlapping with neighboring stars at ever farther distances between us and their host galaxies, requiring careful accounting for this effect. Intervening dust further complicates the certainty of the measurements in visible light. Webb slices though the dust and naturally isolates the Cepheids from neighboring stars because its vision is sharper than Hubble’s at infrared wavelengths.
      “Combining Webb and Hubble gives us the best of both worlds. We find that the Hubble measurements remain reliable as we climb farther along the cosmic distance ladder,” Riess said.
      The new Webb observations include five host galaxies of eight Type Ia supernovae containing a total of 1,000 Cepheids and reach out to the farthest galaxy where Cepheids have been well measured – NGC 5468 – at a distance of 130 million light-years. “This spans the full range where we made measurements with Hubble. So, we’ve gone to the end of the second rung of the cosmic distance ladder,” said co-author Gagandeep Anand of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which operates the Webb and Hubble telescopes for NASA.
      Hubble and Webb’s further confirmation of the Hubble Tension sets up other observatories to possibly settle the mystery. NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will do wide celestial surveys to study the influence of dark energy, the mysterious energy that is causing the expansion of the universe to accelerate. ESA’s Euclid observatory, with NASA contributions, is pursuing a similar task.
      At present it’s as though the distance ladder observed by Hubble and Webb has firmly set an anchor point on one shoreline of a river, and the afterglow of the big bang observed by Planck’s measurement from the beginning of the universe is set firmly on the other side. How the universe’s expansion was changing in the billions of years between these two endpoints has yet to be directly observed. “We need to find out if we are missing something on how to connect the beginning of the universe and the present day,” Riess said.
      These finding were published in the Feb. 6, 2024, issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
      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. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center manages the telescope. Goddard also conducts mission operations with Lockheed Martin Space in Denver, Colorado. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, conducts Hubble and Webb science operations for NASA. The agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center was the lead field center for the design, development, and construction of the space telescope.
      The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency. Several NASA centers contributed to Webb’s development, including Marshall.
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      NASA Unveils Design for Message Heading to Jupiter’s Moon Europa
      Following in NASA’s storied tradition of sending inspirational messages into space, the agency has special plans for Europa Clipper, which later this year will launch toward Jupiter’s moon Europa. The moon shows strong evidence of an ocean under its icy crust, with more than twice the amount of water of all of Earth’s oceans combined. A triangular metal plate on the spacecraft will honor that connection to Earth in several ways.
      At the heart of the artifact is an engraving of U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón’s handwritten “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa,” along with a silicon microchip stenciled with more than 2.6 million names submitted by the public. The microchip will be the centerpiece of an illustration of a bottle amid the Jovian system – a reference to NASA’s “Message in a Bottle” campaign, which invited the public to send their names with the spacecraft.
      This side of a commemorative plate mounted on NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft features U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón’s handwritten “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa.” It will be affixed with a silicon microchip stenciled with names submitted by the public.NASA/JPL-Caltech Made of the metal tantalum and about 7 by 11 inches, the plate features graphic elements on both sides. The outward-facing panel features art that highlights Earth’s connection to Europa. Linguists collected recordings of the word “water” spoken in 103 languages, from families of languages around the world. The audio files were converted into waveforms (visual representations of sound waves) and etched into the plate. The waveforms radiate out from a symbol representing the American Sign Language sign for “water.”
      To hear audio of the spoken languages and see the sign, go to: go.nasa.gov/MakeWaves.
      In the spirit of the Voyager spacecraft’s Golden Record, which carries sounds and images to convey the richness and diversity of life on Earth, the layered message on Europa Clipper aims to spark the imagination and offer a unifying vision.
      “The content and design of Europa Clipper’s vault plate are swimming with meaning,” said Lori Glaze, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters. “The plate combines the best humanity has to offer across the universe – science, technology, education, art, and math. The message of connection through water, essential for all forms of life as we know it, perfectly illustrates Earth’s tie to this mysterious ocean world we are setting out to explore.”
      In 2030, after a 1.6-billion-mile journey, Europa Clipper will begin orbiting Jupiter, making 49 close flybys of Europa. To determine if there are conditions that could support life, the spacecraft’s powerful suite of science instruments will gather data about the moon’s subsurface ocean, icy crust, thin atmosphere, and space environment. The electronics for those instruments are housed in a massive metal vault designed to protect them from Jupiter’s punishing radiation. The commemorative plate will seal an opening in the vault.
      The art on this side of the plate, which will seal an opening of the vault on NASA’s Europa Clipper, features waveforms that are visual representations of the sound waves formed by the word “water” in 103 languages. At center is a symbol representing the American Sign Language sign for “water.”NASA/JPL-Caltech Because searching for habitable conditions is central to the mission, the Drake Equation is etched onto the plate as well – on the inward-facing side. Astronomer Frank Drake developed the mathematical formulation in 1961 to estimate the possibility of finding advanced civilizations beyond Earth. The equation has inspired and guided research in astrobiology and related fields ever since.
      In addition, artwork on the inward-facing side of the plate will include a reference to the radio frequencies considered plausible for interstellar communication, symbolizing how humanity uses this radio band to listen for messages from the cosmos. These frequencies match the radio waves emitted in space by the components of water and are known by astronomers as the “water hole.” On the plate, they are depicted as radio emission lines.
      Finally, the plate includes a portrait of one of the founders of planetary science, Ron Greeley, whose early efforts to develop a Europa mission two decades ago laid the foundation for Europa Clipper.
      “We’ve packed a lot of thought and inspiration into this plate design, as we have into this mission itself,” said project scientist Robert Pappalardo of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). “It’s been a decades-long journey, and we can’t wait to see what Europa Clipper shows us at this water world.”
      Learn more about how Europa Clipper’s vault plate engravings were designed and the inspiration for the plate’s multilayered message. (NASA/JPL-Caltech) Once assembly of Europa Clipper has been completed at JPL, the spacecraft will be shipped to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in preparation for its October launch.
      Europa Clipper’s main science goal is to determine whether there are places below Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa, that could support life. The mission’s three main science objectives are to determine the thickness of the moon’s icy shell and its surface interactions with the ocean below, to investigate its composition, and to characterize its geology. The mission’s detailed exploration of Europa will help scientists better understand the astrobiological potential for habitable worlds beyond our planet.
      Managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California, JPL leads the development of the Europa Clipper mission in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. APL designed the main spacecraft body in collaboration with JPL and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. The Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center executes program management of the Europa Clipper mission.
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