"Here's some of the stories trending This Week at NASA!"
NASA's TDRS-L satellite launched aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas rocket January
23, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
TDRS-L, the second of three next-generation Tracking and Data Relay Satellites, provides
tracking, telemetry; command and data return services for NASA science and human exploration
missions.
Kennedy Space Center's transformation into a multi-user spaceport for commercial and
government customers continues.
Administrator Charlie Bolden and Center Director Bob Cabana were on hand as Sierra Nevada Corporation
announced plans for a November 2016 orbital flight of its Dream Chaser spacecraft from
Florida's Space Coast.
SNC will establish an operation center at KSC, use the former Shuttle Landing Facility
runway and utilize the services of other aerospace companies in the area.
President Obama signed into law a congressional resolution to re-designate NASA's Dryden Flight
Research Center as the Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center.
The resolution also re-names the center's Western Aeronautical Test Range as the Hugh
L. Dryden Aeronautical Test Range.
Hugh Dryden and Neil Armstrong were aerospace pioneers who made historic contributions to
the agency and the nation.
The next International Space Station crew spoke to media during a news conference on
NASA TV.
Expedition 39/40 -- NASA astronaut Steve Swanson and Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov
and Oleg Artemyev are scheduled to launch March 25 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The crew will be the first to share its final weeks of mission preparations and flight experiences
on Instagram.
The A-1 Test Stand at Stennis Space Center has been outfitted with a new thrust frame
adapter that will enable testing of RS-25 rocket engines.
The RS-25 will power the core stage of NASA's new Space Launch System rocket.
Testing is scheduled to begin in mid-summer, after test stand modifications are completed.
The latest test of the Orion spacecraft's parachute system in Yuma, Arizona increased
the complexity of the tests and was the first to provide in-air data on the system that
jettisons Orion's forward bay cover -- a shell that protects the spacecraft during launch,
orbital flight and re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.
When Orion returns from space, the cover must come off before the spacecraft's parachutes
can deploy.
Further testing of the cover is planned before Orion's Exploration Flight Test-1 in September.
For the first time in more than a decade, NASA will launch five Earth science missions
in a single year -- opening new and improved eyes on our changing planet.
The five missions in 2014 are part of the agency's planned Earth science activities
for the year.
Two missions will deliver instruments to the International Space Station, inaugurating
use of the orbiting laboratory as a 24/7 Earth-observing science platform.
New data on 2013 global temperatures and climate released by NASA and the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration show that Earth continues to experience warmer temperatures
than those measured several decades ago -- a trend researchers believe is the result of
continued increases in greenhouse gas levels in Earth's atmosphere.
A news conference sponsored by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory celebrated ten years
of accomplishments on Mars by the Exploration Rover Opportunity -- which landed on Mars
Jan. 24, 2004, Pacific Time, three weeks after its twin, Spirit.
Both rovers made important discoveries on the Red Planet.
Spirit stopped communicating in 2010, but Opportunity is still sending home scientific
results from Mars.
And that's what's up ... This Week at NASA.
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