This Week at NASA…
The Kennedy Space Center hosted several events to celebrate 50 years of Americans
in orbit.
“Roger the clock is operating we’re on the way – I hear you loud and clear.
Roger we’re programming and the roll is OK.”
John Glenn, the first to achieve the goal, made his three-orbit flight in Friendship
7 on February 20, 1962.
“It’s been 50 years, it’s hard for me to believe that.
It seems like just a couple of week s ago to me.”
Three months later, fellow Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter followed Glenn with his
flight aboard Aurora 7 on May 24, 1962.
Glenn and Carpenter spoke to employees and met with the media sharing stories about their
adventures.
The pair also participated in "On the Shoulders of Giants," a ceremony honoring all
who made NASA's Project Mercury possible.
Senator Glenn also took advantage of an opportunity to sit inside orbiter Discovery
with Center Director Bob Cabana.
Glenn flew on Discovery when he returned to space in
October 1998 as a payload specialist aboard Discovery's STS-95 mission.
“And liftoff of Discovery with a crew of six astronaut heroes and one American legend.”
“Fifty years ago today , Friendship 7 was orbiting planet Earth and that helped in a
big way to pave the way for America to become
a space power and to go to the moon and to do the things that we’re doing right now
on the International Space Station.”
An in-flight call during the NASA Future Forum at the Ohio State University provided
an opportunity for The International Space Station crew to congratulate Glenn on the
Anniversary of his historic flight and for the Senator, a big proponent of the ISS, to
hear first-hand about life onboard the orbiting
outpost.
“I don’t know whether you know the exact number of research experiments you have on
board right now, do you have any idea of how many are on board?”
“We have well over one hundred and they all come with an acronym that you either
have no vowels in it, so it makes it hard to pronounce.”
“We’ve got a whole ensemble of life science experiments that basically probe the gravity
knob for life since it evolved on Earth under constant gravity, and now all of a sudden
we can change the magnitude of gravity by a factor
of a million.”
And for what may be the first question Glenn has been asked from space, the crew
wanted to know …
“Did you ever really find out what the fireflies were on your first orbit?
“Yeah we did, I think you know Scott Carpenter on the second flight was able to hit the
side of the spacecraft, the capsule and send the whole shower of them out and scientists
working on this, they could relate them to the water dripping out through the heat
exchanger.
And then they just collected in a large cloud around the spacecraft.”
With the 2013 budget rollout complete, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and
Deputy Administrator Lori Garver are making the rounds to NASA field centers.
Following an All-Hands meeting to discuss the budget with employees at The Goddard
Space Flight Center, Bolden received a progress update on the James Webb Space
Telescope.
He also met with employees at The Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Garver spoke with employees at several other centers about the 20-13 budget.
At Stennis Space Center she was joined by Stennis
Deputy Director Rick Gilbrech and by Center Director Mike Coats at the Johnson
Space Center.
She also toured several facilities at Langley Research Center with
Director Lesa Roe.
NASA’s budget request supports an ambitious program of space exploration
that will build on new technologies and proven capabilities to expand
America’s reach into the solar system.
Researchers from Cal-Poly State University in San Luis Obispo, California recently
tested a future aircraft concept model called AMELIA – the Advanced Model for
Extreme Lift and Improved Aeroacoustics.
The 1/11th scale model with a 10-foot wingspan was tested in the National Full-Scale
Aerodynamic Complex at the Ames Research Center.
AMELIA is designed as an efficient, 150-passenger airliner capable
of short takeoffs and landings.
“We’re hoping, targeting ‘N plus 2’, so maybe 2020 or something like that we can
have the technologies needed at the readiness level
so that industry can pick it up and maybe put a vehicle like this on the market.”
Testing of AMELIA was conducted for NASA’s Fundamental Aeronautics Program,
Educators from across the nation visited the Johnson Space Center to fly experiments
in microgravity.
During the flights, a modified aircraft flew parabolic arcs that simulate
weightlessness.
The opportunity was provided by three NASA education initiatives
designed to spark interest in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM.
“The uniqueness of it is this environment provides an amazing journey for the teachers.
They’re taking these students on this journey with them for the past four to five months
and then it culminates with the flight.
They go back and share everything that they’ve learned and experienced with their students
and their communities.”
“We did three experiments all examining the aspects of gravity and how gravity affects
motion and so on.
And we did these experiments in the classroom first.
And then we did the experiments up on the plane and examined
the effects in zero gravity.
I teach juniors and seniors and we’re talking about careers
after high school.
This opens another door for them and that’s what it’s all about
for us.”
JSC’s Education Office will host college students on similar reduced-gravity flights
later this year.
New images from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft show the moon's
crust is being stretched, forming minute valleys in a few small areas of the lunar
surface.
Scientists propose this geologic activity occurred less than 50 million years
ago – that’s recent, considering the moon is more than 4-point-5 billion years old.
The high-resolution images show small, narrow trenches – typically much longer than
they are wide.
This indicates the lunar crust is being pulled apart at these locations.
LRO is managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center.
In February of 2011, NASA astronaut Al Drew was floating in space, having just
finished his first spacewalk.
“That was awesome.
Oh man that was great, the views were outstanding."
Flash forward a year – Drew was back on the ground at the Virginia Air and Space
Center in Hampton, Virginia helping the Langley Research Center and the community
celebrate Black History Month.
"What's your name, young lady?"
Drew flew on the Space Shuttle Discovery’s last mission.
But, just because NASA is moving forward from the Shuttle Program doesn’t
mean astronauts' jobs are over.
"Astronauts are busier than ever right now.
Although the shuttle program wound down last July we continue as we have been for
years flying to the International Space Station, although strictly on the Russian Soyuz rockets.
We’re engaged heavily with the commercial space operators, right now, all
these prospective folks who want to be taxis and rental cars for us to help them to design
their cockpits, design their operations plans."
The Hampton event highlighted Cockpits and other parts of two kinds vehicles –
rockets to racecars and NASA's contributions to both.
Visitors participated in hands-on activities that explored some of the similarities
– like aerodynamics and propulsion.
“Yeah!!!”
Kids and adults also had the chance to chat with an original member of the country's
first all-black aerial combat unit, the Tuskegee Airmen.
"It was sort of a test.
They thought that and intended for it to fail.
But our commander, he insisted that we learn the job and do it well."
That was one message the astronaut and aviators passed along to youngsters get the
education to do the job well and they may someday rocket into history.
“Wow … is that cool or what?”
“You can windsurf …”
The NASA Headquarters Chapter of Blacks In Government celebrated the
achievements of Black Women in American History with a program reflective of the
official 20-12 theme for African-American History Month, “Black Women in American
Culture and History”.
For the entire month of February, NASA has proudly recognized
the contributions of African-Americans to the advancement of Space Exploration.
And in March, which is Women’s History Month, the Women @ NASA website is a
great place to learn about the outstanding contributions being made to the space
program by women who work at NASA.
You can also learn about Women’s History Month festivities being planned at NASA Centers.
The official theme for this year is “Women’s Education – Women’s Empowerment”.
To visit the Women@ NASA website, log on to www.women.nasa.gov.
“3-2-1 and liftoff of Space Shuttle Columbia to broaden our view of the universe through
the Hubble Space Telescope.”
Ten years ago, on March first, 2002, space shuttle Columbia launched on the fourth
Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission.
“Roger, roll Columbia.”
Commander Scott Altman, pilot Duane Carey, Payload Commander John Grunsfeld,
and Mission Specialists Nancy Currie, James Newman, Richard Linnehan, and Mike
Massimino flew on the 11-day mission, during which five spacewalks were made to
outfit Hubble with new equipment – including the Advanced Camera for Surveys, new
Solar Arrays, a new Power Control Unit and an experimental cooling system for
NICMOS – the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer.
And that’s This Week @ NASA!
For more on these and other stories, or to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and other
social media, log on to www.nasa.gov.
1