“Here’s some of the stories trending This Week at NASA!”
On March 10, Expedition 42 Commander Barry Wilmore of NASA handed over command of the
International Space Station to NASA astronaut and Expedition 43 commander Terry Virts.
The next day, Wilmore and Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova of the Russian Federal Space
Agency undocked from the station aboard a Soyuz spacecraft.
Several hours later the trio landed safely in Kazakhstan – completing 167 days in space
since launching in September 2014.
The one-year crew, which includes NASA’s Scott Kelly, continues pre-flight preparations
in Russia for its launch to the station later this month.
Kelly and Gennady Padalka and Mikhail Kornienko of the Russian Federal Space Agency are set
to launch March 27 Eastern time to the station.
Kelly and Kornienko will spend a year aboard the orbiting laboratory – conducting research
on the effects of long duration space travel on the human body.
A March 12 hearing convened by the Senate Subcommittee on Space, Science, and Competitiveness
provided another opportunity for NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden to testify about what the agency
can accomplish with the $18.5 billion dollars proposed under President Obama’s FY 2016
budget.
The funding will support further work on human missions to an asteroid and to Mars, round-trips
to the International Space Station for American astronauts on commercial vehicles launched
from Florida, improvements on Earth to aviation and climate and more.
The largest, most powerful booster ever built that will help NASA's new Space Launch System
rocket launch was successfully fired up for a major ground test on March 11 at Orbital
ATK's test facilities in Promontory, Utah.
During the two-minute test, the booster was heated to verify how it performs in high temperature
conditions.
This significant milestone for the SLS program and NASA’s journey to Mars is the first
of two ground tests to qualify the booster for flight.
The next test is planned for early next year.
NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission launched March 12 aboard a United Launch Alliance
Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
The mission’s four identical observatories will orbit earth -- providing the first-ever
three-dimensional view of magnetic reconnection – a fundamental process that occurs throughout
the universe during which interaction between magnetic fields results in explosive energy
that can accelerate particles to nearly the speed of light.
NASA Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations, Bill Gerstenmaier attended
a March 12 media event at Bigelow Aerospace in Las Vegas to showcase the Bigelow Expandable
Activity Module or BEAM.
The expandable test space habitat is scheduled for launch later this year to the International
Space Station on the eighth SpaceX resupply mission.
The BEAM will be attached to the station’s Tranquility node for a two-year technology
demonstration.
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has discovered the best evidence yet there’s an underground
saltwater ocean on Jupiter’s largest moon, Ganymede – an ocean that’s believed to
hold more water than all the water on Earth's surface.
By observing aurorae at the moon’s polar regions, scientists concluded a large amount
of saltwater exists beneath Ganymede’s crust.
Identifying liquid water is crucial in the search for habitable worlds beyond Earth and
for the search of life as we know it.
The Office of Small Business Programs hosted the NASA Industry Forum Spring 2015 meeting
March 10 and 11 at NASA headquarters.
The forum helps the Office of Small Business Programs directly hear areas of concern for
NASA centers and contractors, and discuss possible solutions and improvements.
Administrator Bolden and Office of Small Business Programs Associate Administrator Glenn Delgado
also presented the 2014 Fiscal Year Agency-Level NASA Small Business Industry Awards at the
forum.
And that’s what’s up this week @NASA …
For more on these and other stories follow us on social media and visit www.nasa.gov/twan.