[Spacetalk] http://www.nasa.gov/index.html

Wed Apr 8 07:14:54 CDT 2015

Good morning all,
  Welcome back, for those of you how have been off for spring break or Easter...I know you are all excited to be back, although it varies quite a bit, most will be pushing to the end of year activities with final exams and state tests, which I know are challenging....I know the weather is so beautiful as it warms up with bright sunny days... for those of us in Florida, summer has started, which crazily to me, most people complain but I love it!!!  The timing of the launch on Monday is after school hours but you can always see the replay on Tuesday, and see the docking on Wed...if you have a few minutes.... also see the link below on Pluto, if you can, maybe the kids will have time to participate...it’s universal, the kids seem fascinated with Pluto...wishing you a wonderful day, we must remember to always do our best, enjoy everything we do, make each day special, keep things in perspective, be thankful for the good in our lives, let those we care about most know, smile &have fun! gabe

NASA TV Coverage Set for Sixth SpaceX Resupply Mission to Space Station

        [http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/673xvariable_height/public/thumbnails/image/m15-056.jpg] <http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/m15-056.jpg>
SpaceX Dragon capsule departs the International Space Station in May 2014.
Image Credit: NASA
The sixth SpaceX cargo mission to the International Space Station under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services contract is scheduled to launch on Monday, April 13, from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. NASA Television coverage of the launch begins at 3:30 p.m. EDT.
The company's Falcon 9 rocket will lift off at 4:33 p.m., carrying its Dragon cargo spacecraft to the station. Dragon is filled with more than 4,300 pounds of supplies and payloads, including critical materials to directly support about 40 of the more than 250 science and research investigations that will occur during the space station’s Expeditions 43 and 44.
In addition to launch coverage, NASA also will host a series of prelaunch news conferences on Sunday, April 12, at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. All briefings, which are subject to a change in time, will air live on NASA TV and the agency's website.
During panel discussions Sunday at 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m., scientists and researchers will discuss the onboard science and research studies. The series of briefings will conclude with a prelaunch news conference at 5 p.m. A post-launch briefing will be held approximately 90 minutes after liftoff Monday.
Science investigations launching on Dragon include commercial and academic payloads in myriad disciplines, exploring new ways to possibly counteract the microgravity-induced cell damage seen during spaceflight; studying the effects of microgravity on the most common cells in bones; gathering new insight that could lead to treatments for osteoporosis and muscle wasting conditions; continuing studies into astronaut vision changes; and testing a new material that could one day be used as a synthetic muscle for robotic explorers of the future.
A Monday launch will have the Dragon spacecraft arriving at the space station Wednesday, April 15. Expedition 43 Flight Engineer Samantha Cristoforetti of ESA (European Space Agency) will use the station's 57.7-foot robotic arm to reach out and capture Dragon at approximately 7 a.m. Flight Engineer Terry Virts of NASA will support Cristoforetti as they operate from the station's cupola. NASA TV coverage of grapple will begin at 5 a.m. Coverage of Dragon's installation to the Earth-facing port of the Harmony module will begin at 9:15 a.m. 

After about five weeks at the space station, Dragon will return to Earth filled with more than 3,000 pounds of cargo including crew supplies, hardware and computer resources, science experiments, and space station hardware.
If the launch doesn’t happen on Monday, the next launch opportunity would be at approximately 4:10 p.m. Tuesday, April 14.
Media may request accreditation to attend the prelaunch news conferences, events and launch online at:
https://media.ksc.nasa.gov
The deadline for U.S. media to apply for accreditation is noon on Thursday, April 9. The application deadline has passed for international media. Media credentials will be valid for mission activities from launch through splashdown at Kennedy and at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
For more information about media accreditation, contact Jennifer Horner at 321-867-6598 or jennifer.p.horner at nasa.gov<mailto:jennifer.p.horner at nasa.gov>.
For an updated schedule of prelaunch briefings, events and NASA TV coverage, visit:
http://go.nasa.gov/1CRyAzA
For NASA TV schedule and video streaming information, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv
For launch countdown coverage, NASA's launch blog, and more information about the mission, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/spacex
For more information about the International Space Station, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/station

NASA Extends Campaign for Public to Name Features on Pluto

        [http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/673xvariable_height/public/thumbnails/image/nh-pluto-approaches-charon.jpg] <http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/nh-pluto-approaches-charon.jpg>
Artist’s concept of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft as it passes Pluto and Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, in July 2015.
Image Credit: NASA/JHU APL/SwRI/Steve Gribben
The public has until Friday, April 24 to help name new features on Pluto and its orbiting satellites as they are discovered by NASA’s New Horizons mission.
Announced in March, the agency wants to give the worldwide public more time to participate in the agency’s mission to Pluto that will make the first-ever close flyby of the dwarf planet on July 14.
The campaign extension, in partnership with the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in Paris, was due to the overwhelming response from the public.
“Due to increasing interest and the number of submissions we’re getting, it was clear we needed to extend this public outreach activity,” said Jim Green, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “This campaign not only reveals the public’s excitement about the mission, but helps the team, which will not have time to come up with names during the flyby, to have a ready-made library of names in advance to officially submit to the IAU.”
The IAU is the formal authority for naming celestial bodies. Submissions must follow a set of accepted themes and guidelines set out by the IAU’s Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature. After the campaign concludes, NASA’s New Horizons team will sort through the names and submit its recommendations to the IAU. The IAU will decide whether and how the names will be used.
The campaign allows the public of all ages to submit names for the many new features scientists expect to discover on Pluto following the encounter.
"I’m impressed with the more than 40,000 thoughtful submissions,” said Mark Showalter, scientist New Horizons science team co-investigator, and SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, which is hosting the naming website. “Every day brings new lessons in the world's history, literature and mythology. Participation has come from nearly every country on Earth, so this really is a worldwide campaign.”
New Horizons already has covered more than 3 billion miles since it launched on Jan. 19, 2006. Its journey has taken it past each planet’s orbit, from Mars to Neptune, in record time, and now it’s now in the first stage of an historic encounter with Pluto that includes long-distance imaging, as well as dust, energetic particle and solar wind measurements to characterize the space environment near Pluto.
The spacecraft will pass Pluto at a speed of 31,000 mph taking thousands of images and making a wide range of science observations. At a distance of nearly 4 billion miles from Earth at flyby, it will take approximately 4.5 hours for data to reach Earth.
The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) manages the New Horizons mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), is the principal investigator. SwRI leads the science team, payload operations and encounter science planning. New Horizons is part of the New Frontiers Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. APL designed, built and operates the spacecraft for NASA.
To find out more information about how to participate in the Pluto naming contest, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/newhorizons
Detailed IAU guidelines for acceptable names submissions are available online at:
http://www.iau.org/public/themes/naming/#dwarfplanets<http://www.iau.org/public/themes/naming/>
For images and updates on the July 14 Pluto flyby, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/newhorizons
and
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu

<http://www.nasa.gov/jpl/the-solar-system-and-beyond-is-awash-in-water/index.html>
The Solar System and Beyond is Awash in Water
 <http://www.nasa.gov/jpl/the-solar-system-and-beyond-is-awash-in-water/index.html>
As NASA missions explore our solar system and search for new worlds, they are finding water in surprising places. Water is but one piece of our search for habitable planets and life beyond Earth, yet it links many seemingly unrelated worlds in surprising ways.

Shuttles in Passing.

Atlantis moved today to OPF 2 for the last time, as Endeavour rolled into the VAB for the final time before her flight to Los Angeles in September.

8/16/2012 -- the last time for these two magnificent vehicles to meet on the tow way ...

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