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

Wed Jul 1 07:46:18 CDT 2015

Good morning all,
 I hope you are having a wonderful summer ☺ my favorite time of the year...it is great to be on Facebook and see the adventures all the kids are having....especially in Norway and Denmark where they routinely go to so many other countries in Europe...I think that was some of what made living in Germany so much fun....easy access to so many different places, most within a weekend driving distance...I know we also have so many great places and things to do in the uS too but my heart will always be at the beach first and love it here. I am sure most of you have heard of the failed mission of the Space X supply ship to the ISS which followed a Russian failed mission in April, and the Antares failed mission in October....a string of mishaps that has certainly reminded us of the difficulties of space travel...we tend to take them for granted but they are extremely complicated with so many opportunities for failures...the main thing is to learn from these and improve the proves to minimize negative results...there is a supply mission this week on July 3rd....NASATV will air the launch http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv   and you can watch replays with the kids....TWO WEEKS TO New Horizons reaching Pluto...the excitement is really building!!! I hope you will follow along on this historic event and share with your kids as I know the kids love Pluto and it will be something they will always remember, especially as they get older and get more involved with space exploration.
As the US celebrates our Independence Day, July 4th, we have to remind ourselves despite all the turmoil and unrest in our country we are still so fortunate to live in a world that allows us to be free while giving us so many opportunities to be successful...we are off on Friday so I would like to wish everyone a wonderful July 4th...and we should all focus on the good of our country, be appreciative of the freedom we have, and enjoy the celebration in a positive way...for our friends overseas who help us celebrate, I thank you as it is wonderful to travel to different countries with such warm hospitality and the many, many friendships with both the kids and adults. We have to remember to always do our best, enjoy everything we do, live in the present, make each day special, let those we care about most know, keep things in perspective, smile & have fun....gabe

HAPPY JULY 4TH

NASA TV Coverage Set for Space Station Cargo Ship Launch and Docking
NASA Television will provide live coverage of the launch and docking of an unpiloted Russian resupply ship to the International Space Station (ISS).
The ISS Progress 60 spacecraft will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 12:55 a.m. EDT (10:55 a.m. Baikonur time) on Friday, July 3, on a two-day trip to deliver more than three tons of food, fuel and supplies to the Expedition 44 crew. NASA TV coverage of the launch will begin at 12:30 a.m.
Progress is scheduled to dock to the station at 3:13 a.m. Sunday, July 5. Docking coverage will begin at 2:30 a.m.
The Progress is loaded with 1,940 pounds of propellant, 106 pounds of oxygen, 926 pounds of water and 3,133 pounds of food, spare parts, logistical items and experiment hardware. The station currently is in good shape with adequate supply levels until at least October.
This is the first Progress launch since the loss of the ISS Progress 59 cargo spacecraft following its liftoff from Baikonur on April 28.
For NASA TV schedules and links to streaming video, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv  For more information about the International Space Station, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station
 <http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/iss039e015596.jpg>

NASA Lets You Experience “Pluto Time” with New Custom Tool
 <http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/nh-pluto-time-shareable.jpg>
Just how dim is the sunlight on Pluto, some three billion miles away?  While sunlight is much weaker than it is here on Earth, it isn’t as dark as you might expect. In fact, for just a moment during dawn and dusk each day, the illumination on Earth matches that of high noon on Pluto.
We call this “Pluto Time”. If you go outside at this time on a clear day, the world around you will be as dim as the surface of Pluto.
It’s always Pluto Time somewhere, and NASA wants to see your view, using a new interactive widget that provides the approximate time, based on your location. The tool also allows you to set reminders for upcoming Pluto Times.
Go out and see what Pluto Time looks like! Take a photo during your Pluto Time – preferably with a local landmark – and share it on social media with #PlutoTime. We’ll highlight some of the most interesting shots from around the world and combine your photos into a mosaic image of Pluto and its moons to be unveiled in August.
Once you’ve experienced Pluto Time – yourself or with friends and family – join NASA in counting down the days to New Horizons’ historic flyby of Pluto and its moons.
Following a more than nine-year journey, New Horizons will pass approximately 7,800 miles (12,500 kilometers) above Pluto’s surface, reaching its closest approach at 7:49 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, July 14.
The New Horizons mission is the first in NASA’s New Frontiers program and the first mission to the Kuiper Belt, a gigantic zone of icy bodies and small planets orbiting beyond Neptune. The lightweight New Horizons spacecraft will zip through the Pluto system at more than 30,000 mph (about 50,000 km/h) with the most powerful suite of science instruments ever sent on a first reconnaissance mission. For more information, sample photos, and to experience Pluto Time for yourself, go to: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/plutotime
<http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/plutotime>

 <http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/nh-pluto-time-master.jpg>

New Horizons ‘Speeds Up’ on Final Approach to Pluto
 <http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/nh-tcm_6-30-15_1.jpg>
In the New Horizons Mission Operations Center at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, flight controllers (from left) Chris Regan and Becca Sepan monitor data from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft on June 30, after a short course-correction maneuver refined New Horizons path toward a flyby of Pluto on July 14.
With just two weeks to go before its historic July 14 flight past Pluto, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft tapped the accelerator late last night and tweaked its path toward the Pluto system.
 <http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/nh-tcm_6-30-15_2.jpg>
In the New Horizons Mission Operations Center at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, Mission Operations Manager Alice Bowman and operations team member Karl Whittenburg watch for data confirming that the Pluto-bound NASA spacecraft successfully executed a course correction maneuver on June 30.
The 23-second thruster burst was the third and final planned targeting maneuver of New Horizons’ approach phase to Pluto; it was also the smallest of the nine course corrections since New Horizons launched in January 2006. It bumped the spacecraft’s velocity by just 27 centimeters per second – about  one-half mile per hour – slightly adjusting its arrival time and position at a flyby close-approach target point approximately 7,750 miles (12,500 kilometers) above Pluto’s surface.
While it may appear to be a minute adjustment for a spacecraft moving 32,500 miles per hour, the impact is significant. New Horizons Mission Design Lead Yanping Guo, of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, says without the adjustment, New Horizons would have arrived 20 seconds late and 114 miles (184 kilometers) off-target from the spot where it will measure the properties of Pluto’s atmosphere. Those measurements depend on radio signals being sent from Earth to New Horizons at precise times as the spacecraft flies through the shadows of Pluto and Pluto’s largest moon, Charon.
In fact, timing and accuracy are critical for all New Horizons flyby observations, since those commands are stored in the spacecraft’s computers and programmed to “execute” at exact times.
This latest shift was based on radio-tracking data on the spacecraft and range-to-Pluto measurements made by optical-navigation imaging of the Pluto system taken by New Horizons in recent weeks. Using commands transmitted to the spacecraft on June 28, the thrusters began firing at 11:01 p.m. EDT on June 29 and stopped 23 seconds later. Telemetry indicating the spacecraft was healthy and that the maneuver went as designed began reaching the New Horizons Mission Operations Center at APL, through NASA’s Deep Space Network at 5:30 a.m. EDT on June 30.
“We are really on the final path,” said New Horizons Project Manager Glen Fountain, of APL. “It just gets better and more exciting every day.”
“This maneuver was perfectly performed by the spacecraft and its operations team,” added mission principal investigator Alan Stern, of Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado. “Now we’re set to fly right down the middle of the optimal approach corridor.”
New Horizons is now about 10 million miles (16 million kilometers) from the Pluto system – some 2.95 billion miles (4.75 billion kilometers) from Earth.

I love this picture, you have to think this is a little girl who she is thrilled beyond comprehension...and will be inspired for the rest of her life ☺
Astronaut Karen Nyberg Inspires the Next Generation of Explorers<http://links.govdelivery.com:80/track?type=click&enid=ZWFzPTEmbWFpbGluZ2lkPTIwMTQwNDAzLjMwODk4MDcxJm1lc3NhZ2VpZD1NREItUFJELUJVTC0yMDE0MDQwMy4zMDg5ODA3MSZkYXRhYmFzZWlkPTEwMDEmc2VyaWFsPTE2ODU1OTcxJmVtYWlsaWQ9Z2VvcmdlLmdhYnJpZWxsZS0xQGtzYy5uYXNhLmdvdiZ1c2VyaWQ9Z2VvcmdlLmdhYnJpZWxsZS0xQGtzYy5uYXNhLmdvdiZmbD0mZXh0cmE9TXVsdGl2YXJpYXRlSWQ9JiYm&&&100&&&http://www.nasa.gov/content/astronaut-karen-nyberg-inspires-the-next-generation-of-explorers>

[http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/946xvariable_height/public/13585678274_3b069a23e4_o.jpg?itok=adFLHsRO]
Astronaut Karen Nyberg poses for a photograph with an enthusiastic NASA Social attendee following a presentation about her time living, working, and conducting research on the International Space Station. The NASA Social was held on Monday, March 24, 2014 at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. Nyberg served as a flight engineer aboard the space station during Expeditions 36 and 37, from May to November 2013. In addition to her time on the orbiting outpost, Nyberg also flew aboard space shuttle Discovery during its STS-124 mission in 2008. Image Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://educatemotivate.com/pipermail/spacetalk_educatemotivate.com/attachments/20150701/29e59cf3/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: ATT88977 1.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 11770 bytes
Desc: ATT88977 1.jpg
URL: <http://educatemotivate.com/pipermail/spacetalk_educatemotivate.com/attachments/20150701/29e59cf3/attachment.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: ATT68348 2.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 85885 bytes
Desc: ATT68348 2.jpg
URL: <http://educatemotivate.com/pipermail/spacetalk_educatemotivate.com/attachments/20150701/29e59cf3/attachment-0001.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: ATT67950 3.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 15228 bytes
Desc: ATT67950 3.jpg
URL: <http://educatemotivate.com/pipermail/spacetalk_educatemotivate.com/attachments/20150701/29e59cf3/attachment-0002.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: ATT81349 4.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 18151 bytes
Desc: ATT81349 4.jpg
URL: <http://educatemotivate.com/pipermail/spacetalk_educatemotivate.com/attachments/20150701/29e59cf3/attachment-0003.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: ATT33793 5.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 14465 bytes
Desc: ATT33793 5.jpg
URL: <http://educatemotivate.com/pipermail/spacetalk_educatemotivate.com/attachments/20150701/29e59cf3/attachment-0004.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: ATT14500 6.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 15434 bytes
Desc: ATT14500 6.jpg
URL: <http://educatemotivate.com/pipermail/spacetalk_educatemotivate.com/attachments/20150701/29e59cf3/attachment-0005.jpg>