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

Tue May 26 07:06:54 CDT 2015

Good morning all,
 I hope you had a great long weekend and remembered to say thanks to those who gave the ultimate sacrifice to keep us safe and free....something we should never take for granted, especially now, when it seems parts of the world are so filled with hate...to me, it is mind boggling that we can't all get along, find ways to improve each other's lives, and work together to make the world a better place...maybe someday??? Tomorrow will be a very special day as I visit Knights Elementary....this visit is the result of this email, which I received about a month ago... Mr. Gabe, My fifth grade students and I have read all of your attachments and viewed all of the wonderful photos that you have sent us throughout the year. It has created a real life connection between our lives and the realities of space exploration. They often ask, "Has Mr. Gabe sent us anything new?"  You have made a profound impact on their lives. We would like to show our appreciation. Is there an address where we may send letters or packages?  Have a blessed day!  Michele When I received this I contacted Michele and asked her if she would like me to come back and see the kids again....she said the kids would love it, last week I received wonderful drawings and letters from all the 5th graders so tomorrow should be allot of fun...wishing you a wonderful day...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, smile and have fun... Gabe

Space Station Module Relocation Makes Way for Commercial Crew Spacecraft
[http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width/public/thumbnails/image/m15-080.jpg]<http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/m15-080.jpg>
This illustration shows the current location (blue) of the Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM) on the International Space Station and the location to which it will be repositioned (green) during the May 27 move.
Credits: NASA
The International Space Station Program will take the next step in expanding a robust commercial market in low-Earth orbit when work continues Wednesday, May 27, to prepare the orbiting laboratory for the future arrival of U.S. commercial crew and cargo vehicles. NASA Television will provide live coverage of the activity beginning at 8 a.m. EDT.
NASA is in the process of reconfiguring the station to create primary and back up docking ports for U.S. commercial crew spacecraft<http://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/september/nasa-chooses-american-companies-to-transport-us-astronauts-to-international> currently in development by Boeing and SpaceX to once again transport astronauts from U.S. soil to the space station and back beginning in 2017. The primary and backup docking ports also will be reconfigured for U.S. commercial spacecraft delivering research, supplies and cargo for the crew.
On Wednesday, robotics flight controllers at the Mission Control Center at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston will detach the large Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM), used as a supply depot on the orbital laboratory, from the Earth-facing port of the Unity module and robotically relocate it to the forward port of the Tranquility module. This move will clear the Unity port for its conversion into the spare berthing location for U.S. cargo spacecraft; the Earth-facing port on Harmony is the primary docking location. Harmony's space-facing port currently is the spare berthing location for cargo vehicles, so this move frees that location to be used in conjunction with Harmony's forward port as the arrival locations for commercial crew spacecraft.
[X]<https://www.youtube.com/embed/vHqzMpCIoOo>
Animation of ISS module relocation activity.
Credits: NASA
Before broadcasting the final movements and installation, NASA TV will replay the operations conducted earlier in the day to detach the PMM from Unity and move it toward Tranquility.
Expedition 43 Commander Terry Virts and Flight Engineer Scott Kelly of NASA will supervise the unbolting of the module from Unity and its final attachment to Tranquility. Virts and Kelly will close the hatch to the module on Tuesday, May 26, and reopen it at its new location on Thursday, May 28.
The transformation of Harmony's space-facing and forward ports for crew arrivals will continue later this year, when a pair of International Docking Adapters (IDAs) will be delivered on the seventh and ninth NASA-contracted SpaceX cargo resupply missions. The IDAs will be attached to Pressurized Mating Adapters 2 and 3, which enable the spacecraft to equalize internal pressure with the ISS.
The PMM, originally named "Leonardo" by the Italian Space Agency that supervised its manufacture, was one of three cargo modules used to haul supplies back and forth from the station during space shuttle assembly missions. The PMM was launched for the last time to the station on the final flight of the shuttle Discovery on Feb. 24, 2011, and was installed on Unity five days later. The PMM is 22 feet long, 14 feet in diameter and weighs almost 11 tons. It has an internal volume of more than 2,400 cubic feet.
For more information about the International Space Station, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/station
For more information about the Commercial Crew Program, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew

NASA TV to Air Announcement of Instruments for Europa Mission
[http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width/public/thumbnails/image/m15-077a.jpg]<http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/m15-077a.jpg>
The fascinating surface of Jupiter's icy moon Europa looms large in this newly-reprocessed color view, made from images taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft in the late 1990s. This is the color view of Europa from Galileo that shows the largest portion of the moon's surface at the highest resolution.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute
NASA will announce on Tuesday, May 26, the selection of science instruments for a mission to Europa, to investigate whether Jupiter's icy moon could harbor conditions suitable for life.
The announcement will air live on NASA Television and NASA.gov at 2 p.m. EDT from the NASA TV studio at the agency's Headquarters, 300 E Street SW in Washington. There is limited seating in the NASA TV studio for media who would like to attend in person. To arrange access, email Laurie Cantillo at laura.l.cantillo at nasa.gov<mailto:laura.l.cantillo at nasa.gov> no later than 10 a.m. Tuesday.
NASA received 33 proposals for science instruments to fly onboard a Europa mission, which would conduct repeated close flybys of the small moon during a three-year period.
Participants in the announcement will be:
*       John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters
*       Jim Green, director, Planetary Science Division, NASA Headquarters
*       Curt Niebur, Europa program scientist, NASA Headquarters
To participate by phone, media must contact Steve Cole at 202-358-0918 or stephen.e.cole at nasa.gov<mailto:stephen.e.cole at nasa.gov> and provide their media affiliation no later than 1 p.m. Tuesday.
Media and the public also may ask questions via Twitter using #askNASA.
For NASA TV streaming video, schedules and downlink information, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv
For facts about Europa visit:
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Jup_Europa

View the Latest Edition of "This Week at NASA" (Published May 22, 2015)

View the latest "This Week at NASA" produced by NASA Television for features on agency news and activities. Stories in this program include:

*       NASA's New Deputy Administrator
*       SpaceX Dragon Departs ISS
*       Soil Moisture Mission Begins Science
*       NASA Seeks Design Ideas for Future Asteroid Spacecraft
*       Robotic Mining Competition
*       3-D-Printed Habitat Challenge

 To watch this edition of "This Week at NASA" dated May 22, 2015, click on the image below:

 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q08YgivkPdI>

Watch the Video

You also may access this edition of "This Week at NASA" at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q08YgivkPdI

For more information on these and other stories, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/twan

Hubble Revisits Tangled NGC 6240
 <http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/hubble_friday_052115.jpg>
Not all galaxies are neatly shaped, as this new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of NGC 6240 clearly demonstrates. Hubble previously released an image of this galaxy<https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0810ai/> back in 2008, but the knotted region, shown here in a pinky-red hue at the center of the galaxies, was only revealed in these new observations from Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3<https://www.spacetelescope.org/about/general/instruments/wfc3/> and Advanced Camera for Surveys<https://www.spacetelescope.org/about/general/instruments/acs/>.
NGC 6240 lies 400 million light-years away in the constellation of Ophiuchus (The Serpent Holder). This galaxy has an elongated shape with branching wisps, loops and tails. This mess of gas, dust and stars bears more than a passing resemblance to a butterfly and a lobster.
This bizarrely-shaped galaxy did not begin its life looking like this; its distorted appearance is a result of a galactic merger that occurred when two galaxies drifted too close to one another. This merger sparked bursts of new star formation and triggered many hot young stars to explode as supernovae. A new supernova, not visible in this image was discovered<http://uanews.org/story/supernova-discovered-at-ua-skycenter> in this galaxy in 2013, named SN 2013dc<http://uanews.org/sites/default/files/story-images/n6240sn_compare.jpg>.
At the center of NGC 6240 an even more interesting phenomenon is taking place. When the two galaxies came together, their central black holes did so, too. There are two supermassive black holes within this jumble, spiraling closer and closer to one another. They are currently only some 3,000 light-years apart, incredibly close given that the galaxy itself spans 300,000 light-years. This proximity secures their fate as they are now too close to escape each other and will soon form a single immense black hole

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