[Spacetalk] https://www.nasa.gov/index.html https://spaceflightnow.com

Sun Nov 19 21:12:35 CST 2017

Hi all,
 Hope everything is going well and the kids are making your life fun :-) :-) I have finished an amazing week of visiting schools... I presented to 6 schools speaking with kids in 1st, 5th, 7th, 8th grades, and HS…it was amazing to have that wide an age range in such a short time… On Wed I was at Keene’s Cross Elem to present the school with a special gift…from there to SunRidge Elementary and then to American Heritage School to speak with a group of HS students at a Pre-Engineering Society Meeting. It is a wonderful curriculum for HS students interested in engineering to gain both educational and practical experience…on Thurs I was at Pride Elem & Williams Magnet Middle schools with the first graders in the morning, they were adorable…I was with them for an hour…  and 7th & 8th graders in the afternoon... then on Sat I did a presentation and participated in a very special day at Florida Polytechnic University… 200 HS students were given the opportunity to attend mini classes to experience this amazing university. I realize many schools in the US are off for the Thanksgiving holiday but still wanted to send an update since I will be leaving for almost 3 weeks in Norway on Saturday. This will be my first Thanksgiving in the US in 4 years as I have spent the last 3 in Norway, which has been fine… I have been at so many schools I thought I would include the link to see the ISS from your home…Wishing everyone who is celebrating and all those around the world to share in our THANKSGIVING DAY… which began as a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year…but I like to say to give thanks for all the good in our lives, for the people who mean the most to us, and for the chance to help others...On Saturday I leave for Norway, maybe Sweden, for almost 3 weeks so I will try to update you as I can...  we have to always remember to do our best, enjoy everything we do, live in the present, be appreciative of the good in our lives, let those we care about most know, make each day special, smile & have fun! Gabe

See the Space Station From the Ground: http://spotthestation.nasa.gov/ <http://spotthestation.nasa.gov/> 

Florida Polytechnic University

NASA Launches NOAA Weather Satellite Aboard United Launch Alliance Rocket to Improve Forecasts
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At Vandenberg Air Force Base's Space Launch Complex 2, the Delta II rocket engines roar to life. The 1:47 a.m. PST (4:47 a.m. EST), liftoff begins the Joint Polar Satellite System-1, or JPSS-1, mission. JPSS is the first in a series four next-generation environmental satellites in a collaborative program between NOAA and NASA.
Credits: NASA
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NASA has successfully launched for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) the first in a series of four highly advanced polar-orbiting satellites, equipped with next-generation technology and designed to improve the accuracy of U.S. weather forecasts out to seven days. The Joint Polar Satellite System-1 (JPSS-1) lifted off on a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, at 1:47 a.m. PST Saturday. Approximately 63 minutes after launch the solar arrays on JPSS-1 deployed and the spacecraft was operating on its own power. JPSS-1 will be renamed NOAA-20 when it reaches its final orbit. Following a three-month checkout and validation of its five advanced instruments, the satellite will become operational. “Launching JPSS-1 underscores NOAA’s commitment to putting the best possible satellites into orbit, giving our forecasters -- and the public -- greater confidence in weather forecasts up to seven days in advance, including the potential for severe, or impactful weather,” said Stephen Volz, director of NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service. JPSS-1 will join the joint NOAA/NASA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite in the same orbit and provide meteorologists with observations of atmospheric temperature and moisture, clouds, sea-surface temperature, ocean color, sea ice cover, volcanic ash, and fire detection. The data will improve weather forecasting, such as predicting a hurricane’s track, and will help agencies involved with post-storm recovery by visualizing storm damage and the geographic extent of power outages. “Emergency managers increasingly rely on our forecasts to make critical decisions and take appropriate action before a storm hits,” said Louis W. Uccellini, director of NOAA’s National Weather Service. “Polar satellite observations not only help us monitor and collect information about current weather systems, but they provide data to feed into our weather forecast models.” JPSS-1 has five instruments, each of which is significantly upgraded from the instruments on NOAA’s previous polar-orbiting satellites. The more-detailed observations from JPSS will allow forecasters to make more accurate predictions. JPSS-1 data will also improve recognition of climate patterns that influence the weather, such as El Nino and La Nina. The JPSS program is a partnership between NOAA and NASA through which they will oversee the development, launch, testing and operation all the satellites in the series. NOAA funds and manages the program, operations and data products. NASA develops and builds the instruments, spacecraft and ground system and launches the satellites for NOAA. JPSS-1 launch management was provided by NASA’s Launch Services Program based at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. “Today’s launch is the latest example of the strong relationship between NASA and NOAA, contributing to the advancement of scientific discovery and the improvement of the U.S. weather forecasting capability by leveraging the unique vantage point of space to benefit and protect humankind,” said Sandra Smalley, director of NASA’s Joint Agency Satellite Division. Ball Aerospace designed and built the JPSS-1 satellite bus and Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite instrument, integrated all five of the spacecraft’s instruments and performed satellite-level testing and launch support. Raytheon Corporation built the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite and the Common Ground System. Harris Corporation built the Cross-track Infrared Sounder. Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems built the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder and the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System instrument. To learn more about the JPSS-1 mission, visit: http://www.jpss.noaa.gov/ <http://www.jpss.noaa.gov/> and https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/jpss-1 <https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/jpss-1>

In case you didn’t see this

SpaceX has postponed its next launch from the Kennedy Space Center indefinitely to examine data from a recent payload fairing test for another customer.

File photo of a Falcon 9 rocket. Credit: SpaceX

NASA's Mars 2020 Mission Performs First Supersonic Parachute Test 
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A 58-foot-tall Black Brant IX sounding rocket launches from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Oct. 4. This was the first test of the Mars 2020 mission's parachute-testing series, the Advanced Supersonic Parachute Inflation Research Experiment, or ASPIRE.
Credits: NASA/Wallops
Landing on Mars is difficult and not always successful. Well-designed advance testing helps. An ambitious NASA Mars rover mission set to launch in 2020 will rely on a special parachute to slow the spacecraft down as it enters the Martian atmosphere at over 12,000 mph (5.4 kilometers per second). Preparations for this mission have provided, for the first time, dramatic video of the parachute opening at supersonic speed. The Mars 2020 mission will seek signs of ancient Martian life by investigating evidence in place and by caching drilled samples of Martian rocks for potential future return to Earth. The mission's parachute-testing series, the Advanced Supersonic Parachute Inflation Research Experiment, or ASPIRE, began with a rocket launch and upper-atmosphere flight last month from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia. "It is quite a ride," said Ian Clark, the test's technical lead from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "The imagery of our first parachute inflation is almost as breathtaking to behold as it is scientifically significant. For the first time, we get to see what it would look like to be in a spacecraft hurtling towards the Red Planet, unfurling its parachute."

Hubble’s Cosmic Search for a Missing Arm 
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This new picture of the week, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows the dwarf galaxy NGC 4625, located about 30 million light-years away in the constellation of Canes Venatici (The Hunting Dogs). The image, acquired with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), reveals the single major spiral arm of the galaxy, which gives it an asymmetric appearance. But why is there only one such spiral arm, when spiral galaxies normally have at least two? Astronomers looked at NGC 4625 in different wavelengths in the hope of solving this cosmic mystery. Observations in the ultraviolet provided the first hint: in ultraviolet light the disk of the galaxy appears four times larger than on the image depicted here. An indication that there are a large number of very young and hot — hence mainly visible in the ultraviolet — stars forming in the outer regions of the galaxy. These young stars are only around one billion years old, about 10 times younger than the stars seen in the optical center. At first astronomers assumed that this high star formation rate was being triggered by the interaction with another, nearby dwarf galaxy called NGC 4618. They speculated that NGC 4618 may be the culprit “harassing” NGC 4625, causing it to lose all but one spiral arm. In 2004 astronomers found proof for this claim. The gas in the outermost regions of the dwarf galaxy NGC 4618 has been strongly affected by NGC 4625.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA Text credit: European Space Agency

First SLS Rocket Hardware Turned Over to Ground Systems at Kennedy Space Center
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Mike Bolger, Ground Systems Development and Operations (GSDO) Program manager at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, speaks to guests during a ceremony in the high bay of the Space Station Processing Facility. The event marked the milestone of the Space Launch System rocket's Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage being turned over from NASA's Spacecraft/Payload Integration and Evolution organization to the spaceport's GSDO directorate.
Credits: NASA/ Bill White
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On April 11, 2017, the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage for NASA's Space Launch System rocket is being moved out of the United Launch Alliance Horizontal Integration Facility at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to the Delta Operations Center.
Credits: NASA/Kim Shiflett

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Packed inside its canister on July 26, 2017, the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage has been moved inside the low bay of the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.
Credits: NASA/Kim Shiflett

NASA recently marked another key milestone in preparation for human deep space exploration near the Moon. <https://www.nasa.gov/content/nasas-journey-to-mars> Officials with the Space Launch System <https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/index.html> (SLS) Spacecraft/Payload Integration and Evolution organization formally turned over processing of the rocket's interim cryogenic propulsion stage <https://www.nasa.gov/sls/interim_cryogenic_propulsion_stage_141030.html> (ICPS) to the center's Ground Systems Development and Operations Program at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The SLS is a new heavy-lift rocket designed to send astronauts aboard the Orion <https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/orion/index.html> spacecraft beyond low-Earth orbit to the vicinity of the Moon, and ultimately the Red Planet. During a recent ceremony in the high bay of the spaceport's Space Station Processing Facility, Mike Bolger, manager, GSDO Program at Kennedy, noted the ICPS is the first piece of hardware being turned over to GSDO for processing in preparation for the first integrated flight of SLS and Orion, which is an uncrewed mission known as Exploration Mission-1. "It's great to be standing in front of flight hardware," he said. "Over the next year, the components of the most powerful rocket in the world will be delivered to the Kennedy Space Center.” John Honeycutt, SLS program manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, thanked the Kennedy team for years of effort preparing the Florida spaceport's facilities for processing SLS and Orion. "I've seen all your hard work that you're doing relative to the accomplishments you've made in the Vehicle Assembly Building <https://www.nasa.gov/content/vehicle-assembly-building-prepared-for-another-50-years-of-service>, on the mobile launcher <https://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/pdf/718660main_mobile-launcher.pdf> and out at the launch pad <https://www.nasa.gov/feature/launch-pad-39b-infrastructure-upgrades-will-support-nasa-s-journey-to-mars>," Honeycutt said. "We’re looking forward to getting you some more pieces of hardware to start moving over to the VAB so you can put the rocket together.” The ICPS arrived at Port Canaveral aboard the United Launch Alliance's (ULA's) Mariner barge earlier this year, and is the first integrated piece of flight hardware completed for NASA's SLS rocket. It was shipped from the ULA facility in Decatur, Alabama. After arrival, the ICPS was transported to the ULA Horizontal Integration Facility near Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. There it was removed from its shipping container for initial inspections. Next, the ICPS was moved to the Delta Operations Center for further checkouts. It then was packed inside a canister and transferred to the Space Station Processing Facility. The ICPS now will be processed and prepared for Exploration Mission-1, the first integrated flight of SLS and Orion. NASA is managing to December 2019 <https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-completes-review-of-first-sls-orion-deep-space-exploration-mission> with four-to-six months schedule risk for launch. With the Orion attached, the ICPS sits atop the SLS rocket and uses liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants. The interim stage will provide Orion with the additional thrust needed to travel tens of thousands of miles beyond the Moon. "Our human spaceflight mission at NASA is to push humans deeper out into the solar system," said Bill Hill, deputy associate administrator for Exploration Systems Development at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "We are going to take the Orion spacecraft, with the help of ICPS, farther into the solar system than any spacecraft built for humans has ever gone."

Tags:  Journey to Mars <https://www.nasa.gov/topics/journeytomars/index.html>, Kennedy Space Center <https://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/home/index.html>, Space Launch System <https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/index.html>

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