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<div>Good morning all,</div>
<div> Can’t believe the summer vacations are coming to an end...it went so fast <font face="Wingdings">J</font> Some schools are already back, kids returning today, many this week in the US and I believe Norway & Denmark soon as well...it is fun to see all
the different approaches teachers are taking with the new school year....although I do know many of you have been preparing for the last few weeks... getting classrooms ready, creating such a wonderful environment for learning, and are so dedicated with your
desire to do what is best for the kids....I have already received so many requests to visit schools and will try to meet them all...also trying to sort out overseas visits to England, Qatar, Norway/Denmark/ Sweden this year....please email me if you are interested
in me visiting your school as spending time with the kids is my favorite thing... for those of you in school, I hope you can tune into NASA TV to share the live conversation with the kids and ISS...I participated in one of these, it is amazing...wishing you
all a wonderful day...we must 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 and have fun! Gabe </div>
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<b>NASA Astronauts Speak with Challenger Center Conference from Space Station </b></span></font></div>
<div><font size="2"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Students, members of the public and attendees at the Challenger Center’s International Conference will speak with Expedition 44 crew members aboard <font color="red">the International Space Station at 9 a.m.
EDT Thursday, Aug. 13</font>.</span></font></div>
<div><font size="2"><span style="font-size:11pt;">The 20-minute Earth-to-space call will be broadcast live on NASA Television and the agency's website.</span></font></div>
<div><font size="2"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Students will have the opportunity to speak live with NASA astronauts <a href="https://twitter.com/astro_kjell"><font color="#0563C1"><u>Kjell Lindgren</u></font></a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/stationcdrkelly"><font color="#0563C1"><u>Scott
Kelly</u></font></a>. Lindgren arrived on July 23 for his first six-month mission aboard the space station. Kelly is four months into a yearlong mission. During the mission, Lindgren, Kelly and other crew members will conduct more than 250 science investigations
in fields, such as biology, Earth science, human research, physical sciences, and technology development.</span></font></div>
<div><font size="2"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Attendees also will hear from current and former NASA astronauts, including <a href="https://twitter.com/astro_rommel"><font color="#0563C1"><u>Kent Rominger</u></font></a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/astroacaba"><font color="#0563C1"><u>Joe
Acaba</u></font></a> and Scott Kelly’s brother, <a href="https://twitter.com/shuttlecdrkelly"><font color="#0563C1"><u>Mark</u></font></a>, along with Dr. Graham Scott, chief scientist for the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI).</span></font></div>
<div><font size="2"><span style="font-size:11pt;">This in-flight education downlink is an integral component of the NASA Education Office to improve science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) teaching and learning in the United States. Linking
students directly to astronauts aboard the space station provides them with an authentic, live experience of space exploration, space study and the scientific components of space travel and possibilities of life in space.</span></font></div>
<div><font size="2"><span style="font-size:11pt;">For NASA TV streaming video, schedule and downlink information, visit: <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv"><font color="#0563C1"><u>http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv</u></font></a> To learn more about the one-year
crew and mission, visit: <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/1ym"><font color="#0563C1"><u>https://www.nasa.gov/1ym</u></font></a></span></font></div>
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<div><font size="2"><span style="font-size:11pt;"><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/stmd_shareable_lettuce3.jpg"><img src="cid:14EFE9DCA7D8C9448D4A257A93B41C04@mail.nasa.gov"> </a></span></font></div>
<div><font size="2"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Orbital Technologies partnered with Kennedy Space Center to create a plant growth system known as Veggie, now used on the International Space Station. The system employs LEDs, which are highly efficient and
long-lasting and radiate hardly any heat.</span></font></div>
<div><font size="2"><span style="font-size:11pt;"><b>Veggies in Space: Astronauts Sample Freshly Grown Lettuce</b></span></font></div>
<div><font size="2"><span style="font-size:11pt;">That's one small bite for a man, one giant leaf for mankind: Astronauts Scott Kelly, Kjell Lindgren and Kimiya Yui of Japan sample the fruits of their labor after harvesting a crop of "Outredgeous" red romaine
lettuce from the Veggie plant growth system on the International Space Station.</span></font></div>
<div><font size="2"><span style="font-size:11pt;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=D_723qwjULM"><font color="#0563C1"><u>https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=D_723qwjULM</u></font></a> </span></font></div>
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<div><font size="2"><span style="font-size:11pt;"><b>NASA Selects Proposals to Study Neutron Stars, Black Holes and More</b></span></font></div>
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<td><font size="2"><span style="font-size:11pt;"><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/nustar.jpg"><img src="http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width/public/nustar.jpg"></a>
<div>The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), launched in 2012, is an Explorer mission that allows astronomers to study the universe in high energy X-rays.</div>
<div><b><i>Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech </i></b></div>
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<div><font size="2"><span style="font-size:11pt;">NASA has selected five proposals submitted to its Explorers Program to conduct focused scientific investigations and develop instruments that fill the scientific gaps between the agency’s larger missions. </span></font></div>
<div><font size="2"><span style="font-size:11pt;">The selected proposals, three Astrophysics Small Explorer missions and two Explorer Missions of Opportunity, will study polarized X-ray emissions from neutron star-black hole binary systems, the exponential
expansion of space in the early universe, galaxies in the early universe, and star formation in our Milky Way galaxy.</span></font></div>
<div><font size="2"><span style="font-size:11pt;">“The Explorers Program brings out some of the most creative ideas for missions to help unravel the mysteries of the Universe,” said John Grunsfeld, NASA’s Associate Administrator for Science at NASA Headquarters,
in Washington. “The program has resulted in great missions that have returned transformational science, and these selections promise to continue that tradition.”</span></font></div>
<div><font size="2"><span style="font-size:11pt;">The proposals were selected based on potential science value and feasibility of development plans. One of each mission type will be selected by 2017, after concept studies and detailed evaluations, to proceed
with construction and launch, the earliest of which could be launched by 2020. Small Explorer mission costs are capped at $125 million each, excluding the launch vehicle, and Mission of Opportunity costs are capped at $65 million each.</span></font></div>
<div><font size="2"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Each Astrophysics Small Explorer mission will receive $1 million to conduct an 11-month mission concept study. The selected proposals are:</span></font></div>
<div><font size="2"><span style="font-size:11pt;"><b>SPHEREx: An All-Sky Near-Infrared Spectral Survey</b></span></font></div>
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<li>James Bock, principal investigator at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California</li><li>SPHEREx will perform an all-sky near infrared spectral survey to probe the origin of our Universe; explore the origin and evolution of galaxies, and explore whether planets around other stars could harbor life.</li></span></font>
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<div><font size="2"><span style="font-size:11pt;"><b>Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE)</b></span></font></div>
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<li>Martin Weisskopf, principal investigator at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama</li><li>IXPE uses X-ray polarimetry, which is the measurement and interpretation of the polarization of electromagnetic waves, to improve our understanding of how X-ray emission is produced in objects such as neutron stars, pulsar wind nebulae, and stellar and
supermassive black holes.</li></span></font>
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<div><font size="2"><span style="font-size:11pt;"><b>Polarimeter for Relativistic Astrophysical X-ray Sources (PRAXyS)</b></span></font></div>
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<li>Keith Jahoda, principal investigator at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland</li><li>PRAXyS uses X-ray polarimetry to characterize the geometry and behavior of X-ray sources including super-massive black holes, pulsars, magnetars and supernovae.</li></span></font>
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<div><font size="2"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Missions of Opportunity will receive $250,000 to conduct an eleven-month implementation concept study. The selected proposals are:</span></font></div>
<div><font size="2"><span style="font-size:11pt;"><b>GUSTO: Gal/Xgal U/LDB Spectroscopic/Stratospheric THz Observatory </b></span></font></div>
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<li>Christopher Walker, principal investigator at the University of Arizona in Tucson</li><li>GUSTO is a balloon-borne observatory of high-frequency radio emissions from our Milky Way galaxy and a nearby companion galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, to study the life cycle of interstellar material.</li></span></font>
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<div><font size="2"><span style="font-size:11pt;"><b>U.S. Participation in the LiteBIRD Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization Survey </b></span></font></div>
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<li>Adrian Lee, principal investigator at the University of California in Berkeley</li><li>The Japanese LiteBIRD mission with U.S. contributions to the payload will map polarized fluctuations in the Cosmic Microwave Background, or the leftover thermal radiation from <a href="http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-powered-the-big-bang/"><font color="#0563C1"><u>the
Big Bang</u></font></a>, to search for the signature of gravitational waves from inflation, potentially shedding light on the universe a fraction of a second after the Big Bang.</li></span></font>
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<div><font size="2"><span style="font-size:11pt;">The Explorers Program is the oldest continuous NASA program designed to provide frequent, low-cost access to space using principal investigator-led space science investigations relevant to the Science Mission
Directorate’s astrophysics and heliophysics programs. Since the Explorer 1 launch in 1958, which discovered the Earth’s radiation belts, the Explorers Program has launched more than 90 missions, including the <a href="http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftDisplay.do?id=1970-107A"><font color="#0563C1"><u>Uhuru</u></font></a>
and <a href="http://science.nasa.gov/missions/cobe/"><font color="#0563C1"><u>Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE)</u></font></a> missions that led to Nobel prizes for their investigators.</span></font></div>
<div><font size="2"><span style="font-size:11pt;">The program is managed by Goddard for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, which conducts a wide variety of research and scientific exploration programs for Earth studies, space weather, the solar system and
universe.</span></font></div>
<div><font size="2"><span style="font-size:11pt;">For more information about the Explorers Program, visit: <a href="http://explorers.gsfc.nasa.gov"><font color="#0563C1"><u>http://explorers.gsfc.nasa.gov</u></font></a> For information about NASA and space science,
visit: <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/index.html"><font color="#0563C1"><u>http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/index.html</u></font></a></span></font></div>
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<div><font size="2"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Hubble Finds a Little Gem <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/hubble_friday_08072015.jpg"><img width="360" height="360" src="http://www.nasa.gov/sites/all/themes/custom/nasatwo/images/download.svg"></a></span></font></div>
<div><font size="2"><span style="font-size:11pt;">This colorful bubble is a planetary nebula called NGC 6818, also known as the Little Gem Nebula. The rich glow of the cloud is just over half a light-year across — humongous compared to its tiny central star
— but still a little gem on a cosmic scale</span></font></div>
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