Topic: National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA Deadline for Names to Fly on NASA’s Next Mars Rover approaches

September 22, 2019 |

Washington, D.C. – It’s the final boarding call for you to stow your name on NASA’s Mars 2020 rover before it launches to the Red Planet. The September 30th, 2019 deadline for NASA’s “Send Your Name to Mars” campaign gives the mission enough time to stencil the submitted names — over 9.4 million so far — on a chip that will be affixed to the Mars 2020 rover. 

This rover is scheduled to launch as early as July 2020 and expected to touch down on Mars in February 2021. The Mars 2020 rover represents the initial leg of humanity’s first planned round trip to another planet.

The actor Brad Pitt (right) shows off his “boarding pass” for Mars with Jennifer Trosper (left), the Mars 2020 project systems engineer, at JPL on Sept. 6, 2019. You can send your name to Mars aboard NASA’s Mars 2020 rover at https://go.nasa.gov/mars2020pass until Sept. 30, 2019. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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NASA assembles final section of Space Launch System Rocket Stage

September 21, 2019 |

Washington, D.C. – NASA finished assembling and joining the main structural components for the largest rocket stage the agency has built since the Saturn V that sent Apollo astronauts to the Moon.

Engineers at the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans connected the last of the five sections of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket core stage on September 19th. The stage will produce 2 million pounds of thrust to send Artemis I, the first flight of SLS and NASA’s Orion spacecraft to the Moon.

NASA finished assembling the main structural components for the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket core stage on Sept. 19. Engineers at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans fully integrated the last piece of the 212-foot-tall core stage by adding the engine section to the rest of the previously assembled structure. (NASA/Steven Seipel)

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NASA Artemis Missions gets Boost to the Moon from Kentucky Companies

September 20, 2019 |

Huntsville, AL – When NASA astronauts set foot on the Moon’s surface in 2024, men and women across Kentucky can say they helped to make it possible.

NASA recognized three Kentucky businesses — Parker Hannifin Corp., American Synthetic Rubber Co., a Michelin company; and Eckart America Corp. — in Lexington and Louisville September 18th-19th for their continued support in supplying critical elements and tools for the twin solid rocket boosters of NASA’s powerful Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.

Retired NASA astronaut Col. William “Bill” McArthur, along with NASA and Northrop Grumman personnel, view a test splice of the material used for an elastomer sealing at Parker Hannifin Corp., in Lexington, Kentucky, Sept. 18. Parker Hannifin’s O-ring and Engineered Seals Division provides elastomer sealing that is a key component for NASA’s Space Launch System rocket boosters. (NASA)

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NASA Orion Spacecraft to undergo extreme Space Conditions tests

September 19, 2019 |

Cleveland, OH – NASA’ Orion spacecraft for Artemis I will head to Ohio for the final stretch of major testing before integration with the Space Launch System rocket for launch.

Slated to begin this fall, a team of engineers and technicians stand ready to test the spacecraft, consisting of the crew and service modules, under simulated extreme in-space conditions in the world’s premier space environments test facility at NASA’s Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio.

The Heat Flux System stands ready in the Space Environments Complex thermal vacuum chamber ahead of Artemis I testing at NASA’s Plum Brook Station. (NASA)

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NASA completes successful Pad 39B Water Flow Test in preparation for Artemis mission

September 18, 2019 |

Florida – NASA eclipsed another milestone in its plan to send the first woman and next man to the lunar surface by 2024 with the latest successful water flow test on the mobile launcher at Kennedy Space Center’s Pad 39B.

Using adjustments from the first water flow test event in July, the Friday, September 13th exercise demonstrated the capability of the sound suppression system that will be used for launch of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) for the Artemis I mission.

NASA continued its preparation for the Artemis I mission with a successful water flow test on the mobile launcher at Kennedy Space Center’s Pad 39B on Friday, September 13th. (NASA/Kim Shiflett)

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NASA’s Artemis Lunar Exploration Program

September 17, 2019 |

Washington, D.C. – NASA is committed to landing American astronauts, including the first woman and the next man, on the Moon by 2024. Through the agency’s Artemis lunar exploration program, we will use innovative new technologies and systems to explore more of the Moon than ever before.

NASA will collaborate with their commercial and international partners to establish sustainable missions by 2028. And then we will use what we learn on and around the Moon to take the next giant leap – sending astronauts to Mars.

Artist’s concept of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule prepared for launch. (NASA)

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NASA Pathfinder CubeSat to orbit Moon in same orbit projected for Gateway

September 16, 2019 |

Washington, D.C. – NASA has awarded a $13.7 million contract to Advanced Space of Boulder, Colorado, to develop and operate a CubeSat mission to the same lunar orbit targeted for Gateway – an orbiting outpost astronauts will visit before descending to the surface of the Moon in a landing system as part of NASA’s Artemis program.

The Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) is expected to be the first spacecraft to operate in a near rectilinear halo orbit around the Moon.

Highly elliptical, a near rectilinear halo orbit around the Moon takes advantage of a precise balance point in the gravities of Earth and the Moon and creates a stability that is ideal for long-term missions like Gateway. (Advanced Space)

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NASA’s Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) to help explore the nature of Dark Energy

September 15, 2019 |

Pasadena, CA – Scientists have discovered that a mysterious pressure dubbed “dark energy” makes up about 68% of the total energy content of the cosmos, but so far we don’t know much more about it.

Exploring the nature of dark energy is one of the primary reasons NASA is building the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), a space telescope whose measurements will help illuminate the dark energy puzzle. With a better understanding of dark energy, we will have a better sense of the past and future evolution of the universe.

An artist’s rendering of NASA’s Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), which will study multiple cosmic phenomena, including dark energy. (NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center)

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NASA establishes Mars 2020 Rover’s center of Gravity

September 14, 2019 |

Pasadena, CA – On August 29th, 2019, engineers took NASA’s Mars 2020 for a spin. The 2,300-pound (1,040-kilogram) Martian vehicle was rotated clockwise and counterclockwise at about 1 revolution per minute on what is called a spin table in the clean room of the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

The engineers were looking for the rover’s center of gravity, or the point at which weight is evenly dispersed on all sides.

NASA’s Mars 2020 rover was rotated on a spin table in the clean room of the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Engineers were looking to establish the rover’s center of gravity, or the point at which weight is evenly dispersed on all sides. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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NASA announces Newly Discovered Comet is likely Interstellar Visitor

September 13, 2019 |

Pasadena, CA – NASA says a newly discovered comet has excited the astronomical community this week because it appears to have originated from outside the solar system. The object – designated C/2019 Q4 (Borisov) – was discovered on August 30th, 2019, by Gennady Borisov at the MARGO observatory in Nauchnij, Crimea.

The official confirmation that comet C/2019 Q4 is an interstellar comet has not yet been made, but if it is interstellar, it would be only the second such object detected. The first, ‘Oumuamua, was observed and confirmed in October 2017.

This illustration depicts Comet C/2019 Q4’s trajectory. Deemed a possible interstellar object, it will approach no closer to Earth than about 190 million miles (300 million kilometers). (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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