Topic: Pacific Ocean

NASA’s Apollo 11, Mars 2020 have same goal, collect Samples

August 14, 2019 |

Pasadena, CA – NASA’s Apollo 11 command module Columbia splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, fulfilling President John F. Kennedy’s goal to land a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth on July 24th, 1969.

Among the mission’s many firsts was the acquisition and return of the first samples from another celestial body. Findings based on the 47 pounds (21.5 kilograms) of lunar rock and soil rewrote the textbooks on both the Moon and solar system, and the samples are still being studied today by researchers using new and more sensitive instruments.

From left to right: Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin stands on the Moon; 47 pounds (21.5 kilograms) of samples were brought back to Earth from that mission; the Mars 2020 rover, seen here in an artist’s concept rover, will be taking the first planetary samples at Jezero Crater, Mars (on right). (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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NASA reports SpaceX Crew Dragon Successfully Docks to Station

March 3, 2019 |

NASA Headquarters

Washington, D.C. – After making 18 orbits of Earth since its launch early Saturday morning, NASA reports the Crew Dragon spacecraft successfully attached to the International Space Station’s Harmony module forward port via “soft capture” at 4:51am CST while the station was traveling more than 250 miles over the Pacific Ocean, just north of New Zealand.

As the spacecraft approached the space station, it demonstrated its automated control and maneuvering capabilities by arriving in place at about 492 feet (150 meters) away from the orbital laboratory then reversing course and backing away from the station to 590 feet (180 meters) before the final docking sequence from about 65 feet (20 meters) away.

The SpaceX Crew Dragon is docked to the station’s international docking adapter which is attached to the forward end of the Harmony module. (NASA TV)

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NASA captures Satellite Image of Hawaii Volcano Lava Flow

July 28, 2018 |

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – New NASA satellite imagery captured a hot lava flow from fissure 8 of Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano. The flow from fissure 8 extends from the Leilani Estates to the Pacific Ocean — with main ocean entry points near Ahalanui.

The imagery, from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection (ASTER) radiometer instrument on NASA’s Terra satellite, was taken on Wednesday, July 25th. Vegetation is shown in red, and clouds are white.

Lava from Hawaii’s Kilauea Volcano flowing to the Pacific Ocean, imaged July 25th by NASA’s Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection (ASTER) instrument. Vegetation shown in red, clouds in white and lava in yellow. (NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems/U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team)

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NASA’s sends New Experiments to International Space Station aboard Orbital ATK Mission

May 22, 2018 |

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – Astronauts soon will have new experiments to conduct related to emergency navigation, DNA sequencing and ultra-cold atom research when the research arrives at the International Space Station following the 3:44am CDT (1:44 a.m. PDT) Monday launch of an Orbital ATK Cygnus spacecraft.

Cygnus lifted off on an Antares 230 rocket from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on Orbital ATK’s ninth cargo mission under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services contract. The spacecraft is carrying about 7,400 pounds of research equipment, cargo and supplies that will support dozens of the more than 250 investigations underway on the space station.

The Orbital ATK Antares rocket, with the Cygnus spacecraft onboard, launches from Pad-0A, Monday, May 21st, 2018 at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Orbital ATK’s ninth contracted cargo resupply mission with NASA to the International Space Station will deliver approximately 7,400 pounds of science and research, crew supplies and vehicle hardware to the orbital laboratory and its crew. NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)

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NASA ends Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer instrument’s mission

February 19, 2018 |

Written by Carol Rasmussen
NASA’s Earth Science News Team

Washington, D.C. – On January 31st, NASA ended the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer’s (TES) almost 14-year career of discovery. Launched in 2004 on NASA’s Aura spacecraft, TES was the first instrument designed to monitor ozone in the lowest layers of the atmosphere directly from space. Its high-resolution observations led to new measurements of atmospheric gases that have altered our understanding of the Earth system.

TES was planned for a five-year mission but far outlasted that term.

TES collected spectral “signatures,” illustrated here, of ozone and other gases in the lower atmosphere. (NASA)

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NASA practices Orion Spacecraft Recovery in Pacific Ocean

January 23, 2018 |

NASA Headquarters

Washington, D.C. – NASA’s new deep space exploration systems will send crew 40,000 miles beyond the Moon, and return them safely home. After traveling through space at 25,000 miles per hour, the Orion spacecraft will slow to 300 mph after it passes through the Earth’s atmosphere. The spacecraft then slows down to 20 mph before it safely splashes down in the Pacific Ocean.

When astronauts come back from deep space, they will need to be picked up as quickly as possible. That’s where Kennedy Space Center’s NASA Recovery Team comes in.

NASA Recovery Team rehearses picking up the Orion capsule in the Pacific Ocean. (NASA)

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NASA’s ER-2 High-Altitude Aircraft takes Prototype Space Sensors for a Test Ride

December 25, 2017 |

Written by Kate Squires
NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center

Edwards, CA – Scientists recently completed test flights with prototypes of potential satellite sensors – including two from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California — over the Western United States, probing basic science questions about aerosols, clouds, air quality and global ocean ecosystems.

The flight campaign, called Aerosol Characterization from Polarimeter and Lidar (ACEPOL), sought to test capabilities of several proposed instruments for the Aerosol-Cloud-Ecosystem (ACE) pre-formulation study.

The view from NASA’s ER-2 flying at approximately 65,000 feet (19,812 meters) near a controlled fire burning near Flagstaff, Arizona, during the Aerosol Characterization from Polarimeter and Lidar (ACEPOL) airborne campaign on Nov. 7, 2017. (NASA/Stu Broce)

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NASA’s Orion Spacecraft’s Parachute System tested in Arizona Desert

December 19, 2017 |

NASA Headquarters

Washington, D.C. – When NASA’s Orion spacecraft hurtles toward Earth’s surface during its return from deep-space missions, the capsule’s system of 11 parachutes will assemble itself in the air and slow the spacecraft from 300 mph to a relatively gentle 20 mph for splashdown in the Pacific Ocean in the span of about 10 minutes.

As the astronauts inside descend toward the water on future missions, their lives will be hanging by a series of threads that have been thoroughly ruggedized, tested and validated to ensure the parachute-assisted end of Orion missions are a success.

Two pilot parachutes pull out two main parachutes of the Orion spacecraft during a test Dec. 15, 2017. (U.S. Army)

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NASA’s Terra Satellite observes Smoke coming from Fires in California

October 15, 2017 |

NASA Headquarters

Washington, D.C. – NASA’s Terra satellite saw a stream of smoke that extended over 500 miles from various fires raging in northern California out over the Eastern Pacific Ocean.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument aboard Terra passed over California on October 12th and captured a visible light image of the smoke plume. The MODIS image showed the stream of smoke extending from Santa Rosa, California, located north of San Francisco, out into the Eastern Pacific, parallel to San Diego. A stream that stretched over 550 miles.

NASA’s Terra satellite saw a stream of smoke that extended over 500 miles from various fires raging in northern California out over the Eastern Pacific Ocean.
(NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team.)

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NASA’S OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft uses Earth’s Gravity to Slingshot toward Asteroid Bennu

September 25, 2017 |

Written by Nancy Neal Jones
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Greenbelt, MD – NASA’s asteroid sample return spacecraft successfully used Earth’s gravity on Friday to slingshot itself on a path toward the asteroid Bennu, for a rendezvous next August.

At 12:52pm EDT on September 22nd, 2017 the OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security – Regolith Explorer) spacecraft came within 10,711 miles (17,237 km) of Antarctica, just south of Cape Horn, Chile, before following a route north over the Pacific Ocean.

This artist’s concept shows the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft passing by Earth. (NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/University of Arizona)

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