STS-133 Crew

Attired in training versions of their shuttle launch and entry suits, the STS-133 crew members are, from the left, Tim Kopra, Alvin Drew, Pilot Eric Boe, Commander Steve Lindsey, Michael Barratt and Nicole Stott.

Image credit: NASA/JSC March 31, 2010

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts133/multimedia/gallery/10-03-31-crew.html

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NASA Releases Kepler Data on Potential Extrasolar Planets

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Kepler Mission has released 43 days of science data on more than 156,000 stars. These stars are being monitored for subtle brightness changes as part of an ongoing search for Earth-like planets outside of our solar system.

Astronomers will use the new data to determine if orbiting planets are responsible for brightness variations in several hundred stars. These stars represent a full range of temperatures, sizes and ages. Many of them are stable, while others pulsate. Some show starspots, which are similar to sunspots, and a few produce flares that would sterilize their nearest planets.

Kepler, a space observatory, looks for the data signatures of planets by measuring tiny decreases in the brightness of stars when planets cross in front of, or transit, them. The size of the planet can be derived from the change in the star's brightness.

Artist's concept of Kepler in the distant solar system. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The 28-member Kepler science team also is using ground-based telescopes and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and Spitzer Space Telescope to perform follow-up observations on a specific set of 400 objects of interest. The star field that Kepler observes in the constellations Cygnus and Lyra can only be seen from ground-based observatories in spring through early fall. The data from these other observations will determine which of the candidates can be identified as planets. That data will be released to the scientific community in February 2011.

Without the additional information, candidates that are actual planets cannot be distinguished from false alarms, such as binary stars -- two stars that orbit each other. The size of the planetary candidates also can be only approximated until the size of the stars they orbit is determined from additional spectroscopic observations made by ground-based telescopes.

"I look forward to the scientific community analyzing the data and announcing new exoplanet results in the coming months," said Lia LaPiana, Kepler's program executive at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

"This is the most precise, nearly continuous, longest and largest data set of stellar photometry ever," said Kepler Deputy Principal Investigator David Koch of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. "The results will only get better as the duration of the data set grows with time."

Kepler will continue conducting science operations until at least November 2012, searching for planets as small as Earth, including those that orbit stars in a warm, habitable zone where liquid water could exist on the surface of the planet. Since transits of planets in the habitable zone of solar-like stars occur about once a year and require three transits for verification, it is expected to take at least three years to locate and verify an Earth-size planet.

"The Kepler observations will tell us whether there are many stars with planets that could harbor life, or whether we might be alone in our galaxy," said the mission's science principal investigator, William Borucki of Ames.

Ames is responsible for the ground system development, mission operations and science data analysis. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., managed the Kepler mission development. Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo., developed the Kepler flight system, and supports mission operations with the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore archives, hosts and distributes the Kepler science data.

To see the science data, visit: http://archive.stsci.edu/kepler. For more information about the Kepler mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/kepler.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/kepler20100615.html

Final Friction Stir Weld Completed on Orion Spacecraft

The Orion crew exploration vehicle took shape as the two halves of the crew module were fused together at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, La. The Lockheed Martin Orion team welded the forward cone assembly to the aft barrel assembly using the next generation friction stir weld process. The 445-inch long weld is the longest such weld of its kind and will ensure optimal structural integrity for the harsh environments of space flight.

“The completion of the final welds on the Orion crew module ground test article is another important milestone,” said Mark Geyer NASA’s Orion project manager. “The team’s dedication, hard work and ingenuity kept us on schedule for the assembly, integration and further testing of the vehicle. We now have the ability to see how the crew module will respond to space environments and can validate production processes that are critical to the safety of the crew.”

Prior to flight testing, this crew module will be tested on the ground in flight-like environments, including static vibration, acoustic and water landing tests. Results will be used to correlate sizing models for all subsystems on the vehicle.

The bulkhead and nosecone of the Orion spacecraft are joined using friction stir welding at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility, New Orleans, La. Credit: NASA

Orion weld operations take place on a Universal Weld System II (UWS II) that includes a 22-foot diameter turntable, a self-reacting friction stir weld head and a modular t-grid floor. The system affords virtually unlimited five-axis welding on fixture-mounted hardware. The UWS II is part of the National Center for Advanced Manufacturing, managed by the University of New Orleans Foundation in partnership with NASA and the State of Louisiana.

The friction stir welding process advances the state-of-the-art for circumferential welds, yielding higher strength and higher quality welds at a lower cost. The latest state-of-the-art manufacturing technologies, efficient processes and new materials, such as the ultra-light weight Aluminum-Lithium alloy, are all being employed on Orion to produce the lightest possible vehicle for space flight.

“The combination of material and manufacturing advancements in technology are key reasons why the spacecraft is more lightweight and damage resistant than many industry experts thought possible,” said Larry Price, Lockheed Martin Orion deputy program manager. “The balance of manufacturing methods and varied materials such as composites and advanced alloys that have been applied to Orion resulted in vehicle optimizations across the board - lowest cost, lightest weight, and improved structural integrity, which is critical to crew safety.”

A weld technician monitors as the Universal Weld System completes the final friction stir weld on the Orion spacecraft. The vehicle is seen in the background, inverted in the tool for this weld. Nondestructive evaluations will validate the strength and integrity of the weld before the spacecraft is prepped for ground testing in flight-like environments, including static vibration, acoustics and water landing tests. Photo credit: NASA

Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor to NASA for the Orion crew exploration vehicle, which is managed at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. The Orion spacecraft is comprised of a crew module for crew and cargo transport; a service module for propulsion, electrical power and fluids storage; a spacecraft adapter for securing it to the launch vehicle, and a launch abort system that will significantly improve crew safety.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/constellation/orion/orion_first_weld.html

Growing Plants and Vegetables in a Space Garden

Lettuce, peas and radishes are just a few vegetables that are found in a summer garden. But did you know these same vegetables also can be grown in space? Crew members aboard the International Space Station have been growing such plants and vegetables for years in their "space garden."

A space station study is helping investigators develop procedures and methods that allow astronauts to grow and safely eat space-grown vegetables. The experiment also is investigating another benefit of growing plants in space: the non-nutritional value of providing comfort and relaxation to the crew.

"Growing food to supplement and minimize the food that must be carried to space will be increasingly important on long-duration missions," said Shane Topham, an engineer with Space Dynamics Laboratory at Utah State University in Logan. "We also are learning about the psychological benefits of growing plants in space -- something that will become more important as crews travel farther from Earth."

Mizuna lettuce growing aboard the International Space Station before being harvested and frozen for return to Earth. Image credit: NASA

The experiment, known as Lada Validating Vegetable Production Unit -- Plants, Protocols, Procedures and Requirements -- uses a very simple chamber similar to a greenhouse. Water and light levels are controlled automatically.

The experiment has four major objectives: to find out if the produce grown in space can be consumed safely; what types of microorganisms might grow on the plants and what can be done to reduce the threat of microorganisms in the hardware prior to launch; what can be done to clean or sanitize the produce after it has been harvested; and how to optimize production compared to the resources required to grow it.

Since 2002, the Lada greenhouse has been used to perform almost continuous plant growth experiments on the station. Fifteen modules containing root media, or root modules, have been launched to the station and 20 separate plant growth experiments have been performed.

The most recent "crop" -- a type of Japanese lettuce called Mizuna -- returned to Earth in April aboard space shuttle Discovery. It was the first time two chamber experiments were conducted simultaneously for a side-by-side comparison of plants grown using different fertilizers and treatments.

"The idea was to validate in space the results of ground tests, to show that minimizing water usage and salt accumulations would produce healthier plants in space," said Topham. "For years we've used the same method for packing root modules, so this was a comparison study between old and potential improvements and so far we have found a couple of surprising results."

First, a sensor failure in the traditional root module on the station caused the plants to receive higher than specified water levels. Investigators believed the overwatering would disrupt nutrients and oxygen in the traditional module, making the newer improved module look better in the comparison.

Surprises in microgravity research are not unusual, though, and it turned out that overwatered traditional module sprouted and developed leaves about twice as fast. "This suggests the conservative water level we have been using for all our previous experiments may be below optimal for plant growth in microgravity," said Topham.

The second surprising result was discovered when the root modules were unpacked on the ground. The new fertilizer being tested had a slower and more even release rate, which had helped lower the plants' accumulation of salts during ground studies. Investigators expected to see higher salt accumulation in the space modules, but the opposite occurred.

The harvested Mizuna sample kit is stored in a frozen return lab at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., hours after landing aboard space shuttle Discovery in April. Image credit: NASA

"The current theory is that the extra water and larger plant uptake of fertilizer caused the root modules to remove nutrients faster and release fertilizer faster, thus preventing the salt accumulations that were observed in the slower-growing ground studies," said Topham.

"The space station's ability to provide on-the-spot adjustments to experiment conditions or opportunities to quickly repeat microgravity experiments with new conditions are a big plus for researchers," said Julie Robinson, International Space Station program scientist at Johnson Space Center. "This work also shows the surprising results that investigators find when they take a well-understood experiment on Earth and reproduce it on the space station."

Data from this investigation also will help advance Earth-based greenhouses and controlled-environment agricultural systems and help farmers produce better, healthier crops in small spaces using the optimum amount of water and nutrients.

The experiment takes advantage of a 20-year-old cooperative agreement between the Space Dynamics Laboratory and the Institute for Biomedical Problems in Moscow, Russia. Each organization benefits from resources provided by their respective national space programs -- the Space Dynamics Laboratory with NASA, and the Institute for Biomedical Problems with the Russian Federal Space Agency.

Root modules with seeds are launched to the space station on Russian Progress supply vehicles. Russian crew members water the plant seeds and perform maintenance. They also harvest the vegetables and place them in a station freezer before transferring them to a space shuttle freezer for return to Earth for analysis by U.S. investigators at the Space Dynamics Laboratory.

"I don’t see future space crews leaving the Earth for long durations without having the ability to grow their own food," said Topham. "The knowledge that we are gaining is enabling us to extend our exploration and future colonization of space."

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/science/10-074.html

Crew Does Maintenance, Science; Soyuz Launch Date Approaches

The International Space Station’s Expedition 24 crew began the week Monday with a variety of science experiments.

Flight Engineer Tracy Caldwell Dyson was scheduled to reinstall an old pump into the U.S. segment’s oxygen generation system, in an effort to coax it back into action to support the increase of the crew to six people which will begin Thursday.

Flight Engineer Mikhail Kornienko restarted the Elektron oxygen generation system in the Russian segment over the weekend.

Commander Alexander Skvortsov conducted an observation with the Rusalka experiment, which is a test of procedures for remote determination of methane and carbon dioxide content in the Earth’s atmosphere.

Skvortsov also assisted Kornienko in a session with the Russian Pilot-M experiment. Pilot-M tests piloting skill in simulations on a laptop under stopwatch control and studies the response of cosmonauts to the effects of stress factors in flight.

Image above: The Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft is rolled out by train to the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Sunday, June 13, 2010. Credit: NASA/Carla Cioffi

Caldwell Dyson took photographs of the moon for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency educational program known as ISS Moon Score. The purpose of this program is to create a musical score using photos of the moon taken at different times in the lunar cycle, while the crew is floating naturally in the microgravity environment.

Following the rollout of their Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft to the launch pad Sunday, Expedition 24 Flight Engineers Doug Wheelock, Shannon Walker and Fyodor Yurchikhin met Monday with the Russian State Commission of top space officials and conducted their final pre-launch Crew News Conference at their Cosmonaut Hotel crew quarters. Everything is on track for launch Tuesday at 5:35 p.m. EDT. The new crew members are slated to dock to the station’s Zvezda service module Thursday at 6:25 p.m.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

GOES-15 Solar X-Ray Imager's Miraculous First Light

The Solar X-Ray Imager instrument aboard the GOES-15 satellite has just provided its first light image of the sun, but it required a lot of experts to make it happen.

Scientists and engineers from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have been working to bring the Solar X-Ray Imager (SXI) instrument to full functionality since the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-15, formerly known as the GOES-P satellite achieved orbit.

GOES-15 launched on March 4, 2010 from Cape Canaveral, Fla. On April 6, 2010, GOES-15 captured its first visible image of Earth and on April 26, GOES-15 took its first full-disk infrared image.

"Since the early checkout of GOES 15 (P) and the anomalous turn on of the Solar X-Ray Imager, the team has been aggressively pursuing all avenues to recover the instrument," said Andre' Dress, GOES N-P Deputy Project Manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md." Frankly, we were down to our last straw when all the teams' hard work and efforts finally paid off. We now believe we have a full recovery of the instrument's functionality! It's an incredible story and a true testament of our NASA/contractor teams expertise, hard work and determination."

On June 3, the GOES 15 Solar X-Ray Imager finally came on-line. Scientists and engineers had subjected SXI to a series of long duration turn on tests in the hopes of clearing the short. About 16 hours into the testing, the instrument voltages returned to normal values and SXI now appears to be functioning properly.

This first image of the sun from the GOES-15 SXI instrument from June 2, 2010 was a cause for celebration. Credit: NASA/NOAA/ Lockheed Martin

"We were facing a tough problem when we first attempted to bring SXI on line," said George Koerner, SXI program manager at the Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company (LMSSC) Advanced Technology Center (ATC) in Palo Alto, Calif. where the Solar X-ray Imager was designed and built. "But because of our ability to bring together subject matter experts from both government and industry, to move forward step by step, and to work as a team patiently and persistently, together we achieved mission success. This is an enormously satisfying outcome."

Since its recovery, several test solar images have also been subsequently taken successfully. The GOES team continue to assess the health of the instrument. This new round of testing will assess SXI's total functionality. That functionality means the team will capture images of the sun with the camera to assess whether the camera is properly processing image data.

"I don't think most people realize how important these space weather instruments are in our everyday life," Dress said. "This data is used by the U.S. Department of Defense, NOAA, NASA, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in protecting our space assets, land based assets and directing flight paths for the FAA."

GOES-15 will join three other NOAA operational GOES spacecraft that help the agency's forecasters track life-threatening weather and solar activity that can impact the satellite-based electronics and communications industry. NASA's testing of the spacecraft and its instruments will continue through the entire post launch test period expected to end in late August 2010. This will be followed by a series of NOAA Science Tests. The GOES series of U.S. satellites are developed by a joint NASA-NOAA-Industry partnership, launched by NASA (with industry partners), and operated by NOAA.

For more information about the GOES-P mission and program on the Web, visit:
www.nasa.gov/goes-p

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GOES-P/news/xray_imager.html

JPL's Next Mars Rover Landing Radar Tested at Dryden

NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center recently provided logistics and range support for a NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory team that tested a landing radar system for the next Mars rover mission adjacent to Dryden's Edwards Air Force Base facilities.

Brian Lataille of Wolfe Air Aviation and Charles Fisher of JPL prepare the engineering model of the Mars Science Laboratory descent radar on the nose gimbal of a helicopter during flight tests at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center. The yellow disks are the radar's antennae. (NASA / Tony Landis)

Testing for the JPL-managed Mars Science Laboratory or MSL project included suspending a full-scale engineering model of the MSL rover from a helicopter and flying pre-planned flight trajectories over Rogers Dry Lake at Edwards to simulate the rover's descent stage carrying the rover to the surface of Mars. JPL engineers needed to verify that the radar will provide accurate altitude and velocity measurements at Mars and that the suspended rover will not confuse the ability of the descent stage's radar to accurately calculate the rover's descent speed for a safe, on-target landing.

"Dryden offers a unique location to perform testing of this kind," said Carrie Rhoades, the Dryden flight operations engineer managing the MSL project at Dryden. "We have restricted airspace and a large dry lakebed that is useful in simulating several Mars-like features. Dryden is also conveniently close to JPL, so troubleshooting the system and fixing any issues has been relatively easy to accomplish," she said.

The helicopter, carrying the MSL radar on a special nose-mounted gimbal system, mimicked the MSL's descent stage on which the radar will be mounted during the mission to Mars. The unique, rocket-powered descent stage will lower the rover, named Curiosity, on cables directly to the planet's surface in a maneuver dubbed “skycrane.” The descent stage will then fly away to a preplanned crash after releasing the cables, leaving Curiosity with its wheels on the Martian surface, ready to begin its search for ancient habitats.

In this computer-generated image, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory descent stage lowers the rover Curiosity to the Martian surface using the skycrane maneuver. (NASA / JPL-Caltech)

“Our JPL team is thrilled to have accomplished this critical radar field test at Dryden,” said Steven Lee, MSL’s Guidance, Navigation, and Control Systems manager. “The large, flat expanse of Rogers Dry Lake provided an ideal venue for our initial tests. The Dryden team did a great job accommodating our logistical and flight support needs, from hangar space to flight clearances.

"Preliminary results indicate the radar performs as expected and we look forward to continuing our field tests at other Mars-like sites including Amboy Crater, Cadiz Sand Dunes, and Death Valley," Lee added.

The new skycrane landing method was chosen for the next Mars mission because Curiosity will be the largest rover yet sent to Mars. It's too large for the airbag-cushioned landing method used by NASA's Mars Pathfinder mission in 1997 and the twin Mars Exploration Rover landings in 2004. Also, the MSL mission has a requirement for landing at a more-precise point on Mars than previous rover missions, aiding in the selection of the landing concept.

The Mars Science Laboratory descent stage radar attached to this Wolfe Air Aviation helicopter's nose gimbal was the focus of recent testing at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center. (NASA / Tony Landis)

Starting in 2008, Dryden has flown an F/A-18 in a series of MSL developmental flights designed to collect environmental control system data to help validate the MSL radar system. In one flight series, the F/A-18 carried a Quick Test Experimental Pod housing the radar's environmental control hardware to an altitude of 47,000 feet and made a series of dives to simulate a high-speed entry into the Martian atmosphere. More of these flights are scheduled in the coming months to assist JPL in further verifying the MSL radar performance.

Mars Science Lab mission components such as Curiosity, the descent stage, the cruise stage and the aeroshell are currently undergoing assembly and testing at JPL in Pasadena, Calif., in preparation for an autumn 2011 launch. Curiosity is scheduled to reach Mars in the summer of 2012.

Wolfe Air Aviation, of Pasadena, Calif., provided their Eurocopter AS350 AStar helicopter and crew for the tests. The helicopter's Gyron gimbaled mounting system, provided by Nettman Systems International, is normally used to carry aerial video camera equipment for the motion picture industry.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/msl_rover_tests.html

Expedition 24 Crew Checks Out Soyuz

JSC2010-E-092046 (11 June 2010) --- At the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the prime and backup crews to join Expedition 24 on the International Space Station pose for a picture in front of their Soyuz booster rocket in its integration building June 11, 2010. From left to right are prime crew members Doug Wheelock, Soyuz Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Shannon Walker, with backup crew members Cady Coleman, Dmitri Kondratiev and Paolo Nespoli of the European Space Agency. Wheelock, Yurchikhin and Walker will launch next week in the Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft on a two-day trip to the International Space Station. Photo credit: NASA/Victor Zelentsov

JSC2010-E-092042 (11 June 2010) --- At the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Paolo Nespoli, backup flight engineer, representing the European Space Agency, peers into the Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft June 11, 2010 during a final vehicle inspection. Prime crew members Doug Wheelock and Shannon Walker of NASA and cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, Soyuz commander, with the Russian Federal Space Agency, will lift off next week in the Soyuz on a two-day trip to the International Space Station. Photo credit: NASA/Victor Zelentsov

JSC2010-E-092043 (11 June 2010) --- At the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, astronaut Shannon Walker, flight engineer, of NASA poses for a picture during a final vehicle inspection of the Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft June 11, 2010. Walker will launch next week with astronaut Doug Wheelock of NASA and cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, Soyuz commander, of the Russian Federal Space Agency on a two-day trip to the International Space Station. Photo credit: NASA/Victor Zelentsov

JSC2010-E-092044 (11 June 2010) --- At the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, NASA astronaut Doug Wheelock, Expedition 24 flight engineer, poses for a picture during a final vehicle inspection of the Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft June 11, 2010. Wheelock will launch next week with astronaut Shannon Walker, flight engineer, of NASA and cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, Soyuz commander, with the Russian Federal Space Agency on a two-day trip to the International Space Station. Photo credit: NASA/Victor Zelentsov

JSC2010-E-092045 (11 June 2010) --- At the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the prime crew assigned to join Expedition 24 on the International Space Station pose for a picture in front of their Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft June 11, 2010. From left to right are prime crew members Shannon Walker, Soyuz Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Doug Wheelock. Walker, Yurchikhin and Wheelock will launch next week in the Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft on a two-day trip to the International Space Station. Photo credit: NASA/Victor Zelentsov

JSC2010-E-092047 (11 June 2010) --- At the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, NASA astronaut Shannon Walker signs a picture of a Soyuz rocket on the wall of the Korolev Museum near the launch pad during a tour of the facility June 11, 2010. Walker, Soyuz Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and NASA astronaut Doug Wheelock will launch next week in the Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft on a two-day trip to the International Space Station. Photo credit: NASA/Victor Zelentsov

JSC2010-E-092048 (11 June 2010) --- At the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, NASA astronaut Doug Wheelock signs a picture of a Soyuz rocket on the wall of the Korolev Museum near the launch pad during a tour of the facility June 11, 2010. Wheelock, Soyuz Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and NASA astronaut Shannon Walker will launch next week in the Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft on a two-day trip to the International Space Station. Photo credit: NASA/Victor Zelentsov

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/multimedia/exp24_inspect.html

NASA Kicks off New Summer of Innovation Initiative

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA Administrator Charles Bolden kicked off the agency's new Summer of Innovation initiative today while at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calf.

The Summer of Innovation program will engage thousands of middle school students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) during the summer months when many students experience what's known as the "summer slide," a loss of skills acquired during the school year. The program is a cornerstone of the Educate to Innovate campaign announced by President Obama last November.

About 250 middle school students from the Los Angeles area participated in the kickoff festivities, which included an opportunity to interact with astronauts, NASA scientists and engineers, several hands-on educational activities; and a visit to the facility where the next Mars rover is being built. The students also were treated to musical entertainment provided by actor/rapper Daniel Curtis Lee.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., hosts the national kickoff of NASA's Summer of Innovation. Image credit: NASA/JPL

"It is wonderful to feel the excitement generated by these students as they experienced first-hand what fascinating and challenging opportunities exist for students who follow STEM career paths," said Administrator Bolden. "I hope that by getting these students involved in NASA's missions and programs now, it may pave the way for a new generation of scientists and engineers, which is critically important to our nation's future."

NASA's Summer of Innovation program is a broad, nationwide effort that will leverage partnerships with academia, industry and government. This program and the agency's other education programs support NASA's commitment to excellence in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, which will play a key role in preparing, inspiring, encouraging and nurturing the nation's future work force.

To learn more about this program and the opportunities available, visit http://www.nasa.gov/soi . For information about NASA education programs, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/education.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/offices/education/programs/national/summer/home/sio20100610.html

NASA Helps in Upcoming Asteroid Mission Homecoming

The space and astronomy worlds have June 13 circled on the calendar.

That's when the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) expects the sample return capsule of the agency's technology demonstrator spacecraft, Hayabusa, to boomerang back to Earth. The capsule, along with its mother ship, visited a near-Earth asteroid, Itokawa, five years ago and has logged about 2 billion kilometers (1.25 billion miles) since its launch in May 2003.

With the return of the Hayabusa capsule, targeted for June 13 at Australia's remote Woomera Test Range in South Australia, JAXA will have concluded a remarkable mission of exploration -- one in which NASA scientists and engineers are playing a contributing role.

"Hayabusa will be the first space mission to have made physical contact with an asteroid and returned to Earth," said Tommy Thompson, NASA's Hayabusa project manager from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "The mission and its team have faced and overcome several challenges over the past seven years. This round-trip journey is a significant space achievement and one which NASA is proud to be part of."

Launched May 9, 2003, from the Kagoshima Space Center, Uchinoura, Japan, Hayabusa was designed as a flying testbed. Its mission: to research several new engineering technologies necessary for returning planetary samples to Earth for further study. With Hayabusa, JAXA scientists and engineers hoped to obtain detailed information on electrical propulsion and autonomous navigation, as well as an asteroid sampler and sample reentry capsule.

The 510-kilogram (950-pound) Hayabusa spacecraft rendezvoused with asteroid Itokawa in September 2005. Over the next two-and-a-half months, the spacecraft made up-close and personal scientific observations of the asteroid's shape, terrain, surface altitude distribution, mineral composition, gravity, and the way it reflected the sun's rays. On Nov. 25 of that year, Hayabusa briefly touched down on the surface of Itokawa. That was only the second time in history a spacecraft descended to the surface of an asteroid (NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous-Shoemaker spacecraft landed on asteroid Eros on Feb. 12, 2001). Hayabusa marked the first attempt to sample asteroid surface material.

The spacecraft departed Itokawa in January 2007. The road home for the technology demonstrator has been a long one, with several anomalies encountered along the way. But now the spacecraft is three days away from its home planet, and the Australian government, working closely with JAXA, has cleared the mission for landing. A team of Japanese and American navigators is guiding Hayabusa on the final leg of its journey. Together, they calculate the final trajectory correction maneuvers Hayabusa's ion propulsion system must perform for a successful homecoming.

"We have been collaborating with the JAXA navigators since the launch of the mission," said Shyam Bhaskaran, a member of JPL's Hayabusa navigation team. "We worked closely with them during the descents to the asteroid, and now are working together to guide the spacecraft back home."

To obtain the data they need, the navigation team frequently calls upon JAXA's tracking stations in Japan, as well as those of NASA's Deep Space Network, which has antennas at Goldstone, in California's Mojave Desert; near Madrid, Spain; and near Canberra, Australia. In addition, the stations provide mission planners with near-continuous communications with the spacecraft to keep them informed on spacecraft health.

This artist's concept depicts the Hayabusa spacecraft (left) and sample return capsule (right) entering the atmosphere over South Australia. Image credit: NASA/JPL

"Our task is to help advise JAXA on how to best get a spacecraft traveling at 12.2 kilometers per second (27,290 miles per hour) to intersect a very specific target point 200 kilometers (120 miles) above the Earth," said Bhaskaran. "Once that is done, and the heat shield of the sample return capsule starts glowing from atmospheric friction, our job is done."

While atmospheric entry may be the end of the line for the team that has plotted the spacecraft's every move for the past 2 billion kilometers, NASA's involvement continues for the craft's final 200 kilometers (120 miles), to the surface of the Australian Outback. A joint Japanese-U.S. team operating on the ground and in the air will monitor this most critical event to help retrieve the capsule and heat shield.

"This is the second highest velocity re-entry of a capsule in history," said Peter Jenniskens, a SETI Institute scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. "This extreme entry speed will result in high heating rates and thermal loads to the capsule's heat shield. Such manmade objects entering with interplanetary speed do not happen every day, and we hope to get a ringside seat to this one."

Jenniskens is leading an international team as it monitor the final plunge of Hayabusa to Earth using NASA's DC-8 airborne laboratory, which is managed and piloted by a crew from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif. The DC-8 flies above most clouds, allowing an unfettered line of sight for its instrument suite measuring the shock-heated gas and capsule surface radiation emitted by the re-entry fireball.

The data acquired by the high-flying team will help evaluate how thermal protection systems behave during these super-speedy spacecraft re-entries. This, in turn, will help engineers understand what a sample return capsule returning from Mars would undergo. The Hayabusa sample return capsule re-entry observation will be similar to earlier observations by the DC-8 team of NASA's Stardust capsule return, and the re-entry of the European Space Agency's ATV-1 ("Jules Verne") automated transfer vehicle.

Soon after the sample return capsule touches down on the ground, Hayabusa team members will retrieve it and transport it to JAXA's sample curatorial facility in Sagamihara, Japan. There, Japanese astromaterials scientists, assisted by two scientists from NASA and one from Australia, will perform a preliminary cataloging and analysis of the capsule's contents.

"This preliminary analysis follows the basic protocols used for Apollo moon rocks, Genesis and Stardust samples," said Mike Zolensky, a scientist at NASA's Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Directorate at the Johnson Space Center, Houston. "If this capsule contains samples from the asteroid, we expect it will take a year to determine the primary characteristics of the samples, and learn how to best handle them. Then the samples will be distributed to scientists worldwide for more detailed analysis."

"The Japanese and NASA engineers and scientists involved in Hayabusa's return from asteroid Itokawa are proud of their collaboration and their joint accomplishments," said Thompson. "Certainly, any samples retrieved from Itokawa will provide exciting new insights to understanding the early history of the solar system. This will be the icing on the cake, as this mission has already taught us so much. "

For more information about the Hayabusa mission, visit:

http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/e/enterp/missions/hayabusa/index.shtml .

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/hayabusa20100609.html

NASA Embarks on Arctic Voyage to Probe Ocean, Climate Changes

NASA’s first dedicated oceanographic field campaign goes to sea next week to take an up-close look at how changing conditions in the Arctic are affecting the ocean’s chemistry and ecosystems that play a critical role in global climate change.

The ICESCAPE mission, which stands for "Impacts of Climate on Ecosystems and Chemistry of the Arctic Pacific Environment," will investigate the impacts of climate change on the ecology and biogeochemistry of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas along Alaska's northern coast. ICESCAPE takes to sea onboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy, the United States’ newest and most technologically advanced polar icebreaker. The Healy conducts a wide range of research activities and is designed to break four-and-a-half feet of ice continuously at three knots.

ICESCAPE takes to the sea on the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy, the United States’ newest and most technologically advanced polar icebreaker. Credit: U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer Patrick Kelley

A key focus of the mission is how changes in the Arctic may be altering the ocean’s ability to absorb carbon from the atmosphere. The greenhouse gas carbon dioxide is a leading cause of global warming.

Predictions of future climate change depend on knowing the details of how this carbon cycle works in different parts of the world. NASA’s Earth science program conducts research into the global Earth system using satellite observations. Identifying how Earth's ecology and chemistry are influenced by natural processes and by humans is a key part of this research.

Declining Arctic sea ice is one factor affecting the region's changing ocean ecosystem. This image based on data from NASA's Aqua satellite shows the extent of sea ice in March 2008. Credit: NASA

The Arctic Ocean, unlike other oceans, is almost completely landlocked, making it an ideal location to study ongoing climate changes in a marine ecosystem already heavily impacted by declining sea ice cover, ocean acidification, and an increase in incoming solar radiation. These changes are likely to modify the physics, biogeochemistry, and ecology of this environment in ways that are not well understood. Satellite remote sensing has provided some insight into these changes which ICESCAPE is designed to advance.

"The ocean ecosystem in the Arctic has changed dramatically in recent years, and it’s changing much faster and much more than any other ocean in the world," said ICESCAPE chief scientist Kevin Arrigo of Stanford University. "Declining sea ice in the Arctic is certainly one reason for the change, but that’s not the whole story. We need to find out, for example, where the nutrients are coming from that feed this growth if we are going to be able to predict what the future holds for this region."

Looking southward from high over the Arctic Ocean, NASA's Aqua satellite reveals coastal phytoplankton blooms in the Chukchi Sea along northern Alaska (foreground) stretching into the Bering Strait in September 2006. Credit: NASA

The Healy leaves Dutch Harbor in Alaska's Aleutian Islands on June 15 and heads to the Bering Strait where it begins ocean sampling. The voyage continues across the southern Chukchi Sea and into the Beaufort Sea along northern Alaska’s ocean shelf. In early July the Healy will head north into deeper waters to sample thick, multi-year sea ice and take samples within and beneath the ice.

More than 40 scientists will spend five weeks at sea sampling the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of the ocean and sea ice. A variety of instruments will be used onboard the Healy and deployed into the ocean and on the sea ice.

An automated microscope onboard will take continuous digital photographs of phytoplankton cells for near-real time observations of the quantity of different species. Floats with near-real time satellite communication will be placed in the ocean to measure temperature and various biological and optical properties. Scientists also will work on the sea ice several hundred yards from the ship to study the condition of the ice and sample the ocean ecosystem beneath it.

See how Arctic sea ice shrinks from January to September 2008
in this animation using data from NASA’s Aqua satellite.

Satellite observations are a key part of the ICESCAPE mission. NASA uses its satellite observations to monitor the microscopic plant and animal life in the world’s oceans. This "ocean color" data gives scientists a global view of a critical ecosystem that regulates the flow of carbon into and out of the sea. Similar observations of the Arctic waters collected from the Healy during ICESCAPE will be used to improve the accuracy of the satellite data over the entire region.

ICESCAPE is sponsored by the Earth Science Division’s Cryospheric Sciences and Ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry programs in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. A second ICESCAPE voyage is planned for 2011.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/icescape2010.html

Ask an Expert: Tracking Sickness From Space

Sometimes the best way to fight sickness on Earth starts with a view from space. On Thursday, June 10, Dr. Jeff Luvall, a research scientist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, will answer questions about "Tracking Sickness from Space."

Joining the chat is easy. Simply visit this page on Thursday, June 10 from 3-4 p.m. EDT. The chat window will be active at the bottom of this page starting at 2:30 p.m. EDT. See you in chat!

Tracking tick habitats to help control Lyme disease is just one of many ways that NASA technology improves health on Earth. Image credit: CDC

More About Chat Expert Jeff Luvall

Dr. Jeff Luvall, a research scientist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, will be answering your questions about "Tracking Sickness from Space." Luvall has been involved with tracking a variety of health-related conditions using NASA resources -- primarily satellite imagery and data and aircraft studying atmospheric and climate conditions.

A false-color electron microscope scan shows a prickly grain of prairie hollyhock pollen. Image Credit: Dartmouth College/Charles Daghlian

To date, Luvall has studied allergy-related conditions by tracking pollen, and documented and provided mitigation solutions for "urban heat islands," which occur when trapped heat builds up during the day in buildings, pavement and other urban surfaces, contributing to heat-related health issues. Additionally, Luvall has trained students and professionals to use NASA satellite data in improving medicine and contributing to public health.

One of his main areas of study for the last three years has been working with students researching Lyme and West Nile diseases. The populations of the vectors for these diseases (mosquitoes, ticks) are dependent on both habitat and environmental conditions that vary both in time and space, making them ideal to study using NASA based satellite technology.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/connect/chat/sickness_from_space_chat.html

NASA's Dawn Spacecraft Fires Past Record for Speed Change

PASADENA, Calif. - Deep in the heart of the asteroid belt, on its way to the first of the belt's two most massive inhabitants, NASA's ion-propelled Dawn spacecraft has eclipsed the record for velocity change produced by a spacecraft's engines.

The previous standard-bearer for velocity change, NASA's Deep Space 1, also impelled by ion propulsion, was the first interplanetary spacecraft to use this technology. The Deep Space 1 record fell on Saturday, June 5, when the Dawn spacecraft's accumulated acceleration over the mission exceeded 4.3 kilometers per second (9,600 miles per hour).

"We are using this amazing ion-engine technology as a stepping-stone to orbit and explore two of the asteroid belt's most mysterious objects, Vesta and Ceres," said Robert Mase, Dawn project manager from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

A spacecraft's change in velocity refers to its ability to change its path through space by using its own rocket engines. This measurement of change begins only after the spacecraft exits the last stage of the launch vehicle that hurled it into space.

To get to where it is in both the record books and the asteroid belt, the Dawn spacecraft had to fire its three engines - one at a time-- for a cumulative total of 620 days. In that time, it has used less than 165 kilograms (363 pounds) of xenon propellant. Over the course of its eight-plus-year mission, Dawn's three ion engines are expected to accumulate 2,000 days of operation -- 5.5 years of thrusting -- for a total change in velocity of more than 38,620 kilometers per hour (24,000 miles per hour).

NASA's Dawn spacecraft, illustrated in this artist's concept, is propelled by ion engines. Image credit: NASA/JPL

"I am delighted that it will be Dawn that surpasses DS1's record," said Marc Rayman, chief engineer for the Dawn mission and a previous project manager for Deep Space 1."It is a tribute to all those involved in the design and operations of this remarkable spacecraft."

At first glance, Dawn's pedal-to-the-metal performance is a not-so-inspiring 0-to-97 kilometers per hour (0-to-60 miles per hour) in four days. But due to its incredible efficiency, it expends only 37 ounces of xenon propellant during that time. Then take into consideration that after those four days of full-throttle thrusting, it will do another four days, and then another four. By the end of 12 days, the spacecraft will have increased its velocity by more than 290 kilometers per hour (180 miles per hour), with more days and weeks and months of continuous thrusting to come. In one year's time, Dawn's ion propulsion system can increase the spacecraft's speed by 8,850 kilometers per hour (5,500 miles per hour), while consuming the equivalent of only 16 gallons of fuel.

"This is a special moment for the spacecraft team," said Dawn's principal investigator, Chris Russell of the University of California Los Angeles. "In only 407 days, our minds will be on another set of records, the data records that Dawn will transmit when we enter Vesta orbit."

Dawn's 4.8-billion-kilometer (3-billion-mile) odyssey includes exploration of asteroid Vesta in 2011 and 2012, and the dwarf planet Ceres in 2015. These two icons of the asteroid belt have been witness to much of our solar system's history. By using the same set of instruments at two separate destinations, scientists can more accurately formulate comparisons and contrasts. Dawn's science instrument suite will measure shape, surface topography and tectonic history, elemental and mineral composition, as well as seek out water-bearing minerals. In addition, the way the Dawn spacecraft orbits both Vesta and Ceres will be used to measure the celestial bodies' masses and gravity fields.

While Dawn surpassed Deep Space 1's record for velocity change, Deep Space 1 will continue to reign as holder for the longest duration of powered spaceflight for another few months. Dawn is expected to take over that record on about August 10 of this year.

The Dawn mission to Vesta and Ceres is managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The University of California, Los Angeles, is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Other scientific partners include Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, Ariz.; Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany; DLR Institute for Planetary Research, Berlin, Germany; Italian National Institute for Astrophysics, Rome; and the Italian Space Agency, Rome. Orbital Sciences Corporation of Dulles, Va., designed and built the Dawn spacecraft.

To learn more about Dawn and its mission to the asteroid belt, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/dawn

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/news/dawn20100607.html

Final Planned Flight of Atlantis Delivers New 'Dawn'

Space shuttle Atlantis thundered away from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on May 5, 2010 at 2:20 p.m. The on-time liftoff under a picturesque Florida sky was a perfect beginning to Atlantis' last scheduled mission, STS-132. The shuttle carried a six-person crew on a journey to deliver a new Russian module and several critical spare parts to the International Space Station.

"There are thousands of folks out there that have taken care of this bird for a long time," Commander Ken Ham said after Atlantis was cleared for launch. "We're going to take her on her 32nd flight, and if you don't mind, we'll take her out of the barn and make a few more laps around the planet."

Tucked into the shuttle's payload bay was the Russian-built Mini Research Module-1 known as "Rassvet," meaning "dawn." Nearly 20 feet long and weighing more than 17,700 pounds including its cargo, the module features eight workstations designed for a variety of science experiments and educational research.

Image above: An exhaust plume surrounds the mobile launcher platform as Atlantis launches. Image credit: NASA/Tony Gray and Tom Farrar

The ambitious tasks ahead would be taken on by a crew of experienced space fliers. Ham was joined by Pilot Tony Antonelli, Mission Specialists Garrett Reisman, Michael Good, Steve Bowen and Piers Sellers.

During the astronauts' first full day in orbit, the standard inspection of the orbiter's protective thermal coverings was completed using a backup camera system when a snagged cable temporarily prevented use of the intended laser and digital cameras. Both the primary and backup systems are part of the orbiter boom sensor system that attaches to the shuttle's robotic arm.

Atlantis docked with the International Space Station on May 16, two days after liftoff. Ham guided the orbiter through a graceful backflip known as a "rendezvous pitch maneuver," giving station crew members the chance to take nearly 400 photos of the shuttle. Finally, the two spacecraft linked up at 10:28 a.m. EDT as the pair sailed 220 miles above the South Pacific Ocean.

Image above: Anchored to the Canadarm2, Mission Specialist Garrett Reisman holds a space-to-ground antenna during the mission's first spacewalk. Image credit: NASA

The hatches between shuttle and station were opened at 12:18 p.m. and the six STS-132 astronauts were welcomed aboard by the station's six residents: cosmonauts Oleg Kotov, Expedition 23 commander, Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Kornienko, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi, and U.S. astronauts T.J. Creamer and Tracy Caldwell Dyson.

"We've been here before, but it's bigger than we remember -- and, speaking for myself, better than I remember," Ham said as docked operations officially began. "I love this place!"

The combined crew got right to work, using the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm to remove a cargo carrier from Atlantis' open payload bay to the station's mobile transporter. Mounted on the carrier were important new equipment and spares to be installed during the mission's three spacewalks, including a backup space-to-ground antenna and six 375-pound batteries.

The first of the mission's three spacewalks started the next morning at 7:54 a.m. when Reisman and Bowen switched their spacesuits to battery power and floated out of the station's Quest airlock. Riding the station's robotic arm, Reisman carried the boom for the new antenna from the cargo pallet up to the Z1 truss and returned to the cargo pallet to grab the six-foot-wide

Image above: The Russian-built Mini-Research Module 1 is removed from Atlantis' payload bay. Image credit: NASA

The pair then installed the antenna on the waiting boom, where it will help provide two-way data, voice and video communications for station residents. Reisman and Bowen added a spare-parts platform to the station's Dextre robotic arm and loosened the bolts holding the new batteries to the cargo carrier before wrapping up the 7-hour, 25-minute outing.

Installation of the Rassvet research module was the crew's next assignment. Ham and Antonelli used Atlantis' robotic arm to lift the nearly-20-foot-long component from the shuttle's payload bay, then handed it off to the station's robotic arm. Reisman guided the new module into the Earth-facing port on the Zarya module, achieving a flawless docking with one millimeter of clearance on either side of Rassvet's docking probe.

"Looks like a pretty good docking," Sellers reported to Mission Control. "Straight down the middle, got capture and contact."

Good joined Bowen for the second spacewalk, which got off to a head start at 6:38 a.m. May 19. First, Bowen fixed the snagged cable that had interfered with the early inspection of Atlantis' heat shield. After adjusting the cable and using a plastic tie to keep it in place, Mission Control announced the fix was successful.

Image above: Atlantis' belly is visible in a crystal-clear blue sky as it approaches touchdown on Runway 33. Image credit: NASA/Tony Gray and Tom Farrar

Next, the astronauts installed four of six new batteries on the station's port 6 truss, the station's backbone, transferring the old batteries to the cargo carrier for the return trip to Earth. Good and Bowen tightened the bolts on the new space-to-ground antenna before coming back inside as the 7-hour, 9-minute spacewalk ended.

Hatches between the station and Rassvet were opened the following day, as Atlantis and crew finished the mission's first week and enjoyed a few hours of off-duty time.

The final two port 6 truss batteries were installed during the mission's third and final spacewalk. Good and Reisman swapped out the remaining batteries and installed a backup ammonia coolant line between the port 4 and port 5 truss segments. They also left a new power and data grapple fixture inside the Quest airlock. The fixture will be installed by the station crew on the exterior of the Zarya module this summer.

With all the mission's major tasks accomplished, Good and Reisman headed back to the airlock after working outside the station for 6 hours and 46 minutes.

The astronauts finished transferring equipment and supplies from Atlantis to the space station as the docked portion of the STS-132 mission drew to a close.

"Thank you, Ken, and thank you to the whole crew," said station Commander Kotov as the Atlantis and station crews prepared to part ways. "Thank you for an excellent job, for your patience, for your work -- for everything."

Ham answered, "Through our entire docked timeframe here, we were a 12-person crew that operated together, and that was the only way we got everything done. ...We've had a great time together."

Image above: The STS-132 mission patch features Atlantis flying into the sunset as the end of the Space Shuttle Program approaches. However, the sun also is heralding the promise of a new day as it rises on the new ISS module, "Rassvet," the Russian word for dawn. Image credit: NASA

Atlantis undocked from the station May 23 at 11:22 a.m. after a weeklong stay at the orbiting complex. The shuttle circled the station at a distance of 400 to 600 feet and finally pulled away with a separation burn an hour and 15 minutes later.

The late inspection of Atlantis' protective skin went off without a hitch, and the shuttle was cleared to land.

Atlantis touched down at 8:48 a.m. May 26, gliding smoothly along Kennedy's Runway 33 after 186 orbits and nearly 12 full days in space. With Ham and Antonelli at the controls, the orbiter returned to its home port for what was planned to be the last time. During its 25 years of spaceflight, Atlantis completed 32 missions and traveled more than 120 million miles.

"We've all flown on Atlantis now, and some of us have flown on her a couple of times. She's a great ship," Antonelli said hours after landing, adding that it was a "real honor" to be on what may be its last flight. "We're happy to bring her back home to you here in Florida."

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts132/launch/132_overview.html

NASA Langley to Break Ground on Hydro Impact Basin

What goes up must come down, and it will be NASA Langley Research Center's job to make sure that when astronauts return from space, they land safely.

On June 8, NASA Langley will break ground on a $1.7 million Hydro Impact Basin that will serve to validate and certify that future space vehicles, such as NASA's Orion crew module, are designed for safe water landings.

The water basin will be 115 feet (35 m) long, 90 feet (27.4 m) wide and 20 feet (6.1 m) deep and will be built at the west end of Langley's historic Landing and Impact Research Facility, also known as the Gantry, where Neil Armstrong trained for walking on the moon. Construction will begin mid-June and will be completed by December 2010.

A series of water impact tests will be conducted using Orion drop test articles beginning in the spring of 2011. These tests will initially validate and improve the computer models of impact and acoustic loads used in the design and engineering process, and will ultimately qualify the final vehicle design for flight.

NASA Langley Research Center's Landing and Impact Research Facility will host a Hydro Impact Basin Groundbreaking ceremony Tues., June 8, 2010 in Hampton, Va.. Credit: NASA/Sean Smith

"We are excited about being a part of the nation's next space vehicle and it's landing system," said Lynn Bowman, who is managing the series of tests for the Orion project. "Our team has been involved with furthering the knowledge and testing of space vehicle landing systems and their components for the past few years."

The skill sets that NASA Langley engineers and technicians bring to the table as well as the capability of the gantry are two of the reasons the basin is being built at the center.

Bowman explains: "The Gantry provides the ability to control the orientation of the test article while imparting a vertical and horizontal impact velocity, which is required for human rating vehicles."

"This existing capability when combined with the water basin will provide a complete facility needed for landing certification of any manned spacecraft for water landing," added Bowman. "Even vehicles that do not perform a nominal water landing will need to certify for launch abort landings into water."

NASA aeronautics researchers recently dropped a small helicopter from a height of 35 feet (10.7 m) to see whether an expandable honeycomb cushion called a deployable energy absorber could lessen the destructive force of a crash. Credit: NASA/Sean Smith

Additionally, NASA Langley has more than 40 years experience with conducting controlled impact/landing tests of instrumented vehicles, said Lisa Jones, head of the Structural Testing Branch at NASA Langley.

NASA Langley's Gantry, built in 1963, was originally used to model lunar gravity. But after the Apollo program ended, it was transformed into the Impact Dynamics Research Facility and was used to test the crash worthiness of aircraft and rotorcraft.

In 2006 the Gantry experienced a revitalization as the country shifted its focus back to space exploration. The 240-foot (73 m) high Gantry provided engineers and astronauts a means to prepare for Orion's return to Earth.

When testing began in 2006, it was thought that a dry landing on Earth would be the preferred landing for the Orion capsule as it returned from space. During this phase, engineers studied the use of airbags during landings and dropped a total of 73 test articles, including a full-scale model of the Crew exploration vehicle, with different generations of airbags attached to the bottom.

More tests followed, including a series that evaluated the crew module's energy absorbing seat system, which protects the crew during a wide range of landing conditions. Langley engineers designed and built a 20,000-pound (9,072 kg) piece of steel hardware called the Crew Impact Attenuation System (CIAS) test article, which was dropped onto crushable honeycomb material sized to represent a broad range of landing conditions Orion could face.

The NASA Engineering and Safety Center recently performed a drop test of a 20,000-pound (9,072 kg) piece of steel hardware called the Crew Impact Attenuation System Test Article. The test article was dropped vertically on crushable honeycomb material. Credit: NASA/Sean Smith

In all, 117 drop tests were performed.

"This team really cranked out high quality testing and excellent analysis," said Bowman, who managed the Orion Landing System Team. "117 tests is a record."

Now that ground-landing tests are complete and the decision came to design Orion for landing in the water, the team at NASA Langley is ready to shift its focus to water. The team has already gotten its feet wet with a series of elemental water impact testing that began this past fall.

During these tests engineers dropped a 20-inch (50.8 cm) hemisphere from five feet (1.5 m) into a four-foot (1.2 m) deep pool so that they could build confidence in a design tool they might use to analyze data during the full-scale water impact tests to be done at the basin.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/constellation/orion/hydro-impact-basin.html

Discovery's OMS Pod Removed; Crew Practices Rendezvous, Docking

Workers at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida removed Discovery's right-side orbital maneuvering system pod Friday and will move it to the Hazardous Maintenance facility today for processing. The shuttle is undergoing standard launch processing for the STS-133 mission to the International Space Station.

The astronauts who will fly the mission are rehearsing in a simulator at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston for the rendezvous and docking at the station. The flight is targeted for launch in September.

Image above: Astronaut Tim Kopra sits in the flight engineer's position during a simulation earlier this year for the STS-133 mission. Commander Steve Lindsey is sitting in the left-hand seat in the front of the flight deck mockup as Pilot Eric Boe works in the right seat. Misison Specialist Alvin Drew is sitting beside Kopra. Image Credit: NASA

During space shuttle Discovery's final spaceflight, the STS-133 crew members will take important spares to the International Space Station along with the Express Logistics Carrier 4. Discovery is being readied for flight inside Kennedy's orbiter processing facility while its solid rocket boosters are stacked inside the nearby Vehicle Assembly Building. STS-133 is slated to launch in September.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

Next Stop, Titan: Looking at the Land o' Lakes

NASA's Cassini spacecraft will be eyeing the north polar region of Saturn's moon Titan this weekend, scanning the moon's land o' lakes.

At closest approach on early morning Saturday, June 5 UTC, which is Friday afternoon, June 4 Pacific time, Cassini will glide to within about 2,000 kilometers (1,300 miles) of the Titan surface.

Cassini will make infrared scans of the north polar region, which was in darkness for the first several years of Cassini's tour around the Saturn system. The lighting has improved as northern spring has started to dawn over the area.

Artist's concept of Cassini's June 4, 2010, flyby of Saturn's moon Titan. Image credit: NASA/JPL

The visual and infrared spectrometer will be prime during closest approach, but the imaging science subsystem cameras will also be taking pictures. Among the scientific bounties, Cassini team members are hoping to get another good look at Kraken Mare, the largest lake on Titan, which covers a greater area than the Caspian Sea on Earth.

Although this latest flyby is dubbed "T69," planning changes early in the orbital tour made this the 70th targeted flyby of Titan.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/whycassini/cassini20100603.html