If you've never seen the International Space Station flying 220 miles overhead, this is the week to do so. The station will be in almost constant sunlight from Wednesday through Friday, offering an incredible view to sky gazers across the country.
In order to find out when the station will be visible over your city, visit: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/sightings
The International Space Station, a unique partnership between the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Japan, Canada and Europe, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. Construction began in 1998 and will be completed in 2010. Seventeen crews have lived aboard the orbiting complex since 2000, including the current crew of three. Station residents have conducted important scientific experiments and gathered data to help assist future missions to the moon and Mars.
The next space shuttle mission, scheduled to launch May 31, will deliver the Japanese Pressurized Module, the largest payload to the station so far. Another unique viewing opportunity for sky watchers is when the shuttle is docked to the station, making it appear even brighter in the night sky.
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NASA has selected SP Systems Inc. of Greenbelt, Md., to provide mission support services under the Program Analysis and Control (PAAC III) contract. The work will support NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center's Flight Projects Directorate in Greenbelt.
The cost-plus award fee indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract will be effective from June 28, 2008 through June 27, 2013. The maximum ordering value of the contract is $200 million. This award is a follow-on to the PAAC II contract.
SP Systems Inc. will support newly proposed, under development and on-going programs including the Hubble and James Web Space Telescopes, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Gamma-ray Large Area Telescope. The contractor will provide planning and scheduling, configuration management, information technology, documentation and library services, and general business and general accounting services.
The Goddard Flight Projects Directorate is responsible for managing spacecraft flight hardware systems, ground systems, launch vehicles, and research instrumentation payloads for NASA science and exploration programs.
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A new NASA-led study shows human-caused climate change has made an impact on a wide range of Earth's natural systems, including permafrost thawing, plants blooming earlier across Europe, and lakes declining in productivity in Africa.
Cynthia Rosenzweig of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Science in New York and scientists at 10 other institutions have linked physical and biological impacts since 1970 with rises in temperatures during that period. The study, to be published May 15 in the journal Nature, concludes human-caused warming is resulting in a broad range of impacts across the globe.
"This is the first study to link global temperature data sets, climate model results, and observed changes in a broad range of physical and biological systems to show the link between humans, climate, and impacts," said Rosenzweig, lead author of the study.
Rosenzweig and colleagues also found the link between human-caused climate change and observed impacts on Earth holds true at the scale of individual continents, particularly in North America, Europe, and Asia.
To arrive at the link, the authors built and analyzed a database of more than 29,000 data series pertaining to observed impacts on Earth's natural systems. The data were collected from about 80 studies, each with at least 20 years of records between 1970 and 2004.
Observed impacts included changes to physical systems, such as glaciers shrinking, permafrost melting, and lakes and rivers warming. Biological systems also were impacted in a variety of ways, such as leaves unfolding and flowers blooming earlier in the spring, birds arriving earlier during migration periods, and plant and animal species moving toward Earth's poles and higher in elevation. In aquatic environments such as oceans, lakes, and rivers, plankton and fish are shifting from cold-adapted to warm-adapted communities.
The team conducted a "joint attribution" study. They showed that at the global scale, about 90 percent of observed changes in diverse physical and biological systems are consistent with warming. Other driving forces, such as land use change from forest to agriculture, were ruled out as having significant influence on the observed impacts.
Next, the scientists conducted statistical tests and found the spatial patterns of observed impacts closely match temperature trends across the globe, to a degree beyond what can be attributed to natural variability. The team concluded observed global-scale impacts are very likely because of human-caused warming.
"Humans are influencing climate through increasing greenhouse gas emissions," Rosenzweig said. "The warming is causing impacts on physical and biological systems that are now attributable at the global scale and in North America, Europe, and Asia."
On some continents, including Africa, South America, and Australia, documentation of observed changes in physical and biological systems is still sparse despite warming trends attributable to human causes. The authors concluded environmental systems on these continents need additional research, especially in tropical and subtropical areas where there is a lack of impact data and published studies.
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NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate has selected the winners of its high school contest to describe the passenger and cargo aircraft of the future.
Tom Neuman, a senior from George Walton Comprehensive High School in Marietta, Ga., and Aditya Singh, a senior from Anglo-Chinese Junior College in Singapore, won top prizes for essays about their concepts for multi-functional personal air vehicles.
More than 140 teenagers from 50 schools across the United States and 15 foreign countries submitted 65 entries in four categories: U.S. individual, U.S. team, non-U.S. individual and non-U.S. team. The top teams were three eleventh-graders from West High School in Torrance, Calif., and three ninth-graders from the National High School of Computer Science, Tudor Vianu, Bucharest, Romania.
"It is wonderful to see high school students from all over the world thinking about the future of aeronautics and writing down their ideas about potential solutions for the challenges facing the global aviation enterprise," said Juan Alonso, manager of the mission directorate's Fundamental Aeronautics Program. "The students' inventiveness and creativity is extremely impressive."
NASA's Fundamental Aeronautics Program sponsored the annual competition. The entries were reviewed by NASA managers and engineers. The judges based their scores on how well students focused their papers and how well they addressed four basic criteria: informed content, creativity and imagination, organization, and writing.
NASA will award the top scoring papers from the U.S. with a trophy and a cash prize of $1,000 for the individual award winner and $1,500 for the team. Non-U.S. students will receive a trophy, but are not eligible for cash prizes. All participants will receive a NASA certificate and a personal letter of commendation.
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NASA's Kennedy Space Center has awarded a contract to Hensel Phelps of Orlando, Fla., for the construction of the Ares I mobile launcher for the Constellation Program. Ares I is the rocket that will transport the Orion crew exploration vehicle, its crew and cargo to low Earth orbit. The contract includes an option for an additional Ares I mobile launcher. It is a firm fixed-price contract with a value of $263,735,000, if all options are exercised.
The mobile launcher will support the Ares I and the vehicle's associated ground support equipment. It will be used in the assembly, testing and servicing of the Ares I at existing Kennedy facilities. The mobile launcher will transport the Ares I rocket to the launch pad and provide ground support for launches. The mobile launcher consists of the main support structure that comprises the base, tower and facility ground support systems, which include power, communications, conditioned air, water for cooling, wash-down, and ignition over-pressure protection.
Hensel Phelps will supply all labor, materials and equipment necessary for construction of the Ares I mobile launcher. Ground support equipment, such as umbilicals, propellant and gases, instrumentation, controls and communications, necessary to support the Ares I rocket will be provided and installed under a separate contract or contracts.
The tower of the mobile launcher will have multiple platforms for personnel access and will be approximately 390 feet tall. Construction will take place at the mobile launcher park site area located north of Kennedy's Vehicle Assembly Building at the space center in Florida.
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With the help of the space shuttle program, NASA kicks off a new artifact loan program for museums, planetariums, and other organizations. NASA's new Artifact Loan Opportunities Program will help organizations borrow NASA artifacts for education and outreach purposes.
The first artifacts available are main landing gear tires from space shuttles. The space shuttle tires, including some flown on missions, are available to proposing organizations that NASA determines best meet the agency's education and public outreach goals.
This new program gives organizations that are not traditionally associated with the agency the chance to have access to NASA artifacts. The shuttle tires and future available artifacts represent NASA's many decades of exploration and discovery.
Organizations interested in proposing uses for loaned shuttle tires should be external to NASA. Organizations may include, but are not limited to, museums, schools, and civic groups. The long-term loan of these tires may be used to educate, inspire or inform the public about NASA's scientific and technological achievements through art, sculpture, furniture, building structures, exhibits or other innovative uses of the artifacts.
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NASA has scheduled a media briefing Tuesday, May 13, at 11 a.m. EDT, to discuss the challenges, risks and science opportunities of the scheduled May 25 landing of the Phoenix Mars Lander. Officials also will provide details on the Phoenix landing site.
The briefing will take place in the NASA Headquarters' James E. Webb Auditorium, 300 E St., S.W., Washington. It will be carried live on NASA Television and on the Web.
Phoenix is expected to conduct a three-month mission studying a northern arctic site on the Red Planet. Phoenix will dig down to an ice-rich layer expected to lie within arm's reach of the surface of Mars. It will analyze the water and soil for evidence about climate cycles and investigate if the environment there has ever been favorable for microbial life.
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NASA astronauts Dan Tani of Illinois and Suni Williams of Massachusetts, both past residents of the International Space Station, will be available to discuss what it takes to become an astronaut during satellite interviews on Wednesday, May 7.
Tani will be available from 5 to 8 a.m. CDT and Williams will be available from 4 to 6 p.m. NASA now is accepting applications for its 2009 astronaut class. The agency is looking for a diverse group of candidates who want to be part of the next generation of explorers. The deadline for applications is July 1.
To participate in the interviews, media should contact Lindsay Bromley at 281-483-2924 by 5 p.m., Tuesday, May 6.
Tani, who considers Lombard, Ill., his hometown, was selected as an astronaut in April 1996. He first flew on space shuttle mission STS-108 in 2001. He more recently served as the Expedition 16 flight engineer aboard the space station from October 2007 to February 2008. Tani has logged more than 131 days flying in space, including 32 hours and 38 minutes spacewalking.
Williams, who considers Needham, Mass., her hometown, was selected as an astronaut in June 1998. She served as a flight engineer aboard the space station for 195 days, launching on space shuttle mission STS-116 in December 2006, and returning to Earth aboard STS-117 in June 2007. She has accumulated 29 hours and 17 minutes walking in space.
NASA's media channel will be used to conduct the interviews. The channel is located on satellite AMC 6, transponder 5C, which is located at 72 degrees west, downlink frequency 3785.5 Mhz, vertical polarity, FEC of 3/4th, symbol rate 4.3404 Mbaud.
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After safely reaching its launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, space shuttle Discovery now awaits its next major milestone for the upcoming STS-124 mission. A launch dress rehearsal, known as the terminal countdown demonstration test, is scheduled to take place at Kennedy from May 6 to 9.
Discovery arrived at the pad at 4:25 a.m. EDT Saturday on top of a giant crawler-transporter. The crawler-transporter left Kennedy's Vehicle Assembly Building at 11:47 p.m. Friday, traveling less than 1 mph during the 3.4-mile journey. The shuttle was secured on the launch pad at 6:06 a.m. Saturday.
Discovery is targeted to launch May 31 on a 13-day mission to the International Space Station. The shuttle's seven crew members will deliver the Kibo laboratory's large Japanese Pressurized Module, or JPM, and its remote manipulator system to the International Space Station. Three spacewalks will be conducted during the flight.
Mark Kelly will command the STS-124 mission. Ken Ham will be the pilot. The mission specialists are Karen Nyberg, Ron Garan, Mike Fossum, Greg Chamitoff and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Akihiko Hoshide. Chamitoff will remain on the station as a resident crew member, replacing station Flight Engineer Garrett Reisman, who will return home on Discovery.
The STS-124 astronauts and ground crews will participate in the practice countdown. The terminal countdown demonstration test provides each shuttle crew with an opportunity to participate in various simulated countdown activities, including equipment familiarization and emergency training.
STS-124 is the 123rd shuttle flight, the 35th flight for Discovery and the 26th flight to the station.
The following media events are associated with the test. All times are Eastern.
- May 6 - STS-124 crew arrival: The astronauts will arrive at 5 p.m. at the Shuttle Landing Facility and make a statement. The arrival will be broadcast live on NASA Television.
- May 8 - STS-124 crew media availability: The crew will take media questions at Launch Pad 39A at 8:30 a.m. The session will be carried live on NASA TV.
- May 9 - STS-124 crew walkout photo opportunity: The astronauts will depart from the Operations and Checkout Building at 7:45 a.m. in their flight entry suits in preparation for the countdown demonstration test at the launch pad. The walkout will not be broadcast live, but will be part of the NASA TV Video File.
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NASA's Space Shuttle Program on Thursday successfully conducted a test firing of a space shuttle reusable solid rocket motor in Utah.
The test firing of Flight Verification Motor 2 evaluated possible performance changes as motors age. Space shuttle solid rocket motors are certified for flight for five years from their date of manufacture. At more than seven years of age, the four-segment motor tested Thursday is the oldest ever fired. The test further substantiates the certification that was established by NASA at the beginning of the shuttle program.
The test also provided important information for continued launches of the shuttle and development of the Ares I rocket, a key component of NASA's Constellation Program that will launch the Orion crew vehicle on missions to the moon.
The test measured external sound, or acoustics, to help define motor-generated external loads for Ares I. This valuable data will assist in the final design of the launch structure for Ares I rockets by engineers from NASA and ATK Launch Systems Group of Promontory, Utah.
Preliminary indications are that all test objectives were met. After final test data are analyzed, results for each objective will be published later this year.
"This test is an example of the aggressive testing program NASA pursues to assure flight safety," said David Beaman, manager of the Reusable Solid Rocket Booster Project office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. "It also allows us to gather information on how motors with different ages perform."
The test provided a unique opportunity to compare performance data from two motors of different ages to validate midlife and full-life certification of their components. The segments tested Thursday were originally stacked at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida in 2002 and returned to Utah in 2004. As a result of this test, engineers will better understand the effects of aging and exposure to different climates for extended periods of time.
Each space shuttle launch requires the power of two reusable solid rocket booster motors to lift the 4.5-million-pound shuttle vehicle. They burn for approximately 123 seconds and generate an average thrust of 2.6 million pounds. In Thursday's test, the motor generated 3.3 million pounds maximum thrust for two minutes, which is the same time each reusable solid rocket motor burns during a space shuttle launch.
The space shuttle reusable solid rocket motor is the largest ever to fly. It is the only solid rocket motor rated for human flight and the first designed for reuse. Two motors provide 90 percent of the thrust needed to launch the space shuttle.
The Reusable Solid Rocket Booster Project Office manages the tests. ATK Launch Systems Group, a unit of Alliant Techsystems Inc., manufactures space shuttle solid rocket motors.
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