Month: February 2024

Atmospheric Science Branch Chief Dr. Charles Gatebe

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“I was born and raised in Kenya and come from a very humble background. I’m one of nine kids and the third born, meaning that I started responsibilities very early because we had to help our mother. Almost every two to three years, she had a baby, so you can imagine she was a very, very strong woman and powerful, too. When I think about that past, she is the person, and my father as well, who taught us that we can overcome any obstacle. It doesn’t matter what it…

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Northern Maine Educators Prepare for Totality!

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2 min read Northern Maine Educators Prepare for Totality! More than 70 teachers, librarians, and informal educators from Aroostook County, Maine gathered to exchange ideas and make plans in preparation for celebrating the upcoming total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. Sponsored by the NASA Science Activation project Learning Ecosystems Northeast (LENE) and organized/hosted by Francis Malcolm Science Center (FMSC) in Easton, ME, these Trek to Totality events held on January 30 and February 13, 2024 included activity demonstrations by LENE partners, Gulf of Maine Research Institute and University of…

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China eyes May 2024 launch for 1st-ever lunar sample-return mission to moon’s far side

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Engineers working on China’s Chang’e-6 mission have foregone family reunions over the Lunar New Year to help get the spacecraft ready for launch. The components of the complex Chang’e-6 moon sample return mission arrived at Wenchang spaceport on Hainan island in early January. There, a team of engineers and researchers, many with extensive experience from the 2020 Chang’e-5 mission, is intensively testing and adjusting the equipment, according to a China Central Television (CCTV) report.  The mission will make the first ever attempt at collecting material from the far side of…

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Intuitive Machines Launches to the Moon

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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lunar lander lifts off from Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1:05 a.m. EST on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024. As part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis campaign, Intuitive Machines’ first lunar mission will carry NASA science and commercial payloads to the Moon to study plume-surface interactions, space weather/lunar surface interactions, radio astronomy, precision landing technologies, and a communication and navigation node for future autonomous navigation technologies.

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ROSES-24 is live and OTPS has funding opportunities in sustainability!

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3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) A computer generated image of objects in Earth orbit that are currently being tracked.  Credits: NASA ODPO NASA’s Office of Technology, Policy & Strategy is soliciting research and analysis related to the social, economic and policy aspects of space sustainability. This topic area is further refined into two separate elements: orbital space sustainability and lunar surface sustainability. OTPS will provide up to $300K (orbital) and $200K (lunar surface) for between 1-3 proposals in each element. Key questions are featured…

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Everything we know about ‘Spaceman’

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Prepare yourself for an out-there experience with Netflix’s “Spaceman.” Fans of science fiction have a lot to look forward to in the movie and TV space in 2024, and one of Netflix’s upcoming releases might be one of the best space movies we’ve received in a while if it lives up to its promise. Here’s everything we know about “Spaceman” starring Adam Sandler. “Spaceman,” an adaptation of Jaroslav Kalfař’s 2017 novel “Spaceman of Bohemia,” packs some very impressive creative talent, but it’s only one of the many sci-fi movies and…

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Private ‘Odysseus’ lander heads for the moon after SpaceX launch

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A pioneering private moon mission is going well so far. The robotic Odysseus moon lander, which was built by Houston company Intuitive Machines, launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket early this morning (Feb. 15) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.  The liftoff went smoothly, and Odysseus got up and running on its own as planned. The lander has been “successfully commissioned in space by establishing a stable attitude, solar charging and radio communications contact with the company’s mission operations center in Houston,” Intuitive Machines wrote in a brief…

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NASA Selects Texas A&M as First Approved Exploration Park Facility

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Feb. 15, 2024 RELEASE: J24-003 NASA Selects Texas A&M as First Approved Exploration Park Facility NASA and the Texas A&M University System announced an agreement Thursday, Feb. 15, to lease underutilized land in Exploration Park, a 240-acre development at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The A&M System will develop a facility to enable human spaceflight research and development that enables the commercial space economy.    The lease agreement will allow the A&M System and others to use NASA Johnson land to create facilities for a collaborative development environment…

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NASA Experiment Sheds Light on Highly Charged Moon Dust

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The New Shepard crew capsule descends under parachutes during its launch Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2023. Photo Credit: Blue Origin Researchers are studying data from a recent suborbital flight test to better understand lunar regolith, or Moon dust, and its potentially damaging effects as NASA prepares to send astronauts back to the lunar surface under the Artemis campaign. The experiment, developed jointly by NASA and the University of Central Florida, sheds light on how these abrasive dust grains interact with astronauts, their spacesuits, and other equipment on the Moon.  The Electrostatic…

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Flame Burns Out on NASA’s Long-Running Spacecraft Fire Experiment

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3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) A sample of fabric burns inside an uncrewed Cygnus cargo craft during a previous Spacecraft Fire Safety Experiment investigation, Saffire-IV. Credit: NASA NASA recently concluded the final mission of its Spacecraft Fire Safety Experiment, or Saffire, putting a blazing end to an eight-year series of investigations that provided insights into fire’s behavior in space. The final experiment, Saffire-VI, launched to the International Space Station in August 2023 and concluded its mission on Jan. 9, when the Northrop Grumman Cygnus…

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