Day: July 11, 2024

NASA Remembers Retired Astronaut, US Air Force Pilot Joe Engle

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Portrait of retired NASA astronaut Joe Engle wearing flight suit in front of an X-15 fighter circa 1963. Retired NASA astronaut and U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Joe Engle died July 10, surrounded by his family at home in Houston. Among his many honors, he is the only astronaut to pilot both the X-15 and space shuttle. He was 91. Engle became an astronaut at age 32 while flying the X-15 for the U.S. Air Force, becoming the youngest pilot ever to qualify as an astronaut. When selected as a…

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45 Years Ago: Skylab Reenters Earth’s Atmosphere

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A few days before they left Skylab on Feb. 8, 1974, the final crew to occupy the station raised its altitude, hoping to keep it in orbit until a future space shuttle could revisit it. But higher than predicted solar activity caused the Earth’s atmosphere to expand, increasing drag on the large vehicle, causing its orbit to decay faster than expected. In 1978, controllers reactivated the station and changed its attitude, hoping to keep it in orbit as long as possible by reducing atmospheric drag. In the meantime, delays in…

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‘Drawn to our planet:’ How spaceflight changed SpaceX Inspiration4 astronaut Chris Sembroski

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Inspiration4 was the world’s first all-civilian orbital mission, sending a four-person crew skyward atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The privately funded commercial mission took place from Sept. 16 to Sept. 18, 2021. Inspiration4 used a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft called “Resilience,” which was commanded by billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, the founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments. You should get familiar with that name, as he’s also leading the upcoming Polaris Dawn mission, the first effort in the three-flight Polaris program, which is funded and commanded by Isaacman. Isaacman booked…

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Cosmic crime scene reveals ancient supernova aftermath of dead star merger

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The ultimate cosmic “cold case” has lingered for 843 years — and now, space detectives may have solved it at last. In 1181 AD, as the Genpei War raged in Japan, a mystery “guest star” briefly flashed over Asia’s skies. Astronomers had puzzled over the brief event until 2021, when a team of researchers tracked it to its location in the cosmos. Yet, the cause of the event, now designated supernova (SN) 1181, remained shrouded in mystery. That was until a team of scientists used computer modeling and observational analysis…

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NASA Barge Preparations Underway for Artemis II Rocket Stage Delivery

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NASA/Eric Bordelon Team members are installing pedestals aboard NASA’s Pegasus barge to hold and secure the massive core stage of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket, indicating NASA barge crews are nearly ready for its first delivery to support the Artemis II test flight around the Moon. The barge will ferry the core stage on a 900-mile journey from the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to its Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Pegasus crew began installing the pedestals July 10.The barge, which previously was used to ferry…

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Perseid meteor shower returns to our skies this month to kick off summer ‘shooting star’ season

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Anyone gazing at the summer night sky for even a short length of time is likely to spot a few “shooting stars” darting across the sky.  The best meteor display of the summer comes during the second week of August during the annual Perseid meteor shower which, at its peak around the nights of Aug. 11 and 12, is capable of producing 50 to 100 fast, bright meteors per hour for a single observer. Many flaring meteors with trains are seen under good skies. 2024 will be a very good…

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Take a Summer Cosmic Road Trip With NASA’s Chandra and Webb

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Cosmic Road Trip: four distinct composite images from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the James Webb Space Telescope, presented in a two-by-two grid, Rho Ophiuchi at lower right, the heart of the Orion Nebula at upper right, the galaxy NGC 3627 at lower left and the galaxy cluster MACS J0416. X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical/Infrared: (Hubble) NASA/ESA/STScI; IR: (JWST) NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI It’s time to take a cosmic road trip using light as the highway and visit four stunning destinations across space. The vehicles for this space get-away are NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and…

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Acting Center Chief Technologist Dr. Phillip Williams

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“I did not know that NASA Langley was right here in my own backyard. I was born and raised in Portsmouth, Virginia, and NASA Langley is in Hampton, about 45 minutes away. All throughout elementary school, I didn’t know that NASA was here. I always thought NASA was in Florida or Texas or somewhere. “I was in this summer program [in eighth grade], learning physics at the university. I vividly remember we had a guest speaker. He was an African American mechanical engineer and he had on the blue flight…

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