Crescent Moon Over NASA’s Kennedy Space Center

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NASA / Joel Kowsky The crescent moon, along with Jupiter (top right of Moon) and Venus (below Moon) appeared over the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida Feb. 22, 2023, as preparations continued for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission. NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren “Woody” Hoburg, UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev launched to the International Space Station March 2, 2023. The NASA Headquarters photographers chose this photo as one of the best images from 2023. See the rest on Flickr. Image…

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Payroll

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1 Min Read Payroll The NASA Shared Services Center (NSSC) Payroll Office (NPO) reviews, validates, and delivers time and attendance data to the Department of the Interior (DOI) Interior Business Center (IBC) for NASA Centers.  NPO acts as liaison between Centers, employees and IBC for other payroll related activities such as supplemental payments, prior pay period adjustments  (PPPA) and settlement agreements. 2024 NASA Payroll Calendar Employment Verification POD A-12 – Non-Receipt of DD/EFT Payment Payroll Schedule Calendars

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Quadrantid meteor shower 2024: The year’s 1st meteor shower blazes over North America on Jan. 3

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The Quadrantid meteor shower will peak this week and could bring up to 120 shooting stars per hour to the night sky. It has the potential to be the strongest meteor shower of 2024, according to the American Meteor Society, but with such a short peak — just six hours — the shower’s climax can often occur in daylight. This year, the predicted peak is 7:53 a.m. EST (12:53 GMT) on Jan. 4, according to EarthSky. That makes the pre-dawn hours — from around 4:53 a.m. EST to dawn —…

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Artemis 2 moon astronaut says his 1st space launch will feel epic

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One of the Artemis 2 astronauts will mark his first trip in space with a trip to the moon. Canadian Space Agency mission specialist Jeremy Hansen recently shared in a video on X, formerly Twitter, how he and the rest of the Artemis 2 crew plan to get to the moon in 2024, including what he expects to feel on the big launch day. “You can imagine what it’s really going to be like to come up to the launch pad and have this living, breathing rocket full of fuel,…

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Earth’s intense gravity may rip space rocks apart, reducing the risk of ‘planet killer’ asteroids

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Every year, dozens of asteroids come closer to our planet than the moon is, and yet catastrophic collisions are exceedingly rare.  Now, a new study proposes that Earth has a built-in defense system —  its intense gravitational forces — that it uses to tackle asteroid interlopers. The enormous masses of planets and their moons mean they exert tremendous gravitational forces on nearby objects. The differences in gravity these objects experience, called tidal forces because astronomers used them to explain how the moon causes tides on Earth,  can be so strong…

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January’s Night Sky Notes: Connecting the ‘Dots’ with Asterisms

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3 min read January’s Night Sky Notes: Connecting the ‘Dots’ with Asterisms by Kat Troche of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific In our December Night Sky Notes, we mentioned that the Orion constellation has a distinct hourglass shape that makes it easy to spot in the night sky. But what if we told you that this is not the complete constellation, but rather, an asterism? An asterism is a pattern of stars in the night sky, forming shapes that make picking out constellations easy. Cultures throughout history have created…

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End of year, end of exhibit: Space shuttle Endeavour goes off view for a few years

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With the end of 2023 comes the end of an endeavor — or rather Endeavour — as the retired NASA space shuttle goes off public view for the next few years. The California Science Center in Los Angeles has exhibited OV-105, better known as the orbiter Endeavour, since Oct. 30, 2012. The 11-year exhibition, which was housed in the center’s specially-built Samuel Oschin Pavilion, offered unmatched access to the spacecraft, as the public could not only walk around Endeavour, but also under it, as the vehicle was displayed in the…

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Sea of methane sealed beneath Arctic permafrost could trigger climate feedback loop if it escapes

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Deep beneath the permafrost that blankets a group of islands in the Arctic Ocean lurks a growing and migrating sea of methane, researchers have discovered. The thick permafrost, or ground that remains frozen for at least two years, forms a tight seal that has so far prevented millions of cubic feet of methane from wafting out — but there’s no guarantee that the potent greenhouse gas won’t eventually escape, according to a study published Dec. 13 in the journal Frontiers in Earth Science. “At present, the leakage from below permafrost…

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These eclipse-themed places will experience totality on April 8, 2024

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Will you be in Shadowland, Texas, to see the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024? How about watching the lunar disk cross the solar disk from Moon Beach, New York, or glimpsing the sun’s halo from Corona, Missouri?  You could visit thousands of locations to experience totality in Mexico, the U.S., and Canada, but make sure you are within the path of totality. Only then will you experience darkness in the middle of the day and be able to see the sun’s corona with your own eyes, at all…

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SpaceX test fires giant Starship booster  — and spaceship  —  for 3rd test flight (video)

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SpaceX closed out 2023 with a fiery double test of its next Starship megarocket booster and spacecraft on Friday (Sept. 29), sharing some stunning videos of both vehicles in the process. The dual test of engines on the giant Starship and Super Heavy rocket stages at SpaceX’s Starbase proving ground in Boca Chica, Texas on Friday comes as the company prepares for its third Starship launch test, which is expected in early 2024.  “Just completed static fire of Flight 3 Super Heavy Booster,” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote on X…

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