16 Min Read The Marshall Star for December 13, 2023 Marshall Team Members Celebrate Holiday Season By Jessica Barnett Marshall team members gather at the center’s holiday reception Dec. 7 in Activities Building 4316. From left are Cory Brown, Leigh Martin, Lisa Watkins, Shaun Baek, and Randy Silver. NASA/Alex Russell For hundreds of team members at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, “eat, drink, and be merry” was the afternoon theme for Dec. 7. Marshall team members sign up for door prizes while Marshall Acting Center Director Joseph Pelfrey offers welcoming…
Read MoreMars’ atmosphere swelled like a balloon when solar wind stopped blowing. Scientists are thrilled
Mars’ atmosphere, once as thick as if not thicker than Earth’s today, is leaking into space. About 0.25 lbs of Mars’ atmosphere (0.11 kg) is pushed away every second by the incessant solar wind, the speedy stream of charged particles routinely blasted from the sun which pervade the solar system and even reach beyond Pluto. But for a rare two days last December, some of that wind went away. Its sudden and dramatic disappearance, causing the atmosphere on Mars’ sun-facing side to swell by nearly four times its usual size…
Read MoreNASA’s NEOWISE Celebrates 10 Years, Plans End of Mission
NEOWISE is depicted in an artist’s concept in front of an image of the infrared sky that the mission captured. The string of red dots moving across the sky near the center of the image is Holda, the first asteroid the space telescope detected shortly after being reactivated in 2013. NASA/JPL-Caltech The asteroid and comet-hunting infrared space telescope has gathered an impressive haul of observations, but it’s now at the mercy of the Sun, which is accelerating its demise. NASA’s NEOWISE has had a busy decade. Since its reactivated mission…
Read MoreNASA Provides Update on Venture-Class Launch Services
NASA currently is working with several commercial companies as part of the agency’s VADR (Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare) launch services contract, providing new opportunities for science, and technology payloads. These include: ABL Space Systems of El Segundo, California Astra Space Inc. of Alameda, California Blue Origin Florida, LLC of Merritt Island, Florida Firefly Space Transport Services of Cedar Park, Texas L2 Solutions DBA SEOPS, LLC of Houston, Texas Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation of Chandler, Arizona Phantom Space Corporation of Tucson, Arizona Relativity Space Inc. of Long Beach, California Rocket…
Read MoreEirsat-1, Ireland’s 1st satellite, makes space history
Ireland has joined the space club with the launch of its first satellite to low-Earth orbit, setting the stage for students of all ages across the Emerald Isle to get involved in space science. The Educational Irish Research Satellite-1 (Eirsat-1) blasted into space from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Dec. 1. Around an hour and a half after launch, the tiny satellite, which is not much larger than a house brick, unfolded and deployed its antenna. Eirsat-1 made contact with its operators…
Read MoreUnderwater volcano riding a sinking tectonic plate may have unleashed major earthquakes in Japan
An ancient underwater volcano riding a sinking tectonic plate off the coast of Japan may have unleashed several unexplained major earthquakes — by grinding against another tectonic plate above it, a new study finds. The extinct underwater volcano, known as Daiichi-Kashima seamount, sits on the Pacific tectonic plate roughly 25 miles (40 kilometers) off Japan’s east coast. There, three tectonic plates intersect — with the Pacific plate to the east and the Philippine plate to the south both slipping beneath the Okhotsk plate to the north. The seamount sits on…
Read More2023 in Review: Artemis II Crew Visits Kennedy
Artemis II crew members, shown inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, stand in front of their Orion crew module on Aug. 8, 2023. From left are: Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist; Victor Glover, pilot; Reid Wiseman, commander; and Christina Hammock Koch, mission specialist. The crew module is undergoing acoustic testing ahead of integration with the European Service Module. Artemis II is the first crewed mission on NASA’s path to establishing a long-term lunar presence for science and exploration under Artemis.
Read MoreNASA’s Space Station Laser Comm Terminal Achieves First Link
3 Min Read NASA’s Space Station Laser Comm Terminal Achieves First Link NASA’s ILLUMA-T payload at Goddard Space Flight Center fully tested and integrated prior to its delivery to Kennedy Space Center. Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center A NASA technology experiment on the International Space Station completed its first laser link with an in-orbit laser relay system on Dec. 5, 2023. Together, they complete NASA’s first two-way, end-to-end laser relay system. NASA’s LCRD (Laser Communications Relay Demonstration) and the new space station demonstration, ILLUMA-T (Integrated LCRD Low Earth Orbit…
Read MoreNASA Kennedy Space Center’s Top 20 Stories of 2023
Here’s a look back at 2023’s most significant events at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida: JANUARYDay of Remembrance Marks 20th Anniversary of Columbia Tragedy NASA senior management and guests paid tribute to the crew members of space shuttle Columbia, as well as other astronauts who perished in the line of duty, during the agency’s Annual Day of Remembrance held at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. NASA’s Day of Remembrance NASA/Kim Shiflett JANUARYFacilities, Spacecraft Prepped for Artemis II Mission Teams with Exploration Ground Systems began upgrading and modifying facilities…
Read MoreSolar storms could affect train safety by glitching railroad signals
Safer train travel requires tracking solar storms, a new study urges. Powerful eruptions from the sun could cause accidents during peak train-travel times by interfering with electrical signaling stations, potentially switching railroad indicators from red (stop) to green (go), according to the research. “This is obviously very significant from a safety perspective,” study lead author Cameron Patterson, a physics researcher at Lancaster University in England, said in a statement on Monday (Dec. 11). “We found that space weather events, capable of triggering faults in these track circuits, are expected in…
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