NASA Hosts Astronaut Don Pettit Prelaunch Interviews

NeRD

NASA astronaut Don Pettit during crew qualification exams at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. Credits: GCTC/Roscosmos NASA astronaut Don Pettit is available for limited interview opportunities beginning at 10 a.m. EDT, Friday, Aug. 16, to discuss his upcoming mission to the International Space Station in September. The virtual interviews will stream live on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA+ through a variety of platforms including social media. Interested media must submit a request no later than 12 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 15,…

Read More

Astro Campers SCoPE Out New Worlds

NeRD

Learn Home Astro Campers SCoPE Out New… Astrophysics Overview Learning Resources Science Activation Teams SME Map Opportunities More Science Stories Science Activation Highlights Citizen Science   2 min read Astro Campers SCoPE Out New Worlds Teachers at Smokey Mountain Elementary School have collaborated with the NASA Science Activation (SciAct) program’s Smoky Mountains STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Collaborative (SMSC) and project coordinator, Randi Neff, to create a summer camp for students who are passionate about STEM topics. What started as a small summer camp has since evolved into Astro…

Read More

A ‘FURST’ of its Kind: Sounding Rocket Mission to Study Sun as a Star

NeRD

4 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) By Jessica Barnett  From Earth, one might be tempted to view the Sun as a unique celestial object like no other, as it’s the star our home planet orbits and the one our planet relies on most for heat and light. But if you took a step back and compared the Sun to the other stars NASA has studied over the years, how would it compare? Would it still be so unique? The Full-sun Ultraviolet Rocket SpecTrograph (FURST) aims…

Read More

NASA Teams Change Brakes to Keep Artemis Crew Safe

NeRD

Teams with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program, in preparation for the agency’s Artemis II crewed mission to the Moon, begin installing the first of four emergency egress baskets on the mobile launcher at Launch Complex 39B at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024. The baskets, similar to gondolas on ski lifts, are used in the case of a pad abort emergency to enable astronauts and other pad personnel a way to quickly escape away from the mobile launcher to the base of the pad…

Read More

Regina Caputo Charts the Future of High-Energy Astrophysics

NeRD

Research astrophysicist Regina Caputo puzzles out how the universe works by studying the most extreme events in the cosmos. ​​Name: Regina CaputoTitle: Research Astrophysicist Organization: Astroparticle Physics Laboratory (Code 661) Regina Caputo is a research astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. She focuses on technology development and support for gamma-ray telescopes. Photo credit: NASA/David Friedlander What do you do and what is most interesting about your role here at Goddard? I’m a research astrophysicist in the particle astrophysics lab at Goddard. I’m really interested in the most…

Read More

NASA Tests Deployment of Roman Space Telescope’s ‘Visor’

NeRD

In this clip, engineers are testing the the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s Deployable Aperture Cover. This component is responsible for keeping light out of the telescope barrel. It will be deployed once in orbit using a soft material attached to support booms and remains in this position throughout the observatory’s lifetime. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center The “visor” for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope recently completed several environmental tests simulating the conditions it will experience during launch and in space. Called the Deployable Aperture Cover, this large…

Read More

NASA to Launch 8 Scientific Balloons From New Mexico

NeRD

4 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) A scientific balloon is inflated for the Salter Test Flight before being released during NASA’s 2023 fall balloon campaign. The test flight returns for the 2024 campaign in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, carrying several smaller payloads. NASA/Andrew Hynous NASA’s Scientific Balloon Program has kicked off its annual fall balloon campaign at the agency’s balloon launch facility in Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Eight balloon flights carrying scientific experiments and technology demonstrations are scheduled to launch from mid-August through mid-October. The…

Read More

Hubble Spotlights a Supernova

NeRD

2 min read Hubble Spotlights a Supernova This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image reveals the galaxy LEDA 857074. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. J. Foley This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the galaxy LEDA 857074, located in the constellation Eridanus. LEDA 857074 is a barred spiral galaxy, with partially broken spiral arms. The image also captured a supernova, named SN 2022ADQZ, shining brightly on the right side of the galaxy’s bar. Several evolutionary paths can lead to a supernova explosion. One is the death of a supermassive star. When…

Read More

Big news! ‘The Orville’ is getting a 4th season, actor confirms

NeRD

At the recent “Star Trek” Las Vegas convention, actor Scott Grimes, who plays Lt. Gordon Malloy on “The Orville,” revealed to a small — and stunned — crowd that season 4 of the show is set to begin pre-production at some point early in 2025.  Absolutely no one was expecting this, so no video of the big announcement seems to exist on social media. But it has been confirmed on The Planetary Union Network: ‘The Orville‘ Official Fan Podcast. Moreover, that same group wrote on Reddit, “Seth [MacFarlane, the show’s…

Read More