Tag: Marshall Space Flight Center

NASA Marshall Names Roger Baird Associate Director

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3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Roger Baird has been selected as associate director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. In this role, Baird will lead execution and integration of the center’s business operations, mission support enterprise functions, and budget management. In addition, he will be a senior adviser in advancing the direction of the center’s future. Baird will also help manage the center’s 7,000 civil service and contract employees and help oversee an annual budget of approximately $5 billion. He will…

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NASA CubeSats Launch as Commercial Rideshares

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A pair of CubeSats from NASA’s Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator series launched on SpaceX’s Transporter-11 rideshare mission at 11:56 a.m. PDT Friday, August 16, from Vandenburg Space Force Base in California. Photo credit: SpaceX A pair of CubeSats from NASA’s Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator, or PTD, series lifted off on SpaceX’s Transporter-11 rideshare mission at 11:56 a.m. PDT Friday, August 16, from Vandenburg Space Force Base in California. The two small satellites, PTD-4 and PTD-R, will help advance NASA’s efforts to validate novel technologies and increase small spacecraft capabilities in order to…

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NASA Awards $1.25 Million to Three Teams at Deep Space Food Finale

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Interstellar Lab, a small business comprised of team members from France, Texas, and Florida, took home the $750,000 grand prize for their food system, NUCLEUS, which uses a multi-pronged approach to growing and harvesting food outputs for astronauts on long-duration human space exploration missions. Credit: OSU/CFAES/Kenneth Chamberlain NASA has awarded a total of $1.25 million to three U.S. teams in the third and final round of the agency’s Deep Space Food Challenge. The teams delivered novel food production technologies that could provide long-duration human space exploration missions with safe, nutritious,…

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The Marshall Star for August 14, 2024

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17 Min Read The Marshall Star for August 14, 2024 Marshall Director Joseph Pelfrey Addresses Space and Missile Defense Symposium NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Director Joseph Pelfrey gives a keynote address during the 2024 Space and Missile Defense Symposium on Aug. 8 at the Von Braun Center in downtown Huntsville. Pelfrey shared updates on programs and projects that Marshall is leading for the agency, and highlighted strategic partnerships that have used Marshall’s deep technical expertise. More than 7,000 people attended this year’s symposium, including leaders and stakeholders from across…

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NASA Invites Media to Watch Artemis II Rocket Adapter Roll Out

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Crews are preparing to move a key adapter for NASA’s Space Launch System rocket out of Marshall Space Flight Center’s Building 4708 to the agency’s Pegasus barge. The cone-shaped launch vehicle stage adapter connects the rocket’s core stage to the upper stage and helps protect the upper stage’s engine that will help propel the Artemis II mission around the Moon. Credits: Sam Lott/NASA To mark progress toward the first crewed flight test around the Moon in more than 50 years for the benefit of humanity, NASA will welcome media Wednesday,…

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NASA Challenge Seeks ‘Cooler’ Solutions for Deep Space Exploration

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NASA’s Human Lander Challenge, or HuLC, is now open and accepting submissions for its second year. As NASA aims to return astronauts to the Moon through its Artemis campaign in preparation for future missions to Mars, the agency is seeking ideas from college and university students for evolved supercold, or cryogenic, propellant applications for human landing systems. As part of the 2025 HuLC competition, teams will aim to develop innovative solutions and technology developments for in-space cryogenic liquid storage and transfer systems as part of future long-duration missions beyond low…

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

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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…

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The Marshall Star for August 7, 2024

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23 Min Read The Marshall Star for August 7, 2024 NASA Additive Manufacturing Project Shapes Future for Agency, Industry Rocket Makers The widespread commercial adoption of additive manufacturing technologies, commonly known as 3D printing, is no surprise to design engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center whose research created stronger, lighter weight materials and new manufacturing processes to make rocket parts. NASA’s RAMPT (Rapid Analysis and Manufacturing Propulsion Technology) project is on the cutting edge of additive manufacturing – helping the agency and industry produce new alloys and additively manufactured…

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NASA Sends More Science to Space, More Strides for Future Exploration

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New experiments aboard NASA’s Northrop Grumman 21st cargo resupply mission aim to pioneer scientific discoveries in microgravity on the International Space Station. Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft, filled with nearly 8,500 pounds of supplies, launched Aug. 4 atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Biological and physical investigations aboard the spacecraft included experiments studying the impacts of microgravity on plants (grass), how packed bed reactors could improve water purification both in space and on Earth, and observations on new…

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NASA Invites Media, Public to Attend Deep Space Food Challenge Finale

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NASA’s Deep Space Food Challenge directly supports the agency’s Moon to Mars initiatives. Credit: NASA NASA invites the media and public to explore the nexus of space and food innovation at the agency’s Deep Space Food Challenge symposium and winners’ announcement at the Nationwide and Ohio Farm Bureau 4-H Center in Columbus, Ohio, on Friday, Aug. 16.  In 2019, NASA and the CSA (Canadian Space Agency) started the Deep Space Food Challenge, a multi-year international effort to develop sustainable food systems for long-duration habitation in space including the Moon and Mars.…

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