2024 Leadership Changes to Include NASA Stennis Director’s Retirement
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced Monday that after more than 30 years of service, the agency’s Stennis Space Center Director Richard Gilbrech will retire on Saturday, Jan. 13.
Stennis Deputy Director John Bailey will serve as acting center director after Gilbrech’s departure, and a permanent successor will be identified following a search and competition.
Nelson also announced Chief of Staff Susie Perez Quinn will transition to a senior advisor role at the end of the year, and Bale Dalton will succeed her beginning Monday, Jan. 1.
“Please join me in welcoming new leadership across NASA, who will continue leading our agency to unparalleled success,” said Nelson. “I’m thankful for Rick’s, Susie’s, and Bale’s leadership and wish Rick all the best in his new adventure.”
Gilbrech has served as center director at Stennis for more than a decade and in leadership and engineering roles at NASA since 1991. He has led teams at Stennis in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, and NASA Headquarters in Washington, focusing on propulsion test technology, the space shuttle, and the X-33 in various roles, including as associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate and deputy center director at both Stennis and Langley.
Most recently, Gilbrech has been instrumental in the growth of commercial partnerships at Stennis, leveraging the center’s unique capabilities and expertise as America’s largest rocket propulsion test site.
Quinn has served as chief of staff since 2021, working with Nelson and senior staff to shape the strategic direction of the agency, while overseeing and articulating various policies and programs, with a focus climate change.
In addition to his experience at NASA as deputy chief of staff, Dalton is a captain in the U.S. Navy Reserves. He received his bachelor’s degree from the U.S. Naval Academy, Master of Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School, and Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School.
“With new transitions and the end of the calendar year approaching, it’s a time to pause and reflect on all that NASA has achieved this year. We’re living through the golden era of space exploration, and it’s because of our world-class workforce that we continue to lead the world in air and space – and I can’t wait to see what’s to come,” added Nelson.
NASA Engineer Named in Forbes 30 Under 30 List of Innovators
Clare Luckey, an engineer at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, has been named one of Forbes’ 30 under 30 Class of 2024. The other NASA honoree is Katie Konans, audio and podcasting lead at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list is a selection of young, creative, and bold minds the magazine’s experts consider revolutionaries, changing the course of business and society. Forbes evaluated more than 20,000 nominees to decide on 600 business and industry figures, with 30 selected in each of 20 industries.
Official portrait of Clare Luckey. Credit: NASA/Josh Valcarcel
“To be honored with such an award is truly humbling,” Luckey said. “This is a list of insanely talented people who are shaping the future, and I’m fortunate to be a part of it.”
Clare Luckey is the co-lead of crew transit operations within the Mars Architecture Team, which is working on the first crewed mission to Mars. In addition to her work on Mars missions, she regularly does outreach in underserved communities to encourage students to pursue careers in STEM and space.
Clare began her NASA career as an intern in Johnson’s Center Operations Directorate, then was hired full-time as an integration lead for cargo resupply flights to the International Space Station.
Luckey grew up in Southfield, Michigan. She earned her Bachelor of Science in space weather engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 2017, and her Master’s in space architecture from the University of Houston in 2019.
Clare Luckey, an engineer at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Credit: NASA/Bill Stafford
“One of my earliest STEM memories was in middle school, when a group of my friends and I participated in a Future Cities competition to design a city on Mars,” Luckey said. “We didn’t win – not even close – but it challenged us to think critically and creatively. I’m extremely fortunate that’s essentially what I get to do that in real life now! I think all kids deserve to have experiences like that, that inspire them to imagine a future beyond themselves. My parents worked hard to ensure that I’d have opportunities like that, especially coming from a place where not many people end up in engineering, let alone at NASA. I’m grateful to them for that.”
“To that end, I think it’s important to have a support system of people cheering you on,” she continued. “I don’t know where I’d be without the many people who have mentored, encouraged, and pushed me since I started as an intern in 2018. I hope to do that for others someday.”
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
In December 2022, NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) mission observed the dramatic and unexpected “disappearance” of a stream of charged particles constantly emanating off the Sun, known as the solar wind. This was caused by a special type of solar event that was so powerful, it created a void in its wake as it traveled through the solar system.
Due to this event, MAVEN’s measurements at Mars showed that the number of particles making up the solar wind dropped significantly. Without the pressure of the solar wind, the Martian atmosphere and magnetosphere expanded by thousands of kilometers. MAVEN is the only asset currently at Mars able to simultaneously observe both the Sun’s activity and the response of the Martian atmosphere to these solar influences.
“When we first saw the data, and how dramatic the drop in the solar wind was, it was almost unbelievable,” said Jasper Halekas, professor at the University of Iowa and the lead author on a new study on the event. “We formed a working group to study the event, and we have found this time period to be rich with incredible findings.”
Mars, like all the planets in our solar system, is constantly immersed in the solar wind. The solar wind exerts pressure on the Martian magnetosphere and ionosphere, and drives much of the escape of the atmosphere. The solar event in December 2022 was caused by faster-moving solar wind that overtook slower moving solar wind, which acted like a broom, sweeping and compressing the two regions together. This interaction, called a stream interaction region, left behind a rare void of extremely low-density solar wind in its wake, which was observed by MAVEN. This “disappearance” of the solar wind led to some incredible interactions within Mars’ magnetosphere and ionosphere.
As the density of the solar wind dropped by a factor of 100, it caused the pressure to decrease and the magnetosphere and ionosphere of the planet were able to expand by thousands of kilometers—more than tripled the typical size—and dramatically changed in character. The Sun’s magnetic field that typically is embedded within the Martian ionosphere was pushed outwards, which transformed the ionosphere from a magnetized to unmagnetized state. At the same time, the layer between the solar wind and the magnetosphere became unusually electromagnetically quiet. MAVEN’s observations of this dramatic event and subsequent transformation and expansion of the whole system is important to better understand the physics that drive atmospheric and water loss at Mars.
“We are really getting to see how Mars responds when the solar wind is effectively removed,” Halekas added. “It makes for a great outlier study on what Mars would be like if it were orbiting a less ‘windy’ star.”
Disappearing solar wind events on this scale are extremely rare and are produced at a time of increasing solar activity, so this was the first time the MAVEN mission had the opportunity to observe such a phenomenon. While other spacecraft at Mars and Earth also observed aspects of this event, only MAVEN was able to simultaneously take measurements from both the Sun and the Martian atmosphere’s response to it.
“Observing extreme conditions is always scientifically invaluable,” said Shannon Curry, principal investigator for MAVEN at the University of California, Berkeley. “MAVEN was designed to observe these types of interactions between the Sun and the Martian atmosphere, and the spacecraft provided exceptional data during this truly anomalous solar event.”
As the Sun moves toward solar maximum, the peak of its 11-year activity cycle, the MAVEN mission could have an even bigger impact on our understanding of extreme solar events.
“This really shows the cross-divisional role that MAVEN plays at Mars,” said Gina DiBraccio, MAVEN deputy principal investigator and deputy director of the Heliophysics Science Division at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “MAVEN is not only observing the dynamics of the Martian atmosphere, it is also monitoring solar inputs to enhance our understanding of the Sun.”
The study is being presented at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in San Francisco.
MAVEN’s principal investigator is based at the University of California, Berkeley, while NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the MAVEN mission. Lockheed Martin Space built the spacecraft and is responsible for mission operations. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California provides navigation and Deep Space Network support. The Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder is responsible for managing science operations and public outreach and communications.The MAVEN team is preparing to celebrate the spacecraft’s 10th year at Mars in September 2024.
Willow Reed Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder
Media Contacts: Nancy Neal Jones NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center’s DC-8 aircraft flew from California to Everett, Washington on Oct. 10 to conduct research on aircraft condensation trails. The contrails emitted from a Boeing 737-10 plane involved in the testing are visible as it flies past.
NASA / Jim Ross
In a collaboration between multiple partners in the aviation industry, NASA is helping determine if the latest advances in aircraft engines and fuels can reduce atmospheric warming from condensation trails. Those condensation trails can trap heat in our atmosphere under specific conditions and increase the impact the aviation industry has on global warming.
NASA partnered with the Boeing ecoDemonstrator Explorer Program and others including General Electric Aerospace, the Federal Aviation Administration, the German Aerospace Center, United Airlines, and World Energy. Their goal was to see if sustainable aviation fuels and advanced engine technology can decrease contrail formation.
Rich Moore, NASA’s principal investigator for ecoDemonstrator, watches the livestream of footage from a camera located under the belly of the DC-8 on Oct. 10. The contrails from the Boeing plane are visible on his laptop monitor.
NASA / Jim Ross
In October, NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center’s DC-8 aircraft flew behind a Boeing ecoDemonstrator Explorer, a 737-10 passenger jet that the company plans to turn over to United Airlines, to capture and measure its emissions. Scientists outfitted the DC-8 with instruments to collect data that will compare the emissions from sustainable aviation fuel to the emissions from conventional jet fuel. In its fifth decade of flying science missions, the DC-8 is the largest flying science laboratory in the world and served as an ideal platform for experts from the Advanced Air Transport Technology project in NASA’s Advanced Air Vehicles Program, and other scientific partners.
Innovative technologies like sustainable aviation fuel and more efficient engine designs require state-of-the-art test models and exhaustive research methods performed by the most qualified experts in the world. That is what the ecoDemonstrator Explorer Program as a collaboration provided. Results from this collaborative study will be publicly available within a year to help the aviation sector improve its environmental impact worldwide.
NASA’s DC-8 overlooked the Cascade Mountain range in northwestern United States as it headed to Everett, Washington on Oct. 10 to conduct research on aircraft condensation trails. The white peak of Mount Rainier glows in the distance beyond a foggy mountain landscape.
NASA’s Webb Stuns With New High-Definition Look at Exploded Star
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NASA’s Webb Stuns With New High-Definition Look at Exploded Star
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s new view of Cassiopeia A (Cas A)
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, D. Milisavljevic (Purdue University), T. Temim (Princeton University), I. De Looze (University of Gent)
Mysterious features hide in near-infrared light
Like a shiny, round ornament ready to be placed in the perfect spot on a holiday tree, supernova remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A) gleams in a new image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. As part of the 2023 Holidays at the White House, First Lady of the United States Dr. Jill Biden debuted the first-ever White House Advent Calendar. To showcase the “Magic, Wonder, and Joy” of the holiday season, Dr. Biden and NASA are celebrating with this new image from Webb.
While all is bright, this scene is no proverbial silent night. Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) view of Cas A displays this stellar explosion at a resolution previously unreachable at these wavelengths. This high-resolution look unveils intricate details of the expanding shell of material slamming into the gas shed by the star before it exploded.
Cas A is one of the most well-studied supernova remnants in all of the cosmos. Over the years, ground-based and space-based observatories, including NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory, Hubble Space Telescope, and retired Spitzer Space Telescope have assembled a multiwavelength picture of the object’s remnant.
However, astronomers have now entered a new era in the study of Cas A. In April 2023, Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) started this chapter, revealing new and unexpected features within the inner shell of the supernova remnant. Many of those features are invisible in the new NIRCam image, and astronomers are investigating why.
Image: Cassiopeia A (NIRCam)
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s new view of Cassiopeia A (Cas A) in near-infrared light is giving astronomers hints at the dynamical processes occurring within the supernova remnant. Tiny clumps represented in bright pink and orange make up the supernova’s inner shell, and are comprised of sulfur, oxygen, argon, and neon from the star itself. A large, striated blob at the bottom right corner of the image, nicknamed Baby Cas A, is one of the few light echoes visible NIRCam’s field of view. In this image, red, green, and blue were assigned to Webb’s NIRCam data at 4.4, 3.56, and 1.62 microns (F444W, F356W, and F162M, respectively).
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, D. Milisavljevic (Purdue University), T. Temim (Princeton University), I. De Looze (University of Gent)
‘Like Shards of Glass’
Infrared light is invisible to our eyes, so image processors and scientists translate these wavelengths of light to visible colors. In this newest image of Cas A, colors were assigned to different filters from NIRCam, and each of those colors hints at different activity occurring within the object.
At first glance, the NIRCam image may appear less colorful than the MIRI image. However, this simply comes down to the wavelengths in which the material from the object is emitting its light.
The most noticeable colors in Webb’s newest image are clumps represented in bright orange and light pink that make up the inner shell of the supernova remnant. Webb’s razor-sharp view can detect the tiniest knots of gas, comprised of sulfur, oxygen, argon, and neon from the star itself. Embedded in this gas is a mixture of dust and molecules, which will eventually become components of new stars and planetary systems. Some filaments of debris are too tiny to be resolved by even Webb, meaning they are comparable to or less than 10 billion miles across (around 100 astronomical units). In comparison, the entirety of Cas A spans 10 light-years across, or 60 trillion miles.
“With NIRCam’s resolution, we can now see how the dying star absolutely shattered when it exploded, leaving filaments akin to tiny shards of glass behind,” said Danny Milisavljevic of Purdue University, who leads the research team. “It’s really unbelievable after all these years studying Cas A to now resolve those details, which are providing us with transformational insight into how this star exploded.”
Image: Cassiopeia A NIRCam/MIRI
This image provides a side-by-side comparison of supernova remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A) as captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument). Objects in space reveal different aspects of their composition and behavior at different wavelengths. The outskirts of Cas A’s main inner shell, which appeared as a deep orange and red in the MIRI image, look like smoke from a campfire in the NIRCam image. The dust in the circumstellar material being slammed into by the shockwave is too cool to be detected directly at near-infrared wavelengths, but lights up in the mid-infrared. Also not seen in the near-infrared view is the loop of green light in the central cavity of Cas A that glows in mid-infrared, nicknamed the Green Monster by the research team.
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, D. Milisavljevic (Purdue University), T. Temim (Princeton University), I. De Looze (University of Gent)
Hidden Green Monster
When comparing Webb’s new near-infrared view of Cas A with the mid-infrared view, its inner cavity and outermost shell are curiously devoid of color.
The outskirts of the main inner shell, which appeared as a deep orange and red in the MIRI image, now look like smoke from a campfire. This marks where the supernova blast wave is ramming into surrounding circumstellar material. The dust in the circumstellar material is too cool to be detected directly at near-infrared wavelengths, but lights up in the mid-infrared.
Researchers say the white color is light from synchrotron radiation, which is emitted across the electromagnetic spectrum, including the near-infrared. It’s generated by charged particles traveling at extremely high speeds spiraling around magnetic field lines. Synchrotron radiation is also visible in the bubble-like shells in the lower half of the inner cavity.
Also not seen in the near-infrared view is the loop of green light in the central cavity of Cas A that glowed in mid-infrared, nicknamed the Green Monster by the research team. This feature was described as “challenging to understand” by researchers at the time of their first look.
While the ‘green’ of the Green Monster is not visible in NIRCam, what’s left over in the near-infrared in that region can provide insight into the mysterious feature. The circular holes visible in the MIRI image are faintly outlined in white and purple emission in the NIRCam image – this represents ionized gas. Researchers believe this is due to the supernova debris pushing through and sculpting gas left behind by the star before it exploded.
Image: Cassiopeia A Features
This image highlights several interesting features of supernova remnant Cassiopeia A as seen with Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera): NIRCam’s exquisite resolution is able to detect tiny knots of gas, comprised of sulfur, oxygen, argon, and neon from the star itself; Circular holes visible in the MIRI image within the Green Monster are faintly outlined in white and purple emission in the NIRCam image; An example of a light echo – when light from the star’s long-ago explosion has reached, and is warming, distant dust, which is glowing as it cools down; A particularly intricate and large light echo, nicknamed Baby Cas A by researchers.
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, D. Milisavljevic (Purdue University), T. Temim (Princeton University), I. De Looze (University of Gent).
Baby Cas A
Researchers were also absolutely stunned by one fascinating feature at the bottom right corner of NIRCam’s field of view. They’re calling that large, striated blob Baby Cas A – because it appears like an offspring of the main supernova.
This is a light echo, where light from the star’s long-ago explosion has reached and is warming distant dust, which is glowing as it cools down. The intricacy of the dust pattern, and Baby Cas A’s apparent proximity to Cas A itself, are particularly intriguing to researchers. In actuality, Baby Cas A is located about 170 light-years behind the supernova remnant.
There are also several other, smaller light echoes scattered throughout Webb’s new portrait.
The Cas A supernova remnant is located 11,000 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia. It’s estimated to have exploded about 340 years ago from our point of view.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.
