NASA Glenn Holds Day of Remembrance 

NASA Glenn Holds Day of Remembrance 

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Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)

An astronaut in a flight suit, left, and NASA’s acting administrator, right, adjust a large wreath with red and white carnations to a stand in front of a memorial marker.
NASA astronaut Kayla Barron, left, and NASA Acting Administrator Janet Petro place a wreath at the Space Shuttle Columbia Memorial as part of NASA’s Day of Remembrance at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.
Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls 

NASA observed its annual Day of Remembrance on Jan. 23, honoring the members of the NASA family who lost their lives in the pursuit of exploration and discovery for the benefit of humanity. The annual event acknowledges the crews of Apollo 1 and the space shuttles Challenger and Columbia. 

NASA Acting Administrator Janet Petro and astronaut Kayla Barron participated in an observance at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. Wreaths were laid in memory of the men and women who lost their lives in the quest for space exploration. 

The acting director of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center stands on stage in front of a podium with a NASA emblem and addresses an audience of Glenn employees. The Apollo I mission patch is displayed on a video screen behind him.
Acting Director of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Kelvin Manning shares insights during Glenn’s NASA Day of Remembrance Observance. He talks about the lessons learned that resulted in increased measures for astronaut safety.
Credit: NASA/Sara Lowthian-Hanna 

Several agency centers also held observances for NASA Day of Remembrance. NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland hosted an observance on Jan. 28 with remarks from Center Director Dr. Jimmy Kenyon and a keynote address from the acting director of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Kelvin Manning.  

Kenyon reflected on the loss of the astronauts and the impact on their families. A large part of honoring their legacy, he said, is committing to a culture of safety awareness and practices. Learning what went wrong is vital to safely moving forward into the future. He then introduced a video recognizing the fallen heroes.  

A woman stands at the back of the auditorium holding a trumpet and playing Taps.
NASA Glenn Research Center’s Amanda Shalkhauser plays Taps prior to a moment of silence during Glenn’s NASA Day of Remembrance Observance.
Credit: NASA/Sara Lowthian-Hanna 

Manning, who worked with the families of the Apollo I astronauts to learn their stories and honor their legacy through an exhibit at NASA Kennedy, shared insights into the causes of the tragedy. He talked about the lessons learned through the investigation that resulted in increased measures for astronaut safety. 

Kenyon then carried a memorial wreath to the front of the stage. NASA Glenn’s Amanda Shalkhauser played Taps, which was followed by a moment of silence. 

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Kelly M. Matter

Sols 4450-4451: Making the Most of a Monday

Sols 4450-4451: Making the Most of a Monday

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Sols 4450-4451: Making the Most of a Monday

A grayscale, extreme wide-angle image of brightly lit Martian terrain shows an exaggerated, curved horizon in the distance, with a large mesa rising in the top center of the image, and another on the left side. The entire field between that and the image foreground is covered in rocks of varying sizes poking out of the ground at various angles, with very few patches of flat ground. Most of the rocks are very light gray, almost white, compared to the gray of the soil. The Curiosity rover is casting a shadow at the bottom of the image, and one of its wheels is faintly visible in the shadow in the lower right corner, atop some rocks.
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image of its brightly lit workspace and its right-front wheel in the shadows, perched on some tall rocks. The rover used its Right Front Hazcam (Front Hazard Avoidance Camera) to capture the image on sol 4449 — or Martian day 4,449 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — Feb. 10, 2025, at 10:44:45 UTC.
NASA/JPL-Caltech

Earth planning date: Monday, Feb. 10, 2025

Last Saturday around 20:00 Pacific Standard Time I saw a 22-degree halo encircling our mostly-full Moon and Mars; an entire planet hanging in the sky between our Moon and the atmospheric phenomenon. As I took in the view I wondered what our rover was doing at that moment… turns out the Sun had just risen over Gale crater and Curiosity was still asleep, waiting for her alarm to go off in about 2.5 hours for another full day of science. 

She wouldn’t start the weekend’s drive until Monday morning about 1:30, while I was still asleep waiting for my alarm to sound at 5:15. The drive’s data arrived on Earth about 5:30, and told us we drove until our time-of-day limit for driving — stopping about 36 meters (about 118 feet) away from Friday’s location. Unfortunately, our right-front wheel was shown to be perched on some tall rocks and we couldn’t quantify the drop risk if we unstowed the arm. We decided to play it safe and keep the arm stowed instead.

Today’s two-sol plan would normally be in “nominal” sols — meaning we’d get a full day of science and a drive on the second sol — but due to some DSN downtime on Earth we moved our drive to the first sol, therefore switching to “restricted” sols a bit earlier than usual after our last soliday. Even though we couldn’t plan contact science, we’re making the most of our plan with almost 90 minutes of remote sensing. Mastcam will take an approximately 24-frame stereo mosaic of Wilkerson butte to the north, and ChemCam will shoot their laser at a rock in our workspace named “Carbon Canyon,” as well as three separate RMI mosaics! We’ll then attempt to drive until our time-of-day limit of about 15:00 local Gale time, hopefully getting us to a more stable spot on Wednesday for contact science. The second sol contains our usual dust-devil surveys with Navcam, atmospheric opacity measurements with Mastcam, and a blind LIBS on a piece of bedrock the rover chooses autonomously.

Written by Natalie Moore, Mission Operations Specialist at Malin Space Science Systems

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Feb 11, 2025

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NASA Invites Media to Artemis II Moon Mission Activities at Kennedy

NASA Invites Media to Artemis II Moon Mission Activities at Kennedy

A massive crane lifts NASA’s Orion spacecraft out of the Final Assembly and System Testing cell and moves it to the altitude chamber to complete further testing on Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024, inside the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The altitude chamber simulates deep space vacuum conditions, and the testing will provide additional data to augment data gained during testing earlier this summer.
A massive crane lifts NASA’s Orion spacecraft out of the Final Assembly and System Testing cell and moves it to the altitude chamber to complete further testing on Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024, inside the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The altitude chamber simulates deep space vacuum conditions, and the testing will provide additional data to augment data gained during testing earlier this summer.
Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

Media are invited to visit NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, to capture imagery of the agency’s Artemis II Orion spacecraft and twin SLS (Space Launch System) solid rocket boosters for the first crewed Artemis mission around the Moon. The event is targeted for Friday, March 7.

Subject matter experts from NASA and industry partners will be available for interviews.

Space is limited for this event. The deadline for foreign national media to apply is 11:59 p.m. EST, Thursday, Feb. 13. The deadline for U.S. citizens is 11:59 p.m. EST, Thursday, Feb. 20.

All accreditation requests must be submitted online at:

https://media.ksc.nasa.gov

Credentialed media will receive a confirmation email upon approval. NASA’s media accreditation policy is available online. For questions about accreditation, or to request logistical support, email: ksc-media-accreditat@mail.nasa.gov. For other questions, please contact NASA’s Kennedy Space Center newsroom at: 321-867-2468.

Para obtener información sobre cobertura en español en el Centro Espacial Kennedy o si desea solicitor entrevistas en español, comuníquese con Antonia Jaramillo o Messod Bendayan a: antonia.jaramillobotero@nasa.gov o messod.c.bendayan@nasa.gov.

Through Artemis, NASA will send astronauts to explore the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and build the foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars.

Learn more about NASA’s Artemis campaign:

https://www.nasa.gov/artemis

-end- 

Rachel Kraft
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
rachel.h.kraft@nasa.gov

Tiffany Fairley/Allison Tankersley
Kennedy Space Center, Florida
321-747-8306/ 321-412-7237
tiffany.l.fairley@nasa.gov / allison.p.tankersley@nasa.gov

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Roxana Bardan

Space Shuttle Endeavour Takes Flight

Space Shuttle Endeavour Takes Flight

Exhaust from the solid rocket boosters lights up the bottom of this image showing the space shuttle Endeavour launching into space. Blue mach diamonds can be seen to the right of the exhaust, emerging from the main engine nozzles.
NASA

Blue mach diamonds from the main engine nozzles and bright exhaust from the solid rocket boosters mark the successful launch of space shuttle Endeavour 25 years ago on Feb. 11, 2000. The STS-99 mission crew – including astronauts from NASA, the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA), and the European Space Agency (ESA) – were aboard the shuttle.

This mission saw the deployment of the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission mast and the antenna turned to its operation position. After a successful checkout of the radar systems, mapping began less than 12 hours after launch. Crewmembers split into two shifts so they could work around the clock.

Also aboard Endeavour was a student experiment called EarthKAM, which took 2,715 digital photos during the mission through an overhead flight-deck window. The NASA-sponsored program lets middle school students select photo targets and receive the images via the Internet. 

Image credit: NASA

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Monika Luabeya

NASA, SpaceX Invite Media to Watch Crew-10 Launch to Space Station

NASA, SpaceX Invite Media to Watch Crew-10 Launch to Space Station

Four NASA SpaceX Crew-10 members sit in a capsule in their white spacesuits, looking around the spacecraft during training.
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 members (from left to right) Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, NASA astronauts Nichole Ayers and Anne McClain, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi pictured training at SpaceX in Hawthorne, California.
Credit: SpaceX

Media accreditation is open for the launch of NASA’s 10th rotational mission of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft, carrying astronauts to the International Space Station for a science expedition. The agency’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission is targeting launch on Wednesday, March 12, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The launch will carry NASA astronauts Anne McClain as commander and Nichole Ayers as pilot, along with JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov as mission specialists. This is the first spaceflight for Ayers and Peskov, and the second mission to the orbiting laboratory for McClain and Onishi.

Media accreditation deadlines for the Crew-10 launch as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program are as follows:

  • International media without U.S. citizenship must apply by 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 13.
  • U.S. media and U.S. citizens representing international media organizations must apply by 11:59 p.m. EST on Sunday, Feb. 23.

All accreditation requests must be submitted online at:

https://media.ksc.nasa.gov

NASA’s media accreditation policy is online. For questions about accreditation or special logistical requests, email: ksc-media-accreditat@mail.nasa.gov. Requests for space for satellite trucks, tents, or electrical connections are due by Friday, Feb. 21.

For other questions, please contact NASA Kennedy’s newsroom at: 321-867-2468.

Para obtener información sobre cobertura en español en el Centro Espacial Kennedy o si desea solicitar entrevistas en español, comuníquese con Antonia Jaramillo: 321-501-8425, o Messod Bendayan: 256-930-1371.

For launch coverage and more information about the mission, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew

-end-

Joshua Finch / Claire O’Shea
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / claire.a.o’shea@nasa.gov

Steve Siceloff / Stephanie Plucinsky
Kennedy Space Center, Florida
321-867-2468
steven.p.siceloff@nasa.gov / stephanie.n.plucinsky@nasa.gov

Kenna Pell
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
kenna.m.pell@nasa.gov

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Jessica Taveau