NASA, Boeing to Discuss Starliner’s Mission

NASA and Boeing will discuss Starliner’s mission and departure from the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test in a pre-departure media teleconference at 12 p.m. EDT Tuesday, June 18.

NASA, Boeing, and station management teams will evaluate mission requirements and weather conditions at available landing locations in the southwestern U.S. before committing to the spacecraft’s departure from the orbiting laboratory.

Participants in the news conference include:

• Steve Stich, manager, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program
• Dana Weigel, manager, NASA’s International Space Station Program
• Mike Lammers, flight director, NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston
• Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager, Commercial Crew Program, Boeing

Media interested in participating must contact the NASA Johnson newsroom no later than 10 a.m., June 18, at 281-483-5111 or jsccommu@mail.nasa.gov. To ask questions, media must dial into the teleconference no later than 15 minutes before the start of the event.

Audio of the teleconference will stream live on NASA’s website at:

https://nasa.gov/nasatv

As part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams lifted off at 10:52 a.m., June 5, on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on an end-to-end test of the Starliner system. The crew docked to the forward-facing port of the station’s Harmony module at 1:34 p.m., June 6.

For NASA’s blog and more information about the mission, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew

-end-

Josh Finch / Jimi Russell / Claire O’Shea
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / james.j.russell@nasa.gov / claire.a.o’shea@nasa.gov

Courtney Beasley / Leah Cheshier
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
courtney.m.beasley@nasa.gov / leah.d.cheshier@nasa.gov

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Abbey A. Donaldson

NASA Announces Winners of 2024 Student Launch Competition

Over 1,000 students from across the U.S. and Puerto Rico launched high-powered, amateur rockets on April 13, just north of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, as part of the agency’s annual Student Launch competition.

Teams of middle school, high school, college, and university students were tasked to design, build, and launch a rocket and scientific payload to an altitude between 4,000 and 6,000 feet, while making a successful landing and executing a scientific or engineering payload mission.

“These bright students rise to a nine-month challenge that tests their skills in engineering, design, and teamwork,” said Kevin McGhaw, director of NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement Southeast Region. “They are the Artemis Generation, the future scientists, engineers, and innovators who will lead us into the future of space exploration.”

NASA announced the University of Notre Dame is the overall winner of the agency’s 2024 Student Launch challenge, followed by Iowa State University, and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. A complete list challenge winners can be found on the agency’s student launch web page.

Each year NASA implements a new payload challenge to reflect relevant missions. This year’s payload challenge is inspired by the Artemis missions, which seek to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon.

The complete list of award winners are as follows:

2024 Overall Winners

• First place: University of Notre Dame, Indiana
• Second place: Iowa State University, Ames
• Third place: University of North Carolina at Charlotte

3D Printing Award:

College Level:

• First place: University of Tennessee Chattanooga

Middle/High School Level:

• First place: First Baptist Church of Manchester, Manchester, Connecticut

Altitude Award

College Level:

• First place: Iowa State University, Ames

Middle/High School Level:

• First place: Morris County 4-H, Califon, New Jersey

Best-Looking Rocket Award:

College Level:

• First place: New York University, Brooklyn, New York

Middle/High School Level:

• First place: Notre Dame Academy High School, Los Angeles

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Reusable Launch Vehicle Innovative Payload Award:

College Level:

• First place: University of Colorado Boulder
• Second place: Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee
• Third place: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Judge’s Choice Award:

Middle/High School Level:

• First place: Cedar Falls High School, Cedar Falls, Iowa
• Second place: Young Engineers in Action, LaPalma, California
• Third place: First Baptist Church of Manchester, Manchester, Connecticut

Project Review Award:

College Level:

• First place: University of Florida, Gainesville

AIAA Reusable Launch Vehicle Award:

College Level:

• First place: University of Florida, Gainesville
• Second place: University of North Carolina at Charlotte
• Third place: University of Notre Dame, Indiana

AIAA Rookie Award:

College Level:

• First place: University of Colorado Boulder

Safety Award:

College Level:

• First place: University of Notre Dame, Indiana
• Second place: University of Florida, Gainesville
• Third place: University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Social Media Award:

College Level:

• First place: University of Colorado Boulder

Middle/High School Level:

• First place: Newark Memorial High School, Newark, California

STEM Engagement Award:

College Level:

• First place: University of Notre Dame, Indiana
• Second place: University of North Carolina at Charlotte
• Third place: New York University, Brooklyn, New York

Middle/High School Level:

• First place: Notre Dame Academy High School, Los Angeles, California
• Second place: Cedar Falls High School, Cedar Falls, Iowa
• Third place: Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Alexandria, Virginia

Service Academy Award:

First place: United States Air Force Academy, USAF Academy, Colorado

Vehicle Design Award:

Middle/High School Level:

• First place: First Baptist Church of Manchester, Manchester, Connecticut
• Second place: Explorer Post 1010, Rockville, Maryland
• Third place: Plantation High School, Plantation, Florida

Payload Design Award:

Middle/High School Level:

• First place: Young Engineers in Action, LaPalma, California
• Second place: Cedar Falls High School, Cedar Falls, Iowa
• Third place: Spring Grove Area High School, Spring Grove, Pennsylvania

Student Launch is one of NASA’s nine Artemis Student Challenges, activities which connect student ingenuity with NASA’s work returning to the Moon under Artemis in preparation for human exploration of Mars.

The competition is managed by Marshall’s Office of STEM Engagement (OSTEM). Additional funding and support are provided by NASA’s OSTEM via the Next Gen STEM project, NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate, Northrup Grumman, National Space Club Huntsville, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, National Association of Rocketry, Relativity Space, and Bastion Technologies.

To watch the full virtual awards ceremony, please visit NASA Marshall’s YouTube channel.

For more information about Student Launch, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/stem/studentlaunch/home/index.html

For more information about other NASA challenges, please visit:

https://stem.nasa.gov/artemis/

Taylor Goodwin
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256.544.0034 
taylor.goodwin@nasa.gov

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NASA Joins National Space Council in Celebration of Black Space Week

Each year, Black Space Week celebrates the achievements of Black Americans in space-related fields.

To kick-off Black Space Week 2024, NASA is collaborating with the National Space Council for the Beyond the Color Lines: From Science Fiction to Science Fact forum on Monday, June 17, at 11:30 a.m. EDT at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington.

Participants include Mr. Chirag Parikh, Deputy Assistant to the President and Executive Director, National Space Council; Dr. Quincy Brown, Director of Space STEM and Workforce Policy, White House National Space Council; and other private-sector and government agency leadership. 

Current and former NASA astronauts will join the Standing on the Shoulders of Giants panel to discuss the past, present, and future of space exploration. The panel will be moderated by the Honorable Charles F. Bolden Jr., former administrator of NASA and a former astronaut who flew on four Space Shuttle missions. Participants include:

• Victor J. Glover, Jr., NASA Astronaut and U.S. Navy Captain
• Jessica Watkins, NASA Astronaut
• Yvonne Cagle, NASA Astronaut
• Leland Melvin, former NASA Astronaut
• Joan Higginbotham, former NASA Astronaut

Additional panels include HERStory, sharing the untold stories of Black women leaders in space, STEM, arts, diplomacy, and business, and a discussion with young leaders, educators, and scientists about education and career paths for the future of space.

Additional event details, including registration and streaming information, can be found at nmaahc.si.edu.

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Gerelle Q. Dodson

NASA to Discuss Outcome of 5th Biennial Asteroid Threat Exercise

NASA will host a virtual media briefing at 3:30 p.m. EDT, Thursday, June 20, to discuss a new summary of a recent tabletop exercise to simulate national and international responses to a hypothetical asteroid impact threat.

The fifth biennial Planetary Defense Interagency Tabletop Exercise was held April 2 and 3, 2024, at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland.

NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, in partnership with FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and with the assistance of the U.S. Department of State Office of Space Affairs, convened the tabletop exercise to inform and assess our ability as a nation to respond effectively to the threat of a potentially hazardous asteroid or comet. This exercise supports NASA’s planetary defense strategy to protect our planet and continues the agency’s mission to innovate for the benefit of humanity.

Video of the briefing will stream live on NASA TV and NASA’s YouTube channel.

The following participants will review the history and purpose of the exercise, the scenario encountered during this year’s simulation, and its findings and recommendations:

• Lindley Johnson, NASA’s Planetary Defense Officer Emeritus, NASA Headquarters, Washington
• Leviticus “L.A.” Lewis, FEMA detailee to NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, NASA Headquarters
• Terik Daly, planetary defense section supervisor, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland

To register for the briefing, media must RSVP no later than two hours before the event to Alise Fisher at alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov. NASA’s media accreditation policy is available online.

While there are no known significant asteroid impact threats for the foreseeable future, hypothetical exercises like this one, which are conducted about every two years, provide valuable insights on how the United States could respond effectively if a potential asteroid impact threat is identified.

This year’s exercise was the first to include participation by NASA’s international collaborators in planetary defense and the first to have the benefit of actual data from NASA’s successful DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission, the world’s first in-space technology demonstration for defending Earth against potential asteroid impacts.

NASA established the Planetary Defense Coordination Office in 2016 to manage the agency’s ongoing efforts in planetary defense.

To learn more about planetary defense at NASA, visit: 

https://science.nasa.gov/planetary-defense/

-end-

Charles Blue / Karen Fox
Headquarters, Washington 
202-802-5345 / 202-358-1600
charles.e.blue@nasa.gov / karen.fox@nasa.gov

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Tiernan P. Doyle

NASA-Led Mission to Map Air Pollution Over Both U.S. Coasts

This summer between June 17 and July 2, NASA will fly aircraft over Baltimore, Philadelphia, parts of Virginia, and California to collect data on air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions.  

The campaign supports the NASA Student Airborne Research Program for undergraduate interns.

The East Coast flights will take place from June 17-26. Researchers and students will fly multiple times each week in Dynamic Aviation’s King Air B200 aircraft at an altitude of 1,000 feet over Baltimore and Philadelphia as well as Norfolk, Hampton, Hopewell, and Richmond in Virginia. Meanwhile, a NASA P-3 aircraft based out of NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia will fly over the same East Coast locations to collect different measurements.

The West Coast flights will occur from June 29 – July 2. During the period, those same aircraft will conduct similar operations over Los Angeles, Imperial Valley, and Tulare Basin in California.

The research aircraft will fly at lower altitudes than most commercial planes and will conduct maneuvers including vertical spirals from 1,000 to 10,000 feet, circling over power plants, landfills, and urban areas. They will also occasionally conduct “missed approaches” at local airports, where the aircraft will perform a low-level flyby over a runway to collect samples close to the surface.

The aircraft carry instruments that will collect data on a range of greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide and methane, as well as air pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide, formaldehyde, and ozone. One purpose of this campaign is to validate space-based measurements observed by the TEMPO (Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution) mission. Launched on a commercial satellite in April 2023, the TEMPO instrument provides hourly daytime measurements of air pollutants across the United States, northern Mexico, and southern Canada.

“The goal is that this data we collect will feed into policy decisions that affect air quality and climate in the region,” said Glenn Wolfe, a research scientist and the principal investigator for the campaign at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

The B-200 aircraft is owned by Dynamics Aviation, an aircraft company contracted by NASA.

For more information about Student Airborne Research Program, visit:

https://science.nasa.gov/earth-science/early-career-opportunities/student-airborne-research-program/

By Tayler Gilmore

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland

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