Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Former Space Station Astronauts Available for Live TV Interviews

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HOUSTON -- NASA astronauts Mike Fincke and Sandra Magnus, who recently returned to Earth after several months living aboard the International Space Station, will be available for television interviews via satellite Thursday, April 30.

Fincke, a Pittsburgh-area native, will be available for live interviews from 6 a.m. to 7:25 a.m. CDT April 30. He commanded the Expedition 18 mission, during which the station began water supply recycling and gained a full power supply from four solar arrays. He spent 178 days in orbit and conducted two spacewalks. Combined with the 187 days he served as an Expedition 9 flight engineer in 2004, Fincke has accumulated a year in space during his career.

Magnus, from Belleville, Ill., near St. Louis, will be available for live interviews from 7:35 a.m. to 9 a.m. April 30. She was an Expedition 18 flight engineer for 129 days, returning to Earth on March 28. During her mission, Magnus wrote journal entries, which included details on her efforts to spice up traditional space food. Her entries are available at:

http://www.nasa.gov/sandymagnusjournals

To participate in the interviews, reporters should contact Derek Sollosi by phone at 713-884-5845 or by e-mail at derek.sollosi-1@nasa.gov before noon Wednesday, April 29. Expedition 18 b-roll feeds will air immediately following each set of interviews at 5:30 a.m. and 7:25 a.m.

The NASA Live Interview Media Outlet channel will be used for the interviews. The channel is a digital satellite C-band downlink by uplink provider Americom. It is on satellite AMC 6, transponder 5C, located at 72 degrees west, downlink frequency 3785.5 Mhz based on a standard C-band 5150 Mhz L.O., vertical polarity, FEC is 3/4, data rate is 6.00 Mhz, symbol rate is 4.3404 Mbaud, transmission DVB, minimum Eb/N0 is 6.0 dB.

The interviews also will be broadcast live on NASA Television. For streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information about the International Space Station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

For more information about the space shuttle, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

NASA TV to Air U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame Induction May 2

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA Television will provide live coverage of the 2009 U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Saturday, May 2, at 3 p.m. EDT. The ceremony will take place at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida.

Joining the hall of fame this year are former astronauts George "Pinky" Nelson, one of only four space shuttle astronauts to fly untethered in space using NASA's Manned Maneuvering Unit; William Shepherd, commander of the first crew to live aboard the International Space Station; and Jim Wetherbee, commander of the longest docked shuttle-Mir mission.

CNN reporter John Zarrella will host the event. More than 20 hall of fame astronauts are expected to attend, including Scott Carpenter, Walt Cunningham, Jim Lovell and Bob Crippen.

For the astronauts' complete biographies, visit:

http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/astrobio_former.html

Reporters interested in covering the event should contact Andrea Farmer at 321-449-4318 or Jillian McRae at 321-449-4273. For more information about the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame, visit:

http://www.kennedyspacecenter.com

For NASA TV downlink information, schedules and links to streaming video, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

NASA TV to Air U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame Induction May 2

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA Television will provide live coverage of the 2009 U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Saturday, May 2, at 3 p.m. EDT. The ceremony will take place at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida.

Joining the hall of fame this year are former astronauts George "Pinky" Nelson, one of only four space shuttle astronauts to fly untethered in space using NASA's Manned Maneuvering Unit; William Shepherd, commander of the first crew to live aboard the International Space Station; and Jim Wetherbee, commander of the longest docked shuttle-Mir mission.

CNN reporter John Zarrella will host the event. More than 20 hall of fame astronauts are expected to attend, including Scott Carpenter, Walt Cunningham, Jim Lovell and Bob Crippen.

For the astronauts' complete biographies, visit:

http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/astrobio_former.html

Reporters interested in covering the event should contact Andrea Farmer at 321-449-4318 or Jillian McRae at 321-449-4273. For more information about the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame, visit:

http://www.kennedyspacecenter.com

For NASA TV downlink information, schedules and links to streaming video, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

NASA To Hold Briefing To Discuss New Findings About Planet Mercury

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WASHINGTON - will host a media teleconference on Thursday, April 30, at 2 p.m. EDT to discuss new data and findings revealed by the Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging spacecraft known as MESSENGER.

The spacecraft is the first mission designed to orbit the planet closest to the sun. The probe flew past Mercury on Jan. 14, 2008, and Oct. 6, 2008, conducting the first up-close measurements of the planet since Mariner 10's final flyby on March 16, 1975.

The briefing participants are:
  • Marilyn Lindstrom, program scientist, NASA Headquarters in Washington
  • William McClintock, co-investigator, University of Colorado, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder, Colo.
  • James Slavin, co-investigator and chief, Laboratory for Solar and Space Physics, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
  • Thomas Watters, participating scientist, Smithsonian Institution in Washington
  • Brett Denevi, imaging team member and postdoctoral researcher, Arizona State University in Phoenix

Reporters who would like to participate in the call should submit requests for dial-in instructions to Sonja Alexander at sonja.r.alexander@nasa.gov. A replay of the teleconference will be available until May 7 by dialing 800-846-6758.

Supporting visuals will be available online April 30 at the start of the teleconference at:

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room

Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live at:

http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio

Friday, April 17, 2009

Earth Day celebration in NASA

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WASHINGTON -- NASA centers across the nation invite journalists and the public to see and hear about the agency's efforts and contributions to understanding and protecting Earth.

Begun in 1970, Earth Day is the annual celebration of the environment and a time to assess work still needed to protect the natural resources of our planet. The agency maintains the largest contingent of dedicated Earth scientists and engineers in leading and assisting other agencies in preserving the planet's environment.

For a comprehensive listing of NASA Earth Day activities, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/earthday

The Web site also features an online poll inviting the public to vote for the most important contribution NASA has made to exploring Earth and improving the way we live on our home planet. The "greatest hits" poll closes April 21. A new interactive feature will debut on Earth Day, April 22, that allows visitors to view a collection of astronaut photographs of Earth as seen from the current location of the International Space Station.

Please note all times are local. NASA center events include:

NASA Headquarters, Washington
Sunday, April 19 (12 - 7 p.m. EDT) - NASA is participating in the Earth Day Celebration at the National Mall with an exhibit on a wide range of environmental issues as seen from space, including air pollution, urban development, hurricanes, and dust storms. Visitors to the booth will be able to meet NASA Earth scientists and see NASA satellite images of Earth.

Wednesday, April 22 (1 p.m. EDT) - In honor of Earth Day and the 40th Anniversary of the Apollo program, NASA will take part in an event at the National Arboretum in Washington to plant a moon sycamore tree. The tree was grown from a second-generation seed from seeds flown to the moon and returned to Earth by the crew of Apollo 14 in 1971.

Ames Research Center at Moffet Field, Calif.
Tuesday, April 21 (9 a.m. - 4 p.m. PDT) - A technology expo sponsored by the NASA Research Park and the NASA Ames Innovative Partnerships Program will showcase technologies related to exploration and sustainability. More than 40 exhibits will be on display underscoring NASA's vision of leveraging technology for a cleaner, greener Earth.

Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif.
Tuesday, April 21 (10 a.m. - 2 p.m. PDT) - View a model of the unmanned Ikhana aircraft. Ikhana was instrumental in assisting emergency response efforts during recent California wildfires. The public also will see high-altitude life-support demonstrations and can attend several educational activities and presentations.

Glenn Research Center in Cleveland
Sunday, April 19 (10 a.m. - 5 p.m. EDT) - A variety of educational displays will be at the Cleveland Metro Park Zoo.

Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
Wednesday, April 22 (10 a.m. and 2 p.m. EDT) - NASA Goddard Digital Learning Network presents two webcasts for students and teachers of "Bella Gaia" (Beautiful Earth), a unique multimedia journey of Earth from space by director and violinist Kenji Williams. The performance will be broadcast live. For more information, visit http://dln.nasa.gov .

Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
Saturday, April 25 and Sunday, April 26 (9 a.m. - 5 p.m. PDT) - JPL will join a celebration of our ocean planet at the ninth annual Earth Day event at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, Calif. The event will include exhibits and handouts highlighting NASA's Earth science research.

Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
Wednesday, April 22 (10 a.m. - 3 p.m. EDT) - Local and county government officials will showcase their environmental activities. Topics will include natural resources, energy conservation, recycling, alternative fuel vehicles and environmentally friendly products.

Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.
Saturday, April 18 (1 p.m. EDT) - Presentation on "Looking at Earth from Space" at the Virginia Zoo's "Party for the Planet: Earth Day at the Zoo."

Tuesday, April 21 (7 p.m. EDT) - Lecture on "Satellite Observations of Air Pollution: Local Impacts Seen from a Global Perspective" at Thomas Nelson Community College's Espada Conference Center in Hampton.

Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
Tuesday, April 21 (10 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. CDT) - The theme of Marshall's Earth Day event for employees and contractors is water stewardship, with the slogan "Just one drop, priceless." A taste test is planned using water recycled through the Environmental Control and Life Support System used on the International Space Station. A vendor fair will be held highlighting environmentally friendly products. Special guests include local area mayors.

Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Miss.
Wednesday, April 22 (10 a.m. - 2 p.m. CDT) - Energy awareness displays and a video presentation highlighting the "green building" aspects of the center's new Emergency Operations Center. Activities also will feature raffles, environmentally focused games, cell phone recycling and other environment-friendly exercises.

Wallops Flight Research Facility on Wallops Island, Va.
Saturday, April 18 (10 a.m. - 4 p.m. EDT) - Several events will be held in collaboration with the Salisbury Zoo. The theme "Rockets and Critters" focuses on protecting threatened and endangered species while operating a NASA launch range.

For information about the NASA and agency activities, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

NASA's Kepler Captures 1st view of Planet-Hunting Territory

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PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Kepler mission has taken its first images of the star-rich sky where it will soon begin hunting for planets like Earth.

The new "first light" images show the mission's target patch of sky, a vast starry field in the Cygnus-Lyra region of our Milky Way galaxy. One image shows millions of stars in Kepler's full field of view, while two others zoom in on portions of the larger region. The images can be seen online at:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/multimedia/20090416.html

"Kepler's first glimpse of the sky is awe-inspiring," said Lia LaPiana, Kepler's program executive at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "To be able to see millions of stars in a single snapshot is simply breathtaking."

One new image from Kepler shows its entire field of view -- a 100-square-degree portion of the sky, equivalent to two side-by-side dips of the Big Dipper. The regions contain an estimated 14 millions stars, more than 100,000 of which were selected as ideal candidates for planet hunting.

Two other views focus on just one-thousandth of the full field of view. In one image, a cluster of stars located about 13,000 light-years from Earth, called NGC 6791, can be seen in the lower left corner. The other image zooms in on a region containing a star, called Tres-2, with a known Jupiter-like planet orbiting every 2.5 days.

"It's thrilling to see this treasure trove of stars," said William Borucki, science principal investigator for Kepler at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif. "We expect to find hundreds of planets circling those stars, and for the first time, we can look for Earth-size planets in the habitable zones around other stars like the sun."

Kepler will spend the next three-and-a-half years searching more than 100,000 pre-selected stars for signs of planets. It is expected to find a variety of worlds, from large, gaseous ones, to rocky ones as small as Earth. The mission is the first with the ability to find planets like ours -- small, rocky planets orbiting sun-like stars in the habitable zone, where temperatures are right for possible lakes and oceans of water.

To find the planets, Kepler will stare at one large expanse of sky for the duration of its lifetime, looking for periodic dips in starlight that occur as planets circle in front of their stars and partially block the light. Its 95-megapixel camera, the largest ever launched into space, can detect tiny changes in a star's brightness of only 20 parts per million. Images from the camera are intentionally blurred to minimize the number of bright stars that saturate the detectors. While some of the slightly saturated stars are candidates for planet searches, heavily saturated stars are not.

"Everything about Kepler has been optimized to find Earth-size planets," said James Fanson, Kepler's project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Our images are road maps that will allow us, in a few years, to point to a star and say a world like ours is there."

Scientists and engineers will spend the next few weeks calibrating Kepler's science instrument, the photometer, and adjusting the telescope's alignment to achieve the best focus. Once these steps are complete, the planet hunt will begin.

"We've spent years designing this mission, so actually being able to see through its eyes is tremendously exciting," said Eric Bachtell, the lead Kepler systems engineer at Ball Aerospace & Technology Corp. in Boulder, Colo. Bachtell has been working on the design, development and testing of Kepler for nine years.

Kepler is a NASA Discovery mission. Ames is responsible for the ground system development, mission operations and science data analysis. JPL manages the Kepler mission development. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. is responsible for developing the Kepler flight system and supporting mission operations.

For images, animations and more information about the Kepler mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/kepler

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Satellites Show Arctic Ice declining

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The latest Arctic sea ice data from NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center show that the decade-long trend of shrinking sea ice cover is continuing. New evidence from satellite observations also shows that the ice cap is thinning as well.

Arctic sea ice works like an air conditioner for the global climate system. Ice naturally cools air and water masses, plays a key role in ocean circulation, and reflects solar radiation back into space. In recent years, Arctic sea ice has been declining at a surprising rate.

Scientists who track Arctic sea ice cover from space announced today that this winter had the fifth lowest maximum ice extent on record. The six lowest maximum events since satellite monitoring began in 1979 have all occurred in the past six years (2004-2009).

Until recently, the majority of Arctic sea ice survived at least one summer and often several. But things have changed dramatically, according to a team of University of Colorado, Boulder, scientists led by Charles Fowler. Thin seasonal ice -- ice that melts and re-freezes every year -- makes up about 70 percent of the Arctic sea ice in wintertime, up from 40 to 50 percent in the 1980s and 1990s. Thicker ice, which survives two or more years, now comprises just 10 percent of wintertime ice cover, down from 30 to 40 percent.

According to researchers from the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo., the maximum sea ice extent for 2008-09, reached on Feb. 28, was 5.85 million square miles. That is 278,000 square miles less than the average extent for 1979 to 2000.

"Ice extent is an important measure of the health of the Arctic, but it only gives us a two-dimensional view of the ice cover," said Walter Meier, research scientist at the center and the University of Colorado, Boulder. "Thickness is important, especially in the winter, because it is the best overall indicator of the health of the ice cover. As the ice cover in the Arctic grows thinner, it grows more vulnerable to melting in the summer."

The Arctic ice cap grows each winter as the sun sets for several months and intense cold sets in. Some of that ice is naturally pushed out of the Arctic by winds, while much of it melts in place during summer. The thicker, older ice that survives one or more summers is more likely to persist through the next summer.

Sea ice thickness has been hard to measure directly, so scientists have typically used estimates of ice age to approximate its thickness. But last year a team of researchers led by Ron Kwok of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., produced the first map of sea ice thickness over the entire Arctic basin.

Using two years of data from NASA's Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat), Kwok's team estimated thickness and volume of the Arctic Ocean ice cover for 2005 and 2006. They found that the average winter volume of Arctic sea ice contained enough water to fill Lake Michigan and Lake Superior combined.

The older, thicker sea ice is declining and is being replaced with newer, thinner ice that is more vulnerable to summer melt, according to Kwok. His team found that seasonal sea ice averages about 6 feet in thickness, while ice that had lasted through more than one summer averages about 9 feet, though it can grow much thicker in some locations near the coast.

Kwok is currently working to extend the ICESat estimate further, from 2003 to 2008, to see how the recent decline in the area covered by sea ice is mirrored in changes in its volume.

"With these new data on both the area and thickness of Arctic sea ice, we will be able to better understand the sensitivity and vulnerability of the ice cover to changes in climate," Kwok said.

For more information visit here

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/arctic_thinice.html

Saturday, April 4, 2009

NASA provides TV Coverage of Next Soyuz Landing

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HOUSTON -- NASA Television will air the landing of the Expedition 18 crew and a visiting spaceflight participant on Wednesday, April 8. Russian managers on Friday postponed the Soyuz landing one day and switched to a more southerly landing site in Kazakhstan because of soggy conditions at the original site.

Expedition 18 Commander E. Michael Fincke, Flight Engineer and Soyuz Commander Yury Lonchakov and Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi will return to Earth at 2:15 a.m. CDT, which is 1:15 p.m. local time in Kazakhstan. The landing will take place near the town of Dzhezkazgan, which is west of Karaganda and southeast of the usual landing zone near Arkalyk. Fincke and Lonchakov have been aboard the orbiting laboratory since October 2008 and will land in the Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft that carried them into orbit.

Upcoming NASA TV Soyuz landing programming events (all times CDT):

April 7, Tuesday
7:30 p.m. -- Coverage of the crew's farewell and hatch closure
10:30 p.m. -- Coverage of the undocking of Soyuz TMA-13 from the International Space Station

April 8, Wednesday
1 a.m. -- Coverage of the deorbit burn and landing of Soyuz TMA-13 (deorbit burn at 1:24 a.m.; landing at 2:15 a.m.)
12:30 p.m. – Video File feed of landing site activities and the crew's welcoming ceremony in Kazakhstan
2 p.m. -- Video File feed of the crew's return to Star City, Russia and a post-landing interview with Expedition 18 Commander Mike Fincke.

For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and schedule information, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information about the space station, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/station

"Student Signatures in Space" during Space Day Celebrations

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WASHINGTON -- NASA and Lockheed Martin's Student Signatures in Space (S3) program will be one of the highlighted projects during this year's Space Day, celebrated annually on the first Friday in May. The mission of Space Day is to use space-related activities to inspire and prepare young people for careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Student Signatures in Space began in 1997 as a way to draw kids into space studies by giving them a personal connection to space. Participating schools are sent large posters for students to sign on Space Day. NASA and Lockheed Martin, of Bethesda, Md., are currently accepting school names for participation. The program is open to elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as science museums and regional Boy Scout and Girl Scout councils.

After schools return the posters to Lockheed Martin, the signatures are scanned onto a disk and flown aboard a space shuttle mission. Schools also receive lesson plans and information about the mission their signed posters are flying on.

Upon completion of the shuttle flight, the posters are returned to the schools along with a photo of the astronaut crew that took the signatures to space and a NASA flight certification verifying that the signatures flew in space. Schools are allowed to participate in the signatures program once every six years.

The project is free to participants. Program partners cover all program costs, including shipping expenses for return of the signed posters. Schools and other organizations may request a sign-up form by e-mailing S3 Program Manager April Tensen at signatures@mindspring.com

Student Signatures in Space is limited to 500 schools per year, and schools are registered on a first-come, first-served basis. Schools that sign up after the maximum capacity is reached will be put on a list to participate in the following year's program.

For information on Space Day or Student Signatures in Space, visit:
http://www.spaceday.org

For information about NASA education programs, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/education

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