Happy New Year!

Wishing all a joyful new year, members of the Cassini-Huygens team offer us their views of Saturn and the Cassini spacecraft. Cassini-Huygens, a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency, which is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA. The Cassini orbiter (pictured at the top right of this image) and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL

Astronauts' marathon mission to repair Hubble Telescope

Astronauts resort to brute force on their mammoth spacewalk as they continue repairing the Hubble telescope..

Astronauts Start Hubble Repairs

A pair of spacewalking astronauts stepped outside Thursday to begin demanding repair work on the Hubble Space Telescope, a job made all the more dangerous because of the high, debris-ridden orbit. (May 14)

Cardiac Patients Take NASA Super Plastic to Heart

WASHINGTON -- A NASA technology that was developed for an aerospace high-speed research program is now part of an implantable device for heart failure patients.

NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., created an advanced aerospace resin, named Langley Research Center's Soluble Imide, or LaRC-SI. It is highly flexible, resistant to chemicals, and withstands extreme hot and cold temperatures. The "super plastic" was determined to be biologically inert, making it suitable for medical use, including implantable devices.

"One of the advantages of this material is that it lends itself to a variety of diverse applications, from mechanical parts and composites to electrical insulation and adhesive bonding," said Rob Bryant, a NASA Langley senior researcher and inventor of the material.

In July 2004, NASA licensed the patented insulation technology to Medtronic Inc., a Minneapolis-based medical technology company. Medtronic Inc. incorporated the material into its Attain Ability left-heart lead, which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently approved.

The use of this NASA-developed material in a medical implant is the latest in a long line of medical applications that have benefited from NASA technology.

"Langley Research Center's Soluble Imide is an excellent example of how taxpayer investment in NASA materials research has resulted in a direct benefit beyond the aerospace sector by extending the quality of life through medical technology," Bryant said.

Heart failure occurs when the heart muscle is unable to pump effectively to meet the body's need for blood and oxygen. It is a chronic and progressive condition that affects more than five million Americans and more than 22 million individuals worldwide. Cardiac resynchronization therapy, or CRT, is designed to coordinate the contraction of the heart's two lower chambers and improve the heart's efficiency to increase blood flow to the body.

CRT devices, which are stopwatch-sized, are implanted into the chest and connected to the heart by leads, such as the Attain Ability left-heart lead. A lead is a special wire that delivers energy from a CRT to the heart muscle. Electrical impulses generated by CRTs resynchronize heartbeats and improve blood flow.

The NASA insulation material makes possible the compact and flexible design of Medtronic's CRT lead, one of the thinnest left-heart leads available. Placing a lead in the heart is widely recognized by physicians as the most challenging aspect of implanting CRT devices. The narrow design allows physicians to choose between different sites on the heart to deliver optimal therapy. The lead is delivered by an inner catheter, a feature that helps physicians place the lead directly in difficult-to-reach areas of the heart. Clinical studies in the U.S. and Canada showed physicians were successful in placing the Attain Ability lead 96.4 percent of the time.

The Langley Research Center's Soluble Imide was featured in Spinoff 2008 -- NASA's annual premier publication featuring successfully commercialized NASA technology. For more than 40 years, the NASA Innovative Partnerships Program has facilitated the transfer of NASA technology to the private sector, benefiting global competition and the economy. Since 1976, Spinoff has featured 40 to 50 of these commercial products annually.

In 1995, R&D Magazine selected the resin for an R&D 100 award as one of the top 100 technical innovations of the year.

NASA Television is airing a Video File demonstrating the technology. For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information about Langley Research Center's Soluble Imide, visit:

http://technologygateway.nasa.gov/Advanced_Materials.html

and

http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/Spinoff2008/hm_4.html

NASA Television to Provide HD Coverage of Space Shuttle Launch

NASA Television to Provide HD Coverage of Space Shuttle Launch

WASHINGTON -- NASA Television will provide live high definition coverage of Monday's scheduled launch of space shuttle Atlantis on its STS-125 mission to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope.

The NASA Television HD feed (Channel 105) will be available beginning Friday at 12 p.m., EDT, with live images from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Launch coverage begins Monday, May 11, at 8:30 a.m. Liftoff is slated for 2:01 p.m.

NASA TV Downlink Parameters are:
Uplink provider = Americom
Satellite = AMC 6
Transponder = 17C
72 Degrees West
Transmission Format: DVB-S
Downlink Frequency: 4040 MHz
Polarity: Vertical
FEC= 3/4
Data Rate= 36.860 MHz
Symbol Rate = 26.665 Ms/s

For NASA TV HD Programming:
HD Program = 105
Video PID = 82
AC-3 Audio PID = 238
MPEG-1 Layer II Audio PID =83

For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information about the space shuttle's STS-125 mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

For more information about the Hubble Space Telescope, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/hubble

NASA's Spitzer Telescope Warms Up to New Career

WASHINGTON -- The primary mission of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope is about to end after more than five and a half years of probing the cosmos with its keen infrared eye. Within about a week of May 12, the telescope is expected to run out of the liquid helium needed to chill some of its instruments to operating temperatures.

The end of the coolant will begin a new era for Spitzer. The telescope will start its "warm" mission with two channels of one instrument still working at full capacity. Some of the science explored by a warm Spitzer will be the same, and some will be entirely new.

"We like to think of Spitzer as being reborn," said Robert Wilson, Spitzer project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "Spitzer led an amazing life, performing above and beyond its call of duty. Its primary mission might be over, but it will tackle new scientific pursuits, and more breakthroughs are sure to come."

Spitzer is the last of NASA's Great Observatories, a suite of telescopes designed to see the visible and invisible colors of the universe. The suite also includes NASA's Hubble and Chandra space telescopes. Spitzer has explored, with unprecedented sensitivity, the infrared side of the cosmos, where dark, dusty and distant objects hide.

For a telescope to detect infrared light -- essentially heat -- from cool cosmic objects, it must have very little heat of its own. During the past five years, liquid helium has run through Spitzer's "veins," keeping its three instruments chilled to -456 degrees Fahrenheit (-271 Celsius), or less than 3 degrees above absolute zero, the coldest temperature theoretically attainable. The cryogen was projected to last as little as two and a half years, but Spitzer's efficient design and careful operations enabled it to last more than five and a half years.

Spitzer's new "warm" temperature is still quite chilly at -404 degrees Fahrenheit (-242 Celsius), much colder than a winter day in Antarctica when temperatures sometimes reach -75 degrees Fahrenheit (-59 Celsius). This temperature rise means two of Spitzer's instruments -- its longer wavelength multiband imaging photometer and its infrared spectrograph -- will no longer be cold enough to detect cool objects in space.

However, the telescope's two shortest-wavelength detectors in its infrared array camera will continue to function perfectly. They will still pick up the glow from a range of objects: asteroids in our solar system, dusty stars, planet-forming disks, gas-giant planets and distant galaxies. In addition, Spitzer still will be able to see through the dust that permeates our galaxy and blocks visible-light views.

"We will do exciting and important science with these two infrared channels," said Spitzer Project Scientist Michael Werner of JPL. Werner has been working on Spitzer for more than 30 years. "Our new science program takes advantage of what these channels do best. We're focusing on aspects of the cosmos that we still have much to learn about."

Since its launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Aug. 25, 2003, Spitzer has made countless breakthroughs in astronomy. Observations of comets both near and far have established that the stuff of comets and planets is similar throughout the galaxy. Breathtaking photos of dusty stellar nests have led to new insights into how stars are born. And Spitzer's eye on the very distant universe, billions of light-years away, has revealed hundreds of massive black holes lurking in the dark.

Perhaps the most revolutionary and surprising Spitzer finds involve planets around other stars, called exoplanets. Exoplanets are, in almost all cases, too close to their parent stars to be seen from our Earthly point of view. Nevertheless, planet hunters continue to uncover them by looking for changes in the parent stars. Before Spitzer, everything we knew about exoplanets came from indirect observations such as these.

In 2005, Spitzer detected the first actual photons from an exoplanet. In a clever technique, now referred to as the secondary-eclipse method, Spitzer was able to collect the light of a hot, gaseous exoplanet and learn about its temperature. Further detailed spectroscopic studies later revealed more about the atmospheres, or "weather," on similar planets. More recently, Spitzer witnessed changes in the weather on a wildly eccentric gas exoplanet -- a storm of colossal proportions brewing up in a matter of hours before quickly settling down.

"Nobody had any idea Spitzer would be able to directly study exoplanets when we designed it," Werner said. "When astronomers planned the first observations, we had no idea if they would work. To our amazement and delight, they did."

These are a few of Spitzer's achievements during the past five and a half years. Data from the telescope are cited in more than 1,500 scientific papers. And scientists and engineers expect the rewards to keep on coming during Spitzer's golden years.

Some of Spitzer's new pursuits include refining estimates of Hubble's constant, or the rate at which our universe is stretching apart; searching for galaxies at the edge of the universe; assessing how often potentially hazardous asteroids might impact Earth by measuring the sizes of asteroids; and characterizing the atmospheres of gas-giant planets expected to be discovered soon by NASA's Kepler mission. As was true during the cold Spitzer mission, these and the other programs are selected through a competition in which scientists from around the world are invited to participate.

JPL manages the Spitzer mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver, and Ball Aerospace & Technology Corp. in Boulder, Colo. support mission and science operations. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., built Spitzer's infrared array camera; the instrument's principal investigator is Giovanni Fazio of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. Ball Aerospace & Technology Corp. built Spitzer's infrared spectrograph; its principal investigator is Jim Houck of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. Ball Aerospace & Technology Corp. and the University of Arizona in Tucson, built the multiband imaging photometer for Spitzer; its principal investigator is George Rieke of the University of Arizona.

For more information about Spitzer, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer

and

http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/spitzer

NASA Wins Two Webby Awards for Internet Excellence

WASHINGTON -- NASA has received two Webby awards for excellence on the Internet. NASA's main Web site, http://www.nasa.gov, won the People's Voice award for best government Web site. The Cassini mission Web site, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov, received a Webby award for best science site.

The People's Voice award is the second for NASA's Web site, which also won in 2003. More than 500,000 people cast votes this year.

"We're extremely happy to be honored by the Internet community this way," said Brian Dunbar, the content manager for http://www.nasa.gov at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "We've always tried to focus the site on giving the public what they're looking for in an engaging and compelling way. Combined with some of the highest customer-satisfaction ratings in the government, this award tells us we're on the right track."

Judges from the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, which sponsors the Webbys, selected the Cassini site for the top honor in the science category.

"The Cassini Web site is the door to the science and technology of the mission to Saturn, contained in hundreds of thousands of pages," said Alice Wessen, manager of Cassini public engagement at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "The site houses all the latest news, science findings and images Cassini returns as it orbits Saturn. The public can see every picture within eight hours after it's beamed down from the spacecraft."

NASA's Web site, which received 120 million visits in 2008, offers the public the latest news, mission coverage and multimedia from the agency's scientific research, technology development and exploration efforts. Visitors can surf thousands of images from throughout the universe, watch live video from the International Space Station or read more than a dozen blogs written by agency employees.

In the last year, the NASA Web team has expanded its presence into social media, creating an official NASA channel on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/nasatelevision, multiple Twitter feeds led by @NASA, and mission pages on Facebook and MySpace. Since NASA astronaut Mike Massimino began twittering via @Astro_Mike on April 3, he has gained more than 175,000 followers. NASA was recognized in February with a Shorty award for its @marsphoenix Twitter presence, which was written in the "voice" of the spacecraft. For a list of NASA missions providing updates on social media Web sites, visit http://www.nasa.gov/collaborate.

NASA's web team also was among the honorees for Rich Media/Advertising for its multimedia commemoration of NASA's 50th anniversary, http://www.nasa.gov/50years. The feature, hosted by the robot Automa, includes an interactive news conference with the original Mercury astronauts, music from across the decades and an "appearance" by renowned astronomer Carl Sagan.

On Feb. 2, NextGov.com cited NASA's popular homepage as one of five federal government agencies employing best practices in Web 2.0. Socialgovernment.com also recognized the agency as among the best in federal government using Twitter, YouTube and social media.

NASA Announces Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Briefings for Press

WASHINGTON -- NASA Acting Administrator Chris Scolese will brief the news media about the agency's fiscal year 2010 budget at 2:30 p.m. EDT, Thursday, May 7. The news conference will take place in NASA Headquarters' James E. Webb Memorial Auditorium, located at 300 E St. S.W., in Washington.

Scolese will be joined by NASA Comptroller David Schurr. The news conference will be broadcast live on NASA Television and the agency's Internet homepage. Reporters at NASA Headquarters will be able to ask questions.

To watch the budget news conference on the Internet, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

After the overview briefing on NASA's fiscal year 2010 budget, the associate administrators of the mission directorates each will hold a teleconference to discuss the budget's impact on their specific area.

The teleconference schedule is (all times Eastern):

Thursday, May 7
4 p.m. -- Exploration Systems (phone: 877-716-4287 or 312-470-7379, pass code: Exploration)
5 p.m. -- Science (phone: 888-398-6118 or 312-470-7475, pass code: Science)
6 p.m. -- Space Operations (phone: 888-790-4541 or 773-799-3536, pass code: Space Operations)

Friday, May 8
9 a.m. -- Aeronautics (phone: 888-455-7155 or 415-228-4614, pass code: Aeronautics)

Each teleconference is scheduled to last 50 minutes. Reporters may join the teleconference of their choice by dialing the telephone number and using the pass code listed above. The number of available telephone lines is limited.

Live audio of the budget teleconferences will stream online at:

http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio

Replays of each mission directorate's teleconference will be available until May 22. Replay numbers are:

Exploration Systems: 800-879-5816 or 203-369-3565
Science: 800-925-0568 or 203-369-3866
Space Operations: 888-566-0435 or 402-998-0605
Aeronautics: 888-566-0439 or 203-369-3045

The NASA budget and supporting information will be available at 1:30 p.m., May 7, at:

http://www.nasa.gov/budget

NASA Announces Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Briefings for Press

WASHINGTON -- NASA Acting Administrator Chris Scolese will brief the news media about the agency's fiscal year 2010 budget at 2:30 p.m. EDT, Thursday, May 7. The news conference will take place in NASA Headquarters' James E. Webb Memorial Auditorium, located at 300 E St. S.W., in Washington.

Scolese will be joined by NASA Comptroller David Schurr. The news conference will be broadcast live on NASA Television and the agency's Internet homepage. Reporters at NASA Headquarters will be able to ask questions.

To watch the budget news conference on the Internet, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

After the overview briefing on NASA's fiscal year 2010 budget, the associate administrators of the mission directorates each will hold a teleconference to discuss the budget's impact on their specific area.

The teleconference schedule is (all times Eastern):

Thursday, May 7
4 p.m. -- Exploration Systems (phone: 877-716-4287 or 312-470-7379, pass code: Exploration)
5 p.m. -- Science (phone: 888-398-6118 or 312-470-7475, pass code: Science)
6 p.m. -- Space Operations (phone: 888-790-4541 or 773-799-3536, pass code: Space Operations)

Friday, May 8
9 a.m. -- Aeronautics (phone: 888-455-7155 or 415-228-4614, pass code: Aeronautics)

Each teleconference is scheduled to last 50 minutes. Reporters may join the teleconference of their choice by dialing the telephone number and using the pass code listed above. The number of available telephone lines is limited.

Live audio of the budget teleconferences will stream online at:

http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio

Replays of each mission directorate's teleconference will be available until May 22. Replay numbers are:

Exploration Systems: 800-879-5816 or 203-369-3565
Science: 800-925-0568 or 203-369-3866
Space Operations: 888-566-0435 or 402-998-0605
Aeronautics: 888-566-0439 or 203-369-3045

The NASA budget and supporting information will be available at 1:30 p.m., May 7, at:

http://www.nasa.gov/budget

Herschel and Planck Missions to Study Cosmos Share Ride to Space

WASHINGTON -- Two missions to study the cosmos, the Herschel and Planck spacecraft, are scheduled to blast into space May 14 aboard the same Ariane 5 rocket from the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana. The European Space Agency, or ESA, leads both missions with significant participation from NASA.

"The missions are quite different, but they'll hitch a ride to space together," said Ulf Israelsson, NASA project manager for both Herschel and Planck. "Launch processing is moving along smoothly. Both missions' instruments have completed their final checkouts, and the spacecrafts' thruster tanks have been fueled."

Israelsson is with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, or JPL, in Pasadena, Calif., which contributed key technology to both missions. NASA team members will play an important role in data analysis and science operations.

The Herschel observatory has the unique ability to peek into the dustiest and earliest stages of planet, star and galaxy growth. The spacecraft's astronomy mirror -- about 11.5 feet (3.5 meters) in diameter -- is the largest ever launched into space. The mirror will collect longer-wavelength light in the infrared and submillimeter range -- light never before investigated by an astronomy mission.

"We haven't had ready access to the wavelengths between infrared and microwaves before, in part because Earth's atmosphere blocks them from reaching the ground," said Paul Goldsmith, the NASA project scientist for Herschel at JPL. "Because our views were so limited before, we can expect a vast range of serendipitous discoveries, from new molecules in interstellar space to new types of objects."

The coolest objects in the universe, such as dusty, developing stars and galaxies, appear as dark blobs when viewed with visible-light telescopes. As a result, astronomers do not know what is happening inside them. However, at longer wavelengths in the far-infrared and submillimeter range, cool objects shine brightly. Herschel will detect light from objects as cold as -263 degrees Celsius, or 10 Kelvin, which is 10 degrees above the coldest temperature theoretically attainable. Onboard liquid helium, which is expected to last more than three and a half years, will chill one of Herschel's detectors to a frosty 0.3 Kelvin.

Planck will answer fundamental questions about how the universe came to be and how it will change in the future. It will look back in time to just 400,000 years after our universe exploded into existence nearly 14 billion years ago in the event known as the Big Bang. The mission will spend at least 15 months making the most precise measurements yet of light at microwave wavelengths across our entire sky, including what is called the cosmic microwave background. This light is from the primordial soup of particles that eventually evolved to become our modern-day universe. The light has traveled about 14 billion years to reach us, and, in that time, has cooled and stretched to longer wavelengths because space is expanding.

"The cosmic microwave background shows us the universe directly at age 400,000 years, not the movie, not the historical novel, but the original photons," said Charles Lawrence, NASA project scientist for Planck at JPL. "Planck will give us the clearest view ever of this baby universe, showing us the results of physical processes in the first brief moments after the Big Bang, and the starting point for the formation of stars and galaxies."

Planck will be cold too. One of its instruments will be cooled to just 0.1 Kelvin. Innovative "cryocooler" technology, developed in part by JPL, will chill the instruments.

Shortly after launch, Planck and Herschel will separate from the rocket and follow different trajectories to the second Lagrangian point of our solar system, a point in space 930,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Earth.

Herschel and Planck are both ESA missions with important participation from NASA. NASA's Herschel Project Office and Planck Project Office are both based at JPL. A consortium of European-led institutes provided science instruments for Herschel. JPL contributed mission-enabling technology for two of Herschel's three science instruments and both of Planck's science instruments. The NASA Herschel Science Center, part of the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, supports the U.S. astronomical community. NASA, U.S. and European Planck scientists will work together to analyze the Planck data.

More information about the Herschel mission is available online at:

http://www.nasa.gov/herschel

More information about the Planck mission is available online at:

http://www.nasa.gov/planck

NASA to Launch IMAX 3-D Camera to Film Hubble Servicing Mission

WASHINGTON -- NASA, the IMAX Corporation and Warner Bros. Pictures announced Monday that IMAX 3-D cameras will return to space to document one of NASA's most complex space shuttle operations -- the final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.

The IMAX 3-D cameras will launch aboard space shuttle Atlantis, which is scheduled to lift off May 11. Astronauts will use the cameras to film five spacewalks needed to repair and upgrade Hubble. The IMAX footage will be combined with breathtaking detailed images of distant galaxies from Hubble in the upcoming IMAX and Warner Bros. Pictures co-production, "Hubble 3D," set for release in spring 2010.

"We have worked with IMAX on past Hubble missions and are excited about working with them again on the current Hubble mission. The Hubble Space Telescope continues to dazzle us with the splendor of our universe, and after the mission we look forward to many more years of awe-inspiring imagery," said Bob Jacobs, NASA's acting assistant administrator for public affairs at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "IMAX has developed innovative 3-D image capture and projection technology that creates a large-scale, immersive educational experience in which those of us on the ground are no longer passive observers of spaceflight, we're active participants."

The IMAX team has trained Atlantis' crew at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston to operate the cameras. One will be mounted outside the crew cabin in the shuttle's cargo bay to capture IMAX 3-D images of the historic final servicing mission. The commander and pilot will double as filmmakers as two teams of spacewalking astronauts -- working in tandem with the shuttle's robotic arm -- perform some of the most challenging work ever undertaken in space as they replace and refurbish many of the telescope's precision instruments.

"It's been said that the IMAX experience is the next best thing to being in space, and with IMAX 3-D, the audience really is there," producer and director Toni Myers said. "Fifteen years ago, we made a film about space exploration that included Hubble, when it started sending back the first images. Today, we have Hubble's entire phenomenal legacy of data to explore. With IMAX 3-D, we can transport people to galaxies that are 13 billion light years away -- back to the edge of time. Real star travel is here at last."

Through the world's most immersive cinematic experience, "Hubble 3D" will give audiences a front row seat as the story unfolds. It will reveal the cosmos as never before, allowing viewers of all ages to explore the grandeur of the nebulae and galaxies, the birth and death of stars, and some of the greatest mysteries of our celestial surroundings, all in IMAX 3-D.

IMAX's longstanding partnership with NASA has enabled millions of people to travel into space through a series of award-winning IMAX films. The IMAX 3-D camera made its first voyage into space in 2001 for the production of "Space Station 3D." The "Hubble 3D" film will mark Warner Bros. Pictures' first venture into space.

For more information about the upcoming Hubble servicing mission, STS-125, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/hubble

For more information about the space shuttle, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

NASA to Launch IMAX 3-D Camera to Film Hubble Servicing Mission

WASHINGTON -- NASA, the IMAX Corporation and Warner Bros. Pictures announced Monday that IMAX 3-D cameras will return to space to document one of NASA's most complex space shuttle operations -- the final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.

The IMAX 3-D cameras will launch aboard space shuttle Atlantis, which is scheduled to lift off May 11. Astronauts will use the cameras to film five spacewalks needed to repair and upgrade Hubble. The IMAX footage will be combined with breathtaking detailed images of distant galaxies from Hubble in the upcoming IMAX and Warner Bros. Pictures co-production, "Hubble 3D," set for release in spring 2010.

"We have worked with IMAX on past Hubble missions and are excited about working with them again on the current Hubble mission. The Hubble Space Telescope continues to dazzle us with the splendor of our universe, and after the mission we look forward to many more years of awe-inspiring imagery," said Bob Jacobs, NASA's acting assistant administrator for public affairs at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "IMAX has developed innovative 3-D image capture and projection technology that creates a large-scale, immersive educational experience in which those of us on the ground are no longer passive observers of spaceflight, we're active participants."

The IMAX team has trained Atlantis' crew at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston to operate the cameras. One will be mounted outside the crew cabin in the shuttle's cargo bay to capture IMAX 3-D images of the historic final servicing mission. The commander and pilot will double as filmmakers as two teams of spacewalking astronauts -- working in tandem with the shuttle's robotic arm -- perform some of the most challenging work ever undertaken in space as they replace and refurbish many of the telescope's precision instruments.

"It's been said that the IMAX experience is the next best thing to being in space, and with IMAX 3-D, the audience really is there," producer and director Toni Myers said. "Fifteen years ago, we made a film about space exploration that included Hubble, when it started sending back the first images. Today, we have Hubble's entire phenomenal legacy of data to explore. With IMAX 3-D, we can transport people to galaxies that are 13 billion light years away -- back to the edge of time. Real star travel is here at last."

Through the world's most immersive cinematic experience, "Hubble 3D" will give audiences a front row seat as the story unfolds. It will reveal the cosmos as never before, allowing viewers of all ages to explore the grandeur of the nebulae and galaxies, the birth and death of stars, and some of the greatest mysteries of our celestial surroundings, all in IMAX 3-D.

IMAX's longstanding partnership with NASA has enabled millions of people to travel into space through a series of award-winning IMAX films. The IMAX 3-D camera made its first voyage into space in 2001 for the production of "Space Station 3D." The "Hubble 3D" film will mark Warner Bros. Pictures' first venture into space.

For more information about the upcoming Hubble servicing mission, STS-125, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/hubble

For more information about the space shuttle, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

NASA Selects Future Projects To Study Mars And Mercury

WASHINGTON -- NASA has selected two science investigations that will aid in the interior examination of Mars and probe the tenuous atmosphere of Mercury. The projects, valued at approximately $38 million, also establish new alliances with the European Space Agency, or ESA.

"The selections will further advance our knowledge of these exciting terrestrial planets," said Jim Green, director of NASA's Planetary Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The international collaboration will create a new chapter in planetary science and provide a strong partnership with the international science community to complement future robotic and human exploration activities."

The Lander Radio-Science on ExoMars, or LaRa, will use NASA's Deep Space Network of radio telescopes to track part of ESA's ExoMars mission. Scheduled to launch in 2016, the mission consists of a fixed lander and a rover that will roam Mars collecting soil samples for detailed analysis.

Data relayed from the lander back to the network will allow scientists to measure and analyze variations in the length of the day and location of the planet's rotational axis. This data will help researchers further dissect the structure of the Red Planet's interior, including the size of its core. When combined with the lander's onboard instruments, the data also may help confirm whether the planet's interior is still, at least partially, composed of liquid. William Folkner of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., is the principal investigator. The project costs approximately $6.6 million.

The second selection, named Strofio, will employ a unique mass spectrometer. The instrument will determine the mass of atoms and molecules to reveal the composition of Mercury's atmosphere. The investigation will study the atmosphere, which is formed from material ejected from its surface, to reveal the composition of Mercury's surface.

Strofio will investigate Mercury as a key component of the Italian Space Agency's suite of science instruments that will fly aboard ESA's BepiColombo mission. Scheduled for launch in 2013, the mission is composed of two spacecraft. Japan will build one spacecraft to study the planet's magnetic field. ESA will build the other to study Mercury directly. Stefano Livi of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio is the principal investigator. The project costs approximately $31.8 million.

The selections were among eight proposals submitted in December 2008 in response to NASA's new Stand Alone Mission of Opportunity, known as Salmon. NASA solicited proposals for investigations that address planetary science research objectives on non-agency missions. A key criterion is that science goals, including data archiving and analysis, must be accomplished for less than $35 million.

NASA's Deep Space Network is an international system of antennas that support interplanetary spacecraft missions and radio and radar astronomy observations for the exploration of the solar system and the universe. The network also supports selected Earth-orbiting missions. The system consists of three deep-space communications facilities placed around the world in California's Mojave Desert; Madrid, Spain; and near Canberra, Australia. This strategic placement permits constant observation of spacecraft as Earth rotates and helps to make the network the largest and most sensitive scientific telecommunications system in the world.

NASA's Planetary Science Division aims to improve understanding of the planets and small bodies that inhabit our solar system. Mission activities include helping scientists answer questions about the solar system's formation, how it reached its current diverse state, and how life evolved on Earth and possibly elsewhere in the solar system. The Mars Exploration Program, a component of the Planetary Division, seeks to characterize and understand Mars as a dynamic system, including its present and past environment, climate cycles, geology and biological potential.

For more information about the Stand Alone Mission of Opportunity, visit:

http://salmon.larc.nasa.gov

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

NASA Selects Future Projects To Study Mars And Mercury

WASHINGTON -- NASA has selected two science investigations that will aid in the interior examination of Mars and probe the tenuous atmosphere of Mercury. The projects, valued at approximately $38 million, also establish new alliances with the European Space Agency, or ESA.

"The selections will further advance our knowledge of these exciting terrestrial planets," said Jim Green, director of NASA's Planetary Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The international collaboration will create a new chapter in planetary science and provide a strong partnership with the international science community to complement future robotic and human exploration activities."

The Lander Radio-Science on ExoMars, or LaRa, will use NASA's Deep Space Network of radio telescopes to track part of ESA's ExoMars mission. Scheduled to launch in 2016, the mission consists of a fixed lander and a rover that will roam Mars collecting soil samples for detailed analysis.

Data relayed from the lander back to the network will allow scientists to measure and analyze variations in the length of the day and location of the planet's rotational axis. This data will help researchers further dissect the structure of the Red Planet's interior, including the size of its core. When combined with the lander's onboard instruments, the data also may help confirm whether the planet's interior is still, at least partially, composed of liquid. William Folkner of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., is the principal investigator. The project costs approximately $6.6 million.

The second selection, named Strofio, will employ a unique mass spectrometer. The instrument will determine the mass of atoms and molecules to reveal the composition of Mercury's atmosphere. The investigation will study the atmosphere, which is formed from material ejected from its surface, to reveal the composition of Mercury's surface.

Strofio will investigate Mercury as a key component of the Italian Space Agency's suite of science instruments that will fly aboard ESA's BepiColombo mission. Scheduled for launch in 2013, the mission is composed of two spacecraft. Japan will build one spacecraft to study the planet's magnetic field. ESA will build the other to study Mercury directly. Stefano Livi of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio is the principal investigator. The project costs approximately $31.8 million.

The selections were among eight proposals submitted in December 2008 in response to NASA's new Stand Alone Mission of Opportunity, known as Salmon. NASA solicited proposals for investigations that address planetary science research objectives on non-agency missions. A key criterion is that science goals, including data archiving and analysis, must be accomplished for less than $35 million.

NASA's Deep Space Network is an international system of antennas that support interplanetary spacecraft missions and radio and radar astronomy observations for the exploration of the solar system and the universe. The network also supports selected Earth-orbiting missions. The system consists of three deep-space communications facilities placed around the world in California's Mojave Desert; Madrid, Spain; and near Canberra, Australia. This strategic placement permits constant observation of spacecraft as Earth rotates and helps to make the network the largest and most sensitive scientific telecommunications system in the world.

NASA's Planetary Science Division aims to improve understanding of the planets and small bodies that inhabit our solar system. Mission activities include helping scientists answer questions about the solar system's formation, how it reached its current diverse state, and how life evolved on Earth and possibly elsewhere in the solar system. The Mars Exploration Program, a component of the Planetary Division, seeks to characterize and understand Mars as a dynamic system, including its present and past environment, climate cycles, geology and biological potential.

For more information about the Stand Alone Mission of Opportunity, visit:

http://salmon.larc.nasa.gov

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

NASA Invites High School Students to Apply for Inspire Project

WASHINGTON -- NASA's Interdisciplinary National Science Program Incorporating Research Experience, known as Inspire, is accepting applications from high school students through June 30. NASA will make selections in September.

The selectees will participate in an online learning community in which students and parents have the opportunity to interact with their peers and NASA engineers and scientists. It also provides appropriate grade level educational activities, discussion boards and chat rooms for participants and their families to gain exposure to the many career opportunities at NASA.

Students selected for the online learning community will have the option to compete for experiences during the summer of 2010 at NASA facilities and participating universities throughout the nation. The Inspire project is designed to encourage ninth through 12th grade students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math. The summer experience provides students a hands-on opportunity to investigate education and careers in those disciplines.

The Inspire project is part of NASA's education strategy to attract and retain students in the science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, disciplines critical to NASA's missions.

For information about the project, including details about how to apply, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/education/INSPIRE

For information about NASA's education programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/education

NASA Connects Atlanta Students to Astronauts on Space Station

WASHINGTON -- Students from the Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy in Atlanta will participate in an out-of-this-world learning experience on Tuesday, May 5, when they receive a call from astronauts aboard the International Space Station. The downlink will air live worldwide on NASA Television and also be available on NASA's Web site. This is the second event of its kind to be held in the state of Georgia.

A live in-flight education downlink with the crew will take place between 11:15 a.m. and 11:35 a.m. EDT at the Fernbank Science Center in Dekalb County. The 20-minute question-and-answer event will feature astronauts Mike Barratt and Koichi Wakata, who are flight engineers aboard the Expedition 19 mission to the station.

Students and teachers are preparing for the downlink by visiting the NASA Web site to learn about the station, crew members, mission objectives and science experiments. Following the event, students will engage in hands-on activities, such as a robotic space mission challenge and rocket building.

NASA's education downlinks support the agency's efforts to encourage students to study and pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM. These events, which NASA's Teaching from Space Office facilitate, use the unique experience of human spaceflight to promote and enhance STEM education.

Fernbank Science Center is part of NASA's Science, Engineering, Mathematics and Aerospace Academy program known as SEMAA. SEMAA is a national, innovative project designed to increase participation and retention of historically underserved and underrepresented kindergarten through 12th grade youth in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

"We're excited about this extraordinary learning experience to inspire SEMAA students' interest in STEM careers," said Jo Ann Charleston, chief of the Educational Programs Office at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. "Stimulating interest in these disciplines helps NASA develop the next generation of scientists and engineers who will take us back to the moon, on to Mars and beyond."

For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For information about NASA's education programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/education

For information about NASA's Science, Engineering, Mathematics and Aerospace Academy, visit:



http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/education/SEMAA_GRC.html

Former Space Station Astronauts Available for Live TV Interviews

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

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

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

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

Earth Day celebration in NASA

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

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

Satellites Show Arctic Ice declining

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

NASA provides TV Coverage of Next Soyuz Landing

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

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

NASA's Shuttle Atlantis rollout to Launch Pad

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Space shuttle Atlantis' rollout to Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida has been rescheduled to begin at 4 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, March 31, as preparations for the STS-125 mission move forward. Atlantis is targeted to lift off May 12 to service NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

NASA Television's live coverage of the event will begin at 6:30 a.m. Video highlights will air on the NASA TV Video File.

Journalists are invited to a photo opportunity of the shuttle's move to the pad and an interview opportunity with Atlantis Flow Director Angie Brewer at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday. Dates and times of this event are subject to change. Updates are available by calling 321-867-2525.

Reporters must arrive at Kennedy's news center by 6:30 a.m. Tuesday for transportation to the viewing area. Media accreditation for this event has closed. Badges can be picked up through Tuesday at the Kennedy Badging Office on State Road 405. The badging office opens at 6 a.m.

The fully assembled space shuttle, consisting of the orbiter, external fuel tank and twin solid rocket boosters is mounted on a mobile launcher platform and will be delivered to the pad atop a crawler-transporter. The crawler will travel slower than 1 mph during the 3.4-mile journey. The process is expected to take approximately six hours.

During Atlantis' 11-day mission, the crew of seven astronauts will make the final shuttle flight to Hubble. During five spacewalks, they will install two new instruments, repair two inactive ones and replace components. The result will be six working, complementary science instruments with capabilities beyond what is now available, and an extended operational lifespan for the telescope through at least 2014.

Scott Altman will be the commander of Atlantis. Gregory C. Johnson will be the pilot. Mission specialists will be John Grunsfeld, Mike Massimino, Megan McArthur, Andrew Feustel and Michael Good.

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

For information about the STS-125 mission and crew, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

NASA Continues to Advance International Polar Year Science form Space

WASHINGTON -- Although the International Polar Year officially came to a close in February, NASA is continuing to push the frontiers of polar science from space, the air and the surface of ice.

On Monday, NASA embarks on the first of two airborne field campaigns in the Arctic to take a closer look at Greenland and Iceland ice sheets and the region's sea ice and glaciers. From space, NASA's Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite, known as ICESat, is completing a seasonal survey of the world's ice sheets to gauge how and where they are changing. And later in 2009, NASA scientists will return to Antarctica to drill into the massive Pine Island Glacier.

The two-year International Polar Year focused science and education activities on Earth's remote polar regions and their connections to the rest of the Earth system. The event marked the 125th anniversary of the first polar year and the 50th anniversary of the International Geophysical Year. Scientists from more than 60 nations participated, including researchers funded by NASA and other U.S. agencies.

The International Polar Year prompted many research projects and innovative public outreach programs. Examples of ongoing projects NASA and its partners sponsor are:

NASA SATELLITE AND PLANE FLY IN TANDEM OVER GREELAND ICE SHEET
NASA's P-3B aircraft takes off March 30 from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Va., to begin a month-long Arctic research mission. Its main objective is to map the changing thickness of the Greenland ice sheet in tandem with NASA's ICESat. Because the ICESat mission has surpassed its expected lifetime, NASA is ensuring it can maintain the continuity of this ice sheet data record by taking airborne measurements nearly simultaneously with measurements from the spacecraft. NASA's William Krabill from Wallops Flight Facility, an expert at Greenland airborne ice sheet mapping, is leading the effort, dubbed "Operation Ice Bridge." For 2009, the P-3B is outfitted with an expanded array of instruments.

NEW AIRBORNE RADAR TO PEER INSIDE ICE SHEETS AND GLACIERS
A team of NASA scientists begin an airborne campaign this spring to understand better how Arctic ice is changing and assess the impacts of climate change. During the seven-week Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar field campaign to Greenland and Iceland, scientists will use two new ice-penetrating radars flying aboard a modified NASA Gulfstream III aircraft. Data will provide new insights into our understanding of the flow of glaciers and ice streams while also serving as a test bed for future satellite missions. Scott Hensley of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., leads the campaign.

GLOBAL TOPOGRAPHIC SURVEY OF ICE SHEETS BEGINS SIXTH YEAR
NASA's polar-orbiting ICESat spacecraft is wrapping up its latest month-long campaign to map Earth's changing ice sheets and polar sea ice. The new data from ICESat's laser-pulsing instrument adds another year to a detailed record of changes in the mass of ice sheets, the thickness of sea ice, and the speed of glacier motion at the ice sheet margins. Ron Kwok of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a team of researchers are using ICESat data to estimate how much Arctic sea ice has been lost in recent years.

RESEARCHERS POISED TO RETURN TO PINE ISLAND GLACIER
Robert Bindschadler of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., and colleagues have revised their plans to drill through Antarctica's isolated Pine Island Glacier and take the first-ever look underneath the glacier at how the ocean and the ice interact. The researchers were thwarted in their first attempt during the 2007-2008 field season because of concerns about the safety of landing aircraft on the remote glacier. The new plan calls for helicopter flights to establish a base camp later this year.

INTERNATIONAL TEAM WORKING TO CALCULATE ANTARCTIC DRAINAGE
For the first time, a group of researchers from seven countries are calculating exactly how much ice is flowing off the Antarctic Ice Sheet and into the ocean. This fundamental measurement -- how much ice is being lost at the edges of the ice sheet -- will help researchers improve our knowledge of the changing volume of ice on the continent. Using multiple satellite data sets, groups from seven countries are applying a new analysis method to data from three satellites to account for all ice loss. Robert Bindschadler of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center is leading NASA's contribution to this international effort.

'FROZEN' OPENS ON SCIENCE ON A SPHERE THEATRES
NASA's newest production for the "Science on a Sphere" projection system debuted on March 27 at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and Wallops Flight Facility. "Frozen," a 12-minute, narrated feature, explores Earth's changing ice and snow cover. Playing on nearly 30 screens around the world, "Frozen" will be coming soon to a museum near you.

For more information about NASA's International Polar Year projects, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/ipy

NASA Updates Media Credentials Deadlines For Next Space Shuttle Flight

WASHINGTON -- NASA is updating its media accreditation deadlines for space shuttle Atlantis' STS-125 mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope, targeted to launch May 12. The 11-day flight will include five spacewalks to upgrade the telescope, leaving it better than ever and ready for at least another five years of research. This mission is the last visit to the telescope before the shuttle fleet's planned retirement in 2010.

Journalists must apply for credentials to attend the liftoff from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida or cover the mission from other NASA centers. To be accredited, reporters must work for legitimate, verifiable news-gathering organizations. Journalists may need to submit requests for credentials at multiple NASA facilities as early as April 11.

Additional time may be required to process accreditation requests by journalists from certain designated countries. Designated countries include those with which the United States has no diplomatic relations, countries on the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism, those under U.S. sanction or embargo, or countries which raise proliferation concerns. Please contact the accrediting NASA center for details. Journalists should confirm they have been accredited before they travel.

No substitutions of credentials are allowed at any NASA facility. If the STS-125 launch is delayed, the deadline for domestic journalists may be extended on a day-by-day basis.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER
Because of the length of time between target launch dates, STS-125 media credentials issued in 2008 are no longer valid. Reporters applying for credentials at NASA's Kennedy Space Center should submit requests via the Web at:
https://media.ksc.nasa.gov

Reporters must use work e-mail addresses, not personal accounts, when applying. Once accreditation is approved, applicants will receive confirmation via e-mail.

Accredited journalists with mission badges will have access to Kennedy from launch through the end of the mission. Application deadlines for mission badges are May 1 for U.S. journalists and April 19 for foreign reporters.

Media representatives with special logistic requests for the Kennedy Space Center, such as space for satellite trucks, trailers, electrical connections or work space, must contact Laurel Lichtenberger at laurel.a.lichtenberger@nasa.gov by May 1.

Work space in the News Center and the News Center Annex is provided on a first-come basis -- one space per organization. To set up temporary telephone, fax, ISDN or network lines, journalists must make arrangements with BellSouth at 800-213-4988. Reporters must have an assigned seat in the Kennedy newsroom prior to setting up lines. To obtain an assigned seat, contact Patricia Christian at patricia.christian-1@nasa.gov. Media representatives must have a public affairs escort to any other Kennedy area except the Launch Complex 39 cafeteria.

JOHNSON SPACE CENTER
Reporters may obtain credentials for NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston by calling the Johnson newsroom at 281-483-5111 or by presenting STS-125 mission credentials from Kennedy. Media representatives planning to cover the mission only from Johnson need to apply for credentials only at Johnson. Deadlines for submitting Johnson accreditation requests are April 11 for non-U.S. reporters, regardless of citizenship, and May 7 for U.S. reporters who are U.S. citizens.

Journalists covering the mission from Johnson using Kennedy credentials also must contact the Johnson newsroom by May 7 to arrange workspace, phone lines and other logistics. Johnson is responsible for credentialing media if the shuttle lands at NASA's White Sands Space Harbor, N.M. If a landing is imminent at White Sands, Johnson will arrange credentials.

DRYDEN FLIGHT RESEARCH CENTER
Notice for a space shuttle landing at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base in California could be short. Domestic media outlets should consider accrediting Los Angeles-based personnel who could travel quickly to Dryden. Deadlines for submitting Dryden accreditation requests are April 14 for non-U.S. media, regardless of citizenship, and May 15 for U.S. media who are U.S. citizens or who have permanent residency status.

For Dryden media credentials, U.S. citizens representing domestic media must provide their full name, date of birth, place of birth, media organization, their driver's license number and the name of the issuing state, and the last six digits of their social security number.

In addition to the above requirements, foreign media representatives, regardless of citizenship, must provide data including their citizenship, visa or passport number and their expiration date. Foreign nationals representing either domestic or foreign media who have permanent residency status must provide their alien registration number and expiration date.

Journalists should fax requests for credentials on company letterhead to 661-276-3566. E-mailed requests to Alan Brown at alan.brown@nasa.gov are acceptable for reporters who have been accredited at Dryden within the past year. Requests must include a phone number and business e-mail address for follow-up contact. Those journalists who previously requested credentials will not have to do so again.

NASA PUBLIC AFFAIRS CONTACTS:
Kennedy Space Center: Candrea Thomas, 321-867-2468, candrea.k.thomas@nasa.gov

Johnson Space Center: James Hartsfield, 281-483-5111, james.a.hartsfield@nasa.gov

Dryden Flight Research Center: Leslie Williams, 661-276-3893, leslie.a.williams@nasa.gov

For information about the STS-125 mission, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

For information about the Hubble Space Telescope, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/hubble

NASA's Shuttle Discovery Glides Lands Home After Successful

Mission CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Space shuttle Discovery and its crew landed at 3:14 p.m. EDT Saturday at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, completing a 13-day journey of more than 5.3 million miles.

The STS-119 flight delivered the space station's fourth and final set of solar array wings, completing the station's truss, or backbone. The additional electricity provided by the arrays will fully power science experiments and help support station operations.

During three spacewalks, astronauts installed the S6 truss segment to the starboard, or right, side of the station and accomplished important tasks to prepare the station for future upgrades and additions later this year.

The flight also replaced a failed unit for a system that converts urine to potable water. Samples from the station's Water Recovery System will be analyzed. It's expected to take about a month for the analysis to be completed and the water to be cleared for the station crew to drink.

STS-119 spacewalkers were unable to deploy a jammed external cargo carrier on the Port 3 truss segment. It was tied safely in place. Because the issue is not yet understood, Mission Control cancelled the installation of a similar payload attachment system on the starboard side. Engineers are evaluating the problem and will address it during a future spacewalk.

On March 24, the 10 shuttle and station crew members gathered in the station's Harmony module and spoke to President Barack Obama, members of Congress and school children from the Washington, D.C. area. From the White House's Roosevelt Room, the president and his guests congratulated the crew on the mission and asked about a range of topics including sleeping in weightlessness to the station's travelling speed.

Lee Archambault commanded the flight and was joined by Pilot Tony Antonelli and Mission Specialists Joseph Acaba, Steve Swanson, Richard Arnold, John Phillips and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata. Wakata remained aboard the station, replacing Flight Engineer Sandra Magnus, who returned to Earth on Discovery after more than four months on the station.

Acaba and Arnold are former science teachers who are now fully-trained NASA astronauts. They made their first journey into orbit and conducted critical spacewalking tasks on this flight. STS-119 was the 125th space shuttle mission, the 36th flight for Discovery and the 28th shuttle visit to the station.

Acaba and Arnold are former science teachers who are now fully-trained NASA astronauts. They made their first journey into orbit and conducted critical spacewalking tasks on this flight. STS-119 was the 125th space shuttle mission, the 36th flight for Discovery and the 28th shuttle visit to the station.

With Discovery and its crew safely home, the stage is set for the launch of STS-125, targeted for May 12. Atlantis' mission will return the space shuttle to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope for one last visit before the shuttle fleet retires in 2010. Over 11 days and five spacewalks, Atlantis' crew will upgrade the telescope, preparing it for at least another five years of research.

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


For more about the STS-119 mission and the upcoming STS-125 flight, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

NASA Brings Orion Spacecraft To National Mall For Public Viewing

WASHINGTON -- NASA will showcase the next generation of spacecraft that will return humans to the moon in a day-long public event March 30 on the National Mall in Washington. The full-size mockup of the Orion crew exploration vehicle will be parked on the Mall between 4th and 7th Streets, SW, in front of the National Air and Space Museum. Reporters are invited to attend a briefing by the vehicle at 10 a.m. EDT.

The spacecraft mockup is on its way from water testing at the Naval Surface Warfare Center's Carderock Division in Bethesda to open water testing in the Atlantic off the coast of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The goal of the operation, dubbed the Post-landing Orion Recovery Test, or PORT, is to determine what kind of motions the astronaut crew can expect after landing, as well as conditions outside for the recovery team.

NASA engineers and personnel will be available all day at the National Mall event to answer questions about the Orion crew module and the Constellation program.

Orion is targeted to begin carrying humans to the International Space Station in 2015 and to the moon in 2020. Along with the Ares I and Ares V rockets and the Altair lunar lander, it is part of the Constellation Program that is developing the country's next capability for human exploration of the moon and further destinations in the solar system.

For more information about the Orion crew capsule, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/orion


For information about the Constellation Program, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/constellation

New Astronaut Crew Launches to ISS (International Space Station)

HOUSTON - The 19th crew to live and work aboard the International Space Station launched into orbit Thursday morning from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, aboard a Soyuz spacecraft. NASA astronaut Michael Barratt, Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, and spaceflight participant and U.S. software engineer Charles Simonyi lifted off at 6:49 a.m. CDT.

They are scheduled to dock with the station at 8:14 a.m. Saturday, March 28. Padalka will serve as commander of Expeditions 19 and 20 aboard the station. Barratt will serve as a flight engineer for those two missions. Padalka and Barratt's other crewmate is Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. He arrived to the station March 17 on space shuttle Discovery.

Simonyi, flying to the station under a commercial agreement with the Russian Federal Space Agency, previously visited the complex in April 2007. He is the first spaceflight participant to make a second flight to the station and will spend 10 days aboard. Simonyi will return to Earth April 7 with Expedition 18 Commander Michael Fincke and Flight Engineer Yury Lonchakov, who have been on the station since October 2008.

The Expedition 19 crew will continue science investigations and prepare for the arrival of the rest of the station's first six-person contingent. Roman Romanenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency, Frank De Winne of the European Space Agency and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Bob Thirsk will launch from Baikonur on May 27, arriving at the station on May 29. After all the astronauts are aboard, Expedition 20 will begin, ushering in an era of six-person station crews. This mission also will be the first time the crew members represent all five International Space Station partners.

For more information about the space station and how to view it from Earth, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

NASA's Space Shuttle Mission Reports Now Available in Spanish

WASHINGTON - NASA has a variety of resources available for Language of Spanish-speaking media interested in covering the ongoing space shuttle mission. The shuttle crew includes Puerto Rican astronaut Joseph Acaba, a former teacher who is now a fully-trained spacewalker.

For Spanish versions of status reports about the STS-119 mission to the International Space Station, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts119/news/spanish/Mission_Status-Spanish.html

For biographical information about current and former Hispanic astronauts, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/spacesuits/careercorner

Acaba recorded a Spanish message to students before launching on his mission to the station. To view the video, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/education/spacesuits

NASA is providing continuous television and Internet coverage of the STS-119 mission, which is the 125th shuttle flight. NASA Television features live mission events, daily mission status news conferences and 24-hour commentary. NASA TV is webcast at:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

The STS-128 mission, currently targeted to launch in August, will be the first to include two Hispanic astronauts, Jose Hernandez and Danny Olivas. To request interviews, contact Johnson Space Center at 281-483-5111.

Space Station and Shuttle Crews Hold News Conference From Space

HOUSTON - The 10 crew members aboard International Space Station and the space shuttle Discovery will hold a news conference at 12:08 p.m. CDT on Tuesday, March 24.

U.S. reporters may ask questions in person from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Kennedy Space Center in Florida and Headquarters in Washington. Questions also will be taken from Russian reporters at Mission Control, Moscow, and Japanese reporters at Johnson.

To participate in the news conference, U.S. journalists must call the public affairs office at their preferred NASA center by 1 p.m. Monday. Media must be in place at participating locations at least 20 minutes prior to the start of the news conference.
NASA Television will provide live coverage of the 40-minute news conference. For NASA TV downlink, schedule and streaming video information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

During Discovery's STS-119 mission, the crews are installing the final set of solar arrays to fully power science experiments and support the station's expanded crew of six in May.

For more information about the STS-119 mission and its crew, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

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

ESA and NASA Select Science Investigations for Solar Orbiter

WASHINGTON -- The European Space Agency(ESA) and NASA have selected 10 proposals for science instruments to fly aboard a spacecraft that will study the sun from a unique vantage point in space.

The European-led mission, called the Solar Orbiter, will be positioned about one-fourth the distance Earth is from the sun. The location ultimately will enhance the ability for scientists worldwide to forecast space weather.

Space weather can produce electromagnetic fields on Earth that induce extreme currents in wires, disrupting power lines, causing wide-spread blackouts and affecting communication cables that support the Internet. Severe space weather also produces energetic solar particles and the dislocation of Earth's radiation belts, which can damage satellites used for commercial communications, global positioning and weather forecasting. Additionally, space weather poses risks to astronauts.

"These selections provide the highest scientific value to help answer questions about our life giving star, the sun," said Dick Fisher, director for NASA's Heliophysics Division in Washington, USA. "This collaboration will create a new chapter in heliophysics research and provide a strong partnership with the international science community to complement future robotic and human exploration activities."

The continued development of the selected investigations beyond initial design of the instruments, known as Phase A, will depend on technical feasibility, cost and schedule commitments from the principal investigators. Continuation also will depend on available NASA program funds and ESA's Cosmic Vision mission down-selection process to be completed in early 2010.

"The announcement of the preliminary payload selection for Solar Orbiter is a positive step toward the realization of a joint mission aimed at collecting unprecedented data about our star," said Marcello Coradini, ESA coordinator for solar system missions in Paris. "We are delighted to continue our tradition of partnership with NASA, which already has enabled us to carry out extraordinary scientific missions."

Of the 10 selected instrument proposals, three will receive NASA funding:

• Solar Orbiter Heliospheric Imager; Russell Howard, principal investigator, Naval Research Laboratory in Washington. This instrument will provide revolutionary measurements to pinpoint coronal mass ejections or CMEs. CME's are violent eruptions with masses greater than a few billion tons. They travel from 60 to more than 2,000 miles per second. They have been compared to hurricanes because of the widespread disruption of communications and power systems they can cause when directed at Earth.
• Spectral Imaging of the Coronal Environment; Donald Hassler, principal investigator, Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo. This instrument will provide an extreme ultraviolet spectrometer or optical instrument that will measure different wavelengths of light emitted from the sun. Data will advance our knowledge of the sun's dynamics to better understand the effects on Earth and the solar system.
• Suprathermal Ion Spectrograph; lead co-investigator Glenn Mason, Applied Physics Laboratory in Columbia, Md. This experiment will measure energetic particles ejected from the sun. Data will be compared to other solar and interplanetary processes to understand solar system space weather. Understanding the connections between the sun and its planets will allow better prediction of the impacts of solar activity on humans, technological systems and even the presence of life itself in the universe.

The investigations are part of NASA's Living with a Star Program. The program is designed to understand how and why the sun varies, how planetary systems respond and the effect on human space and Earth activities. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., manages the program for the agency's Heliophysics Division of the Science Mission Directorate.

For more information about the Solar Orbiter program, visit:
http://sci.esa.int/solarorbiter

For more information about the Living with a Star Program, visit:
http://lws.gsfc.nasa.gov