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July 2010 Press Releases
NASA's Hibernating Mars Rover May Not Call Home (Jul. 30, 2010)
WASHINGTON -- NASA mission controllers have not heard from the Mars
Exploration Rover Spirit since March 22, and the rover is facing its
toughest challenge yet -- trying to survive the harsh Martian winter.
The rover team anticipated Spirit would go into a low-power
"hibernation" mode since the rover was not able to get to a favorable
slope for its fourth Martian winter, which runs from ...click for complete press release
NASA Awards Electrical Systems Engineering Services Contract (Jul. 30, 2010)
WASHINGTON -- NASA has awarded a sole-source interim contract for
electrical systems engineering services to MEI Technologies in
Houston.
This interim contract is a cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery,
indefinite-quantity contract that will ensure program continuity and
critical mission support. The contract will cover both existing and
new requirements. It has a maximum ordering va...click for complete press release
NASA Awards Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, Space Vehicle Mockup Facility Support Contract (Jul. 30, 2010)
WASHINGTON -- NASA has awarded a contract to Raytheon Technical
Services Co. of Webster, Texas, to operate, maintain and provide
sustaining engineering at the Johnson Space Center's Neutral Buoyancy
Laboratory and Space Vehicle Mockup Facility in Houston.
The contract has a maximum value of $119.9 million.
The Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, or NBL, includes a large pool where
astronauts us...click for complete press release
NASA's First Robotic Crew Member To Tweet From Space Station, Available For Interviews (Jul. 30, 2010)
HOUSTON -- NASA's Robonaut 2 has no voice but is ready to tell you its
story -- in 140 characters or less. The prototype robot will travel
to space this fall to give NASA a deeper understanding of
human-robotic interaction.
Called R2, the robot has started sending updates about its upcoming
mission from its new Twitter account, @AstroRobonaut. With the help
of its supporting team, R2 w...click for complete press release
NASA Sets Briefing To Preview Space Station Spacewalk (Jul. 28, 2010)
HOUSTON -- NASA managers will discuss an upcoming spacewalk at the
International Space Station during a news briefing at 1 p.m. CDT on
Tuesday, Aug. 3.
Expedition 24 Flight Engineers Doug Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell Dyson
are scheduled to perform a 6.5-hour spacewalk on Aug. 5. The two NASA
astronauts will outfit the Russian Zarya module for future robotics
work and prepare the station f...click for complete press release
NASA Selects Sounding Rockets Operations Contractor (Jul. 28, 2010)
WASHINGTON -- NASA selected Orbital Sciences Corp.'s, Technical
Services Division in Greenbelt, Md., for the agency's Sounding
Rockets Operations contract. The total value of this
indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity cost-plus incentive fee
contract is $310 million. The period of performance is five years.
Orbital Sciences will coordinate and implement NASA's overall Sounding
Rockets...click for complete press release
NASA Opens Online Voting For Next Desert Rats Exploration Site (Jul. 27, 2010)
WASHINGTON -- NASA is inviting the public to choose an area in
northern Arizona where explorers will conduct part of the annual
Desert Research and Technology Studies, known as Desert RATS.
"Desert RATS is an annual test where NASA takes equipment and crews
into the field to simulate future planetary exploration missions,"
said Joe Kosmo, Desert RATS manager at NASA's Johnson Space Center...click for complete press release
NASA Simulates Space Exploration At Remote Arctic Crater Site (Jul. 26, 2010)
WASHINGTON -- NASA personnel are among a group of international
researchers who are in the Canadian Arctic assessing concepts for
future planetary exploration as part of the Haughton-Mars Project, or
HMP-2010.
Scientists are using the arid, rocky environment of the Haughton
Crater on Devon Island, Canada to simulate conditions that might be
encountered by explorers on other planetary bod...click for complete press release
NASA Telescope Finds Elusive Buckyballs In Space For First Time (Jul. 23, 2010)
WASHINGTON -- Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have
discovered carbon molecules, known as "buckyballs," in space for the
first time. Buckyballs are soccer-ball-shaped molecules that were
first observed in a laboratory 25 years ago.
They are named for their resemblance to architect Buckminster Fuller's
geodesic domes, which have interlocking circles on the surface of a
par...click for complete press release
NASA Seeks Undergrads To Defy Gravity For Science And Engineering (Jul. 23, 2010)
HOUSTON -- NASA is offering undergraduate students an opportunity to
test an experiment in weightless science as part of the agency's
Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program. Proposals are due by Oct.
27.
The program, managed by the Johnson Space Flight Center in Houston,
provides aspiring explorers a chance to propose, design and fabricate
a reduced gravity experiment. Selected teams w...click for complete press release
NASA Spacecraft Camera Yields Most Accurate Mars Map Ever (Jul. 23, 2010)
WASHINGTON -- A camera aboard NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft has
helped develop the most accurate global Martian map ever. Researchers
and the public can access the map via several websites and explore
and survey the entire surface of the Red Planet.
The map was constructed using nearly 21,000 images from the Thermal
Emission Imaging System, or THEMIS, a multi-band infrared camera on
Ody...click for complete press release
NASA Astronaut Sends First Signed Message From Orbit (Jul. 23, 2010)
WASHINGTON -- The number of languages used on the International Space
Station has recently increased. In addition to those spoken in the 15
countries that have had representatives aboard the space station,
American Sign Language, or ASL, is now included. NASA astronaut Tracy
Caldwell Dyson has sent a message in ASL from the station to the deaf
community.
In the video, Caldwell Dyson answ...click for complete press release
NASA's Hubble Shows Hyperfast Star Was Booted From Milky Way (Jul. 22, 2010)
WASHINGTON -- NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has detected a
hypervelocity star, a rare phenomenon moving three times faster than
our sun.
The star may have been created in a cosmic misstep. A hundred million
years ago, a triple-star system was traveling through the bustling
center of our Milky Way galaxy when it wandered too close to the
galaxy's giant black hole. The black hole captured ...click for complete press release
Iss Expedition 24 Crew To Talk With Middle School Students In Georgia (Jul. 20, 2010)
WASHINGTON -- Students from the Conyers Middle School in Conyers, Ga.,
are expecting a very long-distance phone call Wednesday from NASA
astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
About 400 sixth- through eighth-grade students and their teachers will
participate in a live downlink, which is scheduled to take place at
12:20 p.m. EDT. Selected students will ask questions of astronau...click for complete press release
NASA Astronauts -- Including Space Station Crew Member From Maryland -- Available For Interviews In Washington (Jul. 20, 2010)
WASHINGTON -- NASA Headquarters in Washington will welcome space
shuttle Atlantis' STS-132 astronauts and International Space Station
Expedition 22 and 23 Flight Engineer T.J. Creamer for a visit Monday,
July 26, through Thursday, July 29.
Creamer considers Upper Marlboro, Md., his hometown. He graduated from
Bishop McNamara High School in Forestville, Md., and Loyola College
in Columbia...click for complete press release
NASA's Nebula Cloud Computing Technology To Play Key Role In New Open Source Initiative (Jul. 19, 2010)
WASHINGTON -- The core technology developed for NASA's Nebula cloud
computing platform has been selected as a contributor for OpenStack,
a newly-launched open source cloud computing initiative. It will pull
together more than 25 companies to play a key role in driving cloud
computing standards for interoperability and portability.
Cloud computing is a way to deliver computing resources, s...click for complete press release
Teachers Get Hands-on Experience Through New NASA Internship (Jul. 16, 2010)
WASHINGTON -- Select teachers will spend part of their summer learning
about virtual technology in an effort to get their students excited
about science, technology, engineering and math.
A pilot summer internship program, called Simulation-Based Aerospace
Engineering Teacher Professional Development, will give 16 U.S.
middle and high school teachers a unique opportunity to gain hands-on ...click for complete press release
NASA's Wise Mission Ready To Complete Extensive Sky Survey (Jul. 16, 2010)
WASHINGTON -- NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE,
will complete its first survey of the entire sky on July 17. The
mission has generated more than one million images so far, of
everything from asteroids to distant galaxies
"Like a globe-trotting shutterbug, WISE has completed a world tour
with 1.3 million slides covering the whole sky," said Edward Wright,
the principal ...click for complete press release
NASA Finds Super Hot Planet With Unique Comet-like Tail (Jul. 15, 2010)
WASHINGTON -- Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have
confirmed the existence of a baked object that could be called a
"cometary planet." The gas giant planet, named HD 209458b, is
orbiting so close to its star that its heated atmosphere is escaping
into space.
Observations taken with Hubble's Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS)
suggest powerful stellar winds are sweeping the ...click for complete press release
NASA Television Debuts Full-time High Definition Channel (Jul. 15, 2010)
WASHINGTON -- On Monday, July 19, NASA Television will launch a
full-time High Definition (HD) channel that media, cable and
satellite service providers can access for news content and coverage
of agency missions and programs.
The channel will deliver HD video that only NASA can provide, such as
live launch coverage of space shuttles and other spacecraft. The "ISS
Update," a daily progra...click for complete press release
Messenger Spacecraft Reveals New Information About Mercury (Jul. 15, 2010)
WASHINGTON -- The first spacecraft designed by NASA to orbit Mercury
is giving scientists a new perspective on the planet's atmosphere and
evolution.
Launched in August 2004, the Mercury Surface, Space Environment,
Geochemistry and Ranging spacecraft, known as MESSENGER, conducted a
third and final flyby of Mercury in September 2009. The probe
completed a critical maneuver using the plan...click for complete press release
NASA Sets Briefing To Preview Space Station Spacewalk (Jul. 14, 2010)
HOUSTON -- NASA officials will discuss an upcoming International Space
Station spacewalk by two Russian cosmonauts during a news briefing at
2 p.m. CDT on Wednesday, July 21.
The briefing will take place at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston
and be broadcast live on NASA Television and the agency's website.
Questions will be taken from journalists at participating NASA
locations.
T...click for complete press release
NASA Sets Briefing To Preview Space Station Spacewalk (Jul. 14, 2010)
HOUSTON -- NASA officials will discuss an upcoming International Space
Station spacewalk by two Russian cosmonauts during a news briefing at
2 p.m. CDT on Wednesday, July 21.
The briefing will take place at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston
and be broadcast live on NASA Television and the agency's website.
Questions will be taken from journalists at participating NASA
locations.
T...click for complete press release
NASA Awards Rapid Response Space Works Contract (Jul. 14, 2010)
WASHINGTON -- Serving as a contracting agent for the Department of
Defense's Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) Office, NASA has
selected Millennium Engineering and Integration Co., of Arlington,
Va., to receive a contract for Rapid Response Space Works (RRSW).
This is an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity, cost-plus
fixed-fee single award contract that begins Wednesday. The contra...click for complete press release
NASA Supporting Gulf Oil Spill Wildlife Recovery (Jul. 14, 2010)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA's Kennedy Space Center is helping with
the unprecedented effort to save wildlife from the effects of the BP
Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The first group of hatchlings from endangered sea turtle eggs brought
from beaches along the northern U.S. Gulf Coast was released into the
Atlantic Ocean off Kennedy's central Florida coast on July 11. ...click for complete press release
NASA Announces Three New Centennial Challenges (Jul. 13, 2010)
WASHINGTON -- NASA announced three new Centennial Challenges Tuesday,
with an overall prize purse of $5 million. NASA's Centennial
Challenges are prize competitions for technological achievements by
independent teams who work without government funding.
"NASA sponsors prize competitions because the agency believes student
teams, private companies of all sizes and citizen-inventors can
pr...click for complete press release
NASA Selects Student Experiments For International Space Station (Jul. 13, 2010)
HOUSTON -- NASA has selected nine experiments, designed by students at
seven schools, for astronauts to perform on the International Space
Station this summer. NASA selected the proposals from among 132
received for the new Kids in Micro-g! Program.
This is the pilot year for the program, a student experiment design
challenge geared toward grades five through eight. Its purpose is to
giv...click for complete press release
NASA And Microsoft Provide Mars 3-d Close Encounter (Jul. 12, 2010)
WASHINGTON -- NASA and Microsoft Research are bringing Mars to life
with new features in the WorldWide Telescope software that provide
viewers with a high-resolution 3-D map of the Red Planet.
Microsoft's online virtual telescope explores the universe using
images NASA spacecraft return from other worlds. Teams at NASA's Ames
Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., and Microsoft in Redm...click for complete press release
NASA Names Lugo As Director Of Glenn Research Center (Jul. 09, 2010)
WASHINGTON -- NASA Administrator Charles Bolden has named Ramon "Ray"
Lugo III as director of the agency's Glenn Research Center in
Cleveland, effective July 18. Lugo has been Glenn's acting director
since March.
As Glenn's director, Lugo is responsible for planning, organizing and
leading the activities needed to accomplish the missions assigned to
the center. Glenn has research, tech...click for complete press release
First NASA Astronaut To Send Live Tweet From Space Hosts Tweetup (Jul. 09, 2010)
WASHINGTON -- NASA invites its Twitter followers to a special Tweetup
with astronaut T.J. Creamer at 3 p.m. EDT on Thursday, July 29. The
event will take place in the James E. Webb Memorial Auditorium at
NASA Headquarters, 300 E St. SW, Washington.
While in space, Creamer set up the International Space Station's live
Internet connection. He posted updates about the mission to his
Twitter...click for complete press release
NASA, Georgetown Invite Public To Astronauts' Discussion Of Recent Space Shuttle Mission (Jul. 08, 2010)
WASHINGTON -- NASA and Georgetown University's McDonough School of
Business invite the public to a discussion with the most recent space
shuttle crew to fly in space at 6:30 p.m. EDT on Monday, July 26. The
McDonough School of Business will host the six astronauts in the
Lohrfink Auditorium of the Rafik B. Hariri Building. The crew members
will give a video presentation about their mission...click for complete press release
NASA Ceremony Honors Shuttle External Tank Workforce (Jul. 08, 2010)
WASHINGTON -- NASA and Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company paid
tribute to the workforce who built the external tanks for the space
shuttle fleet on Thursday at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New
Orleans. ET-138, the last newly manufactured tank to roll out of the
assembly building, served as a backdrop for speakers praising the
employees.
"This is a bittersweet moment for everyon...click for complete press release
NASA And Partners Assign Crews For Upcoming Space Station Missions (Jul. 08, 2010)
WASHINGTON -- NASA and its international partners, the Russia Federal
Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), have
assigned four new International Space Station crews.
The crews include NASA astronauts Joe Acaba, Sunita Williams and Kevin
Ford. Acaba was born in Inglewood, Calif., and raised in Anaheim,
Calif. Williams was born in Euclid, Ohio, but considers Needha...click for complete press release
NASA Takes Gamers On A Lunar Adventure With New Online Video Game (Jul. 06, 2010)
WASHINGTON -- NASA has given gamers a taste of lunar adventure with
release of Moonbase Alpha, an exciting new, free online video game.
The game has single and multiplayer options that allow participants to
step into the role of an exploration team member in a futuristic 3-D
lunar settlement. Players must work to restore critical systems and
oxygen flow after a meteor strike cripples a so...click for complete press release
NASA Updates Shuttle Target Launch Dates For Final Two Flights (Jul. 01, 2010)
WASHINGTON -- NASA is targeting approximately 4:33 p.m. EDT on Nov. 1
for the launch of space shuttle Discovery's STS-133 mission and 4:19
p.m. EST on Feb. 26, 2011, for the liftoff of shuttle Endeavour's
STS-134 flight from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The target dates were adjusted because critical payload hardware for
STS-133 will not be ready in time to support the previously ...click for complete press release
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