Nov 4 2015
From The Space Library
Release M15-159 NASA Opens Media Accreditation for Orion Service Module Event
NASA has opened media accreditation for a Nov. 30 event marking the arrival of a full-size test version of the service module, provided by ESA (European Space Agency), for NASA’s Orion spacecraft at the agency’s Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio.
NASA officials and European partners will address the media and answer questions about the Orion spacecraft and test plans for the service module, followed by a tour of the facility.
To attend, reporters must contact Jan Wittry at jan.m.wittry-1@nasa.gov or 216-433-5466. International media without U.S. citizenship must request accreditation and submit a scanned copy of their passport no later than 2 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, Nov. 10. The deadline for U.S. media and green card holders is 4 p.m. on Nov. 23.
All media representatives must present a government-issued photo ID, such as a passport or driver's license, to access Plum Brook Station.
The Orion spacecraft is being developed to send astronauts to deep space destinations, such as an asteroid placed in lunar orbit and Mars, and will launch on the agency’s Space Launch System rocket.
ESA, along with its contractor Airbus, is providing the service module for Orion’s next mission, a partnership that will bring international cooperation to the journey to Mars. A test article of the module will be evaluated in the Space Power Facility at Plum Brook during a multi-month test campaign to ensure it can withstand the trip to space. The service module is a critical piece of Orion and provides air, water, in-space propulsion and power for the spacecraft.
During the facility tour, media will get a look at some of the largest testing structures in the world, including the powerful space environment simulation facilities and vacuum chamber. Also at Plum Brook is the world's most powerful spacecraft acoustic test chamber, and the world's highest capacity and most powerful spacecraft shaker system.
Release M15-160 Astronaut Available Today for Live Interviews to Discuss Recruitment, Training
NASA astronaut Anne McClain will be available for live satellite interviews to discuss astronaut recruiting and training from 2 to 3:30 p.m. EST today from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The event will air live on NASA Television.
Looking to the future of space exploration, NASA seeks astronauts who can continue the critical scientific research aboard the International Space Station and crew deep-space exploration missions on the agency’s Orion crew vehicle.
McClain, a member of the 2013 Astronaut Class and one of NASA’s newest astronauts, will answer questions about today’s agency announcement to recruit the next class of astronauts for NASA’s human spaceflight program, and her own experiences in the process of becoming a NASA astronaut.
A U.S. Army major, McClain was selected by NASA in June 2013 as one of eight selectees in NASA’s most recent candidate class. She recently completed her initial astronaut training, which included intensive instruction in International Space Station systems, extravehicular activity skills training, robotics, T-38 flight training, and water and wilderness survival training. She now is qualified for a spaceflight assignment and serving in a technical position within the Astronaut Office at Johnson.
Update on Launch of EDSN
On November 3, 2015, the eight small satellites of the Edison Demonstration of Smallsat Networks (EDSN) mission were lost in the failure of the launch vehicle during the U.S. Air Force-led Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) Office's ORS-4 mission that was carrying them to orbit as secondary payloads.
The launch provider issued the following statement yesterday: "The ORS-4 mission on an experimental Super Strypi launch vehicle failed in mid-flight shortly after liftoff at 5:45 p.m. Hawaii Standard Time (7:45 p.m. PST; 10:45 p.m. EST) today from the Pacific Missile Range Facility off Barking Sands, Kauai, Hawaii. Additional information will be released as it becomes available."
The EDSN spacecraft were developed by an engineering team at the NASA Ames Research Center, and the project was sponsored by NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology Program in the Space Technology Mission Directorate. The loss of these satellites is unfortunate, but the knowledge and experience gained by the project team in designing, building and testing the innovative EDSN satellites will not be lost and will benefit future spacecraft projects for years to come.
There will be an opportunity to complete some of the objectives of the EDSN mission in a follow-on mission called Nodes. The Nodes satellites were developed by the EDSN project team and have a similar design. Two Nodes satellites are scheduled for launch to the International Space Station in December for later deployment into orbit. The Nodes mission is intended to demonstrate some of the same capabilities as EDSN while incorporating some software enhancements for additional capability.
Release 15-216 Be an Astronaut: NASA Seeks Explorers for Future Space Missions In anticipation of returning human spaceflight launches to American soil, and in preparation for the agency’s journey to Mars, NASA announced it will soon begin accepting applications for the next class of astronaut candidates. With more human spacecraft in development in the United States today than at any other time in history, future astronauts will launch once again from the Space Coast of Florida on American-made commercial spacecraft, and carry out deep-space exploration missions that will advance a future human mission to Mars.
The agency will accept applications from Dec. 14 through mid-February and expects to announce candidates selected in mid-2017. Applications for consideration as a NASA Astronaut will be accepted at this link. [1]
The next class of astronauts may fly on any of four different U.S. vessels during their careers: the International Space Station, two commercial crew spacecraft currently in development by U.S. companies, and NASA’s Orion deep-space exploration vehicle.
From pilots and engineers, to scientists and medical doctors, NASA selects qualified astronaut candidates from a diverse pool of U.S. citizens with a wide variety of backgrounds.
“This next group of American space explorers will inspire the Mars generation to reach for new heights, and help us realize the goal of putting boot prints on the Red Planet,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. “Those selected for this service will fly on U.S. made spacecraft from American soil, advance critical science and research aboard the International Space Station, and help push the boundaries of technology in the proving ground of deep space.”
The space agency is guiding an unprecedented transition to commercial spacecraft for crew and cargo transport to the space station. Flights in Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX Crew Dragon will facilitate adding a seventh crew member to each station mission, effectively doubling the amount of time astronauts will be able to devote to research in space.
Future station crew members will continue the vital work advanced during the last 15 years of continuous human habitation aboard the orbiting laboratory, expanding scientific knowledge and demonstrating new technologies. This work will include building on the regular six-month missions and this year's one-year mission, currently underway aboard the station, which is striving for research breakthroughs not possible on Earth that will enable long-duration human and robotic exploration into deep space.
In addition, NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft, now in development, will launch astronauts on missions to the proving ground of lunar orbit where NASA will learn to conduct complex operations in a deep space environment before moving on to longer duration missions on its journey to Mars.
“This is an exciting time to be a part of America’s human space flight program,” said Brian Kelly, director of Flight Operations at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “NASA has taken the next step in the evolution of our nation’s human spaceflight program – and our U.S. astronauts will be at the forefront of these new and challenging space flight missions. We encourage all qualified applicants to learn more about the opportunities for astronauts at NASA and apply to join our flight operations team.”
To date, NASA has selected more than 300 astronauts to fly on its increasingly challenging missions to explore space and benefit life on Earth. There are 47 astronauts in the active astronaut corps, and more will be needed to crew future missions to the space station and destinations in deep space.
Astronaut candidates must have earned a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution in engineering, biological science, physical science or mathematics. An advanced degree is desirable. Candidates also must have at least three years of related, progressively responsible professional experience, or at least 1,000 hours of pilot-in-command time in jet aircraft. Astronaut candidates must pass the NASA long-duration spaceflight physical.
Release 15-218 NASA to Fly, Sail North to Study Plankton-Climate Change Connection
NASA begins a five-year study this month of the annual cycle of phytoplankton and the impact that small airborne particles emitted from the ocean have on the climate-sensitive North Atlantic.
The North Atlantic Aerosols and Marine Ecosystems Study (NAAMES) will collect data during ship and aircraft measurement campaigns and combine that data with continuous satellite and ocean sensor readings. The first of four seasonal research missions begins Nov. 6 and continues through early December.
NASA’s C-130H Hercules airborne laboratory will begin research flights Nov. 12 from St. John’s International Airport in St. John’s, Newfoundland. The flights will be coordinated with the research vessel (R/V) Atlantis, operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Atlantis will provide detailed ship-based measurements of plankton in the North Atlantic.
“We will be studying an ocean region that every year exhibits one of the largest natural phytoplankton blooms on Earth,” said Mike Behrenfeld, NAAMES principal investigator from Oregon State University in Corvallis. “These plankton are also known to release organic compounds into the atmosphere that can be measured as far away as Ireland. That makes the North Atlantic an ideal place to study how plankton blooms are recreated each year by ecological and physical processes, and how ocean biology is involved in the sea-air exchange of organic aerosols and trace gases that may influence clouds and climate.”
The C-130H will fly eastward to rendezvous with and overfly the global-class, floating laboratory-ship Atlantis during its approximately 26-day research cruise. By combining ship, airborne, computer modeling, sustained satellite and autonomous sensor data, scientists hope to improve their predictions of ecosystem and aerosol changes in a warming ocean.
Plankton ecosystems in the ocean are strongly interconnected with climate and life on Earth. Plankton production, responding to a warming climate, results in environmental impacts such as changes in fisheries production, uptake of atmospheric carbon dioxide, and ocean emissions of climate-regulating aerosols. The ability to predict the consequences of a warming ocean depends on resolving conflicting theories about what controls plankton ecosystems and their aerosol emissions.
NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, has science and project management responsibilities for NAAMES and science instruments onboard the C-130H. The agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, leads project data management. The NAAMES ship and airborne science-instrument teams involve more than 20 different research facilities and academic institutions. NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility Aircraft Office in Virginia operates the C-130H research aircraft to support airborne scientific research activities.
The NASA C-130H and the R/V Atlantis supporting the NAAMES mission will be available to the media at two different events this month. On Wednesday, Nov. 4 from 10 to 11:30 a.m. EST, media can tour the Atlantis at Woods Hole, located at 86 Water St. The C-130H will be available on Tuesday, Nov. 10 from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Newfoundland Time Zone, in Hangar #4 of St. John’s International Airport, located at RCAF Road in St. John’s.
NAAMES is part of NASA’s second series of Earth Venture suborbital investigations that provide an innovative approach to regularly address Earth science research that accommodates evolving scientific priorities. Earth Venture investigations are part of NASA's Earth System Science Pathfinder Program, managed at Langley for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
NASA researchers collect and study data from space, air, land and sea to tackle challenges facing the world today, including improved environmental prediction and natural hazard and climate change preparedness. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth's interconnected natural systems with long-term data records. The agency freely shares this unique knowledge and works with institutions around the world to gain new insights into how our planet is changing.
Release C15-046 NASA Awards Contract for Space Communication, Navigation Program Support
NASA has selected Arctic Slope Technical Services, Inc. of Beltsville, Maryland, to provide services in support of its Space Communication and Navigation (SCaN) program office at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
This procurement was competed as a small business set-aside. This is a cost-plus fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract with a core period of one year and nine months beginning Dec. 1. The contract includes two option periods that – if exercised – will extend the contract to Nov. 30, 2020. Individual task orders may extend for up to one year past the expiration of the ordering period. The potential total contract value is $48.9 million.
The services provided under this contract are: domestic and international spectrum management and regulatory services; programmatic management accounting tools services; web presences and applications; and education and public outreach activities. The work will be performed at NASA Headquarters and the contractor’s facilities.
