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Did you know that it's Pollinator Week—and that Marshall has a 165-plant "pollinator garden" on-site to provide a home for local birds, bees, and butterflies? Marshall's pollinator garden is also a waypoint for monarch butterflies as they migrate every summer and winter. Learn more about our "green team."
Image credit: NASA
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #PollinatorWeek
SERVIR is a joint program of NASA, USAID, and partners in Asia, Africa, and Latin America collaborating to help communities address environmental challenges with the use of Earth and climate satellites. Headquartered at UAH, SERVIR's collaborates with communities of all sizes to make every day #EarthDay.
Credit: USAID/Reynaldo Vela.
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #space #earth #SPoRT #SERVIR #EarthDay
The melt rate of West Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier is an important concern, because this glacier alone is currently responsible for about 1 percent of global sea level rise. A new NASA study finds that Thwaites' ice loss will continue, but not quite as rapidly as previous studies have estimated.
The new study, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, finds that numerical models used in previous studies have overestimated how rapidly ocean water is able to melt the glacier from below, leading them to overestimate the glacier's total ice loss over the next 50 years by about 7 percent.
Image Credit: NASA/James Yungel
No matter where you are on this planet, we're all #ConnectedByEarth
When NASA Marshall isn't studying the universe and bringing humanity to other worlds, we're taking time to explore and understand the beauty of our home planet. As we celebrate #EarthDay, take a look at a few of our favorite photos taken by Marshall team members-and follow @NASAEarth to learn more about our environment and the connections that hold it together.
Image credit: NASA
#tbt #nasa #marshallspaceflightcenter #msfc #marshall #space #nasamarshall #nasamarshallspaceflightcenter #earth #earthday2021 #earthpix #earthoutdoors #nasamarshall #nasa #msfc #marshallspaceflightcenter #explore
NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins has tended to multiple plant experiments on the International Space Station (ISS). Hopkins believes plants grown in space can help astronauts become more self-sufficient.
Image Credit: NASA
#NASA #space #moon #NASAMarshall #msfc #InternationalSpaceStation #ISS
A new trio of examples of ‘data sonification’ from NASA missions provides a new method to enjoy an arrangement of cosmic objects. Data sonification translates information collected by various NASA missions -- such as the Chandra X-ray Observatory, Hubble Space Telescope, and Spitzer Space Telescope -- into sounds.
The Crab Nebula has been studied by people since it first appeared in Earth's sky in 1054 A.D. Modern telescopes have captured its enduring engine powered by a quickly spinning neutron star that formed when a massive star collapsed. The combination of rapid rotation and a strong magnetic field generates jets of matter and anti-matter flowing away from its poles, and winds outward from its equator. For the translation of these data into sound, which also pans left to right, each wavelength of light has been paired with a different family of instruments. X-rays from Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue and white) are brass, optical light data from Hubble Space Telescope (purple) are strings, and infrared data from Spitzer (pink) can be heard in the woodwinds. In each case, light received towards the top of the image is played as higher pitched notes and brighter light is played louder.
Image credit: NASA/CXC/SAO/K.Arcand, SYSTEM Sounds (M. Russo, A. Santaguida)
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #chandraxrayobservatory #ChandraXRay #cxo #chandra #astronomy #space #astrophysics #nasamarshallspaceflightcenter #solarsystemandbeyond #darkmatter #gravitationallensing #GSFC #GoddardSpaceFlightCenter #goddard #nebula #CrabNebula #HubbleSpaceTelescope #HST #Hubble
The complexity and richness of Jupiter's "southern lights" (also known as auroras) are on display in this animation of false-color maps from NASA's Juno spacecraft. Auroras result when energetic electrons from the magnetosphere crash into the molecular hydrogen in the Jovian upper atmosphere. The data for this animation were obtained by Juno's Ultraviolet Spectrograph.
The images are centered on the south pole and extend to latitudes of 50 degrees south. Each frame of the animation includes data from 30 consecutive Juno spins (about 15 minutes), just after the spacecraft's fifth close approach to Jupiter on February 2, 2017. The eight frames of the animation cover the period from 13:40 to 15:40 UTC at Juno. During that time, the spacecraft was receding from 35,000 miles to 153,900 miles (56,300 kilometers to 247,600 kilometers) above the aurora; this large change in distance accounts for the increasing fuzziness of the features.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI
The Science Verification Test for NASA’s Advanced Plant Experiment-08 (APEX-08) testing Arabidopsis thaliana, a plant scientists routinely use for research, takes place inside the Veggie growth chamber at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Nov. 6, 2020. The test is part of the process for demonstrating readiness for space research ahead of its flight on SpaceX’s 23rd Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station. The APEX-08 study includes making genetic alterations that elicit a response in a group of organic compounds that modulate plant responses to environmental stress.
Image Credit: NASA/Lucy Orozco
#NASA #space #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #NASAMarshall #msfc #InternationalSpaceStation #ISS
More than 40 high-powered, amateur rockets successfully launched April 15, in North Alabama, each carrying a scientific payload nearly one-mile-high above ground level, as part of a NASA student competition.
The launches were the culminating event of NASA’s Student Launch, a competition tasking students to design, build, and launch rockets in support of NASA research. When students were asked to describe learning from and working with NASA engineers, excited was the word used most often.
Here, students watch a high-powered amateur rocket launch during NASA’s 2023 Student Launch competition near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
Image Credit: NASA/Charles Beason
#nasa #NASAMarshall #MSFC #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #education #space #studentlaunch
For more information about Student Launch, click here.
The next full Moon will be Wednesday night, August 30, 2023, appearing opposite the Sun (in Earth-based longitude) at 9:36 PM EDT. The planet Saturn, just a few days from its closest and brightest for the year, will appear near the Moon. As evening twilight ends (at 8:42 PM) Saturn will be 5 degrees to the upper right of the Moon, and will appear to swing clockwise around the Moon as the evening progresses. The Moon will appear full for 3 days around the peak of the full Moon, from Tuesday night to Friday morning.
This will be a supermoon. Publications use different thresholds for deciding which Moons qualify as "super," but all agree that in 2023 the two full Moons in August qualify.
This full Moon will be the second full Moon in August, making it a Blue Moon by the newer definition introduced by Sky & Telescope magazine in 1946. The older definition of Blue Moon, dating back to at least the 1500s, is the name for the third full Moon in a season that has four Moons. By this definition, the full Moon in August 2024 will be the Blue Moon and this full Moon, as the last full Moon of summer, shares some of the seasonal names from my posting for the August 1 full Moon. Neither of these definitions has anything to do with the color of the Moon, so the Blue Moon will not actually look blue.
This full Moon corresponds with the Hindu festival Raksha Bandhan, also called Rakhi or Rakhi Purnima, celebrating the bond between brothers and sisters. One of the traditions is for sisters of all ages to tie a rakhi (a cotton bracelet) around their brother's wrist, receiving a gift from the brother in return, as a sign of the continuing bond between them. The term "Raksha Bandhan" translates as "the bond of protection, obligation, or care."
Here, the Moon, or supermoon, is seen as it rises behind the U.S. Capitol, Monday, March 9, 2020, in Washington, DC.
Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky
#NASA #space #moon #Mars #NASAMarshall #msfc #supermoon
A new iceberg calved from Pine Island Glacier—one of the main outlets where ice from the interior of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet flows into the ocean.
The Operational Land Imager (OLI) on the Landsat 8 satellite captured this natural-color image on September 21, 2017, just before the break. A rift is clearly visible across the center of the glacier's floating ice shelf.
Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory image by Joshua Stevens, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey
E0102-72 is a supernova remnant in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. This galaxy is 190,000 light years from Earth. E0102 -72, which is approximately a thousand years old, is believed to have resulted from the explosion of a massive star. Stretching across forty light years of space, the multi-million degree source resembles a flaming cosmic wheel.
Image credit: NASA/CXC/SAO
Our ‘Moon Tree’ seedling that flew around the Moon on the NASAArtemis I mission is celebrating its second holiday season at #NASAMarshall. They really do grow up fast!
Image Credit: NASA
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #happyholidays
Read more about the Moon trees
The European Space Agency is studying electrical phenomena that occur above severe thunderstorms, including colorful sprays of energy and light known as sprites, blue jets, and elves. Researchers combined the observations with radio measurements from ground-based receivers to confirm powerful bursts of electricity above thunderstorms can generate enough energy to trigger elves. The team also found a correlation between the brightness of blue flashes and electrical current, improving our ability to model energy transfer between the upper atmosphere and the edge of space.
Tracking this activity could enhance severe weather prediction and deepen understanding of the upper atmosphere, a region critical for satellite operations and communication systems.
Blue lightning flashes illuminate cloud tops near the Pacific coast of central Mexico in June 2025 in an image taken from the International Space Station.
Credit: NASA
#NASA #InternationalSpaceStation #ISS #Launch #Astronauts #SpaceStation #science
BE4 test firing at MSFC
Blue Origin BE-4 rocket engine test plume rains over the recently demolished GVTA footprint at Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
v23846
This 2013 composite image of Kepler's supernova remnant shows Spitzer infrared emission in pink and Chandra X-ray emission from iron in blue. The infrared emission is very similar in shape and location to X-ray emission (not shown here) from material that was expelled by the giant star companion to the white dwarf before the latter exploded. This material forms a disk around the center of the explosion as shown in the labeled version. This composite figure also shows a remarkably large and puzzling concentration of iron on the left side of the center of the remnant but not the right. The authors speculate that the cause of this asymmetry might be the "shadow" in iron that was cast by the companion star, which blocked the ejection of material. Previously, theoretical work has suggested this shadowing is possible for Type Ia supernova remnants.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/NCSU/M.Burkey et al; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
#NASAMarshall #NASA #astrophysics #NASAChandra #Space #Chandra #Telescope #Universe #supernova #NASASpitzer
We have seen intricate patterns that milk makes in coffee and much smoother ones that honey makes when stirred with a spoon. Which of these cases best describes the behavior of the hot gas in galaxy clusters? By answering this question, a new study using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has deepened our understanding of galaxy clusters, the largest structures in the Universe held together by gravity.
Galaxy clusters are comprised of three main components: individual galaxies, multimillion-degree gas that fills the space between the galaxies, and dark matter, a mysterious form of matter that is spread throughout a cluster and accounts for about 80 percent of the mass of the cluster.
A team of astronomers used a set of long Chandra observations, totaling about two weeks of observing, of the Coma galaxy cluster to probe gas properties on spatial scales comparable with a typical distance that particles travel between collisions with each other. This measurement helped them to learn about the viscosity - the technical term for the resistance to the motion of gas lumps with respect to each other – of the hot gas in Coma.
Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Chicago, I. Zhuravleva et al, Optical: SDSS
This image is part of a Hubble Space Telescope survey for low-mass stars, brown dwarfs, and planets in the Orion Nebula. Each symbol identifies a pair of objects, which can be seen in the symbol’s center as a single dot of light. Special image processing techniques were used to separate the starlight into a pair of objects. The thicker inner circle represents the primary body, and the thinner outer circle indicates the companion. The circles are color-coded: red for a planet; orange for a brown dwarf; and yellow for a star. Located in the upper left corner is a planet-planet pair in the absence of a parent star. In the middle of the right side is a pair of brown dwarfs. The portion of the Orion Nebula measures roughly four by three light-years.
Image Credit: NASA , ESA, and G. Strampelli (STScI)
Scientists thought Bennu's surface was like a sandy beach, abundant in fine sand and pebbles, which would have been perfect for collecting samples. Past telescope observations from Earth had suggested the presence of large swaths of fine-grained material smaller than a few centimeters called fine regolith. But when NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission arrived at Bennu in late 2018, the mission saw a surface covered in boulders. The mysterious lack of fine regolith became even more surprising when mission scientists observed evidence of processes potentially capable of grinding boulders into fine regolith.
New research, published in Nature and led by Saverio Cambioni, of the University of Arizona, used machine learning and surface temperature data to solve the mystery. Cambioni conducted the research at the university's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. He and his colleagues ultimately found that Bennu's highly porous rocks are responsible for the surface's surprising lack of fine regolith.
This image shows a view of asteroid Bennu’s surface in a region near the equator. It was taken by the PolyCam camera on NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft on March 21, 2019 from a distance of 2.2 miles (3.5 km). The field of view is 158.5 ft (48.3 m). For scale, the light-colored rock in the upper left corner of the image is 24 ft (7.4 m) wide.
Image credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #NASAMarshall #Marshall #MSFC #GSFC #GoddardSpaceFlightCenter #OSIRISRex #OriginsSpectralInterpretationResourceIdentificationSecurityRegolithExplorer #asteroid #newfrontiers #bennu #regolith
In its second asteroid encounter, NASA’s Lucy spacecraft obtained a close look at a uniquely shaped fragment of an asteroid that formed about 150 million years ago. The spacecraft has begun returning images that were collected as it flew approximately 600 miles (960 km) from the asteroid Donaldjohanson on April 20, 2025.
The asteroid was previously observed to have large brightness variations over a 10-day period, so some of Lucy team members’ expectations were confirmed when the first images showed what appeared to be an elongated contact binary (an object formed when two smaller bodies collide). However, the team was surprised by the odd shape of the narrow neck connecting the two lobes, which looks like two nested ice cream cones.
In this image is the asteroid Donaldjohanson as seen by the Lucy Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (L’LORRI). This is one of the most detailed images returned by NASA’s Lucy spacecraft during its flyby.
Credit: NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL
#nasa #msfc #marshallspaceflightcenter #GoddardSpaceFlightCenter #Goddard #GSFC #lucypacecraft #asteroids #Donaldjohanson
This new NASA Hubble Space Telescope image shows ESO 185-IG013, a luminous blue compact galaxy (BCG). BCGs are nearby galaxies that show an intense burst of star formation. They are unusually blue in visible light, which sets them apart from other high-starburst galaxies that emit more infrared light. Astrophysicists study BCGs because they provide a relatively close-by equivalent for galaxies from the early universe. This means that BCGs can help scientists learn about galaxy formation and evolution that may have been happening billions of years ago.
Hubble imaged ESO 185-IG013 in ultraviolet, visible, and infrared wavelengths to reveal details about its past. Hundreds of young star clusters, many of which are younger than 100 million years, populate the galaxy. A large number of star clusters are only 3.5 million years old – relative infants compared to the timescale of our universe. Scientists predict that many of these youngest clusters will not last, since young clusters can often perish after expelling too much of their gas. The large number of young star clusters indicates that this galaxy was part of a recent galaxy collision and merger. The perturbed structure of the galaxy, which likely occurred from the violent interactions of gas and dust during the collision, is another sign. The merger supplied the system with lots of fuel for star formation, which continues to take place today.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and R. Chandar (University of Toledo); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)
#NASA #STScI #NASAGoddard #NASAMarshall #galaxy #HubbleSpaceTelescope #HST #galaxy
Planets around other stars need to be prepared for extreme weather conditions, according to a new study from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s (European Space Agency’s) XMM-Newton that examined the effects of X-rays on potential planets around the most common type of stars.
Astronomers found that only a planet with greenhouse gases in its atmosphere like Earth and at a relatively large distance away from the star they studied would have a chance to support life as we know it around a nearby star.
Wolf 359 is a red dwarf with a mass about a tenth that of the Sun. Red dwarf stars are the most common stars in the universe and live for billions of years, providing ample time for life to develop. At a distance of only 7.8 light-years away, Wolf 359 is also one of the closest stars to the solar system.
This artist’s illustration represents the results from a new study that examines the effects of X-ray and other high-energy radiation unleashed on potential exoplanets from Wolf 359, a nearby red dwarf star. Researchers used Chandra and XMM-Newton to study the impact of steady X-ray and energetic ultraviolet radiation from Wolf 359 on the atmospheres of planets that might be orbiting the star. They found that only a planet with greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide in its atmosphere and at a relatively large distance away from Wolf 359 would have a chance to support life as we know it.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/S.Wolk, et al.; Illustration: NASA/CXC/SAO/M.Weiss; Image processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk
#NASAMarshall #NASA #astrophysics #NASAChandra #NASA #ESA #XMM-Newton #exoplanet #star
This week in 1999, the space shuttle Columbia, mission STS-93, launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on a four-day mission to deliver the Chandra X-ray Observatory to low-Earth orbit. Chandra was then propelled to an orbit of 44,759 miles in altitude using a two-stage Inertial Upper Stage. This was the first mission in shuttle history to be commanded by a woman, astronaut Eileen Collins. Here, Chandra and its upper stage separate from Columbia with the STS-93 HDTV Camcorder stowed inside the crew cabin. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The NASA History Program is responsible for generating, disseminating, and preserving NASA’s remarkable history and providing a comprehensive understanding of the institutional, cultural, social, political, economic, technological and scientific aspects of NASA’s activities in aeronautics and space. For more pictures like this one and to connect to NASA’s history, visit the Marshall History Program’s webpage.
Image credit: NASA
Almost 50 years ago the Apollo 11 program and the Saturn V rocket captured the world's attention and demonstrated the power of America's vision and technology. This photograph depicts a view of the test firing of all five F-1 engines for the Saturn V S-IC test stage at the Marshall Space Flight Center. The S-IC stage is the first stage, or booster, of the 364-foot long rocket that ultimately took astronauts to the Moon. Operating at maximum power, all five of the engines produced 7,500,000 pounds of thrust. The S-IC Static Test Stand was designed and constructed with the strength of hundreds of tons of steel and cement, planted down to bedrock 40-feet below ground level, and was required to hold down the brute force of the thrust. When the Saturn V S-IC first stage was placed upright in the stand, the five F-1 engine nozzles pointed downward on a 1,900-ton, water-cooled deflector. To prevent melting damage, water was sprayed through small holes in the deflector at the rate of 320,000 gallons per minutes.
Image credit: NASA
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the picturesque spiral galaxy NGC 4941, which lies about 67 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo (The Maiden). Because this galaxy is nearby, cosmically speaking, Hubble’s keen instruments are able to pick out exquisite details such as individual star clusters and filamentary clouds of gas and dust.
The data used to construct this image were collected as part of an observing program that investigates the star formation and stellar feedback cycle in nearby galaxies. As stars form in dense, cold clumps of gas, they begin to influence their surroundings. Stars heat and stir up the gas clouds in which they form through winds, starlight, and — eventually, for massive stars — by exploding as supernovae. These processes are collectively called stellar feedback, and they influence the rate at which a galaxy can form new stars.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Nota, P. Massey, E. Sabbi, C. Murray, M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble)
#NASAMarshall #NASA #NASAHubble #Hubble #NASAGoddard #galaxy
In some ways, star clusters are like giant families with thousands of stellar siblings. These stars come from the same origins – a common cloud of gas and dust – and are bound to one another by gravity. Astronomers think that our Sun was born in a star cluster about 4.6 billion years ago that quickly dispersed.
By studying young star clusters, astronomers hope to learn more about how stars – including our Sun – are born. NGC 6231, located about 5,200 light years from Earth, is an ideal testbed for studying a stellar cluster at a critical stage of its evolution: not long after star formation has stopped.
NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has been used to identify the young Sun-like stars in NGC 6231, which have, until recently, been hiding in plain sight. Young star clusters like NGC 6231 are found in the band of the Milky Way on the sky. As a result, interloping stars lying in front of or behind NGC 6231 greatly outnumber the stars in the cluster. These stars will generally be much older than those in NGC 6231, so members of the cluster can be identified by selecting signs of stellar youth.
Young stars stand out to Chandra because they have strong magnetic activity that heats their outer atmosphere to tens of millions of degrees Celsius and causes them to emit X-rays. Infrared measurements assist in verifying that an X-ray source is a young star and in inferring the star's properties.
This Chandra X-ray image of NGC 6231 shows a close-up of the inner region of the cluster. Chandra can detect a range of X-ray light, which has been split into three bands to create this image. Red, green, and blue represents the lower, medium, and high-energy X-rays. The brightest X-ray emission is white.
The Chandra data, combined with infrared data from the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) Variables in the Vía Lactéa survey has provided the best census of young stars in NGC 6231 available. An infrared image from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey explorer is shown on the left.
Image credit: NASA/CXC/University of Valparaiso/M. Kuhn et. al WISE:NASA/JPL/WISE
NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy, middle, and Dr. Quincy K. Brown, front right, senior policy advisor in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, are shown the core stage of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket by Jennifer Boland-Masterson, left, director of manufacturing and site leader at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility for Boeing, during a March 31 visit to Michoud in New Orleans. They are accompanied by Michoud Facility Director Lonnie Dutreix, back right. The 212-foot-tall core stage and its four RS-25 engines will help power NASA’s Artemis II flight test, the first crewed Artemis mission that will send four astronauts around the Moon and return them home to test the spacecraft in deep space ahead of lunar surface missions. Teams at Michoud recently integrated the last of the five major core stage structures and unboxed the four RS-25 engines. NASA and Boeing, the core stage lead contractor, along with Aerojet Rocketdyne, the RS-25 engine lead contractor, are preparing to install the engines to the base of the rocket’s core stage. The core stage and its RS-25 engines produce more than 2 million pounds of thrust at launch.
NASA is working to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon under Artemis. SLS is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration, along with Orion and the Gateway in orbit around the Moon. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single mission.
Image credit: NASA/Michael DeMocker
#NASA #NASAMarshall #sls #spacelaunchsystem #nasasls #exploration #rocket #artemis #MichoudAssemblyFacility #ArtemisII
MSFC artist’s concept depicting an aft view of the Liquid Boost Module proposed to meet DoD launch requirements for missions originating from Vandenberg Air Force Base.
Additionally, from the abstract of “SHUTTLE PERFORMANCE AUGMENTATION WITH THE TITAN LIQUID BOOST MODULE”, proposed by the Martin Marietta Corporation & Aerojet Liquid Rocket Company, and linked to below:
“The projected 24,000-pound payload lift capability for the baseline Space Shuttle, with anticipated orbiter and external tank weight savings programs implemented, will not meet the 32,000-pound payload requirements for the DoD Mission 4 from Vandenberg Air Force Base. NASA has selected the Titan Liquid Boost Module (LBM) to provide thrust augmentation during the boost phase sufficient to meet and provide margin for the defined Mission 4 requirements. The LBM will use Titan 34D Stage I engines and a cluster of four Titan derived 10-foot diameter tanks. The module will be attached to the aft end of the ET. This paper will provide a description of the LBM and discuss some of its advantages and capabilities.”
At, with a whole lot more, to include diagrams:
commons.erau.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2565&con...
Credit: EMBRY-RIDDLE Aeronautical University Scholarly Commons website
“Mission 4" requirement:
“…The requirement to increase the Western Test Range (WTR) payload capability by 8,000 pounds is to satisfy the Performance Reference Mission 4 requirement of 32,000 pounds deployed and 25,000 pounds retrieved at 150 NM circular and 98-degree inclination on a 4-man, 7-day mission. This requirement encompasses all known, projected civil and military needs during the current mission model period.”
Again, for shuttle purposes, WTR applies to VAFB.
From/at:
www.gao.gov/assets/masad-81-6.pdf
Credit: GAO website
See also:
Credit: "The Unwanted Blog" blog
This serene spiral galaxy hides a cataclysmic past. The galaxy IC 758, shown in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image, is situated 60 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major.
Hubble captured this image in 2023. IC 758 appears peaceful, with its soft blue spiral arms curving gently around its hazy barred center. However, in 1999, astronomers spotted a powerful explosion in this galaxy. The supernova SN 1999bg marked the dramatic end of a star far more massive than the Sun.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Kilpatrick
#NASAMarshall #NASA #NASAHubble #Hubble #NASAGoddard #galaxy #supernova
At the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), the fuel tank assembly for the Saturn V S-IC-T (static test stage) fuel tank assembly is mated to the liquid oxygen (LOX) tank in building 4705. This stage underwent numerous static firings at the newly-built S-IC Static Test Stand at the MSFC west test area. The S-IC (first) stage used five F-1 engines that produced a total thrust of 7,500,000 pounds as each engine produced 1,500,000 pounds of thrust. The S-IC stage lifted the Saturn V vehicle and Apollo spacecraft from the launch pad. This July, in a series of special events, NASA is marking the 50th anniversary of the Apollo Program – the historic effort that sent the first U.S. astronauts into orbit around the Moon in 1968, and landed a dozen astronauts on the lunar surface between 1969 and 1972. For more pictures, and to connect to NASA’s remarkable history, visit the Marshall History Program’swebpage.
Image credit: NASA
The fourth and final structural test article for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) core stage was unloaded from NASA’s barge Pegasus at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, Tuesday, July 9, 2019. The nearly 70-foot-long liquid oxygen (LOX) tank structural test article was manufactured at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans and is structurally identical to the flight version. Next, crews will load it into a test stand at Marshall for critical testing. The liquid oxygen tank is one of two propellant tanks in the rocket’s core stage that will produce more than 2 million pounds of thrust to help launch Artemis 1, the first flight of NASA’s Orion spacecraft and SLS, to the Moon.
Image credit: NASA/Fred Deaton
In 2014, astronomers detected an unusual feature in X-ray data from Perseus and other galaxy clusters. Since then, Chandra and other X-ray telescopes have taken more observations to replicate the finding. The existence and interpretation of this spike in X-ray light has been controversial and difficult to explain. Now, a new team of astronomers has reanalyzed these and other data and come up with a fresh take on this debate. They suggest that dark matter particles in the galaxy clusters are both absorbing and emitting X-rays. If the new model turns out to be correct, it could provide a path for scientists to identify the true nature of dark matter.
Image credit: NASA/CXC/A. Hobart
On March 18, NASA’s IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) arrived at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for thermal vacuum testing at the X-ray and Cryogenic Facility, which simulates the harsh conditions of space.
The IMAP mission is a modern-day celestial cartographer that will map the solar system by studying the heliosphere, a giant bubble created by the Sun’s solar wind that surrounds our solar system and protects it from harmful interstellar radiation.
In this image, the IMAP mission was loaded into NASA Marshall’s XRCF thermal vacuum chamber where the spacecraft will undergo testing.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Princeton/Ed Whitman
#NASA #space #moon #NASAMarshall #msfc #InterstellarMappingandAccelerationProbe #IMAP #SolarWind #heliophysics #Sun #XRCF
In this aerial view, teams with Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) transport the agency’s powerful SLS (Space Launch System) core stage to the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, July 24, 2024, after it completed the journey from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans aboard the Pegasus barge. In the coming months, SLS will be prepared for integration atop the mobile launcher ahead of the Artemis II launch.
Credit: NASA/Jamie Peer and Michael Downs
#Artemis #NASAMarshall #Space #NASASLS #NASA #NASAMichoud #NASAKennedy
SA-T1 sits in the test cell of the Static Test Tower (Bldg. 4572), MSFC (prior to/after(?) its aborted February 2, 1960 static test firing. A Juno II missile can be seen in the other cell.
Note the "SAT-09" placard at the base of the S-I test stand...and for that matter, the "TW179(?)" placard at the base of the Juno II.
Although there's no watermark on the verso, the photo paper has the feel, weight, thickness, or whatever the proper terminology is - of early "A KODAK PAPER".
See also:
www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/hhh.al1195.photos.314754p/
Credit: Libary of Congress website
As ALWAYS, superb information:
heroicrelics.org/msfc/test-stand-static/index.html
Credit: Mike Jetzer/heroicrelics.org
Rightfully designated:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propulsion_and_Structural_Test_Faci...
Credit: Wikipedia
On April 1, 1983, divers and astronauts at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, prepared for the first satellite repair mission in space. Before the repair, the crew of Space Shuttle Challenger mission STS-41C spent months at the Marshall Center Neutral Buoyancy Simulator, an underwater training facility that is now a historic landmark. They used a mockup of the Solar Maximum satellite to practice retrieving the satellite and piloting a new Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), which allowed astronauts to travel in space without being tethered to the shuttle. About a year after this picture was taken, on April 6, 1984, Space Shuttle Challenger (STS-41C) launched on a mission to repair the Solar Max satellite. Solar Max was designed to study the sun but had a systems failure about a year after it was launched. The STS-41C crew chalked up a number of firsts for NASA: the first satellite retrieval, the first service use of a MMU and the Remote Manipulator System, and all of this on the Space Shuttle Challenger's first space flight. The crew retrieved Solar Max, repaired it, and placing it back in service. The Solar Maximum Repair mission provided engineers with valuable data that helped them design the Hubble Space Telescope for on-orbit repair and maintenance.
Credit: NASA
Image Number: MSFC-8334107
Date: April 1, 1983
In the fall of 2023, NASA hot fire tested an aluminum-based, 3D-printed rocket engine nozzle. What made the event remarkable is that aluminum isn’t typically used for additive manufacturing because the process causes it to crack, and it isn’t used in rocket engines due to its low melting point. Yet the test was a success.
The new possibility of printed aluminum engine parts will mean significant savings for NASA in terms of time, money, and, most importantly, the weight of future spacecraft. And Elementum 3D Inc., a partner on the project, is now bringing the benefits of that technology to its customers, including not only rocket engine manufacturers but also makers of race cars, lighting fixtures, computer chips, and more
In this image, a laser powder directed energy deposition (LP-DED) 3D printer at RPM Innovations’ facility additively manufactures a large-scale aerospike rocket engine nozzle from one of Elementum 3D’s specialized, 3D-printable aluminum alloys.
Image credit: RPM Innovations Inc.
#NASAMarshall #NASA #3dprinting #RocketEngine
My entry for the MSFC on Eurobricks it's a micro dio of a Beam emitter complete with a tiny Pelican dropship from Halo.
Chandra Celebrates the International Year of Light
This supernova remnant is the remains of an exploded star that may have been witnessed by Chinese astronomers almost 2,000 years ago. Modern telescopes have the advantage of observing this object in light that is completely invisible to the unaided human eye. This image combines X-rays from Chandra (pink and blue) along with visible emission from hydrogen atoms in the rim of the remnant, observed with the 0.9-m Curtis Schmidt telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (yellow).
Image Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO
Read full article:
www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/celebrate-intl-year-of-light.html
The first integrated 3D printer and recycler is part of the cargo that was launched to the International Space Station on Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft’s 10th commercial resupply services mission. The machine, known as Refabricator, will demonstrate the capability to turn waste plastic and previously 3D printed parts into high-quality 3D printer filament (3D printing “ink”) to create new tools and materials. The demonstration will use control plastic recycled multiple times to create parts that will be tested for quality back on Earth.
Image credit: NASA/Emmett Given
“SHUTTLE ALT CRAFT AT MSFC ---- The Space Shuttle Orbiter 101 “Enterprise” riding atop its 747 carrier aircraft, arrives at the Redstone Arsenal airstrip near Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), Huntsville, Alabama, on March 13, 1978. It is to undergo ground vibration tests along with the external tank and solid rocket boosters, preparatory to Orbiter Flight Tests (OFT) in which its successor craft (Orbiter 102) will take several two-man crews into earth orbit.”
A wonderful perspective most often seen of the combination landing at KSC or EAFB, not MSFC…cool.
Striking 1970 NASA/MSFC artist’s depiction of a “Mars Base”.
I presume as part of NASA’s grand Integrated Program Plan (IPP). Good reading regarding the IPP:
spaceflighthistory.blogspot.com/2016/01/thinking-big-traf...
Credit: David S. F. Portree/“No Shortage of Dreams” blog
And:
www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/19690804_man...
Although of a different writing style, i.e., block letters, the artist’s signature, “L A Smith”, must surely be Lois Virginia Archambeault Smith. I mean, how many “L. A. Smith” NASA/MSFC artists could there have been in 1970? Another WIN WRT Ms. Smith!
With sincerest appreciation to J. L. Pickering for making the image available. And, if you want to see but a mere fraction of the world’s preeminent collection of space photographs, I HIGHLY advise you to explore Mr. Pickering’s FB presence. Prepare to be blown away:
And/or Twitter:
And/or YouTube:
www.youtube.com/c/RetroSpaceHD
And/or his website:
Win one of these in the Micro Sci-Fi Contest on Eurobricks!
First Place: 70701 Swarm Interceptor + 1st choice of MSFC Trophy
Second Place: 70700 Space Swarmer + 2nd choice of MSFC Trophy
Third Place: 2x CMF (Space Marine or Evil Robot) + Trophy
For the Eurobricks Micro Sci-Fi Contest (MSFC).
High above the clouds, mysterious floating rocks were discovered by a trainer taking his dragon Pokémon to never before seen heights. With this amazing new discovery, came an incredible new place for Pokémon battling at the Sky-Fi Stadium, which was built shortly after the discovery of the rocks. Sky-Fi stadium features seating for over 100,000, advanced training platforms, watch towers, and everything else you could possibly need!
well in my interview last week josh asked if my micro apollo was for a contest, got me thinking, here is V2
“As part of the Space Task Group's recommendations for more commonality and integration in America's space program, Marshall Space Flight Center engineers proposed an orbiting propellant storage facility to augment Space Shuttle missions. In this artist's concept from 1969 an early version of the Space Shuttle is shown refueling at the facility.”
8.5" x 11".
Above, and in color, at:
archive.org/details/MSFC-9902021
Credit: Internet Archives website (always outstanding!)
With five, count ‘em, FIVE (5) engines, the distinctive, massive, yet elegant delta-shaped lifting body appears to be Lockheed’s Phase A design study of the timeless STAR Clipper. It’s obvious why this & variations of it were the “go-to” design depicted in a slew of artist’s concepts during the late 1960s/early 1970s:
www.pmview.com/spaceodysseytwo/spacelvs/sld019.htm
Specifically:
sites.google.com/site/spaceodysseytwo/stg1969/sclppr69.jpg
Credit: PMView Pro website
As if all of the above weren’t enough! It’s one of many beautiful & diverse works by NASA artist Renato Moncini…amazing:
www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/art_of_the_i...
This is a wonderful document btw.
www.facebook.com/therenatomoncinistory/
scontent-ort2-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31.18172-8/fr/cp0/e15/q65...
Credit: Facebook
vdocuments.net/fete-july-2013.html
Credit: ‘World Documents’ website
www.southcarolinapublicradio.org/sc-news/2019-02-01/green...
Credit: South Carolina Public Radio website
www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/local/greenville/city...
Credit: Greenville News website
www.lavocedelserchio.it/vediarticolo.php?id=16970&pag...
Credit: La Voce del Serchio website
www.rrauction.com/auctions/lot-detail/336087704866552-pai...
Credit: RR Auction website
www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/renato-moncini-painting-of...
Credit: Invaluable website
Excellent NASA and/or NASA contractor artist’s concept of space shuttle orbiters docked to, about to dock to/has just undocked from, an early space station configuration…as envisioned in 1969. The orbiter concept…possibly a STAR Clipper? Although, I think I’ve seen this design, with the conspicuous dual body flaps, merely labeled as a baseline NASA depiction. I’m pretty much shooting in the dark, relying on only sporadic synaptic activity, so who knows.
Finally, possibly a manned orbital telescope (based on the cutaway view) is seen co-orbiting in the background. It has a Saturn S-IVB? look to it though. Was such ever considered as a manned telescope? Or is it an AAP/ Skylab thing? Who the hell knows.
I’ve never seen this work, nor variant.
Note the verso, “FOR RELEASE”. Release of WHAT?! There’s nothing of value there! Although disappointing, it may be better than the inarticulate & incompetent content often found. Speaking of…an inverted version of this, issued by MSFC, bears the following on the obverse, “SPACE STATION OPERATIONS WITH SPACE SHUTTLES.” Brilliant, absolutely brilliant.
Unfortunately, not a clue WRT the artist. Based on recent discoveries, Jerry Elmore maybe? Raymond Bruneau?
Even if the work isn’t by him, Raymond Bruneau, the real deal: