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Around local midnight time on April 8, 2015, astronauts aboard the International Space Station took this photograph of Paris, often referred to as the “City of Light.” The pattern of the street grid dominates at night, providing a completely different set of visual features from those visible during the day. via NASA ift.tt/29rwZuE
The crew of Space Shuttle mission STS-51-L pose for their official portrait on November 15, 1985. In the back row from left to right: Ellison S. Onizuka, Sharon Christa McAuliffe, Greg Jarvis, and Judy Resnik. In the front row from left to right: Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee, and Ron McNair.
Final thought is that Challenger crashed because management at NASA concerned with Challenger’s many launch delays and the effect of the delays on congress’s funding chose to suppress pre-launch valid safety concerns. Post-Challenger NASA had safety personal and representatives from the major contractors included in the mission management team, the group that gives the green light to shuttle launches and shuttle flight operations. Some tried to spin the Challenger tragedy by saying that the loss of human life was the price for expanding into space but this is only true of disasters that are unpreventable. The loss of the space shuttle Challenger and its seven crew was due to incompetent management not unpreventable events. The disaster was unnecessary.
The G-Forces from the breakup and decent back to earth may have rendered the crew unconscious but it was revealed that on the trip down at least some of the crew where awake. Of the four emergency oxygen tanks, called Personal Egress Air Packs or PEAPs, that were recovered from the ocean, three had been turned on. One of the PEAPs was identified as Smith’s and because the switch was located on the back of his seat investigators believe either Resnik or Onizuka, who sat behind Smith, had the presence of mind after the shuttle break up, to turn it on. It wasn’t until what was left of the shuttle smashed into the ocean at 200 mph some 2 minutes and 45 seconds after the disaster that the compartment was crushed and all inside killed instantly.
Actual Transcript
0.000 - Solid rocket ignition command is sent.
Astronaut Judy Resnik, intercom: "Aaall Riight!"
1.000 - Shuttle pilot Michael Smith, intercom: "Here we go."
3.375 - Launch commentator Hugh Harris, NASA-SELECT television: "... Liftoff of the 25th space shuttle mission, and it has cleared the tower."
11.000 - Smith, intercom: "Go you mother."
15.000 - Resnik, intercom: "Shit hot!"
19.000 - Smith, intercom: "Looks like we've got a lot of wind here today." Shuttle commander Dick Scobee: "Yeah."
22.000 - Scobee, intercom: "It's a little hard to see out my window here."
28.000 - Smith, intercom: "There's 10,000 feet and Mach point five." The shuttle is 10,000 feet high traveling at half the speed of sound.
40.000 - Smith, intercom: "There's Mach 1."
59.000 - Challenger passes through the region of maximum aerodynamic pressure, experiencing 720 pounds per square foot.
59.262 - A continuous "well defined intense plume" of exhaust is seen on the side of the suspect booster by tracking cameras. This is clear evidence of an O-ring joint burn through.
59.753 - First visual evidence of flame on the right-side booster. 70 mm tracking camera closeup: A flickering tongue of flame appears on the side of the right-side booster away from the shuttle and quickly becomes continuous.
60.000 - Smith, intercom: "Feel that mother go!" Unknown, intercom: "Wooooo Hooooo!"
64.660 - The plume from the burn through changes shape suddenly, indicating a leak has started in the shuttle's liquid hydrogen tank to fuel the fire.
64.705 - A bright, sustained glow is photographed on the side of the external fuel tank.
65.000 - Scobee, intercom: "Reading four eighty six on mine." This is a routine airspeed indicator check. Smith: "Yep, that's what I've got, too."
66.764 - The pressure in the shuttle's external liquid hydrogen tank begins to drop, indicating a massive leak. Smith had real-time readings of pressure in the liquid hydrogen tank, but it is doubtful he noticed anything unusual because of the rapidity of the failure. It made no difference, ultimately, because even if Challenger's pilots had suspected an SRB problem there was nothing they could have done about it. While the shuttle separates from its external fuel tank shortly before reaching orbit, it does so with no engines firing and in a benign aerodynamic environment. As Scobee and Smith well knew, separating from the tank while the SRBs were firing would drive the shuttle into the bottom of the fuel tank.
68.000 - Mission Control spokesman Steve Nesbitt in Houston: "Engines are throttling up. Three engines now at 104 percent."
Dick Covey, mission control: "Challenger, go at throttle up."
70.000 - Scobee calmly responds, air-to-ground: "Roger, go at throttle up."
73.000 (approximate) - Smith, intercom: "Uh oh..." This is the last comment captured by the crew cabin intercom recorder. Smith may have been responding to indications on main engine performance or falling pressures in the external fuel tank.
Photo Credit: Nasa
Late Friday night, 40 high school girls arrived at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for a STEM-themed sleepover, ready to learn about careers in Science, technology, engineering and math. The educational event offered young women a chance to meet working female scientists and to discover opportunities for women in STEM-related professions.
The teens kicked off the third annual STEM Girls Night In with an astronaut Q&A, talks from female scientists across disciplines and a collection of hands-on activities. The night culminated in a three-hour Mars rover competition and concluded with a late-night showing of “Hidden Figures.”
Credit: NASA/Goddard/Jessica Koynock
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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Media and NASA Social participants view the Orion recovery operations and tour the USS Arlington at the Norfolk Naval base in Virginia
Check this out from NASA -- How far away is spiral galaxy NGC 4921? It's surpringly important to know. Although presently estimated to be about 300 million light years distant, a more precise determination could be coupled with its known recession speed to help humanity better calibrate the expansion rate of the entire visible universe. Toward this goal, several images were taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in order to help identify key stellar distance markers known as Cepheid variable stars. Since NGC 4921 is a member of the Coma Cluster of Galaxies, refining its distance would also allow a better distance determination to one of the largest nearby clusters in the local universe. The magnificent spiral NGC 4921 has been informally dubbed anemic because of its low rate of star formation and low surface brightness. Visible in the featured image are, from the center, a bright nucleus, a bright central bar, a prominent ring of dark dust, blue clusters of recently formed stars, several smaller companion galaxies, unrelated galaxies in the far distant universe, and unrelated stars in our Milky Way Galaxy. (go.nasa.gov/2WDF8Rj)
Neil Armstrong trained for the Apollo 11 mission at NASA Langley's Lunar Landing Research Facility on equipment that cancelled all but one-sixth of Earth's gravitational force. Armstrong offered perhaps the greatest tribute to the importance of his training when asked what it was like to land on the moon, replying, "Like Langley." via NASA go.nasa.gov/2t8BKyY
NASA Sets Briefings for Hubble Space Telescope Shuttle Mission
HOUSTON -- NASA will hold a series of news media briefings Sept. 8 - 9 to preview the space shuttle's fifth and final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. NASA Television and the agency's Web site will provide live coverage of the briefings from the Johnson Space Center and the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Questions also will be taken from other participating NASA locations.
Shuttle Atlantis' 11-day flight, designated STS-125, is targeted for launch Oct. 8 and will include five spacewalks to refurbish and upgrade the telescope with state-of-the-art science instruments. Replacing failed hardware on Hubble will extend the telescope's life into the next decade.
U.S. news media planning to attend the briefings at Johnson must contact the newsroom there at 281-483-5111 by Sept. 2 to arrange for credentials. All reporters who are foreign nationals must contact the newsroom by Aug. 8.
On Sept. 9, Atlantis' seven astronauts will be available for round-robin interviews at Johnson. Reporters planning to participate in-person or by phone must contact Gayle Frere at 281-483-8645 by Sept. 2 to reserve an interview opportunity.
Scott Altman will command Atlantis' crew, which includes Pilot Gregory C. Johnson, and Mission Specialists Andrew Feustel, Michael Good, John Grunsfeld, Megan McArthur and Mike Massimino. The spacewalkers are Good, Grunsfeld, Feustel and Massimino. McArthur is the flight engineer and lead for robotic arm operations.
Along with the briefings to preview the Hubble servicing mission at Johnson, media will have an opportunity during the afternoon of Sept. 8 to review new equipment being developed for NASA's Constellation Program. Constellation is building America's next human spacecraft, which will fly astronauts to low Earth orbit, the moon and beyond. During the review, media will see items that include concepts of a new spacesuit, a pressurized rover vehicle for astronauts, and a mockup of the Orion crew capsule.
The schedule (all times are CDT) includes:
Monday, Sept. 8
7 a.m. - Video B-Roll Feed
8 a.m. - NASA Overview Briefing (from Goddard)
9 a.m. - Shuttle Program Overview Briefing (from Johnson)
10 a.m. - HST/SM 4 Program Overview (from Goddard)
11:30 a.m. - NASA TV Video File
Noon - HST/SM4 Science Overview (from Goddard)
1:30 p.m. - HST Program and Science Round-Robins (from Goddard; not on NASA TV)
1:30 p.m. - Constellation Program Preview (from Johnson, not on NASA TV)
The dark area across the top of the sun in this image is a coronal hole, a region on the sun where the magnetic field is open to interplanetary space. via NASA ift.tt/1LtVeDv
Media and NASA Social participants view the Orion recovery operations and tour the USS Arlington at the Norfolk Naval base in Virginia
NSROC technician Mark Freese and Launcher Engineer Jarod Atkins helping load the first payload on the transport trailer.
Credit: NASA
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A NASA-funded sounding rocket mission will launch from an atoll in the Pacific this spring. The mission will help scientists better understand and predict the electrical storms in Earth's upper atmosphere that can negatively affect satellite communication and global positioning signals.
The mission, called EVEX, for the Equatorial Vortex Experiment, will launch into a crucial layer of charged particles surrounding our planet. Called the ionosphere, this layer serves as the medium through which high frequency radio waves – such as those sent down to the ground by global positioning system (GPS) satellites or, indeed, any satellite communicating with Earth – travel. The ionosphere begins about 60 miles above the ground and is filled with electrons and ions, alongside the more familiar extension of our electrically neutral atmosphere. Governed by Earth’s magnetic field, high-altitude winds, and incoming material and energy from the sun, the ionosphere can be calm in certain places or times of day, and quite turbulent at others.
EVEX will launch two rockets for a twelve-minute journey through the equatorial ionosphere above the South Pacific. This area of the ionosphere is known for calm days and tempestuous evenings, times when the ionosphere becomes rippled like a funhouse mirror, disturbing radio signals, and introducing GPS errors of a half mile or more. The two rockets will measure events in two separate regions of the ionosphere to see how they work together to drive the ionosphere from placid and smooth to violently disturbed. Such information could ultimately lead to the ability to accurately forecast this important aspect of space weather.
The launch window for EVEX is from April 27 to May 10. The team will decide when to fly based on conditions in the ionosphere on any given night.
Read more at www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sounding-rockets/news/evex.html
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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Media and NASA Social participants view the Orion recovery operations and tour the USS Arlington at the Norfolk Naval base in Virginia
This image of a crescent Jupiter and the iconic Great Red Spot was created by a citizen scientist (Roman Tkachenko) using data from Juno's JunoCam instrument. via NASA ift.tt/2iQA9sp
Media and NASA Social participants view the Orion recovery operations and tour the USS Arlington at the Norfolk Naval base in Virginia
Reprise of John's Nobel presentation as seen in the Goddard Science TV Studio.
Reprise of John's Nobel presentation as seen in the Goddard Science TV Studio.
Media and NASA Social participants view the Orion recovery operations and tour the USS Arlington at the Norfolk Naval base in Virginia
At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA Deputy Associate Administrator Lesa Roe, Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot and Kennedy Director Bob Cabana speak to center employees gathered in the low bay of the Vehicle assembly Building. They spoke and answered questions on the agency's and the spaceport's current and future initiatives.
Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
A photo from a joint prescribed fire with Canaveral National Seashore and Merritt Island NWR shows how close firefighters work around NASA facilities at Merritt Island. 7/25/12 Photo: USFWS
Solar Flares: What Does It Take to Be X-Class?
Solar flares are giant explosions on the sun that send energy, light and high speed particles into space and are often associated with solar magnetic storms known as coronal mass ejections. The biggest flares are known as X-class flares.
This is my version of NASA's LER. These photos were originally put on lego.cuusoo.com. I removed them when I saw that other users on that website were fraudulently attempting to pass off official late-70's / early-80's TLG space sets as their own work.
Here the lunar geologist is using the view port to survey what looks like hydrated iron oxide, such as the orange soil found by Apollo 17, in an effort to determine the water content of ancient lunar magma.
Lastly, the fact that Africa is upright in the background indicates that this LER is high in the lunar northern hemisphere, perhaps 23 degrees south of the north pole. Reaching the lunar poles, where water ice has been indicated by the Clementine and LCROSS missions, is energetically difficult because of what is known in orbital mechanics as a plane change.
Students visiting NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center experienced a touch of science and Hollywood on Thursday, April 24, 2014.
The students visited the center not just to celebrate winning the recent OPTIMUS PRIME Spinoff Competition, but also to raise awareness of NASA technologies being used in different industries.
The contest itself, developed by the Innovative Technology Partnerships Office, encourages students around the country to immerse themselves in science, engineering, technology, and math by highlighting NASA technologies in homemade videos.
As part of the contest, ITPO worked with Omniangle Technologies LLC to invite the seven students—ranging from elementary to high school—to come to the center and take their winning videos one step further. During their two-day visit, the students highlighted NASA spinoff technologies in new videos they created in the center’s studios. The videos may be featured on NASA’s official television channel, NASA TV, later this year.
In addition to working with the center’s own production crew, the students had a very special guest. Peter Cullen, the voice of the official OPTIMUS PRIME character, came to the center to work with each group of students. The winners were able to speak with Cullen about STEM careers and even had an opportunity to feature him in their videos.
Credit: NASA/Goddard
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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Media and NASA Social participants view the Orion recovery operations and tour the USS Arlington at the Norfolk Naval base in Virginia
NASA’s new Space Launch System (SLS) is seen at the rollout event on March 17th, 2022. Photo: Brandon Moser
Media and NASA Social participants view the Orion recovery operations and tour the USS Arlington at the Norfolk Naval base in Virginia
As part of Israel’s Space Week, Dr. Eugene L. Tu, Director for Ames Research Center at NASA, met with a group of 70 Israeli 10th grade students as part of the brand-new Science Accelerator at the Shimon Ben Zvi High school in Givatayim. The Accelerator focuses on entrepreneurship and innovation in space and is led by Vered Cohen Barzilay, social entrepreneur and IVLP Alumna. The Mayor of Givatayim Mr. Ran Kunik and the School Principal Ella Gonen, students and teachers gave a very warm welcome to the NASA delegation. Dr. Tu shared spoke about NASA, its mission, successes and challenges, innovation and exploration, and focused particularly on Mars exploration. The students were very excited to hear and learn from Dr. Tu and shared their ideas of entrepreneurship on Mars. Dr. Jacob Cohen, Ames chief Scientist, encouraged the students to study sciences for advanced degrees.
Photo credit: Matty Stern/U.S. Embassy Tel Aviv
Media and NASA Social participants view the Orion recovery operations and tour the USS Arlington at the Norfolk Naval base in Virginia
Visitors learn about buliding spacecraft on the Building 5 tour during the Explore@NASA Goddard event on May 14, 2011.
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Bill Hrybyk
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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From front to back, NASA astronauts Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, wearing SpaceX spacesuits, are seen as they prepare to depart the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building for Space Launch Complex 40 on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to board the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft for the Crew-12 mission launch, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 mission is the twelfth crew rotation mission of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. Meir, Hathaway, Adenot, and Fedyaev are scheduled to launch at 5:15 a.m. EST, from Space Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)