Funpost! Space beer face-off

Exposed Bedrock on the Red Planet's Hale Crater

This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows Hale Crater, a large impact crater. via NASA https://ift.tt/2xEBCOL

Media Invited to See Latest NASA Drone Traffic Management Technologies

NASA invites media to learn the latest about its national campaign to test and refine its Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM) technologies at 10 a.m. PDT Wednesday, June 6, at the agency’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California.

May 31, 2018
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Visiting northern Thailand? Be a Stopover Astronomer guest at Thailand’s national astronomy institute

ISS Daily Summary Report – 5/30/2018

Solidification Using Baffles in Sealed Ampoules (SUBSA):  Today the crew deactivated SUBSA, exchanged sample ampoules, and started SUBSA processing of the new sample.  The objective of the SUBSA investigation is to advance understanding of the processes involved in semiconductor crystal growth. It offers a gradient freeze furnace for materials science investigations that can reach 850°C. …

May 31, 2018 at 12:00AM
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Black Hole Bounty Captured in the Center of the Milky Way

Astronomers have discovered evidence for thousands of black holes located near the center of our Milky Way galaxy using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. via NASA https://ift.tt/2LI5Tz7

Mars Express ready for comet Siding Spring

How NASA Should NOT Interact With The News Media

Pluto is not a planet - it's a billion comets squished together https://t.co/sZ46zYqlu7 pic.twitter.com/p3XBngKClS — New Scientist (@newscientist) May 29, 2018

Sloppy or ignorant reporting @newscientist — Alan Stern (@AlanStern) May 30, 2018

What a wonderful way for a @NASA principal investigator to publicly interact with a major scientific news publication. This is a prime example of how prominent #NASA mission representatives should NOT publicly interact with the news media @JimBridenstine @Dr_ThomasZ @AlanStern https://t.co/rEbpHWhW2K

— NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) May 30, 2018

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ISS Daily Summary Report – 5/29/2018

Solidification Using Baffles in Sealed Ampoules (SUBSA):  The crew set up the SUBSA hardware today and installed a calibration sample.  The objective of the SUBSA investigation is to advance understanding of the processes involved in semiconductor crystal growth. It offers a gradient freeze furnace for materials science investigations that can reach 850°C. Samples are contained …

May 30, 2018 at 12:00AM
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The Case of the Backwards Orbiting Asteroid

Why does asteroid 2015 BZ509 orbit the Sun the backwards? As shown in the featured animation, Jupiter's trojan asteroids orbit the Sun in two major groups -- one just ahead of Jupiter, and one just behind -- but all orbit the Sun in the same direction as Jupiter. Asteroid BZ509 however, discovered in 2015 and currently unnamed, orbits the Sun in retrograde and in a more complex gravitational dance with Jupiter. The reason why is currently unknown and a topic of research -- but if resolved might tell us about the early Solar System. A recently popular hypothesis holds that BZ509 was captured by Jupiter from interstellar space billions of years ago, while a competing conjecture posits that BZ509 came from our Solar System's own distant Oort cloud of comets, perhaps more recently. The answer may only become known after more detailed models of the likelihood and stability of orbits near Jupiter are studied, or, possibly, by observing direct properties of the unusual object. via NASA https://ift.tt/2L64roZ

NASA Has No Idea How Much Reimbursable Agreements Cost

NASA's Management of Reimbursable Agreements

"NASA has made improvements in the way it manages reimbursable agreements, but still cannot provide Congress and other stakeholders with fully accurate and complete information on their use. Specifically, half of the PAM and SIERA records we sampled contained substantial errors, such as incorrectly listing reimbursable agreement values and waived costs (i.e., costs incurred for which the partner does not reimburse NASA). For example, while PAM listed the total estimated value for the 115 domestic agreements we sampled as $11.7 billion, we found the correct value to be closer to $7.8 billion - an overstatement of nearly $4 billion, or 51 percent. Additionally, our calculation of the estimated waived costs for the sampled agreements was only $10.8 million, or 6.5 percent, of the Agency's reported total in PAM - an overstatement of $154.7 million. We were unable to make similar comparisons for agreements with international partners because SIERA does not capture estimated dollar values and waived costs. Nevertheless, in our judgment the data in PAM and SIERA is neither accurate enough to comply with congressional reporting requirements nor meaningful enough given its high error rate to provide helpful information to the Agency and its stakeholders."

Keith's note: Wow. NASA has no idea what these reimbursable agreements actually cost. Action item for Jeff DeWit.

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Our Sputtering Sun

An active region rotated into view and sputtered with numerous small flares and towering magnetic field lines that stretched out many times the diameter of Earth. via NASA https://ift.tt/2kvu6vY

ISS Daily Summary Report – 5/28/2018

Kubik 6:  After completing commissioning for ESA’s Kubik 6 facility the crew disconnected and stowed the Kubik 6.  Kubik is a small controlled-temperature incubator/cooler used to study biological samples in a microgravity environment.  It is equipped with removable inserts designed for self-contained, automatic experiments using seeds, cells, and small animals. Electro-static Levitation Furnace (ELF):  The …

May 29, 2018 at 12:00AM
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Bill Nye's last dance

Aurora and Manicouagan Crater from the Space Station

How many of these can you find in today's featured photograph: an aurora, airglow, one of the oldest impact craters on the Earth, snow and ice, stars, city lights, and part of the International Space Station? Most of these can be identified by their distinctive colors. The aurora here appears green at the bottom, red at the top, and is visible across the left of image. Airglow appears orange and can be seen hovering over the curve of the Earth. The circular Manicouagan Crater in Canada, about 100 kilometers across and 200 million years old, is visible toward the lower right and is covered in white snow and ice. Stars, light in color, dot the dark background of space. City lights appear a bright yellow and dot the landscape. Finally, across the top, part of the International Space Station (ISS) appears mostly tan. The featured image was taken from the ISS in 2012. via NASA https://ift.tt/2GYClJV

Don Peterson

Keith's note: Sources report that Don Peterson has died. Details to follow.

Bio

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Coronal Rain on the Sun

Does it rain on the Sun? Yes, although what falls is not water but extremely hot plasma. An example occurred in mid-July 2012 after an eruption on the Sun that produced both a Coronal Mass Ejection and a moderate solar flare. What was more unusual, however, was what happened next. Plasma in the nearby solar corona was imaged cooling and falling back, a phenomenon known as coronal rain. Because they are electrically charged, electrons, protons, and ions in the rain were gracefully channeled along existing magnetic loops near the Sun's surface, making the scene appear as a surreal three-dimensional sourceless waterfall. The resulting surprisingly-serene spectacle is shown in ultraviolet light and highlights matter glowing at a temperature of about 50,000 Kelvin. Each second in the featured time lapse video takes about 6 minutes in real time, so that the entire coronal rain sequence lasted about 10 hours. Recent observations have confirmed that that coronal rain can also occur in smaller loops for as long as 30 hours. via NASA https://ift.tt/2KZNNHD

NASA Administrator Reflects on Legacy Record-Breaking Skylab, Apollo Astronaut

The following is a statement from NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine on the passing of Apollo and Skylab astronaut Alan Bean:

May 26, 2018
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Family Release Regarding the Passing of Apollo, Skylab Astronaut Alan Bean

The following is an obituary article released on the behalf of Alan Bean’s family:

May 26, 2018
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Alan Bean

Remembering Alan Bean, Apollo Moon Walker and Artist, Astronaut Scholarship Foundation

"Apollo and Skylab astronaut Alan Bean, the fourth human to walk on the moon and an accomplished artist, has died. Bean, 86, died on Saturday, May 26, at Houston Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas. His death followed his suddenly falling ill while on travel in Fort Wayne, Indiana two weeks before."

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New Head Of Roscosmos Is Under Formal U.S. Sanction

Putin appoints head of Roscosmos, TASS

"Russian President Vladimir Putin has nominated former Deputy PM Dmitry Rogozin to head the State Space Corporation Roscosmos. The meeting between Putin and Rogozin took place on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF-2018). "I will do everything possible and necessary to live up to your trust," Rogozin told the Russian leader."

Issuance of a new Ukraine-related Executive Order; Ukraine-related Designations, U.S. Department of the Treasury

"ROGOZIN, Dmitry Olegovich (a.k.a. ROGOZIN, Dmitriy; a.k.a. ROGOZIN, Dmitry); DOB 21 Dec 1963; POB Moscow, Russia; Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation (individual) [UKRAINE2]."

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Space Policy Directive-2 Ignored By Space Organizations

The President signed a significant space policy directive dealing w/ commercial space yesterday. @NASA & @JimBridenstine responded. So did Congress and @csf_spaceflight. But not a word from @AIAA, @AIA, @XploreDeepSpace @NSS @exploreplanets @SpaceFoundation @SpaceFrontier #FAIL pic.twitter.com/6Lx1RRGdIB

— NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) May 25, 2018

Keith's note: Big space policy news from the White House. But not a word about it from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the Aerospace Industries Association, the Coalition for Deep Space Exploration, the National Space Society, the Space Foundation, the Planetary Society or the Space Frontier Foundation. Only the Commercial Spaceflight Federation issued a statement - and they did so promptly. You have to wonder about the depth of commitment to commercial space from these space organizations when they cannot even bother to lift a finger to say thank you when the White House does them a big favor.

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Dawn Journal: Getting Elliptical

Hubble’s Galaxy Cluster Cornucopia

The swirling spiral to the lower left of the frame is far from the most interesting spectacle here — behind it sits a galaxy cluster. via NASA https://ift.tt/2xexaWF

How to keep up with Hayabusa2

Back To The Moon (Again)

Commercial Partners Key to Sustainable Moon Presence, NASA

"As NASA shifts human exploration back to the Moon, U.S. commercial partnerships will be a key to expediting missions and building a sustainable presence on the lunar surface. The agency is orchestrating a robotic lunar campaign with a focus on growing commercial base of partnerships and activity that can support U.S. science, technology, and exploration objectives. NASA is planning a series of robotic commercial delivery missions as early as 2019 ahead of a human return to the Moon. These missions will deliver NASA instruments and technology to the surface of the Moon to conduct science and prepare for human exploration. Among the instruments to be flown are the instrumentation suite from the former Resource Prospector mission concept."

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Cygnus cargo craft will test ability to boost and deorbit the International Space Station

Galaxies Away

This stunning group of galaxies is far, far away, about 450 million light-years from planet Earth and cataloged as galaxy cluster Abell S0740. Dominated by the cluster's large central elliptical galaxy (ESO 325-G004), this reprocessed Hubble Space Telescope view takes in a remarkable assortment of galaxy shapes and sizes with only a few spiky foreground stars scattered through the field. The giant elliptical galaxy (right of center) spans over 100,000 light years and contains about 100 billion stars, comparable in size to our own spiral Milky Way galaxy. The Hubble data can reveal a wealth of detail in even these distant galaxies, including arms and dust lanes, star clusters, ring structures, and gravitational lensing arcs. via NASA https://ift.tt/2IKtSQj

The Evolution Of Jim Bridenstine

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine: "I have no reason to doubt the science" on climate change https://t.co/9BmyEmApk4 pic.twitter.com/jZHlIZGqmE — CNN (@CNN) May 24, 2018

I fought Jim Bridenstine to run NASA because he was a climate denier. He has since changed his mind, and has confirmed that climate change is caused by humans. This is an act of common sense and courage. Thank you, Administrator Bridenstine. https://t.co/ZxBbkqefVn — Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) May 23, 2018

Sen. @brianschatz: "Do you agree with the scientific consensus...that the climate is changing, and humans are the leading cause?"
.@NASA Administrator @JimBridenstine: "Yes."
Schatz: "Is it fair to call this an evolution of your views?"
Bridenstine "Yes."https://t.co/9umukWpNfe pic.twitter.com/59cPOHftRk

— CSPAN (@cspan) May 24, 2018

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Approaching Mars on Spaceship Earth

ISS Daily Summary Report – 5/23/2018

Human Research Program (Biochemical Profile, Marrow, Vascular Echo, and Repository):  53S crewmembers collected blood and urine samples for their Return minus 14-day session of the Biochem Profile, Marrow and Repository investigations.  One of the 53S crewmembers also started a 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring session.  Blood samples are being processed in the alternate non-refrigerated centrifuge …

May 24, 2018 at 12:00AM
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NASA, Space Station Partners Announce Future Mission Crew Members

NASA astronauts Christina Hammock Koch and Andrew Morgan have been assigned to spaceflights scheduled to launch in 2019. Both Koch and Morgan were selected as NASA astronauts in 2013.

May 24, 2018
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Going Forward

This close-up image is of a 2-inch-deep hole produced using a new drilling technique for NASA's Curiosity rover. The hole is about 0.6 inches (1.6 centimeters) in diameter. This image was taken by Curiosity's Mast Camera (Mastcam) on Sol 2057. via NASA https://ift.tt/2x8O5d9

President To Sign Space Policy Directive 2 Today

Notes from 9:30 am EDT press event with National Space Council Executive Director Scott Pace: At 11:00 am EDT today President Trump will sign Space Policy Directive 2. It will include 4 space policy directives based on recommendations made at the National Space Council meeting at KSC in Feb and is based on SPD 1. Space Policy Directive 2 directs the Department of Transportation to revise regulatory process for transportation to space and the Department of Commerce for remote sensing. Space Policy Directive 2 will also create a "one stop shop" for commercial space at Department of Commerce. Space Policy Directive 2 will ask Department of Commerce and OSTP to work with FCC report to the President global competitiveness on radio frequency policy at ITU and other fora. Space Policy Directive 2 requires a report on export licensing of space technology. President Trump recognizes that space is important to U.S. global competitiveness and leadership.

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Funpost! Audio diaries from simulated Mars

The Gum Nebula Expanse

Named for a cosmic cloud hunter, Australian astronomer Colin Stanley Gum (1924-1960), The Gum Nebula is so large and close it is actually hard to see. In fact, we are only about 450 light-years from the front edge and 1,500 light-years from the back edge of this interstellar expanse of glowing hydrogen gas. Covered in this 40+ degree-wide monochrome mosaic of Hydrogen-alpha images, the faint emission region stands out against the background of Milky Way stars. The complex nebula is thought to be a supernova remnant over a million years old, sprawling across the Ship's southern constellations Vela and Puppis. This spectacular wide field view also explores many objects embedded in The Gum Nebula, including the younger Vela supernova remnant. via NASA https://ift.tt/2J8zOBM

LIFTOFF!

The GRACE Follow-On spacecraft launched onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, Tuesday, May 22, 2018. via NASA https://ift.tt/2knuFI1

NASA's Chief Information Officer Is Not Doing Their Job

NASA OIG Audit of NASA's Security Operations Center, OIG

"Since its inception a decade ago, the SOC has fallen short of its original intent to serve as NASA's cybersecurity nerve center. Due in part to the Agency's failure to develop an effective IT governance structure, the lack of necessary authorities, and frequent turnover in OCIO leadership, these shortcomings have detrimentally affected SOC operations, limiting its ability to coordinate the Agency's IT security oversight and develop new capabilities to address emerging cyber threats. In sum, the SOC lacks the key structural building blocks necessary to effectively meet its IT security responsibilities. Industry best practice for an effective SOC recommends a charter signed by stakeholders that explicitly details authorities and responsibilities. Such a charter would allow the SOC to more effectively push for the resources and the cooperation required to execute its mission. However, after 10 years the NASA SOC has no charter to govern its operations or outline its authorities. In addition, the SOC has no roadmap for moving from its current state to a future state of operation, a critical management tool for establishing priorities for continual improvement."

GAO: NASA Information Technology: Urgent Action Needed to Address Significant Management and Cybersecurity Weaknesses, GAO

"NASA's IT governance does not fully address leading practices. While the agency revised its governance boards, updated their charters, and acted to improve governance, it has not fully established the governance structure, documented improvements to its investment selection process, fully implemented investment oversight practices and ensured the Chief Information Officer's visibility into all IT investments, or fully defined policies and procedures for IT portfolio management. Until NASA addresses these weaknesses, it will face increased risk of investing in duplicative investments or may miss opportunities to ensure investments perform as intended. NASA has not fully established an effective approach to managing agency-wide cybersecurity risk. An effective approach includes establishing executive oversight of risk, a cybersecurity risk management strategy, an information security program plan, and related policies and procedures."

Keith's note: In less than 24 hours two reports - one from GAO, the other from the NASA OIG - have been released that show continued problems with the way that the NASA Chief Information Officer Renee Wynn has not been fixing problems with NASA IT. If you go to the NASA CIO website there is no mention of this report - or any other reports that cite weaknesses in how the CIO manages NASA's IT infrastructure. Just what is it that Renee Wynn has been doing? None of the problems that were blatantly obvious when she arrived at NASA have been fixed. If you read her "IT Talk" quarterly news letter, her office seems to be preoccupied with everything but the important things that need to be fixed. Indeed, much of what her office likes to parade around as accomplishments has little if anything to do with what the CIO is supposed to be doing.

- GAO and OIG Agree: NASA CIO Is Underperforming, earlier post
- OIG: NASA's Operational Technology Systems Are Inadequate and Disjointed, earlier post
- NASA Still Has No Effective Information Security Program, earlier post
- NASA CIO Drops The Ball On ACES Authorization, earlier post
- Previous NASA IT Posts

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GRACE-FO Launches to Provide a Unique View of Earth’s Climate

(GRACE-FO) mission launched onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, Tuesday, May 22, 2018, from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California via NASA https://ift.tt/2scBdNx

ISS Daily Summary Report – 5/22/2018

Advanced Combustion via Microgravity Experiments (ACME):  The crew replaced the Combustion Integrated Rack (CIR) manifold bottles this morning. To prepare for the second part of the CLD Flames investigation the crew configured the ACME Chamber Insert, replaced the igniter tip, and replaced two ACME controllers.  The ACME experiment series being performed in the CIR includes …

May 23, 2018 at 12:00AM
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Bridenstine's First Hearing As Administrator

Hearing: Review of the FY2019 Budget Request for NASA

Senate Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies
02:30 PM
Witness: James F. Bridenstine
Webcast

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What Happens When A Camera Gets Too Close To A Launch

@NASA photographer Bill Ingalls is one of the best in the business. His launch photos are legendary. But he put this remote camera just a tad too close to the pad. Extreme closeup gone bad! Guessing warranty doesn't cover this? pic.twitter.com/xtB8Sk8Cmo

— Peter King (@PeterKingCBS) May 23, 2018

Click below for the camera's last picture

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The curious case of the Apollo 4 Earth images

Spiral Galaxy NGC 4038 in Collision

This galaxy is having a bad millennium. In fact, the past 100 million years haven't been so good, and probably the next billion or so will be quite tumultuous. Visible toward the lower right, NGC 4038 used to be a normal spiral galaxy, minding its own business, until NGC 4039, to its upper left, crashed into it. The evolving wreckage, known famously as the Antennae, is featured here. As gravity restructures each galaxy, clouds of gas slam into each other, bright blue knots of stars form, massive stars form and explode, and brown filaments of dust are strewn about. Eventually the two galaxies will converge into one larger spiral galaxy. Such collisions are not unusual, and even our own Milky Way Galaxy has undergone several in the past and is predicted to collide with our neighboring Andromeda Galaxy in a few billion years. The frames that compose this image were taken by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope by professional astronomers to better understand galaxy collisions. These frames -- and many other deep space images from Hubble -- have since been made public, allowing interested amateurs to download and process them into, for example, this visually stunning composite. via NASA https://ift.tt/2xdXGj1

NASA JSC's Warp Drive Flops During Independent Tests

NASA's 'Impossible' Space Engine Tested--Here Are the Results, National Geographic

"The 'thrust' is not coming from the EmDrive, but from some electromagnetic interaction," the team reports in a proceeding for a recent conference on space propulsion.

NASA's EM-drive is a magnetic WTF-thruster, Ars Technica

"The best part is that the results are the same when the attenuator is put into the circuit. In this case, there is basically no radiation in the microwave cavity, yet the WTF-thruster thrusts on."

- Ellen Ochoa's Warp Drive Gizmo, earlier post
- JSC's Warp Drive: Fact or Fluff?, earlier post
- Clarifying NASA's Warp Drive Program, earlier post
- JSC's Strange Thruster Violates The Laws of Physics, earlier post

Previous posts

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NASA Still Has Big Unresolved Cybersecurity Issues

GAO: NASA Information Technology: Urgent Action Needed to Address Significant Management and Cybersecurity Weaknesses

"The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has not yet effectively implemented leading practices for information technology (IT) management. Specifically, GAO identified weaknesses in NASA's IT management practices for strategic planning, workforce planning, governance, and cybersecurity.

- NASA has not documented its IT strategic planning processes in accordance with leading practices. While NASA's updated IT strategic plan represents improvement over its prior plan, the updated plan is not comprehensive because it does not fully describe strategies for achieving desired results or describe interdependencies within and across programs. Until NASA establishes a comprehensive IT strategic plan, it will lack critical information needed to align resources with business strategies and investment decisions.

- Of the eight key IT workforce planning activities, the agency partially implemented five and did not implement three. For example, NASA does not assess competency and staffing needs regularly or report progress to agency leadership. Until NASA implements the key IT workforce planning activities, it will have difficulty anticipating and responding to changing staffing needs.

-NASA's IT governance does not fully address leading practices. While the agency revised its governance boards, updated their charters, and acted to improve governance, it has not fully established the governance structure, documented improvements to its investment selection process, fully implemented investment oversight practices and ensured the Chief Information Officer's visibility into all IT investments, or fully defined policies and procedures for IT portfolio management. Until NASA addresses these weaknesses, it will face increased risk of investing in duplicative investments or may miss opportunities to ensure investments perform as intended.

NASA has not fully established an effective approach to managing agency-wide cybersecurity risk. An effective approach includes establishing executive oversight of risk, a cybersecurity risk management strategy, an information security program plan, and related policies and procedures."

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Elon Musk Is Earth's Number One Disruptor

How Elon Musk's rocket company SpaceX beat Boeing to become a $28 billion aerospace juggernaut, CNBC

"SpaceX has upended the rocket industry, making founder Elon Musk the world's most disruptive space pioneer. The visionary entrepreneur is bent on building giant low-cost reusable rockets and spaceships that can be used to colonize humans on Mars. In the process, he is helping to catalyze a private space exploration industry in the United States while outmaneuvering mammoth aerospace companies like Boeing. SpaceX is the No. 1 company on the 2018 CNBC Disruptor 50 list, announced Tuesday."

Ariane chief seems frustrated with SpaceX for driving down launch costs, Ars Technica

"With this background in mind, the chief executive of Ariane Group, Alain Charmeau, gave an interview to the German publication Der Spiegel. The interview was published in German, but a credible translation can be found here. During the interview, Charmeau expressed frustration with SpaceX and attributed its success to subsidized launches for the US government."

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ISS Daily Summary Report – 5/21/2018

Orbital-ATK 9 (OA-9) Launch: OA-9 launched from the Wallops Flight Facility this morning at 08:44:06 GMT (3:44 CT).  The Cygnus solar arrays have been deployed nominally.  OA-9 capture and berthing to the ISS is planned for Thursday 24-May. Atomization:  This morning a crewmember set up and activated the Atomization hardware in the Multi-purpose Small Payload …

May 22, 2018 at 12:00AM
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How are we preparing astronauts for a return to the Moon?

Craters and Shadows at the Lunar Terminator

Why does the right part of this image of the Moon stand out? Shadows. The terminator line -- the line between light and dark -- occurs in the featured image so that just over half the Moon's face is illuminated by sunlight. The lunar surface appears different nearer the terminator because there the Sun is nearer the horizon and therefore causes shadows to become increasingly long. These shadows make it easier for us to discern structure, giving us depth cues so that the two-dimensional image, when dominated by shadows, appears almost three-dimensional. Therefore, as the Moon fades from light to dark, shadows not only tell us the high from the low, but become noticeable for increasingly shorter structures. For example, many craters appear near the terminator because their height makes them easier to discern there. The image was taken two weeks ago when the lunar phase was waning gibbous. The next full moon, a Moon without shadows, will occur one week from today. via NASA https://ift.tt/2IBQM8k

A Close Look At A Crewed Dragon

SpaceX Crew Dragon ship in anechoic chamber for EMI testing before being sent to @NASA Plum Brook vacuum chamber pic.twitter.com/BckUBkroLw

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 21, 2018

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Mastcam-Z team blog: We've got flight hardware!

Orbital ATK Antares Rocket Lifts Off on Resupply Mission to the International Space Station

The Orbital ATK Antares rocket, with the Cygnus spacecraft onboard, launches from Pad-0A, Monday, May 21, 2018 at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Cygnus will deliver approximately 7,400 pounds of science and research, crew supplies and vehicle hardware to the International Space Station and its crew. via NASA https://ift.tt/2x5XtxU

California Students to Link Up with NASA Astronauts on Space Station

Students from Pacoima and San Fernando, California, will have the opportunity to talk with astronauts on the International Space Station on Tuesday, May 22, as part of NASA’s Year of Education on Station.

May 21, 2018
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NASA Starts The Week With A Commercial Launch From Virginia

NASA Sends New Research on Orbital ATK Mission to Space Station

"Astronauts soon will have new experiments to conduct related to emergency navigation, DNA sequencing and ultra-cold atom research when the research arrives at the International Space Station following the 4:44 a.m. EDT Monday launch of an Orbital ATK Cygnus spacecraft. Cygnus lifted off on an Antares 230 rocket from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on Orbital ATK's ninth cargo mission under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services contract. The spacecraft is carrying about 7,400 pounds of research equipment, cargo and supplies that will support dozens of the more than 250 investigations underway on the space station."

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NASA Sends New Research on Orbital ATK Mission to Space Station

Astronauts soon will have new experiments to conduct related to emergency navigation, DNA sequencing and ultra-cold atom research when the research arrives at the International Space Station following the 4:44 a.m. EDT Monday launch of an Orbital ATK Cygnus spacecraft.

May 21, 2018
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Jupiter Cloud Animation from Juno

How do Jupiter's clouds move? To help find out, images taken with NASA's Juno spacecraft during its last pass near Jupiter have been analyzed and digitally extrapolated into a time-lapse video. The eight-second time-lapse video, digitally extrapolated between two images taken only nine minutes apart, estimates how Jupiter's clouds move over 29 hours. Abstractly, the result appears something like a psychedelic paisley dream. Scientifically, however, the computer animation shows that circular storms tend to swirl, while bands and zones appear to flow. This overall motion is not surprising and has been seen on time-lapse videos of Jupiter before, although never in this detail. The featured region spans about four times the area of Jupiter's Great Red Spot. Results from Juno are showing, unexpectedly, that Jupiter's weather phenomena can extend deep below its cloud tops. via NASA https://ift.tt/2GAdjka

Antares Rocket Set to Launch NASA Science to the International Space Station

The Orbital ATK Antares rocket, with the Cygnus spacecraft onboard, is seen at launch Pad-0A, Saturday, May 19, 2018, at Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Liftoff is currently targeted for 4:39 a.m. Eastern on Monday, May 21. via NASA https://ift.tt/2KDn4jU

In the Heart of the Tarantula Nebula

In the heart of monstrous Tarantula Nebula lies huge bubbles of energetic gas, long filaments of dark dust, and unusually massive stars. In the center of this heart, is a knot of stars so dense that it was once thought to be a single star. This star cluster, labeled as R136 or NGC 2070, is visible just above the center of the featured image and home to a great number of hot young stars. The energetic light from these stars continually ionizes nebula gas, while their energetic particle wind blows bubbles and defines intricate filaments. The representative-color picture, a digital synthesis of images from the NASA/ESA orbiting Hubble Space Telescope and ESO's ground-based New Technology Telescope, shows great details of the LMC nebula's tumultuous center. The Tarantula Nebula, also known as the 30 Doradus nebula, is one of the largest star-formation regions known, and has been creating unusually strong episodes of star formation every few million years. via NASA https://ift.tt/2IVT9Gu

Chang'e 4 relay satellite, Queqiao: A bridge between Earth and the mysterious lunar farside

Reflections of Venus and Moon

Posing near the western horizon, a brilliant evening star and slender young crescent shared reflections in a calm sea last Thursday after sunset. Recorded in this snapshot from the Atlantic beach at Santa Marinella near Rome, Italy, the lovely celestial conjunction of the two brightest beacons in the night sky could be enjoyed around the world. Seaside, light reflected by briefly horizontal surfaces of the gentle waves forms the shimmering columns across the water. Similar reflections by fluttering atmospheric ice crystals can create sometimes mysterious pillars of light. Of course, earthlight itself visibly illuminates the faint lunar night side. via NASA https://ift.tt/2kaAqsO

Orbital ATK Rocket Rolls Out for May 21 Launch

An Orbital ATK rocket rolls out to launch Pad-0A at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on May 17, 2018, in advance of a May 21 launch from Wallops Island, VA. The Antares will launch a Cygnus spacecraft on a cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station. via NASA https://ift.tt/2k8bPor

SLS Plumbing Is Full Of Paraffin Wax. Oops.

Contamination found in SLS engine tubing, SpaceNews

"At a May 17 meeting of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, panel member Don McErlean said the committee had been briefed on a "late development" with the core stage, being constructed at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. A "routine quality assurance inspection" of the core stage, he said, discovered contamination in tubing in the engine section of the core stage, which hosts the vehicle's four RS-25 main engines and associated systems. That contamination turned out to be paraffin wax, which is used to keep the tubes from crimping while being manufactured but is supposed to be cleaned out before shipment."

Earlier SLS postings

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School Shooting Near NASA JSC

I'm devastated to hear of the tragic shooting in Texas near our @NASA_Johnson facility. My family and I are praying for the students, teachers and the entire Santa Fe community.

— Jim Bridenstine (@JimBridenstine) May 18, 2018

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Bridenstine On Climate Change: Humans Cause It. NASA Studies It.

Trump's new NASA head: Humans contributing in 'major way' to climate change, The Hill

"President Trump's newly minted head of NASA said Thursday that climate change is happening and humans are contributing to it in a "major way." Jim Bridenstine, a GOP congressman who was confirmed as the new administrator of NASA last month, made the comments while speaking to employees at his first town hall at NASA headquarters in Washington. "I don't deny the consensus that the climate is changing, in fact I fully believe and know that the climate is changing. I also know that we human beings are contributing to it in a major way," Bridenstine said."

That NASA climate science program Trump axed? House lawmakers just moved to restore it, Science

"The House appropriations panel that oversees NASA unanimously approved an amendment to a 2019 spending bill that orders the space agency to set aside $10 million within its earth science budget for a "climate monitoring system" that studies "biogeochemical processes to better understand the major factors driving short and long term climate change." That sounds almost identical to the work that NASA's Carbon Monitoring System (CMS) was doing before the Trump administration targeted the program, which was getting about $10 million annually, for elimination this year."

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Eleven perijoves

Hubble Catches a Spiral Galaxy in Disguise

NGC 1032 cleaves the quiet darkness of space in two in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. via NASA https://ift.tt/2KCXCuN

Senators Tell White House: We Decide The Future Of ISS

Cruz, Nelson: Congress, And Only Congress, WIll Decide When To End Funding For ISS, Space Policy Online

"Cruz grilled Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations, on why NASA missed the statutory deadline to submit the ISS Transition Report. He also demanded to know why NASA had not provided all drafts that were sent from NASA to the White House and rejected as he and Nelson requested in a February letter. The implication is that OMB, not NASA, picked the 2025 date. Cruz's effort to get Gerstenmaier on the record as to who chose the date were unsuccessful. Gerstenmaier carefully navigated the intense questioning without implicating any particular part of the Administration."

Statement by William Gerstenmaier - Hearing Examining the Future of the International Space Station: Administration Perspectives

"NASA is preparing to secure the Nation's long-term presence in LEO by partnering with industry to develop commercial orbital platforms, and capabilities that the private sector and NASA can utilize after the cessation of direct U.S. Federal funding for ISS by 2025."

- NASA Quietly Submits ISS Transition Plan To Congress (Update), earlier post
- What About That Space Station Transition Plan NASA?, earlier post
- Did NASA Deliver The ISS Transition Plan To Congress Required By Law? Update: No, earlier post
- Is NASA Going To Break The Law By Not Delivering An ISS Transition Plan To Congress?, earlier post

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ISS Daily Summary Report – 5/17/2018

Exposed Experiment Handrail Attachment Mechanism (ExHAM) #2:  The crew opened the Japanese Experiment Module Airlock (JEMAL) inner hatch and extended the Airlock slide table into the JEM. They detached and stowed samples for return to the ground from the Handhold Experiment Platform (HXP).  The ExHAM is a cuboid mechanism equipped with a fixture on the …

May 18, 2018 at 12:00AM
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#Mercury2018: From MESSENGER to BepiColombo and beyond

There Is Another Skywalker

In 2009 @AstroDocScott (Scott Parazynski) became the first astronaut to summit Mt. Everest.

Today a second astronaut, Maurizio Cheli, reached the summit as well.

We now have two real Skywalkers. pic.twitter.com/3Z2Lg95kaT

— NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) May 17, 2018

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An Amazing View

Astronaut Ricky Arnold took this selfie during the May 16, 2018, spacewalk. via NASA https://ift.tt/2L8kFyR

NASA Invites Media to Upcoming Launch of Science to Space Station

Media accreditation now is open for the launch of the next SpaceX delivery of NASA science investigations, supplies and equipment to the International Space Station, currently targeted for late June.

May 17, 2018
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Excerpts From The Bridenstine Town Hall

Bridenstine: I do not deny the consensus that climate is changing and that we as humans are heavily contributing to it. CO2 is a greenhouse gas and we are putting huge amounts into the atmosphere. — NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) May 17, 2018

Bridenstine: this NASA budget is the 2nd highest earth science NASA has ever had. We need to have research free of political rhetoric. We need a Earth science plan at NASA that follows NAS Decadal plan. — NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) May 17, 2018

Bridenstine: if we are going to put a single astronaut at risk we need to be doing something monumental and very important to the US. — NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) May 17, 2018

Bridenstine: we are going back to the Moon and on to Mars - together, at the same time. President wants this done on time/budget so I will hold you accountable too ;-) — NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) May 17, 2018

"There will be no discrimination of basis of gender, race, sexual orientation or identity" @JimBridenstine — NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) May 17, 2018

Bridenstine : "Everybody and I mean everybody ... we have the best work force in the US government - only way to maintain that is to be the most diverse workforce." — NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) May 17, 2018

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NASA Asks For Employee Questions For Bridenstine Town Hall

Keith's note: Looks NASA has developed a bunch of pre-prepared questions for employees to consider asking NASA Administrator Bridenstine. They even voted internally on the questions and then distributed them. Oddly, a lot of these questions would certainly put Bridenstine on the spot if they were asked. Tune in to the NASA Town Hall With Jim Bridenstine at 11:00 am EDT on NASA TV to see which of these questions get asked - and which ones are actually spontaneous. You have your user guide to see which is which. I am told that the top questions will be asked.

The top question: "The full cost recovery accounting system has decimated NASA science research. How do you plan on correcting this situation?"

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