NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida is one power step closer to processing the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS), the most powerful rocket in the world, for its first flight, Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1), and NASA’s journey to Mars. During a preliminary test April 28, the two J-level work platforms installed on the north and south sides of Vehicle Assembly Building High Bay 3, where the SLS will be prepared for launch, were successfully activated to test their functionality and simulate how they will surround the massive rocket on the mobile launcher.
Mike Bolger, Ground Systems Development and Operations Program (GSDO) manager, stood on the walkway on the 16th floor, above the J-level platforms, as construction contractor Hensel Phelps operated the controls and began the test.
“It was an amazing sight to look down and watch as the platform smoothly extended out into the open air of High Bay 3,” Bolger said. “As each half of the J platforms slowly extended, I couldn’t help but think forward to the day when the SLS core stage and boosters will fill the void between the platform halves.”
One of the J-level work platforms is powered on and extended in the Vehicle Assembly Building.
The J-level work platforms are just one of 10 levels of platforms that will surround the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft in the high bay. The platforms will extend and retract and will have the capability to be adjusted up or down as required to give engineers and technicians access to various areas of the giant rocket, twin solid rocket boosters, Orion and its launch abort system during processing and testing.
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In June 2015, when the cameras on NASA’s approaching New Horizons spacecraft first spotted the large reddish polar region on Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, mission scientists knew two things: they’d never seen anything like it elsewhere in our solar system, and they couldn’t wait to get the story behind it.
Over the past year, after analyzing the images and other data that New Horizons has sent back from its historic July 2015 flight through the Pluto system, the scientists think they’ve solved the mystery. As they detail this week in the international scientific journal Nature, Charon’s polar coloring comes from Pluto itself – as methane gas that escapes from Pluto’s atmosphere and becomes “trapped” by the moon’s gravity and freezes to the cold, icy surface at Charon’s pole. This is followed by chemical processing by ultraviolet light from the sun that transforms the methane into heavier hydrocarbons and eventually into reddish organic materials called tholins."
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This week in 1996, STS-78 and its primary payload, the Life and Microgravity Spacelab, launched. During the 17-day spaceflight, the crew conducted a diverse slate of experiments divided into a mix of life science and microgravity investigations.
Five space agencies -- NASA, European Space Agency, French Space Agency, Canadian Space Agency and Italian Space Agency -- along with research scientists from 10 countries worked together on the design, development and construction of the laboratory.
LMS investigations, managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, conducted the most extensive telescience to date, similar to investigations on the International Space Station.
Today, Marshall is home to the Payload Operations and Integration Center -- the command center for all science operations on the ISS, ensuring successful science operations to benefit people on Earth and to pave the way for deep space exploration. Flight controllers are on the clock 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to help astronauts in orbit and scientists on the ground.
For more fun throwbacks, check out Marshall's History Album by clicking here.
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These official NASA photographs are being made available for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photographs. The photographs may not be used in materials, advertisements, products, or promotions that in any way suggest approval or endorsement by NASA. All Images used must be credited. For information on usage, click here.
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On this day in 1969, the Apollo 11 Eagle, along with NASA astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin went to the moon, forever changing human history.
We're proud of the role NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center played and we sincerely thank everyone who made it happen, as well as everyone around the world who watched and supported this giant leap for mankind.
Von Braun's team may have actually built the Saturn rockets, but credit also belongs to those who worked behind-the-scenes in management, accounting, purchasing, security, human resources, emergency services, medical, public affairs, legal and more.
Learn more about Marshall's role by visiting the NASA Marshall History Office.
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These official NASA photographs are being made available for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photographs. The photographs may not be used in materials, advertisements, products, or promotions that in any way suggest approval or endorsement by NASA. All Images used must be credited. For information on usage rights, click here.
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Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) see the world at night on every orbit — that’s 16 times each crew day. An astronaut took this broad, short-lens photograph of Earth’s night lights while looking out over the remote reaches of the central equatorial Pacific Ocean. ISS was passing over the island nation of Kiribati at the time, about 2600 kilometers (1,600 miles) south of Hawaii.
Knowing the exact time and the location of the ISS, scientists were able to match the star field in the photo to charts describing which stars should have been visible at that moment. They identified the pattern of stars in the photo as our Milky Way galaxy (looking toward its center). The dark patches are dense dust clouds in an inner spiral arm of our galaxy; such clouds can block our view of stars toward the center.
The curvature of the Earth crosses the center of the image and is illuminated by a variety of airglow layers in orange, green, and red. Setting stars are visible even through the dense orange-green airglow.
The brightest light in the image is a lightning flash that illuminated a large mass of clouds. The flash reflected off the shiny solar arrays of the ISS and back to the camera. The dim equatorial cloud sheet is so extensive that it covers most of the sea surface in this view.
Astronaut photograph ISS044-E-45215 was acquired on August 9, 2015 by a member of the Expedition 44 crew, with a Nikon D4 digital camera using a 28 millimeter lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center.
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These official NASA photographs are being made available for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photographs. The photographs may not be used in materials, advertisements, products, or promotions that in any way suggest approval or endorsement by NASA. All Images used must be credited. For information on usage rights, click here.
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