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This Is NASA’s New Astronaut

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Ever dreamed of being an astronaut?

It wouldnt hurt, but you dont even have to be a rocket scientist to make that dream come true. Just ask Jessica Meir.

NASA just announced its new 2013 Astronaut Candidate Class, selecting eight candidates from the second largest pool in NASA history -- more than 6,100 applicants, hoping against hope for one of the most elite jobs around. Only a handful of people have walked with the stars, after all.

- Jessica Meir

Being selected was unbelievable, explained newly minted astronaut candidate Jessica Meir.

I was shocked, Mier told FoxNews.com. Its almost hard to believe. Because its something youve been dreaming and thinking about for an incredibly long time.

Becoming an astronaut is just like applying for any other job -- you must meet the basic requirements and from there the pool is narrowed down. But it was during that selection process that she realized just how stiff her competition would be.

I thought Wow, this is an incredible, elite group of people and there's probably no way Im going to be picked, Meir said.

Meir, a 35-year old assistant professor of anesthesia at Harvard Medical School, believes her private pilot's license set her apart from other candidates. After making it to the final round of NASA interviews in 2009, she was not picked. But she didnt let that rejection stop her from trying again.

Ive been saying I wanted to be an astronaut since I was 5, Meir told FoxNews.com. So its a really humbling experience.

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This Is NASA's New Astronaut

NASA’s Daytime Dynamo Experiment Deploys Lithium to Study Global Ionospheric Communications Disruptions

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On June 24, 2013 a pair of daytime sounding rockets will launch from NASA Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) and deploy a chemical trail like the one deployed here from a sounding rocket at night. The chemical trail will help researchers track wind movement to determine how it affects the movement of charged particles in the atmosphere. All the colors in the sky shown here, the white and blue streaks, and the larger red blob overhead, are from the chemical trails. Credit: NASA See Rocket Visibility Maps below

Science and space aficionados are in for rare treat on June 24 when NASA launches a two-rocket salvo from the NASA Wallops Flight Facility, Va. on a mission to study how charged particles in the ionosphere can disrupt communication signals that impact our day to day lives.

Its a joint project between NASA and the Japanese Space Agency, or Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA.

The suborbital sounding rockets will blast off merely 15 seconds apart from a beach-side launch complex directly on Virginias Eastern shore on a science mission named the Daytime Dynamo.

An electric current called the dynamo, illustrated here, sweeps through Earths upper atmosphere.A pair of sounding rockets called Dynamo will launch on June 24, to study the current, which can disrupt Earths communication and navigation signals. Credit: USGS

The goal is to study the global electrical current called the dynamo, which sweeps through the ionosphere, a layer of charged particles that extends from about 30 to 600 miles above Earth.

Why should you care?

Because disruptions in the ionosphere can scramble radio wave signals for communications and navigations transmissions from senders to receivers and that can impact our every day lives.

The experiment involves launching a duo of suborbital rockets and also dispatching an airplane to collect airborne science measurements.

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NASA’s Daytime Dynamo Experiment Deploys Lithium to Study Global Ionospheric Communications Disruptions

NASA selects Spokane native as astronaut trainee

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In preschool, Anne McClain wrote and illustrated a book depicting a family of four going to a store, buying rockets and suits, and flying into outer space.

Fast forward about 30 years, one Army career and 18 months of suspense, McClain is about to make her 4-year-old selfs dreams come true.

The 34-year-old Gonzaga Prep graduate has been chosen as one of NASAs eight newest astronaut trainees. The eight names were released publicly last week, although the candidates learned their fate June 6.

I couldnt stand, I couldnt breathe, and then there were tears, McClain said via phone from Washington, D.C., of the moment she learned she would become an astronaut.

She somehow pulled herself together enough to joke with the NASA representative who called her with the good news.

I remember her asking if I was still interested in the position, McClain said. I told her I would have to check my schedule. Then I started laughing and said, Of course.

The eight trainees were chosen from a pool of more than 6,100 applicants. They will be stationed across the globe and will prepare for missions that could include trips to Mars or distant asteroids, NASA said in its announcement.

Joining McClain as new astronaut trainees are Josh A. Cassada, Ph.D., 39, a former naval aviator now working in high-tech; U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Victor J. Glover, 37, a fighter pilot; U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Tyler N. Hague, 37, test pilot; Christina M. Hammock, 34, a scientist and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration station chief in American Samoa; U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Nicole Aunapu Mann, 35, test pilot; Jessica U. Meir, Ph.D., 35, assistant professor of anesthesia at Harvard Medical School; and U.S. Army Maj. Andrew R. Morgan, 37, an emergency physician and flight surgeon.

The four women who make up half the recruiting class mark the highest percentage of women ever in one class.

McClain, an Army major, is a 1997 Gonzaga Prep graduate. She spent a year in the ROTC program at Gonzaga University before attending the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where she studied mechanical engineering. She also has masters degrees in aerospace engineering from the University of Bath and in international security from the University of Bristol, both in the United Kingdom.

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NASA selects Spokane native as astronaut trainee

NASA debuts new heavy-lift rocket machinery

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Gerald Herbert / AP

Executives check out the new vertical weld center at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, on Friday. NASA officials in New Orleans publicly unveiled the new, three-story-tall cylindrical structure that is a key component in constructing heavy-lift rockets for the nations' space program.

By Kevin McGill, AP

NEW ORLEANS NASA officials in New Orleans publicly unveiled a new, three-story-tall cylindrical structure Friday that is a key component in constructing heavy-lift rockets for the nation's space program.

It's called the "vertical weld center." The heavy metal framework holds state-of-the-art automated welding equipment, around which The Boeing Co. will build a major component of rockets for NASA's new Space Launch System: the "core stage" of the SLS rockets.

Each core stage will be more than 200 feet tall with a diameter of 27.5 feet. Each will be assembled in sections around the vertical weld center. Each stage will have nine sections made of eight individual curved aluminum panels welded together by the machinery that glides up and down within the cylinder "a quarter mile's worth of welding," in the words of Boeing executive Rich Navarro, who spoke at Friday's ribbon cutting.

NASA / MAF

Artist illustration of the Vertical Weld Center.

NASA and Boeing officials, joined by local government officials, held the ribbon-cutting in a building that holds the new machinery at the Michoud (mih-shoo) Assembly Facility in eastern New Orleans.

The Michoud facility was chosen by NASA in 2011 to manufacture SLS components a much-needed boost to the area's economy after the end of the space shuttle program. Michoud employed thousands in the 1980s constructing the huge external fuel tanks for the shuttles.

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NASA debuts new heavy-lift rocket machinery

NASA, Deloitte To Bring Space-Age Risk Management To Oil And Gas Industry

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NASA Johnson Space Center and Deloitte will enter into a strategic alliance offering advanced risk-management services to oil and gas companies. The Space Act Agreement commencement ceremony is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Central, Thursday, June 27.

These capabilities include several operational risk-management approaches aimed at companies seeking to minimize the risk of catastrophic failures - the kinds of dramatic mishaps that, while highly unlikely, can occur in remote and harsh environments.

A core value of NASA is safety, which serves as a cornerstone of mission success. This collaboration will enforce NASA's constant attention to safety as a cornerstone upon which it operates as safely as possible. Through this collaboration, NASA will gain knowledge to help prepare for future missions and to enhance current safety and risk mitigation technologies to address the dynamic, harsh, and remote requirements of emergent programs.

As part of the alliance, NASA and Deloitte will jointly offer a range of capabilities in the quickly evolving risk-sciences arena, such as "risk modeling and simulation," to help oil and gas companies eliminate blind spots in their decision making.

Using sophisticated risk-modeling and simulation tools and techniques can reduce uncertainties in engineering and operations at oil and gas companies - in much the same way NASA has done in its human spaceflight programs.

Included in the signing of the agreement are Johnson Deputy Center Director Steve Altemus, who will join veteran NASA astronaut and director of JSC's Safety and Mission Assurance office William "Bill" McArthur, Jr., Deloitte principal David Traylor and John England, vice chairman, Deloitte LLP, and leader of Deloitte's oil and gas practice.

Journalists wishing to attend the signing ceremony and media availability immediately following should contact Elisa Morales at elizabeth.morales-1@nasa.gov or call 281-483-5111 for credentialing information no later than 5 p.m., Tuesday, June 25.

Johnson Space Center is home to the International Space Station Program and the primary training facility for NASA's astronaut corps. For more information about Johnson, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/johnson

For more information about "Deloitte," which references Deloitte & Touche LLP, a subsidiary of Deloitte LLP, visit: http://www.deloitte.com/us/about

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NASA, Deloitte To Bring Space-Age Risk Management To Oil And Gas Industry


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