The amazing mirrors that will fly aboard NASAs James Webb Space Telescope will allow the James Webb Space Telescope to see farther away and further back in time to detect the light from the very first and most distant stars and galaxies. In this photo, an engineers crystal clear reflection is seen on the surface of one of the primary mirror segments. The image is so clear you can see an expression of concentration in the engineers face. Behind the engineer looking into the mirrors surface, the top part of the canister that the mirror was shipped in hangs from four straps. Other engineers use flashlights to inspect the mirror segment. Photo Credit and Caption: NASA/Chris Gunn

At NASAs Goddard Spaceflight Center in Greenbelt, Md., in a1.3-million-cubic-foot clean room, now rests all 18 gold-coated primary mirror segments for NASAs James Webb Space Telescopethe successor to the space agencys aging Hubble Space Telescope. All four of the telescopes science instruments are being kept within walking distance of the mirrors, and nowwith four years to launchtechnicians at Goddard are ready to assemble what will become the most powerful space telescope ever built.

The Hubble Space Telescope has already rewritten the science books. Going from Hubble to the James Webb Space Telescope is like going from a biplane to the jet engine, said MarylandSenator andChairwoman of the Senate Appropriations CommitteeBarbara Mikulski at a news conference held at Goddard on Feb. 3. As Chairwoman, Ive continued to fight for funds in the federal checkbook to keep the James Webb Space Telescope mission on track, supporting jobs today and jobs tomorrow at Goddard. NASA Goddard is home to leaders in Marylands space and innovation economies, making discoveries that not only win Nobel Prizes, but create new products and jobs. The James Webb Space Telescope will keep us in the lead for astronomy for decades to come, spurring the innovation and technology that keep Americas economy rolling.

NASA engineer Ernie Wright looks on as the first six flight ready JWST primary mirror segments are prepped for final cryogenic testing at NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center. Photo Credit: NASA/MSFC/David Higginbotham

With most of the major hardware now under one roof, assembly of the massive space-based observatory is expected to begin as soon as thetelescopes structure arrives at Goddard, with assembly expected to be completed in 2016. Once complete, Webbwith its69.5 ft x 46.5 ft instruments-protecting sunshield deployedwill be the size ofa Boeing 737 airplane. Hubble, in comparison, isabout the size of a large tractor-trailer truck or bus. Webbs 6.5-meter diameter primary mirror will also be bigger, much bigger. The telescope will have nearly seven times more light collecting area than Hubble, allowing for unprecedented infrared observations of distant objects from the dawn of the universe some 14 billion years ago. Its mirror and instruments will capture images of the universe and break down the spectra of incoming light to analyze the properties of galaxies, stars, and the atmospheres of planets beyond our Solar System.

The recent completion of the critical design review for Webb, and the delivery of all its instruments to Goddard, mark significant progress for this mission, said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. The design, build, delivery and testing of these components took meticulous planning and action here at Goddard and with teams across the country, as well as with our international partners. Its very exciting to see it all coming together on schedule. And I want to thank our good friend Senator Barbara Mikulski for her support. We wouldnt be here today without her championing of this critical capability for NASA. I know she understands just how important it is to continue to push the boundaries of what we can do in space.

A joint project between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Webb will have been in planning, design, and development for over 20 years when it is launched atop an Ariane-5 rocket fromArianespaces ELA-3 launch complex at the European Spaceport located near Kourou, French Guiana, in 2018.

This past year has been one of significant progress for the Webb telescope, said Goddard Director Chris Scolese. The NASA Goddard team is working tirelessly with our partners to keep the program on track as we develop this newest scientific tool to explore the universe.

The program has not been without its own share of problems and was nearly cancelled by theUnited States House of Representatives appropriations committee on Commerce, Justice, and Science in 2011, citingbillions of dollars over budget and plagued by poor management as the reasoning behind killing the program. Congress, however, reversed the cancellation plans and instead capped additional funding to complete the project at $8 billionfour times more expensive than originally proposed, with a new launch date at least seven years later than originally planned.

See the original post:

James Webb Space Telescope Flight Instruments and Primary ...

GREENBELT, MD. The $8.8 billion James Webb Space Telescope, now in what is expected to be the most expensive year of its protracted development, could find itself back in trouble if Congress cannot keep the money coming, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) said here Feb. 3.

Were right on the cost-line, Bolden told reporters at the Goddard Space Flight Center here. Stability in the budget is critical. Its being able to know that the next year, and the next year, and the next year, right up to launch, were going to have the funds.

JWST, a flagship astrophysics mission, is expected to launch in 2018 on a five-year primary mission to observe the infrared universe from a gravitationally stable perch 1.6 million kilometers from Earth. Congress last month approved $658.2 million for the project for 2014. Before JWST entered development, around the turn of the century, program officials projected it would cost $1 billion to $3.5 billion and launch between 2007 to 2011, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Jan. 8.

Now, after lengthy delays and billions in added costs, JWST is entering its peak development years, in which major subsystems will be put together, tested, integrated with one another, and tested again. It will be, according to Bolden, one of the most difficult parts of JWSTs construction.[Photos: Building the James Webb Space Telescope]

This is our tough budget year, Bolden said. It is also the most expensive, according to projections the White House released last April with its 2014 budget proposal.

Bolden spoke to the press here after he and Mikulski, JWSTs biggest ally in Congress, held a town hall meeting at Goddard, the center in charge of building the massive infrared observatory. Both NASA employees and executives from some of JWSTs major industry contractors attended.

Mikulski told reporters that automatic budget cuts known as sequestration, which reduced NASAs 2013 appropriation to about $16.9 billion, resulted in furloughs, shutdowns, slowdowns [and] slamdown politics [which] are exactly what could derail or cause enormous cost overruns to the James Webb.

The chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and its commerce, justice, science subcommittee, said at the town hall that we would not have been able to do what we needed to do on JWST if NASAs 2014 budget had remained at the sequestered 2013 level of $16.9 billion.

However, JWST, a favorite project of Mikulskis, got exactly what the White House requested for 2013: $627.6 million, sequestration notwithstanding.

NASA and other parts of the federal government received partial relief from sequestration in 2014 and 2015 as part of the deal crafted by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.). The Consolidated Appropriations Act for 2014 (H.R. 3547), signed Jan. 17, subsequently gave NASA $17.65 billion for 2014, and $658.2 million for JWST.

Here is the original post:

NASA Chief Treads Carefully on James Webb Space Telescope Budget

While felines in space may be what youre thinking, the Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS) is a much more helpful accompaniment planned for theInternational Space Station. CATS will study the distribution of aerosols, the tiny particles that make up haze, dust, air pollutants, and smoke.

When IcelandsEyjafjallajkull volcanoerupted nearly four years ago, for example, officials grounded flights in Europe because particles contained within its massive plume could damage aircraft engines, resulting in potentially deadly consequences for passengers. NASA couldnt dispatch aircraft-borne instruments for the very same reasons European officials had grounded commercial aircraft. When the next volcano erupts, NASA will have a new tool in orbit that can monitor the spread of particles in Earths atmosphere from its space-based perch.

ThisEarth remote sensinginstrument is scheduled to launch to the space station in September 2014 as a demonstration project. Its sensors will help researchers determine for the first time what state-of-the-art, three-wavelength laser technology can do from space to measure tiny airborne particlesalso known as aerosolsin Earths atmosphere.

Developed by NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center scientist Matt McGill, and his team, CATS will be able to see the character as well as vertical and horizontal distribution of aerosols in a whole new light. When CATS begins operations from its docking port on the Japanese Experiment Module-Exposed Facility (JEM-EF), the refrigerator-sized sensor will continue measuring atmospheric aerosols using the same two-laser wavelengths as NASAs Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) mission the 1064 and 532 nanometer wavelengths.

Third Wavelength Added

What makes CATS stand out is the addition of a third laser wavelength at 355 nanometers. This will deliver more detailed information and could help scientists differentiate between the types of particles in the atmosphere. CATS is also equipped with extremely sensitive detectors capable of counting individual photons, delivering better resolution and finer-scale details.

"You get better data quality because you make fewer assumptions, and you get, presumably, a more accurate determination of what kind of particles youre seeing in the atmosphere," said McGill.

While CALIPSO can deliver 20 pulses of laser per second, using, as McGill described it, a whopping 110 milliJoules of energy in each of those pulses, CATS will fire 5,000 laser pulses per second, with only about 1 milliJoule for each pulse. The greatly simplified CATS power and thermal requirements are a huge plus for space-borne applications.

Earth Science from the Space Station

See more here:

Testing CATS in Space: Laser Technology to Debut on Space Station

Space Systems Engineering, a new massive open online course or MOOC from NASA and the Saylor Foundation, launches on Monday, March 3, 2014. The six-week, general-audience course is available to the public at no cost and provides a unique opportunity to learn from and alongside NASA's engineers. Students who participate can earn a free certificate.

The Space Systems Engineering MOOC, the result of a months-long collaboration between the non-profit Saylor Foundation, Washington, D.C., and personnel from NASA, examines basic systems engineering and teamwork as well as project life cycle, scoping, requirements, and trade studies. Saylor Foundation staff contributed technical, audio-video, and instructional design support, while course content consists of existing and augmented NASA materials.

Video lectures from personnel supporting the James Webb Space Telescope and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite missions at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., form the backbone of the lessons. NASA project manager Jeff Volosin, NASA mission systems engineer Mike Menzel, and Nobel laureate Dr. John C. Mather will provide the lectures.

"This is a good way to understand the big picture of what system engineers do; you have to understand how you fit into the team," said Jeff Volosin, project manager for the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite mission, one of the main instructors during the course. "Whether you are going to be a systems engineer or work with them you have some background because every engineer has to work in an area where systems engineering is a part of their life."

In producing this course, the Saylor Foundation stepped outside of its usual format to seize an opportunity deemed too good to pass up. David Rose, the foundation's content analyst and project lead for the course, said, "Being able to partner with such a storied agency like NASA is truly exciting for us. Our shared goal of enabling the public to access useful, compelling information makes us natural collaborators. As with our other courses on Saylor.org, we have repurposed exceptional resources freely available on the web, but this time we have the support and guidance of the people behind those resources."

That's a distinction that pays real dividends to students, Rose says. "It has been extremely rewarding working with brilliant minds at NASA, and I encourage anyone - everyone - to take advantage of the opportunity to learn from them."

Students can enroll prior to March at the course registration page and may also join the course at any point thereafter. Each week, registered students will receive an email detailing their assignments, questions for discussion, and opportunities to interact with one another and course designers, including NASA staff, through discussion forums.

Live Google+ Hangouts present a unique chance to engage with those behind the course; the first of several will be held on Friday, March 7, with Jeff Volosin. Students who successfully complete the course (by passing a final exam) will receive a free certificate of completion. There will also be an optional project, and the winners of the project competition will be awarded a tour of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., as well as a Google+ Hangout with the instructors of the course.

The many contributing materials to this course are all in the public domain and will remain on the Saylor Foundation's website indefinitely. Regardless of when they join the course, registered students will be able to revisit the materials whenever they wish and can incorporate the resources into other learning objects. In this respect, the Saylor Foundation's take on space systems engineering serves a continuing role as open courseware built entirely of open educational resources. The content for this MOOC was derived from a more extensive course developed by NASA engineer Lisa Guerra, during her tenure at The University of Texas at Austin. The original space systems engineering course is intended for undergraduate engineers as a supplement to their capstone design work.

See the original post here:

NASA, Saylor Foundation Collaborate to Offer New Free Space Systems Engineering Course

Rosetta - The Comet Chaser - Orbiter 2010 Space Flight Simulator
This is the external recording of the Rosetta mission I did using Orbiter Space Flight Simulator. Rosetta is a robotic spacecraft built and launched by the E...

By: Epo Nandrolone

Go here to see the original:

Rosetta - The Comet Chaser - Orbiter 2010 Space Flight Simulator - Video

Orbiter 2010 - Apollo 7 Launch Coverage/Simulation
October 11 1968 First manned flight for the Apollo Program. First manned flight of the Apollo capsule, and first manned flight onboard the Saturn IB. Command...

By: Apollo Houston

View post:

Orbiter 2010 - Apollo 7 Launch Coverage/Simulation - Video

yoni madar space flight
yoni madar space flight all instruments by yoni madar.

By: yoni madar

Original post:

yoni madar space flight - Video

Mikulski Announces Federal Funding to Support Next Steps of James Webb Space Telescope Construction
On Monday, February 3, 2014, Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), Chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and the Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) App...

By: SenatorMikulski

Continue reading here:

Mikulski Announces Federal Funding to Support Next Steps of James Webb Space Telescope Construction - Video

Rocco Petrone - Director of the NASA #39;s Marshall Space Flight Center
Rocco Petrone was an Italian American engineer. The parents emigrated to Amsterdam (New York) from the Italian village of Sasso di Castalda in 1921. Thanks t...

By: Antonio Coronato

Read more from the original source:

Rocco Petrone - Director of the NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center - Video

Cam Calloway - Alexander The Great [w/ Lyrics on screen]
Written Produced by Cam Calloway 2014 Space Flight Music http://soundcloud.com/camcalloway/alexander-the-great Help spread new hiphop!! Follow us at: Cam...

By: SpaceFlightMusic

Read the original:

Cam Calloway - Alexander The Great [w/ Lyrics on screen] - Video

Reinventing Space Flight
Follow Dr. Ben Longmier and his team into the rugged Alaskan wilderness on a quest to build a whole new type of rocket engine. Their goal is to test sensitiv...

By: SpaceRip

Read the original:

Reinventing Space Flight - Video

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAAY) The world's most powerful rocket undergoes design testing in Huntsville.

NASA'S new Space Launch System, designed for deep space exploration, has engines strong enough to create dangerously powerful noise.

When you are designing the world's most powerful rocket ever there are a million different things to think about, said Jeremy Kenny, Acoustic Engineer in a Marshall Space Flight Center interview.

Marshall Space Flight Center has developed a way to test an acoustic sound suppression system on a 5% scale model of the rocket.

The very loud sound can be very damaging both to the rocket vehicle and the crew. Our scale model rocket system is amazing, Acoustic Engineer, Janice Houston said.

The system could make takeoff safer, but first engineers had to make sure they could safely simulate such a powerful rocket launch.

During my design I had to hold approximately 25,000 pounds of thrust in place to make sure it doesn't fly away and injure somebody, said Mechanical Design Engineer, Micah Embry.

Once that design was made, the scale model could be ignited for five seconds at a time to test the sound suppression system through use of microphones located on the rocket.

Marshall Space Flight Center in coordination with other centers such as Langley and Kennedy space centers have designed this set up in order to answer the questions of; What are the lift off environments produced here in the vehicle? What are the lift off environments seen by the tower and mobile launch pad? What are the water sound suppression systems needed in order to mitigate these sound levels?, Kenny said.

According to Marshall Space Flight Center, water is the main component of the suppression system because it helps protect the rocket from damage caused by energy produced in takeoff. Marshall will be simulating the tests to collect data on how the suppressed levels of noise generated may affect the rocket and crew during liftoff. After testing is completed on the scale rocket, the system will be adjusted as needed and then tested on the actual rocket later this year.

See the article here:

Marshall Space Flight Center tests sound suppression system for world's most powerul rocket

Rob Gutro NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center

Several scientists from NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. and NASAs Goddard Institute for Space Studies, N.Y. received awards from the American Meteorological Society (AMS), American Geophysical Union (AGU) and American Astronomical Society (AAS). Those scientists include Pawan K. Bhartia, the late Arthur Hou, David Rind, Warren Wiscombe, Spiro Antiochos, and Tom Duvall.

From the beginning of my career at NASA, I have been amazed by the incredible quality and passion of our scientists, said Michelle Thaller, assistant director for science communication and higher education, in the Sciences and Exploration Directorate at NASA Goddard. Sometimes we feel that the public doesnt view the Federal Government as a true innovator in science, and these awards confirm what we know about our friends and colleagues here: some of the worlds best scientists work for NASA.

The American Meteorological Society (AMS) society awards are presented at the Annual Meeting, specialized conferences, or other appropriate occasions during the year. The objective of AMS is to advance the atmospheric and related sciences, technologies, applications, and services for the benefit of society.

Pawan K. (P.K.) Bhartia, senior scientist at NASA Goddard was chosen to receive the American Meteorological Society 2014 Remote Sensing Prize. This prestigious award is granted biennially to individuals in recognition of advances in the science and technology of remote sensing, and application to knowledge of Earth, oceans, and atmosphere, and/or to the benefit of society. The citation for Bhartias award reads For scientific advances in the remote sensing of global ozone concentration and trends, and for developing new techniques for retrieving aerosol properties from space.

Arthur Hou (posthumously), project scientist for the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) at NASA Goddard was elected a 2014 AMS Fellow. To be elected a Fellow of the AMS is a special tribute for those who have made outstanding contributions to the atmospheric or related oceanic or hydrologic sciences or their applications during a substantial period. This designation is conferred upon not more than 0.2% of all AMS members in any given year.

In July of 2013, the American Geophysical Union (AGU) announced its 2013 awardees, medalists and prize winners. The American Geophysical Union is dedicated to advancing the Earth and space sciences for the benefit of humanity through its scholarly publications, conferences, and outreach programs.

The AGU awards were presented at the Honors Tribute held during Fall meeting of the AGU, in San Francisco in December, 2013. These individuals are recognized for their breakthrough achievements in advancing Earth and space science and their outstanding contributions and service to the scientific community. Their passion, vision, creativity, and leadership have expanded scientific understanding, illuminated new research directions, and made Earth and space science thrilling, immediate, and relevant to audiences beyond as well as within the scientific community.

David Rind and Warren Wiscombe were named AGU Fellows. The AGU Fellows program recognizes members who have made exceptional contributions to Earth and space sciences as valued by their peers and vetted by section and focus group committees. This honor may be bestowed on only 0.1% of the membership in any given year.

David Rind is an Emeritus of NASAs Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. Davids fields of interest include past and future climate changes, climate modeling, stratospheric processes, solar-climate studies, sea ice, land surface effects, remote sensing.

Go here to read the rest:

Winners Of AMS, AGU And AAS Honors Announced By NASA

Utah State University's Space Dynamics Laboratory announced today that it has delivered the final series of 35 thermal link and composite support structure assemblies to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center for integration onto the James Webb Space Telescope. The SDL-built thermal links will help conduct heat away from the Webb Telescope's infrared instruments.

"Delivery of the Webb Telescope heat straps represents a significant milestone for both the Space Dynamics Lab and our NASA customer as they prepare final assembly, integration, and test for a 2018 planned launch," saidJed Hancock, director of civil space at the Space Dynamics Laboratory. "For decades, SDL and NASA have partnered on important scientific missions and we are pleased that this most recent achievement will help enable Webb to focus on the known, and unknown aspects of our universe."

The flexible nature of the thermal links provides a continuous conductance path across the interfaces between the elements of the satellites flight instruments, its support structure and external radiators, allowing for integration tolerances and dynamic movement during testing and launch. "The light weight thermal links are made from high purity aluminum foils and will maximize thermal conductance from the science instruments on JWST to their radiators that will allow each of the instruments to operate at desired temperatures," saidLorin Zollinger, SDL program manager. "We are pleased to have delivered this critical part of the Webb Telescope to NASA and look forward to the important images of our universe Webb will capture in the future."

A joint project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, the Webb Telescope will observe the most distant objects in the universe, provide images of the first galaxies formed and see unexplored planets around distant stars.

A unit of theUtah State UniversityResearch Foundation, SDL is one of 14 University Affiliated Research Centers in the nation. Charged with applying basic research to the technology challenges presented in the military and science arenas, SDL has developed revolutionary solutions that are changing the way the world collects and uses data. SDL's core competencies are electro-optical sensor systems, calibration, thermal management, reconnaissance systems, and small satellite technologies. Headquartered inLogan, Utah, SDL has operations inAlbuquerque, N.M.;Bedford, Mass.;Washington D.C.;Los Angeles, Calif.;Huntsville, Ala.;Colorado Springs, Colo.; andHouston, Texas.

Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook.

See original here:

Space Dynamics Laboratory Delivers James Webb Space Telescope Subsystem to NASA

February 3, 2014

Image Credit: NASA

[ Watch The Video: 100 Points of Light: Behind the Webb ]

Rob Gutro, NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center The newest video in the Behind the Webb series, called 100 Points of Light takes viewers behind the scenes to understand what the Near Infrared Spectrograph or NIRSpec will do when it flies aboard the James Webb Space Telescope.

The video was produced at the Space Telescope Science Institute or STScI in Baltimore, Md. and takes viewers behind the scenes with engineers who are testing or creating the Webb telescopes components. The video was so named, because the NIRSpec can look at approximately 100 celestial objects at the same time.

In the 3 minute and 39 second video, STScI host Mary Estacion takes the viewer to NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The Webb telescopes NIRSpec instrument was built at the EADS ASTRIUM facility in Munich, German and arrived by truck at NASA Goddard on Sept. 20, 2013.

Mary interviewed Dr. Pierre Ferruit, James Webb Space Telescope project scientist for the European Space Agency during his visit to NASA Goddard who explained what a spectrograph does. The NIRSpec was specially developed and constructed for the Webb telescope. It can take the light of one of these objects and divide it in its colors (into a spectrum), he said. This piece of information is what we call a spectrum and this is why NIRSPEC is called a spectrograph.

These spectra provide scientists with information about objects that can include chemical composition, temperature, mass, and the objects movement and distance.

But NIRSpec differs from existing space-based spectrographs because it is a multi-object spectrograph and it is designed to observe around 100 objects simultaneously. To make it possible, NASA Goddard scientists and engineers had to invent a new technology called a microshutter system to control how light enters the NIRSpec. The microshutter device is an array of thousands of microscopic windows that can be individually opened and closed from one observation to the next so that only the light from each particular object of interest is allowed to make its way through NIRSpec to be turned into spectra. The NIRSpec will be the first spectrograph in space that has this remarkable multi-object capability.

Mary also met with Ralf Maurer, Webb telescope NIRSpec Project Manager at EADS/Astrium, in Ottobrunn, Germany, who explained how the NIRSpec was being assembled there. In the video, viewers are given a detailed look at the actual NIRSpec instrument that will fly aboard the Webb telescope.

See original here:

New Video '100 Points Of Light' Goes Behind The Webb

Washington, Feb 4:

All the pieces of the most powerful space telescope ever are ready for assembly at NASA, the US space agency has said.

The $8.8 billion James Webb Space Telescope is scheduled for launch in 2018 and aims to provide an unprecedented look at far-away planets and the first galaxies formed.

A successor to the Hubble Space Telescope launched in 1990, it is a joint project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.

All 18 of its primary mirror segments and four science instruments are now housed at NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre facilities in suburban Maryland.

The recent completion of the critical design review for Webb, and the delivery of all its instruments to Goddard, mark significant progress for this mission, NASA administrator Charles Bolden said yesterday.

Its very exciting to see it all coming together on schedule.

The project has gained support from US lawmakers despite a number of delays and cost hikes that delayed delivery from its initial 2013 date and pushed spending way over its primary budget of $3.5 billion.

(This article was published on February 4, 2014)

Read more from the original source:

NASA gets ready to assemble the most powerful telescope

NASA hosted a news conference detailing the JWST'sprogress. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., were on hand to tour the Goddard Space Flight Center and discuss what the JWST means for the space agency and the future of space research.

Mikulski, as chairwoman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, fought to save NASA from budget cuts in the recently announced $1.02 trillion spending bill. Forfiscal 2014, NASA received a budget of $17.6 billion, and Congress kept the provision that capped the James Webb Space Telescopes budget at $8 billion.

The JWST was on the chopping block ahead of 2011s spending bill but was saved following cuts on other ventures and the acceptance of a budget cap on the project by NASA. Mikulski discussed the smashing success of Hubble, saying the space telescope has rewritten the science books and likened the evolution of space telescopes to going from a biplane to the jet engine and has high hopes for the JWST.

As chairwoman, Ive continued to fight for funds in the federal checkbook to keep the James Webb Space Telescope mission on track, supporting jobs today and jobs tomorrow at Goddard. NASA Goddard is home to leaders in Marylands space and innovation economies, making discoveries that not only win Nobel Prizes, but create new products and jobs. The James Webb Space Telescope will keep us in the lead for astronomy for decades to come, spurring the innovation and technology that keep Americas economy rolling, said Mikulski in a statement.

According to NASA, the JWST is almost complete as the final set of primary mirrors have been delivered to Goddard and the telescopes four science instruments are also sitting in the facilitys clean room. The science instruments include a Near-Infrared Camera, a Near-Infrared Spectrograph that can analyze 100 objects simultaneously, a Mid-Infrared Instrument and a Fine Guidance Sensor and Near-infrared Imager to boost the telescopes resolution.

All thats left for the JSWT is the assembly as NASA waits for the telescope structure while the telescope sunshield, developed by Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems, is in the final stages of completion. NASA says the James Webb Space Telescope will be assembled by 2016 and will undergo final testing before its launch in 2018.

The full James Webb Space Telescope conference can be viewed below.

Continued here:

The James Webb Space Telescope Will Be Like Going From A Biplane To The Jet Engine, Says Sen. Mikulski

Our Place in the Universe: Cosmology from Ancient Greece to Today
Michelle Thaller discussed how we have perceived own own place in the universe since ancient times. Speaker Biography: Michelle Thaller is assistant director...

By: LibraryOfCongress

Read the original:

Our Place in the Universe: Cosmology from Ancient Greece to Today - Video

Finding Hot Towers in Hurricanes
Owen Kelley discussed the science, the technology and the researcher who coined the term "hot tower" 50 years ago. During the past decade, NASA #39;s Tropical Ra...

By: LibraryOfCongress

See original here:

Finding Hot Towers in Hurricanes - Video

space flight by chad
A stop motion animation made with Animation Station in The Tinkering Studio.

By: AnimationStationBeta

Go here to read the rest:

space flight by chad - Video