Alien Space Flight Animation

By: Kyle Grimm

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Alien Space Flight Animation - Video

December 15, 2014

Provided by Megan Davidson, NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center

Take a look at your current devices. Can you imagine swapping that smartphone for a gigantic cellphone from the 1980s? Surfing the Internet with dial-up speed? Working out to your favorite music with a cassette player?

Todays technology is better, faster and more innovative. People have to keep up with the rapidly changing times, and so does the brain for the RS-25 rocket engine.

Image: The engine controller unit allows communication between the vehicle and the engine, relaying commands to the engine and transmitting data back to the vehicle. Engineering model controllers are being tested at the Marshall Center and Stennis Space Center. Credit: NASA/MSFC

The engine controller unit on the RS-25 formerly known as the space shuttle main engine helped propel all of the space shuttle missions to space. It allows communication between the vehicle and the engine, relaying commands to the engine and transmitting data back to the vehicle. The controller also provides closed-loop management of the engine by regulating the thrust and fuel mixture ratio while monitoring the engines health and status.

Just like the ever-evolving computer, the engine controller unit needed a refresh to provide the capability necessary for four RS-25 engines to power the core stage of NASAs new rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), to deep space missions. Thecore stage, towering more than 200 feet tall with a diameter of 27.6 feet, will store cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen that will feed the vehicles RS-25 engines.

You cant put yesterdays hardware on todays engine, especially since many parts of the shuttle-era engine controller unit arent even made anymore, said Russ Abrams, avionics subsystem manager in the SLS Liquid Engines Office at NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Marshall manages the SLS Program for the agency. We need the most updated control systems for this engine to meet SLS specifications and take us to places weve never been before in space.

Controller development is based heavily on the recent development experience with the J-2X engine controller. An engineering model RS-25 controller is being tweaked and tested at Marshall. At one of the centers test facilities, engineers are simulating the RS-25 in flight, using real engine actuators, sensors, connectors and harnesses.

A second engineering model controller and RS-25 engine also recently were installed on the A-1 test stand at NASAs Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Pending final preparation and activation work, the engine test series is anticipated to begin in 2015.

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New "Brain" for Space Shuttle Engine is No Technological Flashback to the '80s

What Happened on Orion #39;s First Flight
SciShow Space News takes you step by step through the first voyage of the Orion spacecraft. ---------- Like SciShow? Want to help support us, and also get things to put on your walls, cover...

By: SciShow Space

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What Happened on Orion's First Flight - Video

Starduster - Photographing Earth from Near-Space - Flight Recap - Launch to Landing
Flight Recap - Launch to Landing #39;Out #39; - Side facing camera - http://youtu.be/wpZJ9jjog9g #39;Down #39; - Down facing camera - http://youtu.be/p2qwd933EVI External ...

By: Josh Ward

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Starduster - Photographing Earth from Near-Space - Flight Recap - Launch to Landing - Video

NASA #39;s next step in Human Space Flight EFT-1 Orion Launch
Liftoff, at dawn, the dawn of Orion, and a new era of American space exploration. Those words, spoken by NASA launch countdown and liftoff commentator Mike Currie, echoed around the world...

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NASA's next step in Human Space Flight EFT-1 Orion Launch - Video

The Best Space Flight Simulator Games of All Time
The Best Space Flight Simulator Games of All Time 1. Star Trek: Klingon Academy 2. A.G.E. 3. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy 4. Starshatter 5. No Man Sky 6. Space Combat 7. Shadow...

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The Best Space Flight Simulator Games of All Time - Video

A volunteer outreach video project created by NASA interns is "All About That Space."

The video, created by the Pathways Interns of NASA's Johnson Space Center, is a parody to Meghan Trainor's hit song "All About That Bass." They project was made to raise interest and excitement for Orion's first flight.

The lyrics and scenes in the video have been re-imagined in order to inform the public about the work going on at NASA and the Johnson Space Center.

Orion will serve as the exploration vehicle that will carry the crew to space, provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during the space travel, and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities.

"All About That Space" Lyrics:

Because you know Im all about that space Bout that space, space travel. Im all about that space Bout that space, space travel. Im all about that space Bout that space, space travel. Im all about that space Bout that space

Yeah, its pretty clear, I aint commercial crew But I can launch it, launch it Like Im supposed to do Cause I got that boom boom that all the Astros chase And all the space flight to all the right places

I see Orion crew workin that ship nonstop We know we goin far Now put that LAS on top If you got boosters boosters, just raise em up Cause every spacecraft needs propulsion From the bottom to the top

Hey, theyre working so hard, dont you love these NASA guys? They will take us so far the first time that Orion flies. You know we travellin to deep destinations fore to long, So if thats what youre into then join in and ride along.

Because you know Im All about that space Bout that space, space travel Im all about that space Bout that space, space travel Im all about that space Bout that space, space travel Im all about that space Bout that space Hey!

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NASA interns create parody 'All About That Space'

Space Station Live: Improving Everyday Products on Earth through the ISS
NASA Commentator Lori Meggs at the Marshall Space Flight Center speaks with Matthew Lynch, the principal scientist at Procter Gamble about colloidal research on the International Space Station...

By: Waspie_Dwarf

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Space Station Live: Improving Everyday Products on Earth through the ISS - Video

Provided by Karen C. Fox, NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center

Understanding vast systems in space requires understanding whats happening on widely different scales. Giant events can turn out to have tiny drivers take, for example, what rocked near-Earth space in October 2003. On Oct. 28, 2003, and again on Oct. 29, massive solar flares erupted on the sun, sending X-rays zooming through the solar system. Along with the flares, the sun expelled giant clouds of solar material, called coronal mass ejections, or CMEs. The CMEs slammed into Earths magnetic field pushed material and energy in toward Earth. This created whats called a geomagnetic storm.

[ Watch the Video: MMS Science Overview: The Many Mysteries Of MMS ]

The Halloween Storms, as they have come to be called, triggered brilliant aurora that could be seen over much of North America reaching as far south as Texas. But they also interfered with GPS signals and radio communications, and caused the Federal Aviation Administration to issue their first ever warning to airlines to avoid excess radiation by flying at low altitudes.

Every step leading to these intense storms the flare, the CME, the transfer of energy from the CME to Earths magnetosphere was ultimately driven by the catalyst of magnetic reconnection. This little understood process can occur in thin layers just miles thick. Yet it can accelerate particles up to nearly the speed of light and can initiate giant eruptions from the sun many times the size of Earth. The effects of reconnection have been observed in space, but the actual reconnection process has only been observed in the laboratory.

In March 2015, NASA will launch a new mission to study magnetic reconnection. The Magnetospheric Multiscale, or MMS, mission will be the first ever mission dedicated to studying this universal process by orbiting Earth to pass directly through nearby magnetic reconnection regions and to observe the minute details of such events.

Reconnection occurs wherever charged gases, called plasma, are present. Its rare on Earth, but plasma makes up 99% of the visible universe. Plasma fuels stars and fills the near vacuum of space. Plasmas behave unlike what we regularly experience on Earth because they travel with their own set of magnetic fields entrapped in the material. Changing magnetic fields affect the way charged particles move and vice versa, so the net effect is a complex, constantly-adjusting system that is sensitive to minute variations.

Under normal conditions, the magnetic field lines inside plasmas dont break or merge with other field lines. But sometimes, as field lines get close to each other, the entire pattern changes and everything realign into a new configuration. The amount of energy released can be formidable. Magnetic reconnection taps into the stored energy of the magnetic field, converting it into heat and kinetic energy that sends particles streaming out along the field lines.

Scientists want to know exactly what conditions, what tipping points, trigger magnetic reconnection events. Much of what we currently know about the small-scale physics of magnetic reconnection comes from theoretical studies, computer models, and laboratory experiments. True understanding, however, requires observing magnetic reconnection up close so MMS will take its measurements in Earths own magnetosphere, an ideal natural laboratory in which reconnection can be observed under a wide range of conditions.

Orbiting Earth, MMS will pass through known areas of magnetic reconnection. During its first phase it will travel through reconnection sites on the sun side of Earth. Here the interplanetary magnetic field connects with Earths magnetic field, transferring particles, momentum and energy to the magnetosphere via magnetic reconnection. During the second phase of its mission, MMS will observe reconnection on the night side of Earth, where that connected field flows around both sides of Earth to a second reconnection point in whats known as the magnetotail, where they then disconnect.

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The Science Of Magnetic Reconnection

Orbiter Space Flight Simulator @ 60 FPS
Test.

By: futhalero

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Orbiter Space Flight Simulator @ 60 FPS - Video

Two accidents in the commercial space industry this year an unmanned rocket that exploded shortly after launch in the fall and an experimental suborbital craft that broke apart during flight shortly after are almost sure to come up the next time a congressional committee discusses the private spacecraft market. But, experts say the incidents wont have much of an effect on the sectors increasing expansion.

I think its going to cause some delays, said Kerri Cahoy, an aeronautics and astronautics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. But I dont think itll do much damage to the industry as a whole.

The private sector spaceflight issues started with what NASA is calling a mishap in October, when an unmanned Antares rocket operated by Orbital Sciences Corp. under a contract to bring supplies to the International Space Station blew up shortly after takeoff from NASAs Wallops Island launch facility in Virginia.

Later the same week, a test flight of Virgin Galactics rocket-powered SpaceShipTwo resulted in the death of co-pilot Michael Alsbury when the spacecraft detached from its carrier aircraft in mid-air. Both incidents are still under investigation.

Thus far, members of Congress, who have largely cheered the development of the commercial space business, havent jumped on the incidents as a reason to clamp down on the industry. After the Orbital Sciences explosion, Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson said, space flight is inherently risky, but commercial space ventures will ultimately be successful. He expressed similar thoughts on the Virgin Galactic accident.

Im deeply saddened by the loss of one of the pilots, Nelson said. This has been a tragic week for our commercial space sector. But Im confident that we will learn from the investigations of these two accidents and take steps to prevent them from happening again.

Experts are hoping other lawmakers take similarly deliberative approaches; some have expressed frustration about the way the recent accidents have been reported.

I find a lot of the discussion about the implications for commercial space flight miss the mark, said Scott Pace, director of the Space Policy Institute at The George Washington University.

Pace and some others who study space travel say though the timing was unfortunate, comparing the two accidents is unfair and possibly misleading. The Orbital Sciences accident involved an Antares rocket using two decades-old, Russian-built refurbished engines, with the intent of bringing cargo to an orbiting station a relatively routine mission with routine technology. But an accident involving such a mission isnt unheard of, whether its a government launch or a commercial one, experts say.

We obviously have seen launch vehicle accidents from every program implemented by the U.S., the Soviet Union, the Russians and the European Space Agency, said Jonathan Lunine, a space research professor at Cornell University.

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Commercial Space Industry Regroups After Accidents

Many in the space community are still beaming over last weeks launch of Orion, the historic unmanned test flight that NASA said touched off a new era in human space exploration.

But at a congressional hearing Tuesday, a government watchdog report and some skeptical members of Congress brought some of the grandiose talk of a trip to Mars down to Earth, saying that the program still faces daunting challenges that NASA has struggled to overcome.

The Government Accountability Offices Cristina Chaplain said in testimony that the agencys human exploration program is plagued by inconsistent and unrealistic schedule goals, as well as significant technical and funding issues.

And while members of Congress were quick to congratulate NASA officials for Fridays test flight a 41/2-hour mission that sent a spacecraft designed for humans farther than any has gone in more than 40 years they also took aim at a program to build a new heavy rocket.

Known as the Space Launch System (SLS), the rocket NASA plans for its future deep space missions is still being built and isnt expected to have its first test flight for another four years. (Fridays mission was aboard a Delta IV Heavy rocket built by the United Launch Alliance.)

Orion, the NASA spacecraft designed to travel to asteroids and Mars, completed its first test flight on Friday, bringing NASA one step closer to a manned mission to the Red Planet. (AP)

After its first test flight in 2018 originally planned for 2017 but delayed because of funding issues SLS is then expected to perform its first manned flight in 2021.

But after that flight, future mission destinations remain uncertain, the GAO said.

Orions maiden flight Friday was a long-awaited triumph for an agency that has been unable to fly humans into space since the retirement of the space shuttle three years ago. American astronauts have been hitching rides to the International Space Station aboard a Russian spacecraft at more than $70million a seat.

The test flight seen by thousands was a huge step in advancing human exploration, NASA said, and ultimately landing a person on Mars.

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After historic Orion flight, NASA still faces challenges, GAO says

Space-agency scientists have presented a plan to piggyback on two missions

In the 45 years since astronauts first walked on the Moon, no European country or space agency has launched a mission to the Moons surface. Credit: Evil Monkey via Wikimedia Commons

Science ministers in Europe have resurrected plans to explore the Moons surfaceand the only strategy currently on the table is to join two uncrewed Russian missions. The developments, which follow the shelving of a proposed European Space Agency (ESA) Moon lander two years ago, come amid growing political tensions between Russia and Western nations.

On December 2, at a meeting in Luxembourg to determine ESAs policy, the space agency got the go-ahead and funding to investigate participation in robotic missions for the exploration of the Moon. Science ministers from the ESA member states did not approve collaboration with Russia specifically, but at the meeting, ESA scientists presented a proposal to join Russia on its missions to put a lander and a rover on the Moons south pole.

Money for lunar exploration will come from a pot of 800million (US$980million) contributed by ESAs member states and dedicated to international space exploration; the pot will primarily pay for activities on the International Space Station and the development of a propulsion module for NASAs Orion spacecraft, which is eventually designed to carry astronauts to deep space, and was tested on December 5 in an uncrewed space flight.

In the 45 years since astronauts first walked on the Moon, no European country or space agency has launched a mission to the Moons surface. And no lander or astronaut has been to the lunar south pole, a region thought to contain ice and thus deemed a probable spot for any future permanent lunar base. A 12-kilometer-deep crater there might provide access to material from the Moons interior, also making it attractive for scientific study, says Ian Crawford, a lunar scientist at Birkbeck, University of London. The ancient material could reveal details of the collision between a Mars-sized planet and early Earth that is thought to have produced the Moon. The idea that weve been there and done that did last for a long time, but thats gone away now, says Crawford. The Moon still has a lot to tell us.

A Moon lander proposed by ESA failed to gather enough support at a similar meeting of ministers in 2012. That left European scientists and industry mobilized to gobut without a mission. A group of ESA scientists has been discussing a partnership with the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, ever since.

The groups proposal, aired for the first time at the Luxembourg meeting, is that ESA contribute to Roscosmoss Luna-Resource Lander, also known as Luna27, which is scheduled for launch in 2019, as well as the Lunar Sample Return, planned for the early 2020s. The first will study the lunar soil and atmosphere at the south pole; the second would bring samples back to Earth. ESA would provide precision landing and communications equipment, as well as drill and analysis instruments.

The ministerial decision, in principle, means that ESA can start to fund efforts to incorporate these technologies into the missionalthough whether it will do so has still to be agreed. The preliminary phase is estimated to cost up to 50million. The total price would be much higher, perhaps in the hundreds of millions.

ESA has said that pursuing lunar missions is strategically important, not only to secure access to the Moons surface for European scientists, but also to ensure that European expertise and technology is involved in future lunar explorationincluding, ultimately, international crewed missions and even a permanent lunar base. NASA currently has no plans to land on the Moon (Orion will be designed to take astronauts into lunar orbit), but Russia, China, Japan and several private companies are making plans to put rovers on the body. Representatives from these nations have more than hinted that permanent Moon bases and human exploration would be the next steps. It would be crazy that an agency like ESA would not be part of lunar exploration, says Brengre Houdou, who heads ESAs Lunar Exploration Office.

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Europe Proposes Joint Moon Trips with Russia

The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter OST - Space Flight
From the Collector #39;s Edition Soundtrack. Composed by Mikolai Stroinski.

By: Alae Mortis

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The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter OST - Space Flight - Video

Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) no longer have to wait for a delivery from Earth if they are missing some gizmo in space. With the addition of a 3D printer aboard the space station they may now make a certain number of components themselves.

In November, NASA created history by successfully 3D printing the first object in space. An additive manufacturing device, or 3D printer, was turned on, and initiated the first official 3D print on the ISS. Developed in partnership with NASAs Marshall space flight center and Ames research center, the project takes a step towards commercially and sustainably fabricating objects off of our planet.

The first print job was a small plate for mounting the 3D printer extruder print head that is the important part of the printer where the plastic material is heated and becomes liquid, so it can be squeezed out of a small nozzle. When the layer after layer of plastic placed on top of each other, 3D objects slowly becoming the reality.

After doing an initial calibration, engineers on the ground sent commands to the printer to make its first object. This first print serves to demonstrate the potential of the technology to produce replacement parts on demand if a critical component fails in space. The printer will be controlled from the control center on Earth that sends print jobs up and tells the astronauts when the object is ready for pickup.

This first print is the initial step toward providing an on-demand machine shop capability away from Earth, Niki Werkheiser, project manager for the International Space Station 3-D Printer project, said in a statement. The space station is the only laboratory where we can fully test this technology in space.

The plate says MADE IN SPACE and the logo of NASA were printed without problems, though the plastic was something better to the tray print than expected. If the printer works as planned, astronauts will be able to make simple things based on instructions from the ground.

As NASA ventures further into space, whether to redirect an asteroid or sending humans to Mars, the space agency needs transformative technology to reduce cargo weight and volume. In the future, perhaps astronauts will be able to print the tools and components they need in space. NASA hopes that astronauts will be able to print a variety of spare parts and tools to be used in space, and which would otherwise take a long time and cost for the sendoff from Earth.

This is the first time weve ever used a 3D printer in space, and we are learning, even from these initial operations, Werkheiser said. As we print more parts, well be able to learn whether some of the effects we are seeing are caused by microgravity or just part of the normal fine-tuning process for printing. When we get the parts back on Earth, well be able to do a more detailed analysis to find out how they compare to parts printed on Earth.

NASA says the space station will be a good spot to test this kind of stuff out. Additive manufacturing with 3-D printers will allow space crews to be less reliant on supply missions from Earth and lead to sustainable, self-reliant exploration missions where resupply is difficult and costly. The space station provides the optimal place to perfect this technology in microgravity.

The first 3D printed objects built in space will be returned to Earth in 2015 for detailed analysis and comparison to identical ground control samples. The goal of this analysis is to verify that the 3-D printing process works the same in microgravity as it does on Earth.

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Era of in-space manufacturing starts as NASA creates first 3D printed object in space

The fifth SpaceX cargo mission to the International Space Station (ISS) under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services contract is scheduled to launch at 2:31 p.m. EST Tuesday, Dec. 16, from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. NASA Television coverage of the launch begins at 1:15 p.m.

NASA will host a series of prelaunch news conferences Monday, Dec. 15 at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. All briefings, which are subject to a change in time, will air live on NASA TV and the agency's website.

The first briefing, airing at 10 a.m., will cover the Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS) Earth science instrument headed to the space station. Participants for this briefing will be: -- Julie Robinson, ISS Program chief scientist at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston -- Colleen Hartman, deputy director for science at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland -- Robert J. Swap, program scientist with the Earth Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington -- Matthew McGill, CATS principal investigator at Goddard

The second briefing, at 12:30 p.m., will provide up-to-date information about the launch. Participants for the prelaunch briefing will be: -- Mike Suffredini, NASAs ISS Program manager -- Hans Koenigsmann, vice president for Mission Assurance at SpaceX -- Kathy Winters with the U.S. Air Forces 45th Weather Squadron at Patrick Air Force Base in Florida

The final briefing of the day, at 2 p.m., will cover some of the numerous science investigations headed to the space station. Participants for the science briefing will be: -- Julie Robinson, NASAs ISS Program chief scientist -- Michael Roberts, senior research pathway manager at the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, headquartered in Melbourne, Florida -- Cheryl Nickerson, Micro-5 principal investigator at Arizona State University -- Samuel Durrance, NR-SABOL principal investigator at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne

Media and the public can join the conversation using #ISScargo and #SpaceX5, and ask questions using #askNASA.

For more information about media accreditation, contact Jennifer Horner at 321-867-6598 orjennifer.p.horner@nasa.gov.

For an updated schedule of prelaunch briefings, events and NASA TV coverage, visit:

http://go.nasa.gov/1FrjDEO

For launch countdown coverage, NASA's launch blog, and more information about the mission, visit:

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NASA Updates Briefings for Fifth SpaceX Resupply Mission to Space Station

Executives of technology firms Jacobs and Linc Research Inc., both in Huntsville, Alabama, will sign a NASA Mentor-Protg Agreement on Dec. 11 at NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville.

The signing will be held at 10 a.m. in Building 4200, Conference Room 900, at the Marshall Center. Speakers will include Chris Singer, director of the Marshall Center's Engineering Directorate; Kim Whitson, director of Marshall's Office of Procurement; Randy Lycans, vice president and general manager of Jacobs; Curtis Taylor, president of Linc Research; David Brock, small business specialist in Marshall's Office of Procurement; and T.K. Pendergrass, a Marshall contracting office representative. Members of the news media are invited.

The 12-month agreement is the second of its kind overseen by the Marshall Center, fostering a partnership between a NASA prime contractor and a certified Historically Underutilized Business Zone small business. The federal "HUBZone" program is designed to promote job growth, capital investment and economic development for small businesses in economically challenged communities.

Jacobs, headquartered in Pasadena, California, has been a NASA partner for more than 40 years, and currently supports the U.S. space program in a variety of capacities at NASA centers around the country. It notably holds the Manufacturing Support and Facility Operations Contract at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, where NASA built and assembled the Orion crew vehicle which completed its first test flight on Dec. 5 -- and also is building the core stage of the Space Launch System, the heavy-lift vehicle which soon will loft Orion crews into the solar system. Jacobs also manages and implements ground systems operations, flight hardware processing and launch operations at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Florida, where the Space Launch System and Orion will be launched to space to pursue new missions of discovery at Mars and other destinations.

At the Marshall Center, Jacobs is the NASA prime contractor for the Engineering and Science Systems and Skills Augmentation (ESSSA) contract, providing management, personnel and equipment and supplies to perform engineering and science tasks in support of key Marshall offices and organizations.

Linc Research specializes in vibration-controlled flight and launch vehicle solutions, technical management and IT services and applications. The Mentor-Protg Agreement between Linc and Jacobs will support the ESSSA contract at Marshall.

The NASA Mentor-Protg Program, established in 2008 by NASA's Office of Small Business Programs, allows NASA prime contractors opportunities to enter into mentor-protg agreements with small businesses and historically black colleges and universities/minority-serving institutions under their subcontracting programs to establish long-term relationships, enhance technical capabilities and enable protg companies to successfully compete for larger, more complex prime contract and subcontract awards. The Marshall Center oversaw NASA's first Mentor-Protg signing agreement in February 2008.

News media interested in covering the event should contact Jennifer Stanfield in the Marshall Public & Employee Communications Office at 256-544-0034 no later than 4 p.m. Dec. 10.

To learn more about NASAs Office of Small Business, visit:

http://osbp.nasa.gov

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Marshall Center Hosts Mentor-Protege Agreement Signing Between Jacobs, Linc Research

Judith Bruner Women@NASA 2014
Judith Bruner - Director of Safety and Mission Assurance at Goddard Space Flight Center The Women@NASA project is the perfect opportunity to celebrate women from across the agency who ...

By: NASA Goddard

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Judith Bruner Women@NASA 2014 - Video

NASA successfully launches unmanned deep space capsule orion to mars
Nasa has successfully launched its new Orion spacecraft on a mission that the US agency hopes foreshadows the first human expedition to Mars. At 7.05am (12:05 GMT) on Friday a dense bloom...

By: World News Times

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NASA successfully launches unmanned deep space capsule orion to mars - Video

Update for 2 pm ET: NASA's first Orion test flight has been a stunning success. Read our mission wrap story here:Splashdown! NASA's Orion Spaceship Survives Epic Test Flight as New Era Begins

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. It's the test flight NASA has been waiting for. After a scrapped launch attempt Thursday (Dec. 4), NASA's new Orion capsule, designed to help deliver humans to deep space destinations like Mars someday, has just launched on its rigorous first test flight.

A United Launch Alliance Delta 4 Heavy rocket (the most powerful rocket currently flying from Earth) roared to life, launching the unmanned Orion space capsule from a pad here at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 7:05 a.m. EST (1205 GMT) today (Dec. 5). The prototype spacecraft is now embarking on a series of tests in orbit before its planned splashdown in the Pacific Ocean at about 11:30 a.m. EST (1630 GMT), 4.5 hours after leaving the planet. You can continue watching live coverage of the Orion test on Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV.

"We're actually excited about this particular step on our journey to the Red Planet, to Mars," NASA administrator Charles Bolden told members of the press Wednesday (Dec. 3), before launch. "It is a journey. I don't want people to get focused on the destination. This is a journey." [NASA's Orion Test Flight: Full Coverage]

This morning's launch was originally scheduled for 24 hours earlier, but several issues including a boat downrange of Cape Canaveral, strong ground-level winds and the failure of several "fill and drain" valves on the Delta 4 Heavy to close all the way pushed things back a day.

Today's flight, called Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1), marks the first time a spacecraft built for humans will travel out of low-Earth orbit in more than 40 years, and the excitement about the history-making flight is palpable at Kennedy Space Center, which is next door to Cape Canaveral.

About 27,000 spectators were expected to watch the launch Thursday from the NASA center's grounds, with thousands more expected to observe from the beaches and other viewing sites along Florida's Space Coast here, NASA officials said. Officials aren't yet sure how many viewers came back for the launch Friday.

"The launch itself was just a blast to see how well the rocket did," Mark Geyer, NASA's Orion program manager, said after launch. "It was exciting to see it as it went up into space. Being here at launch, being near a rocket that big, you just kind of feel it."

Orion built for NASA by Lockheed Martin, which is overseeing today's flight looks somewhat like the capsules flown during NASA's Apollo moon landing program, which took humans to the moon for the first time. The feeling on the ground is also somewhat reminiscent of launches during the space agency's shuttle era, the last time humans flew to space from U.S. soil.

"In the sense that we are beginning a new mission, it is, I think, consistent with the beginning of [the space] shuttle [program], the beginning of Apollo," Geyer said during a news conference before launch. "It's a new mission for us starting in the region of the moon and beyond. I think it's in that same category. Certainly the team is excited at that level. We're going to learn a lot on this flight."

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NASA Launches First Orion Deep-Space Capsule in Historic ...