NASA food scientist Vickie Kloeris and astronaut Sandy Magnus, who was aboard the orbiting laboratory during the 2008 holiday season, are available the week of Dec. 14-18 to discuss how the traditional holiday feast can be observed in space. To arrange an interview, media representatives should contact the newsroom at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston at 281-483-5111.

Station Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Maxim Suraev are currently the sole residents aboard the complex. They will spend the holidays with three new crew members. NASA astronaut T.J. Creamer, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi are set to arrive on the station Dec. 22 after launching on a Soyuz spacecraft on Dec. 20 from Baikonur, Kazakhstan.

Although they may not get the home cooking people on Earth enjoy this season, the station crew can celebrate with a well-stocked, and by all accounts tasty, pantry. The view from their table, speeding 220 miles above Earth at five miles per second, cannot be beat.

Space food has come a long way from the early days of "tubes and cubes." The current station's menu includes more than 250 different food and beverage items provided by the U.S. and Russia. Foods from other partner nations also are available on the station's menu.

Kloeris is the manager of the International Space Station Food System. Magnus served as a flight engineer for the 18th station crew. During the three months she spent in orbit, Magnus kept a journal about her experiences of cooking in space. Her efforts to spice up food aboard the station are detailed at:

To arrange an interview via NASA Television, journalists should contact Derek Sollosi at 281-792-7515 or by e-mail to derek.sollosi-1@nasa.gov by 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 16. B-roll of Stott's flight will air from 5:30 a.m. to 6 a.m. Dec. 17.

Stott, of Clearwater, Fla., served as a flight engineer for Expeditions 20 and 21 aboard the station and joined five other crew members living on the orbiting complex. She was the chief robotics operator, responsible for capturing, berthing and later releasing the first Japanese cargo ship flown to the station. In addition to working on multiple scientific studies, she also conducted a 6-and-a-half-hour spacewalk in September to continue station assembly.

Stott was the final station resident to fly to and from the complex on the space shuttle. She launched on space shuttle Discovery in August and returned to Earth aboard shuttle Atlantis in November. Stott spent a total of 91 days in space, 87 of them aboard the station. Stott has been assigned to fly on the STS-133 mission in September 2010, currently the final scheduled flight of the Space Shuttle Program.

The NASA Live Interview Media Outlet channel will be used for the interviews. The channel is a digital satellite C-band downlink by uplink provider Americom. It is on satellite AMC 6, transponder 5C, located at 72 degrees west, downlink frequency 3785.5 Mhz based on a standard C-band 5150 Mhz L.O., vertical polarity, FEC is 3/4, data rate is 6.00 Mhz, symbol rate is 4.3404 Mbaud, transmission DVB, minimum Eb/N0 is 6.0 dB.

The interviews also will be broadcast live on NASA TV. For streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit:

A well-known icing problem involves ice forming on wings and other surfaces that can cause drag and power loss on an aircraft. A different threat emerges when airplanes fly into clouds with high ice content found near thunderstorms in very high altitudes. Ice particles, once thought benign because they would simply bounce of airplane surfaces, can accrete deep inside jet engines and shut down the power. This is called “ice particle icing,” to distinguish it from icing caused by super-cooled liquid droplets, which typically occurs at lower altitudes.

There have been more than 240 icing-related incidents in commercial aviation since the 1990s, of which 62 resulted in power-loss likely due to ice particle icing, according to a study authored by Jeanne G. Mason, J. Walter Strapp and Phillip Chow. This condition is difficult for pilots to identify because in many cases the ice is forming only inside the engine, without any visible icing on the wings.

Researchers at NASA’s Langley Research Center are taking a closer look at the phenomenon, which is considered a significant threat to commercial airlines. NASA scientists are developing ways to identify the conditions that cause ice particle icing to better warn pilots about where this might occur.

“It’s something that hasn’t been explored much,” said Chris Yost, a NASA contractor and research scientist with Science Systems and Applications Inc. in Hampton, Va. Yost said his research is at a preliminary stage now, focused on pinpointing the types of clouds connected with ice particle icing. He will present his latest results at the American Geophysical Union fall meeting in San Francisco on Dec. 14.

“These are deep convection, thunderstorm-like clouds,” Yost said. “Thin, wispy cirrus stuff is not so much a problem.”

NASA research is aiming to improve weather forecasts that could steer pilots away from trouble. Building on tools developed to detect surface icing conditions, NASA scientists are using cloud observations from two satellites, CALIPSO and CloudSat.

CALIPSO and CloudSat fly only seconds apart on the same orbit. Together they provide never-before-seen 3-D perspectives of how clouds and aerosols form, evolve, and affect weather and climate. In preliminary research, CloudSat and CALIPSO have been used to build on previous methods of identifying the type of moisture particles that lead to ice particle icing problems. CALIPSO’s lidar is used to create a vertical profile of clouds to accurately measure cloud height while CloudSat provides the estimates of ice concentration in those clouds. Together the two instruments provide very detailed information about the vertical structure of clouds, and the ice particles within them.

Yost and other SSAI researchers have been working with Patrick Minnis, at NASA’s Langley Research Center, on incorporating CALIPSO and CloudSat data into forecast models with the goal of identifying potential ice particle icing conditions.

NASA’s research on ice particle icing began in 2005 with the integration of cloud data from the NOAA satellite GOES. This was followed on by a field experiment on NASA’s DC-8 in 2007 to compare ice particle measurements from GOES with actual aircraft measurements. While this data significantly increased researchers understanding of the icing process, the integration of CALIPSO and CloudSat data has vastly enhanced the ability to see what is within the clouds.

Yost is currently comparing satellite records of weather conditions with the coordinates and time and date of specific airplane power-loss incidents in recent years. The research could illuminate more specifically what type of weather leads to ice particle icing and whether ice particle icing was a factor in these accidents. Future plans include flights with NASA’s DC-8 to take on-board measurements as a comparison point for CALIPSO and CloudSat observations.

Minnis described the group’s ongoing work as a first cut, but envisions it leading to better forecasting of potential ice particle icing conditions in the future.

“The ultimate goal of the project is to be integrated into existing forecast models and eventually into the NextGen (Next Generation Air Transportation System) cockpit system,” Minnis said.

Aviation safety organizations around the world are presently working with the ultimate goal of being able to accurately forecast inflight icing conditions in real-time for pilots. The integration of NASA satellite data into forecasting models is bringing them closer than to that goal, step by step.

Related Links:

> NASA Langley Cloud Radiation Group
> Advanced Satellite Aviation Weather Products (ASAP)
> NASA's Applied Sciences Program

In research being presented this week at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco, scientists from NASA and the University of California, Irvine, detailed California's groundwater changes and outlined Grace-based research on other global aquifers. The twin Grace satellites monitor tiny month-to-month changes in Earth's gravity field primarily caused by the movement of water in Earth's land, ocean, ice and atmosphere reservoirs. Grace's ability to directly 'weigh' changes in water content provides new insights into how Earth's water cycle may be changing.

Combined, California's Sacramento and San Joaquin drainage basins have shed more than 30 cubic kilometers of water since late 2003, said professor Jay Famiglietti of the University of California, Irvine. A cubic kilometer is about 264.2 billion gallons, enough to fill 400,000 Olympic-size pools. The bulk of the loss occurred in California's agricultural Central Valley. The Central Valley receives its irrigation from a combination of groundwater pumped from wells and surface water diverted from elsewhere.

"Grace data reveal groundwater in these basins is being pumped for irrigation at rates that are not sustainable if current trends continue," Famiglietti said. "This is leading to declining water tables, water shortages, decreasing crop sizes and continued land subsidence. The findings have major implications for the U.S. economy, as California's Central Valley is home to one sixth of all U.S. irrigated land, and the state leads the nation in agricultural production and exports."

"By providing data on large-scale groundwater depletion rates, Grace can help California water managers make informed decisions about allocating water resources," said Grace Project Scientist Michael Watkins of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., which manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

Preliminary studies show most of the water loss is coming from the more southerly located San Joaquin basin, which gets less precipitation than the Sacramento River basin farther north. Initial results suggest the Sacramento River basin is losing about 2 cubic kilometers of water a year. Surface water losses account for half of this, while groundwater losses in the northern Central Valley add another 0.6 cubic kilometers annually. The San Joaquin Basin is losing 3.5 cubic kilometers a year. Of this, more than 75 percent is the result of groundwater pumping in the southern Central Valley, primarily to irrigate crops.

Famiglietti said recent California legislation decreasing the allocation of surface waters to the San Joaquin Basin is likely to further increase the region's reliance on groundwater for irrigation. "This suggests the decreasing groundwater storage trends seen by Grace will continue for the foreseeable future," he said.

The California results come just months after a team of hydrologists led by Matt Rodell of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., found groundwater levels in northwest India have declined by 17.7 cubic kilometers per year over the past decade, a loss due almost entirely to pumping and consumption of groundwater by humans.

"California and India are just two of many regions around the world where Grace data are being used to study droughts, which can have devastating impacts on societies and cost the U.S. economy $6 to $8 billion annually," said Rodell. Other regions under study include Australia, the Middle East – North Africa region and the southeastern United States, where Grace clearly captured the evolution of an extended drought that ended this spring. In the Middle East – North Africa region, Rodell is leading an effort to use Grace and other data to systematically map water- and weather-related variables to help assess regional water resources. Rodell added Grace may also help predict droughts, since it can identify pre-existing conditions favorable to the start of a drought, such as a deficit of water deep below the ground.

NASA is working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to incorporate Grace data into NOAA's U.S. and North American Drought Monitors, premier tools used to minimize drought impacts. The tools rely heavily on precipitation observations, but are limited by inadequate large-scale observations of soil moisture and groundwater levels. "Grace is the only satellite system that provides information on these deeper stores of water that are key indicators of long-term drought," Rodell said.

Grace is a partnership of NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The University of Texas Center for Space Research, Austin, has overall mission responsibility. JPL developed the satellites. DLR provided the launch, and GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam, Germany, operates the mission. For more on Grace, see http://www.csr.utexas.edu/grace/ and http://grace.jpl.nasa.gov/ . Other media contacts: Margaret Baguio, University of Texas Center for Space Research, 512-471-6922; Jennifer Fitzenberger, University of California, Irvine, 949-824-3969.

JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

› Larger image

The launch window opens at 6:09:33 a.m. PST (9:09:33 a.m. EST). The WISE space telescope will scan the whole sky in infrared light, uncovering hidden cosmic objects, like the coolest stars, dark asteroids and the most luminous galaxies.

More information is online at http://www.nasa.gov/wise and http://wise.astro.ucla.edu and http://jpl.nasa.gov/wise.

Students study an entry in the 2009 Invention Challenge

Crescenta Valley High School, located several miles from JPL, picked up top honors at the annual Invention Challenge, held today at JPL.

The event drew more than 200 students and teachers representing 11 schools from throughout Southern California. This year's challenge was to build the most efficient cardboard or paper bridge capable of carrying several pounds of bricks.

A total of 20 student teams competed side-by-side with nine JPL teams of engineers. Crescenta Valley High teams captured first, second and third place honors. The winning JPL team was Richard Goldstein, while second place went to David Van Buren and third place to Brant Cook.

Each year the rules change but the result is the same: Students get a better appreciation that math, science and engineering can be fun.

The requirements were that the bridges be made of cardboard or paper products, use reasonable amounts of glue, span a 1.2-meter (48-inch) gap, and have a width of no more than 45.7 centimeters (18 inches). The bridges carried standard-sized bricks (between one and 44) that weighed about 2.42 kilograms (5.35 pounds) each.

While the space station is the most advanced spacecraft ever built, its coordinate system is labeled like any sea-faring vessel on Earth using traditional nautical terms. Understanding this coordinate system will help you use this interactive and understand the relative positions of the onboard experiment facilities.

The orbiting laboratory’s left and right sides are designated as port and starboard respectively. The rear of the station is the aft section where the Russian Zvezda service module is located. The front of the station, where the U.S. Harmony module is located, is labeled the forward section. The side of the station facing the Earth is the deck and the opposite side is the overhead.

Inside the station’s three international laboratory modules are numerous racks that support science, environmental and electrical systems. Depending on which side the laboratory is facing in the station’s coordinate system the racks’ locations are labeled using nautical terms. The International Space Station Laboratory Racks interactive depicts these racks and their locations inside the orbiting lab.

> View Interactive

The Columbus laboratory is on the station’s port side and the Kibo laboratory is on the starboard side. Their labs are set up with the racks in the aft, forward and overhead, deck configuration. Both labs are attached to the U.S. Harmony node which is in the forward section of the space station.

The U.S. Destiny laboratory is just behind the Harmony Node. Its racks are set up in the port, starboard and overhead, deck configuration.

Astronomers think that supermassive black holes exist at the center of most galaxies. Not only do the galaxies and black holes seem to co-exist, they are apparently inextricably linked in their evolution. To better understand this symbiotic relationship, scientists have turned to rapidly growing black holes -- so-called active galactic nucleus (AGN) -- to study how they are affected by their galactic environments.

The latest data from Chandra and Spitzer show that IC 4970, the small galaxy at the top of the image, contains an AGN, but one that is heavily cocooned in gas and dust. This means in optical light telescopes, like the VLT, there is little to see. X-rays and infrared light, however, can penetrate this veil of material and reveal the light show that is generated as material heats up before falling onto the black hole (seen as a bright point-like source).

Despite this obscuring gas and dust around IC 4970, the Chandra data suggest that there is not enough hot gas in IC 4970 to fuel the growth of the AGN. Where, then, does the food supply for this black hole come from? The answer lies with its partner galaxy, NGC 6872. These two galaxies are in the process of undergoing a collision, and the gravitational attraction from IC 4970 has likely pulled over some of NGC 6872's deep reservoir of cold gas (seen prominently in the Spitzer data), providing a new fuel supply to power the giant black hole.

Beginning at 4 a.m. PST (7 a.m. EST/1200 UTC) on Dec. 14, countdown coverage of the WISE launch will be available on NASA-TV (check local cable listings for channel number) and on the Web at http://www.nasa.gov/ntv . Coverage will conclude at 7:45 a.m. PST (10:45 a.m. EST/15:45UTC) after spacecraft separation.

NASA's launch blog also kicks off at 4 a.m. PST (7 a.m. EST) at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/launch/launch_blog.html . Coverage features real-time updates of countdown milestones, as well as streaming video clips highlighting launch preparations and liftoff.

WISE launch window for December 14:
6:09 a.m. to 6:23 a.m. PST
9:09 a.m. to 9:23 a.m. EST
14:09 to 14:23 UTC

For detailed information on the mission and the launch, download the press kit at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press_kits/wise-launch.pdf

More information about WISE is available online at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/wise/ and http://wise.astro.ucla.edu

"You could expect to see over 100 meteors per hour during the peak viewing," said Don Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "During the late evening hours of December 13, look for streaks of light radiating from a point near the star Castor in the constellation of Gemini, which will be high above the eastern horizon for mid-northern latitudes."

While a sign of the zodiac may have provided the name for the meteor shower, scientists have established the source as something more tangible. "We do know that the origin of the Geminids is a Near-Earth object called 3200 Phaeton," said Yeomans. "It is probably the remains of a comet that has burned off its ices after eons looping throughout the solar system. Phaeton has a trail of pebble and dust-sized debris that stream out behind it. Once every mid-December, Earth's orbit carries it into this stream of debris."

Since all other meteors showers are due to the sand-sized particles from active comets, it seems reasonable to assume that Phaeton is, or at least was, a comet. However, Phaeton has shown no cometary activity, so it is classified as an asteroid - the only asteroid to have an associated meteor shower.

"It is important to note that the orbits of Earth and Phaethon itself will not intersect," added Yeomans. "There is no chance the two will meet. But the result of our planet flying through its debris field is an opportunity for science and the chance to see Mother Nature at her best."

This year the peak of the Geminids is expected the night of December 13/14 (9:10 pm PST/12:10 am EST/05:10 UT), coinciding with a nearly perfect new moon. Many tens of meteors per hour will be visible in the few nights surrounding those dates. More information on the observing conditions is at: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/08dec_geminids.htm.

See JPL's Geminid Facebook event page at http://bit.ly/4A2lYS.

NASA is one of six departments and agencies working to spur innovation by making it easier for high-tech companies to identify collaborative, entrepreneurial opportunities. Government agencies are home to treasure troves of data and information, too much of which is underutilized by the private sector because it is either not easily found or exists in cumbersome formats. NASA and the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration in the Department of Health and Human Services, the Agricultural Research Service in the Department of Agriculture, the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the Department of Commerce and the Department of Energy are working together to increase access to information on publicly-funded technologies that are available for license, opportunities for federal funding and partnerships, and potential private-sector partners.

NASA's Innovative Partnerships Programs Office is working to establish an RSS feed to publicize technologies available for public licensing. By making information from multiple agencies available in RSS and XML feeds on Data.gov, the government empowers innovators to find the information they need and receive real-time updates, which can fuel entrepreneurial momentum, create new jobs, and strengthen economic growth. NASA's RSS feed will make these opportunities more visible to the commercial and research communities. NASA plans on having the feed operational by Dec. 31.

NASA also has undertaken an extensive effort to use the Internet and social media tools to engage the public on agency activities. NASA's home page on the Internet, http://www.nasa.gov, offers information on all of the agency's missions, research and discoveries.

In January 2009, nasa.gov capitalized on the agency's growing social media efforts by rolling out a new "Connect and Collaborate with NASA" page, at http://www.nasa.gov/connect. This provides the public with quick connections to the agency's pages on Twitter, Facebook, UStream, YouTube, Flickr and MySpace, as well as NASA podcasts and vodcasts on iTunes. The page also provides links to agency chats, Tweetup events, RSS feeds and the agency's official blog.

The agency's social media presence was further expanded in November with the addition of NASA's Twitter feed to the homepage. The website offers links to NASA-related desktop "widgets" and opportunities for the public to collaborate directly with the agency through art contests, engineering challenges and imagery and data analysis.

Another new communication tool is Spacebook, a NASA internal expert networking utility. Spacebook has been used to improve collaboration across NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. The Spacebook site allows new and established NASA staff to get to know the agency's diverse community of scientists, engineers, project managers and support personnel.

"Space doesn't explore itself. Science doesn't discover itself. People do that, and to do that they have to talk," said Emma Antunes, the project manager who also manages Goddard's Web site. "They have to trade questions and ideas. They have to connect. And, the more diverse the group, the more likely connections and conversations will lead to new ideas and innovation. Spacebook will enhance NASA's capacity to do just that."

For more information about NASA's use of the Internet and social media to interact with America, visit:

http//www.nasa.gov/connect

http://www.nasa.gov

News briefings held during the meeting will feature new results on dwindling groundwater supplies in California and other parts of the world, the impact of the current "quiet" solar cycle on Earth's atmosphere, efforts to track near-Earth objects such as comets and asteroids, and satellite views of the global circulation of greenhouse gases. In addition, NASA scientists and their colleagues who use NASA research capabilities will present noteworthy findings during scientific sessions that are open to registered journalists.

For a complete list of NASA-related news briefings at the meeting, visit:

For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

The 13-day flight will deliver a pressurized module, known as Tranquility, which will provide room for much of the space station's life support systems. Attached to the node is a cupola -- a robotic control station with six windows around its sides and another in the center -- that provides a 360-degree view around the station.

Reporters and new media journalists, including bloggers, must apply for credentials to attend the launch or cover the mission from other NASA centers. To be accredited, reporters must work for verifiable news-gathering organizations. Journalists may need to submit requests for credentials at multiple NASA facilities as early as Jan. 12. No substitutions of credentials are allowed at any NASA facility.

Additional time may be required to process accreditation requests by journalists from certain designated countries. Designated countries include those with which the United States has no diplomatic relations, countries on the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism, those under U.S. sanction or embargo, and countries associated with proliferation concerns. Please contact the accrediting NASA center for details. Journalists should confirm they have been accredited before they travel.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER
Reporters applying for credentials at Kennedy should submit requests via the Web at:

Accredited media representatives with mission badges will have access to Kennedy from launch through the end of the mission. The application deadline for mission badges is Jan. 22 for all reporters requesting credentials.

Reporters with special logistic requests for Kennedy, such as space for satellite trucks, trailers, electrical connections or work space, must contact Laurel Lichtenberger at laurel.a.lichtenberger@nasa.gov by Jan. 22 There is no longer free wireless Internet access provided at Kennedy's news center.

Work space in the news center and the news center annex is provided on a first-come basis, limited to one space per organization. To set up temporary telephone, fax, ISDN or network lines, media representatives must make arrangements with BellSouth at 800-213-4988. Reporters must have an assigned seat in the Kennedy newsroom prior to setting up lines. To obtain an assigned seat, contact Patricia Christian at patricia.christian-1@nasa.gov. Journalists must have a public affairs escort to all other areas of Kennedy except the Launch Complex 39 cafeteria.

JOHNSON SPACE CENTER
Reporters may obtain credentials for NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston by calling the Johnson newsroom at 281-483-5111 or by presenting STS-130 mission credentials from Kennedy. Media representatives planning to cover the mission only from Johnson need to apply for credentials only at Johnson. The application deadline for mission badges is Jan. 22 for all reporters requesting credentials.

Journalists covering the mission from Johnson using Kennedy credentials must contact the Johnson newsroom by Jan. 25 to arrange workspace, phone lines and other logistics. Johnson is responsible for credentialing media if the shuttle lands at NASA's White Sands Space Harbor, N.M. If a landing is imminent at White Sands, Johnson will arrange credentials.

DRYDEN FLIGHT RESEARCH CENTER
Notice for a space shuttle landing at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base in California could be short. Domestic media outlets should consider accrediting Los Angeles-based personnel who could travel quickly to Dryden. Deadlines for submitting Dryden accreditation requests are Jan. 12 for non-U.S. media, regardless of citizenship, and Feb. 11 for U.S. media who are U.S. citizens or who have permanent residency status.

For Dryden media credentials, U.S. citizens representing domestic media outlets must provide their full name, date of birth, place of birth, media organization, driver's license number with the name of the issuing state, and the last six digits of their social security number.

In addition to the above requirements, foreign media representatives, regardless of citizenship, must provide data including their citizenship, visa or passport number and its expiration date. Foreign nationals representing either domestic or foreign media who have permanent residency status must provide their alien registration number and expiration date.

Journalists should fax requests for credentials on company letterhead to 661-276-3566. E-mailed requests to Alan Brown at alan.brown@nasa.gov are acceptable for reporters who have been accredited at Dryden within the past year. Requests must include a phone number and business e-mail address for follow-up contact. Journalists who previously requested credentials will not have to do so again.

NASA PUBLIC AFFAIRS CONTACTS:
Kennedy Space Center: Allard Beutel, 321-867-2468, allard.beutel@nasa.gov
Johnson Space Center: James Hartsfield, 281-483-5111, james.a.hartsfield@nasa.gov
Dryden Flight Research Center: Leslie Williams, 661-276-3893, leslie.a.williams@nasa.gov

For information about the STS-130 mission, visit:

"Thanks guys," said Paul Roberts, 50, looking at his NASA Engineering and Safety co-workers, "for giving me back my life."

Garver gave Exceptional Bravery Medals to Jeff Stewart and Perry Wagner of Goddard Space Flight Center, Chip McCann of Johnson Space Center and Mike Kirsch, a Langley engineer and lead of the Composite Crew Module team.

She reminded everyone that NASA's products were produced by NASA's people.

"I am just so thrilled that you all were there," she told the foursome getting the awards.

"There" was a November 4 meeting in Langley's Building 1256, where the team was getting ready for a module test.

"We were sort of sitting back, looking at data, and suddenly he had his head back and it sounded like he was snoring," Wagner remembered of Roberts. "We were sort of kidding him that it looked like the meeting was boring him, but he didn't respond."

Stewart shook Roberts, and finding no response, laid him on the floor.

Wagner, McCann and Stewart immediately began administering CPR, as best they could remember how.

"I think I'd had the training most recently," McCann said, "and that was about six years ago."

Said Wagner: "I remember, like all of us, that we breathed on a mannequin in grade school. That was the last time."

Stewart was more specific. "About 34 years ago, when I was in the Boy Scouts."

But each took a role: Stewart working on Roberts' chest, Wagner doing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation when Roberts began to turn blue and McCann monitoring Roberts for a pulse rate.

"As soon as we put him down and tried to find a pulse on his wrist -- and actually I thought I felt a faint pulse there -- Jeff put his hand on Paul's chest and said 'I don't feel his heart beating here,' " McCann said. "By then, I didn't feel anything on his wrist, and that was the time Jeff started doing the compression."

The years since CPR training fostered uncertainty.

"It was a struggle for all of us," said McCann. "None of us were too sure what we were supposed to be doing. We were trying to do the basics."

Kirsch was organizing everyone else, creating an impromptu emergency center, calling 911, getting furniture out of the way for the arrival of paramedics and trying to reach NESC Director Ralph Roe by Instant Messenger to find the number of Roberts' wife, Ellen.

Stewart remembered an e-mail from his father-in-law a week earlier advising that the old "five compressions" method of CPR had been superseded by a recommended "30 compressions."

Wagner asked Stewart whether mouth-to-mouth was required, and finally Stewart said OK. "It's better to do it than not to do it," Wagner said. "I think I remember his color getting better."

Said Stewart: "Two to three minutes after we started to work on him, it looked like he was trying to come around. It kind of gave us impetus to keep going. It was, 'Wow, he's trying. We've got to keep going.'

"I had been taught that you had to press hard, almost to break his ribs, but I didn't want to break his ribs. That was why our communication was so important. As long as I got feedback from Chip that we were giving enough blood to him, I could keep going the way we were."

Within 7-10 minutes, Emergency Medical Treatment personnel came in to take over.

First, they told Stewart to continue chest compression. "But they told him to do it faster and harder," McCann said. "The first thing they said was 'Are you tired? Can you keep going?' "

Then the paramedics used a defibrillator to shock Roberts' heart.

"By the way, that wasn't much fun," said Roberts, laughing on Wednesday.

But one shock brought him back.

"Then Paul started talking," Stewart said. "He said 'Why am I on the floor? What happened?' "

Stewart filled him in on the ambulance ride to a local hospital, where a pacemaker was installed. The verdict was that Roberts had not had a heart attack, but that his electrical system had shut down. Also that without the CPR by his co-workers, Roberts probably would have died.

"Let me give you an idea of how important what these guys did was," Roberts said. "When I was in the hospital, I looked up some statistics on the Internet. When you go into sudden cardiac arrest and you have somebody in the room who sees you go down, the percentages are about 4-7 percent that you survive.

"About 30 percent of that 4-7 percent have almost no mental degradation. I think I'm in that 30 percent."

He laughed with everyone around him.

Lesa Roe, Langley's center director, and her Goddard and Johnson counterparts, Rob Strain and Mike Coats, echoed Garver's sentiments.

For Roberts, though, it was all personal.

"Guys, thanks for giving me back my family," he said.

Sitting at a table nearby, wife Ellen nodded her thanks, on behalf of their daughters, Katherine, Carolyn and Elizabeth.

And all of the men who received awards made early New Year's resolutions.

"CPR training is on my list," Kirsch said.

Roberts' list, too.

His unique Terrible Towel wave in zero gravity became an internet sensation and inspired Steelers fans around the world. This November, Fincke attended his first Steelers game when his special team took on the Cincinatti Bengals at Heinz Field on Sunday, Nov. 15. The Hometown Heroes weekend peaked as the Steelers honored Fincke during their second largest crowd in the stadium’s history.

Prior to the game, Fincke met fans to sign autographs and take photos. During the pregame activities, Fincke presented the famous Terrible Towel that was flown in space to Steelers President Art Rooney II. Fans responded with a standing ovation when the video footage from space with the towel was shown on the stadium scoreboard. Rooney then surprised Fincke by presenting NASA with a #18 Steelers jersey in honor of his Expedition.

His visit actually began on Friday, Nov. 13, with a series of media interviews and educational appearances. Fincke, an Emsworth, PA native, visited his alma mater, Sewickely Academy, where he attended on scholarship while growing up. He met with more than 400 students, shared his experiences on Expedition 18 and encouraged the students to pursue their dreams.

Later that afternoon, Fincke spoke with more than a thousand students in the Avonworth School District. The students and faculty were thrilled to have Fincke share his inspirational story and information about space exploration.

“It’s great for the students to hear someone with real-life experience, especially from the perspective of living and working in space,” said Darlene Tartaglione, Principal of Avonworth Elementary. “It’s very nice to see that what the kids are learning really can be applied to life outside of school.”

Hometown Heroes is an opportunity for astronauts to reach out to their communities. Fincke also spent Saturday morning with patients at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. When he arrived, the staff and children had been working on space activities. Fincke quickly introduced himself and presented the hospital with a photo of Pittsburgh that he took from the space station. It was not too long before he joined the children in their activities, helping with arts and crafts and signing autographs.

Fincke continued his community activities with a presentation at the Carnegie Science Center on Saturday afternoon. He shared his experiences on the space station and took questions from the audience of more than 300 people, some of whom had interacted with him during Expedition 18. David Trombetta, a high school student from the Pittsburgh area was part of a group of students who spoke with Fincke over ham radio during the mission.

“They are trying to advance science to better understand life away from Earth,” Trombetta said, excited to meet an astronaut in person for the first time. When asked if he aspired to travel in space, he said, “No, but I would like to be an engineer.”

Fincke has spent a full year in space throughout the course of his career as a NASA astronaut. As a mission specialist on the upcoming STS-134 space shuttle flight, Fincke will add 12 days to his cumulative time in space. The mission will mark the final flight of the space shuttle Endeavour. It is scheduled to be the second to last flight of the Space Shuttle Program.

The burst occurred January 2, 2009. NASA’s Swift satellite observed its position and immediately notified telescopes all over the world via the Internet. When it received the trigger from Swift, the robotic Liverpool Telescope on the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands automatically swung to observe the burst. Its special camera employs a spinning disk of Polaroid -- similar to the material used in sunglasses.

"By observing how the brightness of the GRB varied as we spun the Polaroid, we could measure the magnetic field in the burst," explained Iain Steele, Director of the Liverpool Telescope.

"This important result gives us new insight into the physics of these remarkable objects and is a testament to the close collaboration between observers, theoreticians and technologists in the Liverpool and NASA Swift teams," added LMJU team leader Carole Mundell. "It's incredible to think that the GRB discovery and our measurement process – from first detection and notification by NASA's Swift satellite to the polarization measurement using RINGO on the Liverpool Telescope – took place completely automatically within less than three minutes and with no human intervention!"

"This breakthrough observation gives us the first measurement of magnetic fields in the afterglow of a GRB," said Swift lead scientist Neil Gehrels, Swift lead scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Gamma Ray Bursts form when the core of a massive star collapses or when two neutron stars merge together. The resulting explosions are the brightest events in the universe and vastly outshine entire galaxies containing hundreds of billions of stars. NASA’s Swift satellite sees about 100 of these events each year, triggering ground-based follow-up by observations across the globe.

Polarization is one of the least-observed properties in astronomy. This finding opens the door to understanding the role of magnetic fields in some of the most powerful events in the universe.

"These very interesting observations raise the possibility that gamma-ray bursts are not fireballs as usually presumed but are powered and collimated by an organized electromagnetic field," said Roger Blandford, Director of the Kavli Institute of Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at Stanford University, California, commenting on the result's importance. "It will be very interesting to see if there are similarities in observations of other kinds of cosmic jets."

Funding for the operation of the Liverpool Telescope and GRB research at Liverpool JMU is provided by the U.K. Science and Technology Facilities Council. Swift is managed by NASA Goddard. It was built and is being operated in collaboration with Pennsylvania State University, the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, and General Dynamics of Gilbert, Ariz., in the United States. International collaborators include the University of Leicester and Mullard Space Sciences Laboratory in the United Kingdom, Brera Observatory and the Italian Space Agency in Italy, and additional partners in Germany and Japan.