Welding Is Underway On The Artemis III Orion! 

1969 pieces... 2 arthritic hands... 2 nights going to bed at 2:30AM... 6 Advil... 1 cranky wife yelling, “GO TO BED, IDIOT!” ... 1 six year old who wants to “help”... 4 curse words... Ok, I lied... 8 curse words... 1 freakin’ finished LEGO Saturn V. 👍🏻 #nasa #lego #saturnvrocket #saturnv #moonlanding #space https://www.instagram.com/p/B68_1X-HEUJ/?igshid=1c0o06h1hnbg0

Kids These Days...

Before judging the first round of submissions in the NASA / JPL Name the Mars 2020 Rover Contest, I didn’t quite know what to expect from the various young minds. I knew I was going to see the occasional Rover McRoverface, or the overly complicated acronyms.

However, some of these kids really got what this is all about. Their essays conveyed how much they really want to invest in science and the future of space exploration. You could see the amount of research that went into their name choices. Several times, I had to look up words or the meanings behind possible name choices. Leave it to me to accidentally ok a cool sounding name that belongs to an anime character who farts a lot. (didn’t really happen)

It wasn’t just the scientific names and essays that were rewarding. Some students wrote passionate essays about naming the rover after a beloved relative or pet. The level of respect and/or compassion from the minds of fifth graders almost had me in tears at some points.

mars.nasa.gov

Mars 2020 Rover

NASA Mars 2020 Rover - overview, videos, images and information

“The Dolphin” - Located in the Southern Temperate Belt of Jupiter and imaged by the Juno Spacecraft. Taken on PJ16. Processed by John Brackett credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / John Brackett #missionjuno @nasajuno #juno #jupiter @nasa @nasasolarsystem #nasa https://www.instagram.com/p/B9N6dR-nTps/?igshid=1uonlxjmq96ie

Jupiter from my driveway on 08/24/2021. The humidity was ridiculous. Light was bouncing all over the place and I couldn’t focus jack. . . . . . . #celestrontelescope #celestron127slt #backyardastronomy #jupiter #solarsystemambassador https://www.instagram.com/p/CS-6xVHMhkr/?utm_medium=tumblr

Finished!!! #lego #nasa #iss #internationalspacestation #solarsystemambassadors https://www.instagram.com/p/CbIIROlu0kJ/?utm_medium=tumblr

Happy Place! #nasa #ksc #kennedyspacecenter #solarsystemambassador (at NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center) https://www.instagram.com/p/CQEtNWljQ06/?utm_medium=tumblr

Ascent Abort-2 crew module arrives in Houston in Orion’s March newsletter: http://bit.ly/OrionMar18

Another day, another lecture... ... and another 82 acronyms.

The Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle program, officially called the Space Transportation System (STS), was the United States government's manned launch vehicle program from 1981 to 2011. The four reusable orbiters were launched vertically, like conventional rockets, and then landed horizontally on a runway. The program became politically untenable after Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003 were lost. The Space Shuttle was the first reusable spacecraft in history. It was designed to be launched vertically, then land horizontally on a runway. The Space Shuttle program was a major part of the United States' space exploration efforts. It began with the development of a space shuttle proposal in 1972, which was approved for production as part of an inter-agency program between NASA and the Department of Defense. The first test flight occurred in 1981 and its first operational flight was STS-5, which launched on November 11, 1982. After a series of delays due to both technical issues and external events like the 1986 Challenger Disaster and 2003 Columbia Accident, it flew on 135 missions from 1981 until its decommissioning in 2011; its final launch being STS-135 by Atlantis on July 8th 2010. In 2011, the United States' Space Shuttle was retired from service after 30 years of service. In the current era of spaceflight, the United States is planning for its next crewed spacecraft Orion and its primary launch vehicle SLS; their first flight is set for 2022 with no crew members onboard followed by a crewed flight in 2023. Orion has been under development since 2004. It was originally planned to be launched atop an Atlas V rocket but has since switched over to being launched by a new SLS rocket under development by NASA as part of its Space Launch System program. The first mission using this new vehicle will be Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1) which will send astronauts on a lunar flyby mission before returning them safely back home again via parachute landing system similar to what occurred during the Apollo era. #explorepage #sts #spaceshuttle #nasa #columbia #challenger #discovery #atlantis #endeavour #kennedyspacecenter #stemeducation https://www.instagram.com/p/CfwYMqPuUMc/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Quick viewing session tonight. #solarsystemambassador #celestrontelescope #celestron127slt #backyardastronomy https://www.instagram.com/p/CZvfDg6OK4q/?utm_medium=tumblr