On This Date, In 1968, Apollo 6 Launched As An Unmanned Test Flight. The Mission Was Plagued With Trouble,
On this date, in 1968, Apollo 6 launched as an unmanned test flight. The mission was plagued with trouble, including engine problems that caused a severe pogo effect that could have shaken the rocket apart. Overall, the mission was a “successful failure” because it led to important changes in the F-1 engines. Due to the tragic assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, there was almost no press coverage of this launch. The Apollo 6 CM now sits at the Fernbank Science Center (not to be confused with the Fernbank Museum of Natural History) in Atlanta Georgia. #nasa #apollo #space #atlanta #georgia #solarsystemambassador https://www.instagram.com/p/CNQYFrwDI8Q/?igshid=1t7n3j398zbtm
More Posts from Jbrackettssa and Others
Copernicus (upper left), FRA MAURO (mid left), and the Ptolemaeus Crater Trio (mid right). #space #moon #astronomy #celestron #celestron127slt https://www.instagram.com/p/B5E6us7HZQ-/?igshid=1hkq6pe7icfrk
Fun iPhone capture this evening... Orion The Hunter, Taurus The Bull, The Planet Mars, The International Space Station, and The Pleiades.
#explorepage #space #astronomy #iss #internationalspacestation #orion #taurus #thepleiades #solarsystemambassador
On this day in 1971, Alan Shepard, hit golf balls on the Moon. On this day in 2009, I almost killed a duck as I sliced into a water hazard. #apollo14 #alanshepard #nasa #golf #spaceflight https://www.instagram.com/p/CK92g_8jX-L/?igshid=1me0i5d8s7mfu
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We use filters and adjustments to bring out details in the images Perseverance sends us from Mars. These adjustments help scientists on Earth learn more about our planetary neighbor. #nasajpl #perseverance #stem #marsrover #solarsystemambassador . . jmbrackett.com https://www.instagram.com/p/CL8QvzSjhYR/?igshid=1e5frwtksyn6e
Had a wonderful time speaking to groups at Grayson Elementary’s Arts and STEM Night. We talked about the ISS and the Artemis program. #nasa #nasasolarsystemambassador #space #iss #nasaiss #artemis #sls https://www.instagram.com/p/Cc1Fo6SulGy/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
State of NASA Address at Marshall Space Flight Center
On February 10, 2020 I was honored to be a part of a group of 30 people who were granted special access to the goings on at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama as part of the NASA Social program.
The day started off with the issuing of our credentials which would allow us access through the main gate.
The pure joy of seeing my name at the bottom of that badge was glorious.
After driving through the main gate, we wound up at the heart of MSFC, Building 4200. This is where we had our first briefing of the day. It was an overview of MSFC by Steve Miley, MSFC Associate Director. Director Miley filled us in on the importance of MSFC to the whole of NASA, and the state of Alabama. Huntsville is a Top 10 city for career opportunities. During this briefing, the topic of ARTEMIS was addressed. ARTEMIS is our country’s new manned lunar landing program. NASA intends to land the first woman and next man on the Moon by 2024.
Next up was the live stream of NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine’s State of NASA address. Administrator Bridenstine detailed the efforts behind the Space Launch System, the Lunar Gateway, the Orion spacecraft, and the ARTEMIS missions to the Moon. There was excitement in the air as budget increases by the current administration were discussed.
After the State of NASA address, we went to the Lunar Lander Lab for a briefing by Logan Kennedy. Mr. Kennedy showed us concepts for the next Moon landings by contrasting with the Apollo program. During the Apollo missions, the astronauts brought all of their supplies with them. This severely limited the amount of time the astronauts had on the Lunar surface. For ARTEMIS, the intent is to land payloads on the Moon ahead of the manned landings. Mr. Kennedy showed us concepts of relatively inexpensive Pallet Landers which payloads could be wheeled off of.
Next up, was a tour of the ISS Payload Operations and Integration Center. Amanda Lowman briefed us on the Payload Control Area. This is where all the science and experiments on the ISS are controlled and monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Vince Vidaurri then briefed our group about the Laboratory Training Complex. The LTC is a mock-up of the U.S. lab on the ISS. Procedures for experiments are ironed out by controllers in the LTC before being communicated to the astronauts on the ISS.
We then went to the Nuclear Thermal Propulsion Lab. Engineer Mike Kynard showed us hardware that could replicate the results of testing a nuclear rocket at a fraction of the cost and many times more safely.
Our last stop of the day was the SLS System Integration Lab for a briefing by Dan Mitchell. The SIL contains a full size “control ring” for the SLS rocket. This control ring has all the computers and systems that monitor every aspect of the SLS. Everything is placed exactly where it would be on the actual rockets. Even the wiring is measured to the same distances to avoid any lags or time differences. There are three redundant computers that are the “brains” of the whole deal.
At this time I want to thank the team at Marshall Space Flight Center for hosting our group and giving us the opportunity to report on the progress of the Space Launch System and the ARTEMIS program. I am excitedly looking forward to being a part of ARTEMIS over the next few years as my career develops.
OSIRIS-REx Captures Laser 3D View of Bennu
NASA - OSIRIS-REx Mission patch. April 8, 2019
This three-dimensional view of asteroid Bennu was created by the OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter (OLA), contributed by the Canadian Space Agency, on NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. From Feb. 12 through 17, OLA made more than 11 million measurements of the distance between OSIRIS-REx and Bennu’s surface as the spacecraft flew less than 1.2 miles (2 km) above the surface – the closest orbit ever achieved by spacecraft. OLA obtained these measurements by firing laser pulses at Bennu and measuring the amount of time it takes for the light to bounce off the asteroid’s surface and return to the instrument. That time measurement is then translated into altitude data. Using this data, the OLA team created the 3-D model of Bennu’s surface.
OSIRIS-REx orbiting Bennu
The colors represent the distance from the center of Bennu: dark blue areas lie approximately 197 feet (60 meters) lower than peaks indicated in red. Some parts of the asteroid have not yet been measured, which creates gaps in the image. OLA will take nearly a billion more measurements throughout 2019 to complete the first-ever high-resolution 3D lidar map of a near-Earth asteroid. OSIRIS-REx (Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer): http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/osiris-rex/index.html Animation, Image, Text, Credits: NASA/Karl Hille/University of Arizona/CSA/York/MDA. Greetings, Orbiter.ch Full article
Somebody’s got to do it! Happy Star Wars Day! May The Fourth Be With You! #maythe4thbewithyou #starwarsday #nasa #jpl #solarsystemambassador https://www.instagram.com/p/COdI9JcDBej/?igshid=wxfr65xogirz
I host public outreach events about the science and research taking place everyday on the International Space Station. A favorite event of mine is called "Story Time From Space", where astronauts onboard the ISS read children's stories featuring space science and STEM topics. (Opinions are my own.)
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