Flooding Along The Mississippi

Flooding Along the Mississippi

Rain, snowmelt, and soil moisture—those three factors might push portions of the Upper Mississippi River into major flooding this spring. Meanwhile, the middle and lower reaches of the river are already well out of their banks.

Intense storms over February 22-24, 2019, caused major flooding along the Middle Mississippi River. On February 25, 2019, the Landsat 8 satellite acquired images of swollen portions of the Mississippi River. The video above shows a false-color view of flooding near Memphis, Tennessee comparing February 2019 to February 2014. Flood waters appear blue; vegetation is green; and bare ground is brown. Notice how the Ohio River and Mississippi River have swelled near Cairo, the southernmost city in Illinois.

National Weather Service forecasters noted that higher-than-average precipitation in autumn 2018 saturated soils in the region, so additional rain or snowmelt from this winter will likely result in excessive runoff and increased flooding threats.

Rapid snowmelt will also play a role in flooding this spring in the Midwest. Parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin have built up snowpack of nearly 25 inches, so melting snow alone could propel many areas into major flooding.

Read the full story here.

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More Posts from Nasa and Others

5 years ago
“I Felt I Was An Accepted Team Member. It Was A Great Experience And A Unique Opportunity.”

“I felt I was an accepted team member. It was a great experience and a unique opportunity.”

Ruth Ann Strunk, a math major, was hired in 1968 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center as an acceptance checkout equipment software engineer. She monitored the work of contractors who wrote the computer programs designed to check out the command module, lunar module and the Apollo J mission experiments. These experiments were conducted aboard the service modules on Apollo 15, 16 and 17 by the command module pilots. 

“I am proud of the advancement and the number of women who are working and enjoy working here,” Strunk said. “It was a wonderful opportunity NASA afforded me during Apollo that I have been able to use ever since.”

Remember the women who made #Apollo50th possible.

Follow Women@NASA for more stories like this one, and make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.


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6 years ago

'Space Butterfly' Is Home to Hundreds of Baby Stars

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What looks like a red butterfly in space is in reality a nursery for hundreds of baby stars, revealed in this infrared image from our Spitzer Space Telescope. Officially named Westerhout 40 (W40), the butterfly is a nebula — a giant cloud of gas and dust in space where new stars may form. The butterfly's two "wings" are giant bubbles of hot, interstellar gas blowing from the hottest, most massive stars in this region.

Besides being beautiful, W40 exemplifies how the formation of stars results in the destruction of the very clouds that helped create them. Inside giant clouds of gas and dust in space, the force of gravity pulls material together into dense clumps. Sometimes these clumps reach a critical density that allows stars to form at their cores. Radiation and winds coming from the most massive stars in those clouds — combined with the material spewed into space when those stars eventually explode — sometimes form bubbles like those in W40. But these processes also disperse the gas and dust, breaking up dense clumps and reducing or halting new star formation.

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3 years ago
Ever Wanted To Look Back In Time? This Week, We’re Launching A Kind Of Time Machine – A Telescope

Ever wanted to look back in time? This week, we’re launching a kind of time machine – a telescope so powerful it will help us see back some of the first stars and galaxies made after the Big Bang.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the largest and most advanced telescope we’ve ever put in space. With revolutionary technology, it will study 13.5 billion years of cosmic history and help humanity understand our place in the stars.

Tomorrow, Dec. 25, at 7:20 a.m. ET (12:20 UTC), the Webb Telescope is set to launch from French Guiana, beginning a 29-day journey to a spot a million miles away.

How to Watch:

In English:

Dec. 25

Live coverage starts at 6:00 a.m. ET/11:00 UTC

Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Twitch

In Spanish:

Dec. 25

Live coverage starts at 6:30 a.m. ET/11:30 UTC

Facebook, YouTube, Twitter

Once Webb launches, the journey has only just begun. The telescope will begin a 2-week-long process of unfolding itself in space before settling in to explore the universe in ways we’ve never seen before.

Follow along on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and with #UnfoldTheUniverse.


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4 years ago

Celebrating 81 Years of Ingenuity

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Eighty-one years ago, our world-class research center in California’s Silicon Valley was born. Ground broke on Ames Research Center on Dec. 20, 1939. It was the second aeronautical laboratory established by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics to perform fundamental research on all things flight. From its very beginnings, Ames was a place for innovation. Tests performed in its wind tunnels transformed military aircraft during World War II and paved the way for air travel at supersonic speeds. In the 1950s and ‘60s, its researchers looked to the stars and came up with new designs and materials for spacecraft that would make human spaceflight a reality. Fast-forward to the present, and the center contributes to virtually every major agency mission through its expertise in spacecraft entry systems, robotics, aeronautics, supercomputing, and so much more! Here are things to know about Ames.

Ames Research Center is home to the world’s largest wind tunnel.

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The center is also home to Pleiades, our most powerful supercomputer.

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Its modeling and simulation work plays a key role in designing new vehicles for exploring space.

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The center invented heat shield materials for landing rovers on Mars.

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It built robots to assist astronauts living and working aboard the International Space Station.

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It launched a space telescope that revealed thousands of worlds beyond our solar system.

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The center has also led multiple missions to explore the Moon.

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It found water on the Moon ... more than once, and in places no one would have guessed.

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The Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover is the latest lunar exploration mission led by Ames. Launching in 2023, the mobile robot will search for water ice inside craters and other places at the Moon's South Pole. Its survey will help pave the way for astronaut missions to the lunar surface beginning in 2024 as part of the Artemis program.

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4 years ago

What Would These Astronauts Put in Their #NASAMoonKit?

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NASA is hard at work to land the first woman and the next man on the Moon, and we want to know: what would you pack for a trip to the Moon?   

We will be soon conducting our last in a series of Green Run tests for the core stage of our Space Launch System (SLS) — the most powerful rocket ever built.

The series of tests is designed to gradually bring the rocket stage and all its systems to life for the first time — ensuring that it’s ready for missions to the Moon through the Artemis program.  

To mark this critical time in the history of American spaceflight, we’ve been asking people like you — what would you take with you on a trip to the Moon? Social media users have been regaling us with their images, videos, and illustrations with the hashtag #NASAMoonKit!

Looking for a little inspiration? We asked some of our astronauts and NASA leaders the same question:

1. NASA Astronaut Chris Cassidy

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NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy recently took this photo from the International Space Station and posted it to his Twitter account with this caption:

“If I was on the next mission to the Moon, I would have to bring this tiny spaceman with me! He’s flown with me on all of my missions and was in my uniform pocket for all the SEAL missions I have been a part of. Kind of like a good luck charm.”

2. European Space Agency Astronaut Tim Peake

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European Space Agency astronaut Tim Peake asked his two sons what they would take with them to the Moon. This is what they decided on!

3. NASA Astronaut Scott Tingle

Based on previous missions to space, NASA astronaut Scott Tingle would put a can of LiOH, or Lithium Hydroxide, into his #NASAMoonKit. 

A LiOH can pulls carbon dioxide out of the air — very important when you're in a closed environment for a long time! Apollo 13 enthusiasts will remember that the astronauts had to turn off their environmental system to preserve power. To keep the air safe, they used LiOH cans from another part of the vehicle, but the cans were round and the fitting was square. Today we have interoperability standards for space systems, so no more square pegs in round holes!

4. NASA Astronaut Drew Morgan

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NASA astronaut Drew Morgan received some feedback from his youngest daughter when she was in kindergarten about she would put into her #NASAMoonKit.

5. Head of Human Spaceflight Kathy Lueders

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Although Kathy Lueders is not an astronaut, she is the head of human spaceflight at NASA! Her #NASAMoonKit includes activities to keep her entertained as well as her favorite pillow.

6. NASA Astronaut Kenneth Bowersox

What Would These Astronauts Put In Their #NASAMoonKit?

NASA astronaut Kenneth Bowersox knows from his past space shuttle experience what the “perfect space food” is — peanut butter. He would also put a hooded sweatshirt in his #NASAMoonKit, for those long, cold nights on the way to the Moon.

7. NASA Astronaut Michael Collins

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NASA astronaut Michael Collins has actually made a real-life #NASAMoonKit — when he flew to the Moon on the Apollo 11 mission! But for this time around, he tweeted that would like to bring coffee like he did the first time — but add on a good book.  

How to Show Us What’s In Your #NASAMoonKit:

There are four social media platforms that you can use to submit your work:

Instagram: Use the Instagram app to upload your photo or video, and in the description include #NASAMoonKit  

Twitter: Share your image on Twitter and include #NASAMoonKit in the tweet  

Facebook: Share your image on Facebook and include #NASAMoonKit in the post  

Tumblr: Share your image in Tumblr and include #NASAMoonKit in the tags

If your #NASAMoonKit catches our eye, we may share your post on our NASA social media accounts or share it on the Green Run broadcast!

Click here for #NASAMoonKit Terms and Conditions.  

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8 years ago

13 Reasons to Have an Out of This World Friday (the 13th)

1. Know that not all of humanity is bound to the ground

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Since 2000, the International Space Station has been continuously occupied by humans. There, crew members live and work while conducting important research that benefits life on Earth and will even help us eventually travel to deep space destinations, like Mars.

2. Smart people are up all night working in control rooms all over NASA to ensure that data keeps flowing from our satellites and spacecraft

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Our satellites and spacecraft help scientists study Earth and space. Missions looking toward Earth provide information about clouds, oceans, land and ice. They also measure gases in the atmosphere, such as ozone and carbon dioxide, and the amount of energy that Earth absorbs and emits. And satellites monitor wildfires, volcanoes and their smoke.

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Satellites and spacecraft that face toward space have a variety of jobs. Some watch for dangerous rays coming from the sun. Others explore asteroids and comets, the history of stars, and the origin of planets. Some fly near or orbit other planets. These spacecraft may look for evidence of water on Mars or capture close-up pictures of Saturn’s rings.

3. The spacecraft, rockets and systems developed to send astronauts to low-Earth orbit as part of our Commercial Crew Program is also helping us get to Mars

Changes to the human body during long-duration spaceflight are significant challenges to solve ahead of a mission to Mars and back. The space station allows us to perform long duration missions without leaving Earth’s orbit. 

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Although they are orbiting Earth, space station astronauts spend months at a time in near-zero gravity, which allows scientists to study several physiological changes and test potential solutions. The more time they spend in space, the more helpful the station crew members can be to those on Earth assembling the plans to go to Mars.

4. Two new science missions will travel where no spacecraft has gone before…a Jupiter Trojan asteroid and a giant metal asteroid!

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We’ve selected two missions that have the potential to open new windows on one of the earliest eras in the history of our solar system – a time less than 10 million years after the birth of our sun!

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The first mission, Lucy, will visit six of Jupiter’s mysterious Trojan asteroids. The Trojans are thought to be relics of a much earlier era in the history of the solar system, and may have formed far beyond Jupiter’s current orbit.

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The second mission, Psyche, will study a unique metal asteroid that’s never been visited before. This giant metal asteroid, known as 16 Psyche, is about three times farther away from the sun than is the Earth. Scientists wonder whether Psyche could be an exposed core of an early planet that could have been as large as Mars, but which lost its rocky outer layers due to a number of violent collisions billions of years ago.

5. Even astronauts eat their VEGGIES’s

NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough collected the third and final harvest of the latest round of the Veggie investigation, testing the capability to grow fresh vegetables on the International Space Station. 

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Understanding how plants respond to microgravity is an important step for future long-duration space missions, which will require crew members to grow their own food. Crew members have previously grown lettuce and flowers in the Veggie facility. This new series of the study expands on previous validation tests.

6. When you feel far away from home, you can think of the New Horizons spacecraft as it heads toward the Kuiper Belt, and the twin Voyager spacecraft are beyond the influence of our sun…billions of miles away 

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Our New Horizons spacecraft completed its Pluto flyby in July 2015 and has continued on its way toward the Kuiper Belt. The spacecraft continues to send back important data as it travels toward deeper space at more than 32,000 miles per hour, and is nearly 3.2 billion miles from Earth.

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In addition to New Horizons, our twin Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft are exploring where nothing from Earth has flown before. Continuing on their more-than-37-year journey since their 1977 launches, they are each much farther away from Earth and the sun than Pluto. In August 2012, Voyager 1 made the historic entry into interstellar space, the region between the stars, filled with material ejected by the death of nearby stars millions of years ago.

7. Earth has a magnetic field that largely protects it from the solar wind stripping away out atmosphere…unlike Mars

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Findings from our MAVEN mission have identified the process that appears to have played a key role in the transition of the Martian climate from an early, warm and wet environment to the cold, arid planet Mars is today. MAVEN data have enabled researchers to determine the rate at which the Martian atmosphere currently is losing gas to space via stripping by the solar wind. Luckily, Earth has a magnetic field that largely protects it from this process. 

8. There are humans brave enough to not only travel in space, but venture outside the space station to perform important repairs and updates during spacewalks

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Spacewalks are important events where crew members repair, maintain and upgrade parts of the International Space Station. These activities can also be referred to as EVAs – Extravehicular Activities. Not only do spacewalks require an enormous amount of work to prepare for, but they are physically demanding on the astronauts. They are working in the vacuum of space in only their spacewalking suit. 

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When on a spacewalk, astronauts use safety tethers to stay close to their spacecraft. One end of the tether is hooked to the spacewalker, while the other end is connected to the vehicle. Spacewalks typically last around 6.5 hours, but can be extended to 7 or 8 hours, if necessary.

9. We’re working to create new aircraft that will dramatically reduce fuel use, emissions and noise…meaning we could change the way you fly! 

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The nation’s airlines could realize more than $250 billion dollars in savings in the near future thanks to green-related technologies that we are developing and refining. These new technologies could cut airline fuel use in half, pollution by 75% and noise to nearly one-eighth of today’s levels!

10. You can see a global image of your home planet…EVERY DAY

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Once a day, we will post at least a dozen new color images of Earth acquired from 12 to 36 hours earlier. These images are taken by our EPIC camera from one million miles away on the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR). Take a look HERE.

11. Employees of NASA have always been a mission driven bunch, who try to find answers that were previously unknown

The film “Hidden Figures,” focuses on the stories of Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughan, African-American women who were essential to the success of early spaceflight. 

Today, we embrace their legacy and strive to include everyone who wants to participate in our ongoing exploration. In the 1960’s, we were on an ambitious journey to the moon, and the human computers portrayed in Hidden Figures helped get us there. Today, we are on an even more ambitious journey to Mars. We are building a vibrant, innovative workforce that reflects a vast diversity of discipline and thought, embracing and nurturing all the talent we have available, regardless of gender, race or other protected status. Take a look at our Modern Figures HERE.

12. A lot of NASA-developed tech has been transferred for use to the public 

Our Technology Transfer Program highlights technologies that were originally designed for our mission needs, but have since been introduced to the public market. HERE are a few spinoff technologies that you might not know about.

13. If all else fails, here’s an image of what we (Earth) and the moon look like from Mars  

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From the most powerful telescope orbiting Mars comes a new view of Earth and its moon, showing continent-size detail on the planet and the relative size of the moon. The image combines two separate exposures taken on Nov. 20 by our High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on our Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

In the image, the reddish feature near the middle of the face of Earth is Australia.


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7 years ago

Solar System: Things to Know This Week

Time for a little reconnaissance. 

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Our New Horizons spacecraft won't arrive at its next destination in the distant Kuiper Belt—an object known as 2014 MU69—until New Year's Day 2019, but researchers are already starting to study its environment thanks to a few rare observational opportunities this summer, including one on July 17. This week, we're sharing 10 things to know about this exciting mission to a vast region of ancient mini-worlds billions of miles away.

1. First, Some Background 

Solar System: Things To Know This Week

New Horizons launched on Jan. 19, 2006. It swung past Jupiter for a gravity boost and scientific studies in February 2007, and conducted a six-month reconnaissance flyby study of Pluto and its moons in summer 2015. The mission culminated with the closest approach to Pluto on July 14, 2015. Now, as part of an extended mission, the New Horizons spacecraft is heading farther into the Kuiper Belt.

2. A Kuiper Belt refresher

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The Kuiper Belt is a region full of objects presumed to be remnants from the formation of our solar system some 4.6 billion years ago. It includes dwarf planets such as Pluto and is populated with hundreds of thousands of icy bodies larger than 62 miles (100 km) across and an estimated trillion or more comets. The first Kuiper Belt object was discovered in 1992.

3. That's Pretty Far

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When New Horizons flies by MU69 in 2019, it will be the most distant object ever explored by a spacecraft. This ancient Kuiper Belt object is not well understood because it is faint, small, and very far away, located approximately 4.1 billion miles (6.6 billion km) from Earth.

4. Shadow Play 

Solar System: Things To Know This Week

To study this distant object from Earth, the New Horizons team have used data from the Hubble Space Telescope and the European Space Agency's Gaia satellite to calculate where MU69 would cast a shadow on Earth's surface as it passes in front of a star, an event known as an occultation.

5. An International Effort 

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One occultation occurred on June 3, 2017. More than 50 mission team members and collaborators set up telescopes across South Africa and Argentina, aiming to catch a two-second glimpse of the object's shadow as it raced across the Earth. Joining in on the occultation observations were NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and Gaia, a space observatory of the European Space Agency (ESA).

6. Piecing Together the Puzzle 

Solar System: Things To Know This Week

Combined, the pre-positioned mobile telescopes captured more than 100,000 images of the occultation star that can be used to assess the Kuiper Belt object's environment. While MU69 itself eluded direct detection, the June 3 data provided valuable and surprising insights. "These data show that MU69 might not be as dark or as large as some expected," said occultation team leader Marc Buie, a New Horizons science team member from Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

7. One Major Missing Piece 

Solar System: Things To Know This Week

Clear detection of MU69 remains elusive. "These [June 3 occultation] results are telling us something really interesting," said New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute. "The fact that we accomplished the occultation observations from every planned observing site but didn't detect the object itself likely means that either MU69 is highly reflective and smaller than some expected, or it may be a binary or even a swarm of smaller bodies left from the time when the planets in our solar system formed."

8. Another Opportunity 

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On July 10, the SOFIA team positioned its aircraft in the center of the shadow, pointing its powerful 100-inch (2.5-meter) telescope at MU69 when the object passed in front of the background star. The mission team will now analyze that data over the next few weeks, looking in particular for rings or debris around MU69 that might present problems for New Horizons when the spacecraft flies by in 2019. "This was the most challenging occultation observation because MU69 is so small and so distant," said Kimberly Ennico Smith, SOFIA project scientist.

9. The Latest 

Solar System: Things To Know This Week

On July 17, the Hubble Space Telescope will check for debris around MU69 while team members set up another "fence line" of small mobile telescopes along the predicted ground track of the occultation shadow in southern Argentina.

10. Past to Present 

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New Horizons has had quite the journey. Check out some of these mission videos for a quick tour of its major accomplishments and what's next for this impressive spacecraft.

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4 years ago

Local D.C. Artists Celebrate Mary W. Jackson's Legacy

On June 24, 2020, NASA announced the agency’s headquarters building in Washington, D.C., was to be named after Mary W. Jackson to celebrate her life and legacy. We collaborated with Events DC to create artwork inspired by Jackson’s story as the agency’s first Black female engineer.

Take a look at how six local female artists interpreted Jackson’s place in history through their individual creative lenses.

1. Trap Bob

Local D.C. Artists Celebrate Mary W. Jackson's Legacy

“To see Mary [W.] Jackson be so successful and to get the recognition that she deserves, it hits home for me in a couple ways.”

Tenbeete Solomon AKA Trap Bob is a visual artist, illustrator, and animator based in Washington, D.C.

“Art is so important across the board because it’s really a form of documentation,” says Trap Bob. “It’s creating a form of a history… that’s coming from the true essence of what people feel in the communities.”

2. Jamilla Okubo

Local D.C. Artists Celebrate Mary W. Jackson's Legacy

“People can relate to things that may seem foreign to them through imagery.”

Jamilla Okubo is an interdisciplinary artist exploring the intricacies of belonging to an American, Kenyan, and Trinidadian identity.

“I wanted to create a piece that represented and celebrated and honored Mary [W.] Jackson, to remember the work that she did,” says Okubo.

3. Tracie Ching

Local D.C. Artists Celebrate Mary W. Jackson's Legacy

“This is a figure who actually looks like us, represents us.”

Tracie Ching is an artist and self-taught illustrator working in Washington, D.C.

“The heroes and the figures that we had presented to us as kids didn’t ever look like me or my friends or the vast majority of the people around me,” says Ching.

4. Jennifer White-Johnson

Local D.C. Artists Celebrate Mary W. Jackson's Legacy

"To be even a Black artist making artwork about space — it’s because of her triumphs and her legacy that she left behind.”

Jennifer White-Johnson is an Afro-Latina, disabled designer, educator, and activist whose work explores the intersection of content and caregiving with an emphasis on redesigning ableist visual culture.

“My piece is… a take on autistic joy because my son is autistic," says White-Johnson. "And I really just wanted to show him… in a space where we often don’t see Black disabled kids being amplified.”

5. Kimchi Juice

Local D.C. Artists Celebrate Mary W. Jackson's Legacy

“In my art, I try to highlight really strong and empowering women."

Julia Chon, better known by her moniker “Kimchi Juice,” is a Washington, D.C.-based artist and muralist.

“As minority women, we are too often overlooked and under recognized for the work and time that we give," says Kimchi Juice. "And so to see Mary W. Jackson finally being given this recognition is fulfilling to me.”

6. OG Lullabies

“I wanted when one listens to it, to feel like there is no limit.”

OG Lullabies is a Washington D.C. songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, including violin and electronics.

“When you look back at history… art is the color or the sound in the emotions that encapsulated the moment,” says OG Lullabies. “It’s the real human experience that happens as time passes.”

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.


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8 years ago

Under Pressure

Structural Tests Underway for Top of World's Most Powerful Rocket

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Testing is underway at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, on the agency’s new Space Launch System, the world’s most powerful rocket. SLS and NASA’s Orion spacecraft will enable deep-space missions, beginning a new era of exploration beyond Earth’s orbit.

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Engineers at Marshall have stacked four qualification articles of the upper part of SLS into a 65-foot-tall test stand using more than 3,000 bolts to hold the hardware together. Tests are currently underway to ensure the rocket hardware can withstand the pressures of launch and flight. 

The integrated tests consists of:

1. Launch Vehicle Adapter

2. Frangible Joint Assembly

3. Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage

4. Orion Stage Adapter

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Engineers are using 28 load pistons to push, pull and twist the rocket hardware, subjecting it to loads up to 40 percent greater than that expected during flight. More than 100 miles of cables are transmitting measurements across 1,900 data channels.

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The Launch Vehicle Stage Adapter, LVSA, connects the SLS core stage and the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage, ICPS. The LVSA test hardware is 26.5 feet tall, with a bottom diameter of 27.5 feet and a top diameter of 16.8 feet. The frangible joint, located between the LVSA and ICPS, is used to separate the two pieces of hardware during flight, allowing the ICPS to provide the thrust to send Orion onto its mission.

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The ICPS is a liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen-based system that will give Orion the big, in-space push needed to fly beyond the moon before it returns to Earth on the first flight of SLS in 2018. For this test series, the fuel tanks are filled with nonflammable liquid nitrogen and pressurized with gaseous nitrogen to simulate flight conditions. The nitrogen is chilled to the same temperature as the oxygen and hydrogen under launch conditions.

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The Orion Stage Adapter connects the Orion spacecraft to the ICPS. It is 4.8 feet tall, with a 16.8-foot bottom diameter and 18-foot top diameter.

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The first integrated flight for SLS and Orion will allow NASA to use the lunar vicinity as a proving ground to test systems farther from Earth, and demonstrate Orion can get to a stable orbit in the area of space near the moon in order to support sending humans to deep space, including the Journey to Mars. 

For more information about the powerful SLS rocket, check out: http://nasa.gov/SLS. 

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com/.


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8 years ago

The James Webb Space Telescope: A Story of Art & Science

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Artists of all kinds were invited to apply for the chance to visit our Goddard Space Flight Center to be inspired by the giant, golden, fully-assembled James Webb Space Telescope mirror.

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Art/Photo Credit: Jedidiah Dore

Webb has a mirror that is nearly 22 feet high and (to optimize it for infrared observations) is covered in a microscopic layer of actual gold.

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Art/Photo Credit: Susan Lin

Because of Webb’s visually striking appearance, the project hosted a special viewing event on Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2016.

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Photo Credit: Maggie Masetti

There was an overwhelming response to the event invitation and ultimately twenty-four people were selected to attend. They represented a broad range of artistic media and styles, including: watercolor, 3D printed sculpture, silk screening, acrylics, sumi-e (East Asian brush technique), comics, letterpress, woodwork, metalwork, jewelry making, fiber art, ink, mural painting, kite-making, tattooing, scientific illustration, poetry, songwriting, and video making.

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Art/Photo Credit: Sue Reno

Project scientists and engineers spoke with visitors to give context to what they were seeing and explain why Webb is an engineering marvel, and how it will change our view of the universe. 

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Among other things, Webb will see the first stars and galaxies that formed in the early universe and help us to better understand how planetary systems form and evolve. It will help us answer questions about who we, as humans, are and where we came from.

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Art Credit: Jessica Lee Photo Credit: Maggie Masetti

The artists spent several hours sitting right in front of the telescope, where they sketched, painted, took photos and even filmed a music video.

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Art Credit: Joanna Barnum Photo Credit: Maggie Masetti

While some of the pieces of art are finished, most of the artists went home with their heads full of ideas and sketchbooks full of notes. Stay tuned for more info on where you can see their final works displayed!

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Art/Photo Credit: Susan Lin

Finished art from the event continues to be added HERE.

The James Webb Space Telescope is finishing environmental testing at our Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Next it will head to our Johnson Space Center in Houston for an end-to-end test at cryogenic temperatures. After that, it goes to Northrop Grumman to be mated with the giant tennis court-sized sunshield and the spacecraft bus.  The observatory will launch in October of 2018 from a European Space Agency (ESA) launch site in French Guiana, aboard an Ariane 5 rocket.  Webb is a collaboration of NASA, ESA, and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

Follow Webb on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com


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