NASA Shares Hidden Figures Congressional Gold Medal Remarks
Science & Technology

NASA Shares Hidden Figures Congressional Gold Medal Remarks

NASA Space Technology NASA Administrator Bill Nelson released his remarks as prepared for Wednesday’s Hidden Figures Congressional Gold Medal ceremony in Washington. The awards recognized the women who contributed to the space race, including the NASA mathematicians who helped land the first astronauts on the Moon under the agency’s Apollo Program.“Good afternoon.“The remarkable things that NASA achieves…and that America achieves…build on the pioneers who came before us.“People like the women of Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo.“People like Mary Jackson. Dr. Christine Darden. Dorothy Vaughan. Katherine Johnson.“Thanks to all the Members of Congress who made today possible. The late Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, who we miss, and who led the effort in 2019 alongside Senator Chris Coons to bring these medals to life. Thanks to the champions for the legislation, then-Senator Kamala Harris, Senators Lisa Murkowski and...
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Giant Leaps Start at Johnson for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 Commander Nick Hague
Science & Technology

Giant Leaps Start at Johnson for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 Commander Nick Hague

NASA Space Technology As the hub of human spaceflight, NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston holds a variety of unique responsibilities and privileges. Those include being the home of NASA’s astronaut corps.One of those astronauts – Nick Hague – is now preparing to launch to the International Space Station along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov on the ninth rotational mission under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. This will be the third launch and second mission to the space station for Hague, who was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2013 and has spent 203 days in space.Hague was born and raised in Kansas but has crisscrossed the country for college and career. He earned degrees from the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, and he attended the...
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Hubble Examines a Busy Galactic Center
Science & Technology

Hubble Examines a Busy Galactic Center

NASA Space Technology NASA Hubble Mission TeamGoddard Space Flight CenterSep 18, 2024This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the spiral galaxy IC 4709 located around 240 million light-years away in the southern constellation Telescopium. Hubble beautifully captures its faint halo and swirling disk filled with stars and dust bands. The compact region at its core might be the most remarkable sight. It holds an active galactic nucleus (AGN).If IC 4709’s core just held stars, it wouldn’t be nearly as bright. Instead, it hosts a gargantuan black hole, 65 million times more massive than our Sun. A disk of gas spirals around and eventually into this black hole, crashing together and heating up as it spins. It reaches such high temperatures that it emits vast quantities of electromagnetic radiation, from infrared to visible to ultraviolet light...
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Massive SpaceX Starship Capacity Makes Radiation Shielding Easy
Science & Technology

Massive SpaceX Starship Capacity Makes Radiation Shielding Easy

NASA Space Technology The radiation dose for the 2.5 year round trip between Earth and Mars should give approximately a 1% lifetime increase of a fatal cancer. SpaceX Starship will totally change the situation on payload and travel times. The Starship will be refueled in Earth Orbit. All NASA missions to Mars have launched with multiple stages get to orbit and then to go to Mars. This means the final stage that goes to Mars has to go smaller and slower. They are about 20 times smaller than the launch rocket and they go about 2-3 times slower than a fully fueled in orbit Starship.Starship could travel to Mars one-way in 70-90 days without extra exceptional effort beyond refueling in orbit. This is better than the 180-270 days of other vehicles. Reduced travel time would...
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