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Long-term plans call for the carefully orchestrated tear-down of 19 vacant and idle structures – among them the 363-foot-tall Dynamic Test Stand, the Propulsion and Structural Test Facility, and the Neutral Buoyancy Simulator. These facilities are no longer required for current or future missions, and the demolitions will support the center’s transition to a more modern, sustainable, and efficient infrastructure.
“These facilities helped NASA make history – the Dynamic Test Stand was the tallest manmade structure in North Alabama and helped us test both the Saturn V rocket and the space shuttle,” said Joseph Pelfrey, Marshall’s center director. “Without these structures, we wouldn’t have the space program we have today. While it is difficult to let them go, the greatest legacy remaining are the people who built and stewarded these facilities and the missions they enabled. That same courageous spirit fuels us today. We’re committed to carrying it forward to inspire the workforce of tomorrow.”
Built in 1964, the Dynamic Test Stand was originally used to test fully assembled Saturn V rockets. In 1978, engineers there also integrated all space shuttle components for the first time, including the orbiter, external fuel tank, and solid rocket boosters.
The Propulsion and Structural Test Facility – better known at Marshall as the “T-tower” due to its distinctive shape – was built in 1957 by the U.S. Navy Ballistic Missile Agency and transferred to NASA when Marshall was established in 1960. There, engineers tested components of the Saturn launch vehicles, the Navy’s Redstone Rocket, and shuttle solid rocket boosters.
The Neutral Buoyancy Simulator, along with its 1.3-million-gallon tank and control room, was built in the late 1960s. From 1969 until its closure in 1997, the facility enabled NASA astronauts and researchers to experience near-weightlessness, conducting underwater testing of space hardware and practice runs for servicing the Hubble Space Telescope. It was replaced in 1997 by a new facility at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
Honoring the Past, Building the Future
Marshall master planner Justin Taylor talked about the facilities team checked out every risk for refurbishing the archaic websites.
“The maintenance of aging facilities is dear, and we’ve to position our funding where it does basically the most proper for NASA’s mission,” he talked about. “These are involving choices, but we’ve to prioritize characteristic and rate over nostalgia. We’re making formulation for what’s next.”
To shield NASA historical previous, the agency has labored with architectural historians over time on detailed drawings, written histories, and immense-layout photography of the get cling of websites. Those documents are section of the Library of Congress’s everlasting Historic American Engineering Recordcollection, making their historical previous and accomplishments on hand to the public for generations to reach serve.
Marshall facilities engineers are tranquil finalizing the facts and timeline for the demolitions. Work is anticipated to launch in unhurried 2024 and forestall in unhurried 2025. Additionally, to red meat up the center’s workers and the total mission work they’re doing, Marshall has just a few infrastructure initiatives in scheme phases that can encompass the construction of two train-of-the-artwork structures right thru the last decade ahead.
A new Marshall Exploration Facility will supply a two- to three-story facility at approximately 55,000 sq. feet situated right through the 4200 complex. The facility will encompass an auditorium, along with conferencing, training, retail, and administrative spaces. The new Engineering Science Lab – at approximately 140,000 sq. feet – will present a modern, versatile laboratory environment to accommodate a new focal point for research and testing capabilities.
Indirectly, NASA’s vision for Marshall is a dynamic, interconnected campus. The center’s master plan elements a central greenway connecting its two most densely populated zones – its administrative complex and engineering complex.
“As we work toward the aspirational goals we have as an agency, Marshall’s contributions may turn out different from our past but be no less significant,” said Pelfrey. “And we want our partners, employees, and the community to be part of the evolution with us, bringing complementary skills and capabilities, innovative ideas, and a passion for exploration and discovery.”
Crew members at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility marked Earth Day 2024 on April 22 by planting satsuma trees and small plants near administrative and office structures.
Nearly 50 workers from NASA, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Syncom Dwelling Services (S3), Textron, and various other contractors worked together to weed flower beds and pick up litter and debris around the 829-acre site on Earth Day.
“The Earth Day activities this morning weren’t only good for the environment, but also good for our workforce,” said Michoud Director Hansel Gill, “It was a pleasure to see people from various contractors and tenants come together, get their hands dirty, and enjoy the camaraderie. Everyone was smiling, the weather was ideal, morale was high, and we look forward to hosting more opportunities like this in the future.”
By Jessica Barnett
As a team member at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, it’s your responsibility to help ensure certain information doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. That involves checking in with the center’s Export Control Office of Labor before a presentation or meeting with international nationals or entities.
Marshall’s Export Control Program consists of four staff members and a number of certified Center Export Representatives (CERs) who will work with team members to ensure organizations can carry out their work without violating export control regulations.
“We’re a service group with a mission to help NASA workers navigate the very complicated world of export controls,” said Sean Benson, who serves as Marshall’s export administrator. “They’re regulations that all U.S. entities – government included – must follow. Our role is to help the exporter navigate those in an efficient and compliant manner.”
It’s important to note that exports aren’t just physical items being shipped abroad. They can include items shared virtually with foreign companies, visits from foreign nationals, presentations with non-U.S. colleges or universities, and more.
“I am often asked to review presentations for export compliance,” said Elizabeth Ewald, senior export compliance specialist at Marshall. “I also assist with international shipping.”
“We review whether NASA is going to be disposing of property, selling it to markets. We ensure that if it’s going, it’s going to the appropriate parties,” Benson said. “We also do a lot of work with international national visits. We conduct risk assessments for every international visitor that comes from Marshall Space Flight Center, along with Michoud Assembly Facility and the National Space Science and Technology Center.”
CERs play a truly vital role in the assignment. Benson and Ewald relate every technical group at Marshall to have at least one CER.
“They’re our eyes, ears, hands, and feet on the ground right through the particular areas of the center,” Ewald said. “They handle engineering correspondence, and we don’t; we handle export correspondence, and they don’t. Together, we form a large team to serve when reviewing papers, presentations, and what-have-you.”
To become a CER, a team member must complete 10 prerequisite functions in SATERN, then complete two live Teams sessions, which are four hours each. Once certified, they’ll need to complete annual recertification to remain on the office’s active CERs list.
That list is lawful one amongst the tons of instruments on hand for team contributors who talk over with the distance of business’s SharePoint web boom on Inside Marshall. The get cling of page additionally elements contact records for the distance of business’s workers contributors, ways to file a seek files from for export authorization or policy overview, and discover entry to to the Global Site traffic in Hands Regulations (ITAR) and Export Administration Regulations (EAR), that are the 2 rulebooks that govern the Export Possess a watch on Program.
“Possibilities are you’ll perchance perchance seek files from practising, too,” Benson talked about. “That it is seemingly you’ll also look our reference offers, along side some precious job aids for issues like marking Controlled Unclassified Data (CUI) documents.”
Each NASA center has its own Export Control Program to oversee that center’s focus. Benson said he’s proud to work at Marshall, where — in the words of Center Director Joseph Pelfrey — he can work on a rocket that’s going to the Moon in the morning and on a rocket that’s returning from Mars in the afternoon.
“The most rewarding part of my job is being involved in helping programs and initiatives work with their international partners to accomplish exciting things in space,” Benson said. “I never imagined I’d be working on things like helping people move satellites from one location to another and safely to a launchpad.”
“We’re here to help,” Ewald said. “We want you to have the support you need to do what you need to do, so reach out to us early. Often the issues we help you with will take more than 90 days to resolve, so the sooner you involve us, the better.”
Crew members can learn more about Marshall’s Export Control Voice of Labor by visiting its SharePoint website on Inside Marshall. Organizations can also reach out to the Office of Business to request a training or presentation tailored to that group’s specific export management needs.
Barnett, a Media Fusion employee, supports the Marshall Voice of Labor of Communications.
By Celine Smith
It’s easy to see the green pastures and rolling hills surrounding NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center on Redstone Arsenal and imagine them as untouched.
Undoubtedly, the energy and water team within Marshall’s Center of Operations Voice of Labor takes great care in managing the sustainable use of the environment. Not only does their work benefit the environment, but their dedication to reducing water and energy use can save taxpayer money. The team was recently rewarded for their efforts, receiving an award on March 27 from the Federal Energy Management Program for their project: water leak detection and advanced metering infrastructure.
“I love saving energy and money for the taxpayer,” said Rhonda Truitt, the energy and water supervisor for Marshall. “I also truly feel like it’s the right thing to do as a proper steward of our planet and for our community.”
The team ensures the center meets and exceeds federal expectations of efficient utilization of energy and water. With this purpose in thoughts, it implements modern systems to conserve resources. The energy and water team partnered with the Navy and Huntsville Utilities for the 2 initiatives.
For the water leak detection mission, a team comprised of Truitt, Marshall’s Operation & Maintenance, and the SMART heart initiative, placed acoustic sensors mimicking hydrant caps on hydrants throughout Marshall. The sensor monitors irregular sounds that indicate a leak and identifies its approximate location, reducing the time needed in what was previously an hours-long assignment to find leaks.
Truitt said the skills have additional benefits beyond saving money. Fixing leaks prevents clean water from being wasted by historical industrial operations and flowing into natural water resources like the Tennessee River. Leaks can also cause sinkholes that could endanger team members and structures, so finding them early is critical.
Shall we embrace, the team found three leaks the first day the mission was put into space. A hole causing one leak measured at one-sixteenth of an inch and was leaking 900 gallons of water a day. The sensors have led to four leaks being repaired, with about $10,000 saved for each.
“Small issues can make a difference,” Truitt said. “With the resolution of workers at Marshall, small actions like allowing a leak or drip to go unreported can add up.”
The developed metering infrastructure works along side water leak detection by calculating how great water dilapidated all the absolute most realistic method thru the center. The energy and water team can fabricate certain Marshall is precisely charged for water and shield notice of total water utilization. The success of the 2 initiatives received’t simplest reduction Huntsville. Consistent with Truitt, federal web sites all the absolute most realistic method thru the U.S. may perchance perchance perchance undertake these systems, main to water and money financial savings nationwide.
“My role doesn’t simplest fabricate a difference financially, I discover to red meat up NASA’s missions while sustaining and keeping the world we’re residing in,” Truitt talked about. “It’s truly wintry to truly feel equivalent to you fabricate momentary and long-term differences.”
Smith, a Media Fusion employee, helps the Marshall Voice of Labor of Communications.
NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility Director Hansel Gill held a Michoud All-Hands meeting for facility team members April 24.
The meeting was the first formal all-hands for Gill since officially taking up his new role earlier in the month.
Michoud civil servants and support staff workers attended the event, which included updates on hardware manufacturing and infrastructure improvements and repairs, as well as discussions on Michoud’s culture.
Gill then presented the “MAF Ambassadors” from NASA Marshall Space Flight Center’s Center Operations Team to communicate on NASA 2040 and other future initiatives before opening the floor to questions.
Utilizing aboard NASA’sPsyche spacecraftthe agency’s Deep Space Optical Communicationstechnology demonstrationcontinues to break records. While the asteroid-bound spacecraft doesn’t rely on optical communications to transmit data, the experimental system has proven it’s up to the task. After interfacing with the Psyche’s radio frequency transmitter, the laser communications demo sent a copy of engineering data from over 140 million miles away, 1½ times the distance between Earth and the Sun.
This success offers a glimpse into how spacecraft may use optical communications in the future, enabling higher-data-rate communications of complex scientific data as well as high-definition imagery and video in support of humanity’s next giant leap:sending humans to Mars.
“We downlinked about 10 minutes of duplicated spacecraft data during a pass on April 8,” said Meera Srinivasan, the mission’s operations lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “Until then, we’d been sending test and diagnostic data in our downlinks from Psyche. This represents a major milestone for the mission by showing how optical communications can interface with a spacecraft’s radio frequency communications system.”
The laser communications system on this demo is designed to transmit files from deep space at rates 10 to 100 times faster than the state-of-the-art radio frequency systems used by deep space missions today.
Afterlaunchingon Oct. 13, 2023, the spacecraft remains healthy and stable as it journeys to the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter to visit the asteroid Psyche.
NASA’s optical communications demonstration has shown that it can transmit test data at a maximum rate of 267 megabits per second (Mbps) from the flight laser transceiver’s near-infrared downlink laser – a bit rate equivalent to broadband internet download speeds.
That was doneon Dec. 11, 2023, when the experiment beamed a 15-second ultra-high-definition video to Earth from 19 million miles away (31 million kilometers, or about 80 times the Earth-Moon distance). The video, along with other test data, including digital versions of Arizona State University’sPsyche Inspiredartwork, had been loaded onto theflight laser transceiverbefore Psyche launched last year.
Now that the spacecraft is greater than seven times farther away, the urge at which it may perchance perchance most likely ship and receive files is reduced, as anticipated. For the length of the April 8 take a look at, the spacecraft transmitted take a look at files at a maximum rate of 25 Mbps, which a ways surpasses the mission’s purpose of proving as a minimal 1 Mbps used to be which that it is seemingly you’ll take into consideration at that distance.
The mission team also commanded the transceiver to transmit Psyche-generated data optically. While Psyche was transmitting data over its radio frequency channel to NASA’sDeep Space Network(DSN), the optical communications system simultaneously transmitted a portion of the same data to the Hale Telescope atCaltech’s Palomar Observatoryin San Diego County, California – the tech demo’s primary downlink ground station.
“After receiving the data from the DSN and Palomar, we verified the optically downlinked data at JPL,” said Ken Andrews, mission flight operations lead at JPL. “It was a small amount of data downlinked over a short timeframe, but the fact we’re doing this now has surpassed all of our expectations.”
After Psyche launched, the optical communications demo was originally used to downlink pre-loaded files, including theTaters the cat video. Since then, the mission has confirmed that the transceiver can receive files from thehigh-power uplink laserat JPL’s Table Mountain facility, near Wrightwood, California. Data can also be sent to the transceiver and then downlinked back to Earth on the same night, as the mission proved in a recent “turnaround experiment.”
This experiment relayed test files — as well as digital pet photography — to Psyche and back again, a round trip of up to 280 million miles. It also downlinked large amounts of the tech demo’s own engineering data to assess the characteristics of the optical communications link.
“We’ve learned a great deal about how far we can push the system when we have clear skies, thoughstormshave interrupted operations at both Table Mountain and Palomar on occasion,” said Ryan Rogalin, the mission’s receiver electronics lead at JPL. (While radio frequency communications can operate in most weather conditions, optical communications require relatively clear skies to transmit high-bandwidth data.)
JPL recently led an experiment to combine Palomar, the experimentalradio frequency-optical antennaat the DSN’s Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in Barstow, California, and a detector at Table Mountain to receive the same signal in concert. “Arraying” more than one ground station to mimic one large receiver can help enhance the deep space signal. This approach can also be valuable if one ground station is forced offline due to weather conditions; other stations can still receive the signal.
Managed by JPL, this demonstration is the latest in a series of optical communication experiments funded by the Technology Demonstration Missions (TDM) program under NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate and the agency’s SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation) program throughout the Space Operations Mission Directorate. The Technology Demonstration Missions Program Office is at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. Development of the flight laser transceiver is supported by MIT Lincoln Laboratory, L3 Harris, CACI, First Mode, and Controlled Dynamics Inc., and Fibertek, Coherent, and Dotfast support the ground systems. Some of the technology was developed throughNASA’s Small Business Innovation Research program.
Arizona State University leads the Psyche mission. JPL is responsible for the mission’s overall management, system engineering, integration and test, and mission operations. Psyche is the 14th mission selected as part of NASA’s Discovery Program under the Science Mission Directorate, managed by Marshall. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center, managed the launch service. Maxar Technologies provided the high-power solar electric propulsion spacecraft chassis from Palo Alto, California.
Learn more about the laser communications demo.
New images of two of the most important objects in the sky – the Crab Nebula and Cassiopeia A – are being released from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. Each involves X-ray data collected by Chandra over about two decades. They show dramatic changes in the debris and radiation remaining after the explosion of two massive stars in our galaxy.
The Crab Nebula, the result of a bright supernova explosion observed by Chinese and other astronomers in the year 1054, is 6,500 light-years from Earth. At its center is a neutron star, an extremely dense star produced by the supernova. As it rotates about 30 times per second, its beam of radiation sweeps past Earth with each rotation, like a cosmic lighthouse.
As the younger pulsar slows down, immense amounts of energy are injected into its surroundings. In particular, a high-energy wind of matter and antimatter particles plows into the surrounding nebula, creating a shock wave that shapes the expanding ring seen in the movie. Jets from the poles of the pulsar emit X-ray-emitting matter and antimatter particles in a direction perpendicular to the ring.
Over 22 years, Chandra has taken many observations of the Crab Nebula. With this long runtime, astronomers observe clear changes in both the ring and the jets in the new movie. Earlier Chandra movies showed images taken from much shorter time periods—a 5-month spanbetween 2000 and 2001and over 7 monthsbetween 2010 and 2011for another. The longer timeframe reveals appealing fluctuations, along with whip-like variations in the X-ray jet that can only be seen in this much longer movie. A new set of Chandra observations will be conducted later this year to track changes in the jet since the last Chandra data were obtained in early 2022.
The second feature in this doubleheader is just as spectacular. Cassiopeia A (Cas A for short) is the remnant of a supernova that is estimated to have exploded about 340 years ago in Earth’s sky. While other Chandra images of Cas A have previously been released, including one with data extendingfrom 2000 to 2013this new movie is significantly longer, containing data from 2000 through 2019.
The outer edge of Cas A reveals the expanding blast wave of the explosion. The blast wave contains shock waves, equivalent to the sonic booms generated by a supersonic aircraft. These expanding shock waves are sites where particles are being accelerated to energies greater than those achieved by the most powerful accelerator on Earth, the Large Hadron Collider. As the blast wave travels outward it encounters surrounding interstellar material and slows down, producing a second shock wave that travels backward relative to the blast wave, analogous to a traffic jam moving backward from the scene of an accident on a toll road.
Cas A has been one of the most extensively observed targets and publicly released images from the Chandra mission. It was Chandra’s official first-light image in 1999 after the Space Shuttle Columbia launched into orbit and quickly detecteda point source of X-rays in Cas A’s centerfor the first time, later confirmed to be a neutron star. Over the years, astronomers have used Chandra to look for evidence of“superfluid” interior to Cas A’s neutron starto show that the original massive star may havebeen turned inside out as it explodedand to make a crucial step inpinpointing how massive stars explode. Chandra has alsomapped the elements forged within the starthat are now being dispersed into space to seed the next generation of stars and planets. More recently, Chandra data has been combined with data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to helpdetermine the origin of mysterious structures throughout the remnant.
The photos used in the most recent Cas A movie were processed using a state-of-the-art processing technique, led by Yusuke from Rikkyo University in Japan, to fully capitalize on Chandra’s sharp X-ray vision. The paper describing their work was published in The Astrophysical Journal and isavailable online.
These two movies demonstrate Chandra’s capability of documenting changes in massive objects over human timescales. Such movies would not be possible without Chandra’s archives, which serve as public repositories for the data collected over Chandra’s nearly 25 years of operations.
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science from Cambridge, Massachusetts and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.
Learn more from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.
NASA will present live coverage of prelaunch and launch activities for the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test, which will carry NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to and from the International Space Station.
Launch of the ULA (United Launch Alliance) Atlas V rocket and Boeing Starliner spacecraft is targeted for 9:34 p.m. CDT May 6, from Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
The flight test will carry Wilmore and Williams to the space station for about a week to test the Starliner spacecraft and its subsystems before NASA certifies the transportation system for rotational missions to the orbiting laboratory for the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.
The HOSC (Huntsville Operations Support Center) at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center provides engineering and mission operations support for the space station, the Commercial Crew Program, and Artemis missions, as well as science and technology demonstration missions.
Starliner will dock to the forward-going thru port of the keep’s Harmony module at 11:Forty eight p.m., Can also 8.
NASA’s mission coverage is as follows (all times Central and subject to change in accordance with real-time operations):
May 3
11:30 a.m. – Prelaunch news conference at Kennedy (no earlier than one hour after completion of the Launch Readiness Review) with the following participants:
Protection of the prelaunch files conference will circulation are residing onNASA+NASA Tv, theNASA app,YouTubeand the agency’sweb keep.
2:30 p.m. – NASA Social panel live streaming event at Kennedy with the following participants:
Protection of the panel are residing circulation occasion will circulation are residing at@NASAKennedyon YouTube,@NASAKennedyon X, and@NASAKennedyon Fb. People of the public may perchance perchance perchance quiz questions about-line by posting inquiries to the YouTube, X, and Fb livestreams using #AskNASA.
Can also 6
5:30 p.m. – Launch protection begins onNASA+NASA Tv, theNASA app,YouTubeand the agency’sweb keep.
9:34 p.m. – Launch
Launch protection on NASA+ will end rapidly after Starliner orbital insertion. NASA Tv will presenttrusty protectionmain as much as docking and thru hatch opening and welcome remarks.
All times are estimates and may be adjusted in accordance with operations after launch. Apply thespace station blogfor the latest operations updates.
NASA will present a are residing video feed of Dwelling Launch Advanced-41 approximately Forty eight hours sooner than the planned liftoff of the mission. Pending no longer going technical concerns, the feed will seemingly be uninterrupted till the prelaunch broadcast begins on NASA Tv, approximately four hours sooner than launch. As soon as the feed is are residing, discover it right here:http://youtube.com/kscnewsroom.
Launch day coverage of the mission will be available on the agency’swebsite. Coverage will include live streaming and blog updates beginning no earlier than 5:30 p.m., May 6 as countdown milestones occur. On-demand streaming video and photography of the launch will be available shortly after liftoff.
Originally reported by nasa.gov. Adapted for our readers.
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