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This Week at NASA…
Administrator Charles Bolden and Chief Financial
Officer Beth Robinson rolled out the budget
President Obama has proposed for NASA
in Fiscal Year 2012.
Bolden told media at a Washington news conference
that, despite austere times, the proposed budget
will allow NASA to continue to innovate,
educate and build for the good of,
not only the agency, but also the nation.
Charles Bolden: "This budget requires us to live
within our means so we can invest in our future.
It maintains our strong commitment to human
spaceflight and new technologies. It establishes
critical priorities and invests in excellent science,
aeronautics research, and education programs
that will help us win the future."
Bolden also noted that this focus on technological
advancement will allow NASA to expand its human
exploration of space in the decades ahead.
Charles Bolden: "The President's fiscal year 2012
budget funds a diverse array of human spaceflight
programs that maximize our use of current capabilities
such as the International Space Station,
facilitate innovative approaches to ensure U.S. leadership
in low Earth orbit, and position us to explore new
frontiers of deep space. Taken together,
these human spaceflight initiatives will enable
America to retain its position as a leader
in space exploration for generations to come."
NASA managers have announced an official launch
date for space shuttle discovery on STS-133.
Bill Gerstenmaier: "We had a really thorough
review today. We set the 24th at 4:50 p.m.
for the launch of Discovery."
The announcement came at the conclusion of the
Flight Readiness Review, or FRR, a meeting to
assess and determine if preparations
for flight are on target.
Bill Gerstenmaier: "I can't say enough about the work
that the teams have done. They did a tremendous job
down here at the Cape removing the foam, installing
the radius blocks, making the modifications,
getting the Orbiter back out at the pad; the team
just did a tremendous job.
Mike Moses: "The amount of effort and work that went
into this is really truly amazing, and then you couple
that it’s at the end of the program, and we’re done
building tanks, and we’ve effectively, almost all but,
turned out the lights at that MAF facility; to have this
type of failure come in that requires a whole lot
of tests and analysis is a real testament to the
dedication and loyalty of those folks to step
up and really come out and help us."
Mike Leinbach: “Everything is going really, really well.
Looking forward to the countdown starting
Monday and a liftoff next Thursday."
STS-133 will be the 35th shuttle mission to the
International Space Station.
Discovery will carry crew members Commander Steve Lindsey,
Pilot Eric Boe and Mission Specialists Alvin Drew,
Michael Barratt, Steve Bowen and Nicole Stott.
This is Discovery’s final flight to the complex,
a retirement well-earned. With a total of 38 missions,
Discovery has made more flights than any other shuttle.
She’s carried satellites like the Hubble Space Telescope
and the Ulysses robotic probe into space,
delivered the Japanese Kibo laboratory to the ISS,
and was the first shuttle to rendezvous
with the Russian Mir Space Station.
Expedition 26 Flight Engineers Dmitry Kondratyev
and Oleg Skripochka performed their second
spacewalk in less than a month.
They ventured outside the International Space Station
to install a pair of earthquake
and lightning sensing experiments.
They also retrieved a pair of exposed panels
that’ll help international researchers determine
the best materials to use in building
long-duration spacecraft.
Retrieving a similar materials exposure package
was among the tasks the two cosmonauts performed
during their previous spacewalk on Jan. 21.
After its successful launch of its an Ariane 5
rocket from Kourou, French Guiana, the Johannes
Kepler Automated Transfer Vehicle-2, or ATV2,
is on its way to the International Space Station.
The unpiloted European cargo ship will deliver
some seven tons of fuel, food and supplies
to the orbiting complex. Eight days after launch,
the ATV2 is scheduled to rendezvous and dock to
the aft port of the station's Zvezda service module.
It’ll remain there until June, when it’ll undock
and deorbit, then burn up upon re-entry into
Earth's atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean.
"We have 122 images; we’ve collected
all 72 science images." (applause)
The Stardust-NExT mission had its Valentine’s Day
"date with a comet" when it flew by comet Tempel 1
on February 14. At its nearest approach, the spacecraft
got within 112 miles of the comet – and sent back
about six-dozen, high-resolution images.
Scientists had hoped to see any differences in the comet
since a probe from NASA’s Deep Impact mission crashed
into its surface on the Fourth of July in 2005.
Joe Veverka: "If you ask me was this mission a 100%
successful, in terms of the science, I would have to say no.
It was 1000% successful.
Each one of the 72 images taken by Stardust-NExT took
about 15 minutes to download; in all, about ten hours
were needed to transmit all the pictures and science data
from the spacecraft. In the six years since Deep Impact,
Tempel 1 has completed one orbit of the sun.
AND NOW, CENTERPIECES…
A group of fifty-five science and space enthusiasts who
follow the NASA Ames twitter account were invited to NASA
Ames Research Center to participate
in an event called a "Tweet-up."
These tweeps, or people who use twitter, were given a rare
opportunity to tour the labs at NASA Ames, listen to
presentations and get answers to their questions from
researchers who work at the Center.
Pete Worden: "Social networking is really critical.
As we move forward as a country, this is an increasing way
that the public, particularly the interested public, can
actually participate and ride with us as we do the wonderful
things we do at NASA."
Throughout the day, the participants were busy taking
pictures and tweeting about their experiences 140
characters or about 20 words at a time.
Natalie Greco: "I think NASA's involvement in social media
and Twitter is awesome.
I think it's a really great way to get the word out
to the public about what's going on with NASA
and kind of giving everyone an insider
view of exactly what's happening."
Researchers shared their latest discoveries
and demonstrated some of the unique facilities at NASA
Ames during the Tweetup event.
The attendees came from 18 states and 5 countries
to take part in the Tweetup.
One in particular had a class of his students back in
Nashville, Tennessee following his tweets throughout the day.
Don Breedwell: "My students are learning how to use
social media in the class. So one of the things we've been
doing is Twittering, Facebooking, doing all the different
kinds of things… I've had a wonderful time here and we'll
use this information that I've learned here to help with
science programs that we have
in our high school and in our county."
Given the enthusiastic response online and at Ames,
this will likely be the first of
many more Tweetup events to come.
More than 200 seventh-graders had some hands-on fun during
the 2011 Bohn-Meyer Math and Science Odyssey at Antelope
Valley College in Lancaster, California.
Students attended workshops led by professionals from
the Dryden Flight Research Center and industry in the fields
of engineering, meteorology, physics, chemistry and mathematics.
The event is named for the late Marta Bohn-Meyer,
former chief engineer at Dryden.
Her husband, Bob Meyer, NASA's program manager for
the SOFIA flying observatory, told pupils from eight
area middle schools to focus on math and science classes
and explained how concentrating on these subjects
could lead to rewarding careers in engineering and technology.
Bob Meyer: "…You have a real opportunity today.
Take advantage of it. Walk around, learn, talk to people that
are here today that have gone down the path before you.
You’ve probably heard the saying,
"when opportunity knocks, open the door."
Well, Marta liked to modify that a bit and said,
"When opportunity knocks, open the door…
but don’t forget to walk through it."
Aim high, as your attitude in life will determine the
altitude you’ll achieve, just like in aviation."
The event included three workshops on engineering
and science, medical technology and "green" technologies,
as well as hands-on activities and aircraft
life-support equipment demonstrations.
A low-level flyover by a NASA F/A-18 Hornet
helped wrap up the day's activities.
Thirty-four years ago, on February 18, 1977,
NASA’s first space shuttle orbiter, Enterprise, conducted
its first flight test at the Dryden Flight Research Center.
Constructed without an engine, the craft was mounted atop
a Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft to measure structural
loads, ground handling and other capabilities
prior to atmospheric flight. While Enterprise never flew
in space, its series of approach and landing tests that
year proved the orbiter could fly in the atmosphere
and land like a glider. Enterprise was named for the
starship on the popular television series
of that time "Star Trek." Today, you can see Enterprise
in the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum’s
Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia.
And that’s This Week @NASA.
For more on these and other stories, log onto: www.nasa.gov.