Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Here's some of the stories trending This Week at NASA!
Orbital Sciences' Cygnus spacecraft has made the company's first contracted resupply flight
to the International Space Station -- delivering more than 27-hundred pounds of cargo -- including
dozens of new science experiments. Orbital Sciences becomes NASA's second commercial
ISS resupply partner.
Just called to congratulate both the flight crew, the crew on the ground and particularly
Orbital and those folks for a fantastic day of getting Cygnus berthed
Administrator Charlie Bolden made his congratulatory call to the NASA and Orbital teams while visiting
Michoud Assembly Facility with Senator David Vitter of Louisiana. The pair was updated
on construction of the manufacturing facility that will produce the massive core stage of
NASA's Space Launch System and progress on launching the heavy-lift rocket on its first
flight test in 2017.
At Marshall Space Flight Center, the flight software and avionics hardware for the SLS
were integrated and powered for testing, as part of a milestone known as first light.
The milestone enables early testing to help ensure the units communicate with each other
as designed. Avionics tell the rocket where it should fly and how to stay on course. The
SLS avionics and the flight computer will be housed in the completed rocket's core stage.
Charlie Bolden visited Glenn Research Center where Director Jim Free showed the Administrator
some of the latest advanced space propulsion technologies the center is developing. Included
on the tour was Glenn's Electric Propulsion Laboratory, which is being enhanced for future
testing of solar electric propulsion technologies, including those supporting NASA's proposed
asteroid initiative, which involves identifying, capturing and relocating an asteroid for astronauts
to explore.
NASA's TDRS-L, the second of three next-generation Tracking and Data Relay Satellites, was encapsulated
into its payload fairing at the Astrotech processing facility near Kennedy Space Center
in Florida and later moved to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in preparation for its January
23 launch. TDRS-L and its predecessors provide tracking, telemetry, command and high bandwidth
data return services for NASA science and human exploration missions orbiting Earth.
Administrator Bolden participated in the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Remembrance at NASA
Headquarters. The annual event, sponsored by the headquarters Chapter of Blacks in Government,
featured several speakers and celebrated the continuing impact of Dr. King's work and philosophy.
And that's what's up ... This Week at NASA.
For more on these and other stories follow us on social media and visit www.nasa.gov/twan.