This Week at NASA | This Week at NASA: Astronaut Makes the Rounds, Hackathon in Pasadena, more
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NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren made several appearances in the DC area April 25-29, to share highlights of his recent five-month mission aboard the International Space Station. On Tuesday morning at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, he showed imagery from his spaceflight and answered questions. That evening Lindgren threw out the first pitch at Nationals Park before the Major League Baseball game between Washington and Philadelphia. He also attended the Tech Day on Capitol Hill event on Thursday that highlighted technology development and research being conducted on the station to help NASA achieve its future missions. Also, The Future is Here Festival, Astronauts Test Drive New Simulators, Korean U.S. Air Quality Mission Preps, NASA Helps Forecast Zika Risk, and International Space Apps Challenge.
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Astronaut Kjell Lindgren Visits Washington, DC NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren made several appearances in the DC area April 25-29, to share highlights of his recent five-month mission aboard the International Space Station. On Tuesday morning at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, he showed imagery from his spaceflight and answered questions. That evening Lindgren threw out the first pitch at Nationals Park before the Major League Baseball game between Washington and Philadelphia. He also attended the Tech Day on Capitol Hill event on Thursday that highlighted technology development and research being conducted on the station to help NASA achieve its future missions. NASA Astronauts on Future ISS Crews NASA and its International Space Station partners have announced the crews for two missions to the space station in 2017. The selection includes two NASA astronauts. Scott Tingle will launch in September 2017 on his first spaceflight as part of the station’s Expedition 53 crew. Two months later, veteran astronaut Randy Bresnik will launch with Expedition 54 for his second spaceflight. Bresnik previously flew on space shuttle Atlantis’ STS-129 mission in 2009. The Future is Here Festival Deputy Administrator Dava Newman was one of the NASA officials to participate in The Smithsonian Magazine’s The Future is Here Festival, on April 24 at the Shakespeare Theater Company’s Sidney Harman Hall, in Washington. Jim Green, NASA’s Director of Planetary Science also participated. The annual festival began in 2013 to bring together experts in science, technology, space exploration, and arts to explore new horizons of human knowledge and eye-opening possibilities for the future. Astronauts Test Drive New Simulators NASA commercial crew astronauts Eric Boe and Suni Williams tested new training simulators at Boeing’s St. Louis headquarters on April 26. The new part-task trainers will help the astronauts become familiar with normal operations of the company’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft and safely train for unexpected issues crews might encounter on flights to the International Space Station. Last year, NASA selected Boe, Williams, Bob Behnken, and Doug Hurley to train for upcoming commercial crew test flights aboard the Starliner and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft. Korean U.S. Air Quality Mission Preps Aircraft crews and mechanics at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center have been busy preparing a DC-8 and King Air aircraft to conduct science flights May 2 to June 14 in South Korea as part of the Korean U.S. Air Quality mission, or KORUS-AQ. The joint campaign between NASA and South Korea’s National Institute of Environmental Research is one of eight Earth Expeditions field studies NASA is conducting this year. The mission will combine observations from aircraft, satellites, ships and ground stations to assess air quality across urban, rural and coastal areas of South Korea. The data collected will be used to help find new solutions to the air pollution health threat, not just on the Korean Peninsula, but all around the world. Scientists at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, have partnered with the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, and other institutions to produce a map that can help forecast the potential spread of Zika virus in the United States. The research team looked at several key factors — including temperature, rainfall and socioeconomic factors — that contribute to the spread of the virus, to understand where and when a potential outbreak may occur. International Space Apps Challenge The fifth annual International Space Apps Challenge, April 22-24 featured NASA astronaut Doug Wheelock at the “global mainstage” event in Pasadena, California – which included a data bootcamp and a 48-hour hackathon. In all, activities for this year’s challenge took place in more than 179 locations in 71 countries – with participants using NASA data to develop software, hardware, mobile apps and other possible solutions for space exploration missions and issues on Earth. And that’s what’s up this week @NASA. (c)2016 NASA | SCVTV |
Jennifer Long de Courson