Two of the NASA astronauts training for the first flight tests for the agency’s Commercial Crew Program visited with employees during an Aug. 11 event at Kennedy Space Center. Astronauts Eric Boe and Suni Williams, alongside Commercial Crew Program Manager Kathy Lueders, responded to questions during a panel discussion, moderated by Kennedy Director Robert Cabana. NASA has contracted with Boeing and SpaceX to develop crew transportation systems and provide crew transportation services to and from the International Space Station. The agency will select the commercial crew astronauts from the group that includes Boe, Williams, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley The first flight tests are targeted for next year. Also, Air Quality Flight over California Wildfire, CYGNSS Media Day, Putting NASA Earth Science to Work, and more.

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Commercial Crew Astronauts Visit Kennedy

Two of the NASA astronauts training for the first flight tests for the agency’s Commercial Crew Program visited with employees during an Aug. 11 event at Kennedy Space Center. Astronauts Eric Boe and Suni Williams, alongside Commercial Crew Program Manager Kathy Lueders, responded to questions during a panel discussion, moderated by Kennedy Director Robert Cabana. NASA has contracted with Boeing and SpaceX to develop crew transportation systems and provide crew transportation services to and from the International Space Station. The agency will select the commercial crew astronauts from the group that includes Boe, Williams, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley The first flight tests are targeted for next year.

Air Quality Flight over California Wildfire

On August 9, pilots from NASA partner H211, LLC flew through plumes of smoke from the “Soberanes” wildfire, near Carmel, California, to measure and study the effects of ozone and greenhouse gases from the fires on air quality in that region. The flight was part of the Alpha Jet Atmospheric eXperiment or (AJAX) Project, based at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley. This flight was the 197th AJAX mission in the past five years, using NASA-developed sensors and equipment to make measurements of the atmosphere.

CYGNSS Media Day

NASA invited the media to learn about the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) hurricane mission during an August 11 event at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in San Antonio, Texas. CYGNSS, which is scheduled to launch Nov. 21 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, is a constellation of eight microsatellites that will gather never-before-seen details on the formation and intensity of tropical cyclones and hurricanes – helping to improve hurricane track, intensity and storm surge forecasts.

Putting NASA Earth Science to Work

On August 10 at NASA Headquarters, young research professionals discussed projects that use NASA Earth observations and modelling to address a range of environmental issues around the globe. The talks, panel discussions, and poster session were featured as part of NASA’s DEVELOP program, a nationwide training and development effort sponsored by the agency’s Earth Science Applied Sciences Program. DEVELOP bridges the gap between NASA Earth Science and society by helping prepare program participants and partner organizations to address environmental challenges faced by current society and future generations.

MissionSTEM Summit

NASA hosted a MissionSTEM Summit August 8 and 9 at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. The event brought together NASA and other government experts, students from grantee institutions, federal and grantee civil rights compliance officials, academia, industry and professional organizations. The experts in civil rights compliance and education discussed best practices for ensuring equal opportunity in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), and they exchanged ideas for tackling the challenges faced by grantee institutions and compliance officials. The summit was designed to advance NASA’s civil rights technical assistance efforts relating to STEM.

And that’s what’s up this week @NASA.