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This Week at NASA …

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NASA commercial partner, SpaceX, is a step
closer on its planned journey to the International

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Space Station.

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\h
After its rollout to Space Launch Complex

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40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in
Florida, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was lifted

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into place for a static engine fire test simulating
launch.

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The exercise ended with all nine engines firing
at full power for two seconds.

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The successful test clears the way for Falcon
9’s upcoming demonstration flight to the

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ISS as part of NASA’s plan for private companies
to take over cargo delivery to the orbiting

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complex.

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“We finished the thirty year incredible

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era of shuttle, but very excited about the
upcoming launch of \hSpaceX.

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What that will do will be to show to the world
that America is still the leader in space

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exploration.

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It’ll provide for us American access to
low Earth orbit, for cargo initially, then

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as we go through the rest of our competition,
American access for crewmembers.”

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Expedition 31 Soyuz Commander Gennady Padalka,
NASA Flight Engineer Joe Acaba and Flight

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Engineer Sergei Revin participated in traditional
ceremonies at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training

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Center in Star City, Russia, outside of Moscow.

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The trio later departed for the Baikonur Cosmodrome
in Kazakhstan to complete training for their

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launch to the International Space Station
aboard the Soyuz spacecraft later this month.

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Acaba, Padalka and Revin are scheduled to
conduct a series of prelaunch activities over

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the next two weeks as they prepare for liftoff
to the orbital outpost.

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NASA Deputy Administrator, Lori Garver visited
the NASA Shared Services Center at Stennis

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Space Center.

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The NSSC provides support to NASA in the areas
of Human Resources, Financial Management,

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Procurement, Information Technology, and Business
Support Services.

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Garver was briefed by Senior Leadership on
the latest NSSC initiatives, including the

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now fully-operational Enterprise Service Desk
that supports employees Agency-wide.

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She also spoke with NSSC employees at an All
Hands event.

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“I really enjoyed getting to know not only
the management but the whole team that works

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here to support us at NASA.

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The work that we are doing could not be done
without the NSSC and I am just thrilled to

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be here for the awards program and I got to
take a couple of calls and I am really happy

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that you guys have done such a great job at
supporting NASA.”

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For more info about the NSSC and its services,
check out www.nssc.nasa.gov.

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NASA Chief Technologist Mason Peck visited
the Ames Research Center, where \hhe was briefed

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on projects in biology, nanotechnology, and
telerobotics.

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Peck also visited Stottler Henke, a small
software company in the Bay Area that’s

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received more than 50 NASA Small Business
Innovative Research awards.

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CEO Dick Stottler briefed Peck about the unique
artificial intelligence software systems the

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company’s developed for NASA and other government
agencies and private manufacturers while creating

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new jobs here in the U.S.

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The 2nd Annual USA Science and Engineering
Festival, held at the Washington, DC Convention

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Center featured more than 35 NASA-sponsored
exhibits aimed at inspiring students to pursue

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careers in science, technology, engineering
and math.

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The country's only national science fair,
the USA Science & Engineering Festival was

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founded to celebrate scientists and engineers,
much like film and music stars, and professional

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athletes.

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Aspiring rocketeers showed off their gravity-defying
skills at the NASA Student Launch Projects

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flight challenge.

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The annual event, organized by the Marshall
Space Flight Center and sponsored by ATK Aerospace

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Group, provides teams of middle school through
college students the opportunity to design,

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build and test large-scale rockets.

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The teams vie to see whose rocket gets closest
to the 1-mile high altitude mark and safely

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returns its onboard science payload to Earth.

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“We’re getting real world experience here
about what people can do after they graduate

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for aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering,
electrical and science in general.

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\hAnd it’s been a tremendous help and realization
to see what actual companies are doing in

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the real world after school.”

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“We need engineers, we as a country need
engineers and we as ATK need engineers we

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as an aerospace industry need engineers.

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This is probably the best way I can think
of to encourage them to join us.”

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High school teams from across the country
presented their solutions to a variety of

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21st century problems during the Conrad Foundation’s
fifth annual Innovation Summit held at the

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Ames Research Center.

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The event included 15 finalist teams competing
in the categories of aerospace exploration,

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clean energy and health and nutrition.

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Each category’s winning teams received cash
prizes of $5,000 to continue development of

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their projects.

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NASA Astronaut Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger
will lead an international team of four aquanauts

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on the 16th NASA Extreme Environment Mission
Operations or NEEMO expedition next month

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off the coast of Key Largo, Florida.

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The 12-day mission at the bottom of the Atlantic
Ocean will simulate a visit to an asteroid

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and test innovative solutions to challenges
astronauts expect to face.

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Joining Metcalf-Lindenburger inside the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Aquarius

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Reef Base undersea habitat will be fellow
astronauts Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace

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Exploration Agency and Timothy Peake of the
European Space Agency.

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Rounding out the crew is Steve Squyres, the
Cornell University astronomy professor and

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principal investigator of the Mars Rovers,
Spirit and Opportunity.

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Squyres was on the previous NEEMO crew.

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The Agency’s Website, nasa.gov, has won
Webby awards in two categories as the best

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in government.

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The site received its fourth consecutive People's
Voice Award, its fifth overall, and for the

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first time, captured the annual competition’s
judges' Award.

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\h
www.nasa.gov is one of the most visited government

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urls, with consistently high customer-satisfaction
ratings comparable to popular commercial sites.

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Its busiest day ever was July 8, 2011, when
NASA TV coverage of the launch of STS-135,

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the final space shuttle mission, was watched
by more than 560,000 people at nasa.gov.

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\h
A Webby Award is the foremost honor recognizing

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the world’s best Websites.

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At the Johnson Space Center, The Westbrook
Intermediate School Band, winners of the 2011

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Texas State Band Contest, performed a special
concert for JSC employees in the Teague Auditorium.

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The featured selection was a special piece
commissioned by the band directors to commemorate

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the Space Shuttle Program entitled, “STS
Mission: Ecceda Terra.”

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“Mission STS, which is the scientific distinction
in the title and Ecceda Terra, which is the

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poetic.

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Now Ecceda Terra as derived from both the
Italian and Latin languages to mean ‘to

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exceed the Earth’ – so very fitting.

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Ecceda coming from the Latin ‘Eccedo’,
which means ‘to exceed’ and terra meaning

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‘Earth’.”

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A photo of the band in front of the Full Fuselage
Shuttle Trainer at JSC was included in their

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concert program.

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“My name is Daphne Dador and I’m a Legislative
Affairs Specialist at NASA Headquarters.

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My office’s mission is to handle all communications
and relationships related to legislative issues

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between the agency and congress, and so I
do things like help out with preparing for

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congressional hearings, handling requests
from members of congress and their staff as

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well as monitoring relevant legislation.

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I grew up in California.

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I was in the San Francisco Bay Area, you know
NASA Ames has always been a presence for me.

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When I was little, my Grandparents would take
myself and my brothers out to Moffett Field.

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I’ve always been attracted to coming to
a place with a larger cause and a bigger idea,

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so Washington, D.C. to me was a place to do
that.

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I had an undergraduate degree in politics,
which is something that a lot of people in

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Washington, D.C. have and so I decided that
I needed to specialize in an area.

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So, I decided to go to graduate school and
I found the Space Policy Institute at George

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Washington University.

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And that’s where I learned that there was
this field called Space Policy and that I

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could be involved with it even though I wasn’t
a scientist or an engineer.

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At this agency, I think it represents the
best about being an American.

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It’s having an enterprising nature, it’s
advancing humanity and knowledge and you know,

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it’s that American spirit.

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On the outside I’ve always been proud of
our space program, but now that I’m part

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of the agency I feel that it’s even more
important for me when I go home or when I

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go out to talk about what we do and why it’s
so important to the nation.”

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Fifty-one years ago on May 5, 1961, Mercury
astronaut Alan Shepard launched aboard his

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Freedom 7 spacecraft from Cape Canaveral’s
Launch Complex 5, making him the first American

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in space.

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His historic flight came three weeks after
Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the

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first human to do so.

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Shepard’s suborbital flight reached an altitude
of 116-miles and lasted about 15 minutes.

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After traveling just over 300-miles, Shepard
and Freedom 7 splashed down safely in the

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Atlantic Ocean.

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Twenty years ago on May 7, 1992, Space Shuttle
Endeavour launched from the Kennedy Space

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Center on its maiden voyage – STS-49.

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The nine-day mission included the first three-person
spacewalk, during which Mission Specialists

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Pierre Thuot, Richard Hieb and Tom Akers retrieved
and attached the crippled Intelsat VI satellite

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to a new upper stage, then re-launched it
to its intended geosynchronous orbit.

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Providing assistance inside Endeavour was
Commander Dan Brandenstein, Mission Specialists

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Kathy Thornton and Bruce Melnick, and Pilot
Kevin Chilton, a 2012 inductee of the Astronaut

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Hall of Fame.

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And that’s This Week @ NASA!

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\h
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