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“Here’s some of the stories trending This
Week at NASA!”

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On Dec. 11 aboard the International Space
Station, NASA’s Kjell Lindgren, Russian

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cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and Kimiya Yui of
the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, bid

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farewell to crew members remaining on the
station -- including Commander Scott Kelly,

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NASA’s one-year mission astronaut.

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The returning members of Expedition 45 then
climbed aboard their Soyuz spacecraft for

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the trip back to Earth.

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They safely touched down hours later in Kazakhstan
– closing out a 141-day stay in space.

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Meanwhile, preparations continue at the Baikonur
Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for the launch of

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the next three additions to the space station
crew – including NASA astronaut Tim Kopra.

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He’s participating in prelaunch training
with Expedition 46-47 Soyuz Commander Yuri

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Malenchenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency
and Flight Engineer Tim Peake of the European

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Space Agency.

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Launch of their Soyuz to the station from
Kazakhstan is scheduled for Dec. 15.

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Orbital ATK’s enhanced Cygnus cargo craft
arrived at the space station on Dec. 9, three

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days after launching on a United Launch Alliance
Atlas 5 rocket from Florida.

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This is the first flight of the enhanced Cygnus
– with its greater payload capacity.

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The 7,000-plus pounds of cargo delivered by
Cygnus includes science and research, crew

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supplies and vehicle hardware in support of
the approximately 250 science and research

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investigations that will occur during the
Expeditions 45 and 46 missions.

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On Dec. 8, members of the media toured the
Quantum Artificial Intelligence Laboratory

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or (QuAIL) at NASA’s Ames Research Center.

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The Quantum Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
is the agency's hub for an experiment to assess

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the potential of quantum computers to perform
calculations that are difficult or impossible

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using conventional supercomputers.

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The QuAIL team hopes to demonstrate quantum
computing and algorithms that may someday

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dramatically improve NASA’s ability to solve
difficult optimization problems for missions

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in aeronautics, Earth science, and space exploration.

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NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory hosted
the annual Invention Challenge recently in

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Pasadena, California.

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Middle and high school teams demonstrated
unique devices they built to compete in this

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year’s challenge – the “Ball Fling Contest”.

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The goal of the challenge was to hit three
different targets with playground balls in

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less than 60 seconds.

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Twenty-one student teams and three teams of
JPL engineers and scientists were invited

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to compete.

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The competition promotes creativity, strategic
thinking and improvement of science, technology,

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engineering and math or STEM skills.

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And that’s what’s up this week @NASA …