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

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On Feb. 18, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden
visited Ames Research Center at Moffett Field,

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California to thank employees for the work
they do on behalf of the agency to improve

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aviation.

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President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2017 budget
proposal for NASA calls for a multi-year investment

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in aeronautics research that will enable the
agency to test, demonstrate and validate cutting-edge

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technologies designed to make aviation cleaner,
greener, safer, and quieter.

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Orbital ATK’s Cygnus cargo craft left the
International Space Station on Feb. 19 -- a

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little more than two months after delivering
more than 7,000 pounds of cargo to the orbiting

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outpost.

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This was the first flight to the station of
Orbital ATK’s enhanced Cygnus spacecraft,

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with its increased capacity, and the company’s
fourth successful cargo delivery mission to

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the station under NASA’s Commercial Resupply
Services contract.

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NASA officially is beginning work on the Wide
Field Infrared Survey Telescope, or (WFIRST)

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– a new astrophysics mission with a view
about 100 times bigger than the agency’s

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Hubble Space Telescope.

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The new observatory will survey large regions
of the sky in near-infrared light, to help

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researchers answer questions about the structure
and evolution of the universe, and expand

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our knowledge of planets beyond our solar
system.

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WFIRST is the agency's next major astrophysics
observatory following the launch of the James

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Webb Space Telescope in 2018.

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On Feb. 17, the ASTRO-H satellite was launched
into low-Earth orbit from Japan’s Tanegashima

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Space Center.

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This X-ray astronomy mission is an international
collaboration between the Japan Aerospace

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Exploration Agency, NASA and others to study
material that is on the brink of falling into

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black holes; the evolution of galaxy clusters;
dark energy and dark matter, and other extremely

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energetic processes in the universe.

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The space observatory, which was renamed Hitomi
after it reached orbit, will look for very

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faint X-rays and gamma rays.

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The satellie includes one instrument and two
mirrors supplied by NASA.

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Feb. 17 marked the 20th anniversary of the
launch of the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous

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– Shoemaker, or (NEAR Shoemaker).

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The probe, named in honor of planetary scientist
Gene Shoemaker, became the first-ever to orbit

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an asteroid – studying the near-Earth asteroid
433 Eros for about a year.

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NEAR Shoemaker also became the first to land
on the surface of an asteroid – despite

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the fact that it was an orbiter that was not
designed to land.

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At the time, the data collected by NEAR represented
the most detailed scientific profile ever

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of a small celestial body.

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