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

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On May 3, NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility
hosted Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland,

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NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden and others
for an employee town hall and a tour of the

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Virginia facility – including Pad 0A at
the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport.

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Preparations are underway there to conduct
an engine test of Orbital ATK’s Antares

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rocket in anticipation of returning Antares
to flight operations this summer following

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a launch mishap in 2014.

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The medium-class launch facility provides
NASA the capability to launch Orbital ATK’s

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Antares and Cygnus spacecraft on resupply
missions to the International Space Station.

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NASA and its International Space Station partners
have announced the crews for missions to the

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station in 2017.

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They include two NASA astronauts.

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Scott Tingle will launch in September 2017
on his first spaceflight as part of the station’s

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Expedition 53 crew.

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Two months later, the launch of Expedition
54 will mark the start of the second spaceflight

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for veteran astronaut Randy Bresnik.

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His first was November 2009 aboard space shuttle
Atlantis on STS-129.

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During a ceremony on May 5, the new computational
research facility at NASA’s Langley Research

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Center was named for mathematician and Presidential
Medal of Freedom recipient, Katherine Johnson.

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NASA dedicated the building to Johnson in
recognition of her many contributions to America’s

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space program.

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Johnson worked at Langley from 1953 until
her retirement in 1986, beginning as a research

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mathematician as part of a group of women
hired to perform mathematical calculations

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by hand for engineers.

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Her work was so outstanding she was eventually
assigned to the branch that later would calculate

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the launch windows for NASA’s first Project
Mercury flights.

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Her notable accomplishments include computation,
by hand, of the launch window and trajectory

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for Alan Shepard’s maiden space voyage aboard
Freedom 7 in 1961, and verification, also

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by hand, of calculations made by the first
computers for John Glenn's history-making

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orbit around the Earth in 1962.

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She also calculated the trajectory for the
historic Apollo 11 first moon landing flight

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in 1969.

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Fittingly, the building dedication took place
on the 55th anniversary of Shepard’s momentous

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spaceflight.

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The planet Mercury’s May 9 transit of the
sun is a relatively rare celestial event – with

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Mercury passing between Earth and the sun
only about 13 times a century – most recently

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in 2006.

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Those without the specialized and costly equipment
needed to safely view the event can see imagery

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online at nasa.gov, on NASA social media and
on NASA TV.

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Mercury will appear as a small black dot as
it crosses the edge of the sun and into view

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at about 7:12 a.m. EDT.

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Then for about the next 7.5 hours, the planet
will make a leisurely journey across the face

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of the sun.

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An international team of astronomers – including
one from NASA’s Johnson Space Center – have

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discovered three potentially habitable planets
around an ultra-cool dim dwarf star just 40

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light-years from us.

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The trio of planets, located using European
Southern Observatory telescopes in Chile,

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have sizes and temperatures similar to those
of Venus and the Earth.

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NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and Kepler
spacecraft will be observing the dwarf star,

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known as TRAPPIST-1, and its planets later
this year.

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It also could be good observational target
for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope following

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its launch in 2018.

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As part of the integration and testing of
the Webb telescope, engineers at NASA’s

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Goddard Space Flight Center, in Greenbelt,
Maryland recently removed the protective covers

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from the telescope’s primary gold-coated
mirror, for the first time since it was installed.

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The James Webb Space Telescope will be the
most powerful space telescope ever built and

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will study many phases in the history of our
universe, including the formation of solar

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systems capable of supporting life on planets
similar to Earth, as well as the evolution

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of our own solar system.

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