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

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President Donald Trump signed an Executive
Order on June 30 to reestablish the National

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Space Council.

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Vice President Mike Pence – who will chair
the council – was on hand for the signing

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– along with members of Congress, NASA representatives,
commercial space company officials and others.

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Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot, called
the establishment of the council, “Another

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demonstration of the Trump Administration’s
deep interest in our work, and a testament

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to the importance of space exploration to
our economy, our nation, and the planet as

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a whole.”

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June 30 marked International Asteroid Day.

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Our Planetary Defense Coordination Office
and other NASA-funded programs find, track

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and characterize Near Earth Objects.

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These are asteroids and comets in the vicinity
of Earth’s orbit that could pose an impact

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threat to our planet.

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The Planetary Defense Coordination Office
also issues alerts and helps coordinate any

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U.S. government response to an impact threat.

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Our Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot
and other NASA officials testified at Congressional

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subcommittee hearings on June 29.

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Lightfoot responded to questions during a
Senate Appropriations hearing about the president’s

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$19.1 billion Fiscal Year 2018 budget proposal
for NASA.

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Meanwhile, Bill Gerstenmaier, the Associate
Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations,

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and Steve Jurczyk – Associate Administrator
for Space Technology – testified during

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a House Science hearing about in-space propulsion.

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On June 30, we launched a sounding rocket
from our Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia,

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to test a new multi-canister ejection system
designed to help study the ionosphere and

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aurora.

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The system produces blue-green and red artificial
clouds or vapor tracers that enable scientists

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on the ground to visually track particle motions
in space.

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The colorful clouds from this launch were
expected to be visible from New York to North

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Carolina.

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