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With our Moon to Mars effort underway ….

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A new administrator takes over to lead the
charge …

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“I will do my best to serve our storied
agency to the utmost of my abilities.”

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And – oh yeah … we stuck another nearly
flawless landing on Mars!

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All that and more as we mark our 60th anniversary
-- this year @ NASA.

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"I, James Bridenstine, do solemnly swear ..."

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Jim Bridenstine took office as our 13th administrator
in April, to oversee implementation of Space

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Policy Directive-1, which calls for sustainable
and long-term human and robotic exploration

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of the Moon as a precursor to eventual human
missions to Mars.

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Jim Morhard joined him as Deputy Administrator
in October.

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The administrator worked with the White House
and National Space Council, on a renewed commitment

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to American leadership in space.

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"The architecture that we're building now
is entirely different than any architecture

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we've ever built before in an effort to get
to the Moon.”

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Progress developing that architecture in 2018
included our mobile launcher, which has been

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modified to support our massive Space Launch
System rocket, or SLS …

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Also, more successful testing of the rocket
engine that will power SLS when it launches

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astronauts aboard our Orion spacecraft to
deep space …

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Delivery of the European Service Module – that
will sustain Orion and its crew on missions

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– by providing propulsion, power and cooling
…

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Successful evaluations of Orion’s parachute
system …

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And practice for recovering Orion, after it
splashes down in the Pacific Ocean.

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We also announced new partnerships with U.S.
companies to potentially deliver science payloads

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to the lunar surface.

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“We want multiple providers that are competing
on costs and innovation.

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So that we as NASA can do more than we’ve
ever been able to do before and advance the

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human spirit.”

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And we asked industry for input on supplying
our Gateway – a permanent spaceship in lunar

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orbit that will serve as home base for human
and robotic missions to the surface.

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“Touchdown confirmed (applause and cheering)
… we’re on the surface of Mars!”

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Our InSight lander touched down on Mars in
November, kicking off a mission to study the

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Red Planet’s interior.

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Within its first week, InSight recorded vibrations
caused by the Martian wind – the very first

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sounds ever sensed directly from the surface
of Mars.

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We also selected a landing site for Mars 2020,
and announced that rover will carry the first

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helicopter to the Red Planet.

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In June a massive dust storm on Mars sent
our solar-powered Opportunity rover –which

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has far exceeded its expected lifespan on
Mars -- into hibernation.

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“We have arrived! (applause and cheering)”

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After traveling through space for more than
two years and two billion kilometers, our

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OSIRIS-REx spacecraft arrived at asteroid
Bennu, on Dec. 3.

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OSIRIS-REx will study the asteroid and return
a sample to Earth in September 2023.

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Our New Horizons spacecraft made its first
detection of Ultima Thule, the Kuiper Belt

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object it is scheduled to fly by on New Year’s
Day, 2019 -- the farthest exploration of any

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planetary body in history.

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Our next planet hunter, TESS launched in April
and sent back this first image in May.

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TESS is expected to cover more than 400 times
as much sky as shown in the image during its

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initial two-year search for exoplanets.

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“A daring mission to shed light on the mysteries
of our closest star.”

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Our Parker Solar Probe launched in August
to “touch the Sun” to gather data that

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could help us better understand space weather.

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It has already made the closest approach to
the Sun by a human-made object.

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And two groundbreaking spacecraft ended science
operations in 2018.

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Dawn, which became the first mission to orbit
two destinations beyond Earth – asteroid

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Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres –

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And Kepler, the prolific planet hunter which
revealed our night sky to be filled with more

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planets than stars.

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Another veteran spacecraft, Voyager 2, entered
the interstellar space beyond our Sun’s

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protective heliosphere.

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It joins its twin Voyager 1 as the only human-made
objects to reach the space between the stars.

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Astronomers using Hubble and ground-based
observatories found that the interstellar

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object known as Oumuamua had an unexpected
speed boost passing through our solar system

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and may be a new type of comet.

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“For the first time since 2011 we are on
the brink of launching American astronauts,

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on American rockets, from American soil … (applause).”

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In August, we introduced the next astronauts
that will launch from American soil on the

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first flight tests and missions of American-made,
commercial spacecraft flying to and from the

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International Space Station.

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Those flights are set to begin in 2019.

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2018’s space station crews supported more
than 120 new U.S. science investigations,

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with a record-setting 100 hours of research
in one week in February.

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Our astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut
Alexey Ovchinin, who were forced to abort

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their planned mission to the orbital laboratory,
were reassigned to the Expedition 59 mission,

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targeted to launch Feb. 28, 2019.

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Observations of our home planet from above
included a rash of eruptions of Hawaii’s

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Kilauea volcano …

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Major hurricanes, including powerful storms
Florence and Michael …

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And the wildfires in California.

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The ICESat-2 mission launched in September
with a laser instrument that fires 10,000

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pulses a second to measure the height of ice
sheets, glaciers, sea ice and vegetation on

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Earth.

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In October, our airborne Operation IceBridge
mission spotted a rectangular-shaped tabular

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iceberg during a pass over the northern Antarctic
Peninsula.

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We selected Lockheed Martin to build an experimental
aircraft named the X-59 QueSST – for Quiet

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Supersonic Technology.

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It could help open a new era of quiet, supersonic
air travel over land by reducing sonic booms

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…

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In June, our remotely-piloted Ikhana aircraft
successfully flew its first mission in the

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National Airspace System without a safety
chase aircraft.

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The historic flight moves the country a step
closer to normalizing unmanned commercial

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and private aircraft operations.

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And we continued testing concepts and technologies
for Urban Air Mobility, a safe and efficient

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system for passenger and cargo air transportation
in and around an urban area.

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We’re developing new technologies to enable
exploration, including this September test

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of a heatshield that folds like an umbrella
for launch and unfurls once deployed in space.

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We partnered with the Department of Energy
on the Kilopower project, which aims to develop

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nuclear power technologies that could provide
power for long-duration stays on planetary

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surfaces.

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And the twin Mars Cube One, or MarCO CubeSats
that launched with our InSight spacecraft

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to Mars as a tech demo, not only successfully
helped relay landing signals from InSight

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and other data back to Earth – but also
captured some incredible images – including

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the first ever image of the Red Planet captured
by a CubeSat.

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Oct. 1 marked the 60th anniversary of NASA
opening for business …

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and we kicked off celebrations in June, with
a concert at the Kennedy Center in Washington.

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We also began celebrations of the 50th anniversary
of the Apollo missions, leading up to the

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anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing
in July 2019.

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Restored Historic Mission Control consoles
were delivered to Houston – while we marked

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Apollo 8’s Christmas 1968 mission with an
event at Washington National Cathedral.

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That’s the highlights of 2018 – the year
at NASA.

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For more details, visit nasa.gov/2018.

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Happy Holidays, thanks for watching, and we’re
looking forward to sharing more exciting exploration