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Getting back to the business of NASA …

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An update on our Commercial Crew Program …

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And, our mission to the Sun is in full swing
… a few of the stories to tell you about

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– This Week at NASA!

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Our administrator Jim Bridenstine held an
agency-wide town hall at our headquarters

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on Jan. 29 to welcome employees back to work
following the partial government shutdown

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and to say …

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“Thank you for your patience and for your
commitment to this agency and to the mission

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that we all believe in so dearly.”

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The administrator pointed to some significant
exploration milestones during the shutdown

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the NASA workforce helped make possible … like
the OSIRIS-REx sample return mission’s arrival

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at asteroid Bennu.

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“We’re now in orbit around the smallest
object in space that we’ve ever been able

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to orbit – and we’re getting new scientific
information that’s going to be transformative.”

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And the New Year’s Day flyby of Kuiper Belt
Object Ultima Thule by our New Horizons spacecraft.

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The encounter – some 4 billion miles from
our Sun – is the farthest exploration of

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a celestial object by any spacecraft in history.

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“Flying by Ultima Thule is not a once in
a lifetime opportunity, it’s a once in humanity

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opportunity.”

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The town hall wrapped up with a “video look-ahead”
to 2019 and the many missions and projects

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the agency is working on.

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You can check out that video for yourself,
by visiting nasa.gov/next.

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SpaceX, who along with Boeing, is one of our
partner companies developing spacecraft to

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restore launches of American astronauts from
American soil – recently performed checkouts,

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including a static firing, with its Falcon
9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft at our

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Kennedy Space Center, in Florida.

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The checkouts are in preparation for Demo-1,
the inaugural, uncrewed flight of the Crew

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Dragon.

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Meanwhile, our Mike Fincke has been named
to replace Eric Boe on the crew of the Boeing

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CST-100 Starliner’s Crew Flight Test.

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Boe is unable to fly due to medical reasons.

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This flight test, targeted for launch later
this year, will be the first launch of the

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new spacecraft with humans on board.

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Fincke joins our Nicole Mann and Boeing’s
Chris Ferguson on the crew.

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Our Parker solar Probe spacecraft, which recently
completed its first orbit of the Sun, has

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now begun the second of 24 planned orbits,
on track for its second closest approach to

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our solar system’s star, on April 4.

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With all systems online and operating as designed,
the spacecraft has been delivering data to

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Earth via the Deep Space Network.

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Data from the mission will help answer questions
about the Sun’s fundamental physics — including

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how particles and solar material are accelerated
out into space at such high speeds and why

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the Sun’s atmosphere, or corona, is so much
hotter than the surface below.

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That’s what’s up this week @NASA …