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A new lead selected for our human spaceflight
efforts …

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The new core capability of our next Mars rover
…

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And news about our future VIPER lunar robot
… a few of the stories to tell you about

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– This Week at NASA!

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NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine selected
Commercial Crew Program Manager Kathy Lueders

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to be the agency’s next associate administrator
of the Human Exploration and Operations (HEO)

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Mission Directorate - effective immediately.

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Since 2014, Lueders has directed NASA’s
efforts to send astronauts to space on private

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spacecraft, which culminated in the successful
launch of our SpaceX Demo-2 test flight to

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the International Space Station recently from
our Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

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The Administrator says Lueders gives NASA
the “extraordinary experience and passion”

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needed to land the first woman and next man
on the Moon by 2024 with the Artemis program.

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While the Perseverance rover for our Mars
2020 mission is largely based on the Curiosity

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rover, Perseverance has a few improvements
for high-priority science goals.

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For the first time, the rover carries a drill
for collecting core samples from Martian rocks

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and soil, then preserving those samples in
tubes for a possible future mission to collect

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and return to Earth.

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The launch window for the Mars 2020 mission
runs from July 17 through Aug. 5.

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On June 11, we announced the selection of
Astrobotic to deliver our new water-hunting

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VIPER mobile robot to the South Pole of the
Moon, as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar

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Payload Services initiative.

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As the first resource-mapping mission on the
surface of another world, VIPER will help

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pave the way for human missions to the Moon
as part of our Artemis program.

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For more information about NASA’s VIPER
mission, visit: nasa.gov/viper.

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Researchers using data from our Cassini mission,
which ended in September 2017, found that

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Saturn’s moon, Titan is drifting away from
the planet a hundred times faster than previously

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understood — about 4 inches per year.

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This new finding may help address questions
about when Saturn’s rings and system of

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more than 80 moons actually formed.

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We’re making significant progress on our
first all-electric X-plane, the X-57 Maxwell.

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Engineers are completing work toward functional
ground testing – including taxi testing

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and first flight.

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Tests are also underway on the plane’s electric
cruise motors and the future high-aspect ratio

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wing that will fly on the aircraft’s final
configuration.

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Lessons learned from this testing are helping
to pave the way for future Federal Aviation

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Administration airworthiness standards for
electric aircraft.

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That’s what’s up this week @NASA …