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Another power-packed spacewalk outside the
space station …

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Highlighting a pretty cool comet …

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And a key piece of Space Launch System hardware
is on the move … a few of the stories to

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tell you about – This Week at NASA!

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Our Chris Cassidy and Bob Behnken were back
outside the International Space Station on

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July 16 to outfit one of the station’s power
channels with new lithium-ion batteries and

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associated hardware.

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The spacewalk is one of the few remaining
in a three-and-a-half-year effort to upgrade

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the station’s power system.

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NASA photographer Bill Ingalls recently captured
images of Comet NEOWISE in the early morning

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skies over Washington, D.C.

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The comet, which was discovered by and nicknamed
after our NEOWISE spacecraft, has been visible

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at certain hours with the naked-eye – and
has been spotted by several NASA spacecraft,

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as well as astronauts aboard the space station.

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“The fact that we can see it is really what
makes it unique.

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It’s quite rare for a comet to be bright
enough that we can see it with the naked eye,

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or even with just binoculars.

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The last time we had a comet that was this
bright was Comet Hale-Bopp back in 1995 and

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1996.”

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Comet NEOWISE is expected to make its closest
approach to Earth on July 22.

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On July 17, teams at our Marshall Space Flight
Center in Huntsville, Alabama put the wheels

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in motion to transport the launch vehicle
stage adapter for our Space Launch System

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(SLS) rocket, to our Kennedy Space Center
in Florida – in preparation for the first

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uncrewed Artemis mission around the Moon and
back.

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The adapter, which connects the upper and
core stages of the rocket, is being transported

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aboard the agency’s Pegasus barge.

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On July 16, the joint European Space Agency/NASA
Solar Orbiter mission released the mission’s

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first data – captured during the spacecraft’s
first close pass of the Sun.

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On that flyby last month, Solar Orbiter captured
the closest images ever taken of the Sun,

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and had all 10 of its instruments turned on
together for the first time, including an

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American-led instrument designed to pinpoint
coronal mass ejections.

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We are now targeting Oct. 31, 2021, for the
launch of our James Webb Space Telescope from

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French Guiana, due to impacts from the ongoing
coronavirus pandemic, as well as technical

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challenges.

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Engineers recently conducted the first full
systems evaluation on Webb since the telescope

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was assembled into its final form.

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It’s a critical software and electrical
analysis on the entire observatory as a single,

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fully connected vehicle.

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Webb is the largest and most technically complex
space science telescope NASA has ever built.

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The CALIPSO satellite, a joint venture between
NASA and the French space agency, CNES, helped

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provide a unique view of the massive Saharan
dust plume that crossed the North Atlantic

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Ocean in June – into parts of the U.S.

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The animation includes data and imagery from
CALIPSO, a space-based laser that measures

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clouds and small atmospheric particles, and
from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

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satellites.

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That’s what’s up this week @NASA …