Dec 11 2014
From The Space Library
MEDIA ADVISORY M14-201 NASA, SpaceX Update Launch of Resupply Mission to the Space Station
The fifth SpaceX cargo mission to the International Space Station (ISS) under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services contract now is scheduled to launch no earlier than 1:20 p.m. EST Friday, Dec. 19, from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. NASA Television coverage of the launch begins at 12:15 p.m.
The change of launch date allows SpaceX to take extra time to ensure they do everything possible on the ground to prepare for a successful launch. Both the Falcon 9 rocket and its Dragon spacecraft are in good health.
The prelaunch news conferences also have moved to Thursday, Dec. 18 at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. All briefings, which are subject to a change in time, will air live on NASA TV and the agency's website.
The first briefing of the day will air at noon and will provide up-to-date information about the launch. Participants for the prelaunch briefing will be:
- Mike Suffredini, NASA’s ISS Program manager
- Hans Koenigsmann, vice president for Mission Assurance at SpaceX
- Kathy Winters with the U.S. Air Force’s 45th Weather Squadron at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida
The second briefing, now at 1:30 p.m., will cover some of the numerous science investigations headed to the space station. Participants for the science briefing will be:
- Julie Robinson, NASA’s ISS Program chief scientist
- Michael Roberts, senior research pathway manager at the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, headquartered in Melbourne, Florida
- Cheryl Nickerson, Micro-5 principal investigator at Arizona State University
- Samuel Durrance, NR-SABOL principal investigator at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne
The final briefing, now at 3 p.m., will cover the Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS) Earth science instrument headed to the space station. Participants for this briefing will be:
- Julie Robinson, ISS Program chief scientist at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston
- Colleen Hartman, deputy director for science at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland
- Robert J. Swap, program scientist with the Earth Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington
- Matthew McGill, CATS principal investigator at Goddard
An on-time launch on Dec. 19 will result in the Dragon spacecraft arriving at the space station on Sunday, Dec. 21. Expedition 42 Commander Barry "Butch" Wilmore of NASA will use the station's 57.7-foot robotic arm to reach out and capture it at approximately 6 a.m. Flight Engineer Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency will support Wilmore as they operate from the station's cupola. NASA TV coverage of grapple will begin at 4:30 a.m. Coverage of Dragon's installation to the Earth-facing port of the Harmony module will begin 9 a.m.
MEDIA ADVISORY M14-200 Space Station Partners Hold Paris News Conference to Discuss Yearlong Mission
NASA and its International Space Station partners will hold a news conference in Paris at 10 a.m. EST Thursday, Dec. 18, to discuss the upcoming one-year expedition on the International Space Station. NASA Television and the agency's website will carry the briefing live.
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly will launch to the space station in March 2015 to begin a yearlong stay aboard the orbiting laboratory -- the longest single space mission ever undertaken by an American. He will be joined by Mikhail Kornienko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) on this one-year mission.
Thursday’s briefing will take place at the headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris and will include participants from NASA, its international partner space agencies, and UNESCO. During the briefing, questions will be taken from media in attendance and on the phone from participating partner locations.
The briefing participants will be:
- Scott Kelly, NASA astronaut and one-year mission crew member
- Mikhail Kornienko, Roscosmos cosmonaut and one-year mission crew member
- Andreas Mogensen, European Space Agency astronaut and visiting crew flight engineer
- Soichi Noguchi, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency chief astronaut
- Jeremy Hansen, Canadian Space Agency astronaut
For those attending in person, the deadline to request credentials is Tuesday, Dec. 16. For more information about media accreditation, contact Nicola Firth (Nicola.Firth@esa.int). Reporters attending at partner locations should contact those centers' newsrooms for specific deadlines.
U.S. media may participate at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston or by phone. Reporters must contact the Johnson newsroom at 281-483-5111 [ 281-483-5111] no later than noon CST Wednesday, Dec. 17, to request approval. Approved media will be notified that afternoon and those participating by phone will need to call the Johnson newsroom at least 15 minutes before the start of the Thursday briefing. Media will not be able to connect once the briefing begins.
The public also may ask questions via social media by using the hashtag #askNASA.
RELEASE 14-329 Help U.S. Cope with Climate Change: Enter NASA-USGS Data App Challenge
NASA in partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is offering more than $35,000 in prizes to citizen scientists for ideas that make use of climate data to address vulnerabilities faced by the United States in coping with climate change.
The Climate Resilience Data Challenge, conducted through the NASA Tournament Lab, a partnership with Harvard University hosted on Appirio/Topcoder, kicks off Monday, Dec 15 and runs through March 2015.
The challenge supports the efforts of the White House Climate Data Initiative, a broad effort to leverage the federal government’s extensive, freely available climate-relevant data resources to spur innovation and private-sector entrepreneurship in order to advance awareness of and preparedness for the impacts of climate change. The challenge was announced by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Dec. 9.
According to the recent National Climate Assessment produced by more than 300 experts across government and academia, the United States faces a number of current and future challenges as the result of climate change. Vulnerabilities include coastal flooding and weather-related hazards that threaten lives and property, increased disruptions to agriculture, prolonged drought that adversely affects food security and water availability, and ocean acidification capable of damaging ecosystems and biodiversity. The challenge seeks to unlock the potential of climate data to address these and other climate risks.
“Federal agencies, such as NASA and the USGS, traditionally focus on developing world-class science data to support scientific research, but the rapid growth in the innovation community presents new opportunities to encourage wider usage and application of science data to benefit society,” said Kevin Murphy, NASA program executive for Earth Science Data Systems in Washington. “We need tools that utilize federal data to help our local communities improve climate resilience, protect our ecosystems, and prepare for the effects of climate change.”
“Government science follows the strictest professional protocols because scientific objectivity is what the American people expect from us,” said Virginia Burkett, acting USGS associate director for Climate Change and Land Use. “That systematic approach is fundamental to our mission. With this challenge, however, we are intentionally looking outside the box for transformational ways to apply the data that we have already carefully assembled for the benefit of communities across the nation.”
The challenge begins with an ideation stage for data-driven application pitches, followed by storyboarding and, finally, prototyping of concepts with the greatest potential.
The ideation stage challenges competitors to imagine new applications of climate data to address climate vulnerabilities. This stage is divided into three competitive classes based on data sources: NASA data, federal data from agencies such as the USGS, and any open data. The storyboarding stage allows competitors to conceptualize and design the best ideas, followed by the prototyping stage, which carry the best ideas into implementation.
The Climate Resilience Data Challenge is managed by NASA's Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation at NASA Headquarters, Washington. The center was established in coordination with the Office of Science and Technology Policy to advance open innovation efforts for climate-related science and extend that expertise to other federal agencies.
NASA monitors Earth's vital signs from land, air, and space with a fleet of satellites and ambitious airborne and ground-based observation campaigns. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth's interconnected natural systems with long-term data records and computer analysis tools to better see how our planet is changing. The agency shares this unique knowledge with the global community and works with institutions in the United States and around the world that contribute to understanding and protecting our home planet.
