Jan 20 2016

From The Space Library

Release M16-005 Media Invited to See NASA’s Orion Crew Module for its Journey to Mars

NASA’s Orion crew module will be available to media at two NASA locations Jan. 26th and in early February, as engineers continue to prepare the spacecraft to send astronauts deeper into space than ever before, including to an asteroid placed in lunar orbit and on the journey to Mars.

At 10:30 a.m. EST on Tuesday, Jan. 26, the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans will host a media viewing and facility tour of the spacecraft’s recently completed pressure vessel, the underlying structure of the crew module, before it ships to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

To attend the event at Michoud, reporters must contact Chip Howat at 504-257-0478 or carl.j.howat@nasa.gov by 3 p.m. Monday, Jan. 25. International media accreditation for this event is closed.

The Orion pressure vessel provides a sealed environment for astronaut life support in future human-rated crew modules. Technicians at Michoud began welding together the seven large aluminum pieces of Orion’s primary structure in precise detail last September. At Kennedy, Orion will be outfitted with the spacecraft’s systems and subsystems, processed and integrated with NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) ahead of their first joint exploration mission, or EM-1.

Michoud also is where the massive core stage of SLS is being manufactured. Reporters will be able to view tooling and newly manufactured hardware for SLS, and hear about mission progress from personnel across NASA.

Individuals available for interviews during the tour include:

• Bill Hill, deputy associate administrator for Exploration Systems Development at NASA Headquarters in Washington
• Mike Sarafin, EM-1 mission manager at NASA Headquarters
• Mark Kirasich, Orion program manager at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston
• Scott Wilson, Orion production manager at Kennedy
• John Honeycutt, SLS program manager at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama
• Steve Doering, SLS core stage manager at Marshall
• Mike Bolger, Ground Systems Development and Operations program manager at Kennedy
• NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio
• Mike Hawes, Orion program manager for Lockheed Martin
• Jim Bray, crew module director for Lockheed Martin

Orion will depart Michoud on or about Feb. 1 and travel to Kennedy aboard NASA’s Super Guppy airplane. Additional details for Orion’s arrival at Kennedy, including media accreditation, are forthcoming.

Release 16-008 NASA, NOAA Analyses Reveal Record-Shattering Global Warm Temperatures in 2015

Earth’s 2015 surface temperatures were the warmest since modern record keeping began in 1880, according to independent analyses by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Globally-averaged temperatures in 2015 shattered the previous mark set in 2014 by 0.23 degrees Fahrenheit (0.13 Celsius). Only once before, in 1998, has the new record been greater than the old record by this much.

The 2015 temperatures continue a long-term warming trend, according to analyses by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York (GISTEMP). NOAA scientists concur with the finding that 2015 was the warmest year on record based on separate, independent analyses of the data. Because weather station locations and measurements change over time, there is some uncertainty in the individual values in the GISTEMP index. Taking this into account, NASA analysis estimates 2015 was the warmest year with 94 percent certainty.

“Climate change is the challenge of our generation, and NASA’s vital work on this important issue affects every person on Earth,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. “Today’s announcement not only underscores how critical NASA’s Earth observation program is, it is a key data point that should make policy makers stand up and take notice - now is the time to act on climate.”

The planet’s average surface temperature has risen about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1.0 degree Celsius) since the late-19th century, a change largely driven by increased carbon dioxide and other human-made emissions into the atmosphere.

Most of the warming occurred in the past 35 years, with 15 of the 16 warmest years on record occurring since 2001. Last year was the first time the global average temperatures were 1 degree Celsius or more above the 1880-1899 average.

Phenomena such as El Niño or La Niña, which warm or cool the tropical Pacific Ocean, can contribute to short-term variations in global average temperature. A warming El Niño was in effect for most of 2015.

“2015 was remarkable even in the context of the ongoing El Niño,” said GISS Director Gavin Schmidt. “Last year’s temperatures had an assist from El Niño, but it is the cumulative effect of the long-term trend that has resulted in the record warming that we are seeing.”

Weather dynamics often affect regional temperatures, so not every region on Earth experienced record average temperatures last year. For example, NASA and NOAA found that the 2015 annual mean temperature for the contiguous 48 United States was the second warmest on record.

NASA’s analyses incorporate surface temperature measurements from 6,300 weather stations, ship- and buoy-based observations of sea surface temperatures, and temperature measurements from Antarctic research stations. These raw measurements are analyzed using an algorithm that considers the varied spacing of temperature stations around the globe and urban heating effects that could skew the conclusions if left unaccounted for. The result of these calculations is an estimate of the global average temperature difference from a baseline period of 1951 to 1980.

NOAA scientists used much of the same raw temperature data, but a different baseline period, and different methods to analyze Earth’s polar regions and global temperatures.

GISS is a NASA laboratory managed by the Earth Sciences Division of the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The laboratory is affiliated with Columbia University’s Earth Institute and School of Engineering and Applied Science in New York.

NASA monitors Earth's vital signs from land, air and space with a fleet of satellites, as well as airborne and ground-based observation campaigns. The agency 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. NASA 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.