Mar 14 2016

From The Space Library

RELEASE 16-031 Kavandi to Succeed Free as Glenn Research Center Director, Free Joins NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden has named former astronaut Janet Kavandi director of the agency’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. Kavandi has been serving as Glenn’s deputy director since February 2015. She succeeds Jim Free, who was named deputy associate administrator for technical in the agency’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate in Washington. The appointments are effective Monday.

As director, Kavandi will lead a center that has a decades-long tradition of excellence in aeronautics and spaceflight, with more than 3,200 civil service and contractor employees and an annual budget of approximately $580 million.

“Janet has demonstrated extraordinary leadership throughout her NASA career, from her spaceflights to her continued dedication to our mission at the Johnson Space Center and Glenn,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. “I know she’ll bring that same excellence to bear on Glenn’s critical role in our journey to Mars. I also thank Jim Free for his service as the head of this important center and look forward to his contributions in human space exploration.”

Kavandi was selected as an astronaut in December 1994. During her time in the Astronaut Office at Johnson, she supported space station payload integration, capsule communications, robotics, and served as deputy chief of the Astronaut Office. She is a veteran of three spaceflights, serving as a mission specialist on the STS-91 mission in 1998, STS-99 in 2000, and STS-104 in 2001. Kavandi has logged more than 33 days in space.

Prior to being named deputy director of Glenn, Kavandi served at Johnson as the deputy director of the Health and Human Performance Directorate, where she was responsible for the NASA flight surgeons and human research investigations on the space station. She also served as both the director and deputy director of Flight Crew Operations, where she was responsible for the Astronaut Corps and aircraft operations at Ellington Field near Johnson.

Born in Springfield, Missouri, she earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Missouri Southern State College in Joplin, a master’s degree in chemistry from the University of Missouri in Rolla, and her doctorate in analytical chemistry from the University of Washington in Seattle. She has been recognized with a Presidential Rank Award, two NASA Outstanding Leadership Medals, two Exceptional Service Medals and three NASA Space Flight Medals.

Free joined NASA in 1990 as a propulsion engineer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. His first assignment at Glenn was in 1999 as the International Space Station liaison for the center’s Fluids and Combustion Facility. From 2008 to 2009, Free was the Orion Test and Verification Manager at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. He then returned to Glenn and served in a number of leadership positions, including chief of the Orion Projects Office and director of Space Flight Systems. In 2010, he was appointed the center’s deputy director and named director in January 2013.

RELEASE 16-032 NASA Selects Proposals to Build Better Solar Technologies for Deep Space Missions

NASA’s Game Changing Development (GCD) program has selected four proposals to develop solar array technologies that will aid spacecraft in exploring destinations well beyond low-Earth orbit, including Mars.

NASA’s future deep space missions will require solar arrays that can operate in high-radiation and low-temperature environments. Developing a new generation of solar power technologies that focuses on these attributes will improve mission performance, increase solar array life, and ultimately may allow solar-powered vehicles to explore deeper into space than ever before.

“These awards will greatly enhance our ability to further develop and enhance LILT (low-intensity low temperature) performance by employing new solar cell designs,” said Lanetra Tate, the GCD program executive in NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate. “The ultimate goal of increasing end of life performance and enhanced space power applications will greatly impact how we execute extended missions, especially to the outer planets.”

The four proposals selected for contract negotiations are:

• Transformational Solar Array for Extreme Environments -- Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory of Laurel, Maryland
• Micro-Concentrator Solar Array Technology for Extreme Environments – The Boeing Company of Huntington Beach, California
• Solar Array for Low-intensity Low Temperature and High-Radiation Environments, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California
• Concentrator Solar Power Systems for Low-intensity Low Temperature and High Radiation Game Changing Technology Development -- ATK Space Systems of Goleta, California

The proposals were received from NASA centers, laboratories, research groups, and industry in response to the Extreme Environment Solar Power Appendix to the SpaceTech-REDDI-2015 NASA Research Announcement. Initial contract awards are as much as $400,000, providing awardees with funding for nine months of system design, component testing and analysis.

After completing the initial nine months, NASA anticipates a second phase, and may select up to two of these technologies to receive up to $1.25 million to develop and test their hardware during the second stage of the project. In the third and final phase of the project, one awardee may be asked to continue the development and deliver scalable system hardware.

NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, manages the GCD program for the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate in Washington. During the next 18 months, the directorate will release more solicitations with the goal of making significant investments that address high-priority challenges for achieving safe and affordable deep-space exploration.