Oct 11 2001
From The Space Library
NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin announced that, to honor the victims of the 11 September terrorist attacks, NASA would carry American flags into space and give the flags to survivors of the attacks and families of the victims. NASA called the memorial to the people who had lost their lives in the events of 11 September “Flags for Heroes and Families.” Space Shuttle Endeavour, scheduled to launch on 29 November 2001, would carry nearly 6,000 flags. NASA would later have the flags mounted on specially designed memorial certificates and would distribute them to survivors and to victims’ families. (NASA, “NASA Administrator Launches ‘Flags for Heroes and Families’ Campaign,” news release 01-195, 11 October 2001.)
NASA revealed time-lapse images of the biggest dust storm on Mars to occur in nearly 30 years. The HST and Mars Global Surveyor had captured the images, which showed that the storms had begun as a local event in the Hellas region of Mars and had rapidly propagated throughout the planet. The storms had obscured the surface of Mars and dramatically affected temperatures in the planet’s atmosphere, including heating the upper portions of its atmosphere to as much as 80°F (26.7°C). NASA scientists hoped that data about the storms would help them learn more about sediments on Mars, as well as helping them plan future missions to the Red Planet. (William Harwood, “Mars Wearing Veil of Dust; Biggest Storm in Three Decades Obscures Surface, Alters Temperatures,” Washington Post, 12 October 2001; NASA, “Scientists Track ‘Perfect Storm’ on Mars,” news release 01-193, 11 October 2001.)
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