Nov 22 2016

From The Space Library

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Current revision

MEDIA ADVISORY M16-135 NASA TV News Conference, Media Availability with Next Space Station Crew

NASA astronaut Jack Fischer and cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, who are targeted to launch to the International Space Station in March, will participate in a news conference at 2 p.m. EST Wednesday, Nov. 30, at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The news conference will air live on NASA Television and stream on the agency’s website.

Fischer, a first-time space flyer, and veteran cosmonaut Yurchikhin will launch to the space station in late March from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to round out Expedition 51.

Media who wish to participate by telephone should call Johnson's newsroom at 281-483-5111 no later than 1:45 p.m. Those following the briefing on social media can ask questions using the hashtag #askNASA.

After the news conference, interview opportunities with Fischer are available in person or by phone. To request credentials to attend in person, or to reserve an interview opportunity, media must contact Johnson's newsroom by 5 p.m. Monday, Nov. 28.

Fischer, a colonel in the U.S. Air Force, was selected in July 2009 as a member of the 20th NASA astronaut class and completed astronaut training in 2011. Prior to becoming an astronaut, the Colorado native graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1996 with a Bachelor of Science in Astronautical Engineering. He went on to receive a Master of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1998. He has been a Capsule Communicator (CAPCOM) and worked in the International Space Station Operations, International Space Station Integration, Soyuz and Exploration branches of the Astronaut Office.

During their planned five-month mission, Fischer and Yurchikhin will take part in approximately 250 research investigations and technology demonstrations not possible on Earth in order to advance scientific knowledge of Earth, space, physical, and biological sciences. Science conducted on the space station continues to yield benefits for humanity and will enable future long-duration human and robotic exploration into deep space, including the agency’s Journey to Mars.

MEDIA ADVISORY M16-134 Real People Behind Hidden Figures, Stars Join NASA to Mark Anniversary, Celebration of Diversity

NASA will kick off a yearlong centennial celebration for its Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, with events Thursday, Dec. 1 highlighting the critical work done by the African American women of Langley’s West Computing Unit, a story told in the book and upcoming movie Hidden Figures.

The day will begin with an education event at 11 a.m. EST, featuring:

• NASA Administrator Charles Bolden
• Film director Ted Melfi
• Octavia Spencer, who plays NASA mathematician Dorothy Vaughan in the movie
• Chief Historian Bill Barry, who consulted on the film
• NASA Modern Figure Julie Williams-Byrd, an electro-optics engineer for the Space Mission Analysis Branch at Langley

This event will stream to schools across the country and air live on NASA Television and the agency’s website.

In the evening, the Virginia Air and Space Center in Hampton will host a special screening of the movie for NASA officials and the families of the women featured in the movie and the book on which it’s based, written by Hampton native Margot Lee Shetterly.

Media are invited to speak with Bolden, Barry, Williams-Byrd, and others from 4:45 to 5:10 p.m. at the museum, located at 600 Settlers Landing Road.

Langley was established in 1917 as the nation’s first civil aeronautics laboratory, and became the birthplace of the U.S. space program in the 1950s. It was here that Neil Armstrong and other astronauts learned to land on the moon in the 1960s, and the women featured in Hidden Figures – Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughan, known as “human computers” – helped put John Glenn in orbit.

CONTRACT RELEASE C16-029 NASA Selects Launch Services for Global Surface Water Survey Mission

NASA has selected Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, California, to provide launch services for the agency’s Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission. Launch is targeted for April 2021 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The total cost for NASA to launch SWOT is approximately $112 million, which includes the launch service; spacecraft processing; payload integration; and tracking, data and telemetry support.

Designed to make the first-ever global survey of Earth’s surface water, in addition to high-resolution ocean measurements, the SWOT mission will collect detailed measurements of how water bodies on Earth change over time. The satellite will survey at least 90 percent of the globe, studying Earth's lakes, rivers, reservoirs and oceans, at least twice every 21 days, aid in freshwater management around the world, to improve ocean circulation models and weather and climate predictions. The SWOT spacecraft will be jointly developed and managed by NASA and the French space agency Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES).

NASA’s Launch Services Program at Kennedy Space Center in Florida will manage the SpaceX launch service. The SWOT Project office at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages spacecraft development for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.