Apr 19 2011
From The Space Library
MEDIA ADVISORY: M11-077 NASA HONORS PIONEER ASTRONAUT ALAN SHEPARD WITH MOON ROCK
WASHINGTON -- NASA will posthumously honor Alan B. Shepard Jr., the first American astronaut in space who later walked on the moon, with an Ambassador of Exploration Award for his contributions to the U.S. space program. Shepard's family members will accept the award on his behalf during a ceremony at 5:30 p.m. EDT on Thursday, April 28, at the U.S. Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis, Md. His family will present the award to the museum for permanent display. NASA's Chief Historian Bill Barry will represent the agency at the event, which will include a video message from NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. Shepard, a 1945 graduate of the Naval Academy, was one of NASA's original seven Mercury astronauts selected in April 1959. On May 5, 1961, he was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., aboard the Freedom 7 spacecraft on a suborbital flight that carried him to an altitude of 116 miles. Shepard made his second spaceflight as the commander of Apollo 14 from Jan. 31 to Feb. 9, 1971. He was accompanied on the third lunar landing by astronauts Stuart Roosa and Edgar Mitchell. Maneuvering the lunar module "Antares" to a landing in the hilly upland Fra Mauro region of the moon, Shepard and Mitchell deployed and activated a number of scientific instruments and collected almost 100 pounds of lunar samples for return to Earth. The event is not open to the public NASA is giving the Ambassador of Exploration Award to the first generation of explorers in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space programs for realizing America's goal of going to the moon. The award is a moon rock encased in Lucite, mounted for public display. The rock is part of the 842 pounds of lunar samples collected during six Apollo missions from 1969 to 1972. The astronauts or family members receiving the award present it to a museum of their choice, where the moon rock is placed on public display. Shepard retired from NASA in 1974 and passed away in July 1998.
MEDIA ADVISORY: M11-080 NASA AND MUSIC PRODUCER PHARRELL WILLIAMS ENCOURAGE VIRGINIA STUDENTS TO REACH FOR THE STARS HAMPTON, Va. --
NASA and producer and recording artist Pharrell Williams will host an education event on Saturday, April 23, at Williams Farms Park in Virginia Beach, Va. The event is designed to encourage students to pursue science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) studies and careers. NASA's Associate Administrator for Education Leland Melvin who is a former astronaut and Williams, a Hampton Roads, Va., native, will deliver remarks. Williams' charitable organization, From One Hand to Another, is supporting the development of the Pharrell Williams Resource Center, which is scheduled to open in 2013 in the park. The center will run academic enrichment programs and engage youth in STEM activities. Saturday's program also will feature NASA exhibits and showcase the accomplishments of students from Hampton Roads who participated last year in NASA's inaugural Summer of Innovation camps. More than 500 students who participated in the camps sponsored by NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., will be in attendance. The event, which runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. EDT, is free and open to the public and reporters. In case of inclement weather, the event will be held at Bayside Middle School, 965 Newton Road, Virginia Beach. NASA's Summer of Innovation is a key part of President Obama's Educate to Innovate campaign, which was launched to help keep middle school students engaged during school breaks.
RELEASE: 11-116 NASA SETS LAUNCH DATE FOR SPACE SHUTTLE ENDEAVOUR MISSION
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Space shuttle Commander Mark Kelly and his five crewmates are scheduled to begin a 14-day mission to the International Space Station with a launch at 3:47 p.m. EDT on Friday, April 29, from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The STS-134 mission is shuttle Endeavour's final scheduled flight. The launch date was announced Tuesday at the conclusion of a flight readiness review at Kennedy. During the meeting, senior NASA and contractor managers assessed the risks associated with the mission and determined the shuttle and station's equipment, support systems and personnel are ready. The crew will deliver a particle physics detector, known as the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2 (AMS) to the station. AMS is designed to measure cosmic rays to search for various types of unusual matter, such as dark matter and antimatter. The instrument's experiments will help researchers study the formation of the universe. Endeavour also will deliver the Express Logistics Carrier 3, a platform that carries spare parts to sustain station operations after the shuttles are retired from service. The mission will feature the last four spacewalks by a shuttle crew. The spacewalkers will do maintenance work, install new components, and perform a complex series of tasks to top off the ammonia in one of the station's photovoltaic thermal control system cooling loops. The crew consists of Commander Kelly, Pilot Greg H. Johnson, NASA Mission Specialists Michael Fincke, Andrew Feustel and Greg Chamitoff and European Space Agency Mission Specialist Roberto Vittori. They are scheduled to arrive at Kennedy on Tuesday, April 26, for final launch preparations. STS-134 is the 134th shuttle mission, Endeavour's 25th flight and the 36th shuttle mission to the station.
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