Apr 23 2013

From The Space Library

RELEASE: 13-115 - NASA ANNOUNCES 2012 SMALL BUSINESS INDUSTRY AWARDS --WASHINGTON -- NASA Administrator Charles Bolden on Tuesday recognized three companies as winners of the agency's 2012 Small Business Industry Awards (SBIA). The Small Business Industry Award Program highlights a large business prime contractor, a small business prime contractor and a small business subcontractor for outstanding support to NASA in achieving the agency's mission during the fiscal year. Our industry partners are helping NASA remain the world leader in space exploration, said Bolden, who presented the awards at a CEO Roundtable Summit he hosted at NASA Headquarters, Washington. "Small business represents the best of the American spirit of innovation, the drive to solve problems and create solutions to our biggest challenges. We're pleased to recognize the excellence of these entrepreneurs, whose work brings a great return on the taxpayer's investment."

RELEASE: 13-116 - SPACE STATION COMMUNICATIONS TEST BED CHECKS OUT; EXPERIMENTS BEGIN --WASHINGTON -- NASA's Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) test bed has begun its experiments after completing its checkout on the International Space Station. The SCaN test bed is an advanced, integrated communications laboratory facility that uses a new generation of software-defined radio (SDR) technology to allow researchers to develop, test and demonstrate advanced communications, networking and navigation technologies in space. This radio communication technology is based on a new standard that enables radio characteristics and functionality to be changed simply by altering the software. It can be transferred to any radio built to the standard. The cost savings and efficiency of this new technology will improve NASA's data communications in the future. The space station serves as a dynamic test bed for the technologies needed for future human and robotic exploration, said International Space Station Program Manager Michael Suffredini. "SCaN is an example of the technologies that are being matured in low-Earth orbit and used to increase science return of many different types of spacecraft." Checkout activities completed in February established the status and health of the payload, including the antenna systems and software on each of three SDRs. The test bed will help technology developers and mission planners understand how they will be used in future missions. "With the development and deployment of this test bed, NASA has enabled significant future advancements by gaining knowledge and understanding of SDR development," said John Rush, technology and standards director for SCaN at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "That has created expertise across the agency that will define and develop the next generation of SDRs for future missions." Initial experiments under way include advancing in S-band and Ka-band SDR technology and enhancing the capabilities of the existing communications paths, especially in the Ka-band. Researchers expect the test bed to operate aboard the space station for as long as six years. The SCaN Test bed represents a significant advancement in SDRs and its applications for NASA, said David Irimies, project manager for the SCaN test bed at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. "Investigating these SDR technologies in the dynamic space environment increases their technology readiness level and maturity, which in turn can be used for future missions as risk reduction." An experiment with NASA's latest Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS)-K will be the first in-orbit test and demonstration of a TDRS spacecraft acquiring and successfully auto-tracking a Ka-band user in low-Earth orbit. This reconfigurable in-orbit laboratory provides broad participation to NASA, industry, academia and other government agencies. These experiments will contribute data to the Space Telecommunications Radio Standard Compliant repository and will enable future hardware platforms to use common, reusable software modules to reduce development time and costs. NASA continues to solicit proposals to participate in the development, integration and in-orbit execution of research and technology experiments and demonstrations using the test bed. The first users outside NASA are expected to demonstrate experiments on the SCaN test bed by 2014. Glenn Research Center leads the SCaN test bed multi-center team, which includes the agency's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.; Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.; and Johnson Space Center in Houston. General Dynamics of Scottsdale, Ariz., and Harris Corp. of Melbourne, Fla., developed SDRs under cooperative agreements with NASA. The SCaN Program Office in the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington manages, oversees and funds the test bed.

MEDIA ADVISORY: M13-064 - NASA OPENS MEDIA ACCREDITATION FOR CALIFORNIA SOLAR MISSION LAUNCH --WASHINGTON -- News media planning to cover the launch of NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) mission on June 26 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California should apply for accreditation by June 18. Deployment of IRIS from the Orbital Sciences L-1011 carrier aircraft aboard a Pegasus rocket is targeted for 10:27 p.m. EDT at an altitude of 39,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean. That location is approximately 100 miles northwest of Vandenberg off the central coast of California. News media can cover the prelaunch news conference and mission science briefing, which will be followed by an opportunity to see the L-1011 aircraft with the attached Pegasus rocket carrying IRIS. For launch, news media will be able to see the deployment of the Pegasus rocket from the L-1011 via live video provided by a NASA chase plane. A news conference will be held after the launch. IRIS is a NASA Small Explorer Mission to observe how solar material moves, gathers energy, and heats up as it travels through a little-understood region in the sun's lower atmosphere. This interface region between the sun's photosphere and corona powers its dynamic million-degree atmosphere and drives the solar wind. The interface region is where most of the sun's ultraviolet emission is generated that impacts the near-Earth space environment and Earth's climate. NASA's Launch Services Program at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida is responsible for IRIS launch management.