NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

In This Week's Star (Click to Expand)

Marshall Team, Families, Retirees Have Fun in the Sun at Picnic

On June 4, more than 2,000 Marshall team members, retirees and their families attended the Marshall Exchange Family Picnic. They were treated to barbeque, burgers, funnel cakes and snow cones and enjoyed the day featuring a car show, midway games, bingo, a dunking booth, water slides, challenge activities and live music from local bands made up of mostly Marshall employees. More picnic photographs are available for employee viewing on the Around Marshall page on Inside Marshall.

Image right: Center Director Robert Lightfoot gives a thumbs up after cooling off following his first dunk in the dunking booth. (Nancy Vreuls)

Image left: Marshall Protocol Specialist and picnic volunteer Pat Fuller, left, awards Colby Ullery, center, son of Protocol Specialist Ann Ullery, second from left, with a free snow cone card for dunking Center Director Robert Lightfoot in the dunking booth. Ullery's sister, Meggan, and father, Chad, look on. (Nancy Vreuls)

Image right: B-17! Marshall team members, families and retirees try their luck during a round of bingo. (Nancy Vreuls)

Image left: Children enjoy rides on the shuttle slide as their parents look on. (Nancy Vreuls)

Image right: Marshall co-ops and summer interns line up with Deputy Center Director Gene Goldman before heading to their stations as Marshall Exchange volunteers. (Nancy Vreuls)

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Atlantis at Launch Pad for Final Space Shuttle Mission

Space shuttle Atlantis made its historic final journey to the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center June 1. The milestone move, known as rollout, paves the way for the launch of the STS-135 mission to the International Space Station, targeted for July 8. STS-135 will be the 33rd flight of Atlantis, the 37th shuttle mission to the space station and the 135th and final mission of NASA's Space Shuttle Program. (NASA)

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Marshall Hosts Space Camp Twitter Followers

On June 3, the Marshall Space Flight Center hosted a select group of U.S. Space & Rocket Center Space Camp Twitter followers. Twitter is a social networking service that allows users to send and receive tweets consisting of short, 140-character posts that are displayed on users' profile pages. During the group's visit, they toured several stops, including the Payload Operation Center where they learned about Marshall's role in space station science; the east test area to view the historic test stands; and Building 4755 where they learned about Marshall's past and future roles in forging large fuel tanks using friction stir welding techniques. The group also toured the Environmental Control and Life Support Systems' new exhibit and space station mockup to learn how recycling air and water reduces the cost of living and working in space. At each tour stop, the group -- well armed with hand-held devices -- diligently sent out tweets to their online followers to explain what they were seeing and learning. At the end of their time on center, they were pleasantly surprised at the amount of space station science that takes place at Marshall. They enjoyed their tour and couldn’t wait to come back. (Jennifer Stanfield)

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NASA Satellite Data Reveals Joplin Tornado Track

The image shows the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer, or ASTER, satellite data acquired May 30 showing the damage track resulting from for the EF-5 tornado associated with the May 22 Joplin, Mo., storm. The complex pattern of ASTER data indicates variability in land use characterized by colors in this three-channel composite. Vegetated areas are shown in red and green, urban areas are aqua and the damage track from the tornado is also aqua. Clouds are white and cloud shadows are dark. The ASTER data here shows the tornado damage scar left by the violent tornado as damage disrupts other, more typical land use patterns. The variation in width is likely correlated to tornado intensity. The tornado abruptly moved in a more southeasterly direction to the east of the city as is somewhat apparent through the clouds in the imagery.

This image was created by the NASA Short-term Prediction Research and Transition, or SPoRT, Center at the Marshall Space Flight Center, using ASTER data provided courtesy of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center; the U.S. Geological Survey Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center in Sioux Falls, S.D.; Japan’s Earth Remote Sensing Data Analysis Center in Tokyo; and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, along with the Japan Research Observation System Organization also in Tokyo. Final ASTER imagery was produced using resources of the Nebula Cloud Computing Platform, tiled and displayed within Google Earth. Storm survey information was provided by the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Springfield, Mo. (NASA/SPoRT)

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Caring in Action Program Recipients of the Month
Garrick Merrill and Lisa Coe Provide Assistance to Co-worker During Fire Drill

Garrick Merrill and Lisa Coe, computer engineers in the Marshall Space Flight Center’s Space Systems Department of the Engineering Directorate, have been selected as the Caring in Action Recipients of the Month.

Image right: Garrick Merrill, left, and Lisa Coe, right, receive honoree umbrellas from Safety Action Team representative Joan Trolinger. (Lisa Hughes)

Merrill and Coe noticed that a co-worker, who had recently begun using an electric mobility scooter, was having trouble starting her scooter and maneuvering it out of her office during a fire drill in Building 4487. They stayed with her during the drill and assisted her down the stairwell and outside the building.

"Mr. Merrill and Ms. Coe intervened and aided their coworker while risking their own safety -- had this been an actual emergency," said Joan Trolinger, Safety Action Team representative.

The center's fire marshal also was contacted for guidance regarding future evacuation alarms to ensure employees needing assistance are evacuated safely.

For more information about the Caring in Action Program or to nominate a team member, visit the Caring in Action page on Inside Marshall.

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Juergen Haukohl Named American Society of Mechanical Engineers Fellow

Juergen Haukohl, center, systems branch manager of Marshall Engineering Design Services and a KAYA Associates employee, is honored with the status of Fellow by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Congratulating him is Dr. Michael D. Griffin, left, director of the Center of System Studies at UAHuntsville; and David Sellers, right, program manager of Marshall Engineering Design Services, also with KAYA Associates. In recent years, Haukohl has supported the Marshall Center’s energy conservation program and facilities construction work, with a primary focus on mechanical design. Only about 3 percent of the professional society's 120,000 members have been honored with the status of ASME Fellow. (Judy Wilson)

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Marshall Team to Aid Local Families with Feds Feeds Families Campaign
By Angela Storey

Marshall Space Flight Center team members are again asked to participate in the "Feds Feed Families" summer campaign -- a nationwide effort by federal agencies to collect two million pounds of non-perishable food items for those in need.

The food drive is intended to serve local communities. All Marshall Center donations will be delivered to the North Alabama Food Bank for distribution.

Marshall's Office of Human Capital is challenging the center workforce to donate a combined 6,985 pounds of canned goods and other non-perishable food items. No money will be collected for the campaign.

Food donation boxes will be placed in Buildings 4200, 4203, 4600, 4601, 4708, 4487 and 4666, and at the National Space Science & Technology Center. Contributions will be collected June 29, July 27 and Aug. 31.

As part of Take Our Children to Work Day on June 9, team members and their children are asked to participate in Peanut Butter and Jelly Day by filling the food donation boxes with peanut butter, jelly or canned milk.

Feds Feed Families was launched in 2009 by federal agencies in Washington, responding to shortages at food banks across the nation's capital. One million pounds of food were collected to serve the needs of the District of Columbia metro area during that initial drive.

Additional campaign details will appear on Inside Marshall and future issues of The Marshall Star. For more information, call Kerri Davis at 544-0143 or visit http://www.fedsfeedfamilies.gov.

Storey is a public affairs officer in the Office of Strategic Analysis and Communications.