Transcript: This Week at NASA, April 2 - 7
04.07.06
SPACE BRIEFING - JSC
Newly arrived at the International Space Station, Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov, NASA Science Officer and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams and Brazilian Space Agency astronaut Marcos Pontes joined the outgoing Station crew -- Expedition 12 Commander Bill McArthur and Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev, in a joint news conference.
Interviewer: "… Could you just talk about maybe your favorite moments aboard the station during the last six months and what you are most looking forward to when you get home?
McArthur SOT: "…To pin down a specific moment would be very difficult. Valery and I trained together for 4 and 1/2 years for this mission and I think rather than a high moment, the whole experience has clearly been the apex of least my professional career and maybe Valery's as well. I think the real pleasure was in fact coming up here, living and working in space with a very good friend. Valery refers to us as space brothers so we really weren't away from family the whole time and so just doing the work, accomplishing the tasks that we trained for for so long has been particularly gratifying. What are we looking forward to? We're looking forward to going home and seeing our families."
Vinogradov and Williams will spend the next six months on the complex. McArthur and Tokarev will be joined by Pontes in their return to earth in a Soyuz capsule.
CORAL BLEACHING - GSFC
Recent dramatic increases in sea surface temperatures are upsetting the natural balance on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, but NASA is helping an international team of scientists monitor environmental conditions contributing to the problem of coral bleaching. Warmer than tolerable temperatures force corals to cast out the tiny algae that provide the coral with color and help them thrive. Without these algae, the corals turn white, and eventually die if the condition persists too long. NASA's satellite data distribution service is providing new insights into what's causing coral bleaching and is improving the ability to model the possible consequences to the marine ecosystem.
TUNNEL TESTING - ARC
A 3 percent scale model of the space shuttle underwent testing in the 11-foot by 11-foot transonic wind tunnel at Ames Research Center. The model was wind-tested with and without a protuberance air load, or PAL, ramp, on its external tank. During last July's launch of the space shuttle Discovery, a large piece of insulating foam fell from the PAL ramp. The shuttle's external tank has since been redesigned without a PAL ramp; space shuttle managers hope these wind tunnel tests at Ames will help verify it's safe to fly without one. The next shuttle mission, STS-121, is now targeted for launch in July.
BIRTH AT DEATH - JPL
New evidence from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope indicates that planets might rise up out of a dead star's ashes. This is the first time scientists have detected planet-building materials around a star that died in a fiery blast. The infrared telescope surveyed the scene around a type of exploded star called a pulsar. It found a surrounding disk made up of debris shot out during the star's final death throes. The dusty rubble in this disk might ultimately stick together to form planets.
DUST CLOUDS - JPL
The yearly ritual of spring cleaning clears a house of dust as well as dust "bunnies," those pesky balls that frolic under beds and behind furniture. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has photographed similar dense knots of dust and gas in our Milky Way Galaxy, but this dust isn't a nuisance. It's a concentration of elements responsible for the formation of stars throughout the universe. This zoom dives deep into the Cassiopeia constellation, then dissolves into a wide view of the nebula NGC 281. Pushing deeper with the zoom reveals dark globules of gas and dust near the center of the star-forming region.
'THE VISION' EXPERIENCE - SSC
A traveling exhibit is bringing the Vision for Space Exploration Experience to StenniSphere, the visitor center at Stennis Space Center. The exhibit's holographic and 3D imagery allows visitors to slip the confines of Earth and explore what it might be like to visit the surfaces of the moon, Mars and beyond. The visit is part of a month-long, multi-city tour that includes stops in Mobile, Tuskegee, Montgomery and Birmingham, Alabama.
And that's this week at NASA…
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