This Week @ NASA, Feb. 21- 27, 2005
- Return to Flight:
-- Members of the media are invited to follow the crew of STS-114, the Space Shuttle's Return to Flight mission, during a training exercise on Feb. 24 at Johnson Space Center (JSC). In a JSC pool, the crew will practice for a spacewalk to replace an International Space Station Control Moment Gyroscope that failed in April 2002.Astronauts Soichi Noguchi and Stephen Robinson will don spacesuits and submerge in the 6.2 million-gallon Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory pool to practice for the second of three spacewalks planned during their mission.
-- In another Return to Flight milestone, the Space Shuttle's improved External Tank will be attached to the Solid Rocket Booster at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Final attachment of the assembly to the Shuttle Discovery itself will take place later this spring. Space Shuttle Discovery is scheduled to move from the Orbiter Processing Facility to the Vehicle Assembly Building on March 18, with rollout to the pad one week later.
-- Rack installation for the Shuttle's Multi-Purpose Logistics Module is scheduled to begin Feb. 25. The Module is a self contained, pressurized storage container that crew can enter once it is attached to the International Space Station and which can be removed from the Station by the Shuttle's robotic arm and returned to Earth.
+ Return to Flight page
- Engineer's Week:
To help create a better understanding of what engineers do, more than 60 engineers from NASA's Glenn Research Center will visit students in 82 classrooms throughout northeastern Ohio during National Engineers Week, Feb. 20 - 26 and into early March. Students in grades K - 12 will have the opportunity to learn from Glenn employees representing aerospace, chemical, computer, electrical, environmental, material, mechanical and research engineering. By sharing the unique ways they use mathematics and science in their jobs, the engineers hope to excite students and encourage them to consider a career in engineering. The National Society of Professional Engineers established National Engineers Week in 1951 to increase public awareness and appreciation of the engineering profession.
+ Glenn Research Center
- 'Samson' Skull Returns:
"Discover" magazine reporters and Carnegie Museum of Natural History representatives will visit the Marshall Space Flight Center Feb. 22 - 23 to receive computed tomography (CT) test results on a 65-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex skull dubbed "Samson." They will interview project leader, Dr. Ron Beshears. The National Center for Advanced Manufacturing located at Marshall performed the CT scans on the dinosaur skull. The high-tech CT scanner is usually used for nondestructive testing of parts and equipment destined for space. The scans provide Carnegie Museum experts with detailed cross-section images of the skull that will help them better understand the basic anatomy and lifestyle of the dinosaur.
+ Read More
- 'Following the Water':
Ames Research Center scientist Dr. David Des Marais will be the featured speaker at a colloquium Feb. 24 entitled "The Mars Exploration Rovers (MER): Following the Water." Dr. Des Marais will summarize the science highlights from the first year of MER and look ahead to how these findings will impact planning for future NASA missions.
+ Mars Rovers Page
- Centaur Anniversary:
"Celebrating Centaur: Then and Now," an event commemorating the 50-year anniversary of the Atlas Centaur program, will bring 100 invited guests to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) who worked on the project over the years from KSC, Lewis Research Center (Glenn), General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin. Centaur is the upper stage rocket booster that has piloted many of NASA and the Department of Defense's most famous satellites into space.