A Weekly Summary of Top Content from Marshall, January 23 – January 27, 2023
Week of January 23 – January 27, 2023
20 Years Ago: Remembering Columbia and Her Crew
Columbia’s seven-member crew conducted many of the 80 planned U.S. and international experiments aboard a Spacehab Double Research Module in the orbiter’s payload bay. The astronauts exceeded expectations in terms of the science obtained during their 16 days in space. Tragically, the crew perished when Columbia broke apart during reentry Feb. 1, 2003.
NASA Validates Revolutionary Propulsion Design for Deep Space Missions
As NASA takes its first steps toward establishing a long-term presence on the Moon’s surface, a team of agency propulsion development engineers have developed and tested NASA’s first full-scale rotating detonation rocket engine, an advanced rocket engine design that could significantly change how future propulsion systems are built.
NASA’s Lucy Team Announces New Asteroid Target
NASA’s Lucy spacecraft will add another asteroid encounter to its 4-billion-mile journey. On Nov. 1, 2023, Lucy will get a close-up view of a small main belt asteroid to conduct an engineering test of the spacecraft’s innovative asteroid-tracking navigation system.
Hubble Views a Stellar Duo in Orion Nebula
The bright variable star V 372 Orionis takes center stage in a new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, which has also captured a smaller companion star in the image. Both stars lie in the Orion Nebula, a colossal region of star formation roughly 1,450 light-years from Earth.
From Art to Space: Meet IXPE Flight Controller Kacie Davis
If the secret to happiness is pursuing and achieving goals that bring contentment to both the heart and the intellect, then Kacie Davis, a flight controller for NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer, is living her best life – and she took an unexpected path to get there.
For more information or to learn about other happenings at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, visit NASA Marshall. For past issues of the ICYMI newsletter, click here.