In Case You Missed It: A Weekly Summary of Top Content from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center

	September 08, 2017  MEDIA ADVISORY In Case You Missed It: A Weekly Summary of Top Content from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center Week of Sep. 4 - 8, 2017   Three International Space Station Crewmates Safely Return to Earth NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, who set multiple U.S. space records during her mission aboard the International Space Station, along with crewmates Jack Fischer of NASA and Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin of Roscosmos, safely returned to Earth last week. Whitson’s return marks the completion of a 288-day mission that began last November and spanned 122.2 million miles and 4,623 orbits of the Earth.   NASA Completes Welding of Liquid Oxygen Tank for First SLS Flight NASA's Space Launch System moved another step closer to the rocket's first launch recently as major welding for the flight liquid oxygen tank was completed at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. Five major segments -- the engine section, liquid hydrogen tank, intertank, liquid oxygen tank and forward skirt -- will be joined to form the backbone of the rocket.   New Horizons Files Flight Plan for 2019 Flyby NASA’s New Horizons mission has set the distance for its New Year’s Day 2019 flyby of Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69, aiming to come three times closer to MU69 than it famously flew past Pluto in 2015. That milestone will mark the farthest planetary encounter in history -- more than four billion miles from Earth.   NASA Tracks Hurricane Irma as U.S. Mainland Landfall Looms As Hurricane Irma continues to head West across the Atlantic Ocean, NASA is tracking the storm closely. The Global Precipitation Measurement mission core observatory satellite had an exceptional view of hurricane Irma's eye and found extreme rainfall within the Category 5 storm’s eyewall. NASA continues to provide satellite imagery for tracking its trajectory, force and precipitation to inform forecasters.   X-rays Reveal Temperament of Possible Planet-Hosting Stars Research gathered by a team of scientists using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s XMM-Newton has revealed that stars like the Sun and their less massive cousins calm down surprisingly quickly after a turbulent youth. This result has positive implications for the long-term habitability of planets orbiting such stars. 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.
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