In Case You Missed It: A Weekly Summary of Top Content from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center
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NASA Administrator to Tour Michoud, Stennis and Marshall
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine will embark on a three-day, three-state tour to view progress being made on NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, ending Aug. 15 in the heart of the Rocket City for his first visit as administrator to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Other stops include NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans on Aug. 13, and NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi on Aug. 14.
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NASA Assigns Crews to First Test Flights, Missions on Commercial Spacecraft
NASA has introduced the first U.S. astronauts set to fly on American-made, commercial spacecraft to and from the International Space Station -- returning astronaut launches to U.S. soil for the first time since the space shuttle's retirement in 2011. The agency assigned nine astronauts to crew the first test flight and mission of both Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. Marshall has worked closely with the companies throughout design, development and testing to ensure the systems meet NASA’s safety and performance requirements.
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Space Station Crew Completes Cancer Treatment Study, Returns Data to Earth
On the evening of Aug. 3, the SpaceX Dragon capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, fresh from a month-long stay at the International Space Station. The capsule returned more than 3,800 pounds of cargo and experiments from the orbiting outpost including data from the AngieX Cancer Therapy, a cancer study which looked at endothelial cells as a potential test model for developing safer and more effective vascular-targed drugs.
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Perseids Meteor Shower Peaks This Weekend
Perseid meteors, caused by debris left behind by the Comet Swift-Tuttle, began streaking across the skies in late July and will peak on Aug. 12. The Perseid meteor shower is often considered to be one of the best meteor showers of the year. Weather permitting in Huntsville, tune into a live steam on the NASA Meteor Watch Facebook starting around 8 p.m. CDT and continuing until the early hours of August 13.
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(VIDEO: 2:56) 360° of Awesome: Tour NASA’s Rocket Factory
Step inside Michoud Assembly Facility, NASA’s rocket factory where SLS, the world’s most powerful rocket designed to send astronauts to the Moon and beyond, is being built. Inside the factory, engineers use modern robotic welding tools to manufacture the 212-foot-tall core stage structure, which will soon be assembled for the first integrated flight of SLS and Orion: Exploration Mission-1.
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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