In Case You Missed It: A Weekly Summary of Top Content from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center
Week of July 10 - July 14, 2023.
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Webb Celebrates First Year of Science With Close-up on Birth of Sun-like Stars
From our cosmic backyard in the solar system to distant galaxies near the dawn of time, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has delivered on its promise of revealing the universe like never before in its first year of science operations. To celebrate the completion of a successful first year, NASA has released Webb’s image of a small star-forming region in the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex. “In just one year, the James Webb Space Telescope has transformed humanity’s view of the cosmos, peering into dust clouds and seeing light from faraway corners of the universe for the very first time. Every new image is a new discovery, empowering scientists around the globe to ask and answer questions they once could never dream of,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “Webb is an investment in American innovation but also a scientific feat made possible with NASA’s international partners that share a can-do spirit to push the boundaries of what is known to be possible. Thousands of engineers, scientists, and leaders poured their life’s passion into this mission, and their efforts will continue to improve our understanding of the origins of the universe – and our place in it.”
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Prelaunch Processing for Psyche
NASA's Psyche spacecraft is nearly complete as it rests in a clean room on June 26, 2023, at Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Engineers and technicians have begun final assembly, test, and launch operations on Psyche, with assembly of the spacecraft all but complete except for the installation of the solar arrays and the imagers. Psyche is targeted to launch in October 2023.
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Hubble Observes a Stunning Spiral
The spiral galaxy UGC 11860 seems to float serenely against a field of background galaxies in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. UGC 11860 lies around 184 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus, and its untroubled appearance is deceiving; this galaxy recently played host to an almost unimaginably energetic stellar explosion. A supernova explosion – the catastrophically violent end of a massive star’s life – was detected in UGC 11860 in 2014. Astronomers used Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 to search through the aftermath and analyze the lingering remnants of this vast cosmic explosion. One team explored UGC 11860 to understand more about the star systems that eventually meet their demise in supernovae. The hugely energetic processes during supernova explosions are predominantly responsible for forging the elements between silicon and nickel on the periodic table. This means that understanding the influence of the masses and compositions of the progenitor star systems is vital to explaining how many of the chemical elements here on Earth originated.
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NASA, Aerojet Rocketdyne Put Gateway Thruster System to the Test
Engineers from NASA and Aerojet Rocketdyne are beginning qualification testing on the cutting-edge solar electric propulsion (SEP) thrusters that will change the in-space propulsion game. The culmination of this work will see these innovative thrusters fly on Gateway beginning in 2025, making it the most powerful SEP spacecraft ever flown. Gateway is a lunar space station that will serve as an important part of NASA’s Artemis program, which will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon. Led by NASA’s Technology Demonstration Missions program, the Advanced Electric Propulsion System (AEPS), built by Aerojet Rocketdyne, provides 12 kilowatts of propulsive power – over two times more powerful than current state-of-the-art in-space electric propulsion systems. These innovative systems tout extremely high fuel economy at lower thrust, providing mission flexibility and capabilities not achievable using traditional chemical propulsion systems.
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Space Station Work Includes Clean-up Activities and Ultrasound Scans
Four Expedition 69 crew members aboard the International Space Station primarily worked in conjunction on Tuesday as they completed clean-up tasks and performed ultrasound scans. After donning the Dreams headband overnight for sleep monitoring, United Arab Emirates (UAE) Flight Engineer Sultan Alneyadi started his day concluding the recording and filling out a questionnaire. Alneyadi, along with NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen, Woody Hoburg, and Frank Rubio, then moved into the orbital lab’s Destiny module for clean-up activities. Tasks included organizing, sorting, and relocating items stowed in the module. Ahead of clean-up activities, Hoburg spent most of his morning reconfiguring and installing new hardware to a system that recycles and processes wastewater located in the Tranquility module. Bowen collected water samples from the Potable Water Dispenser for in-flight analysis that will help determine the water quality on the station.
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