Currently…in Space

Every so often, I share some current NASA-related items of interest. I firmly believe that more people knowing about what NASA is doing means more people willing to enthusiastically support our missions, so even if you don’t really follow space happenings on a regular basis (or at all), I hope you find these occasional posts interesting!

(My last post like this was 2 years ago. Let’s get back to it!)

This morning was a HUGE milestone for NASA as the second of the two vehicles being built to carry astronauts to and from the space station launched on its first mission. This flight of the Boeing Starliner vehicle is a demonstration flight, so there is no crew onboard. The launch was a success, but the spacecraft ran into issues immediately after separating from the rocket when it apparently failed to perform a burn and/or had trouble with its control system and ended up using up way too much propellant.

This is really, really unfortunate, to say the least.

(The other vehicle is the SpaceX Dragon, which completed its demo flight last March and will hopefully launch again soon.)

But on to better news…

I mentioned earlier this week that I am now supporting the new lunar Gateway program. There have been several great videos and features put out by the agency in the last few weeks to explain NASA’s plan for both Gateway and the larger Artemis mission to return people to the moon.

The Faces Behind NASA’s Gateway – This articles introduces several key players on the program including my friend Tremayne! I also represent the safety and mission assurance team, and Tremayne is one of my counterparts.

The video above was just released yesterday, narrated by one of the actors in the new Star Wars movie. It goes over the whole lunar mission really well — and also has some really impressive graphic work!

This is a fun holiday-themed AskNASA session with the head of the Gateway Logistics Services program at KSC in Florida. Gateway is made up of several different elements, so we have people at several different NASA centers who support it.

And of course, ’tis the season for year-in-review videos! This one is a great recap of all the things that my center has done this year.

p.s. I’m doing a 31 day blogging challenge.