› Listen Now
NASA TV's This Week @NASA, Week Ending August 1
› View Now
This Week At NASA…
RESCUE TRAINING EXERCISE - DFRC
Emergency response teams from the Dryden Flight Research Center and Edwards Air Force Base took part in a training exercise simulating the rescue of a space shuttle crew after a landing mishap. Fire and Rescue crews and medical personnel use these drills to familiarize themselves with procedures to safely remove crew from the shuttle, determine the severity of their injuries and transport the injured to medical facilities. These rescue drills are held periodically at Dryden and the Kennedy Space Center. Dryden is the primary alternate landing site for the space shuttle.
FIRE AND SMOKE - HQ
A "Fire and Smoke" page featuring the latest images of forest fires and smoke plumes is now available on nasa.gov. The images are captured by NASA's suite of cutting-edge, Earth-observing satellites and airborne observatories, including the unmanned Ikhana aircraft used recently to pinpoint wildfire hotspots across California. The pictures help scientists understand the impact of fires and smoke on Earth's climate and ecosystems, and support ongoing efforts to fight wildfires nationwide. The “Fire and Smoke” web page also features the latest research articles and multimedia resources from across the agency. Check it out at www.nasa.gov/fires
EDUCATION GRANTS - HQ
Select public schools and non-profit organizations will soon get a funding boost from NASA’s Office of Education. As many as eight K-12 Competitive Grants will be awarded this year to improve science, technology, engineering, and math learning and instruction. Each funded proposal is expected to enhance students’ academic experiences and improve educators’ abilities to motivate students. This year’s K-12 Competitive Grants will total up to $1.5 million dollars.
AIR SHOW SALUTES NASA'S 50TH ANNIVERSARY - LaRC
The biggest annual air show in the U.S. helped commemorate NASA’s 50th anniversary with special exhibits and a visit from the agency’s top official. This year’s AirVenture show, held annually in Oshkosh, Wisconsin by the Experimental Aircraft Association, included an address by NASA Administrator Michael Griffin.
The EAA AirVenture Museum displayed unique artifacts depicting the history of NASA and U.S. spaceflight. Museum visitors also saw models of the ARES rockets and Orion capsule in development to return humans to the moon. Also on display was an exhibit about NASA wind tunnels and wind tunnel research.
NASA NIGHT AT THE NATS – HQ
More than 200 Headquarters baseball fans, their families and friends spent a recent evening at Washington, D.C.’s new Nationals’ Park for NASA Night at the Nats.
NASA Night at the Nats has been an annual Headquarters event since the team’s relocation from Montreal in 2005. The game between Washington and Philadelphia went to the visitors, 2 to 1.
NASA 50th ANNIVERSARY: August 6, 1998 – PATHFINDER PLUS
Ten years ago this week, on August 6, 1998, the Pathfinder Plus aircraft set a new altitude record for a propeller-driven aircraft. The solar-powered, superlight aircraft with a 44-long center section and 121-foot wingspan soared to a height of 80,201 feet.
Rob Anderson: "The benefits of Pathfinder and vehicles like it are in helping do remote sensing, both from a standpoint of agriculture; it could also be used during natural disasters as a communications relay when the infrastructure on the ground was down, and it could also be of great benefit during disasters in terms of just supporting aerial monitoring."
Pathfinder Plus is now enshrined in the permanent collection of the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia. Pathfinder Plus’s record was shattered in 2001 near the Hawaiian island of Kauai by Helios, establishing the current world record for propeller-driven aircraft, at 96,863 feet.
And that's This Week At NASA!
For more about these and other stories, log onto: www.nasa.gov
› Listen Now
› View Now