WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — On Friday, NASA celebrated the agency’s first African American female engineer, Mary W. Jackson, with a ceremony to formally name the agency’s headquarters building in Washington in her honor.
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Video Caption: President Joe Biden called acting NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk on Feb. 18, 2021, just after the Perseverance rover touched down on Mars to congratulate the agency’s team on the successful landing.
PASADENA, Calif. (NASA PR) — The largest, most advanced rover NASA has sent to another world touched down on Mars Thursday, after a 203-day journey traversing 293 million miles (472 million kilometers). Confirmation of the successful touchdown was announced in mission control at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California at 3:55 p.m. EST (12:55 p.m. PST).
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WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — In an effort to ensure effective fulfillment of the Biden Administration’s climate science objectives for NASA, the agency has established a new position of senior climate advisor and selected Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, to serve in the role in an acting capacity until a permanent appointment is made.
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WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — Steve Jurczyk became NASA’s acting administrator on Jan. 20, 2021. Before that, Jurczyk had served as NASA’s associate administrator, the agency’s highest-ranking civil servant, since May 2018.
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WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA will host a media teleconference at 4:30 p.m. EDT Thursday, July 16, to provide an update on the status of the agency’s James Webb Space Telescope, the world’s next premier infrared space observatory and the largest, most complex space telescope for astronomy ever built.
The media teleconference audio will stream live at:
Participants in the teleconference include:
Once deployed, Webb will help solve mysteries in our solar system and look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, as well as probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.
For more information on Webb, go to:
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. (NASA PR) — NASA and Boeing have completed major reviews of the company’s uncrewed Orbital Flight Test in December 2019 and are continuing with preparations to refly the test, designated Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2), to the International Space Station as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
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Video Caption: Experts from academia, industry, and government discuss how to shape the technologies needed to explore the Moon in new ways at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, MD. Opening remarks by Dr. Ralph Semmel. Keynote address by Steve Jurcyk, associate administrator of NASA.
by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor
NASA Associate Administrator Steve Jurcyk said on Friday that the first Artemis mission to the moon will not launch later this year but will hopefully fly in the mid- to late 2021 time frame.
It marks yet another delay in a program that is already running years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget. The slip potentially makes the Trump Administration’s goal of landing astronauts at the south pole of the moon in 2024 more difficult to achieve.
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NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine shook up management of the space agency’s effort to send astronauts back to the moon by 2024 on Wednesday by removing long-time associate administrator for Human Exploration and Operations (HEO) William Gerstenmaier from a post he held for 15 years.
“Effective immediately, Ken Bowersox will serve as Acting Associate Administrator for HEO,” Bridenstine said in a memo. “Bowersox, who previously served as the Deputy Associate Administrator for HEO, is a retired U.S. Naval Aviator with more than two decades of experience at NASA. He is an accomplished astronaut and a veteran of five space shuttle missions and served as commander on the International Space Station.”
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WASHINGTON, DC (NASA PR) — Throughout 2017, NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) made noteworthy progress in maturing and demonstrating technologies to bolster America’s space agenda, while setting the stage for vital advancements within the next several years.
From expanding the utilization of space in low-Earth orbit and enabling new scientific discoveries, to advancing capabitilties for robotic and human exploration of deep space destinations – STMD is executing a broad cross-cutting agenda, one that is pioneering groundbreaking technologies and knowhow.
The Next Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference is being held in Colorado through today. I wasn’t able to attend this year, but the following folks are there tweeting away:
Below are updates based upon their tweets on what is happening in Washington, DC, from talks by officials from the FAA, NASA, and the Commercial Spaceflight Federation.
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House of Representatives
Space Subcommittee Hearing
In-Space Propulsion: Strategic Choices and Options
Date: Thursday, June 29, 2017 – 10:00am
Location: 2318 Rayburn House Office Building
Witnesses
WASHINGTON, DC (NASA PR) — For much of his quarter-century career in the nation’s space program, Steve Jurczyk, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, has championed the use of cutting-edge technology to advance exploration and extend human knowledge. Whether executing some of NASA’s most prestigious exploration missions or leading the agency’s first field center, he’s been a staunch advocate for the application of well-developed, mature technology to answer any challenge, overcome any obstacle.
WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — Earlier this year, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden named Steve Jurczyk as the agency’s associate administrator for the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
Jurczyk and technology have long been linked given that his career began in 1988 at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. A skillful and well-recognized engineer, his talents led to key leadership positions at Langley including deputy center director prior to becoming center director.
During his tenure at Langley, Jurczyk shaped the direction of research and technology endeavors in a wide array of areas, from aerodynamics, aerothermodynamics and acoustics to structures, materials and airborne systems – all in support of NASA’s aeronautics, exploration systems, science and space operations. (more…)
