In early November, NASA will seek applicants for its next class of astronaut candidates who will support long-duration missions to the International Space Station and future deep space exploration
activities.
“For scientists, engineers and other professionals who have always dreamed of experiencing spaceflight, this is an exciting time to join the astronaut corps,” said Janet Kavandi, director of flight crew operations at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. “This next class will support missions to the station and will arrive via transportation systems now in development. They also will have the opportunity to participate in NASA’s continuing exploration programs that will include missions beyond low Earth orbit.”
For more information, visit http://astronauts.nasa.gov/
A bachelor’s degree in engineering, science or math and three years of relevant professional experience are required in order to be considered. Typically, successful applicants have significant qualifications in engineering or science, or extensive experience flying high-performance jet-aircraft.
After applicant interviews and evaluations, NASA expects to announce the final selections in 2013, and training to begin that August.
Additional information about the Astronaut Candidate Program is available by calling the Astronaut Selection Office at 281-483-5907.
Link to the NASA Explorer Schools Virtual Campus home page.
The Curiosity rover is scheduled for launch to Mars on Nov. 25, 2011. To prepare for the launch, a telecon has been scheduled so you can hear about the many resources available for you to share the excitement of launch with your students. Topics during the telecon are:
On June 10, 2011, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft pointed the LRO narrow angle cameras to capture a dramatic sunrise view of Tycho crater.
The existence of a world with a double sunset, as portrayed in the film Star Wars more than 30 years ago, is now scientific fact. NASA’s Kepler mission has made the first unambiguous detection of a circumbinary planet — a planet orbiting two stars — 200 light-years from Earth.
Detectors on the Herschel Space Observatory’s large telescope have provided the first confirmation of oxygen molecules in space. The molecules were detected within the Orion Nebula.
How can robots help humans live and work in space? NASA is studying that right now!
On July 15, NASA’s ion-propelled Dawn probe became the first spacecraft to enter orbit around a main-belt asteroid. Dawn will orbit Vesta for one Earth-year, studying the giant space rock at close range to help scientists understand the earliest chapter of our solar system’s history.
Dr. David Le Vine, deputy principal investigator for the Aquarius mission, discusses why we need to know more about sea surface salinity. Le Vine is an expert in measurement physics at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. He is currently a scientist with the Aquarius mission, which gathers data on sea surface salinity. Our current knowledge of sea surface salinity is very limited because in the past we’ve only collected data from ships traveling in shipping lanes.
NASA will host a news conference at 1 p.m. EDT on Thursday, June 16, to reveal new images and science findings from the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury. The event will be held in the NASA Headquarters. NASA Television and the 
The sun unleashed an M-2 (medium-sized) solar flare with a spectacular coronal mass ejection, or CME, on June 7, 2011. The large cloud of particles mushroomed up and fell back down looking as if it covered an area of almost half the solar surface.