Tag: NASA Point of Interest

Make a #GlobalSelfie with NASA on Earth Day

NASA invites you — and everyone else on the planet — to take part in a worldwide celebration of Earth Day this year with the agency’s #GlobalSelfie event.

While NASA satellites constantly look at Earth from space, on Earth Day we’re asking you to step outside on Earth Day (April 22) and take a picture of yourself wherever you are on Earth. Then post it to social media using the hashtag #GlobalSelfie.  The individual pictures tagged #GlobalSelfie will be used to create a mosaic image of Earth — a new “Blue Marble” built bit by bit with your photos.

For more information on how to participate, go to  http://1.usa.gov/PfjXln

NASA Selects 2013 Astronaut Candidate Class

After an extensive year-and-a-half search, NASA has a new group of potential astronauts who will help the agency push the boundaries of exploration and travel to new destinations in the solar system. Eight candidates have been selected to be NASA’s newest astronaut trainees.

The 2013 astronaut candidate class comes from the second largest number of applications NASA ever has received — more than 6,100. The group will receive a wide array of technical training at space centers around the globe to prepare for missions to low-Earth orbit, an asteroid and Mars.

To read more about the individuals selected as the 2013 astronaut candidate class, visit https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/2013astroclass.html

To check out what these new astronaut candidates will have to prepare for in space, check out NASA Now: The Body In Space. This video can be found on the NASA Explorer Schools Virtual Campus.

NASA to Broadcast During Asteroid Flyby

On Friday, Feb. 15, NASA Television will provide commentary from 2 – 2:30 p.m. EST during the close, but safe, flyby of the small near-Earth asteroid named 2012 DA14. The half-hour broadcast from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., will incorporate real-time animation to show the location of the asteroid in relation to Earth, along with live or near real-time views of the asteroid from observatories in Australia, weather permitting. The commentary will be available via NASA TV and streamed live online at https://www.nasa.gov/ntv and http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2.

In addition to the commentary, near real-time imagery of the asteroid’s flyby, made available to NASA by astronomers in Australia and Europe, weather permitting, will be streamed beginning at about noon EST and continuing through the afternoon at http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2.

Also, a Ustream feed of the flyby from a telescope at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., will be streamed for three hours starting at 9 p.m. EST. To view the feed and ask researchers questions about the flyby via Twitter, visit http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-msfc.

For more information, including graphics and animations showing the flyby of 2012 DA14, visit www.nasa.gov/asteroidflyby.

Tuskegee Airmen DLN Opportunity

Tuskegee AirmenConnect with NASA’s Digital Learning Network, and let your students explore history and science with NASA and Tuskegee. On Feb. 20, from 2-3 p.m. EST, your students will have a chance to discuss the early frontiers of aviation with a contrail scientist and a pilot who is president of the Howard Baugh Chapter-Tuskegee in Petersburg, Va.

Classes will be selected to participate in this live event by Feb. 11, 2013.

Spots are limited. Email Bonnie Murray if you are interested in having your students participate.

For more information about this event, visit the Digital Learning Network website.

Link to the NASA Explorer Schools home page.

NASA Now: Engineering: Friction Stir Welding

NASA NowIn this NASA Now program, introduced by Elizabeth Thiel, an NES educator at Komachin MiddleSchool, Shane Brooke, welding engineer at Marshall Space Flight Center, discusses friction stir welding and its use in the engineering of spacecraft.


This program is available on the NES Virtual Campus beginning Feb. 6. View a one minute preview of the program, below.

NASA Now Minute

NASA's Curiosity and Orion Participate in Inaugural Activities

NASA float passes in front of the President's review stand. Jan 21, Washington, DCNASA participated in the inauguration of President Obama on Jan. 21 in Washington, D.C., with two floats and marchers in the inaugural parade. Full-size models of the Curiosity Mars rover and Orion, the multi-purpose capsule that will take our astronauts farther into space than ever, were featured alongside Curiosity team members from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory as well as current and former astronauts.

To see the complete slide show of NASA’s involvement in 2013 Inauguration Events, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/news/inauguration.html.

This slideshow is a nice extension to NASA Explorer Schools’ Mars Month NASA Now programs. To watch these programs and learn about the amazing engineering feats behind behind the landing of Curiosity on Mars, visit the NES Virtual Campus at http://explorerschools.nasa.gov.

NASA Is With You When You Fly

NASA-developed technology is onboard nearly every commercial aircraft flying today or in use at every major airport.Are you traveling by air this year? If so, then you’ll be in the company of millions who are directly benefiting from the ongoing research performed by NASA’s aeronautical innovators.

During 2012, NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate continued a wide range of research projects aimed at advancing the science of flight. Among the goals are enhancing safety; designing more fuel-efficient jet engines; enabling quieter airplanes; improving air traffic management; and educating and inspiring future generations of aviation experts.

NASA’s “aeronauts” even helped scientists learn about the Martian atmosphere during Curiosity’s nail-biting descent toward the Red Planet in August 2012.

To read about some aeronautics highlights from 2012, visit https://www.nasa.gov/topics/aeronautics/features/2012_highlights.html.

This article is a great extension to the NASA Explorer Schools lesson, “Distance/Rate/Time Problems: Smart Skies.” To access this lesson, visit the NES Virtual Campus at http://explorerschools.nasa.gov.

This Year at NASA

Be sure to check out NASA’s video review of the agency’s incredible accomplishments during 2012, below. The 50-minute video details the amazing achievement of landing Curiosity on the surface of Mars.

To learn more about the many processes involved in the landing and the engineering behind them, check out January’s Mars Month episodes of NASA Now on the NES Virtual Campus at http://explorerschools.nasa.gov.


To stream or download this program, or any other “This Week @ NASA” videos visit https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=157200021.


This Year @ NASA

NASA Now: The Future of Space Travel

NASA NowIn this NASA Now classroom video, introduced by educator Kaci Heins from Northland Preparatory Academy, NASA astronaut Greg Johnson discusses the future of space exploration and the logical progression of sending humans to Mars. He talks about sending astronauts back to the moon and the possibility of building a lunar habitat to understand more about working and living in space. 


Johnson has logged over 5,000 hours in more than 50 aircraft.

Preview of NASA Now: The Future of Space Travel