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Cinco de Mayo, Mother’s Day and Memorial Day are all things associated with May. As many Floridians know, the fifth month signifies another important occurrence: the start of sea turtle nesting and hatching season.

Sea turtles are prevalent along the Space Coast, and Kennedy Space Center is no exception. Experts estimate that more than 5,000 turtles nest each year on Kennedy’s protected beaches and on land near the center, on the Canaveral National Seashore. The two most common species found in this area are the green turtle, which is on the endangered list, and the loggerhead, which is listed as threatened.

People visiting, living or working near the beach, including spaceport employees, can take steps to help these fascinating reptiles during their six-month critical nesting and hatching period. Two words to keep in mind are: dark skies. Sea turtles — and their hatchlings — need them.

Females come up on the beach after dark to lay and bury their eggs. With the cooler temperatures, they are less likely to overheat while laying approximately 100-130 eggs. After 55-60 days, the hatchlings emerge from their nests — also at night.

Sea turtles use the light of the Moon and stars to navigate. Artificial lighting from street lights, buildings and flashlights on the beach can disrupt their ability to find their way back to the water. Wrong turns can be perilous for both adults and hatchlings, which have limited energy to make it offshore.

So what can we do? Be aware of lights from nearby facilities or homes that can illuminate the beach. Turn off the lights, draw the shades and use LED or “turtle-friendly” lighting. Kennedy has been diligently working to improve its performance in following these external lighting guidelines every year.

Experts say one hatchling in a thousand will make it to the reproductive stage. Consequently, ensuring dark skies along the eastern seaboard of Florida is crucial to a sea turtle’s survival.

Meteorologists with the U.S. Air Force 45th Space Wing continue to predict an 80 percent chance of favorable weather for liftoff of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Launch is scheduled for April 16 at 6:32 p.m. EDT on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. On launch day, the primary weather concern are strong winds.

NASA’s TESS satellite is scheduled to launch Monday, April 16, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, on an ambitious mission to search for planets outside our solar system. Tune in Sunday for a series of briefings and events broadcast live on NASA TV.

Catch the NASA Social Mission Overview at 11 a.m., a prelaunch news conference at 1 p.m. and a news conference focusing on the science of the mission beginning at 3 p.m. All times are Eastern. View the TESS Briefings and Events page for the full list of event participants.

Join us here or at NASA TV from 6 to 8 p.m. on Monday for live coverage from the countdown. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 is scheduled for 6:32 p.m.

NASA’s Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP) is gearing up for the third annual Swarmathon taking place April 17-19. Students from minority serving universities and community colleges from across the nation will participate in a robotic programming competition at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Their developments may lead to technology which will help astronauts find needed resources when exploring the Moon or Mars.

Students from 12 colleges participated in the spaceport’s first annual Swarmathon. Interest increased last year, with 20 teams joining in. In this year’s Swarmathon, 23 teams representing 24 universities and community colleges are developing software code to operate innovative robots called “Swarmies.”

Swarmies are small robotic vehicles measuring about 12 inches by 8 inches by 8 inches. Each Swarmie is equipped with sensors, a webcam, a GPS system and a Wi-Fi antenna. They operate autonomously and can be programmed to communicate and interact as a collective swarm.

The aspiring computer engineers will be challenged to develop search algorithms for robotic swarms. Algorithms are self-contained, step-by-step operations to perform calculation, data processing and automated reasoning. Swarmathon participation will improve students’ skills in robotics and computer science, and further advancing technology for future NASA space exploration missions.

Successful exploration of the Moon and Mars requires the location and retrieval of local resources on the surface of these locations beyond Earth. Technologies are needed to find and collect materials such as ice (convertible into liquid water, hydrogen fuel and oxygen to support human life) and rocks, minerals and construction materials to build human shelters.

NASA’s MUREP selected the University of New Mexico to manage the Swarmathon challenge in a joint effort with the agency. Through the MUREP program, NASA’s goal is to increase the number of NASA-focused science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, experiences that engage underrepresented groups in active education.

Lern more at: NASA Swarmathon

A care package with more than 5,800 pounds of supplies from Earth is on its way to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. The company’s 14th commercial cargo mission to resupply the space station began at 4:30 p.m. EDT with liftoff aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

The Dragon spacecraft now is in orbit with its solar arrays deployed and providing power.

During a prelaunch news conference, Pete Hasbrook, NASA’s associate program scientist for International Space Station Program Science Office at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, praised the work of Commercial Resupply Services companies.

“The International Space Station is a world-class and multi- disciplinary laboratory in space,” he said. “Our commercial providers help in bringing our sciences forward and keep it going on space station and bringing benefits back to Earth.”

The Dragon spacecraft will deliver science, research, crew supplies and hardware to the orbiting laboratory. Read more about science experiments on board at:
https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacex/2018/04/02/whats-on-board-dragon-for-spacex-crs-14/

Live NASA TV coverage of the rendezvous and capture will begin at 5:30 a.m. EDT on April 4 on http://www.nasa.gov/live

Expedition 55 Flight Engineers Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, backed up by NASA astronaut Scott Tingle, will supervise the operation of the Canadarm2 robotic arm for Dragon’s capture. After Dragon capture, ground commands will be sent from mission control in Houston for the station’s arm to rotate and install it on the bottom of the station’s Harmony module.

The Dragon spacecraft will spend approximately one month attached to the space station. Unberthing and release of the Dragon from the space station is targeted for May 2. About five hours after Dragon leaves the station, it will conduct its deorbit burn, which lasts up to 10 minutes. It takes about 30 minutes for Dragon to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere and splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California.

For updates during the mission, visit: https://go.nasa.gov/2uJHKUl

This concludes today’s coverage of the SpaceX CRS-14 countdown and launch. Thanks for joining us.

Next Commercial Resupply Services Mission: SpaceX CRS-14
Launch Time and Date: 4:30 p.m., Monday, April 2, 2018
Lift Off: Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida
Launch Vehicle: SpaceX Falcon 9, 230 feet-tall
Spacecraft: Dragon, 20 feet high, 12 feet-in diameter
Payload: Dragon will deliver cargo and material to support science investigations aboard the International Space Station.
Return to Earth: After about one month attached to the space station, Dragon will return with results of earlier experiments, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California.
Payloads on Board: https://go.nasa.gov/2Isu6rt

The magic number for NASA’s Launch Services Program (LSP) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida could be six. That’s because there are six primary missions scheduled to launch from two different coasts, within about six months, atop six different rocket configurations.

“Not since 2003 has the Launch Services Program had a denser and more diverse manifest as it will this year,” said Chuck Dovale, the program’s deputy manager. “We are poised and ready for the challenges ahead.”

LSP is preparing for the following missions:
NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-S (GOES-S)
Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2)
Iconospheric Connection Explorer (ICON)
Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight)
Parker Solar Probe
Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)

Read the full feature at https://go.nasa.gov/2GzP86u.
View the Launch Services Program 2018 video at https://youtu.be/RdWPclPyzis.

NASA and other government officials gathered at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Launch Complex 26 to mark the beginning of U.S. space exploration. From that location, on Jan. 31, 1958, a Jupiter C rocket lifted off with America’s first satellite — Explorer 1.

The launch site now is part of the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Museum, where the ceremony took place on the 60th anniversary of the event in which the United States was in a Cold War competition with the Soviet Union to orbit satellites.

Brig. Gen. Wayne Monteith, 45th Space Wing commander and director of the Eastern Range, noted that America’s first satellite paved the way for more achievements in the years to come.

“The U.S. had finally entered the race to the Moon and beyond,” he said. “We are now leading the world. We have launched 3,568 rockets from the Eastern Range. With our partners at NASA, we are the busiest spaceport in the world.”

Also on hand was Dr. John Meisenheimer, launch weather officer for Explorer 1. Due to high upper-level winds on Jan. 29 and again on Jan. 30, he gave a “no-go” forecast.

“My calculation showed that the jet stream would come close to the Cape and cause extreme wind shears around 200 mph,” he said. “The (Jupiter C rocket’s) guidance system couldn’t handle it. On Jan. 31, there was a wave on the jet stream that would move it away and that gave us a window of opportunity to launch Explorer 1.”

According to Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana, the years since Explorer 1 have brought many achievements.

“Continuing the legacy of scientific exploration that began 60 years ago, our Launch Services Program this year marks its 20th anniversary,” he said. “LSP has been responsible for some of NASA’s most memorable scientific missions, including the Curiosity rover to Mars, Cassini to Saturn, Juno to Jupiter and New Horizons to Pluto.”

Following the successful launch of Explorer 1, the satellite’s cosmic ray detector discovered radiation belts around Earth held in place by the planet’s magnetic field. The belts later were named for Dr. James Van Allen, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Iowa. As the principal investigator, he developed the instruments for the Explorer 1 satellite.

Since opening to the public in 1966, the Air Force Space and Missile Museum has introduced millions of visitors to the history of rocketry and spaceflight. Inside the blockhouse, much of the instrumentation remains as it was in the 1950s when America was taking its first steps into space.

For more historical photographs and pictures of the Jan. 31, 2018, event, check out the Explorer 1 60th Anniversary Flickr album.

In memory of NASA astronaut John Young, Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana placed a memorial wreath at the Heroes and Legends exhibit at the center’s visitor complex. The brief ceremony took place on the afternoon of Jan. 11, 2018. Young died Jan. 5, 2018, at the age of 87 in Houston. He was the only astronaut to fly in NASA’s Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle Programs.

“NASA and the world have lost a pioneer,” acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot said in a statement. “Astronaut John Young’s storied career spanned three generations of spaceflight; we will stand on his shoulders as we look toward the next human frontier.”

Cabana also praised Young for his constant focus on flight safety.

“He tried bringing attention to technical problems so they could be dealt with,” Cabana said. “Safety was foremost in his mind. He knew we are in a very risky business, but he also knew the importance of paying attention to detail and always doing things right.”

Young served as pilot on Gemini III, command pilot on Gemini 10, command module pilot for Apollo 10 and commander of the Apollo 16 moon landing mission.

Young was selected to command the first flight of the Space Shuttle Program, STS-1. He later was commander of STS-9, the first shuttle mission to carry the European Space Agency’s Spacelab module. During STS-9, Young became the first person to fly in space a sixth time.

Among his many awards and honors, Young was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame on March 19, 1993.

“John was one of that group of early space pioneers whose bravery and commitment sparked our nation’s first great achievements in space,” Lightfoot said. “But, not content with that, his hands-on contributions continued long after the last of his six spaceflights.”

Photo credit: NASA/ Frank Michaux

 

NOAA’s Joint Polar Satellite System-1 spacecraft and a host of small satellites known as CubeSats are beginning their missions following this morning’s successful launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket. The on-time liftoff occurred at 1:47:36 a.m. PST (4:47:36 EST) from Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

“Things went absolutely perfect today. The weather cooperated, the upper-level winds cooperated, and so did the vehicle, spacecraft and range instruments,” said NASA Launch Manager Omar Baez after launch and ascent activities were complete. “We couldn’t ask for better.”

JPSS-1 is the first in NOAA’s series of four, next-generation operational environmental satellites designed to circle the Earth in a polar orbit. JPSS represents significant technological and scientific advancements in observations used for severe weather prediction and environmental monitoring. This data is used by NOAA’s National Weather Service for numerical forecast models, ultimately helping emergency managers make timely decisions on life-saving early warnings and evacuations. JPSS-1 was Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colorado.

“The nation has another wonderful weather asset in space,” Baez said.

Read the Launch Blog and visit the JPSS-1 site for more.