News
NASA Names Astronauts to Next Moon Mission, First Crew Under Artemis
NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) announced the four astronauts who will venture around the Moon on Artemis II, the first crewed mission on NASA’s path to establishing a long-term presence at the Moon for science and exploration through Artemis. The agencies revealed the crew members Monday during an event at Ellington Field near NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
“The Artemis II crew represents thousands of people working tirelessly to bring us to the stars. This is their crew, this is our crew, this is humanity’s crew,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Hammock Koch, and CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen, each has their own story, but, together, they represent our creed: E pluribus unum – out of many, one. Together, we are ushering in a new era of exploration for a new generation of star sailors and dreamers – the Artemis Generation.”
The crew assignments are as follows: Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist 1 Christina Hammock Koch, and Mission Specialist 2 Jeremy Hansen. They will work as a team to execute an ambitious set of demonstrations during the flight test.
The approximately 10-day Artemis II flight test will launch on the agency’s powerful Space Launch System rocket, prove the Orion spacecraft’s life-support systems, and validate the capabilities and techniques needed for humans to live and work in deep space.
“We are going back to the Moon and Canada is at the center of this exciting journey,” said the Honorable François-Philippe Champagne, the minister responsible for the Canadian Space Agency. “Thanks to our longstanding collaboration with NASA, a Canadian astronaut will fly on this historic mission. On behalf of all Canadians, I want to congratulate Jeremy for being at the forefront of one of the most ambitious human endeavors ever undertaken. Canada’s participation in the Artemis program is not only a defining chapter of our history in space, but also a testament to the friendship and close partnership between our two nations.”
The flight, set to build upon the successful uncrewed Artemis I mission completed in December, will set the stage for the first woman and first person of color on the Moon through the Artemis program, paving the way for future for long-term human exploration missions to the Moon, and eventually Mars. This is the agency’s Moon to Mars exploration approach.
“For the first time in more than 50 years, these individuals – the Artemis II crew – will be the first humans to fly to the vicinity of the Moon. Among the crew are the first woman, first person of color, and first Canadian on a lunar mission, and all four astronauts will represent the best of humanity as they explore for the benefit of all,” said Director Vanessa Wyche, NASA Johnson. “This mission paves the way for the expansion of human deep space exploration and presents new opportunities for scientific discoveries, commercial, industry and academic partnerships and the Artemis Generation.”
Meet Artemis II Astronauts
This will be Wiseman’s second trip into space, serving previously as a flight engineer aboard the International Station for Expedition 41 from May through November 2014. Wiseman has logged more than 165 days in space, including almost 13 hours as lead spacewalker during two trips outside the orbital complex. Prior to his assignment, Wiseman served as chief of the Astronaut Office from December 2020 until November 2022.
The mission will be Glover’s second spaceflight, serving previously as pilot on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1, which landed May 2, 2021, after 168 days in space. As a flight engineer aboard the space station for Expedition 64, he contributed to scientific investigations, technology demonstrations, and participated in four spacewalks.
Koch also will be making her second flight into space on the Artemis II mission. She served as flight engineer aboard the space station for Expedition 59, 60, and 61. Koch set a record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman with a total of 328 days in space and participated in the first all-female spacewalks.
Representing Canada, Hansen is making his first flight to space. A colonel in the Canadian Armed Forces and former fighter pilot, Hansen holds a Bachelor of Science in space science from Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario, and a Master of Science in physics from the same institution in 2000, with a research focus on Wide Field of View Satellite Tracking. He was one of two recruits selected by CSA in May 2009 through the third Canadian Astronaut Recruitment Campaign and has served as Capcom in NASA’s Mission Control Center at Johnson and, in 2017, became the first Canadian to be entrusted with leading a NASA astronaut class, leading the training of astronaut candidates from the United States and Canada.
“I could not be prouder that these brave four will kickstart our journeys to the Moon and beyond,” said Director of Flight Operations Norm Knight, NASA Johnson. “They represent exactly what an astronaut corps should be: a mix of highly capable and accomplished individuals with the skills and determination to take on any trial as a team. The Artemis II mission will be challenging, and we’ll test our limits as we prepare to put future astronauts on the Moon. With Reid, Victor, Christina, and Jeremy at the controls, I have no doubt we’re ready to face every challenge that comes our way.”
Through Artemis missions, NASA will use innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before. We will collaborate with commercial and international partners and establish the first long-term presence on the Moon. Then, we will use what we learn on and around the Moon to take the next giant leap: sending the first astronauts to Mars.
For more information about the crew, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/specials/artemis-ii
Source: NASA
Daily News
Blue Origin’s NS-25 Mission: Launch Date Set and Historic Inclusion of First Black Astronaut Candidate
Blue Origin’s NS-25 Mission: Historic launch date set with America’s first Black astronaut candidate onboard. Stay tuned for details!
New Shepard’s Crewed NS-25 Mission Targets Liftoff on May 19
Blue Origin announced today its seventh human flight, NS-25, will lift off from Launch Site One in West Texas on Sunday, May 19. The launch window opens at 8:30 AM CDT / 1330 UTC. The webcast on BlueOrigin.com will start at T-40 minutes.
Additionally, Blue Origin released the NS-25 mission patch. A few of the symbols embedded include:
The Gemini spacecraft represents Ed Dwight’s aerospace training era. The hand lifting the crew capsule is a nod to his extensive artwork.
The sunrise represents Mason Angel and Carol Schaller’s desire to experience the overview effect.
The mountains symbolize Carol Schaller, Gopi Thotakura, and Sylvain Chiron’s passion for climbing and skiing.
The crew capsule’s leaf design reflects the groundbreaking family heritage software Kenneth L. Hess developed.
NS-25 Mission Crew
New Shepard’s 25th Mission Includes America’s First Black Astronaut Candidate
April 4, 2024
Blue Origin today revealed the six-person crew flying on its NS-25 mission. The crew includes Mason Angel, Sylvain Chiron, Kenneth L. Hess, Carol Schaller, Gopi Thotakura, and former Air Force Captain Ed Dwight, who was selected by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 as the nation’s first Black astronaut candidate but was never granted the opportunity to fly to space.
Meet the Crew
Ed Dwight
In 1961, Ed was chosen by President John F. Kennedy to enter training at the Aerospace Research Pilot School (ARPS), an elite U.S. Air Force flight training program known as a pathway for entering the NASA Astronaut Corps. In 1963, after successfully completing the ARPS program, Ed was recommended by the U.S. Air Force for the NASA Astronaut Corps but ultimately was not among those selected. He entered private life in 1966 and spent a decade as an entrepreneur before dedicating his life’s work to using sculpture as a medium to tell the story of Black history. He’s spent the last five decades creating large-scale monuments of iconic Black figures, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad, among many others. His more than 130 public works are installed in museums and public spaces across the U.S. and Canada. Ed was born in 1933 and raised in Kansas City, KS.
Ed’s seat is sponsored by Space for Humanity, a nonprofit changing global perspectives by democratizing access to space for all of humanity, with additional support from the Jaison and Jamie Robinson Foundation.
Mason Angel
Mason is the founder of Industrious Ventures, a venture capital fund supporting early-stage companies that enable or progress new industrial revolutions. Mason is an active member in his family’s foundation and will use this mission to inspire children and advance partnerships with nonprofits focused on STEM in early education. He spends his free time skiing or hiking in the Rocky Mountains and can often be found with his dog Leo, named for low Earth orbit.
Sylvain Chiron
Sylvain is the founder of the Brasserie Mont Blanc, one of the largest craft breweries in France. Sylvain was born in the French Alps and is a lifelong aviator and skier. He earned his pilot’s license at age 16. After spending several summers in Florida taking additional flying lessons and watching Space Shuttle launches, Sylvain entered mandatory service in the French military, where he served as a ski instructor for the French Air Force and NATO pilots. Following the military, he pursued an international MBA at Temple University and moved to Tokyo to study business in Japan. Sylvain and his family are based in Savoy, France, where he’s also involved in philanthropy focused on children’s education and nature preservation.
Kenneth L. Hess
Ken is a software engineer and entrepreneur who shaped today’s technology-based family history industry when he developed the Family Tree Maker product line in the 1990s. The company was acquired by Ancestry.com in 2003. In 2001, Ken gave back by founding Science Buddies, a K-12 nonprofit created to level the playing field and improve STEM literacy by inspiring students through free, personalized, hands-on projects in all areas of science, including space exploration. Science Buddies has reached one-quarter billion users. Ken’s lifelong passion for space exploration is in his DNA, with numerous early American pioneers in his mother’s lineage and many engineers and technicians in his father’s.
Carol Schaller
Carol is a retired CPA. In 2017, her doctor told her she would likely go blind. She has since traveled to 25 countries around the world, visited Mount Everest Base Camp, trekked to the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest of Uganda to see mountain gorillas, visited the South Pole, and camped in a tent in the desolate Antarctic plain at -20 degrees. Seeing Earth’s thin layer of atmosphere in the blackness of space will fulfill a lifelong dream. Carol and her husband of 40 years live on a farm in Lumberville, PA, with a view of the stars, two cows, 100 chickens, a dog, and a dancing parrot.
Gopi Thotakura
Gopi is a pilot and aviator who learned how to fly before he could drive. He’s co-founder of Preserve Life Corp, a global center for holistic wellness and applied health located near Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. In addition to flying jets commercially, Gopi pilots bush, aerobatic, and seaplanes, as well as gliders and hot air balloons, and has served as an international medical jet pilot. A lifelong traveler, his most recent adventure took him to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Gopi is a graduate of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
Each astronaut will carry a postcard to space on behalf of Blue Origin’s foundation, Club for the Future. This program gives students access to space on Blue Origin’s rockets, including an all-digital method to create and send postcards, which can be found here. The Club’s mission is to inspire and mobilize future generations to pursue careers in STEAM for the benefit of Earth.
From an environmental standpoint, nearly 99% of New Shepard’s dry mass is reused, including the booster, capsule, engine, landing gear, and parachutes. New Shepard’s engine is fueled by highly efficient liquid oxygen and hydrogen. During flight, the only byproduct is water vapor with no carbon emissions.
The flight date will be announced soon.
https://www.blueorigin.com/news/new-shepard-ns-25-mission-announcement
Follow Blue Origin on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Threads, and YouTube, and sign up on BlueOrigin.com to stay current on all mission details.
About Blue Origin
Blue Origin is a private aerospace company founded by Jeff Bezos in 2000. With its headquarters in Kent, Washington, Blue Origin aims to make space travel more accessible and sustainable. The company’s mission is centered around developing technologies to enable human colonization of space and to protect the Earth by shifting heavy industry to space.
Source: Blue Origin
https://stmdailynews.com/category/science
Lifestyle
VISTA RESIDENTIAL PARTNERS RECEIVES CITY OF PALM BEACH GARDENS APPROVAL FOR NEW LUXURY 221 UNIT MULTIFAMILY DEVELOPMENT
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla., April 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — On April 4, 2024, Vista Residential Partners, a national multifamily development firm headquartered in Atlanta, GA received City of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., approval for luxury 221-unit multifamily development, to be known as Gardens Vista Apartments.
Located at the intersection of Central and Victoria Falls Boulevards, Gardens Vista will sit on 16 acres of the more than 50-acre tract of land known as Cimarron Cove. The community is in the heart of Palm Beach Gardens and lies within 0.5 miles of I-95, and less than 1.5 miles from PGA Blvd and Gardens Mall.
The Mediterranean-style complex will include 131 one-bedroom, 72 two-bedroom, and 18 three-bedroom apartments. Community amenities feature two pickleball courts, resort style swimming pool, more than one acre of walking trails, spacious gym, interactive game room, golf simulators, co-working space, 24/7 package concierge, vehicle charging stations, and a dog park. Designed by Niles Bolton Associates, the apartments will include stainless steel appliances, 9-foot ceilings, wood plank flooring, in-unit washer and dryers, and much more.Vista has agreed to include 10% of its units to comply with the City’s workforce housing requirement. This aligns with Vista’s corporate commitment to provide workforce housing with attainable rents for those who want to live, work, and play in a well-planned community with modern units and top of the line amenities. According to Vista’s CEO, Eduardo de Guardiola, the approval is the culmination of a two year effort and collaboration between Vista and its consultants, which include Urban Design Studio, Kimley Horn & Associates, Niles Bolton Architects, all of whom worked extensively and alongside the City’s Planning and Zoning Staff to create a development plan that won unanimous approval from the City’s staff and City Council, as well as its neighboring homeowner association.About Vista Residential Partners: Vista Residential Partners was founded in 2000 by Eduardo de Guardiola, an industry veteran with over 30 years of experience in multifamily investments. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Vista Residential Partners has 9 regional offices nationwide with a focus on the acquisition, development, and construction of multifamily and mixed-use communities. Its development pipeline consists of over 5,500 units nationwide, having an aggregate value in excess of $1.5 Billion Dollars.
SOURCE Vista Residential Partners
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA is hosting a media call at 3 p.m. EDT, Wednesday, May 15, to discuss the agency’s PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment) mission, which aims to improve life on Earth by studying heat loss from Earth’s polar regions and provide information on our changing climate.
The first of two shoebox-sized satellites is targeted to launch aboard a Rocket Lab Electron rocket no earlier than Wednesday, May 22. The launch date for the second satellite will be announced shortly after the launch of the first satellite.
Earth absorbs a lot of energy from the Sun at the tropics. Weather and ocean currents move that heat energy toward the poles, where the heat radiates upward into space. Much of that heat is in far-infrared wavelengths and has never been systematically measured. The data from PREFIRE will address this knowledge gap for the benefit of all by improving predictions of climate change and sea level rise.
The audio-only teleconference streamed live on the agency’s website.
Participants include:
- Karen St. Germain, director, Earth Science Division, NASA Headquarters in Washington
- Mary White, project manager, PREFIRE, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Southern California
- Tristan L’Ecuyer, principal investigator, PREFIRE, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Peter Beck, CEO and founder, Rocket Lab
To participate by telephone, media must RSVP no later than two hours before the start of the call, to Elizabeth Vlock at: elizabeth.a.vlock@nasa.gov.
For more information about NASA’s PREFIRE mission, visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/prefire
https://stmdailynews.com/category/science
Source: NASA
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