Explore the universe and discover our home planet with the official NASA Tumblr account
Welcome to the new, official NASA Tumblr. We’re going to be giving you a regular dose of space here. Follow along and join us as we share information, images and video about our mission of exploration and discovery.
First up, check out the moon photobombing Earth in this new animated gif. The far side of the moon, illuminated by the sun, is seen as it crosses between our ‘EPIC’ camera on the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite, and the Earth - one million miles away. Check it out: http://go.nasa.gov/1Dq0IO9
Ever want to ask a real life astronaut a question? Here’s your chance!
Astronauts Drew Feustel & Ricky Arnold will be taking your questions in a VideoAnswer Time session. We’ll collect your questions and send them to space to be answered by the astronauts on Friday, May 18. We’ll record their answers and post them on Wednesday, May 23 here on NASA’s Tumblr. Make sure to ask your question now by visiting http://nasa.tumblr.com/ask!
Andrew J. Feustel was selected by NASA in 2000. He has been assigned to Expedition 55/56, which launched in March 2018. The Lake Orion, Michigan native has a Ph.D. in the Geological Sciences, specializing in Seismology, and is a veteran of two spaceflights. Follow Feustel on Twitter and Instagram.
Richard R. Arnold II was selected as an astronaut by NASA in May 2004. The Maryland native worked in the marine sciences and as a teacher in his home state, as well as in countries such as Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia. Follow Arnold on Twitter and Instagram.
NASA astronaut Jeanette J. Epps (Ph.D.) was selected as an astronaut in 2009. She has been assigned to her first spaceflight, which is scheduled to launch in May 2018. Her training included scientific and technical briefings, intensive instruction in International Space Station systems, spacewalk training, robotics, T‐38 flight training and wilderness survival training.
Before becoming an astronaut, Epps worked as a Technical Intelligence Officer at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Born in Syracuse, New York. Enjoys traveling, reading, running, mentoring, scuba diving and family.
She has a Bachelor of Science in Physics from LeMoyne College, as well as a Master of Science and Doctorate of Philosophy in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland.
Ever wanted to ask a NASA astronaut a question? Here’s your chance!
NASA astronaut Kate Rubins will be taking your questions in an Answer Time session on Thursday, October 17 from 12pm - 1pm ET here on NASA’s Tumblr! Find out what it’s like to live and work 254 miles above our planet’s surface. Make sure to ask your question now by visiting http://nasa.tumblr.com/ask!
Dr. Kate Rubins was selected in 2009 as one of nine members of the 20th NASA astronaut class. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Molecular Biology and a Ph.D. in Cancer Biology. During her first spaceflight from July - October 2016 as a member of the Expedition 49 and 50 crew, Dr. Rubins made history by becoming the first person to sequence DNA in space. She also worked on the Heart Cells Experiment which studied how heart muscle tissues contract, grow and change in microgravity. Before becoming a NASA astronaut, Dr. Rubins worked with some of the world’s most dangerous pathogens, heading 14 researchers studying viral diseases that primarily affect Central and West Africa.
Dr. Kate Rubins Fun Facts
Dr. Rubins and colleagues developed the first model of smallpox infection.
She conducted her undergraduate research on HIV-1 integration in the Infectious Diseases Laboratory at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
She conducted research on filoviruses (Ebola and Marburg), Arenaviruses (Lassa Fever) and collaborative projects with the U.S. Army to develop therapies for Ebola and Lassa viruses.
She has logged 115 days in space and 12 hours and 46 minutes of spacewalk time.
She enjoys running, cycling, swimming, flying, scuba diving and reading.
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.
We’re sending people to space this week 🚀 Here’s your chance to ask a past Flight Director in Mission Control your questions!
Ginger Kerrick will be taking your questions in an Answer Time session on Friday, September 27 from 12pm - 1 pm ET here on NASA’s Tumblr! Ginger served as a Flight Director in Mission Control for 11 years and is now the Flight Integration Division Chief at Johnson Space Center.Find out what it’s like to send humans to space and learn more about her position as our first female Hispanic flight director. Make sure to ask your question now by visiting http://nasa.tumblr.com/ask!
Ginger Kerrick, as a child, dreamed of growing up to be either a basketball player or an astronaut. When neither dream came to fruition, Kerrick developed a fresh perspective – best summed up by the phrase “It just wasn’t meant to be” – and later became part of our team, serving in the Mission Control Center at the NASA Johnson Space Center as a Flight Director who has, to date, supported 13 International Space Station and five joint space shuttle missions. It was there that Kerrick, a few years earlier, became the first non-astronaut Capsule Communicator (CapCom), the flight controller that speaks directly to the astronaut crew in space, on behalf of the rest of the Mission Control team.
Today, Ginger Kerrick is the Flight Integration Division Chief at our Johnson Space Center. Her department is responsible for crew safety and training, among a list of other duties. She has worked for NASA since 1994, and interned here while she was earning a bachelor’s degree in physics from Texas Tech University. She also has a master’s degree in physics from the university.
The total solar eclipse is coming! Here’s your chance to ask an eclipse scientist your questions!
Have questions about the upcoming total solar eclipse on August 21? Join our Tumblr Answer Time session on Thursday, August 17 from 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. EDT/12:00 - 1:00 p.m. PDT. here on NASA’s Tumblr, where space physics researcher Alexa Halford will answer them. Make sure to ask your questions now by visiting: https://nasa.tumblr.com/ask!
Alexa Halford is a space physics researcher at our Goddard Space Flight Center and Dartmouth College. She started researching waves in Earth’s magnetosphere as an undergraduate at Augsburg College with Mark Engebretson using ground based magnetometers in the Arctic and Antarctic. She moved away from waves to focus on geomagnetic storms and substorms during her masters at the University of Colorado Boulder with Dan Baker but returned once more to waves with her PhD at University of Newcastle NSW Australia. Her PhD thesis was on Electromagnetic Ion Cyclotron (EMIC) waves during the CRRES mission and their relationship to the plasmasphere and radiation belts.
Ever wanted to ask a NASA astronaut a question? Here’s your chance!
NASA astronaut Nick Hague will be taking your questions in an Answer Time session on Thursday, January 16 from 12pm - 1pm ET here on NASA’s Tumblr! Find out what it’s like to live and work 254 miles above our planet’s surface. Make sure to ask your question now by visiting http://nasa.tumblr.com/ask!
Nick Hague was selected as one of eight members of the 21st NASA Astronaut class in 2013. Hague was the first astronaut from his class to be assigned to a mission which launched on October 11, 2018. Unfortunately, he and his crewmate Alexey Ovchinin, of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, were forced to abort the mission when a rocket booster experienced a malfunction shortly after the launch of their Soyuz MS-10. The aborted spacecraft landed safely.
His first flight to the International Space Station was from March 2019 through October 2019 as a a part of the Expeditions 59 and 60 crew. Together, the crew conducted hundreds of experiments, including investigations into devices that mimic the structure and function of human organs, free-flying robots and an instrument to measure Earth’s distribution of carbon dioxide. While at the International Space Station, Hague conducted three spacewalks, totaling 19 hours and 56 minutes with a total of 203 days in space.
Hague was selected for the Air Force Fellows program where he was assigned as a member of the personal staff in the U.S. Senate, advising on matters of national defense and foreign policy.
He was a top flight test engineer in the U.S. Air Force.
He deployed five months to Iraq in support of Iraqi Freedom, conducting experimental airborne reconnaissance.
He enjoys exercise, flying, snow skiing and scuba.
Anil Menon was a first responder for earthquakes in Haiti and Nepal. Menon supported astronauts on the International Space Station as a NASA flight surgeon, later joining SpaceX as their first flight surgeon in 2018. https://go.nasa.gov/3SVVK4Y
A former NASA intern, Deniz Burnham started her career as an engineer on an oil rig in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, and went on to lead operations on drilling rigs in Canada, Ohio, and Texas. https://go.nasa.gov/3wDpfBo
As 2016 comes to a close and prospects of the new year loom before us, we take a moment to look back at what we’ve accomplished and how it will set us ahead in the year to come.
2016 marked record-breaking progress in our exploration activities. We advanced the capabilities needed to travel farther into the solar system while increasing observations of our home and the universe, learning more about how to continuously live and work in space and, or course, inspiring the next generation of leaders to take up our journey to Mars and make their own discoveries.
Here are a few of the top NASA stories of 2016…
International Space Station
One Year Mission…completed!
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko returned to Earth after spending a year in space. Testing the limits of human research, findings from their One Year Mission will help send humans farther into space than ever before.
Commercial Resupply
Commercial partners Orbital ATK and SpaceX delivered tons (yes literally tons) of cargo to the International Space Station. This cargo supported hundreds of science experiments and technology demonstrations crucial to our journey to Mars.
Mars
Expandable Habitats
The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) was one of the technology demonstrations delivered to the space station in April. Expandable habitats greatly decrease the amount of transport volume for future space missions.
Booster Test Firing
In June, a booster for our Space Launch System (SLS) rocket successfully fired up. It will be used on the first un-crewed test flight of SLS with the Orion spacecraft in 2018. Eventually, this rocket and capsule will carry humans into deep space and one day…Mars!
InSight
This year we updated the milestones for our InSight mission with a new target launch window beginning in May 2018. This mission will place a fixed science outpost on Mars to study its deep interior. Findings and research from this project will address one of the most fundamental questions we have about the planetary and solar system science…how in the world did these rocky planets form?
Solar System and Beyond
Juno
On July 4, our Juno spacecraft arrived at Jupiter. This mission is working to improve our understanding of the solar system’s beginnings by revealing the origin and evolution of Jupiter.
OSIRIS-REx
In September, we launched our OSIRIS-REx spacecraft…which is America’s first-ever asteroid sample return mission. This spacecraft will travel to a near-Earth asteroid, called Bennu, where it will collect a sample to bring back to Earth for study.
James Webb Space Telescope
In February, the final primary mirror segment of our James Webb Space Telescope was installed. This will be the world’s most powerful space telescope ever, and is scheduled to launch in 2018. Webb will look back in time, studying the very first galaxies ever formed.
Kepler
In May, our Kepler mission verified the discovery of 1,284 new planets. Kepler is the first NASA mission to find potentially habitably Earth-sized planets.
Earth Right Now
Earth Expeditions
Our efforts to improve life on Earth included an announcement in March of a collection of Earth Science field campaigns to study how our planet is changing. These Earth Expeditions sent scientists to places like the edge of the Greenland ice sheet to the coral reefs of the South Pacific to delve into challenging questions about how our planet is changing…and what impacts humans are having on it.
Small Satellites
In November, we announced plans to launch six next-generation Earth-observing small satellite missions. One uses GPS signals to measure wind in hurricanes and tropical systems in greater detail than ever before.
Aeronautics Research
Our efforts in 2016 to make air travel cleaner, safer and quieter included new technology to improve safety and efficiency of aircraft arrivals, departures and service operations.
X-Plane
In June, we highlighted our first designation of an experimental airplane, or X-plane, in a decade. It will test new electric propulsion technology.
Drone Technolgy
In October, we evaluated a system being developed for the Federal Aviation Administration to safely manage drone air traffic.
Our technology transfer program continued to share the agency’s technology with industry, academia and other government agencies at an unprecedented rate.
Centennial Challenges
Our Centennial Challenges program conducted four competition events in 2016 to spark innovation and enable solutions in important technology focus areas.
Watch the full video recap of ‘This Year @NASA’ here:
Setting Sail to Travel Through Space: 5 Things to Know about our New Mission
Our Advanced Composite Solar Sail System will launch aboard Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in Māhia, New Zealand no earlier than April 23, at 6 p.m. EDT. This mission will demonstrate the use of innovative materials and structures to deploy a next-generation solar sail from a CubeSat in low Earth orbit.
