NASA Engineer Receives AAS William Randolph Lovelace II Award

The Goddard engineer received the award for his work with the SpaceCube in Greenbelt, MD.

Contributed by NASA Goddard's Office of Communications NASA engineer Tom Flatley received the William Randolph Lovelace II award at the 51st Robert H. Goddard Memorial Symposium held in Greenbelt, Md. The American Astronautical Society (AAS) award was presented to Flatley in recognition of his outstanding contributions to space science and technology through his work with SpaceCube. SpaceCube is a compact, reconfigurable, hybrid-computing platform that is being used for flight science data processing applications. It was designed for space applications that require extreme processing capability at a much higher level than current radiation-hardened space technology can handle. SpaceCube uses radiation-tolerant processing components and can…

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Sequestration 2013: Hoyer Says NASA Goddard Contractors Could See Layoffs

Hoyer said he will continue to make job creation a priority and help Congress work toward a balanced agreement.

Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (MD-5) said Tuesday that although NASA Goddard's budget won't be affected much by the sequestration, its contracts with some local businesses could be reduced or eliminated, leading to possible layoffs. “While, thankfully, it appears that NASA Goddard Space Flight Center may not be as severely affected as some other NASA centers, we are still likely to see local businesses that contract with NASA and with the military, like many of you here today, take a significant hit," Hoyer said at a luncheon hosted by the Maryland Space Business Roundtable in Greenbelt. The sequester would also cut into research funds, he said, which might reduce the number of student pursuing careers in STEM fields. "Congress owes it to you…

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NASA Goddard Goes Wild As Mars Rover Lands

Wave after wave of cheering, clapping, laughter and euphoria hits NASA Goddard as Curiosity lands safely.

  Mars rover fans spilled over onto the floor and stood along the walls at NASA Goddard's Visitor Center to watch Curiosity descend toward the Red Planet Monday. Despite the hour, with a 1:31 a.m. EDT projected landing time, some 357 observers showed up. As the moment approached, a mental tug of war played out among Goddard staff and friends as the worst of fears met with the best of hopes. Word from NASA was it would take hundreds of things going just right for the landing to be successful .  "If any one thing doesn't work just right, it's game over," Tom Rivellini NASA EDL engineer, had warned. "I'm so nervous," said intern Rachel Kronyak, an undergraduate at Penn State. Before her on a large screen, a live feed of the landing played …

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Bailey's Blog

No Room Left at Goddard to Watch Mars Rover Curiosity Land

Watching Curiosity touch down with Goddard folks is a hot ticket item—with no tickets left. But here's how you can still catch its rendezvous with the Red Planet live.

  There is no room left at NASA's Goddard's Visitor Center in Greenbelt, MD, from midnight to 3:30 a.m. Monday for visitors who want to watch Curiosity touch down on the Red Planet. But you have several alternative options for watching. They may not be the Seaton Norman way, but you can still watch history as it happens. And you can also prepare yourself for what you are going to see—by watching William Shatner explain the Mars rover Curiosity's mission and the "seven minutes of terror" it will endure as it goes from 13,000 mph to a soft landing. Yes, that's Shatner as in Capt. James Tiberius Kirk himself. He's in a NASA video with some very cool animations. Once you watch and get your Star Trek NASA Goddard Mars rover dilithium crystal …

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Man Robs Greenbelt Road Burger King at Gunpoint

The suspect is still at large, according to Prince George's County police.

A man robbed the Burger King at 8800 Greenbelt Road at gunpoint on Thursday morning, according to Cpl. Maria McKinney, spokesperson for the Prince George's County Police. Police received the call at 9:46 a.m., according to police. The Burger King is located in Cipriano Square Plaza, across from NASA Goddard. The suspect was at large, according to McKinney, who did not know if anything was taken or whether anyone was injured. Get daily and breaking news email updates from Greenbelt Patch by signing up for newsletters here. The suspect was wearing all black clothing and was armed with a black gun, and fled in a dark blue Dodge Stratus, according to Business News Network.

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NASA Goddard Releases New Video of Sun's Activity

Though the swirling magnetic tendrils look like art—they are actually giant coronal loops, according to C. Alex Young, Ph.D., an associate director with NASA Goddard.

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NASA Goddard Launches Earthbound Mission To Save Tree

An old tree, and emblem of 'life' at NASA Goddard, is hanging on for its life in the wake of the storm that ripped through Greenbelt in June.

An old willow oak with a story to tell may be the greatest testament to just how green NASA Goddard really is. Its reaching branches towered outside the shiny new windows of the Exploration Sciences Building—as a verdant crown on the day the structure earned NASA Goddard Space Flight Center its first LEED Gold certification, in 2010. But two years later, the nearly 200-year-old landmark dubbed the "Tree of Life" by Goddard staff is, ironically, struggling for its life. The fierce derecho that tore through Goddard's Greenbelt, MD, campus on June 29, cracked a large limb that ripped down part of the trunk as it crashed to the ground, as confirmed by Rob Gutro, NASA Goddard spokesperson. Goddard had specifically ordered the tree spared when …

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Goddard Shows Video of Largest Under-Ice Bloom Seen on Planet

NASA Goddard shows video capturing a massive Arctic under-ice plant bloom that stunned scientists, according to Goddard.

The discovery of massive Arctic marine plant life "stunned scientists, as an under-ice bloom of this size has never been seen anywhere on the planet," according to NASA Goddard, which recently posted video of the discovery. See the attached video. The mushrooming growth of these plants, called phytoplankton, is a consequence of the Arctic's warming climate, according to a NASA report. Sunlight is reaching the water under the sea because the ice on top is thinning and speeding up plant blooms where they had never been observed. Not only that, scientists think the melting pools have a magnifying glass effect—focusing sunlight into sea water, according to a CNN report, making phytoplankton—which are essential to all sea life—bloom better …

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New NASA Video Shows 24 Hours of Sun Spectacular

The incandescent sun in all her glory, compliments of NASA Goddard.

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