NASA's Top Science, Exploration and Discovery Stories of 2008

NASA landed on Mars, photographed distant worlds, added to the International Space Station, took part in a lunar science mission with India and made major progress toward returning astronauts to the moon as the agency celebrated its 50th birthday in 2008. Here on Earth, NASA researchers recorded the continued decline of Arctic sea ice, won awards for aviation breakthroughs, discovered the cause of storms that brighten the Northern Lights and helped create state-of-the-art swimsuits worn by Olympic gold medalists. Ten of the top accomplishments of America's space agency in its golden anniversary year are listed below:

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION NEARS COMPLETION ON 10TH ANNIVERSARY

NASA completed four space shuttle missions in 2008 to deliver modules and hardware to the International Space Station, allowing it to grow in size, volume and space science capability. The flights also prepared the Space station to house six crew members for long-duration space missions and to expand scientific exploration. The activation in 2008 of the European Space Agency's Columbus module and Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle, as well as the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory, marked the beginning of new human spaceflight control centers in Germany, France and Japan that are working with existing control centers in the U.S., Russia and Canada. Nov. 20 was the 10th anniversary of the launch of Zarya, a Russian control module that was the station's first component. In the decade since Zarya arrived in orbit, the space station has grown to become the largest spacecraft ever built. Its mass has expanded to more than 313 tons, and its interior volume is more than 25,000 cubic feet, comparable to the size of a five-bedroom house. The space station now hosts 19 research facilities, including nine sponsored by NASA, eight by European Space Agency and two by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/10th_main.html

PHOENIX WRAPS UP SUCCESSFUL MISSION TO MARS

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander ceased communications Nov. 2 after successfully returning unprecedented science data to Earth. Launched Aug. 4, 2007, Phoenix safely touched down on Mars on May 25, 2008, at a site farther north than where any previous spacecraft had landed. Phoenix's soft landing on Mars was the first in 32 years and only the third in history. Cameras on Phoenix sent more than 25,000 images back to Earth. Preliminary science data shed light on whether the Martian arctic environment ever has been favorable for microbes; documented a mildly alkaline soil environment unlike any found by earlier missions; discovered small concentrations of salts that could be nutrients for life; located calcium carbonate; and detected perchlorate salt. The findings also advanced the goal of documenting the history of water on Mars. Phoenix exceeded its planned operational life of three to five months. Analysis of data from its instruments continues.

http://www.nasa.gov/phoenix

ARES I ROCKET PASSES IMPORTANT DESIGN MILESTONE

NASA successfully completed the preliminary design review for the new Ares I rocket in 2008. Starting in 2015, the rocket will launch the Orion crew exploration vehicle, its crew of four to six astronauts, and small payloads to the International Space Station. The rocket also will be used as part of space missions to explore the moon and beyond in coming decades. The preliminary design review is the first such milestone in more than 35 years for a U.S. rocket that will carry astronauts into space. The review examined the design of Ares I to confirm the planned technical approach will meet NASA's requirements for the fully integrated vehicle and ensure all of the rocket's components and supporting space systems are designed to work together. NASA is preparing for the rocket's first test flight in 2009. Hardware for the test flight, including the forward skirt and the upper stage simulator, began arriving at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida this fall.

http://www.nasa.gov/ares

ARCTIC SEA ICE DECLINE CONTINUES

In September, Arctic sea ice coverage reached the second-lowest level recorded since the dawn of the space satellite era, according to observations from the NASA-supported National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado. While slightly above the record-low set in September 2007, this season further reinforces the strong negative trend in summer sea ice coverage observed during the past 30 years. In March, when the Arctic reached its annual maximum sea ice coverage during the winter, scientists from NASA and the data center reported that thick, older sea ice was continuing to decline. NASA developed the capability to observe the extent and concentration of sea ice from space using passive microwave sensors.

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/sep/HQ_08234_Artic_Sea_Ice.html

LIGHTING UP THE NIGHT

Researchers using a fleet of five NASA satellites discovered in 2008 that explosions of magnetic energy occurring a third of the way to the moon power substorms that cause sudden brightenings and rapid movements of the aurora borealis, or Northern Lights. The cause is magnetic reconnection, a common process that occurs throughout the universe when stressed magnetic field lines suddenly snap to a new shape, like a rubber band that has been stretched too far. These substorms often accompany intense space storms that can cause power outages and disrupt radio communications and global positioning system signals. Space Scientists are studying the beginning of substorms using a network of 20 ground observatories located throughout Canada and Alaska and five THEMIS, or Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms, satellites.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/themis/auroras/themis_power.html

HUBBLE FINDS PLANET CIRCLING A DISTANT STAR

Astronomers announced in 2008 that NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has taken the first visible-light snapshot of a planet circling another star. Observations taken 21 months apart by the coronagraph on Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys showed the object orbiting around a star named Fomalhaut. The planet, called Fomalhaut b, is approximately 10 times the distance of Saturn from our sun. Estimated to be as much as three times Jupiter's mass, Fomalhaut b is located 25 light-years away in the constellation Piscis Australis, or the "Southern Fish." Fomalhaut has been a candidate for planet hunting since an excess of dust was discovered around the star in the early 1980s by NASA's Infrared Astronomy Satellite. The planet is brighter than expected for an object of three Jupiter masses. One possibility is that it has a Saturn-like ring of ice and dust reflecting starlight. Space Scientists theorize that the ring might eventually coalesce to form moons.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/science/fomalhaut.html

NASA COMPLETES FIRST TESTS ON NEXT-GENERATION ROCKET ENGINE

NASA engineers successfully completed in 2008 the first series of tests in the early development of the J-2X engine that will power the upper stages of the Ares I and Ares V rockets. Ares I will launch the Orion spacecraft that will take astronauts to the International Space Station and on to the moon by 2020. Ares V will carry cargo and components into orbit for trips to the moon and later to Mars. NASA conducted nine tests of heritage J-2 engine components from December to May as part of a series designed to verify J-2 performance data and explore performance boundaries. Engineers at NASA's Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Miss., conducted the tests on a heritage J-2 "powerpack," which, in a fully assembled engine, pumps liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen into the engine's main combustion chamber to produce thrust. The test hardware consisted of J-2 components used from the Apollo program in the1960s through the X-33 program in the 1990s.

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/may/HQ_08116_power_pack_tests.html

NASA TEAM A RECIPIENT OF CELEBRATED COLLIER TROPHY

NASA was part of a team that received one of the most prestigious awards in aviation in June. Judges for the Robert J. Collier Trophy, awarded by the National Aeronautic Association, chose the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, or ADS-B, team of public and private groups to receive the 2007 honor. According to the selection committee, "ADS-B is a ground-breaking effort for next-generation airborne surveillance and cockpit avionics. Its implementation will have a broad impact on the safety, capacity and efficiency of the national airspace system." Researchers at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., and NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., were part of the extensive team that developed and tested ADS-B.

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/jun/HQ_08148_Collier_Trophy.html

NASA RETURNS TO THE MOON WITH INSTRUMENTS ON INDIAN SPACECRAFT

NASA has partnered with India to fly two space science instruments aboard the country's first lunar explorer, Chandrayaan-1. The Indian Space Research Organization launched Chandrayaan-1 on Oct. 22 from Sriharikota, India. It entered lunar orbit on Nov. 8. NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper is surveying mineral resources of the moon, and the Miniature Synthetic Aperture Radar is mapping the moon's polar regions and looking for ice deposits in the permanently shadowed craters. Data from the two instruments is contributing to NASA's increased understanding of the lunar environment as the agency implements the nation's space exploration policy, which calls for robotic and human missions to the moon.

http://moonmineralogymapper.jpl.nasa.gov/

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/Mini-RF/main/index.html

NASA TESTS HELP RECORD-BREAKING OLYMPIANS ROCKET THROUGH WATER

NASA know-how helped swimsuit designers create a body suit worn by an assortment of gold medalists and world record holders at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Among the medalists wearing Speedo's LZR Racer were Americans Michael Phelps -- winner of more Olympic gold medals than any athlete in the modern era -- and Natalie Coughlin. Aerospace engineer Steve Wilkinson at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., played a role in developing the swimsuit by testing dozens of fabrics in Langley's 7-by-11-inch low speed wind tunnel. Warnaco Inc., the U.S. licensee of the Speedo swimwear brand, approached Langley to test fabric samples because the NASA center has researched drag reduction for aircraft and boats for decades. Just as reducing drag helps planes fly more efficiently, reducing drag helps swimmers go faster. Studies indicate viscous drag or skin friction is almost a third of the total restraining force on a swimmer. Wind tunnel tests measured the drag on the surface of the fabrics. Speedo's research and development team, Aqualab, took the results and used them to help create advanced "space-age" swimsuit designs.

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/technology/features/2008-0813-swimsuit.html

NASA Television's Video File newsfeed will include items featuring these top stories beginning at 12 p.m. EST today, Dec. 15. For NASA TV streaming video, schedules, and downlink information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

Visitors to NASA's Web site can vote on the top NASA story of the year at:

http://www.nasa.gov/news/08_YIR_poll.html

Space Station Astronaut Available for Satellite Interviews

NASA astronaut Greg Chamitoff, who recently completed a six-month stay in space, will be available for satellite interviews from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. CST on Thursday, Dec. 18.

Chamitoff returned to Earth on Nov. 30 with the STS-126 space shuttle crew. He arrived at the International Space Station in June with the STS-124 crew and lived and worked on the station as a flight engineer and science officer with the Expedition 17 and 18 crews.

During his stay, Chamitoff helped to activate the Kibo Laboratory, which was delivered during STS-124. He also initiated the first chess matches from space with the public and the kindergarten-through-third grade U.S. Chess Championship Team and its chess club teammates from Stevenson Elementary School in Bellevue, Wash.

Chamitoff was born in Montreal and grew up in San Jose, Calif. He holds bachelor's and master's of science degrees from California Polytechnic State University, a second master's of science degree from the University of Houston and a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

To participate in the interviews, reporters should contact Karen Svetaka at 281-483-8684 by 3 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 17. B-roll of Chamitoff's mission will be broadcast starting at 7 a.m., immediately before the interviews.

The NASA Live Interview Media Outlet channel will be used for the interviews. The channel is a digital satellite C-band downlink by uplink provider Americom. It is on satellite AMC 6, transponder 5C, located at 72 degrees west, downlink frequency 3785.5 Mhz based on a standard C-band 5150 Mhz L.O., vertical polarity, FEO is 3/4, data rate is 6.00 Mhz, symbol rate is 4.3404 Mbaud, transmission DVB, minimum Eb/N0 is 6.0 dB.

The interviews also will be broadcast live on NASA TV. For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information on the International Space Station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

For more information about Chamitoff and his biography, visit:

http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/chamitoff.html

Saturn's Dynamic Moon Enceladus Shows More Signs of Activity

The closer scientists look at Saturn's small moon Enceladus, the more they find evidence of an active world. The most recent flybys of Enceladus made by NASA's Cassini spacecraft have provided new signs of ongoing changes on and around the moon. The latest high-resolution images of Enceladus show signs that the south polar surface changes over time.

Close views of the southern polar region, where jets of water vapor and icy particles spew from vents within the moon's distinctive "tiger stripe" fractures, provide surprising evidence of Earth-like tectonics. They yield new insight into what may be happening within the fractures. The latest data on the plume -- the huge cloud of vapor and particles fed by the jets that extend into space -- show it varies over time and has a far-reaching effect on Saturn's magnetosphere.

"Of all the geologic provinces in the Saturn system that Cassini has explored, none has been more thrilling or carries greater implications than the region at the southernmost portion of Enceladus," said panel member Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team leader at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

A panel of Cassini scientists presented these new findings Monday in a news briefing at the American Geophysical Union's Fall Meeting in San Francisco.

"Enceladus has Earth-like spreading of the icy crust, but with an exotic difference -- the spreading is almost all in one direction, like a conveyor belt," said panelist Paul Helfenstein, Cassini imaging associate at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. "Asymmetric spreading like this is unusual on Earth and not well understood."

"Enceladus has asymmetric spreading on steroids," Helfenstein added. "We are not certain about the geological mechanisms that control the spreading, but we see patterns of divergence and mountain-building similar to what we see on Earth, which suggests that subsurface heat and convection are involved."

The tiger stripes are analogous to the mid-ocean ridges on Earth's seafloor where volcanic material wells up and creates new crust. Using Cassini-based digital maps of the moon's south polar region, Helfenstein reconstructed a possible history of the tiger stripes by working backward in time and progressively snipping away older and older sections of the map, each time finding that the remaining sections fit together like puzzle pieces.

Images from recent close flybys also have bolstered an idea the Cassini imaging team has that condensation from the jets erupting from the surface may create ice plugs that close off old vents and force new vents to open. The opening and clogging of vents also corresponds with measurements indicating the plume varies from month to month and year to year.

"We see no obvious distinguishing markings on the surface in the immediate vicinity of each jet source, which suggests that the vents may open and close and thus migrate up and down the fractures over time," Porco said. "Over time, the particles that rain down onto the surface from the jets may form a continuous blanket of snow along a fracture."

Enceladus' output of ice and vapor dramatically impacts the entire Saturnian system by supplying the ring system with fresh material and loading ionized gas from water vapor into Saturn's magnetosphere.

"The ions added to the magnetosphere are spun up from Enceladus' orbital speed to the rotational speed of Saturn," said Cassini magnetometer science team member Christopher Russell of the University of California, Los Angeles. "The more material is added by the plume, the harder this is for Saturn to do, and the longer it takes to accelerate the new material."

With water vapor, organic compounds and excess heat emerging from Enceladus' south polar terrain, scientists are intrigued by the possibility of a liquid-water-rich habitable zone beneath the moon's south pole.

Cassini's flybys on Aug. 11 and Oct. 31 targeted Enceladus' fractured southern region. An Oct. 9 flyby took the spacecraft deep into the plume of water vapor and ice shooting out of the moon's vents. Cassini's next flyby of Enceladus will be in November 2009. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/cassini

NASA TV to Air International Space Station Briefing and Spacewalk

NASA will hold a media briefing Dec. 18 to discuss an upcoming International Space Station spacewalk. NASA Television will provide live coverage of the Dec. 22 spacewalk of Expedition 18 Commander Mike Fincke and Flight Engineer Yury Lonchakov.

The briefing from NASA's Johnson Space Center will air live on NASA TV Dec. 18 at 1 p.m. CST. Questions will be taken from journalists at participating NASA locations. The briefers are:
- Kirk Shireman, International Space Station deputy program manager
- David Korth, Expedition 18 spacewalk flight director

During the spacewalk, Fincke and Lonchakov will deploy and retrieve several Russian experiments on the space station's exterior. They also will install a device to measure electromagnetic forces imparted on space station hardware as the complex moves through low Earth orbit. Russian space specialists believe electromagnetic interference may have contributed to past problems on the Soyuz spacecraft's pyrotechnic bolts, which allow sections of the vehicle to separate properly during its return to Earth.

NASA TV coverage of the spacewalk will begin at 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 22. The spacewalk will start at approximately 6:15 p.m. and last six hours. It will be the fifth spacewalk of Fincke's career and the first for Lonchakov. Expedition 18 Flight Engineer Sandy Magnus will monitor the spacewalk from inside the space station.

For NASA TV streaming video, schedules, and downlink information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information about the space station and the Expedition 18 crew, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

NASA to Update Reporters about Constellation Program

NASA will host a media teleconference Wednesday, Dec. 17, at 4 p.m. EST, to brief reporters about recent developments and ongoing progress in NASA's Constellation Program. Constellation will build the spacecraft to carry astronauts to the International Space Station and return humans to the moon by 2020.

The teleconference participants are:
- Doug Cooke, associate administrator of the Exploration Space Systems Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington
- Jeff Hanley, Constellation program manager at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston
- Steve Cook, Ares projects manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
- Mark Geyer, Orion project manager at NASA's Johnson Space Center

To participate in the call, reporters should dial 800-790-1836 and use the pass code "ESMD update." Replays of the call will be available through Dec. 24 by dialing 866-507-3617 and entering the pass code 52368.

Teleconference audio will be broadcast live at:

http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio

For more information about NASA's Constellation Program, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/constellation

Space Station Crew Exchanges Seasons Greetings with Earth

Soaring high above the Earth, the crew of the International Space Station has beamed down season's greetings that will air on NASA Television starting Friday, Dec. 12. The public can return the extraterrestrial good will and send greetings to the crew by visiting:

http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/postcard

The e-mailed greetings can be sent through Jan. 5, 2009. Last year, thousands of messages were sent to the Expedition 16 crew from throughout the world.

The current station crew, Expedition 18 Commander Mike Fincke and Flight Engineers Sandra Magnus and Yury Lonchakov, will celebrate this holiday season 220 miles above Earth. Fincke and Lonchakov have been on the station since Oct. 14, and Magnus joined the crew Nov. 16. The main focus of their mission is to prepare the space station to house six crew members for long-duration Space missions beginning in May 2009.

The station crew's greetings will air on NASA TV as part of the daily Video File, beginning at 11 a.m. CST, Friday, Dec. 12. The video also will be broadcast in high definition on the NASA TV HD channel on Dec. 15-17 at 10 a.m., 12 p.m. and 3 p.m.

For NASA TV streaming video, scheduling and downlink information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information about the space station and the Expedition 18 mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Completes Prime Mission

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has completed its primary, two-year science phase. The spacecraft has found signs of a complex Martian history of climate change that produced a diversity of past watery environments.

The orbiter has returned 73 terabits of science data, more than all earlier Mars missions combined. The spacecraft will build on this record as it continues to examine Mars in unprecedented detail during its next two-year phase of science operations.

Among the major findings during the primary science phase is the revelation that the action of water on and near the surface of Mars occurred for hundreds of millions of years. This activity was at least regional and possibly global in extent, though possibly intermittent. The spacecraft also observed that signatures of a variety of watery environments, some acidic, some alkaline, increase the possibility that there are places on Mars that could reveal evidence of past life, if it ever existed.

Since moving into position 186 miles above Mars' surface in October 2006, the orbiter also has conducted 10,000 targeted observation sequences of high-priority areas. It has imaged nearly 40 percent of the planet at a resolution that can reveal house-sized objects in detail, with one percent in enough detail to see desk-sized features. This survey has covered almost 60 percent of Mars in mineral mapping bands at stadium-size resolution. The orbiter also assembled nearly 700 daily global weather maps, dozens of atmospheric temperature profiles, and hundreds of radar profiles of the subsurface and the interior of the polar caps.

"These observations are now at the level of detail necessary to test hypotheses about when and where water has changed Mars and where future missions will be most productive as they search for habitable regions on Mars," said Richard Zurek, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Included in the observations are hundreds of stereo pairs used to make detailed topography maps and classic images in support of other Mars missions. One image showed the Mars rover Opportunity poised on the rim of Victoria Crater, and another was of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander during its descent to the surface. Orbiter data prompted the Phoenix team to change the spacecraft's landing site, and are being used to select the landing location for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory, which is scheduled for launch in 2011. For five months of Phoenix operations on Mars that ended in November, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter shared the vital communications roles of relaying commands to the lander, and data from Phoenix back to Earth.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has found repetitive layering in Mars' permanent polar ice caps. The patterns suggest climate change cycles continuing to the present. They may record possible effects of cyclical changes in Mars' tilt and orbit on global sunlight patterns. Recent climate cycles are indicated by radar detection of subsurface icy deposits outside the polar regions, closer to the equator, where near-surface ice is not permanently stable. Other results reveal details of ancient streambeds, atmospheric hazes and motions of water, along with the ever-changing weather on Mars.

Most observations from the orbiter will be discontinued for a few weeks while the sun is between Earth and Mars, which will disrupt communications. This month, the orbiter will begin a new phase, with science observations continuing as Mars makes another orbit around the sun, which takes approximately two Earth years.

"This spacecraft truly exemplifies the best in capabilities to support science and other Martian spacecraft activities," said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "MRO has exceeded its own goals and our expectations. We look forward to more discoveries as we continue to look at the Red Planet in spectacular detail."

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. For more information about the mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mro .

NASA Science on Display at American Geophysical Union Meeting

NASA researchers will present new findings on a wide range of Earth and space science topics during the 2008 fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union. The meeting runs from Monday, Dec. 15, through Friday, Dec. 19, at San Francisco's Moscone Convention Center at 747 Howard St.

News briefings held during the meeting will feature the latest results from NASA missions studying Mars, the moons of the solar system's outer planets, Earth's protective magnetic field and the changing face of the Arctic. In addition, NASA scientists and their colleagues using NASA research capabilities will present noteworthy findings during scientific sessions that are open to registered media representatives.

For a complete list of NASA-related news briefings at the meeting, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/agu

The Web site contains detailed information about how media can participate in the briefings, both on-site and remotely. The site will be updated throughout the week with additional information about NASA presentations.

For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

NASA Sets Briefings to Preview Next Space Shuttle Mission

NASA will discuss the next space shuttle mission during a daylong series of media briefings from NASA's Johnson Space Center beginning at 8 a.m. CST, Friday, Jan. 9. The briefings will be broadcast live on NASA Television and the agency's Web site. Questions also will be taken from participating NASA locations.

Space shuttle Discovery's mission to the International Space Station is targeted for launch Feb. 12 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The 14-day mission will deliver the final set of solar arrays and the last segment of the station's backbone. The crew will perform four spacewalks during the 10 days the shuttle is docked to the station.

Following the briefings, members of the shuttle crew will be available for a series of round-robin interviews. Media planning to attend and participate in the interviews must contact the Johnson newsroom at 281-483-5111 by 5 p.m. on Jan. 6. Journalists who are foreign nationals, regardless of citizenship, must contact Johnson to arrange credentials no later than 5 p.m. on Dec. 19.

Lee Archambault will command Discovery's mission, which is designated STS-119. Tony Antonelli will serve as the pilot. The mission specialists are Joseph Acaba, John Phillips, Steve Swanson, Richard Arnold and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata. Wakata will replace Expedition 18 Flight Engineer Sandra Magnus, who will return to Earth with the STS-119 crew. Wakata will serve as a flight engineer for Expeditions 18 and 19 and will return to Earth on shuttle mission STS-127.

The schedule of briefings (all times are Central) is:

8 a.m. -- Space Shuttle and Space Station Program Overview
9:30 a.m. -- STS-119 Mission Overview
11 a.m. -- NASA TV Video File
11:30 a.m. -- STS-119 Spacewalk Overview
1 p.m. -- STS-119 Crew News Conference

For NASA TV streaming video, schedules, and downlink information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For the latest information about the STS-119 mission and its crew, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

For more information about the International Space Station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

International Space Station 2009 Calendar Available Online

As part of NASA's celebration of the 10th anniversary of the International Space Station, the agency is providing a special 2009 calendar to teachers and the public.

The calendar contains photographs taken from the space station. It highlights historic NASA milestones and fun facts about this international construction project of unprecedented complexity that began in 1998.

The calendar can be downloaded and printed by visiting:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

"We hope this calendar will inspire the next generation of explorers and provide interesting and challenging information for educators, students and anyone interested in space," said International Space Station Program Manager Mike Suffredini at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "As we near the completion of space station assembly, we are doubling the crew size, increasing our knowledge and operational experience, and continuing our quest of exploration and discovery."

Nearly 100,000 copies of the calendar will be delivered to schools in all 50 states. The calendars are distributed through NASA education programs and NASA-affiliated education networks such as the NASA Central Operation of Resources for Educators, NASA Education Resource Centers, NASA Explorer Schools and the Challenger Center for Space Science Education of Alexandria, Va.

For more information about NASA's education programs, visit:

http://education.nasa.gov

NASA to Announce New Findings on Dark Energy

Astronomers will hold a media teleconference Tuesday, Dec. 16 at 1 p.m. EST to announce important new results on dark energy that were made using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.

The briefing participants are:
-- Alexey Vikhlinin, astrophysicist, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, Mass.
-- William Forman, astrophysicist, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
-- David Spergel, theoretical astrophysicist, Princeton University

To participate in the teleconference, reporters must contact the Chandra press office at 617-496-7998 or via e-mail at mwatzke@cfa.harvard.edu before noon on Tuesday, Dec. 16, for dial-in information.

A video file about the discovery will air on NASA Television on Dec. 16. The teleconference audio will be streamed live on the Web at:

http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

Hubble Finds Carbon Dioxide on an Extrasolar Planet

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has discovered carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a planet orbiting another star. This breakthrough is an important step toward finding chemical biotracers of extraterrestrial life.

The Jupiter-sized planet, called HD 189733b, is too hot for life. But the Hubble observations are a proof-of-concept demonstration that the basic chemistry for life can be measured on planets orbiting other stars. Organic compounds also can be a by-product of life processes and their detection on an Earthlike planet someday may provide the first evidence of life beyond our planet.

Previous observations of HD 189733b by Hubble and the Spitzer Space Telescope found water vapor. Earlier this year, Hubble found methane in the planet's atmosphere.

"Hubble was conceived primarily for observations of the distant universe, yet it is opening a new era of astrophysics and comparative planetary science," said Eric Smith, Hubble Space Telescope program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "These atmospheric studies will begin to determine the compositions and chemical processes operating on distant worlds orbiting other stars. The future for this newly opened frontier of science is extremely promising as we expect to discover many more molecules in exoplanet atmospheres."

Mark Swain, a research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., used Hubble's near infrared camera and multi-object spectrometer to study infrared light emitted from the planet, which lies 63 light-years away. Gases in the planet's atmosphere absorb certain wavelengths of light from the planet's hot glowing interior. Swain identified carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. The molecules leave a unique spectral fingerprint on the radiation from the planet that reaches Earth. This is the first time a near-infrared emission spectrum has been obtained for an exoplanet.

"The carbon dioxide is the main reason for the excitement because, under the right circumstances, it could have a connection to biological activity as it does on Earth," Swain said. "The very fact we are able to detect it and estimate its abundance is significant for the long-term effort of characterizing planets to find out what they are made of and if they could be a possible host for life."

This type of observation is best done on planets with orbits tilted edge-on to Earth. They routinely pass in front of and then behind their parent stars, phenomena known as eclipses. The planet HD 189733b passes behind its companion star once every 2.2 days. The eclipses allow an opportunity to subtract the light of the star alone, when the planet is blocked, from that of the star and planet together prior to eclipse. That isolates the emission of the planet and makes possible a chemical analysis of its atmosphere.

"In this way, we are using the eclipse of the planet behind the star to probe the planet's day side, which contains the hottest portions of its atmosphere," said team member Guatam Vasisht of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "We are starting to find the molecules and to figure out how many there are to see the changes between the day side and the night side."

This successful demonstration of looking at near-infrared light emitted from a planet is very encouraging for astronomers planning to use NASA's James Webb Space Telescope after it is launched in 2013. These biomarkers are best seen at near-infrared wavelengths. Astronomers look forward to using the James Webb Space Telescope to look spectroscopically for biomarkers on a terrestrial planet the size of Earth or a "super-Earth" several times our planet's mass.

"The Webb telescope should be able to make much more sensitive measurements of these primary and secondary eclipse events," Swain said.

For further information about the Hubble space telescope, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/hubble

Endeavour Flying Back to Florida

Space shuttle Endeavour and its seven astronauts followed up recent missions that added to the International Space Station’s exterior by beefing up the interior of the orbital complex. During about 16 days in space, the crew added new living, cooking and exercise facilities to the space station. They also performed four spacewalks to service the joints in the station’s truss that turn the power-producing solar arrays.

By the time Endeavour left the station on Nov. 28, 2008, it had spent almost 12 days at the complex. The seven astronauts, joined by the three crew members living on the station, had transferred more than seven tons of equipment and supplies to the station, and moved more than 3,400 pounds from the station for return to Earth.

After launching from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center well after sunset on Nov. 14 Endeavour glided back to Earth awash in sunlight over California. Commander Chris Ferguson guided Endeavour to an afternoon landing at Edwards Air Force Base on Nov. 30 to end the flight.

The next shuttle mission is STS-119, targeted for launch on Feb. 12, 2009, on a flight to install the fourth set of solar arrays on the International Space Station.

Additional Resources
› STS-126 Press Kit (4.5 Mb PDF)
› STS-126 Mission Summary (475 kb PDF)
› Execute Packages › About the Crew
› Shuttle Launch Manifest

Rivers of Gas Flow Around Stars in New Space Image

A new image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows a turbulent star-forming region, where rivers of gas and stellar winds are eroding thickets of dusty material.

The picture provides some of the best examples yet of the ripples of gas, or bow shocks, that can form around stars in choppy cosmic waters.

"The stars are like rocks in a rushing river," said Matt Povich of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. "Powerful winds from the most massive stars at the center of the cloud produce a large flow of expanding gas. This gas then piles up with dust in front of winds from other massive stars that are pushing back against the flow." Povich is lead author of a paper describing the new findings in the Dec. 10 issue of the Astrophysical Journal.

Spitzer's new infrared view of the stormy region, called M17, or the Swan nebula, is online at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/spitzer/multimedia/20081208.html . The Swan is located about 6,000 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius.

Dominating the center of the Swan is a group of massive stars, some exceeding 40 times the mass of our sun. These central stars are 100,000 to one million times as bright as the sun, and roar with radiation and fierce winds made of charged particles that speed along at up to 7.2 million kilometers per hour (4.5 million miles per hour). Both the wind and radiation carve out a deep cavity at the center of the picture -- an ongoing process thought to trigger the birth of new stars.

The growth of this cavity pushes gas up against winds from other massive stars, causing "smiley-faced" bow shocks -- three of which can be seen in the new picture. The direction of the bow shocks tells researchers exactly which way the "wind is blowing."

"The bow shocks are like interstellar weather vanes, indicating the direction of the stellar winds in the nebula," said Povich.

Povich and his colleagues also used Spitzer to take an infrared picture of a star-forming region called RCW 49. Both photographs are described in the same Astrophysical Journal paper, and both provide the first examples of multiple bow shocks around the massive stars of star-forming regions.

Spitzer was able to spot the bow shocks because its infrared eyes can pierce intervening dust, and because it can photograph large swaths of sky quickly.

Ultimately, the new observations will help researchers understand how solar systems like our own are able to form and persist in the rough, celestial seas of space.

"The gas being lit up in these star-forming regions looks very wispy and fragile, but looks can be deceiving," said co-author Robert Benjamin of the University of Wisconsin, Whitewater. "These bow shocks serve as a reminder that stars aren't born in quiet nurseries but in violent regions buffeted by winds more powerful than anything we see on Earth."

Other authors include Barbara A. Whitney of the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.; Brian L. Babler, Marilyn R. Meade and Ed Churchwell of the University of Wisconsin, Madison; and Remy Indebetouw of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology, also in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. Spitzer's infrared array camera was built by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The instrument's principal investigator is Giovanni Fazio of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

For more information about Spitzer, visit http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/spitzer and http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer .

NASA Orbiter Finds Martian Rock Record With 10 Beats to the Bar

Climate cycles persisting for millions of years on ancient Mars left a record of rhythmic patterns in thick stacks of sedimentary rock layers, revealed in three-dimensional detail by a telescopic camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Researchers using the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera report the first measurement of a periodic signal in the rocks of Mars. This pushes climate-cycle fingerprints much earlier in Mars' history than more recent rhythms seen in Martian ice layers. It also may rekindle debates about some patterns of rock layering on Earth.

Layers of similar thickness repeat dozens to hundreds of times in rocks exposed inside four craters in the Arabia Terra region of Mars. In one of the craters, Becquerel, bundles of a 10-layer pattern repeat at least 10 times, which could correspond to a known 10-to-one pattern of changes in the tilt of the planet's rotation axis.

"Each layer has weathered into a stair step in the topography where material that's more resistant to erosion lies on top of material that's less resistant to erosion," said Kevin Lewis of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, who is the lead author of a report on the periodic layering published in the Dec. 5 edition of the journal Science.

Some periodic change in the environment appears to have affected how resistant the rock-forming sediments became, perhaps from changes in what size of sand or silt particles were deposited by the wind, or from how the particles were cemented together after deposition.

Some of the individual layers are less than three feet thick.

The camera, called HiRISE for short, took pairs of images of each site from slightly different angles in orbit, providing the stereo information necessary for determining each layer's thickness.

"It's easy to be fooled without knowing the topography and measuring the layers in three dimensions," said Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona, Tucson, principal investigator for the camera and a co-author of the new report. "With the stereo information, it is clear there's a repeating pattern to these layers."

Geologists commonly find "rhythms," or repeating patterns, in sedimentary layers on Earth. Determining the source of the rhythms can be difficult. Some result from annual or tidal cycles, or from episodic flooding that may not be periodic at all, but the role of longer-term astronomical cycles has been debated. One step in showing that astronomical cycles can leave their mark in sediments came from finding repeating five-layer sets in some terrestrial bedrock, matching a known five-to-one ratio of two cyclical variations in Earth's orbit.

Lewis and colleagues found something similar on Mars: "Our findings suggest that cycles of climate change led to the patterns we see recorded in the Mars rock layers today, possibly as a result of similar variations in Mars' orbit," he said. "Mars has a 10-to-one ratio in cycles of how its tilt changes -- smaller wobbles within larger packages. Sure enough, we see a 10-to-one ratio in one of these layered deposits. It's like trying to identify a song -- it's easier if there are multiple instruments playing different parts, rather than just a single rhythm."

In addition to having rhythm of 10 beats to the bar instead of Earth's five-beat pattern, Mars has characteristics that make it a good laboratory for studying how astronomical cycles affect climate. The tilt of Mars' axis varies much more than the axis of Earth, because Earth's relatively large moon provides a stabilizing effect. And, at least for most of its history, Mars has lacked the oceans and thick atmosphere that, on Earth, modulate the effects of orbital variations and add their own cyclical patterns.

The 10-beat pattern of Mars' wobble lasts about 1.2 million years. If the 10-layer bundles in Becquerel crater are indeed signatures of that cycle, the 10 or more bundles stacked on each other record about 12 million years when environmental conditions affecting sedimentation were generally steady except for effects of the changing tilt.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The HiRISE camera was built by Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., Boulder, and is operated by the University of Arizona.

For more about the mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mro.