Tag Archives: Goddard Space Flight Center

California Institute of Technology has secured a $49 million NASA contract to deliver critical capabilities for the science support center handling the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which will tackle research on infrared astrophysics, exoplanets and dark energy. Caltech will perform systems engineering, develop ground systems, execute operations, support scientific research and engage with the public and the scientific community in support of the Roman Space Telescope project, NASA said Saturday.

NASA’s ​​Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, a next-generation observatory intended to shed light on the dark energy and dark matter cosmic puzzles, has concluded its developmental engineering stage after passing the critical design review. According to Julie McEnergy, the Roman Space Telescope senior project scientist, the team will move forward to building and testing the observatory after completing the groundwork, NASA said Wednesday. 

A NASA Pathways Internship Program participant has designed software that uses artificial intelligence algorithms to potentially diagnose physical faults of spacecraft and spaceflight systems in a more speedy manner. The space agency said Tuesday Evana Gizzi developed the Research in Artificial Intelligence for Spacecraft Resilience (RAISR) software in an effort to reduce spacecraft down-time and enhance mission efficiency through real-time issue diagnosis.

The University of Maryland, College Park has received an extension to continue helping NASA pursue scientific space research under a $178 million cooperative agreement. UMD College Park will work with research partners to support theoretical, experimental and observational studies under the Center for Research and Exploration in Space Science and Technology II through March 2027, NASA said Wednesday.

NASA has concluded the critical design review of a spacecraft designed to demonstrate on-orbit refueling, manufacturing and assembly. The On-orbit Servicing, Assembly and Manufacturing (OSAM-1) mission completed its CDR in April with the help of Maxar Technologies. NASA and Maxar may now fabricate, assemble, integrate and test OSAM-1, following the CDR's completion.

NASA has commenced efforts to resume operations of the Hubble Space Telescope, a space observatory that recently assumed safe mode due to a software error. The space agency said Friday it plans to have the space telescope back to normal by next Thursday, following Hubble's entering safe mode last Sunday.

Two NASA-operated facilities will collaborate on the testing and certification processes for flight software the agency intends to use on its mission to land astronauts on the moon in 2024. “The Artemis program provides resources to help us improve the product, which benefits everyone who uses it," said Jacob Hageman, team lead for the Gateway cFS certification effort.

Northrop Grumman Corporation and NASA have successfully completed the final sunshield deployment test on the James Webb Space Telescope, the company reported on Friday. The successful test will prepare the telescope for launch in 2021. “The success of this important milestone demonstrates the rigor and dedication of the Northrop Grumman and NASA team,” said Scott Willoughby.

NASA has completed the requirements needed to move forward with the production and testing of a mission to study the Trojan asteroids near Jupiter. The space agency said Friday its Lucy mission, under the Discovery Program, has reached the Key Decision Point-D milestone and may now move forward to components delivery, assembly, integration and testing activities.

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), a NASA spacecraft designed to identify new planets, has scanned 75 percent of visible space and detected 66 new planets outside the solar system. This milestone marks the completion of TESS' primary mission and allows the satellite to make additional surveys on the south region under an extended mission.