February 11 – February 17, 2019

Small Samples With Big Mission On First Orion Flight Around The Moon

During Exploration Mission-1, Orion will venture thousands of miles beyond the moon during an approximately three week mission. Image Credit: NASA

February 15, 2019 – The first mission with the NASA’s Orion spacecraft will be uncrewed, but there will be several small biological passengers on the journey around the Moon to help pave the way for future human explorers. Read More

ADAPT Consortium Welcomes New Member Lithoz

Shawn Allan, vice president of Lithoz America, shows the CeraFab 7500 printer to Mines graduate student Sarah Sortedahl and ADAPT Industry Director Craig Brice. Image Credit: Colorado School of Mines

February 15, 2019 – The Alliance for the Development of Additive Processing Technologies (ADAPT), an industry-academia consortium at Colorado School of Mines that advances data informatics and advanced characterization technologies to optimize for additive, welcomes new member Lithoz, the world leader in development and production of ceramic materials and additive manufacturing (AM) systems. Read More

Spacecraft Measurements Reveal Mechanism Of Solar Wind Heating

This is an illustration of the MMS spacecraft measuring the solar wind plasma in the interaction region with the Earth’s magnetic field. Image Credit: NASA

February 14, 2019 – Queen Mary University of London has led a study which describes the first direct measurement of how energy is transferred from the chaotic electromagnetic fields in space to the particles that make up the solar wind, leading to the heating of interplanetary space. Read More

Researchers Create Ultra-Lightweight Ceramic Material That Withstands Extreme Temperature

February 14, 2019 – UCLA researchers and collaborators at eight other research institutions have created an extremely light, very durable ceramic aerogel. The material could be used for applications like insulating spacecraft because it can withstand the intense heat and severe temperature changes that space missions endure. Read More

Aviation Legend Commits To Major Gift At Colorado’s Exploration Of Flight

The Clay Lacy Field of Dreams Flight Ramp will help inspire future aviators at one of the nation’s busiest general aviation airports. Image Credit: Wings Over The Rockies

February 14, 2019 – Clay Lacy has piloted aircraft for over 55,000 hours, possibly more than any other human being in history. Now his legendary achievements as a pilot in commercial, business, military, racing and test flights will inspire a new generation of aerospace leaders at Wings Over the Rockies’ (Wings) Exploration of Flight Campus at Centennial Airport in Englewood, Colorado. Read More

NOAA Satellites Helped Rescue 340 People In 2018

Sarsat rescues for 2018. Image Credit: NOAA

February 14, 2019 – The pilot of the rowboat Alba had a noble goal – to raise awareness and funds for the Scottish Association for Mental Health. And he was going to row 3,400 nautical miles, from Norfolk, Virginia, to his home in Scotland, to do it. Read More

FAA Makes Major Drone ID Marking Change

February 14, 2019 – The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has posted a rule in the Federal Register requiring small drone owners to display the FAA-issued registration number on an outside surface of the aircraft. Owners and operators may no longer place or write registration numbers in an interior compartment. The rule is effective on February 25. The markings must be in place for any flight after that date. Read More

InSight ‘Mole’ Deployed On Surface Of Mars

NASA’s InSight lander set its heat probe, called the Heat and Physical Properties Package (HP3), on the Martian surface on February 12. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/DLR

February 13, 2019 – NASA’s InSight lander has placed its second instrument on the Martian surface. New images confirm that the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP³⁾ was successfully deployed on February 12 about 3 feet (1 meter) from InSight’s seismometer, which the lander recently covered with a protective shield. HP³measures heat moving through Mars’ subsurface and can help scientists figure out how much energy it takes to build a rocky world. Read More

Ball Aerospace Will Provide Spacecraft For NASA’s New Mission To Explore Origins Of Universe

NASA’s Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) mission is targeted to launch in 2023. SPHEREx will help astronomers understand both how our universe evolved and how common are the ingredients for life in our galaxy’s planetary systems. Image Credit: Caltech

NASA has selected a new space mission that will help astronomers understand how our universe evolved and how common are the ingredients for life in our galaxy’s planetary systems. NASA has selected Ball Aerospace of Broomfield, Colorado, to provide the spacecraft and mission integration for the mission. Read More

Nominations Open For 2019 Colorado Manufacturing Awards

February 13, 2019 – The Colorado Manufacturing Awards (CMA), presented by CompanyWeek and Manufacturer’s Edge, has opened nominations for its 4th annual program, culminating in an awards reception and presentation on April 4, 2019 in Denver, Colorado at the Cable Center on the University of Denver campus. Nominations close Friday, February 15, 2019. Read More

Colorado OEDIT Returns As Sponsor Of 2019 NOCOM Trade Show, New OEDIT Executive Director Betsy Markey Will Keynote

February 13, 2019 – Northern Colorado Manufacturing Partnership (NoCO) has announced that the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) has returned as a major sponsor of the NOCOM 2019 manufacturers’ trade show, and that new OEDIT Executive Director Betsy Markey will keynote the event the morning of April 11, 2019. NOCOM, in its 5th year, continues to showcase Northern Colorado’s expanding manufacturing sector, connecting suppliers, manufacturers, capital, and services. Read More

GOES-17 Is Now Operational As NOAA’s GOES West

February 12, 2019 – Today, GOES-17, the second of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) next-generation geostationary weather satellites, has completed its checkout phase and is now operating in the GOES West position, providing faster, more accurate, and more detailed observations used by National Weather Service forecasters to predict Pacific storm systems, severe storms, fog, wildfires, and other environmental dangers. Read More

Radiation Belts Revealed And Conquered, NASA’s Van Allen Probes Begin Final Phase Of Exploration

Launched on August 31, 2012, the twin Van Allen Probes carried identical suites of five instruments to explore the Van Allen radiation belts above Earth. The instruments measure the particles, magnetic and electric fields, and waves in this harsh radiation environment, giving researchers insights into the belts and space weather. In 2019, the mission begins a de-orbit maneuver that will allow the spacecraft to safely burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere in about 15 years. Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben

February 12, 2019 – Two tough, resilient NASA spacecraft have been orbiting Earth for the past six and a half years, flying repeatedly through a hazardous zone of charged particles known as the Van Allen radiation belts. Designed to study these areas above our planet, previously thought to be stable and well-understood, the twin Van Allen Probes – launched in August 2012 – have confirmed scientific theories and revealed new structures, compositions, and processes at work in these dynamic regions. Read More

MAVEN Shrinking Its Orbit To Prepare For Mars 2020 Rover

This graphic illustrates the aerobraking plan for MAVEN. At left is the current MAVEN orbit around Mars, with a 6,200-km highest altitude, and an orbit period of ~4.5 hours. The center panel shows the aerobraking process, during which MAVEN will perform a series of “deep dip” orbits approaching to within ~125 km of Mars at lowest altitude, causing drag from the atmosphere to slow down the spacecraft. Over roughly three-hundred and sixty orbits spanning about two months, this slowing reduces the spacecraft’s highest altitude to ~4500 km and its orbit period to ~3.5 hours. At right is the post-aerobraking orbit, with reduced altitude and shorter orbit period. Image Credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio/Kel Elkins and Dan Gallagher

February 12, 2019 – The 4-year-old atmosphere-sniffing MAVEN mission is embarking on a new campaign to tighten its orbit around Mars. The operation will reduce the highest point of the MAVEN spacecraft’s elliptical orbit from 3,850 to 2,800 miles (6,200 to 4,500 kilometers) above the surface and prepare it to take on additional responsibility as a data-relay satellite for NASA’s Mars 2020 rover, which launches next year. Read More

NASA Finds Second Impact Crater Under Greenland Ice

February 12, 2019 – A NASA glaciologist has discovered a possible second impact crater buried under more than a mile of ice in northwest Greenland. Read More

OSIRIS-REx Team Detects Multiple Bright Point Sources Near Bennu

Illustration of NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft at the asteroid Bennu. Image Credit: NASA

February 12, 2019 – Several times since NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft entered orbit around its target asteroid Bennu on December 31, 2018, the OSIRIS-REx team detected multiple, bright, point sources near Bennu in the optical navigation (OpNav) images obtained by the spacecraft’s NavCam 1 imager. The science team is currently investigating the exact cause of this phenomenon, but it’s probable that these images record a number of small particles near the asteroid. Read More

Northrop Grumman Completes Next Critical Launch Milestones Of JWST

Both halves of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope are housed in Northrop Grumman’s cleanroom as they undergo ongoing testing and integration efforts. Image Credit: Northrop Grumman

February 11, 2019 – NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Spacecraft Element (SCE) successfully completed acoustic and sine vibration testing at Northrop Grumman Corporation in Redondo Beach, California. Read More