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The WIRE telescope inside the cryostat assembly.
This Month in NASA History: Learning from WIRE

Fifteen years ago this month, the Wide-field Infrared Explorer’s (WIRE) primary mission came to an abrupt end.

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CNN reporter Christine Romans and panelists during a forum on the importance of engineering talent hosted by the National Academy of Engineering in October 2013.
Attracting and Cultivating Engineering Talent: Summary of a Forum

The key to global engineering leadership and innovation is talent—and there is no guarantee that the United States will remain the default leader, according to panelists from a National Academy of Engineering forum.

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Water fills the empty spacesuit helmet of Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano in an Aug. 27, 2013 test of the faulty spacewalking gear which forced NASA to abort a July 16 spacewalk for safety reasons. The water leak confirmation will help NASA engineers devise repair methods for the spacesuit.
Mishap Investigation Board Briefing on Spacesuit Water Intrusion

The investigation into a close call with a spacesuit anomaly from last July provides lessons about spaceflight safety, design, and operations.

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NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO)-2 spacecraft is moved into a thermal vacuum chamber at Orbital Sciences Corporation's Satellite Manufacturing Facility in Gilbert, Ariz., for a series of environmental tests. The tests confirmed the integrity of the observatory's electrical connections and subjected the OCO-2 instrument and spacecraft to the extreme hot, cold and airless environment they will encounter once in orbit. The observatory's solar array panels were removed prior to the test.
This Month in NASA History: From OCO to OCO–2

February marks the fifth anniversary of the first Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) launch.

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Dr. Anthony Luscher, instructor for APPEL’s Seven Axioms of Good Engineering course, discusses the Hubble Space Telescope optical failure during class.
Online APPEL Courses Added to SATERN

The Academy converted three of its most popular courses to an e-learning format and has made them available to NASA employees through the agency’s learning management system.

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After the JSC team finished their first flight, team members Sara Scarritt and Rebecca Johanning review their results and are thrilled to see that the image processing algorithm correctly identified one of the targets.
Rocket U UAS Competition Series: Team JASAR

The Johnson Autonomous Search and Rescue (JASAR) competition team built upon existing capability with their remote control (R/C) helicopter, but had to pave the way for flying their unmanned aerial system (UAS) at their center.

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ystems Engineering and Integration (SE&I) lead and pilot Peter Ma, operates the MSFC development vehicle, Rogue, during early flight testing.
Rocket U UAS Competition Series: Team Aero-M

As a late entrant to the Rocket U Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Competition, Marshall Space Flight Center’s “Aero-M” team brought a competitive edge with their hexacopter. 

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The JSC helicopter in flight on the day of the competition.
Rocket U Unmanned Aerial Systems Competition Series: The Beginning

A mock search and rescue mission provided three young engineering teams the opportunity to learn about NASA’s systems engineering and project management principles.

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Introducing the APPEL News Digest

January 2014 marks the first release of the APPEL News Digest, the Academy’s monthly news and events update. Have you signed up? 

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