APPEL News Staff

An artist's impression of the Galileo probe descending into Jupiter's atmosphere.

This Month in NASA History: Galileo Comes to an End

September 23, 2013 // by APPEL News Staff

Ten years ago this month, the Galileo spacecraft deliberately ended its 14-year lifespan as it disappeared into Jupiter’s atmosphere.

This color picture is made from images taken by the imaging system on the Galileo spacecraft about 14 minutes before its closest approach to asteroid 243 Ida on August 28, 1993. The range from the spacecraft was about 10,500 kilometers (6,500 miles). The images used are from the sequence in which Ida's moon was originally discovered; the moon is visible to the right of the asteroid. This picture is made from images through the 4100-angstrom (violet), 7560 A (infrared) and 9680 A (infrared) filters. The color is 'enhanced' in the sense that the CCD camera is sensitive to near infrared wavelengths of light beyond human vision; a 'natural' color picture of this asteroid would appear mostly gray.

This Month in NASA History: Galileo Spots First Moon of an Asteroid

August 28, 2013 // by APPEL News Staff

Twenty years ago this month, Galileo glimpsed asteroid 243 Ida and discovered it wasn’t alone.

John Houbolt, an engineer at Langley Research Center, is credited with fully developing the lunar-orbit rendezvous (LOR) approach. It involved firing three spacecraft (command module, service module, and lunar module) aboard one Saturn V rocket into Earth orbit. Once there, the last stage of the Saturn boosted the spacecraft on a lunar trajectory and eventually into orbit. Only the lunar module would go down to the surface. It would then return and redock with the orbiting command module in the top-half of the lunar module (leaving the lower-half on the moon). The astronauts would return to Earth in the command module while the remainder of the lunar module was ejected into space.

Academy Brief: Introducing ASK News

August 26, 2013 // by APPEL News Staff

The Academy’s monthly newsletter ASK the Academy has transitioned to an updated “news as it happens” format.

The towering 327-foot-tall Ares I-X rocket leaves the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The rocket, riding atop a crawler-transporter, headed down the 4.2-mile track to Launch Pad 39B. The move to the launch pad, known as "rollout," began at 1:39 a.m. EDT and ended with “hard down” at the launch pad at 9:17 a.m. EDT.

HEOMD Releases Ares I-X Lessons Learned Module

August 22, 2013 // by APPEL News Staff

NASA’s Human Exploration Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD) publicly released a new online module on the lessons learned from Ares I-X.

Charles Hunt, senior cost analyst at NASA Headquarters in the Office of Evaluation, Cost Analysis Division, discusses joint confidence levels with the Virtual PM Challenge session moderator.

Joint Confidence Levels Explained

August 20, 2013 // by APPEL News Staff

What are joint confidence levels, and what do they tell us about the state of a project?

Virtual PM Challenge Roundup

August 1, 2013 // by APPEL News Staff

Knowledge, safety, and program planning and control served as the first three topics for NASA’s Virtual Project Management (PM) Challenge series.

Shuttle Orbiter Columbia lift and mate to external tank in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB).

Columbia Accident Investigation Lessons Learned

July 30, 2013 // by APPEL News Staff

The Human Exploration Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD) released a new online module that captures lessons from the Columbia accident investigation process.

CKO Corner: NEN’s Daria Topousis

July 25, 2013 // by APPEL News Staff

Daria Topousis discusses knowledge management on the NASA Engineering Network (NEN).

An overhead view of the Skylab Orbital Workshop in Earth orbit as photographed from the Skylab 4 Command and Service Modules (CSM) during the final fly-around by the CSM before returning home. The space station is contrasted against the pale blue Earth.

This Month in NASA History: Skylab Down

July 11, 2013 // by APPEL News Staff

Thirty-four years ago, NASA’s first space station fell to Earth in rural Australia.

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