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Several critical items related to NASA's next-generation James Webb Space Telescope currently are being tested in the thermal vacuum test chamber at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. This image shows the Optical Telescope Element Simulator, or OSIM, wrapped in a silver blanket on a platform, being lowered into the Space Environment Simulator vacuum chamber via crane to be tested to withstand the cold temperatures of space.
Message from the Director: Projects Built Around People and Networks

May 30, 2012 — Vol. 5, Issue 5   What is the greatest risk to a project? What is the most likely culprit to a failed societal grand challenge? How do we understand and address the increasing complexity of missions?

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This is a composite of a series of images photographed from a mounted camera on the Earth-orbiting International Space Station, from approximately 240 miles above Earth. Space station hardware in the foreground includes the Mini-Research Module (MRM1, center) and a Russian Progress vehicle docked to the Pirs Docking Compartment (right).
Academy Brief: Federal Knowledge Management Meeting

May 30, 2012 Vol. 5, Issue 5   Representatives from across the federal government gathered at NASA Headquarters to share insights about the challenges of managing organizational knowledge.

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Soyeon Yi the day of launch on April 8, 2008.
International Brief: Dr. Soyeon Yi

May 30, 2012 — Vol. 5, Issue 5   For Dr. Soyeon Yi, the first South Korean astronaut to fly in space, her mission was a national accomplishment, not a personal one.

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International Space Apps Challenge participants get to work on solving challenges at the iHub in Nairobi, Kenya on April 21, 2012.
International Space Apps Challenge

May 30, 2012 — Vol. 5, Issue 5   Lessons from a global innovation event may inspire new ways to solve project-based challenges concurrently.

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Tim Pickens speaks to an audience of young professionals at the 2012 Global Exploration Conference in Washington, D.C.
Young Professional Brief: Learning from a Rocket City Space Pioneer

May 30, 2012 — Vol. 5, Issue 5   Smarts alone do not guarantee career success, according to inveterate inventor Tim Pickens.

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NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity catches its own late-afternoon shadow in this dramatically lit view eastward across Endeavour Crater on Mars.
Academy Interview: Planetary Protection of Icy Bodies

May 30, 2012 — Vol. 5, Issue 5   It takes more than a little hand sanitizer to protect the worlds we explore.

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Over the course of a year, sea ice in northern Canada pulsates down into the Hudson Bay and retreats northward in the summer months. In the winter months where the sea ice extends down into the bay, polar bears wander onto the ice in search of food. As summer approaches and the sea ice melts, the bears wander back onto the mainland until the next winter.
Research Brief: Earth Observing System Assessment

May 30, 2012 — Vol. 5, Issue 5   Inadequate funding and access to space threaten the nation’s Earth-observing capability, according to a new report by the National Research Council.

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Comet Hale Bopp seen from Space Shuttle Columbia on STS-83. Credit: NASA
This Month in NASA History: Hale-Bopp, Interrupted

May 30, 2012 — Vol. 5, Issue 5 Fifteen years ago this month, a solar event triggered a rare sight.

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