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National Research Council Assesses NASA’s Space Communications Office

ASK OCE — November 3, 2006 — Vol. 1, Issue 15   NASA’s Space Communications Office is well managed and highly effective at carrying out critical functions, according to a preliminary review by the National Research Council (NRC). A key component of NASA’s space communications capability, the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS), is […]

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Aerospace Bookshelf: Harrison Schmitts Return to the Moon

ASK OCE — November 3, 2006 — Vol. 1, Issue 15   Since humans are planning to explore the moon again, it makes sense to find out what the last man to walk its surface thinks the future might hold. Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt has a lot of ideas about this, and he spells […]

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Government Brief: FAA Publishes New Commercial Space Safety Standards

ASK OCE — November 3, 2006 — Vol. 1, Issue 15   The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and U.S. Air Force Space Command issued new common federal launch safety standards on August 25, 2006.

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Archimedes Archive: Alessandro Volta, Inventor of the Battery

ASK OCE — November 3, 2006 — Vol. 1, Issue 15   More than 200 years ago, Italian scientist Alessandro Volta developed the first electrical battery. It represented the first continuous, practical, and reproducible source of electrical current and a critical step in the accelerated study of electromagnetism and the development of electrical components.

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Message from the Chief Engineer: The Embodiment of Excellence

ASK OCE — November 3, 2006 — Vol. 1, Issue 15   By Chris Scolese   I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge Dr. John Mather of Goddard Space Flight Center for winning the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics.

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A View from the Outside: ESA’s Mars Express Survives Ultra-Low Power Eclipse Season

ASK OCE — November 3, 2006 — Vol. 1, Issue 15   On September 26, 2006, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Mars Express spacecraft completed an unusually demanding eclipse season. The spacecraft functioned in an ultra-low power mode dubbed “Sumo” (short for “survival mode”) that allowed it to conserve the power necessary for its survival […]

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This Week in NASA History: Apollo 4 Lays Ground Work for Moon Landing

ASK OCE — November 3, 2006 — Vol. 1, Issue 15   On the morning of November 9, 1967, the five massive engines in the first stage of the Saturn V ignited, lifting the unmanned Apollo 4 (AS-501) skyward from the Kennedy Space Center.

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A History of Heavy Lifting: MSFC Veteran to Head Ares V Development

ASK OCE — January 12, 2007 — Vol. 2, Issue 1   Phil Sumrall has a history of doing the heavy lifting. After beginning his career as a junior engineer working on the Saturn V rocket that sent the Apollo astronauts to the moon, he now leads the development of Ares V, the heavy-lift launch […]

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Classics of Aerospace Literature: Inside NASA

ASK OCE — January 12, 2007 — Vol. 2, Issue 1   What’s the relationship between an organization’s performance and its culture? Dr. Howard McCurdy posed this question in his 1993 book Inside NASA, and in doing so he identified the core values and assumptions that became the basis for NASA’s technical culture. Over the […]

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