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Artist’s impression of the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite, one of the major projects assessed by the GAO. SMAP launched successfully during the assessment period. Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Government Brief: NASA Maintains Positive Trend for Large-Scale Projects

A recent GAO report confirmed that cost and schedule growth among NASA’s major acquisition projects remains low compared with previous years.

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Lessons Learned Landing Page
Now Featuring the New Lessons Learned Landing Page

“Where do you go for Lessons Learned at NASA?”

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Author Don Cohen (left), Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 project manager Ralph Basilio (center), and APPEL instructor Anthony Luscher (right) were among the speakers at Knowledge 2020 2.0.
The Value of Mistakes

What do some of the greatest engineering innovations have in common? They started with a mistake.

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This 1986 artist's concept shows the Orbital Maneuvering Vehicle (OMV) towing a satellite. As envisioned by Marshall Space Flight Center planners, the OMV would be a remotely-controlled free-flying space tug which would place, rendezvous, dock, and retrieve orbital payloads. Image Credit: NASA
My Best Mistake: Bill Gerstenmaier’s “Balancing Budgets and Work”

I’m not sure that the decisions I made as operations manager of the Orbital Maneuvering Vehicle (OMV) program nearly three decades ago were necessarily mistakes, but the problems that ultimately killed the OMV were certainly real.

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Mythbuster Jamie Hyneman poses with the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program staff at the 2014 Symposium held February 4-6 at Stanford University. From left to right: Katherine Reilly, Communications & Outreach Manager; Jamie Hyneman; Jay Falker, Program Executive; Ronald Turner, Senior Science Advisor; Jason E. Derleth, Program Manager. Photo Credit: NASA Ames Research Center
Know Comparison

Mythbusters is no stranger to NASA.

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The first color image of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, taken by the News Horizons spacecraft when it was still 71 million miles away. Photo Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
New Horizons Prepares to Reveal a New World

After traveling more than 3 billion miles through space, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is the first mission to explore the farthest reaches of the solar system.

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One of the final images to be sent back from MESSENGER, this April 16 image depicts the ejecta blanket of a newly formed impact crater. MESSENGER has sent back more than 250,000 images over the course of its mission. Photo Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
MESSENGER Mission Ends But Its Value Lives On

NASA’s Mercury orbiter is completely out of fuel. But that hasn’t stopped it from returning groundbreaking data about the innermost planet.

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The XB-70 Air Vehicle 1 using drag chutes to slow down after landing. Photo Credit: NASA/Air Force
This Month in NASA History: NASA Took Over the Valkyrie Program

On April 25, 1967, the XB-70—a high-altitude supersonic long-range bomber—flew under the NASA banner for the first time.

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James Van Laak talks with Training Specialist Travis Millner and participants in APPEL’s Foundations of Aerospace at NASA course about some of his experiences during his successful career at the agency. Photo Credit: NASA APPEL/Donna Wilson
Succeeding at NASA: From Concept to Reality

James Van Laak, former Operations Manager for the International Space Station (ISS), shared hard-earned wisdom with APPEL’s Foundations of Aerospace course participants.

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