X-Nico

35 unusual facts about NASA


2000 SG344

NASA is considering it as a possible target for a manned mission(Exploration Mission 2) using the Orion spacecraft, prior to a projected 2030 push to Mars.

Applications Technology Satellite

ATS-6 was the world's first educational satellite as well as world's first experimental Direct Broadcast Satellite as part of the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment between NASA and ISRO.

The Applications Technology Satellites were a series of experimental satellites launched by NASA.

Approach and Landing Tests

Upon the orbiter's entry into service, NASA began an extensive program of tests using Enterprise to ensure all of the systems it had put in place for the shuttle project functioned as designed.

Artificial neural membrane

Artificial neural membrane technology development has been funded by the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts, for application to flapping wing flight.

Brave Saint Saturn

With this in mind, the band used NASA recordings and electronic samples on their first two albums.

Constellation Space Suit

The design of the suit was announced by NASA on June 11, 2008, and it will be manufactured by Houston, Texas-based Oceaneering International, the first company other than the David Clark Company, Hamilton Sundstrand, and ILC Dover (and, before 1964, B.F. Goodrich) to produce life-support hardware, as a prime contractor, for in-flight space use.

Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine

Danny uses a computer that Professor Bulfinch has created for NASA to prepare his homework, despite Professor Bullfinch's warning that Danny is to leave the machine alone.

David Vetter

In 1977, researchers from NASA used their experience with the fabrication of space suits to develop a special suit that would allow Vetter to get out of his bubble and walk in the outside world.

Delta-DOR

NASA use Deep Space Network to pick up signals from the spacecraft that tell navigators where the spacecraft are located.

Dry suit

Modern dry suits have a waterproof zipper for entry and exit which was originally developed by NASA to hold air inside astronaut space suits.

Frank B. McDonald

In 1959, McDonald became one of the first scientists to join NASA's new Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

George Wetherill

Wetherill provided leadership in the scientific community by serving on advisory committees for NASA, the National Academy of Sciences, and the National Science Foundation.

I-Suit

The suit began as an EVA mobility demonstrator, developed to meet a contract awarded by NASA to ILC in 1997 for an all-soft suit.

Mailam Engineering College

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Portuguese Center for Pollution Prevention (C3P), jointly organised an International Workshop on Environment and Alternative Energy with the theme of "Global Collaboration in Sustainable Environmental and Alternative Energy Strategies" at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), Noordwijk, Netherlands, on 15–18 November 2011.

NASA RealWorld-InWorld Engineering Design Challenge

NASA RealWorld-InWorld Engineering Design Challenge encourages students in grades 7–12 to explore and to build skills for successful careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM fields) through two phases of project-based learning and team competition.

NASAspaceflight.com

NASASpaceFlight.com is dedicated to expanding the public's awareness and respect for the space flight industry, which in turn is reflected in the many thousands of space industry members on the site, ranging from NASA to Lockheed Martin, Boeing, United Space Alliance and the commercial space flight arena.

Neutral buoyancy simulation as a training aid

In July 1966 the Gemini Program joined in a NASA Langley Research Center contract to include an evaluation of Gemini EVA tasks.

NASA determined that training for EVA tasks required further development.

Oakland Colegio Campestre

Colegio Oakland (Oakland School) attends the Space School program since 2009 at Space Center Houston, leading Colombian Student participation of NASA’s (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) educational programs, encouraging young people to gain an interest in physics, engineering, space science and STEM subjects, science, technology, engineering and maths.

Operation Luna

The IRS (Inquisition for Revenue Securement) and NASA (National Astral Spellcraft Administration) also become involved.

Orlan space suit

They have been used for spacewalks (EVAs) in the Russian space program, the successor to the Soviet space program, and by space programs of other countries, including NASA.

Parallel Universes, a Memoir from the Edges of Space and Time

Parallel Universes, A Memoir from the Edges of Space and Time is a non-fiction Christian book and a personal and science memoir written by Linda Morabito Meyer, the NASA discoverer of the volcanic activity on Jupiter's Io.

Patrol Wing

During the mid-1990s, however, two squadrons, VP-9 and VP-47, transferred to the Rainbow Fleet from NAS Moffett Field, Calif., when Moffett Field was disestablished as a USN installation and transferred to NASA and the California Air National Guard as a "Moffett Federal Airfield" via BRAC action.

Potentially hazardous object

For this reason NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory use the more practical measure of absolute magnitude (H).

Quartetto Gelato

The quartet's CDs have literally been heard around the world - Canadian astronaut Dr. Robert Thirsk took their first two CDs with him during his NASA flight on board the space shuttle Columbia.

Robert Kraichnan

From 1962 on, he was supported by research grants and worked as a freelance consultant for the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Princeton University, the Office of Naval Research, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and NASA.

SETI Institute

The SETI Institute’s public outreach efforts include working with teachers and students in promoting science education and the teaching of evolution, working with NASA on exploration missions such as Kepler and SOFIA, and producing a weekly science program: Big Picture Science.

Shane Rimmer

They appeared together as United States Navy sailors in The Bedford Incident (1965) and as NASA technicians in the opening of You Only Live Twice (1967), as well as touring together on stage, including a production of Death of a Salesman in the 1990s.

Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue

The device was developed by the Robotics Division (with its contractor staff) of NASA at the Johnson Space Center.

Soyuz-TMA

The spacecraft features several changes to accommodate requirements requested by NASA in order to service the International Space Station, including more latitude in the height and weight of the crew and improved parachute systems.

Standby

Standby, the term NASA uses in air-to-ground radio communications for expressing "please wait"

Tony LeVier Flight Test Safety Award

2008 - Flight Test Safety Database Team: Barton Henwood, NASA/DFRC; Rodrigo Huete, FAA (Ret); John Hed, FAA; Greg Lewis, National Test Pilot School

Windows on Earth

In May 2012, NASA selected Windows on Earth as the new tool to help astronauts identify targets for photography from the ISS.

Additional partners include the Challenger Learning Center and NASA's Johnson Space Center.


85P/Boethin

It was to be a target of NASA's EPOXI comet-exploration mission in December 2008; however, the comet was not recovered in time to set up the trajectory for the flyby with sufficient accuracy.

Abdus Suttar Khan

Abdus Suttar Khan a Bangladeshi Oxford Scholar and distinguished aerospace researcher for four decades with NASA, Pratt & Whitney, and the power generation company Alstom (Switzerland).

Adriana Ocampo

She is also the lead scientist responsible for NASA’s collaboration with the European Space Agency’s Venus Express mission and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Venus Climate Orbiter mission.

Beta cloth

It was implemented in NASA space suits after the deadly 1967 Apollo 1 launch pad fire, in which the astronauts' nylon suits burned through.

Bruce McCandless

McCandless was the father of NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless II.

Chatter Telephone

In 1985, Fisher-Price offered to donate a Chatter Telephone, Rock A Stack, and Activity Center to NASA for Senator Jake Garn to play with while on the STS-51-D space shuttle mission.

Chris Gainor

Many of these engineers went on to hold top positions in NASA, including Jim Chamberlin, John Hodge, Owen Maynard, and Tecwyn Roberts.

Chris-Craft

For the NASA flight director, see Christopher C. Kraft, Jr.

CLARREO

A NASA team led by Langley Research Center with contributions from other NASA Centers, government organizations, academia, and NASA HQ successfully developed a feasible mission concept that achieved all science objectives.

CM Abdulla Moulavi

One of his junior colleagues remembers the smile and pleasure of a true scientist he saw in the face of Qazi when he explained for them the news about dismissal of Pluto from the planet family around the Sun, after reading a latest NASA journal about it.

Crew Return Vehicle

The cancellation created its own controversy, with Congressman Ralph Hall (D-TX) taking NASA to task in an open letter.

David Clark Company

It developed partial pressure suits for NASA's Bell X-1 rocket-powered research aircraft in the 1940s, and full pressure suits for the D558-2 and North American X-15 research aircraft in the 1950s.

Donald C. Backer

Backer then took post-doctoral positions first at NRAO in Charlottesville, Virginia (1971–1973), and then at NASA/GSFC in Greenbelt, Maryland (1973–1975).

Flometrics

The Pistonless pump is a low pressure pump system originally designed to support NASA projects with the Crew Exploration Vehicle.

George Zames

In 1969, it was announced that NASA ERC was to be closed, and Zames joined the newly established Department of Transportation Research Center in 1970.

Gingin Observatory

The telescopes primary objective is to photograph gamma ray bursts in the Universe and does this with two NASA satellites, the Swift and Glast.

Glenelg, Mars

The location was named Glenelg by NASA scientists for two reasons: all features in the immediate vicinity were given names associated with Yellowknife in northern Canada, and Glenelg is the name of a geological feature there.

Grumman OV-1 Mohawk

Texas Air Museum in Slaton, Texas has a modified OV-1D that was used by NASA that is on loan from the Museum of Naval Aviation.

Harlan J. Smith Telescope

The telescope was completed in 1968 with substantial NASA assistance, and is named after Harlan James Smith, the first Texas director of McDonald Observatory.

Houston, We've Got a Problem

Houston, We've Got a Problem is a 1974 television film about the Apollo 13 spaceflight, directed by Lawrence Doheny and starring Ed Nelson in the role of NASA Flight Director Gene Kranz.

Il mondo della luna

The Gotham Chamber Opera presented Il mondo della luna at the Hayden Planetarium in New York City in January 2010, transforming the planetarium into an opera house using the 180-degree dome and projections courtesy of NASA; the director was Diane Paulus.

Information Centre for History and Technology, Peenemünde

In the mid-1960s, building on his technical experience from Peenemünde, Wernher von Braun was able to design the Saturn V rocket for NASA that was used to fly to the moon.

James C. Fletcher

During his second administration at NASA, Fletcher was largely involved in efforts to recover from the Space Shuttle Challenger accident.

John Beck Hofmann

He has also created music used in multiple television shows, such as FX's "Nip/Tuck", MTV's "The Real World", Travel Channel's "Eye of the Beholder" and multiple NASA documentaries.

John G. Linvill

John Linvill was Chairman of the board of TSI, served on the boards of other Silicon Valley corporations, and led technical committees for the National Research Council, NASA, and the IEEE.

Kevin Pope

Kevin O. Pope, former NASA archaeologist and founder of Geo Eco Arch Research

Manned Maneuvering Unit

The Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) is an astronaut propulsion unit that was used by NASA on three Space Shuttle missions in 1984.

Mercury-Atlas 1

NASA's Owen Maynard, who was involved in Mercury systems engineering, led the recovery of the MA-1 capsule from the sea-floor (in which he performed a 30-foot free-dive to find one particular missing component of the capsule).

Military Highway

However, that roadway was later renamed to honor the Project Mercury space program of NASA at Langley Air Force Base.

Nen

Near Earth Network (formerly Ground Network), a NASA network of ground stations to support space flight missions

Olga Zolina

2010 - Organization and planning of the WCRP Workshop on metrics and methodologies for estimation of extreme climate events, granted by WCRP, Willis RE, NASA, principal investigator.

Orbital Express

Orbital Express was a space mission managed by the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and a team led by engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC).

Patrick Air Force Base

These rockets include satellites for the US military, the National Reconnaissance Office, and the National Security Agency, as well as scientific payload launches in support of NASA, weather satellite launches in support of NOAA, payloads in support of international customers such as the European Space Agency, and commercial payloads for various corporate communications entities.

Perlan Project

Einar Enevoldson, former NASA test pilot and originator of The Perlan Project, sought to demonstrate the feasibility of riding these stratospheric standing mountain waves.

Pete Worden

During the 2004 Congressional Session he worked as a Congressional Fellow with the Office of Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS), where he served as Senator Brownback’s chief advisor on NASA and space issues.

STS-9

The mission was devoted entirely to Spacelab 1, a joint NASA/European Space Agency (ESA) program designed to demonstrate the ability to conduct advanced scientific research in space.

STSI

Space Telescope Science Institute, NASA-sponsored institute at Johns Hopkins University

Surface Water Ocean Topography Mission

It is one of 15 missions that the 2007 National Research Council’s decadal survey of Earth science recommends NASA implement in the coming decade.

TACA Airlines

The plane landed without further damage on a grass levee at the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility.

The Space Movie

The Space Movie is a documentary film produced in 1979 by Tony Palmer at the request of NASA, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs

Since 2009 Takao Doi, a former Japanese astronaut and a veteran of two NASA space shuttle missions, is chief of Space Applications section of the Office.

USAS American Mariner

While in the Pacific Ocean, the USAS American Mariner was temporarily assigned in late September 1962 to NASA in support of NASA's Project Mercury.

Vanna Bonta

In 2013, a haiku by Vanna Bonta was among top three selections to be launched to the planet Mars on a NASA spaceship for the MAVEN mission.

Wojciech Rostafiński

Wojciech Antoni Rostafiński (19 September 1921 – 6 July 2002), codename "Masłowski", was a Polish soldier of Armia Krajowa during World War II and former scientist working for NASA.

X-ray astronomy satellites

The Global Geospace Science (GGS) Polar Satellite was a NASA science spacecraft launched at 06:23:59.997 EST on February 24, 1996 aboard a McDonnell Douglas Delta II 7925-10 rocket from launch pad 2W at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Lompoc, California, to observe the Earth's polar magnetosphere.