NASA Langley has created a Next Generation Advisory Council! See the 21st Century Lab white paper and the related Power Point presentation that the group will be working on:
White Paper: 21st-century-lab-wp
Power Point: 21st-c-plan
Yuri’s Night Hampton Roads a success
Published April 5, 2009 General Leave a CommentTags: gen y, hampton roads, langley, nasa, space exploration, virginia air & space center, yuri's night
NASA Langley’s first Yuri’s Night on April 4 was a evening of excitement, inspiration and engagement as we joined 171 parties in 41 countries on 6 continents and 2 worlds to celebrate the art and science of space exploration.
Some 1,200 people from Hampton Roads, Virginia and points beyond gathered at the Virginia Air & Space Center (VASC) in downtown Hampton for a night to festivities that include a DJ Jeyone, reggae band The Prisoners, dancing and martial arts by Capoeira Resistencia, belly dancing by Neferteri and a folk-belly dancing fusion by Dancing Turle Folk Arts of Fields Dance Studio.
Techn0 music pounded on the main floor of the architecturally astounding VASC while on the third-floor open-air Observation Deck, the theme was reggae and stargazing with the Virginia Peninsula Astronomy Club.
Other highlights included a costume contest, the Galactic Laser Light Show, a Mars-tini lounge, food with the $5 ticket price, demonstrations of robots, and all of the unbelievable exhibits already inside the VASC. NASA Langley, which shared the event with the VASC, displayed numerous interactive exhibits and both organizations staffed the event along with enthusiastic volunteers.
Event staffers, meanwhile, busily interviewed night-goers, took photos and video, and did real-time postings to the NASA Langley Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Yuri’s Night pages. We posted a photo stream via Flickr on the NASA Langley external web site. And there’s more to come. Also check out the Yuri’s Night Hampton Roads web site.
A Congressman and a couple of Hampton City Council members rounded out the crowd and made comments. Speaking of the crowd, for a Gen Y event it drew a generous share of Boomers and Beyond, plus a few parents with their children. This may say something about the event expectations of Hampton Roads residents … it’s a very family-oriented region. And the VASC specializes in activities for the general public and children.
Yuri’s Night Hampton Roads 2009 was supposed to be a young people’s event. Me, though, I liked the inclusivity.
Space is everywhere …
Not your father’s annual report
Published March 23, 2009 General Leave a CommentTags: aeronauatics, nasa langley annual report, science, space exploration, speedo, the box
NASA Langley’s 2008 annual report, “Earth, Air & Space,” is available at larc-report-v8gf09.
The 32-page document covers Langley’s work in aeronautics, science, and space exploration with compelling photos and text — and special features such as “Arctic Adventure,” “Orion’s First Journey,” and “A Winning Team,” the tale of how we shared in the prestigious Collier Trophy.
Did you know we also helped Speedo with the design of the faster swimsuit used at the 2008 Summer Olympics? Or that our facilities and employees will be in a movie, “The Box,” starring Cameron Diaz?
Check it out!
Kudos to nasa.gov
Published February 4, 2009 General 4 CommentsTags: government, nasa, next.gov, obama web, web sites
Just when you’re ready to throw out the baby with the bath water, along comes a cautionary tale.
In this case, next.gov singles out NASA (and the Library of Congress, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Social Security Administration, and Transportation Security Administration) for “Best Practices for Government Web Sites.”
These sites are not what we would consider to be the best of all federal Web sites — though they certainly could give a number of others a run for their money — but rather sites that employ what consultants say are best online practices. They don’t all make use of the latest and greatest in Web 2.0 technology or sport cutting-edge designs, and that, we’ve learned, can be a good thing.
Go here to see “Why We Picked NASA.”
Wayne Hale has a great blog and video related to stifling dissent. Kinda makes you wonder if anything ever changes. Perhaps fundamentally we as a species are hard-wired to stifle and do other bad stuff … but the variable may be the degree to which we do it. That is the bad news and the good news.
And is the reason we need to keep trying to be better.
Here is how to get the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_424YskAfew
As for the blog, it is reprinted here in it’s entirety:
“I’ve got a video that you need to watch, but first I need to explain why you need to watch it and what lesson I hope you will take away.
The Columbia Accident Investigation Board said that NASA – and specifically the Space Shuttle Program – stifled dissenting opinions which might have prevented the accident. Particularly the action was pointed toward the Mission Management Team. As the new Deputy Program Manager, I was assigned the task of restructuring the MMT and providing means for listening to dissent. Somewhere along the way I acquired the informal title of ‘culture change leader’. I took this to heart and changing the culture to be more welcoming to alternate or dissenting opinions was a task that took a lot of my time and attention. Continue reading ‘Barriers to innovation and inclusion’
New Apollo 40th anniversary poster
Published January 29, 2009 General 4 CommentsTags: 40th anniversary, apollo, langley, lunar, moon, nasa, poster
NASA Langley has a new poster commemorating the 40th anniversary of humankind’s first steps on the moon (the first that we know about, anyway!).
The poster is the creation of Langley’s Stan Husch and Meghan Guethe, with help from Elaine Gause and Tim Allen.
The details
Top left: Rendezvous Docking Simulator at NASA Langley taken 12/2/64. Image # EL-2001-00448.
Top right: multiple exposure of a simulated landing of the Lunar Lander trainer at Langley’s Lunar Landing Research Facility. Image # L-1967-03177, taken 4/11/67.
Main image: astronaut David R. Scott, commander, gives a military salute while standing beside the deployed U.S. flag during the Apollo 15 lunar surface extravehicular activity (EVA) at the Hadley-Apennine landing site. The flag was deployed toward the end of EVA-2.
The Lunar Module “Falcon” is partially visible on the right. Hadley Delta in the background rises approximately 4,000 meters (about 13,124 feet) above the plain. The base of the mountain is approximately five kilometers (about three statute miles) away. Photo by astronaut James B. Irwin, Lunar Module pilot. Image # AS15-88-11863 taken 8/1/71.
Another cool NASA 360
Published January 21, 2009 General Leave a CommentTags: langley, lunar exploration, nasa, nasa 360
The folks at NASA 360 have released another video – Episode 6. It’s all about lunar exploration, 21st century style. Check it out here.
NASA 360 examines NASA’s past, present and future to show how NASA has improved life on Earth.
They make it look easy
Published January 21, 2009 General Leave a CommentTags: crew capsule, langley, nasa, orion, time-lapse video, youtube
If only the job really went as quickly as it looks.
Langley photographer Sean Smith cut a time-lapse video of the Orion crew module mockup, using photos taken during construction of the vehicle.
Check it out here.
The flight test article pathfinder will be used for the first full-scale flight test of Orion’s launch abort system, Pad Abort-1. The pathfinder will be used for initial ground-based operations and testing procedures to mitigate risks to the actual Orion crew module flight test article. Continue reading ‘They make it look easy’
Langley Twittering
Published January 20, 2009 General Leave a CommentTags: apollo, langley, nasa, twitter, virginia air & space center
A new Twitter is available that provides updates about NASA Langley Research Center. It’s “NASA_Langley” and is so new that as of this post, nothing had been tweeted yet … so now’s your chance to get in on the ground floor! Check it out at http://twitter.com/NASA_Langley.
- Another Twitter tweets Yuri’s Night Hampton Roads 2009. Yuri’s Night will be held April 4 at the Virginia Air & Space Center in Hampton, Va. Check out the YNHR Twitter at http://twitter.com/YNHR2009.
- Update on Apollo Fortieth on Facebook: 468 friends and counting. Check it out. Continue reading ‘Langley Twittering’
President-elect Obama has released his official portrait via change.gov.
You can click on this image to download in the same resolution that appears on his web site.
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