Misplaced Pages

#603396

99-513: From 2003 to 2009, NASA used a space-based laser altimeter, ICESat, for observing polar ice. ICESat was retired in 2009 due to a technical malfunction, leaving NASA without a satellite dedicated to ice observance. A next-generation satellite, ICESat-2, launched in September 2018. In order to maintain annual observations of ice sheets and sea ice, NASA introduced the IceBridge program to "bridge

198-510: A Douglas DC-8 in the Antarctic. Other aircraft have been used throughout the program, such as a King Air B-200 , Gulfstream V and Guardian Falcon . There are tradeoffs to using an aircraft instead of a satellite. One drawback is that a satellite can observe a far wider area. Also, satellites take measurements full-time, while IceBridge aircraft measurements are limited to annual campaigns that are several weeks long. Aircraft, however, have

297-788: A band transponders. NSS 6 , launched in December 2002 and positioned at 95° East, contains only K u -band transponders with a footprint on Indonesia ( Sumatra , Java , Borneo , Celebes , Bali , Nusa Tenggara , Moluccas ). NSS 6 is intended to be replaced by SES-12 at the same location, which launched in June 2018 and carries 54 K u -band transponders. The IPSTAR 1 satellite, launched in 2004 also uses K u band footprints. Other satellites that provides K u band covers Indonesia are MEASAT-3b , JCSAT-4B , AsiaSat 5 , ST-2 , Chinasat 11, Koreasat 8/ABS-2 , SES-8 , Telkom-3S , and Nusantara Satu . Other ITU allocations have been made within

396-772: A television network's studio for editing and broadcasting . The band is split by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) into multiple segments that vary by geographical region. NBC was the first television network to uplink a majority of its affiliate feeds via K u band in 1983. Some frequencies in this radio band are employed in radar guns used by law enforcement to detect vehicles speeding, especially in Europe. Segments in most of North and South America are represented by ITU Region 2 from 11.7 to 12.2 GHz ( Local Oscillator Frequency (LOF) 10.75 to 11.25 GHz), allocated to

495-623: A time series of changes in elevation. This instrument works similarly to the lidar instrument used in ICESat and is helping maintain a record of elevation changes until ICESat-2 becomes operational. Land Vegetation and Ice Sensor (LVIS) - The Land, Vegetation and Ice Sensor (LVIS) is a laser altimeter optimized for operation at higher altitudes. LVIS was created by scientists at the Laser Remote Sensing Laboratory at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. LVIS has flown on

594-536: A combination thereof, based upon platform, weather and location constraints. To date there have been Spring campaigns in the Arctic and Antarctic, as well as flights monitoring summer melt on Alaskan glaciers every year since 2009. Additional campaigns have occurred in the Arctic summer and East Antarctica. IceBridge flights began in March 2009 using a Lockheed P-3 Orion in the Arctic, and were followed later that year by

693-628: A decade of reliance on the Russians. In 2019, NASA announced the Artemis program , intending to return to the Moon and establish a permanent human presence. This was paired with the Artemis Accords with partner nations to establish rules of behavior and norms of space commercialization on the Moon. In 2023, NASA established the Moon to Mars Program office. The office is designed to oversee

792-532: A heavy rain area usually gives poor results. This problem can be solved by using an appropriate link budget when designing the wireless communication link. Higher power can overcome the loss to rain fade . Measurements of rain attenuation in Indonesia have been done for satellite communication links in Padang, Cibinong, Surabaya and Bandung. The DAH Model for rain attenuation prediction is valid for Indonesia, as

891-588: A higher powered signal from the satellite to compensate. Therefore, the K u band satellites typically require considerably more power to transmit than the C-band satellites. Another weather-caused degradation called "snow fade" is not specific to the K u band. It is due to snow or ice accumulation on a dish significantly altering its focal point. The satellite operator's Earth station antenna requires more accurate position control when operating at K u band due to its much narrower beam focus compared to C band for

990-647: A month after the Soviet Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space, executing a full orbital spaceflight. NASA's first orbital spaceflight was conducted by John Glenn on February 20, 1962, in the Friendship 7 , making three full orbits before reentering. Glenn had to fly parts of his final two orbits manually due to an autopilot malfunction. The sixth and final Mercury mission was flown by Gordon Cooper in May 1963, performing 22 orbits over 34 hours in

1089-583: A permanently manned space station and to do it within a decade. In 1985, NASA proposed the Space Station Freedom , which both the agency and President Reagan intended to be an international program. While this would add legitimacy to the program, there were concerns within NASA that the international component would dilute its authority within the project, having never been willing to work with domestic or international partners as true equals. There

SECTION 10

#1732801142604

1188-650: A possible source of antimatter at the center of the Milky Way and observing that the majority of gamma-ray bursts occur outside of the Milky Way galaxy. The Chandra X-ray Observatory was launched from the Columbia on STS-93 in 1999, observing black holes, quasars , supernova , and dark matter . It provided critical observations on the Sagittarius A* black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy and

1287-540: A space station since the agency was created. In 1973, following the end of the Apollo lunar missions, NASA launched its first space station, Skylab , on the final launch of the Saturn   V. Skylab reused a significant amount of Apollo and Saturn hardware, with a repurposed Saturn   V third stage serving as the primary module for the space station. Damage to Skylab during its launch required spacewalks to be performed by

1386-831: A wide variety of aircraft such as NASA's P-3, DC-8, B-200 and HU-25C Guardian Falcon and NSF's Gulfstream G-V. By flying at a higher altitude, LVIS can survey larger areas and expands IceBridge's range. Operation IceBridge uses up to four different radar instruments operated by the Center for the Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS) at the University of Kansas . Indiana University provides data management services for CReSIS activities in Operation IceBridge. Multichannel Coherent Radar Depth Sounder (MCoRDS) - The Multichannel Coherent Radar Depth Sounder (MCoRDS)

1485-449: Is also less vulnerable to rain fade than the K a band frequency spectrum. There are, however, some disadvantages of the K u band system. Around 10 GHz is the absorption peak due to orientation relaxation of molecules in liquid water. Above 10 GHz, Mie scattering takes over. The effect is a noticeable degradation, commonly known as rain fade , during heavy rain (100 mm/h). This problem can be mitigated by transmitting

1584-411: Is an airborne digital imaging system that is used to detect openings in sea ice and build high-resolution maps of polar ice. The DMS instrument is a downward-facing digital camera that captures multiple individual frames that are combined into image mosaics using computer software. Gravimeter - Operation IceBridge also uses a gravity-measuring instrument known as a gravimeter . This instrument measures

1683-544: Is crucial for estimating sea ice thickness. Ku-band Radar Altimeter - IceBridge also carries a Ku band radar altimeter, which can penetrate snow layers to measure sea and land ice surface elevation. Accumulation Radar - The accumulation radar instrument is used to gather high-resolution data on the top part of ice. Looking at the uppermost part of ice allows researchers to map past snow accumulation rates. Digital Mapping System (DMS) - The Digital Mapping System (DMS), created by researchers at NASA's Ames Research Center,

1782-564: Is helpful for determining sub-ice basal conditions. The project, headed by project scientist Joseph MacGregor, from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, uses a suite of airborne science instruments to get a three-dimensional view of Arctic and Antarctic ice. The mission's goals are to monitor changes in polar ice, gather data for predictive models of ice and sea-level rise and bridge the gap in measurements between NASA's ICESat and ICESat-2 satellites. IceBridge achieves this by collecting data over ice sheets, glaciers and sea ice. Pine Island Glacier

1881-524: Is one such area of focus. There, Operation IceBridge has been observing the underside of the ice-sheet using an advanced radar, as well as closely monitoring an area of Pine Island Glacier known as the ice tongue that, were it to melt, would allow a large portion of the glacier to slide into the Amundsen Sea . In August 2013 the discovery of the longest canyon on Earth under the Greenland ice sheet

1980-440: Is primarily used for satellite communications , most notably the downlink used by direct broadcast satellites to broadcast satellite television , and for specific applications such as NASA 's Tracking Data Relay Satellite used for International Space Station (ISS) communications and SpaceX Starlink satellites. K u band satellites are also used for backhauls and particularly for satellite from remote locations back to

2079-634: Is the Airborne Topographic Mapper, a laser that measures the surface elevation of the ice. Also on board is a gravimeter , an instrument capable of measuring the shape of cavities in the ice. There are numerous other pieces of equipment on board, including the Land, Vegetation and Ice Sensor, the Multichannel Coherent Radar Depth Sounder, a Snow Radar, a Ku-Band Radar Altimeter, a magnetometer and

SECTION 20

#1732801142604

2178-450: Is the ITU model. The DAH model has become an ITU recommendation since 2001 (Recommendation No. ITU-R P.618-7). This model can create a 99.7% available link so that K u -band can be applied in Indonesia. Use of the K u -band for satellite communications in tropical regions like Indonesia is becoming more frequent. Several satellites above Indonesia have K u -band transponders , and even K

2277-513: Is the lower part of the original NATO K band , which was split into three bands (K u , K , and K a ) because of the presence of the atmospheric water vapor resonance peak at 22.24 GHz, (1.35 cm) which made the center unusable for long range transmission. In radar applications, it ranges from 12 to 18  GHz according to the formal definition of radar frequency band nomenclature in IEEE Standard 521–2002. K u band

2376-415: Is used to measure ice thickness and map beneath the ice. This instrument uses multiple channels and a large range of radar frequencies to image internal ice layering and bedrock beneath ice sheets. Information on sub-ice terrain is useful for modeling ice sheets. Snow Radar - The CReSIS Snow Radar instrument is used to measure the thickness of snow layers on top of land and sea ice. Measuring snow thickness

2475-590: The Faith 7 . The Mercury Program was wildly recognized as a resounding success, achieving its objectives to orbit a human in space, develop tracking and control systems, and identify other issues associated with human spaceflight. While much of NASA's attention turned to space, it did not put aside its aeronautics mission. Early aeronautics research attempted to build upon the X-1's supersonic flight to build an aircraft capable of hypersonic flight . The North American X-15

2574-756: The Army Ballistic Missile Agency would launch Explorer 1 , America's first satellite, on February 1, 1958. The Eisenhower Administration decided to split the United States' military and civil spaceflight programs, which were organized together under the Defense Department 's Advanced Research Projects Agency . NASA was established on July 29, 1958, with the signing of the National Aeronautics and Space Act and it began operations on October 1, 1958. As

2673-737: The Astra satellites. The 11.7 to 12.5 GHz segment is allocated to the BSS ( broadcasting satellite service ). Australia is part of ITU Region 3 and the Australian regulatory environment provides a class license that covers downlinking from 11.70 GHz to 12.75 GHz and uplinking from 14.0 GHz to 14.5 GHz. The ITU has categorized Indonesia as Region P, countries with very high rain precipitation. This statement has made many people unsure about using K u -band (11 – 18 GHz) in Indonesia. Using frequencies higher than 10 GHz in

2772-803: The Bell X-1 in a joint program with the U.S. Air Force . NACA's interest in space grew out of its rocketry program at the Pilotless Aircraft Research Division. The Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik 1 ushered in the Space Age and kicked off the Space Race . Despite NACA's early rocketry program, the responsibility for launching the first American satellite fell to the Naval Research Laboratory 's Project Vanguard , whose operational issues ensured

2871-742: The Big Bang , through the James Webb Space Telescope , the four Great Observatories , and associated programs. The Launch Services Program oversees launch operations for its uncrewed launches . NASA traces its roots to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). Despite being the birthplace of aviation, by 1914 the United States recognized that it was far behind Europe in aviation capability. Determined to regain American leadership in aviation,

2970-622: The Big Bang . The James Webb Space Telescope , named after the NASA administrator who lead the Apollo program, is an infrared observatory launched in 2021. The James Webb Space Telescope is a direct successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, intended to observe the formation of the first galaxies. Other space telescopes include the Kepler space telescope , launched in 2009 to identify planets orbiting extrasolar stars that may be Terran and possibly harbor life. The first exoplanet that

3069-981: The Commercial Crew Program , and oversees the development of the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System for the lunar Artemis program . NASA's science division is focused on better understanding Earth through the Earth Observing System ; advancing heliophysics through the efforts of the Science Mission Directorate 's Heliophysics Research Program; exploring bodies throughout the Solar System with advanced robotic spacecraft such as New Horizons and planetary rovers such as Perseverance ; and researching astrophysics topics, such as

Operation IceBridge - Misplaced Pages Continue

3168-797: The Environmental Science Services Administration on a series of weather satellites and the agency launched its experimental Applications Technology Satellites into geosynchronous orbit. NASA's first dedicated Earth observation satellite, Landsat , was launched in 1972. This led to NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration jointly developing the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite and discovering Ozone depletion . NASA had been pursuing spaceplane development since

3267-691: The Europa and observed that the moon may hold ice or liquid water. A joint NASA- European Space Agency - Italian Space Agency mission, Cassini–Huygens , was sent to Saturn 's moon Titan , which, along with Mars and Europa, are the only celestial bodies in the Solar System suspected of being capable of harboring life. Cassini discovered three new moons of Saturn and the Huygens probe entered Titan's atmosphere. The mission discovered evidence of liquid hydrocarbon lakes on Titan and subsurface water oceans on

3366-784: The Johnson Space Center as the lead center for the design, development, and manufacturing of the Space Shuttle orbiter , while the Marshall Space Flight Center would lead the development of the launch system. NASA's series of lifting body aircraft, culminating in the joint NASA-U.S. Air Force Martin Marietta X-24 , directly informed the development of the Space Shuttle and future hypersonic flight aircraft. Official development of

3465-664: The Mars Global Surveyor orbiter and Mars Pathfinder , deploying the first Mars rover, Sojourner . During the early 2000s, the 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter reached the planet and in 2004 the Sprit and Opportunity rovers landed on the Red Planet. This was followed in 2005 by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and 2007 Phoenix Mars lander. The 2012 landing of Curiosity discovered that

3564-614: The Orbiting Geophysical Observatory in the 1960s and 1970s to look down at Earth and observe its interactions with the Sun. The Uhuru satellite was the first dedicated x-ray telescope, mapping 85% of the sky and discovering a large number of black holes . Launched in the 1990s and early 2000s, the Great Observatories program are among NASA's most powerful telescopes. The Hubble Space Telescope

3663-587: The Rayleigh criterion , the diameter of a parabolic dish required to create a radiation pattern with a given angular beamwidth ( gain ) is proportional to the wavelength , and thus inversely proportional to the frequency. At 12 GHz a 1-meter dish is capable of focusing on one satellite while sufficiently rejecting the signal from another satellite only 2 degrees away. This is important because satellites in FSS (Fixed Satellite Service) service (11.7-12.2 GHz in

3762-658: The STS-1 mission, designed to serve as a flight test for the new spaceplane. NASA intended for the Space Shuttle to replace expendable launch systems like the Air Force's Atlas , Delta , and Titan and the European Space Agency 's Ariane . The Space Shuttle's Spacelab payload, developed by the European Space Agency, increased the scientific capabilities of shuttle missions over anything NASA

3861-635: The STS-60 mission in 1994 and the Discovery rendezvoused, but did not dock with, the Russian Mir in the STS-63 mission. This was followed by Atlantis' STS-71 mission where it accomplished the initial intended mission for the Space Shuttle, docking with a space station and transferring supplies and personnel. The Shuttle- Mir program would continue until 1998, when a series of orbital accidents on

3960-477: The Space Race when the Soviet Union gave up its lunar ambitions. As the first human to step on the surface of the Moon, Neil Armstrong uttered the now famous words: That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. NASA would conduct six total lunar landings as part of the Apollo program, with Apollo   17 concluding the program in 1972. Wernher von Braun had advocated for NASA to develop

4059-620: The Space Shuttle began in 1972, with Rockwell International contracted to design the orbiter and engines, Martin Marietta for the external fuel tank , and Morton Thiokol for the solid rocket boosters . NASA acquired six orbiters: the Enterprise , Columbia , Challenger , Discovery , Atlantis , and Endeavour The Space Shuttle program also allowed NASA to make major changes to its Astronaut Corps . While almost all previous astronauts were Air Force or Naval test pilots,

Operation IceBridge - Misplaced Pages Continue

4158-620: The United States Congress created the Aviation Section of the U.S. Army Signal Corps in 1914 and established NACA in 1915 to foster aeronautical research and development. Over the next forty years, NACA would conduct aeronautical research in support of the U.S. Air Force , U.S. Army , U.S. Navy , and the civil aviation sector. After the end of World War II , NACA became interested in the possibilities of guided missiles and supersonic aircraft, developing and testing

4257-405: The inner planets . Despite these successes, Congress was unwilling to fund further interplanetary missions and NASA Administrator James Webb suspended all future interplanetary probes to focus resources on the Apollo program. Following the conclusion of the Apollo program, NASA resumed launching interplanetary probes and expanded its space science program. The first planet tagged for exploration

4356-524: The 1960s, blending the administration's dual aeronautics and space missions. NASA viewed a spaceplane as part of a larger program, providing routine and economical logistical support to a space station in Earth orbit that would be used as a hub for lunar and Mars missions. A reusable launch vehicle would then have ended the need for expensive and expendable boosters like the Saturn V . In 1969, NASA designated

4455-437: The 44 commercial companies that contracted with NASA to deploy their satellites to return to expendable launch vehicles. When the Space Shuttle returned to flight with the STS-26 mission, it had undergone significant modifications to improve its reliability and safety. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation and United States initiated the Shuttle- Mir program . The first Russian cosmonaut flew on

4554-450: The Air Force as the military space lead. Plans for human spaceflight began in the U.S. Armed Forces prior to NASA's creation. The Air Force's Man in Space Soonest project formed in 1956, coupled with the Army's Project Adam, served as the foundation for Project Mercury . NASA established the Space Task Group to manage the program, which would conduct crewed sub-orbital flights with the Army's Redstone rockets and orbital flights with

4653-448: The Air Force's Atlas launch vehicles. While NASA intended for its first astronauts to be civilians, President Eisenhower directed that they be selected from the military. The Mercury 7 astronauts included three Air Force pilots, three Navy aviators, and one Marine Corps pilot. On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American to enter space, performing a suborbital spaceflight in the Freedom 7 . This flight occurred less than

4752-410: The Apollo program. Despite attacks on the goal of landing astronauts on the Moon from the former president Dwight Eisenhower and 1964 presidential candidate Barry Goldwater , President Kennedy was able to protect NASA's growing budget, of which 50% went directly to human spaceflight and it was later estimated that, at its height, 5% of Americans worked on some aspect of the Apollo program. Mirroring

4851-478: The Army Ballistic Missile Agency's original Saturn   I . The Apollo spacecraft was designed and built by North American Aviation , while the Apollo Lunar Module was designed and built by Grumman . To develop the spaceflight skills and equipment required for a lunar mission, NASA initiated Project Gemini . Using a modified Air Force Titan   II launch vehicle, the Gemini capsule could hold two astronauts for flights of over two weeks. Gemini pioneered

4950-426: The Department of Defense's program management concept using redundant systems in building the first intercontinental ballistic missiles, NASA requested the Air Force assign Major General Samuel C. Phillips to the space agency where he would serve as the director of the Apollo program. Development of the Saturn   V rocket was led by Wernher von Braun and his team at the Marshall Space Flight Center , derived from

5049-414: The Digital Mapping System. Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM) – The Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM) is a laser altimeter that bounces laser light off the ice surface and measures how long it takes to return. By combining this timing data with information about the aircraft's position and attitude, researchers can calculate ice elevation. By flying over the same areas of ice year after year, they can build

SECTION 50

#1732801142604

5148-563: The FSS ( fixed satellite service ), uplink from 14.0 to 14.5 GHz. There are more than 22 FSS K u band satellites orbiting over North America, each carrying 12 to 48 transponders , 20 to 120 watts per transponder, and requiring a 0.8-m to 1.5-m antenna for clear reception. The 12.2 to 12.7 GHz (LOF 11.25 to 11.75 GHz) segment is allocated to the BSS ( broadcasting satellite service ). BSS (DBS direct broadcast satellites ) normally carry 16 to 32 transponders of 27  MHz bandwidth running at 100 to 240 watts of power, allowing

5247-466: The K u band to the fixed service (microwave towers), radio astronomy service, space research service, mobile service, mobile satellite service, radiolocation service (radar), amateur radio service , and radionavigation. However, not all of these services are actually operating in this band and others are only minor users. Compared with C-band , K u band is not similarly restricted in power to avoid interference with terrestrial microwave systems, and

5346-439: The Keplar space telescope confirmed was Kepler-22b , orbiting within the habitable zone of its star. NASA also launched a number of different satellites to study Earth, such as Television Infrared Observation Satellite (TIROS) in 1960, which was the first weather satellite. NASA and the United States Weather Bureau cooperated on future TIROS and the second generation Nimbus program of weather satellites. It also worked with

5445-448: The Martian interior. The 2021 Perseverance rover carried the first extraplanetary aircraft, a helicopter named Ingenuity . NASA also launched missions to Mercury in 2004, with the MESSENGER probe demonstrating as the first use of a solar sail . NASA also launched probes to the outer Solar System starting in the 1960s. Pioneer 10 was the first probe to the outer planets, flying by Jupiter , while Pioneer 11 provided

5544-402: The Moon and going to Mars. Embracing this approach, NASA's Commercial Crew Program started by contracting cargo delivery to the International Space Station and flew its first operational contracted mission on SpaceX Crew-1 . This marked the first time since the retirement of the Space Shuttle that NASA was able to launch its own astronauts on an American spacecraft from the United States, ending

5643-404: The Moon and returning him safely to Earth by the end of the 1960s and installed James E. Webb as NASA administrator to achieve this goal. On May   25, 1961, President Kennedy openly declared this goal in his "Urgent National Needs" speech to the United States Congress, declaring: I believe this Nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on

5742-427: The Moon and returning him safely to Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish. Kennedy gave his " We choose to go to the Moon " speech the next year, on September   12, 1962 at Rice University , where he addressed the nation hoping to reinforce public support for

5841-409: The Russians be included. In 1993, the Clinton Administration announced that the Space Station Freedom would become the International Space Station in an agreement with the Russian Federation. This allowed the Russians to maintain their space program through an infusion of American currency to maintain their status as one of the two premier space programs. While the United States built and launched

5940-507: The Russians to fly to the International Space Station for four days, despite the opposition of NASA to the idea. Advocates of this new commercial approach for NASA included former astronaut Buzz Aldrin , who remarked that it would return NASA to its roots as a research and development agency, with commercial entities actually operating the space systems. Having corporations take over orbital operations would also allow NASA to focus all its efforts on deep space exploration and returning humans to

6039-422: The Solar System. Mars has long been a planet of intense fascination for NASA, being suspected of potentially having harbored life. Mariner 5 was the first NASA spacecraft to flyby Mars, followed by Mariner 6 and Mariner 7 . Mariner 9 was the first orbital mission to Mars. Launched in 1975, Viking program consisted of two landings on Mars in 1976. Follow-on missions would not be launched until 1996, with

SECTION 60

#1732801142604

6138-404: The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003, NASA was forced to rely on Russian Soyuz launches for its astronauts and the 2011 retirement of the Space Shuttle accelerated the station's completion. In the 1980s, right after the first flight of the Space Shuttle, NASA started a joint program with the Department of Defense to develop the Rockwell X-30 National Aerospace Plane. NASA realized that

6237-418: The Space Shuttle allowed NASA to begin recruiting more non-military scientific and technical experts. A prime example is Sally Ride , who became the first American woman to fly in space on STS-7 . This new astronaut selection process also allowed NASA to accept exchange astronauts from U.S. allies and partners for the first time. The first Space Shuttle flight occurred in 1981, when the Columbia launched on

6336-443: The Space Shuttle and expand space exploration beyond low Earth orbit. Constellation was intended to use a significant amount of former Space Shuttle equipment and return astronauts to the Moon. This program was canceled by the Obama Administration . Former astronauts Neil Armstrong , Gene Cernan , and Jim Lovell sent a letter to President Barack Obama to warn him that if the United States did not get new human spaceflight ability,

6435-478: The Space Shuttle began flying, selling it as an orbital laboratory, repair station, and a jumping off point for lunar and Mars missions. NASA found a strong advocate in President Ronald Reagan , who declared in a 1984 speech: America has always been greatest when we dared to be great. We can reach for greatness again. We can follow our dreams to distant stars, living and working in space for peaceful, economic, and scientific gain. Tonight I am directing NASA to develop

6534-444: The Space Shuttle, while a massive technological accomplishment, would not be able to live up to all its promises. Designed to be a single-stage-to-orbit spaceplane, the X-30 had both civil and military applications. With the end of the Cold War , the X-30 was canceled in 1992 before reaching flight status. Following the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003, President Bush started the Constellation program to smoothly replace

6633-483: The Space Shuttle. Due to technical challenges, the spacecraft was cancelled in 2001. Despite this, it was the first time a commercial space company directly expended a significant amount of its resources into spacecraft development. The advent of space tourism also forced NASA to challenge its assumption that only governments would have people in space. The first space tourist was Dennis Tito , an American investment manager and former aerospace engineer who contracted with

6732-507: The Space Station Freedom was controversial, with much of the debate centering on cost. Several redesigns to reduce cost were conducted in the early 1990s, stripping away much of its functions. Despite calls for Congress to terminate the program, it continued, in large part because by 1992 it had created 75,000 jobs across 39 states. By 1993, President Bill Clinton attempted to significantly reduce NASA's budget and directed costs be significantly reduced, aerospace industry jobs were not lost, and

6831-399: The U.S. risked become a second or third-rate space power. As early as the Reagan Administration, there had been calls for NASA to expand private sector involvement in space exploration rather than do it all in-house. In the 1990s, NASA and Lockheed Martin entered into an agreement to develop the Lockheed Martin X-33 demonstrator of the VentureStar spaceplane, which was intended to replace

6930-409: The U.S. space development effort a distinct civilian orientation, emphasizing peaceful applications in space science . It has since led most of America's space exploration programs, including Project Mercury , Project Gemini , the 1968–1972 Apollo Moon landing missions, the Skylab space station, and the Space Shuttle . Currently, NASA supports the International Space Station (ISS) along with

7029-471: The U.S.) are only 2 degrees apart. At 4 GHz (C-band) a 3-meter dish is required to achieve this narrow angular resolution. Note the inverse linear correlation between dish size and frequency. For K u satellites in DBS (Direct Broadcast Satellite) service (12.2-12.7 GHz in the U.S.) dishes much smaller than 1-meter can be used because those satellites are spaced 9 degrees apart. As power levels on both C and K u band satellites have increased over

7128-587: The US's premier aeronautics agency, NACA formed the core of NASA's new structure by reassigning 8,000 employees and three major research laboratories. NASA also proceeded to absorb the Naval Research Laboratory's Project Vanguard, the Army's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and the Army Ballistic Missile Agency under Wernher von Braun . This left NASA firmly as the United States' civil space lead and

7227-470: The advantage of being able to carry more instruments, change or upgrade instruments from campaign to campaign and target scientifically interesting areas instead of following a fixed path. Also, certain instruments such as ice-penetrating radar only work from the lower altitudes afforded by aircraft like the P-3 Orion and DC-8. IceBridge aircraft carry a suite of specialized science instruments. Among these

7326-496: The antenna's actual receiving element, mounted in front of the dish (and pointed back towards its face); if the waves are more intense, fewer of them need to be collected to achieve the same intensity at the receiving element. A major attraction of the band over lower frequency microwave bands is that the shorter wavelengths allow sufficient angular resolution to separate the signals of different communication satellites to be achieved with smaller terrestrial parabolic antennas . From

7425-420: The first close up view of the planet. Both probes became the first objects to leave the Solar System. The Voyager program launched in 1977, conducting flybys of Jupiter and Saturn , Neptune , and Uranus on a trajectory to leave the Solar System. The Galileo spacecraft, deployed from the Space Shuttle flight STS-34 , was the first spacecraft to orbit Jupiter, discovering evidence of subsurface oceans on

7524-515: The first crew to make it habitable and operational. Skylab hosted nine missions and was decommissioned in 1974 and deorbited in 1979, two years prior to the first launch of the Space Shuttle and any possibility of boosting its orbit. In 1975, the Apollo–Soyuz mission was the first ever international spaceflight and a major diplomatic accomplishment between the Cold War rivals, which also marked

7623-402: The first humans to see the Earth as a globe in space, the first to witness an Earthrise , and the first to see and manually photograph the far side of the Moon. The first lunar landing was conducted by Apollo   11. Commanded by Neil Armstrong with astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins , Apollo   11 was one of the most significant missions in NASA's history, marking the end of

7722-522: The gap" between satellite missions. The program utilizes aircraft platforms to make airborne measurements of the polar regions. IceBridge flights began in March 2009, on an Arctic Spring campaign based out of Thule Air Base , Greenland. Southern Hemisphere flights began during the first Austral Spring campaign in October 2009, based out of Punta Arenas , Chile. Flights during field campaigns can contain either dedicated land ice and sea ice flights, or

7821-451: The last flight of the Apollo capsule. Flown in 1975, a U.S. Apollo spacecraft docked with a Soviet Soyuz capsule. During the 1960s, NASA started its space science and interplanetary probe program. The Mariner program was its flagship program, launching probes to Venus , Mars , and Mercury in the 1960s. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory was the lead NASA center for robotic interplanetary exploration, making significant discoveries about

7920-515: The majority of the International Space Station, Russia, Canada, Japan, and the European Space Agency all contributed components. Despite NASA's insistence that costs would be kept at a budget of $ 17.4, they kept rising and NASA had to transfer funds from other programs to keep the International Space Station solvent. Ultimately, the total cost of the station was $ 150 billion, with the United States paying for two-thirds.Following

8019-634: The moon of Enceladus , which could harbor life. Finally launched in 2006, the New Horizons mission was the first spacecraft to visit Pluto and the Kuiper Belt . Beyond interplanetary probes, NASA has launched many space telescopes . Launched in the 1960s, the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory were NASA's first orbital telescopes, providing ultraviolet, gamma-ray, x-ray, and infrared observations. NASA launched

8118-412: The power of its uplinks and downlinks can be increased. This higher power also translates into smaller receiving dishes and points out a generalization between a satellite's transmission and a dish's size. As the power increases, the size of an antenna's dish will decrease. This is because the purpose of the dish element of the antenna is to collect the incident waves over an area and focus them all onto

8217-705: The radiation levels on Mars were equal to those on the International Space Station , greatly increasing the possibility of Human exploration, and observed the key chemical ingredients for life to occur. In 2013, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution ( MAVEN ) mission observed the Martian upper atmosphere and space environment and in 2018, the Interior exploration using Seismic Investigations Geodesy, and Heat Transport ( InSight ) studied

8316-507: The satellites were repaired and relaunched. Despite ushering in a new era of spaceflight, where NASA was contracting launch services to commercial companies, the Space Shuttle was criticized for not being as reusable and cost-effective as advertised. In 1986, Challenger disaster on the STS-51L mission resulted in the loss of the spacecraft and all seven astronauts on launch, grounding the entire space shuttle fleet for 36 months and forced

8415-676: The separation of dark and regular matter during galactic collisions. Finally, the Spitzer Space Telescope is an infrared telescope launched in 2003 from a Delta II rocket. It is in a trailing orbit around the Sun, following the Earth and discovered the existence of brown dwarf stars . Other telescopes, such as the Cosmic Background Explorer and the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe , provided evidence to support

8514-560: The setback caused by the Apollo   1 fire, which killed three astronauts, the program proceeded. Apollo   8 was the first crewed spacecraft to leave low Earth orbit and the first human spaceflight to reach the Moon . The crew orbited the Moon ten times on December   24 and   25, 1968, and then traveled safely back to Earth . The three Apollo   8 astronauts— Frank Borman , James Lovell , and William Anders —were

8613-549: The space shuttle be retired. In 2006, the Space Shuttle returned to flight, conducting several mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope , but was retired following the STS-135 resupply mission to the International Space Station in 2011. NASA never gave up on the idea of a space station after Skylab's reentry in 1979. The agency began lobbying politicians to support building a larger space station as soon as

8712-481: The space station spelled an end to the program. In 2003, a second space shuttle was destroyed when the Columbia was destroyed upon reentry during the STS-107 mission, resulting in the loss of the spacecraft and all seven astronauts. This accident marked the beginning of the retiring of the Space Shuttle program, with President George W. Bush directing that upon the completion of the International Space Station,

8811-487: The strength of gravitational fields beneath the aircraft, which researchers can use to determine the shape of water cavities beneath floating ice shelves. Because water is less dense than rock, areas of floating ice show weaker gravitational fields than areas with rock underneath. Magnetometer - The NASA P-3 Orion carries a magnetometer that can be used to gather data on the properties of sub-ice rock. Density and magnetic properties can be used to infer bedrock type, which

8910-579: The use of fuel cells instead of batteries, and conducted the first American spacewalks and rendezvous operations . The Ranger Program was started in the 1950s as a response to Soviet lunar exploration, however most missions ended in failure. The Lunar Orbiter program had greater success, mapping the surface in preparation for Apollo landings and measured Selenography , conducted meteoroid detection, and measured radiation levels. The Surveyor program conducted uncrewed lunar landings and takeoffs, as well as taking surface and regolith observations. Despite

9009-454: The use of receiver antennas as small as 18 inches (450 mm). Segments in those regions are represented by ITU Region 1, and they are the 11.45 to 11.7 and 12.5 to 12.75 GHz bands are allocated to the FSS ( fixed satellite service , uplink 14.0 to 14.5 GHz). In Europe K u band is used from 10.7 to 12.75 GHz (LOF Low 9.75 GHz, LOF High 10.6 GHz) for direct broadcast satellite services such as those carried by

9108-402: The various projects, mission architectures and associated timelines relevant to lunar and Mars exploration and science. Ku band The K u band ( / ˌ k eɪ ˈ j uː / ) is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum in the microwave range of frequencies from 12 to 18  gigahertz (GHz). The symbol is short for "K-under" (originally German : Kurz-unten ), because it

9207-403: The years, dish beam-width has become much more critical than gain. The K u band also offers a user more flexibility. A smaller dish size and a K u band system's freedom from terrestrial operations simplifies finding a suitable dish site. For the end users K u band is generally cheaper and enables smaller antennas (both because of the higher frequency and a more focused beam). K u band

9306-461: Was Venus , sharing many similar characteristics to Earth. First visited by American Mariner 2 spacecraft, Venus was observed to be a hot and inhospitable planet. Follow-on missions included the Pioneer Venus project in the 1970s and Magellan , which performed radar mapping of Venus' surface in the 1980s and 1990s. Future missions were flybys of Venus, on their way to other destinations in

9405-489: Was a joint NASA–U.S. Air Force program, with the hypersonic test aircraft becoming the first non-dedicated spacecraft to cross from the atmosphere to outer space. The X-15 also served as a testbed for Apollo program technologies, as well as ramjet and scramjet propulsion. Escalations in the Cold War between the United States and Soviet Union prompted President John F. Kennedy to charge NASA with landing an American on

9504-683: Was able to previously accomplish. NASA launched its first commercial satellites on the STS-5 mission and in 1984, the STS-41-C mission conducted the world's first on-orbit satellite servicing mission when the Challenger captured and repaired the malfunctioning Solar Maximum Mission satellite. It also had the capability to return malfunctioning satellite to Earth, like it did with the Palapa B2 and Westar 6 satellites. Once returned to Earth,

9603-545: Was also a concern with sharing sensitive space technologies with the Europeans, which had the potential to dilute America's technical lead. Ultimately, an international agreement to develop the Space Station Freedom program would be signed with thirteen countries in 1985, including the European Space Agency member states, Canada , and Japan . Despite its status as the first international space program,

9702-497: Was launched in 1990 on STS-31 from the Discovery and could view galaxies 15 billion light years away. A major defect in the telescope's mirror could have crippled the program, had NASA not used computer enhancement to compensate for the imperfection and launched five Space Shuttle servicing flights to replace the damaged components. The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory was launched from the Atlantis on STS-37 in 1991, discovering

9801-423: Was reported, based on an analysis of data from Operation IceBridge. NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA / ˈ n æ s ə / ) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for the civil space program , aeronautics research, and space research. Established in 1958 , it succeeded the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) to give

#603396