A group of Marshall and agency team members traveled to Russellville, Arkansas, to help viewers experience the April 8 total solar eclipse through the eyes of NASA.
Science and communication experts from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, Stennis Space Center, Kennedy Space Center, and NASA Headquarters provided educational outreach opportunities and participated in panel discussions in Russellville, which experienced an eclipse totality of 4 minutes, 12 seconds.
NASA was also joined by experts representing the Arkansas Air National Guard and the Paris Observatory in Muedon, France. More than 100,000 tourists were expected to visit Russellville for the rare experience. Marshall hosted part of the agency’s live television broadcast from the city and conducted several scientific presentations and public events for visitors.
More than 400 NASA employees at 14 locations across the U.S. engaged the public, from Texas to Maine. As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 13 million viewers had watched the broadcast. You can watch NASA’s broadcast coverage of the eclipse here.
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NASA’s 2024 Student Launch challenge will bring students from colleges, universities, high schools, middle schools, and informal education groups to launch amateur rockets and payloads April 13, starting at 8:30 a.m. CDT at Bragg Farms in Toney, Alabama, near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
Live streaming will begin at 8:20 a.m. CDT on NASA Marshall YouTube and Student Launch Facebook.
Seventy teams from 24 states and Puerto Rico are participating this year with 53 teams expected to launch in-person. Any team not traveling to Alabama may conduct final test flights at a home launch field.
NASA also welcomes the return of the Rocket Fair on April 12 from 3-6 p.m. at the Von Braun Center East Hall in downtown Huntsville. This event is free and open to the public as students display their rockets and answer questions from the media and NASA engineers.
Schedule of Events
- April 12: Rocket Fair at the Von Braun Center East Hall.
- April 13: Launch Day, gates open at 7 a.m. The event runs from 8:30 a.m. to approximately 2:30 p.m. (or until the last rocket launch) at Bragg Farms. Lawn chairs are recommended. Pets are not permitted.
- April 14: Tentative rain day on Sunday in case of inclement weather on April 13 starting at 8:30 a.m. at Bragg Farms.
Winners of the student launch will be announced on June 7 during a virtual awards ceremony once all teams’ flight data has been verified.
Student Launch provides relevant, cost-effective research and development of rocket propulsion systems and reflects the goals of NASA’s Artemis campaign, which seeks to put the first woman and first person of color on the Moon.
Each year, the payload component changes to reflect current NASA missions. This year’s payload challenge is inspired by the Artemis missions.
Students will design a SAIL (STEMnaut Atmosphere Independent Lander) payload. It must deploy mid-air, safely return to the ground without using a parachute, and be reusable to launch the same day without repairs or modifications. The payload will contain a crew of STEMnauts, four non-living objects representing astronauts. Students will choose metrics to determine the endurance of the lander, considering acceptable descent and landing parameters.
Middle and high school teams can choose to attempt the lander payload or develop their own science or engineering experiment.
Eligible teams compete for prizes and awards and are scored in nearly a dozen categories including safety, vehicle design, social media presence, and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) engagement. Teams can also win the Altitude Award in each division based on how close they get to the altitude they projected their rockets would reach months in advance to launch day.
Marshall’s Office of STEM Engagement hosts Student Launch to encourage students to pursue careers in STEM through real-world experiences. Student Launch is a part of the agency’s Artemis Student Challenges – a variety of activities exposing students to the knowledge and technology required to achieve the goals of the Artemis missions.
In addition to the NASA Office of STEM Engagement’s Next Gen STEM project, NASA Space Operations Mission Directorate, Northrup Grumman, National Space Club Huntsville, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, National Association of Rocketry, Relativity Space and Bastion Technologies provide funding and leadership for the competition.
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Hansel Gill has been named as director at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility, which is managed by the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
Gill has been Michoud’s acting director since December after previously being the facility’s deputy director from 2021 to 2023. He will be responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of one of the world’s largest manufacturing facilities, where key elements of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System), and Orion spacecraft are built. Michoud, a multi-tenant manufacturing site sitting on 829 acres with over 2 million square feet of manufacturing space, also provides facility infrastructure and capacity for federal, state, academic, and technology-based industry partners.
From 2016 to 2021, Gill served as subsystem manager for production in the SLS Stages Element Office, and later within the Block 1B/EUS (exploration upper stage) Development Office, providing technical leadership for SLS core stage production supporting Artemis I and early development and production planning for the exploration upper stage initiating flight hardware production operations and facility readiness at Michoud.
Gill served as team lead and acting assistant branch chief for the Metals Joining and Processes Branch in Marshall’s Engineering Directorate from 2013 to 2016. He was responsible for materials characterization and process development, product management, and corrosion engineering, supporting advanced exploration and manufacturing capability advancements. While in this position, Gill led the production for the EFT-1 multi-purpose crew vehicle stage adaptor (MSA) providing the structural interface for Orion and the Delta IV launch system supporting the EFT-1 Orion Flight Test.
He joined NASA as a student intern in 1990 and was hired full time in 1996 as materials engineer in Marshall’s Engineering Directorate.
Gill’s awards include Safety Flight Awareness Award – Group Achievement; NASA Honor Award – Exceptional Achievement Medal; Director’s Commendation Honor Award; Materials & Processes Laboratory Peer Award; Systems Engineering Process Management Tiger Team Group Achievement; Black Engineer of the Year Award – Modern Day Technology Leader (24th STEM Global Competitiveness C
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