connect / communicate / collaborate
Center leadership has recently identified what is called a “strategic opportunity”. We, as a center, have the opportunity to help change people’s perception of Langley as well as the Agency as a whole. We need your ideas for how to make NASA cool! Put your ideas here and they will be added to those presented to the Center Leadership Council on October 13.
Thanks
The Next Generation Advisory Committee (NGAC) is working to raise awareness of Governor Tim Kaine’s announcement of the Statewide Telework Day to be held on Monday, August 3. NGAC is supporting Langley’s senior management by conducting research to determine the effectiveness and productivity of those who participated. Conversely, the NGAC will also analyze the lack of participation and the reactions of employees about teleworking. Please look for our advertisements on @LaRC this week about how you can potentially assist the committee in their efforts to learn more about the attitudes and flexibility surrounding this new shift.
If possible, please consider taking this opportunity to telework. More information about Statewide Telework Day is posted below.
Thank you!
Next Generation Advisory Committee
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 …
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.”
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.
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.
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’
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.
The news media will flock to Langley on Jan. 22 for a look at spaceflight hardware before it’s flown to Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida for a launch demo.
The “media day” will give reporters a chance to view a precisely-machined, full-scale simulator crew module and launch abort system, designed and fabricated at Langley to form the tip of NASA’s Ares I-X rocket. Continue reading ‘A peek at Langley’s crew module sim’
Kids do have amazing imaginations and some have equally remarkable artistic skills. If you can’t make it to the Virginia Air & Space Center in downtown Hampton (Va.) to see the 2009 NASA Langley calendar art winners you can check them out here.
The grand prize winner was a picture (seen here) by ninth grader Tetyana Hollandsworth of Norfolk Collegiate School in Norfolk, Va.
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