posted 12-01-2014 05:00 AM               

Star Trek, Marvel and Apollo mementos launching on NASA's Orion test flight

Captain Kirk, Iron Man, Sesame Street's Slimey the Worm, and a Tyrannosaurus Rex are set to lift off to space later this week on the first test flight of Orion, NASA's next-generation spacecraft.

This eclectic 'crew' flying aboard NASA's unmanned Orion Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) are among the souvenirs and mementos packed for the four-hour, two-orbit mission. The Orion capsule with its cargo of sensors, instruments, and memorabilia is scheduled to launch Thursday (Dec. 4) at 7:05 a.m. EST (1205 GMT) on board a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta 4 Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

The mementos, which include a Star Trek action figure, a Marvel challenge coin, a muppet, a dinosaur fossil, and an Apollo lunar spacesuit part, were collected for the flight by Lockheed Martin, NASA's prime contractor for Orion and the company responsible for the EFT-1 mission.

posted 12-03-2014 08:29 PM               

Sally Ride Belongings to Soar on Maiden Flight of NASA's Orion

Flight Test of Spacecraft Built to Transport Humans into Deep Space will Carry Dr. Sally Ride's STS-7 Crew Patch as Well as an Excerpt from The Mystery of Mars

On Wednesday, December 3, 2014, NASA announced that the maiden flight of the Orion spacecraft will carry both the STS-7 crew patch Dr. Sally Ride wore when she became the first American woman to fly in space, as well as an excerpt from The Mystery of Mars, a children’s book by Dr. Ride and Dr. Tam O'Shaughnessy. The flight test is scheduled for Thursday, December 4, 2014.

"When Sally became the first American woman to soar into space, she captured the nation's imagination as a symbol of the ability of women to break barriers," said Dr. O’Shaughnessy. "But Sally's historic flight represented just one aspect of a remarkable life — she was also a physicist, a science writer, and an inspirational advocate for science literacy."

"It is only fitting that NASA's Orion spacecraft — designed to carry humans to deep space and eventually to Mars — carry her STS-7 crew patch and an excerpt from The Mystery of Mars on its maiden flight," said Dr. O’Shaughnessy, who — in addition to co-authoring The Mystery of Mars (among other books) with Dr. Ride — is a cofounder and CEO of Sally Ride Science.

posted 12-14-2014 10:56 AM               

Onboard last Friday's successful launch of Orion were several small items from the Naval Academy donated by former NASA astronaut and Class of 1973 graduate of the academy, Ken Reightler, who is also a former executive of Lockheed Martin and currently the Distinguished Professor and Robert A. Heinlein Chair in the aerospace engineering department at the academy.

Reightler donated a USNA command coin, an Aerospace Engineering Department sticker, a Naval Academy Rocket Club sticker and a patch from the NASA Launch Challenge capstone project to represent the Academy's long history of being on the forefront of space exploration.

...after splashdown and recovery of the capsule by U.S. Navy ships, the items will be stored at the Johnson Space Center where they will be certified as having flown on Orion. They will then be returned to the Naval Academy to inspire another generation of space explorers.

posted 12-19-2014 07:02 AM               

...the sheet bears Scott's drawing of Matt Damon's stranded astronaut declaring that he'll "science the **** out of this planet," – a line from the book upon which the film is based.

"NASA really rolled out the red carpet for us," explains executive producer Aditya Sood. "In the capsule they had some personal objects that were important to people involved in the Orion project and one of the things was Ridley's drawing on the cover page of The Martian script. This is a movie about people who are really passionate about science and space-travel, so that was a really great moment for us."

posted 04-06-2015 04:58 PM               

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and Dr. W. Michael Hawes, vice president, Orion, Lockheed Martin accept the gift of a portion of the writings of Dr. Maya Angelou that were flown aboard the Orion spacecraft during EFT-1 in December of 2014 from her great grandchildren, Caylin Johnson and Brandon Johnson during a ceremony on Monday, April 6, 2015 at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC.

Photo Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani

posted 09-02-2015 05:28 PM               

NASA took this to space and they're bringing it to Busch today.

posted 08-30-2016 10:39 AM               

This #AZCardinals pennant reached an altitude of 3,600 miles in space. It was presented to Michael Bidwill at NASA's Johnson Space Center this past week.