WireUnwired Topic Space

How Astronauts Keep Halloween Alive Four Hundred Kilometers Above Earth

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Although no ghouls, goblins, or trick-or-treaters come knocking at the International Space Station’s front hatch, crew members aboard the orbiting laboratory still like to get in the Halloween spirit. Whether individually or as an entire crew, they dress up in sometimes spooky, sometimes scary, but always creative costumes, often designed from materials available aboard the […]

NASA Taps Veteran Test Pilot to Lead X-Plane Revival

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NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has named Troy Asher director of the agency’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. Asher, a veteran test pilot and aerospace engineer with decades of experience in flight research and operations, has served as the center’s acting director since March. “Troy has spent his career pushing the boundaries of flight, […]

NIH and NASA Join Forces to Inject Quantum Tech Into Drug Safety

Editorial illustration for NIH and NASA Join Forces to Inject Quantum Tech Into Drug Safety

The Quantum-Enabled Predictive Preclinical NAMs for Toxicity and Safety (QuSAFE) Challenge, a collaboration between the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and NASA, advances quantum-enabled sensing for in vitro NAMs, such as organoids and microphysiological systems (MPS), to improve drug safety while reducing animal use. In vitro NAMs, such as organoids and microphysiological systems (MPS), can […]

How NASA’s Catalog Became the Unofficial Bible of Orbit Repair

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When companies began approaching NASA’s Langley Research Center, asking to be included in the In-Space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing (ISAM) State of Play for access to competitive intelligence, the team knew they had crossed an inflection point. “We’ve had some unnamed companies ask if we have any proprietary information,” says Dale Arney, senior team lead […]

From Local Contractor to Civil Servant, One Technician Fuels NASA’s Next Moonwalks

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Jared Spiers had an interest in contributing to NASA’s mission long before becoming a civil servant for the agency. Growing up close to NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, and hearing about his father’s work there, he gained a firsthand connection to the nation’s space program. Before graduating high school, he knew […]