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: The astronauts are now not the only group at NASA with a jacket of their own. The flight directors office has designed a coat to help the public recognize them and more importantly, become more familiar with their role. Made by Luna Replicas for past and current flight directors only, the nylon jacket gets its blue and gold colors from the office logo and has a place for a name tag with the wearer's team name and, if desired, flight director number.
: From a "sky painting" about a spent satellite to an astronaut's tales about walking on the moon, a dance performance inspired by a NASA "hidden figure" to a talk about space food over drinks, the "EARTH to SPACE: Arts Breaking the Sky" festival is set to blast off at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The nation's cultural hub will spend three weeks starting Friday (Mar. 28) looking at how space exploration affects our lives.
: The Science Museum in London is closing its almost 40-year-old Exploring Space gallery to establish a new Space gallery opening this fall. Items like the Sokol suit worn by the first Briton to launch into space and the Soyuz capsule used to land UK's first professional astronaut are going off display by June 2, along with Apollo 10, NASA's only command module to fly to the moon and be on display outside of the United States.
: The audience at the world premiere of "Apollo 1" gave Martha and Sheryl Chaffee a standing ovation as they came on stage with director Mark Craig at the Boulder International Film Festival in Colorado on Saturday (March 15). The documentary tells the story of Roger Chaffee and his two crewmates, Virgil "Gus" Grissom and Edward White II, who died after a fire erupted in their spacecraft during a test on the launch pad.
: You can use your smartphone to capture a total lunar eclipse and a limited edition drink. Capri Sun is rolling out its new flavor, "Moon Punch," in a collectible, glow-in-the-dark pouch by inviting its fans to snap a photo of the eclipse that will be visible from most of North America on Wednesday night (March 13). There are eight pouch designs, each depicting a moon phase. Moon Punch will also be sold by Amazon, Walmart, Target and Kroger.
: Nichole Ayers and her three SpaceX Crew-10 crewmates are very proud of their mission patch, a design that began with Ayers finding inspiration from the ideas generated by an AI. As it turns out, one of the AI chatbots is proud of it, too. "It's cool that astronauts, who are already pushing boundaries by venturing into space, are also embracing tools like AI to symbolize their missions." The patch may point to a future for AI in space.
: How much would an Apollo moon rock be worth if it was made out of cheese? That question, among others, is (indirectly) addressed in "When the Moon Hits Your Eye," the new novel by John Scalzi. Avoiding spoilers, the story unfolds over a complete lunar cycle as a cast of characters ranging from astronauts to churchgoers react to the change. In our interview, Scalzi revealed where to find him as the moon turned into cheese.
: Mattel has a lot to be proud of given its history of showing girls that they could be anything — even an astronaut — when the opportunities to do so were just emerging, if not years away. So it is not surprising to see the toy company reissue its original 1965 Miss Astronaut as a 60th anniversary collectible. But while boasting about its own history, the description on the doll's box seems to forget when humans first flew in space.
: After falsely being described as being "stuck" in space, Boeing's Starliner crewmates Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore have returned to Earth, splashing down with Crew-9 members Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov on SpaceX's Crew Dragon "Freedom." The four wrapped 170 days together aboard the International Space Station, with Williams and Wilmore completing an extended 286-day (in total) stay, completing 4,576 trips around Earth.
: Having launched from Earth on a mission to spend six months aboard the International Space Station, Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers of NASA, Takuya Onishi of JAXA and Kirill Peskov of Roscosmos had "Droog," a crocheted origami crane, with them to signal the start of their journey. The SpaceX Crew-10 zero-g indicator was chosen to represent the four astronauts' common traits and symbolize their shared hope for continued cooperation.
: Apollo 16 astronaut Charlie Duke, Artemis II crewmates Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Tom Hanks received standing ovations from an audience of about 500 people on Monday (March 10), as they took to the stage following a premiere screening of "The Moonwalkers: A Journey with Tom Hanks" at Space Center Houston. The five discussed the impact of the immersive film and exploring the moon.
NASA's Artemis II crew wants your help designing the zero-g indicator that will fly with them around the moon. In the Moon Mascot: NASA Artemis II ZGI Design Challenge, students and adults can submit their original ideas for the small toy to be made by NASA's Thermal Blanket Lab technicians. The dolls are constrained by size, weight and material, and need to be meaningful to the mission, as well as "represent humanity."
Upcoming space events:
Festival [03/28 - 04/13] Earth to Space Kennedy Center for Performing Arts