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| USRA Executives Monitor Webb Launch and Deployments with Special Interest | By Bernie Seery, USRA Senior Vice President, Technology Research and Development
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST or Webb Telescope) took flight early on Christmas (25 December 2021) at 7:20 a.m. Eastern time. This launch has special meaning for two of the USRA Executive Team. Bernie Seery was one of the original two NASA employees, along with project scientist John Mather, tasked by Dr. Ed Weiler, then of NASA Headquarters (and recent USRA Board member), to assemble a multi-NASA center, industry and an international team of scientists and engineers to design a “First Light” machine as a worthy successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, the most productive scientific observatory to date – a very tough act to follow! Bernie was the first of three project managers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland; he led the eight-year formulation phase, from inception to Preliminary Design Review. Then Phil Sabelhaus, brother of USRA’s own CFO Jeanie Greenwell, shepherded the team for the next eight years of detailed design and early test, and followed subsequently by Bill Ochs, the current project manager, who managed the later phases of manufacture, spacecraft test, and launch.
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| The People of Your Purchase Requisition (and So Much More) | For this USRA Career Story, we talk to team members within the Contracts and Grants organization. We chat with two recent hires, someone with a recent promotion and someone with a recent shift in responsibilities, all illustrating the different stages of a USRA career. Read more to learn who spends fair-weather weekends in The Great Smokey Mountains, who spends time with a “SOFIA” at work and a “Sofia” at home, who spends weekends preparing favorite foods for grandchildren, and more.
Learn More about Amy Ngai, Angie Espiritu, Lauren Roberts and Florida Hendricks | | |
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| | USRA Holiday Event Photos | USRA holiday events were hosted in December both virtually and in-person. For some groups there were more photos taken than we could include here so please enjoy these highlights.
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| | Foreign Travel Policy Update | As part of the requirements for USRA’s facility security clearance, Insider Threat program and Export Control program, USRA is enhancing our Foreign Travel Policy. Click below to read about the enhancements to the policy.
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| | Measuring Carbon Emission from an Inclined Galaxy | Ionized carbon is an important tracer of astronomical processes, and understanding how the angle of a galaxy affects the observation of ionized carbon can be key for improving analyses of such processes. Because the effects of observing perspective are complex, spiral galaxies tend to only be studied if their orientation is just right, that is, if telescopes can see them face-on rather than at an angle. Now, a study of the galaxy NGC 7331 with SOFIA has begun to characterize these effects.
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| | USRA's Miguel Román Featured in The Business Monthly | Miguel Román, Director, Earth from Space Institute, was featured in an article published by The Business Monthly about USRA's efforts under the UNFCC-COP to provide valuable data and expertise at a time when countries have to set ambitious goals to end their contribution to climate change.
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| | USRA Scientists and Engineers Contribute to NASA’s Xray Polarimetry Explorer | NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) launched successfully on 9 December 2021 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Several USRA scientists and engineers at the Science and Technology Institute (STI) in Huntsville, Alabama, provided key mission support during IXPE development.
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