NASA Weekly Update from the Administrator – Oct. 26, 2020
Progress is our middle name! Our Human Landing System program reached an important milestone last week, and OSIRIS-REx made a historic accomplishment. This week will be no less momentous around the agency as we prepare to announce some very important international and commercial partnerships!
- Top News: Just this morning, Oct. 26, we announced that our Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) telescope has detected water on the sunlit surface of the Moon. This indicates that water molecules are present in more places in the lunar regolith than we previously thought. As the Artemis program prepares to send the first woman and the next man to the lunar surface in 2024, we are eager to learn all we can about the presence of water on the Moon.
- Next Up: Tomorrow, Oct. 27, I will address the Space Symposium 365, and on Wednesday, Oct. 28, I am scheduled to speak to the Wernher von Braun Memorial Symposium.
We’re also celebrating the 20th anniversary of continuous human presence on the International Space Station since the first crew launched Oct. 31, 2000, arriving on Nov. 2, 2000. Among the new content this week will be a panel discussion on NASA TV at 3 p.m. EDT Thursday, Oct. 29, with the Expedition 1 crew, a news conference from station with astronaut Kate Rubins and her two Russian crewmates Friday, Oct. 30, at 11:10 a.m. EDT, and new episodes of EZ Science and Houston, We Have a Podcast. Check it all out at http://www.nasa.gov/station20
- Shout Out: Congratulations to the OSIRIS-REx team on a successful collection sampling of the asteroid Bennu. It was very exciting to watch all your hard work pay off. I want to especially thank Science Mission Directorate associate administrator Thomas Zurbuchen and OSIRIS-REx principal investigator Dante Lauretta for your leadership and vision.
Some of my favorite photos are of our astronauts smiling back home on planet Earth after a successful mission on the International Space Station. Their faces say it all. We truly are accomplishing amazing things, expanding human knowledge in science and technology, and, most importantly, we are doing it safely.
Ad astra,
Jim Bridenstine
