• NASA Space Station Crewmen Available For In-Flight Interviews
  Two NASA astronauts soon will be aboard the International Space Station and available for regularly scheduled interview opportunities with accredited news media.
• NASA’s New Upper Stage Engine Passes Major Test
  NASA conducted a successful 500-second test firing of the J-2X rocket engine on Wednesday, Nov. 9, marking another important step in development of an upper stage for the heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS).

• NASA Study Of Clay Minerals Suggests Watery Martian Underground
  A new NASA study suggests if life ever existed on Mars, the longest lasting habitats were most likely below the Red Planet’s surface.
• Space Station Astronauts Connect Live With D.C. Students
  To highlight International Education Week (IEW), NASA and the U.S. Department of Education will host a live, long-distance call for students with International Space Station resident and Expedition 29 Commander Mike Fossum.

• NASA Statement on Success of Russian Progress Launch
  NASA statement on the Oct. 30 launch of the Progress 45 spacecraft to the International Space Station.
• NASA And Space Florida Small Satellite Research Center Partner In Space Launch Challenge
  WASHINGTON — NASA has signed an agreement with the Space Florida Small Satellite Research Center of Cape Canaveral, Florida, to manage the Nano-Satellite Launch Challenge, one of the agency’s new Centennial Challenges prize competitions

Expedition 1 Commander Bill Shepherd (center) is flanked by Soyuz Commander Yuri Gidzenko (right) and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev (left) in this crew photograph. The three, seated in front of an artist’s concept of the International Space Station, are wearing the Sokol space suits like those donned for trips in the Soyuz to the station. National flags representing all the international partners run along the bottom of the portrait. Expedition 1 was the first crew to live aboard the orbital platform and launched to the station on Oct. 31, 2000. Image Credit: NASA

• NASA Statement on Success of Russian Progress Launch
  NASA statement on the Oct. 30 launch of the Progress 45 spacecraft to the International Space Station.

• NASA, Japan Release Improved Topographic Map Of Earth
  NASA and Japan released a significantly improved version of the most complete digital topographic map of Earth on Monday, produced with detailed measurements from NASA’s Terra spacecraft.
• Three New Flight Directors Chosen To Lead NASA’s Mission Control
  NASA has selected three new flight directors to manage International Space Station operations.

Photographed by the Expedition 28 crew aboard the International Space Station, this image shows the moon, the Earth’s only natural satellite, at center with the limb of Earth near the bottom transitioning into the orange-colored troposphere, the lowest and most dense portion of the Earth’s atmosphere. The troposphere ends abruptly at the tropopause, which appears in the image as the sharp boundary between the orange- and blue-colored atmosphere. The silvery-blue noctilucent clouds extend far above the Earth’s troposphere. Image Credit: NASA

• NASA and the Cleantech Open Partner in Robotics Challenge
  NASA has selected The Cleantech Open of Redwood, Calif., to manage the agency’s Night Rover Challenge that will culminate in a competition in fall 2012.
• Plant Experiments Take Root On Space Station To Inspire Students
  A unique science project designed to sow the excitement of scientific discovery in students is sprouting this week aboard the International Space Station.

• NASA Releases Commercial Crew Draft RFP, Announces CCDEV2 Optional Milestones
  NASA unveiled Monday an outline of its acquisition strategy to procure transportation services from private industry to carry U.S. astronauts to low Earth orbit and the International Space Station.
• Tests Under Way On The Sunshield For NASA’S Webb Telescope
  NASA is testing an element of the sunshield that will protect the James Webb Space Telescope’s mirrors and instruments during its mission to observe the most distant objects in the universe.

• NASA Names CASIS To Manage Space Station National Lab Research
  NASA has finalized a cooperative agreement with the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) to manage the portion of the International Space Station that operates as a U.S. national laboratory.
• NASA Awards Space Radiobiology Research Grants
  NASA is funding nine proposals from eight states to investigate space radiation’s effect on human explorers. The proposals from researchers in California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York and Texas have a total value of approximately $12 million.