The Johnson Space Center is the home of the Lunar Receiving Laboratory, where samples collected during the Apollo mission are stored.
Monday, March 7, 2011
The Johnson Space Center was established in 1963 as the Manned Spacecraft Center.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Two of the five THEMIS satellites have been renamed ARTEMIS (Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence and Electrodynamics of the Moon’s Interaction with the Sun) and are in the process of moving to a new orbit around the moon. They are due to reach their final lunar orbit in July 2011.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Launched in 2007, THEMIS was NASA's first five-satellite mission launched aboard a single rocket.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
THEMIS was specifically designed to study the formation of substorms. It launched with five spacecraft, which can be spread out over some 44,000 miles – a perfect tool for examining different areas of Earth's magnetic environment at the same time.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Substorms originate opposite the sun on Earth's "night side," at a point about a third of the distance to the moon. At this point in space, energy and particles from the solar wind store up over time.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
The THEMIS spacecraft, combined with computer models, has helped track the origin of the energetic particles in Earth's magnetic atmosphere that appear during a kind of space weather called a substorm.
