"The Current Missions Of NASA"

Each of these four panels shows a close-up view of a different type of geological deposit formed with the involvement of water, based on observations by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. All four date from the earliest period of Martian history, called the Noachian Period.The upper-left panel shows carbonates overlying clays in the Nili Fossae region of Mars. The view combines color-coded information from infrared spectral observations by the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) with an underlying black-and-white image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera. Beneath a rough-textured capping rock unit (purple) lie banded olivine-bearing layers (yellow), which in some places have been partially or wholly altered to carbonate (green).The upper-right panel shows phyllosilicates and chlorides in the Terra Sirenum region, observed by CRISM and HiRISE. Medium-toned, finely fractured rocks containing chloride salts either underlie higher-standing, light-toned phyllosilicates or fill in low spots between them. Both sit on dark, eroded volcanic material.The lower-left panel shows the upper portion of canyon wall in Coprates Chasma, observed by HiRISE and CRISM. The chasm rim cuts across the middle of the image. The wall slopes down to the top of the image and continues outside the region shown, exposing multiple phyllosilicate-bearing layers in a section of rock 7 kilometers (4 miles) thick. Two of the layers shown here are finely fractured aluminum clays that dominate the lower half of the image, underlain by thin beds of iron-magnesium clays at the top of the image. The dark material is a remnant of an overlying layer of basaltic sand that has been partly eroded away by the wind.The lower-right panel shows phyllosilicates with vertically layered compositions in Mawrth Vallis, observed by HiRISE (presented in enhanced color) and CRISM. The brown-colored knob in the middle of the scene is a remnant of cap rock that overlies aluminum clays (blue-gray), which in turn overlie iron-magnesium clays (buff).

The Space Shuttle Program’s setting the stage for the executive-level at the Kennedy Space Center. Following the final review, a firm launch date for the STS-125 mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope will be set. Launch is currently targeted for May 12 at 1:31 p.m. EDT.At NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, the STS-125 astronauts continue to train for the upcoming mission. At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the rotating service structure at Launch Pad 39A surrounds space shuttle Atlantis, where payload operations continue throughout the week. With Atlantis' payload bay doors now open, technicians are loading the hardware necessary for the servicing mission.

NASA's STS-119 Mission: Boosting the Station Power :-space shuttle Discovery lifted off into a cloudless twilight sky over NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Secured in Discovery's payload bay was the S6 truss, a final set of U.S. solar arrays and a distillation assembly to get the station’s water recycling system up to full operation. Veteran astronaut Lee Archambault commanded the crew of seven, which included Pilot Tony Antonelli, Mission Specialists Joseph Acaba, Steve Swanson, Richard Arnold, John Phillips and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata. Although technical issues delayed liftoff for more than a month, the March 15 launch countdown proceeded smoothly. After reaching orbit, the crew members removed their orange flight suits and began the first of many tasks. The shuttle's orbiter boom sensor system was used to examine the spacecraft's thermal protection system. Data from the heat shield inspection was transmitted to Earth where technicians combed the images for any debris damage that could have occurred during launch.
As the crew prepared the orbiter docking system for rendezvous with the station, spacesuits were inspected for the mission's three spacewalks. Archambault deftly guided the spacecraft through a "backflip" maneuver, allowing the station’s Expedition 18 Commander Michael Fincke and Flight Engineer Sandra Magnus to take photos of Discovery's heat shield. Once docked with the station, the hatches opened between the two spacecraft. After a hearty greeting from the station crew, Wakata officially replaced Magnus as flight engineer aboard the orbital scientific complex. Then, preparations for the first spacewalk went into high gear. Phillips and Magnus used the station's robotic Canadarm2 to grapple the 31,000-pound, 45-foot-long S6 truss segment carefully out of the shuttle's payload bay and over to the shuttle's robotic arm operated by Antonelli and Acaba. Swanson and Arnold were first to set foot out in space to install the final segment of the station's backbone and solar arrays. Their task was completed successfully in about 6 1/2 hours. With the unfurling of two, one acre-sized "wings," the orbiting outpost now is able to draw on 120 kilowatts of usable electricity and its capacity to perform science experiments has doubled.

President Barack Obama is joined by members of Congress, including former astronaut Sen. Bill Nelson, and school children as he talks with astronauts on the International Space Station from the Roosevelt Room at the White House.