For instance, NASA has extremely rigorous software testing procedures for many operating systems and communication functions.

Starting with Explorer 6, it has been a NASA program, and they have worked with a variety of other institutions and business, including many international collaborations.

Over the years, NASA has launched a series of Explorer spacecraft carrying a wide variety of scientific investigations.

* In April 2011, HP Enterprise Services announced that it has been chosen for a single-award firm-fixed-price, indefinite delivery / indefinite quantity contract worth up to $ 2. 5 billion by NASA.

Singer has worked as a consultant for several government agencies, including the House Select Committee on Space, NASA, the Government Accountability Office, the National Science Foundation, the United States Atomic Energy Commission, National Research Council, the Department of Defense Strategic Defense Initiative, Department of Energy Nuclear Waste Panel, and the Department of the Treasury.

In recent decades, NASA has done extensive hydroponic research for their Controlled Ecological Life Support System or CELSS.

NASA has also looked to utilize hydroponics in the space program.

It has several benefits for NASA .” These scientists are researching how different amounts of light, temperature and carbon dioxide, along with plant species can be grown and cultivated on planets like Mars.

NASA research has shown that aeroponically grown plants have an 80 % increase in dry weight biomass ( essential minerals ) compared to hydroponically grown plants.

A NASA multi-center Technology Applications Assessment Team led from the Johnson Spaceflight Center, has as of January 2011 described " Nautilus-X ", a concept study for a multi-mission space exploration vehicle useful for missions beyond low earth orbit ( LEO ), of up to 24 months duration for a crew of up to six.

The John F. Kennedy Space Center ( KSC ) is the United States launch site that has been used for every NASA human space flight since 1968.

NASA also has a resident office at the facility staffed by federal managers who oversee JPL's activities and work for NASA.

A lifelong inventor, Lovelock has created and developed many scientific instruments, some of which were designed for NASA in its program of planetary exploration.

Lowering resolution has practical uses, as the NASA New Horizons craft will transmit thumbnails of its encounter with Pluto-Charon before it sends the higher resolution images.

Odyssey has served as the primary means of communications for NASA ’ s Mars surface explorers in the past decade and will continue that role for the Curiosity rover.

NASA has approved a fourth two-year extended mission, through August 2012, to allow for the observation of year-to-year differences in phenomena like polar ice, clouds, and dust storms, as well as a much more sensitive mapping of Martian minerals.

Since it was first proposed as a part of Mars Direct, the Mars Habitat Unit has been adopted by NASA as a part of their Mars Design Reference Mission, which utilizes two Mars Habitat Units-one of which flies to Mars unmanned, providing a dedicated laboratory facility on Mars, together with the capacity to carry a larger rover vehicle.

Since Mars Direct was initially conceived, it has undergone regular review and development by Zubrin himself, the Mars Society, NASA, Stanford University and others.

The Mars Semi-Direct architecture has been used as the basis of a number of studies, including the NASA Design Reference Missions.

In the United States, NASA has a congressional mandate to catalogue all NEOs that are at least 1 kilometer wide, as the impact of such an object would be catastrophic.

The authors used a global circulation model, ModelE from the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, which they noted " has been tested extensively in global warming experiments and to examine the effects of volcanic eruptions on climate.

Recent research has been cited by NASA hypothesizing that a large number of Oort cloud objects are the product of an exchange of materials between the Sun and its sibling stars as they formed and drifted apart, and it is suggested that many-possibly the majority-of Oort cloud objects were not formed in close proximity to the Sun.

Since 1996, however, the collection has also included oral histories of senior NASA administrators and officials, astronauts, and project managers, part of a broader project to document the lives of key agency individuals.

Other critiques of the current peer review process from concerned scholars has stemmed from recent controversial studies published by the Harvard – Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and NASA.

At the time of Kennedy's proposal, only one American had flown in space — less than a month earlier — and NASA had not yet sent an astronaut into orbit.

One of nineteen astronauts selected by NASA in April 1966, Charles Duke had never flown in space before Apollo 16.

Livingstone2 was flown as an experiment onboard Earth Observing 1, and an F-18 at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center.

The Austro-American NASA engineer Josef F. Blumrich tried to reconstruct a spaceship that Ezekiel may have flown in.

Crew service to ISS will be flown exclusively by the Russian's Soyuz while NASA works on the Commercial Crew Development program.

( NASA alternatively defines an astronaut as someone who has flown more than or 80 km above sea level.

Based on the success of earlier maintenance missions, NASA decided to have a fifth service mission to Hubble ; this was STS-125 flown on May 11, 2009.

As a consequence, both Engle and Truly were rookies during STS-2 ( Engle had flown the X-15 above and so had earned USAF astronaut wings, but was still considered a NASA rookie ), constituting the first all-rookie crew since Skylab 4.

Following STS-2, NASA policy held that the commander had to be an astronaut who had already flown in space, making this the last all-rookie crew of a NASA mission.

The last passenger flight for the Tu-144 was in June 1978 and it was last flown in 1999 by NASA.

John Leonard " Jack " Swigert, Jr., ( August 30, 1931 – December 27, 1982 ) was a NASA astronaut, one of the 24 persons who have flown to the Moon.

A small animal cage was flown containing six rats ; no animal experiment was carried out on the flight, but a student involvement project was planned for a later mission which would use the cage, and NASA wanted to ensure it was flight-tested.

This record duration 14-day mission was recognized by NASA management as the most successful and efficient Spacelab flight flown by NASA.

Since joining Dryden as a research pilot, Fullerton has piloted nearly all the research and support aircraft flown at the facility and currently flies the T-38, F-18, F-15, B-52, the NASA / Convair 990, 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, and the DC-8.

He was the principal investigator in the development of the Large Motion Isolation Mount ( LMIM ) which has flown numerous times on the NASA Boeing KC-135 and DC-9 aircraft, and for the Microgravity vibration Isolation Mount ( MIM ) which operated on the Russian Mir space station from April 1996 until January 1998, and for the MIM-2 which flew on STS-85 in August 1997.

NASA has flown zero flights on various aircraft for many years.

During his administration at NASA, the first seven Apollo manned missions were flown.

During his administration at NASA, the first seven Apollo manned missions were flown, in which 20 astronauts orbited Earth, 14 traveled to the Moon, and twelve walked upon its surface.

Later in the 1970s, NASA and Pratt and Whitney experimented with the first experimental FADEC, first flown on an F-111 fitted with a highly modified Pratt & Whitney TF30 left engine.

The STS-114 mission was initially to be flown aboard the orbiter Atlantis, but NASA replaced it with Discovery after improperly installed gear was found in Atlantis braking system.

Dr. Seddon was the Payload Commander on this life science research mission which received NASA management recognition as the most successful and efficient Spacelab flown to date.

This record duration fourteen-day life science research mission has been recognized by NASA management as the most successful and efficient Spacelab flight that NASA has flown.