NASA's Juno spacecraft has arrived in Florida to begin final preparations for a launch this summer. The spacecraft was shipped from Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, to the Astrotech payload processing facility in Titusville, Fla., today. The solar-powered Juno spacecraft will orbit Jupiter's poles 33 times to find out more about the gas giant's origins, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere. "The Juno spacecraft and the team have come a long way since this project was first conceived in 2003," said Scott Bolton, Juno's principal investigator, based at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. "We're only a few months away from a mission of discovery that could very well rewrite the books on not only how Jupiter was born, but how our solar system came into being."
The contributions of NASA and Kennedy Space Center were stitched into the fabric of one of the nation's most recognizable symbols Friday when flags from Florida's Spaceport were sewn into an American Flag recovered near ground zero following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
"The National 9/11 Flag" is on a cross-country journey to be restored to its original 13-stripe design using pieces of fabric from American flags destined for retirement in all 50 states. The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex was the official stop for the state of Florida on Feb. 18."For our site to be chosen, you know, on one hand I believe is all together fitting and proper because what we do at Kennedy Space Center is dare mighty things on behalf of the American people and all of humankind," said Joe Dowdy, special operations manager at Kennedy. "Some of that involves sacrifice and certainly this flag is an incredible demonstration of what free people sometimes have to be called upon to do, to sacrifice even their own lives."
