{"id":20774,"date":"2017-02-01T15:02:15","date_gmt":"2017-02-01T20:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sciencescosmaincms.cm.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=20774"},"modified":"2017-02-01T15:02:15","modified_gmt":"2017-02-01T20:02:15","slug":"nasa-mission-one-step-closer-launching-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/nasa-mission-one-step-closer-launching-space\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA Mission is One Step Closer to Launching into Space"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Story by Zenaida Gonzalez Kotala, UCF Today<\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_20775\" style=\"width: 381px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-20775\" class=\"wp-image-20775 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2017\/02\/GOLD-arrival-at-Airbus-371x396.png\" width=\"371\" height=\"396\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-20775\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo courtesy of Airbus and UCF Today.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>A NASA instrument that will study the upper atmosphere and the impact of space weather on Earth is a step closer on its journey into space.<\/p>\n<p>The Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) mission, led by University of Central Florida scientist Richard Eastes, is scheduled to launch in late 2017 from Florida.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this month the instrument, built by the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colo., was shipped to Airbus Defence and Space in Toulouse, France, for integration on the SES-14 communications satellite, on which it will be launched into space.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am excited to see GOLD take the next critical step in its journey toward providing scientists around the world with an unprecedented view of the Earth\u2019s upper atmosphere, which will advance research for understanding space weather,\u201d said Eastes, who is based at the Florida Space Institute at UCF with a secondary joint appointment in the Department of Physics.<\/p>\n<p>Space weather can adversely affect technology and human activity in space, from disrupting communications systems to exposing astronauts to serious health risks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSpace weather affects the satellites that we depend on for things like GPS and satellite TV; it affects the satellites themselves, as well as the signals they transmit,\u201d Eastes said. \u201cWhat we learn from GOLD\u2019s images will help us understand how space weather changes during geomagnetic storms and how to avoid the problems that they cause.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Joyce King is the mission manager for GOLD at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGOLD is one of several missions that is managed by the Explorers Program for NASA\u2019s Heliophysics Division,\u201d King said. \u201cAs NASA explores farther and farther from home, sending astronauts and spacecraft to distant places, we need better situational awareness about the space we\u2019re traveling through. NASA studies the space environment around the sun, around planets, far into the solar system \u2014 and around Earth. GOLD focuses on the part near Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>LASP, which has a seventy-year long history of providing instruments for NASA missions, built the GOLD instrument in collaboration with UCF. While weather satellites view clouds from geostationary orbit (an altitude of approximately 22,370 miles), GOLD will view a higher region of Earth\u2019s upper atmosphere known as the thermosphere. This is a region (extending from approximately 55 to 500 miles altitude) where most satellites fly and through which the signals from all satellites pass.<\/p>\n<p>Bill McClintock is a planetary scientist at LASP and GOLD deputy principal investigator.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday, NASA studies the thermosphere using spacecraft that give scientists intermittent views of the thermosphere. From those spacecraft it takes a day or more to build a global-scale image,\u201d said McClintock. \u201cThe communication satellite carrying GOLD will be in geostationary orbit, meaning it will be fixed at one location above the Earth\u2019s surface. This orbit enables GOLD to view nearly an entire hemisphere all the time. If a geomagnetic storm dumps energy into the thermosphere, we can watch the global-scale response on timescales of hours, rather than days. It\u2019s a whole new way of looking at the dynamic behavior of the thermosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>GOLD is a pathfinder for NASA\u2019s use of commercial spacecraft for science missions. UCF and LASP partnered with SES Government Solutions (SES GS), based in Reston, Va., to provide GOLD with its ride into geostationary orbit on the SES-14 satellite that is owned and operated by SES, the parent company of SES GS.<\/p>\n<p>Todd Gossett is the SES GS project manager for hosting GOLD on the SES-14 satellite.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSES is honored to be a contributing member of the GOLD team.\u00a0NASA\u2019s concept to have missions such as GOLD hosted on commercially owned and operated satellites is a definite win, for not only the American taxpayer, but also for the science community,\u201d Gossett said.<\/p>\n<p>Rory Barrett is an engineer at LASP and the project manager for GOLD.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have assembled a world-class team to execute the GOLD mission. LASP has built and delivered one of its best performing science instruments, ever,\u201d said Barrett. \u201cOur strong partnership with SES GS and Airbus will enable a low-cost GOLD mission.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Other members of the GOLD team include scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the University of California at Berkeley, Computational Physics Inc., and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/today.ucf.edu\/nasa-mission-one-step-closer-launching-space\/\" target=\"_blank\">View original story on UCF Today.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Story by Zenaida Gonzalez Kotala, UCF Today A NASA instrument that will study the upper atmosphere and the impact of space weather on Earth is a step closer on its journey into space. The Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) mission, led by University of Central Florida scientist Richard Eastes, is scheduled to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":20775,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[38,39,13,14,15,28,29],"tags":[4137,922,4138,4139,2376,2875,3539,3608,3610],"class_list":["post-20774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-faculty-news","category-news","category-physics-departments","category-planetary-sciences","category-top-news","category-ucf-news","tag-airbus","tag-department-of-physics","tag-global-scale-observations-of-the-limb-and-disk-mission","tag-gold-mission","tag-nasa","tag-richard-eastes","tag-ucf-department-of-physics","tag-ucf-physics","tag-ucf-physics-department"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>NASA Mission is One Step Closer to Launching into Space - College of Sciences News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/nasa-mission-one-step-closer-launching-space\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NASA Mission is One Step Closer to Launching into Space - College of Sciences News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Story by Zenaida Gonzalez Kotala, UCF Today A NASA instrument that will study the upper atmosphere and the impact of space weather on Earth is a step closer on its journey into space. The Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) mission, led by University of Central Florida scientist Richard Eastes, is scheduled to [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/nasa-mission-one-step-closer-launching-space\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"College of Sciences News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-02-01T20:02:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Anna Johnson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2017\/02\/GOLD-arrival-at-Airbus-371x396-e1485965960525.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Anna Johnson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/nasa-mission-one-step-closer-launching-space\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/nasa-mission-one-step-closer-launching-space\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Anna Johnson\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b4aad22f2ce3a4e63ddf5cebf03017f\"},\"headline\":\"NASA Mission is One Step Closer to Launching into Space\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-02-01T20:02:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/nasa-mission-one-step-closer-launching-space\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":755,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/nasa-mission-one-step-closer-launching-space\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/29\\\/2017\\\/02\\\/GOLD-arrival-at-Airbus-371x396-e1485965960525.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Airbus\",\"Department of Physics\",\"Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk mission\",\"GOLD mission\",\"nasa\",\"Richard Eastes\",\"UCF Department of Physics\",\"UCF Physics\",\"UCF Physics Department\"],\"articleSection\":[\"COS News\",\"Faculty News\",\"News\",\"Physics\",\"Planetary Sciences\",\"Top News\",\"UCF News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/nasa-mission-one-step-closer-launching-space\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/nasa-mission-one-step-closer-launching-space\\\/\",\"name\":\"NASA Mission is One Step Closer to Launching into Space - College of Sciences News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/nasa-mission-one-step-closer-launching-space\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/nasa-mission-one-step-closer-launching-space\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/29\\\/2017\\\/02\\\/GOLD-arrival-at-Airbus-371x396-e1485965960525.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-02-01T20:02:15+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b4aad22f2ce3a4e63ddf5cebf03017f\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/nasa-mission-one-step-closer-launching-space\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/nasa-mission-one-step-closer-launching-space\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/29\\\/2017\\\/02\\\/GOLD-arrival-at-Airbus-371x396-e1485965960525.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/29\\\/2017\\\/02\\\/GOLD-arrival-at-Airbus-371x396-e1485965960525.png\",\"width\":300,\"height\":320,\"caption\":\"Two technicians in protective gear inspecting equipment in airbus defence & space facility.\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"College of Sciences News\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b4aad22f2ce3a4e63ddf5cebf03017f\",\"name\":\"Anna Johnson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1bca224f85cda07f66af4f541e660978b0f835af35e4e81e931d47d5c392bafe?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1bca224f85cda07f66af4f541e660978b0f835af35e4e81e931d47d5c392bafe?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1bca224f85cda07f66af4f541e660978b0f835af35e4e81e931d47d5c392bafe?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Anna Johnson\"},\"url\":\"\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"NASA Mission is One Step Closer to Launching into Space - College of Sciences News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/nasa-mission-one-step-closer-launching-space\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"NASA Mission is One Step Closer to Launching into Space - College of Sciences News","og_description":"Story by Zenaida Gonzalez Kotala, UCF Today A NASA instrument that will study the upper atmosphere and the impact of space weather on Earth is a step closer on its journey into space. The Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) mission, led by University of Central Florida scientist Richard Eastes, is scheduled to [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/nasa-mission-one-step-closer-launching-space\/","og_site_name":"College of Sciences News","article_published_time":"2017-02-01T20:02:15+00:00","author":"Anna Johnson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_image":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2017\/02\/GOLD-arrival-at-Airbus-371x396-e1485965960525.png","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Anna Johnson","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/nasa-mission-one-step-closer-launching-space\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/nasa-mission-one-step-closer-launching-space\/"},"author":{"name":"Anna Johnson","@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/7b4aad22f2ce3a4e63ddf5cebf03017f"},"headline":"NASA Mission is One Step Closer to Launching into Space","datePublished":"2017-02-01T20:02:15+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/nasa-mission-one-step-closer-launching-space\/"},"wordCount":755,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/nasa-mission-one-step-closer-launching-space\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2017\/02\/GOLD-arrival-at-Airbus-371x396-e1485965960525.png","keywords":["Airbus","Department of Physics","Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk mission","GOLD mission","nasa","Richard Eastes","UCF Department of Physics","UCF Physics","UCF Physics Department"],"articleSection":["COS News","Faculty News","News","Physics","Planetary Sciences","Top News","UCF News"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/nasa-mission-one-step-closer-launching-space\/","url":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/nasa-mission-one-step-closer-launching-space\/","name":"NASA Mission is One Step Closer to Launching into Space - College of Sciences News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/nasa-mission-one-step-closer-launching-space\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/nasa-mission-one-step-closer-launching-space\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2017\/02\/GOLD-arrival-at-Airbus-371x396-e1485965960525.png","datePublished":"2017-02-01T20:02:15+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/7b4aad22f2ce3a4e63ddf5cebf03017f"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/nasa-mission-one-step-closer-launching-space\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/nasa-mission-one-step-closer-launching-space\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2017\/02\/GOLD-arrival-at-Airbus-371x396-e1485965960525.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2017\/02\/GOLD-arrival-at-Airbus-371x396-e1485965960525.png","width":300,"height":320,"caption":"Two technicians in protective gear inspecting equipment in airbus defence & space facility."},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/","name":"College of Sciences News","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/7b4aad22f2ce3a4e63ddf5cebf03017f","name":"Anna Johnson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1bca224f85cda07f66af4f541e660978b0f835af35e4e81e931d47d5c392bafe?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1bca224f85cda07f66af4f541e660978b0f835af35e4e81e931d47d5c392bafe?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1bca224f85cda07f66af4f541e660978b0f835af35e4e81e931d47d5c392bafe?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Anna Johnson"},"url":""}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}