To All The Tumblr Users Who Tend To Use Tags Very Liberally:

Vitaly Bulgarov 

For its first-of-a-kind tools #ITER demands creativity and innovation from industry, with impact on spin-off technologies and markets going well beyond plasma physics. #ITER's head of comms, @LabanCoblentz in @OpenAccessGov. https://t.co/MubR6Sowlt #WeAreITER https://t.co/JoXyVRtvQM

5 Out-of-this-world Facts About Our Iconic Vehicle Assembly Building!

The Vehicle Assembly Building, or VAB, at our Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is the only facility where assembly of a rocket occurred that carried humans beyond low-Earth orbit and on to the Moon. For 30 years, its facilities and assets were used during the Space Shuttle Program and are now available to commercial partners as part of our agency’s plan in support of a multi-user spaceport. To celebrate the VAB’s continued contribution to humanity’s space exploration endeavors, we’ve put together five out-of-this-world facts for you!

1. It’s one of the largest buildings in the world by area, the VAB covers eight acres, is 525 feet tall and 518 feet wide.

Aerial view of the Vehicle Assembly Building with a mobile launch tower atop a crawler transporter approaching the building. 

2. The VAB was constructed for the assembly of the Apollo/Saturn V Moon rocket, the largest rocket made by humans at the time.

An Apollo/Saturn V facilities Test Vehicle and Launch Umbilical Tower (LUT) atop a crawler-transporter move from the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) on the way to Pad A on May 25, 1966. 

3. The building is home to the largest American flag, a 209-foot-tall, 110-foot-wide star spangled banner painted on the side of the VAB.

Workers painting the Flag on the Vehicle Assembly Building on January 2, 2007.

4. The tallest portions of the VAB are its 4 high bays. Each has a 456-foot-high door. The doors are the largest in the world and take about 45 minutes to open or close completely.

A mobile launcher, atop crawler-transporter 2, begins the move into High Bay 3 at the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) on Sept. 8, 2018.

5. After spending more than 50 years supporting our human spaceflight programs, the VAB received its first commercial tenant – Northrop Grumman Corporation – on August 16, 2019!

A model of Northrop Grumman’s OmegA launch vehicle is flanked by the U.S. flag and a flag bearing the OmegA logo during a ribbon-cutting ceremony Aug. 16 in High Bay 2 of the Vehicle Assembly Building.

Whether the rockets and spacecraft are going into Earth orbit or being sent into deep space, the VAB will have the infrastructure to prepare them for their missions.  

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.  

Three Ways to Travel at (Nearly) the Speed of Light

One hundred years ago, Einstein’s theory of general relativity was supported by the results of a solar eclipse experiment. Even before that, Einstein had developed the theory of special relativity — a way of understanding how light travels through space.

Particles of light — photons — travel through a vacuum at a constant pace of more than 670 million miles per hour.

All across space, from black holes to our near-Earth environment, particles are being accelerated to incredible speeds — some even reaching 99.9% the speed of light! By studying these super fast particles, we can learn more about our galactic neighborhood. 

Here are three ways particles can accelerate:

1) Electromagnetic Fields!

Electromagnetic fields are the same forces that keep magnets on your fridge! The two components — electric and magnetic fields — work together to whisk particles at super fast speeds throughout the universe. In the right conditions, electromagnetic fields can accelerate particles at near-light-speed.

We can harness electric fields to accelerate particles to similar speeds on Earth! Particle accelerators, like the Large Hadron Collider and Fermilab, use pulsed electromagnetic fields to smash together particles and produce collisions with immense amounts of energy. These experiments help scientists understand the Big Bang and how it shaped the universe!

2) Magnetic Explosions!

Magnetic fields are everywhere in space, encircling Earth and spanning the solar system. When these magnetic fields run into each other, they can become tangled. When the tension between the crossed lines becomes too great, the lines explosively snap and realign in a process known as magnetic reconnection. Scientists suspect this is one way that particles — for example, the solar wind, which is the constant stream of charged particles from the Sun — are sped up to super fast speeds.

When magnetic reconnection occurs on the side of Earth facing away from the Sun, the particles can be hurled into Earth’s upper atmosphere where they spark the auroras.

3) Wave-Particle Interactions!

Particles can be accelerated by interactions with electromagnetic waves, called wave-particle interactions. When electromagnetic waves collide, their fields can become compressed. Charged particles bounce back and forth between the waves, like a ball bouncing between two merging walls. These types of interactions are constantly occurring in near-Earth space and are responsible for damaging electronics on spacecraft and satellites in space.

Wave-particle interactions might also be responsible for accelerating some cosmic rays from outside our solar system. After a supernova explosion, a hot, dense shell of compressed gas called a blast wave is ejected away from the stellar core. Wave-particle interactions in these bubbles can launch high-energy cosmic rays at 99.6% the speed of light.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com. 

Several countries presented their business potentials at dedicated stands - like Denmark. #ITER #IBF19 #WeAreITER https://t.co/Symkfl50mh

🙃

JJ looking at you like this while you undress for him ... ?

Why am I such a whore?

Prune your contact list yearlySome people say to do this once a quarter and if you have the time to do it, great, but I usually don’t. I find that the best time to get in touch with people that you haven’t spoken to in a while is to just send them a quick personal email or note once a year, at new years, wishing them a happy new year. Almost everyone celebrates it, it’s politically correct, and if you are lucky it can even rekindle a relationship long dormant, whether its business or pleasure.

Follow for more.

TRANQUILITY

chapter three

The waves crashed against her body, as she tried to find a wave to ride out, both her she JB being completely beat by the waves. She saw into the distant, him looking toward a boat, both kids looking at each other then back at the death wish of a boat.

xxx

She decided to wait out the storm at John b's house, and walking in to see jj, she assumed he had the same idea.

"Why are you here." He didn't look toward Alex, but knew it was her.

"She's staying here, and sharing a bed with your ass so better cheer up." John b responded before alex could

"No no no no, i'm not sharing a bed with her, i'll sleep on the floor." He complained.

She simply sat down on the bed, as John b went into his room.

She soon realized she had no clothes to change into, which meant she either slept in her underwear or wet clothes.

"Why are you thinking so hard?" JJ questioned.

She snapped out of her thoughts and looked toward the boy who was snuggled up in the bed he just said he wasn't sleeping in.

"I have nothing to change into." She mumbled, not breaking eye contact.

"Well doesn't that suck." He replied, turning away from the girl.

So she slipped out of the wet bathing suit and clothes, and put on her underwear and sports bra. The boy turned around, realizing she had just changed into the slightest amount of clothes.

His jaw clenched as she climbed in bed. He sat up and roughly pulled his crew neck of his body, throwing it toward the girl.

She didn't say anything, but simply smiled and put it on, before snuggling into the comforter.

The truth is, he couldn't stand knowing she was half naked right next to him, and definitely didn't want anyone else to see her like that.

xxx

Alex was woken up by john b opening the front door, and jj grunting, She sat up and stretched before following him out the door.

"Damn." She whistled

John b turned to face her before laughing.

"Nice shirt." He joked.

She quickly looked down, and was about to respond before jj spoke from behind her.

"agatha did some work huh?" He asked

"Yeah she did."

Alex walked back inside to change, and wanted to call kie, but there was no service.

"shit."

"come on fizzy, we're going fishing." jj yelled from the porch.

She sighed and packed her bag to go on the boat.

"Who first?" She asked walking down the dock.

"Pope, kie's probably shitting bricks cause you didn't go home." JB responsed

"then maybe you shouldn't of let her stay." jj mumbled.

"Well it seems you didn't mind that much because she woke up in your hoodie."

Alex's face went red, and jj's jaw clenched once again. He didn't know how to respond, so he just turned around.

The boys made comments to the other islanders, while alex stayed quiet in thought on the way to popes dock.

She didn't understand why he hated her, but was starting to get tired of it.

"well look who we have here." John said toward pope washing off the dock.

"We are declaring a pogue meeting, attendance mandatory" Alex yelled.

"I cant my pops got me on lockdown." He pouted

"oh come on pope." alex called

"Your dad's a pussy over" jj replied pretending to be talking into a radio.

"I heard that you little bastard." Hayward appeared behind his son.

Alex waves quickly to the man, she always loved hayward, and she was definitely his favorite out of popes friends.

"We need your son." john b spoke to pope's dad

"day after hurricane is a free day." jj chimed in.

"Ouuu yeah, we have security clearance." Alex added

"Get in the boat." John b mouthed toward pope

Pope frantically jumped in the boat apologizing to his dad and the boat drove away.

"Okay, she's gonna be pissed, so be prepared." Alex told the boys.

"Hey boys." Kiara called while walking down the dock. "Hey sister who doesn't know how to let me know if she's alive or not."

"Oh kie i love you, and i was with JB of course i was safe." Alex responsed.

"whatcha got, you got some juice boxes?" John b asked.

"you know, just some yogurt and carrot sticks." Kie laughed

"How about my kind of juice box?" jj smirked

She passed out the beers, alex shrugging her off, having brought her own drink.

"Alex what's in this?" Pope asked the girl, sniffing the water bottle

"Nothing." she mumbled trying to take it out of his grasp.

"Is this straight vodka?" Everyone paying attention now, popes face turned into a worried glare.

"It's just a boat day drink. it means nothing."

"Alex?" jj said, making her turn. He never called her that.

"Guys it's fine."

Kie and JB shared worried looks. She walked over to her sister and grabbed her arm.

"are you drinking again?" Kie whispered into Alex's ear

She swiftly walked past her "no." She turned "jj what the fuck!" She yelled watching the blonde poor the drink out into the water.

"oops." He laughed.

xxx

"hey you guys wanna see a party trick?" jj climbed to the front of the boat.

"Oh god i'm moving." John b quickly sat behind pope who was driving.

"go a little faster pope." jj commented

"Ou i wanna try." Alex walked toward jj

He looked at her with annoyance and sighed.

They both lifted the bottles to their mouths trying to catch the beer.

"Ew you're getting beer in my hair." Kie screamed, but was cut off, as the boat lunged forward, throwing JJ and alex off and into the water.

"what the hell pope?"

Alex hit the surface of the water with a cough.

"fizzy, you good?" jj asked beside her.

"Yeah i'm good."

Did he actually care? she thought.

"jj you okay?" pope called from the boat

"I'm think my heals touched the back of my head."

"Sand bar. the tide changed."

"Thank you captain obvious." alex swam toward the boat.

"Guys, i think there's a boat down there?"

Talking #ITER business in Russian and French at the exhibition stand of the Russian Domestic Agency. Russia contributes to many ITER components including the vacuum vessel, divertors, magnets and many more #IBF19 #WeAreITER https://t.co/PxHiA8G4uk