NASA – National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Turns out investment bank Morgan Stanley has a dedicated Space Team, and they’re awfully jazzed about the impact NASA’s Artemis Moon mission is having on public and investor support in the companies like Virgin Galactic.

The Morgan Stanley Space Team advises that “increased news flow around space tourism could catalyze itself in increasing awareness to a larger breadth of investors being interested in Virgin Galactic,” specifically citing the firm for being the only pure-play publicly traded space tourism company.

Virgin Galactic recently shared its first full year of earnings results as a publicly traded company and made steps toward making space tourism possible. SpaceX similarly has ambitions to build a business out of taking private citizens to space for longer durations than Blue Origin.

NASA’s Artemis mission to put the first woman and next man on the Moon by 2024 is credited for driving public awareness of space activity, and the investment firm believes consumers will associate Virgin Galactic with human spaceflight innovation “as the business shifts from a niche experience catering to high net worth individuals to investing in more applications in space.”

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab at the California Institute of Technology has shared a gigantic new view from Mars, courtesy of NASA’s Curiosity rover.

Elon Musk’s 60 Minutes interview with Scott Pelley on CBS in 2012 has aged remarkably well for SpaceX.

Two things stand out. Falcon 9 and Dragon were only just preparing to begin cargo delivery to the International Space Station — something that’s now routine.

And Elon was dreaming of SpaceX succeeding the Space Shuttle for taking astronauts to space from American soil. Eight years later and that day has nearly arrived.

When will Space Launch System fly? There’s more NASA talk of 2021. Marcia Smith reports for SpacePolicyOnline:

NASA and Dictionary.com driving the campaign to recruit future astronauts:

Calling all astrophiles! Today, March 2, NASA begins accepting applications for their next class of astronauts. Do you have what it takes to become a “star sailor”? Watch this video to find out! 

Travel on, star sailor:

NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Ohio is opening its doors to the public for a series of free tours of world-class research facilities this year. The tours are designed in part to celebrate 20 years of continuous human presence in space with the International Space Station.

The major milestone of assembly was reached in California last August. Today we get a time-lapse video of that process from Northrop Grumman’s clean room.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine is one name among many space industry heavy hitters that will be present at the inaugural ASCEND space economy event in Las Vegas, Nevada, later this year.

NASA’s Balloon Program Office believes its super pressure balloons can be used for scientific research that would otherwise require launching a rocket into space.

The next NASA super pressure balloon launch should happen around mid-April with the primary goal of “validating and certifying the super pressure balloon as an operational flight vehicle,” according to the program’s chief Debbie Fairbrother.

McGee was recently promoted to brigadier general by President Trump and participated in the Super Bowl coin flip alongside three other 100-year-old World War II veterans.

Mighty powerful recruitment video:

NASA’s InSight Mars lander touched down one year ago after a six month journey from Earth to the Red Planet. Today six papers were published with a year of science learned through year one of the lander mission.

A new understanding of Mars is beginning to emerge, thanks to the first year of NASA’s InSight lander mission. Findings described in a set of six papers published today reveal a planet alive with quakes, dust devils and strange magnetic pulses.

Five of the papers were published in Nature. An additional paper in Nature Geoscience details the InSight spacecraft’s landing site, a shallow crater nicknamed “Homestead hollow” in a region called Elysium Planitia.

InSight is equipped to detect Mars quakes, wind speed, air pressure, and more.

Julius Montgomery is another name history will remember for an extraordinary life lived. Katharine Q. Seelye recently profiled his accomplishments in The New York Times following his passing:

In 1956, he had become the first African-American who was not a janitor to be hired to work at the Cape Canaveral space facility in Florida. He was part of a team of technical professionals, known as “range rats,” who repaired the electronics in malfunctioning ballistic missiles and satellite equipment.

Two years later, his team wanted to start a school to keep the space workers up-to-date. Brevard Engineering College, as it was to be called (Cape Canaveral is in Brevard County), planned to lease classrooms at a public junior high school near the space center.

America’s ugly history with racism got in Montgomery’s way, however, when he applied to attend the college. He selflessly stepped aside so the college could open.

Katherine Johnson’s work dates back to NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) in 1953 before there was ever a NASA.

The NASA research mathematician’s life is memorialized in the 2016 film Hidden Figures which follows “a team of female African-American mathematicians who served a vital role in NASA during the early years of the U.S. space program.”

Johnson died today at the incredible age of 101, leaving behind a legacy that will inspire generations for centuries.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine and Vice President Mike Pence are speaking to NASA employees at Langley Research Center about National Space Council Directives, Artemis, and more.