Latest news with #MichaelThelen
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
NASA launch crew rings NYSE closing bell
April 25 (UPI) -- Members of SPHEREx, NASA's Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer, recently visited the New York Stock Exchange to ring the closing bell. Several SPHEREx team members including flight system manager Michael Thelen rang the closing bell at the Wall Street exchange earlier in the week. Members of London-based aerospace firm BAE Systems Inc. also participated in the closing bell ritual. The company provided the telescope and spacecraft bus for the mission. The two-year SPHEREx mission aims to conduct an "all-sky spectral survey" using the near-infrared space observatory. NASA built the explorer at its Joint Propulsion Laboratory at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. SPHEREx successfully launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in March, marking the first dual launch in the private company's history. The observatory "will collect data on more than 450 million galaxies along with more than 100 million stars in the Milky Way in order to explore the origins of the universe," according to NASA's mission page. The $488 mission will produce a three-dimensional map, which will take up to two years. Scientists expect it will give them more information about how the universe expanded so rapidly.
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
NASA's SPHEREx team rings bell at New York Stock Exchange
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Members of NASA's SPHEREx mission team celebrated Earth Day and the recent launch of the astrophysics observatory by ringing the closing bell for the New York Stock Exchange on April 22, 2025. This photo captures the moment that Michael Thelen, NASA's flight system manager for the SPHEREx observatory, rang the closing bell for the New York Stock Exchange on Earth Day, April 22, 2025. Joining him for the honor were other members of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) team, as well as team members from BAE Systems Inc., Space & Mission Systems, which built the telescope and spacecraft's main structure, known as a "bus."At 4:00 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT) on Tuesday, trading as normal came to an end as the brokers on the stock exchange floor below gathered to hear the bell ding at Thelen's command. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) located in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York (or Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) is in a sun-synchronous, low Earth orbit, circling the planet at about 430 miles (700 kilometers) above the surface. It was launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in southern California on March 12, 2025. Although this is not the first time that NASA has been invited to ring the bell at the New York Stock Exchange (or NASDAQ), it is still not as common as having businesses who are part of the market or other newsmakers receive the honor. What is amazing is what the SPHEREx mission promises to answer. SPHEREx was built and launched to collect data on more than 450 million galaxies and 100 million stars in the Milky Way. The information transmitted back to Earth will help improve scientists' understanding of how the universe evolved, while searching for key ingredients for life in our galaxy. You can read about another mission ringing the NYSE bell from space or see the first images taken by SPHEREx. You can also read more about the SPHEREx mission.
