WASHINGTON — NASA Television has been honored with a Primetime Emmy Award by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The 2009 Philo T. Farnsworth Award recognizes the agency for engineering excellence and commemorates the 40th anniversary of the technological innovations that made possible the first live TV broadcast from the moon by the Apollo 11 crew on July 20, 1969.

The prestigious Emmy Award, named after the man credited with designing and building the world’s first working television system, honors an agency, company or institution with contributions over a long period of time that have significantly affected the state of television technology and engineering.

“I congratulate the many NASA staffers who are being recognized by the academy with this award for contributions to television engineering excellence,” NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. “From the first landing of man on the moon in 1969 to today’s high definition broadcasts of America’s ongoing space exploration initiatives, television has been a powerful communications tool that enables the agency to share its achievements in exploration and discovery with the world.”

In 1927, Farnsworth was the first inventor to transmit a television image comprised of 60 horizontal lines. He developed the dissector tube, the foundation of the modern electronic televisions. In a 1996 interview, his wife Elma, whose nickname was Pem, said the two of them watched with pride the televised Apollo 11 moonwalk. “We were watching it and when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon Phil turned to me and said, ‘Pem, this has made it all worthwhile.’ Before then, he wasn’t too sure.”

Over the agency’s 50-year history, NASA TV has served as a vital engineering and mission support resource and a valuable communications outlet.

“I am honored to have been selected to accept this award on behalf of NASA and the hundreds of engineers and technicians who made the telecast of this historic event possible,” said Richard Nafzger, an engineer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., Nafzger was 28 years old when he worked with the team that brought television from the moon to a world-wide audience estimated at more than 600 million people.

Joining Nafzger in accepting the honor will be Apollo 11 Lunar Module Pilot and moonwalker Buzz Aldrin.

Today, NASA TV is available on four digital channels, serving the general public, educators and journalists. It also is streamed continuously over the agency’s Internet homepage.

The Primetime Emmys are awarded by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in North Hollywood, Calif. Recipients of the Engineering Awards will receive their statues during a special ceremony on Saturday, Aug. 22, at the Renaissance Hotel in Los Angeles.

This is NASA Television’s second Emmy Award for 2009. In January, the Midsouth Chapter of the National Television Academy awarded NASA TV the Governor’s Award for Lifetime Achievement at a ceremony in Nashville, Tenn.

For more information about NASA TV, including program schedules and how to watch programs on the Web, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit: http://www.nasa.gov.

For information about the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards, visit: http://www.Emmys.com.

With the space agency in the middle of celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing, NASA this evening paused to honor legendary journalist Walter Cronkite — who chronicled that event along with a generation of other major stories including the war in Vietnam and the assasination of President John F. Kennedy.

Cronkite died on Friday following a lengthy illness.

In honor of his coverage of America’s space program, NASA presented Cronkite with an Ambassador of Exploration Award on Feb. 28, 2006 at a ceremony in Austin, Texas. He was the only Ambassador of Exploration recipient who was not an astronaut or NASA employee.

The following is a statement from NASA Administrator Charles Bolden on the death of veteran journalist Walter Cronkite.

“It is with great sadness that the NASA family learned of Walter Cronkite’s passing. He led the transition from print and radio reporting to the juggernaut that became television journalism. His insight and integrity were unparalleled, and his compassion helped America make it through some of the most tragic and trying times of the 20th century.

“For decades, we had the privilege of learning about our world from the original ‘anchorman.’ He was a true gentleman. Our thoughts and prayers are with Walter’s family and his millions of friends and supporters.”

Separately, NASA also issued comments by Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong about Cronkite, who provided this iconic coverage of Apollo 11: “Armstrong is on the moon — Neil Armstrong, 38-year-old American, standing on the surface of the moon, on this July 20, 19 hundred and 69.”

“For a news analyst and reporter of the happenings of the day to be successful, he or she needs three things: accuracy, timeliness, and the trust of the audience. Many are fortunate to have the first two. The trust of the audience must be earned.

“Walter Cronkite seemed to enjoy the highest of ratings. He had a passion for human space exploration, an enthusiasm that was contagious, and the trust of his audience. He will be missed.”

In a 1996 interview, Cronkite quipped that the Apollo 11 landing was the only time he’d ever been left speechless — “What I said was ‘Gosh! Wow! Gee!’ — immortal words obviously.”

” I think that 500 years from now the young people that are living on space stations and space cities and perhaps on the orbs themselves out there … they will be recognizing the most important feat of all time. 500 years from now they will be celebrating the first landing on the moon and the first walk on the moon.”

Hear Cronkite discuss the lunar landing in this CBS video:

NASA’s about to party like it’s 1969.

On Thursday, the space agency will kickoff a unique audio “time capsule” in observance of the 40th anniversary of the first human landing on the moon. Audio from the entire Apollo 11 mission will be replayed and streamed on the Internet at exactly the same time and date it was broadcast in 1969.

The audio retrospective will begin at 6:32 a.m. CDT Thursday, July 16, two hours before the spacecraft launched. The audio will continue through splashdown of the mission at 11:51 a.m. CDT Friday, July 24, and recovery of the crew shortly afterward. The Web stream will feature the communications between the astronauts and ground teams, and commentary from Mission Control at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

To listen to the replay, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/apollo11_radio.

For historical information about Apollo 11, visit: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/history/apollo/apollo11.

NASA’s Apollo 40th anniversary Web site provides easy access to various agency resources and multimedia about the program and the history of human spaceflight, including a gallery of Apollo multimedia features. The site is online at: http://www.nasa.gov/apollo40th.

GREENBELT, Md. — NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, has
transmitted its first images since reaching lunar orbit June 23. The
spacecraft has two cameras — a low resolution Wide Angle Camera and
a high resolution Narrow Angle Camera. Collectively known as the
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, or LROC, they were activated
June 30. The cameras are working well and have returned images of a
region a few kilometers east of Hell E crater in the lunar highlands
south of Mare Nubium.

As the moon rotates beneath LRO, LROC gradually will build up
photographic maps of the lunar surface. To view these first
calibration images, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/lro

“Our first images were taken along the moon’s terminator — the
dividing line between day and night — making us initially unsure of
how they would turn out,” said LROC Principal Investigator Mark
Robinson of Arizona State University in Tempe. “Because of the deep
shadowing, subtle topography is exaggerated, suggesting a craggy and
inhospitable surface. In reality, the area is similar to the region
where the Apollo 16 astronauts safely explored in 1972. While these
are magnificent in their own right, the main message is that LROC is
nearly ready to begin its mission.”

LRO will help NASA identify safe landing sites for future explorers,
locate potential resources, describe the moon’s radiation environment
and demonstrate new technologies.

The satellite also has started to activate its six other instruments.
The Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector will look for regions with
enriched hydrogen that potentially could have water ice deposits. The
Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation is designed to
measure the moon’s radiation environment. Both were activated on June
19 and are functioning normally.

Instruments expected to be activated during the next week and
calibrated are the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter, designed to build
3-D topographic maps of the moon’s landscape; the Diviner Lunar
Radiometer Experiment, which will make temperature maps of the lunar
surface; and the Miniature Radio Frequency, or Mini-RF, an
experimental radar and radio transmitter that will search for
subsurface ice and create detailed images of permanently-shaded
craters.

The final instrument, the Lyman Alpha Mapping Project, will be
activated after the other instruments have completed their
calibrations, allowing more time for residual contaminants from the
manufacture and launch of LRO to escape into the vacuum of space.
This instrument is an ultraviolet-light imager that will use
starlight to search for surface ice. It will take pictures of the
permanently-shaded areas in deep craters at the lunar poles.

“Accomplishing these significant milestones moves us closer to our
goals of preparing for safe human return to the moon, mapping the
moon in unprecedented detail, and searching for resources,” said LRO
Project Scientist Richard Vondrak of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight
Center in Greenbelt, Md.

While its instruments are being activated and tested, the spacecraft
is in a special elliptical commissioning orbit around the moon. The
orbit takes less fuel to maintain than the mission’s primary orbit.
The commissioning orbit’s closest point to the lunar surface is about
19 miles over the moon’s south pole, and its farthest point is
approximately 124 miles over the lunar north pole.

After the spacecraft and instruments have completed their initial
calibrations, the spacecraft will be directed into its primary
mission orbit in August, a nearly-circular orbit about 31 miles above
the lunar surface.

Goddard built and manages LRO, a NASA mission with international
participation from the Institute for Space Research in Moscow. Russia
provides the neutron detector aboard the spacecraft.

For more information about LRO’s cameras and to view the first images,
visit:

http://lroc.sese.asu.edu

For more information about the LRO mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/lro

The LRO mission is providing regular updates via Twitter. To follow
the spacecraft, visit:

http://www.twitter.com/LRO_NASA

GREENBELT, Md. — After a four and a half day journey from the Earth, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, has successfully entered orbit around the moon. Engineers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., confirmed the spacecraft’s lunar orbit insertion at 6:27 a.m. EDT Tuesday.

During transit to the moon, engineers performed a mid-course correction to get the spacecraft in the proper position to reach its lunar destination. Since the moon is always moving, the spacecraft shot for a target point ahead of the moon. When close to the moon, LRO used its rocket motor to slow down until the gravity of the moon caught the spacecraft in lunar orbit.

“Lunar orbit insertion is a crucial milestone for the mission,” said Cathy Peddie, LRO deputy project manager at Goddard. “The LRO mission cannot begin until the moon captures us. Once we enter the moon’s orbit, we can begin to buildup the dataset needed to understand in greater detail the lunar topography, features and resources. We are so proud to be a part of this exciting mission and NASA’s planned return to the moon.”

A series of four engine burns over the next four days will put the satellite into its commissioning phase orbit. During the commissioning phase each of its seven instruments is checked out and brought online. The commissioning phase will end approximately 60 days after launch, when LRO will use its engines to transition to its primary mission orbit.

For its primary mission, LRO will orbit above the moon at about 31 miles, or 50 kilometers, for one year. The spacecraft’s instruments will help scientists compile high resolution, three-dimensional maps of the lunar surface and also survey it at many spectral wavelengths.

The satellite will explore the moon’s deepest craters, examining permanently sunlit and shadowed regions, and provide understanding of the effects of lunar radiation on humans. LRO will return more data about the moon than any previous mission.

For more information about the LRO mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/lro

GREENBELT, Md. — NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter launched at 5:32 p.m. EDT Thursday aboard an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The satellite will relay more information about the lunar environment than any other previous mission to the moon.

The orbiter, known as LRO, separated from the Atlas V rocket carrying it and a companion mission, the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, and immediately began powering up the components necessary to control the spacecraft. The flight operations team established communication with LRO and commanded the successful deployment of the solar array at 7:40 p.m. The operations team continues to check out the spacecraft subsystems and prepare for the first mid-course correction maneuver. NASA scientists expect to establish communications with LCROSS about four hours after launch, at approximately 9:30 p.m.

“This is a very important day for NASA,” said Doug Cooke, associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate in Washington, which designed and developed both the LRO and LCROSS missions. “We look forward to an extraordinary period of discovery at the moon and the information LRO will give us for future exploration missions.”

The spacecraft will be placed in low polar orbit about 31 miles, or 50 kilometers, above the moon for a one-year primary mission. LRO’s instruments will help scientists compile high resolution three-dimensional maps of the lunar surface and also survey it at many spectral wavelengths. The satellite will explore the moon’s deepest craters, exploring permanently sunlit and shadowed regions, and provide understanding of the effects of lunar radiation on humans.

“Our job is to perform reconnaissance of the moon’s surface using a suite of seven powerful instruments,” said Craig Tooley, LRO project manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. “NASA will use the data LRO collects to design the vehicles and systems for returning humans to the moon and selecting the landing sites that will be their destinations.”

High resolution imagery from LRO’s camera will help identify landing sites for future explorers and characterize the moon’s topography and composition. The hydrogen concentrations at the moon’s poles will be mapped in detail, pinpointing the locations of possible water ice. A miniaturized radar system will image the poles and test communication capabilities.

“During the 60-day commissioning period, we will turn on spacecraft components and science instruments,” explained Cathy Peddie, LRO deputy project manager at Goddard. “All instruments will be turned on within two weeks of launch, and we should start seeing the moon in new and greater detail within the next month.”

“We learned much about the moon from the Apollo program, but now it is time to return to the moon for intensive study, and we will do just that with LRO,” said Richard Vondrak, LRO project scientist at Goddard.

All LRO initial data sets will be deposited in the Planetary Data System, a publicly accessible repository of planetary science information, within six months of launch.

Goddard built and manages LRO. LRO is a NASA mission with international participation from the Institute for Space Research in Moscow. Russia provides the neutron detector aboard the spacecraft.

The LRO mission is providing updates via @LRO_NASA on Twitter. To follow, visit:

http://www.twitter.com/lro_nasa

For more information about the LRO mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/lro

WASHINGTON — NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, and the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, rolled aboard their Atlas V rocket to the launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida Wednesday morning in preparation for launch on Thursday. The spacecraft left its processing facility at 10:02 EDT and arrived at the pad about 35 minutes later.

The spacecraft are scheduled to lift off together on Thursday, June 18, with three attempts possible at 5:12 p.m., 5:22 p.m. and 5:32 p.m. If launch slips to Friday, June 19, the launch opportunities would be 6:41 p.m., 6:51 p.m. and 7:01 p.m.

LRO is scheduled for a one-year exploration mission at a polar orbit of about 31 miles, or 50 kilometers, the closest any spacecraft has orbited the moon. Its primary objective is to conduct investigations to prepare for future explorations of the moon. LCROSS will search for water ice on the moon by sending the spent upper-stage Centaur rocket to impact part of a polar crater in permanent shadows. LCROSS will fly into the plume of dust left by the impact and measure the properties before also colliding with the lunar surface.

NASA TV coverage of the launch will begin at 2 p.m. June 18. For information about NASA TV streaming video, downlink and schedule information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information about the LRO and LCROSS missions, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/lro