NYT Top Stories - Latest Updates
How FlyDubai Passengers and Crew Averted Disaster After Pilot Was Stabbed During Flight
Indian Pilot Stabbed on FlyDubai Flight Recalls Sudden Attack
Airlines Set to Bring Israelis Back From U.A.E. After FlyDubai Cockpit Attack
Why Were 4 Pilots Aboard FlyDubai Flight 1073?
BBC World News - Latest Updates
Riot police clash with students as education protests rage in France
Woman at centre of Cornell rape inquiry was 'failed' by officials, says New York governor
'I was not going to let others die' - pilot of Flydubai flight describes cockpit attack by co-pilot
Intensified Russian strikes are tearing Kyiv apart, warns mayor
NPR National - Latest Updates
October 1 ushered in a new era in U.S. foreign aid. What's the plan? Will it work?
The America First strategy asks for a Memorandum of Understanding as a condition for healthcare and development aid. It's been praised for promoting self-reliance but criticized for its conditions.
(Image credit: U.S. Office of Foreign Assistance)
Cloaked in anonymity, Israeli soldiers describe mass civilian killings in 'NAZA'
NAZA is an acronym for nezek agavi, Hebrew for "collateral damage." It refers to the number of civilian casualties the Israeli military deems acceptable. The documentary is made by Israeli filmmakers.
The U.S. added only 29,000 jobs in September as job market lacks spark
U.S. employers added 29,000 jobs in September as the unemployment rate inched up to 4.2%. Job gains for July and August were revised down by a total of 60,000 jobs, extending a lackluster run for the job market.
(Image credit: Justin Sullivan)
Cornell rape case gets special prosecutor. And, Renee Good's family sues the government
New legal action in two closely watched cases: one at Cornell, the other over Renee Good's death. We take a closer look.
(Image credit: Michael M. Santiago)
Wired - Latest Updates
This Shoe Company’s Instagram Ad With a Frat Is Pissing People Off
The NHL Is Releasing Its Own ‘Hot’ Fanfic. Romance Lovers Hate It
These AI Experts Want to Do High-Stakes Research Out in the Open
Trump’s Crazy AI Rebrand Was a Loyalty Test for Tech Execs—and It Worked
NASA Breaking News - Latest Updates
La NASA abre solicitudes para próxima promoción de directores de vuelo
Crédito: NASA/Robert Markowitz
Lee esta nota de prensa en inglés aquí.
La NASA busca líderes para uno de los puestos más prestigiosos de la Tierra en el ámbito de los vuelos espaciales tripulados: director de vuelo en el control de misión del Centro Espacial Johnson de la agencia, en Houston. Esta función es fundamental para reforzar el liderazgo estadounidense en la exploración espacial, a medida que la NASA allana el camino hacia una presencia humana sostenida en la Luna.
El plazo para presentar solicitudes está abierto desde ahora hasta el lunes 12 de octubre. Los ciudadanos estadounidenses pueden presentar su solicitud en (información en inglés):
https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/886788000
Las personas seleccionadas como directores de vuelo de la NASA dirigirán misiones tripuladas a la Estación Espacial Internacional, misiones Artemis a la Luna y, más adelante, las primeras misiones tripuladas a Marte.
Los directores de vuelo dirigen equipos de controladores de vuelo, astronautas y socios comerciales e internacionales en la ejecución de misiones en tiempo real y en la gestión de riesgos. Durante los preparativos de una misión, los directores de vuelo colaboran con los equipos de ingeniería, seguridad y programas para garantizar que los planes operativos se ajusten a las capacidades de la nave espacial y a los objetivos de la misión.
“Estamos en un momento apasionante y decisivo, ya que seguimos dando soporte a las operaciones en la Estación Espacial Internacional mientras construimos la próxima etapa de los vuelos espaciales tripulados con las misiones de Artemis y Base Lunar, y nos preparamos para llegar más lejos que nunca”, dijo Emily Nelson, jefa de directores de vuelo en el centro Johnson. “Alcanzar estos ambiciosos objetivos requiere directores de vuelo que sean expertos en integración, capaces de reunir una amplia variedad de equipos y disciplinas en un esfuerzo de misión claro y unificado. Esta función esencial representa lo mejor de la innovación y el trabajo en equipo”.
Para ser considerados, los candidatos a director de vuelo deben ser ciudadanos estadounidenses y contar con una licenciatura de una institución acreditada en ingeniería, ciencias biológicas, ciencias físicas, informática o matemáticas. También necesitarán una amplia experiencia profesional afín y de responsabilidad creciente, que incluya la toma de decisiones críticas en entornos de alta presión y alto riesgo. Aunque muchos directores de vuelo de la NASA han sido antes controladores de vuelo en el control de misión, no es un requisito para presentar la solicitud.
La NASA prevé anunciar las selecciones antes de que termine el año. Los nuevos directores de vuelo recibirán una amplia formación en control de vuelo y sistemas de naves espaciales, así como en liderazgo operativo y gestión de riesgos.
Obtén más información sobre los directores de vuelo de la NASA y el proceso de solicitud en (información en inglés):
-fin-
Rachel Kraft / María José Viñas
Sede central, Washington
202-358-1100
rachel.h.kraft@nasa.gov / maria-jose.vinasgarcia@nasa.gov
Anna Schneider / Mary Pfister
Centro Espacial Johnson, Houston
281-483-5111
anna.c.schneider@nasa.gov / mary.m.pfister@nasa.gov
NASA Campaign Explores Clouds Spawned by Wildfires
NASA Campaign Explores Clouds Spawned by Wildfires
The Wildhorse grass fire in eastern Idaho erupted with a massive pulse of smoke. No one had expected it, but the wildfire had launched what’s known as a pyrocumulonimbus cloud, or pyroCb. It was an elusive weather phenomenon that scientists on NASA’s INSPYRE (INjected Smoke and PYRocumulonimbus Experiment) campaign spent weeks this summer hunting across western North America.
Pyrocumulonimbus clouds rise above intense fires, producing lightning and rain along with powerful winds that can whip the flames below into a fury. The largest pyroCbs funnel smoke 30,000 to 50,000 feet (10 to 15 kilometers) above Earth’s surface, as high as the cruising altitudes of commercial jets and even into the stratosphere.
The significance of pyroCbs emerged around the turn of the 21st century, when satellite observations revealed smoke reaching altitudes previously associated with major volcanic eruptions. Once in the stratosphere, pyroCb smoke can spread across continents, circle the globe, and persist far longer than it would in the lower atmosphere.
Despite their massive size, pyroCb clouds remain mysterious. But it’s important to understand how they form and connect with the atmosphere, because their smoke can affect climate and weather far from the fires that produced them and long after they’ve extinguished. They also can produce dangerous fire-generated winds.
“We still do not understand if they’re driven by fire energetics, or fire intensity, or by atmospheric conditions above,” said Olga Kalashnikova, a researcher with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, who is one of the principal investigators leading INSPYRE, the first aircraft campaign designed specifically around studying pyroCbs.
For six weeks this summer, INSPYRE researchers climbed aboard a Gulfstream jet for a series of flights from the plane’s home base at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) near Boulder, Colorado. Scientists collected smoke particles, sampled gases, photographed ice crystals, and monitored radiation passing through clouds and reflected back into space. The aircraft crisscrossed above, below, and through clouds to get a close-up view of fire-induced weather and smoke.
Meanwhile, NASA’s high-flying ER-2 aircraft, loaded with 14 instruments, tracked fire intensity, updraft speeds, smoke, and cloud properties from above, while crews drove trucks equipped with sensors to view the same events from the ground. Ultimately, the team will investigate how wildfire-generated clouds transport smoke upward, how clouds transform particles and gases in smoke, how much reaches the stratosphere, and what happens once it gets there.
From fire forecasts to climate models
Firefighters will benefit from a better understanding of when pyroCbs are likely to develop and how they affect fire conditions on the ground. “A unique thing about pyrocumulonimbus is they are fire-generated weather, meaning the fire makes its own weather,” said Neil Lareau, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Nevada, Reno, who led INSPYRE’s ground observations. “The fire is making its own thunderstorm, and in the process of doing that, it’s also making its own wind.”
A unique thing about pyrocumulonimbus is they are fire-generated weather . . . the fire makes its own weather.
Neil Lareau
University of Nevada
Lareau hopes the research will lead to warnings comparable to the alerts meteorologists issue for severe thunderstorms. For example, he said, a forecast would warn firefighters that a developing cloud could soon produce a dangerous downdraft and wind shift, giving fire managers time to pull personnel off the line.
Additionally, INSPYRE could also improve Earth system models. PyroCbs can carry enormous quantities of smoke into the stratosphere, where particles can persist for months or longer and affect how much solar energy the atmosphere absorbs and how much reaches Earth’s surface. Most numerical prediction models don’t explicitly include the effects of pyroCbs and their smoke injections, said Dave Peterson, a Naval Research Laboratory meteorologist and INSPYRE’s co-principal investigator. Measurements of the particles, gases, and radiation associated with these events will give scientists data to test and improve simulations of their effects on Earth’s weather and climate.
Hunting storms
To study wildfire smoke and clouds, and perhaps catch a pyroCb in action, the INSPYRE team first had to find one. The challenge was getting an aircraft to the right place at the right time. Pyrocumulonimbus clouds can develop in minutes and subside just as quickly, while reaching fires hundreds of miles away takes hours of preparation, flight time, and coordination with air traffic controllers.
But on Aug. 26, the team got lucky. The Gulfstream was returning from a fire farther west when Sarah Woods, a National Center for Atmospheric Research scientist serving as spotter, got word that the Wildhorse fire was unexpectedly intense.
The fire hadn’t initially attracted much attention. “We knew there was a grass fire there, and everyone’s like, it’s just a grass fire; we’re not going to worry about it,” Peterson said. “And it ended up being the main event.”
We knew there was a grass fire there, and everyone’s like, it’s just a grass fire; we’re not going to worry about it . . . And it ended up being the main event.”
DAVE PETERSON
Naval Research Laboratory
When the flight path neared the Wildhorse fire, Woods spotted the fresh remains of a pyroCb from her cramped jump seat behind the pilots. “It looks just like a big thunderstorm, and so as you approach it, you look for a visual indication of the fire on the ground,” said Woods.
Seeing the fire on the ground far below confirmed that the cloud was fire-generated. At Woods’ request, the pilots swung the plane around and spent the next three hours flying back and forth through the cloud plume and the trail of smoke drifting northwest toward Wyoming.
The chance encounter gave the INSPYRE team measurements of a pyroCb plume roughly an hour after the cloud first erupted. Other flights coordinated between the Gulfstream jet and ER-2 added crucial observations of active fire-driven atmospheric airflow that will help document how the resulting smoke plumes evolve over the days and weeks that follow.
Putting pieces together
Measurements from the Gulfstream and ER-2 will now be combined with satellite and ground observations and compared with models.
“When clouds form, they modify chemistry,” said Kalashnikova, the JPL-based principal investigator. That altered smoke can have different effects on radiation, she said, making it important to understand both how pyroCbs form and the smoke that emerges from them.
In the summer of 2026, the challenge was finding the clouds and collecting the measurements. Now comes the work of understanding what they found.
Explore More
About the Author
James Riordon
Share
Details
Related Terms
Explore More
NASA Model Wing Lights Up During First Pressure Sensitive Paint Tests
2 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Groundbreaking tests at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, are paving the way for new wind tunnel capabilities for designing the aircraft technologies of the future.
In a first-of-its-kind test in NASA Langley’s Transonic Dynamics Tunnel, researchers used unsteady Pressure Sensitive Paint to study how air flows around a standard wind tunnel model known as the Benchmark Supercritical Wing. As the team observed the test, the paint’s special capabilities made the model wing glow pink-purple when exposed to special ultraviolet lights, while high-speed cameras captured every detail.
The test combined two valuable NASA tools. NASA’s benchmark wings don’t represent a particular type of aircraft, rather they are meant as universal models to help researchers improve computer modeling using wind tunnel data.
Unsteady pressure sensitive paint is a specialized coating that varies in brightness according to how much pressure the air flow applies to the wing. High-speed cameras capture those changes, providing data for computer models. For years, NASA researchers at centers including Langley and the agency’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley have been working to integrate the paint into wind tunnel tests for aircraft and rockets. NASA researchers consider the paint a vital tool and expect to find many more wind tunnel applications in the future.
This test marked the technique’s first use on a large-scale, freely moving model in a low‑oxygen environment, an achievement made possible by the Transonic Dynamic Tunnel’s unique testing capabilities.
This milestone opens the door for upcoming tests on flexible aircraft models that are designed to bend and adapt during flight to improve efficiency. It also lays the foundation for better simulations and designs as NASA advances the future of flight.
Share
Details
Related Terms
NASA Opens Applications for Next Class of Flight Directors
NASA is seeking leaders for one of the most esteemed positions on Earth for human spaceflight: flight director in mission control at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. This role is critical to advancing American leadership in space exploration, as NASA paves the way for a sustained human presence on the Moon.
Applications for new flight directors are open now through Monday, Oct. 12. U.S. citizens can apply at:
https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/886788000
Those chosen as NASA flight directors will lead human spaceflight missions to the International Space Station, Artemis missions to the Moon, and, eventually, the first human missions to Mars.
Flight directors lead teams of flight controllers, astronauts, and commercial and international partners in real-time mission execution and risk management. In preparation for a mission, flight directors collaborate with engineering, safety, and program partners to ensure operational plans align with spacecraft capabilities and mission objectives.
“We are working in an exciting, pivotal time as we continue supporting operations to the International Space Station while building the next phase of human spaceflight with Artemis and Moon Base missions, preparing to go farther than ever before,” said Emily Nelson, chief flight director at Johnson. “Accomplishing these ambitious goals requires flight directors who are expert integrators, bringing together a broad range of teams and disciplines into a clear, unified mission effort. This integral role exemplifies the best of innovation and teamwork.”
To be considered, flight director candidates must be U.S. citizens with a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution in engineering, biological science, physical science, computer science, or mathematics. They also will need substantial related, progressively responsible professional experience, including time-critical decision-making experience in high-stress, high-risk environments. Although many NASA flight directors have previously been flight controllers working in mission control, it is not a prerequisite to apply.
NASA plans to announce selections by the end of the year. The new flight directors will receive extensive training in flight control and spacecraft systems, as well as operational leadership and risk management.
Learn more about NASA flight directors and the application process at:
-end-
Rachel Kraft
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
rachel.h.kraft@nasa.gov
Anna Schneider / Mary Pfister
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
anna.c.schneider@nasa.gov / mary.m.pfister@nasa.gov