Bob Jacobs
Headquarters, Washington                                 Dec. 26, 2001
(Phone: 202/358-1600)

RELEASE: 01-250

2001: A YEAR OF CHALLENGE AND ACCOMPLISHMENT FOR NASA

 As NASA's space odyssey for 2001 comes to an end, the Agency faces a 
year of transition and new challenges as it prepares to continue its 
mission of discovery into the new millennium.

In the last year, the International Space Station, the largest and most 
sophisticated spacecraft ever built, celebrated its first full year of 
human habitation. The successful arrival of NASA's Mars Odyssey at the 
red planet energized space scientists and, for the first time, NASA was 
able to create a complete biological record of Earth.

In 2001, the Space Shuttle turned 20 as NASA launched a new initiative 
to find better and cheaper access to space, all while facing new fiscal 
realities that could fundamentally change the way the agency does 
business. 

"The people of NASA have much of which to be proud as we reflect on the 
agency's accomplishments in 2001," said Acting Administrator Dr. Daniel 
R. Mulville. "Our future challenges are formidable, but our resolve to 
overcome those challenges is equally intense. In 2002, NASA will 
continue its mission to expand air and space frontiers with renewed 
vigor."

CHANGE OF NASA LEADERSHIP	
For the first time in nearly a decade, NASA will have new leadership. 
President George W. Bush nominated Sean O'Keefe, the Deputy Director of 
the Office of Management and Budget, to be the agency's new 
Administrator. Daniel S. Goldin, the longest-serving Administrator in 
NASA's history, resigned in November after serving more than nine years 
under three American presidents. During the transition, Mulville, NASA's 
Associate Deputy Administrator was appointed Acting Administrator.

FLAGS FOR HEROES AND FAMILIES
The tragic events of September 11 brought the nation together with a new 
sense of pride and determination. Expedition Three commander Frank 
Culbertson was the only American not on Earth the day of the attacks and 
documented visible signs of the destruction from the International Space 
Station. To honor those heroes killed and seriously hurt in New York, 
Washington and Pennsylvania, NASA sent more than 6,000 American flags 
into space aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour. The flags will be 
distributed to the victims and their families.

NASA'S MARS PROGRAM SEES RED
The agency's Mars exploration program rebounded in 2001 when Mars 
Odyssey successfully entered orbit around the red planet following a 
six-month, 286-million mile journey. NASA's Mars Global Surveyor sent 
back its 100,000th image of the Martian surface. The orbiter has been 
snapping dramatic and images for four years. In 2001, Mars Global 
Surveyor, in tandem with the Hubble Space Telescope, had a ringside seat 
to the largest global dust storm on the Martian surface seen in decades.

THE SEARCH FOR UNIVERSAL LIFE
Is there life on another world? In 2001, astronomers using the Hubble 
Space Telescope measured the atmosphere of a planet outside our solar 
system. Astronomers funded by NASA and the National Science Foundation 
discovered eight new extrasolar planets that have circular orbits, 
similar to the orbits of planets in our own solar system. Also, NASA's 
Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite provided the first evidence that 
there are water-bearing worlds beyond our solar system.

REMOTE SENSING SEES A CLIMATE CHANGE
NASA announced the creation of the first complete "biological record of 
Earth" by using data from NASA's Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-View sensor. 
Researchers also suggested the Earth is becoming a greener greenhouse, 
determining that plant life in the northern latitudes has been growing 
more vigorously since 1981. In February, NASA released a new map of 
Antarctica made from Radarsat data. Using the new maps and comparing 
them to maps produced in 1981, scientists will track Antarctic ice 
changes, a key to understanding our global environment and climate 
change. In 2001, NASA research also suggested that desert dust in the 
atmosphere over Africa might actually inhibit rainfall in the region, 
contributing to drought conditions.

NASA COMES DOWN TO EARTH 
In 2001, NASA announced a commercial partnership that will allow 
placement of advanced global positioning technologies in farm equipment. 
The technology will be used to help farmers navigate fields in poor 
weather and at night. Throughout the summer of 2001, NASA satellites 
tracked the devastating spread of wildfires around the western United 
States, helping federal, state and local governments mitigate these 
natural disasters.

NASA RESEARCH BENEFITS LIFE ON EARTH
Using lasers developed by NASA, researchers discovered a way to bring a 
beam of light to a stop, store it, and then send it on its way. The 
discovery could lead to next-generation technologies, such as increasing 
the speed of computers. A revolutionary early breast cancer detection 
tool based on NASA technology began human clinical trials in November. 
The technology may one day allow physicians to diagnose tumors without 
surgery. In 2001, NASA and the National Cancer Institute began a three-
year program to explore new biomedical technologies to develop and study 
microscopically small sensors that can detect changes at the cellular 
and molecular level.

SOLAR SYSTEM EXPLORATION NEARS PERFECTION
NASA's Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous Shoemaker spacecraft did something 
it wasn't designed to do when mission managers gently landed the 
spacecraft on the asteroid Eros after a yearlong orbital mission. In a 
risky fly-by maneuver, the Deep Space 1 spacecraft successfully 
navigated past a comet, giving researchers an unprecedented view inside 
the glowing core of icy dust and gas. During 2001, a NASA-funded 
research team presented evidence that Earth's most severe mass 
extinction, an event 250 million years ago that wiped out 90 percent of 
life, was triggered by a collision with a comet or an asteroid.

HUMAN SPACE FLIGHT PROGRAMS REACH MILESTONES
Celebrating its first full year of human habitation, the International 
Space Station's research odyssey began in 2001 with the launch of the 
Destiny module, the first science lab delivered to the station. The 
space station is now the most complex and powerful spacecraft ever 
built. Facing financial challenges in the coming years, an independent 
task force produced a report that is expected to help managers get the 
program back on track. The construction of the International Space 
Station is made possible by NASA's robust fleet of Space Shuttles. The 
Shuttle celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2001, having carried more 
than three million pounds of cargo and more than 600 passengers into 
space.

FUTURE NASA TECHNOLOGY TODAY
In 2001, NASA launched an ambitious multi-billion-dollar initiative 
designed to develop the technologies needed to build a second-generation 
reusable launch vehicle. NASA's Space Launch Initiative, or SLI, will 
also identify 21st-century designs that can provide safer, more reliable 
and less expensive access to space. Instead of rocket fuel, NASA's 
propeller-driven Helios aircraft used solar energy to help set a world 
record altitude of 96,500 feet. NASA researchers also tested a 
revolutionary cockpit display that will offer pilots an electronic 
picture of what is outside their windows, no matter the weather or time 
of day. This Synthetic Vision will show terrain, ground obstacles, air 
traffic and other important data to the flight crew.

-end-

Note to editors: An online version of this news release, with hyperlinks 
to related Web pages, can be found at:

http://www.nasa.gov/releases/2001/01-250.html