When people think about NASA, we sometimes
think about scientists, engineers, and exciting, exciting discovery.
But at its core,
NASA is all about the buildings.
[sick guitar wailing]
Phans of Photon Priday know that we take a look
with ICESat-2 all over the world,
and today we're bringing it back home
to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center,
where the ATLAS instrument was born.
As the ATLAS instrument came together,
engineers tested each and every component
to make sure that when the instrument
was assembled, it would work as intended.
Some of our lead testers and designers
now look at the data from ICESat-2.
Tony Martino,
the ICESat-2 Instrument Scientist,
pulled the photon clouds for buildings like this
when we measured the height,
coming full circle.
Seven years ago, I was right here at the I and T Facility
on a dark April morning
to watch ATLAS head off to Arizona
to meet up with the spacecraft
and become the ICESat-2 Observatory.
We're here at the
heart of NASA's data processing analysis
for ICESat-2 data,
where we turn your phavorite photons
into heights of the land surface,
the trees,
the buildings,
and so much more.
We're outside building 28,
where before launch, ICESat-2
had a number of press conferences,
and where your
producer
cuts together all this great footage.
Thanks for joining us on this
Phinal Photon Phriday.
Or is it?