Happy Fourth of July!!

Today we celebrate Independence Day. Many of us celebrate with family and friends, we have picnics, sometimes eat apple pie, enjoy parades and fireworks, and lots of American flags are flying. This is also a great time to reflect on how the U.S. came to win its independence and continues today to maintain its independence. This would of course not be possible without the service of our brave men and women in the military. So I just wanted to take a brief opportunity to thank all of our military personnel and their families for their service and sacrifices.
 
I think it is also a fitting day to post a blog as it is our hope that our spaceflight bone healing research efforts will improve the treatment and outcomes for our military personnel suffering from IED blast injuries or gunshot wounds.
 
Finally, I also wanted to provide a brief update regarding our planned NASA activities. Please note that the schedule could still dramatically change as the investigation into the explosion Sunday continues. In brief, at this time NASA Ames is going forward with our conducting launch simulation tests the week of August 17th. We now have a new NET date. Bet most of you haven’t seen that acronym before, or at least I haven’t. No Earlier Than (NET) date.  February 3, 2016 is our new NET date for the SpaceX10 launch. I will keep you posted as I learn more. The good news is that I can now spend the holidays with my family and so can my research team (part of our team would have to arrive at Kennedy Space Center starting the middle of December with the rest of the team arriving December 27th). Please keep an eye out for our future blog on the launch timeline, it is more complicated that most imagine!
 
Have a safe and happy fourth of July!  We don’t want to hear of any trips to the ER for firecracker injuries – especially severe ones that could benefit from our bone healing research.
 
Written by Melissa