Ben Hord (@benhord) 's Twitter Profile
Ben Hord

@benhord

Grilled cheese sandwiches beware. Skyentist at NASA Goddard looking for planets. Formerly at UMD and Columbia

ID: 882594264

calendar_today15-10-2012 16:05:11

761 Tweet

358 Followers

371 Following

Dr. Nicky Fox (@nasascienceaa) 's Twitter Profile Photo

Pandora, our newest mission to study the atmospheres of at least 20 known planets outside our solar system, is one step closer to launch with the completion of the spacecraft bus! Congratulations to the team on reaching this major milestone! More:go.nasa.gov/3Wry37d

Ben Hord (@benhord) 's Twitter Profile Photo

Idk but encouraging all NASA employees to rat on their colleagues engaging in secret DEIA activities through a dedicated enforcement resource seems like a big goose step in the wrong direction 🤔

Ben Hord (@benhord) 's Twitter Profile Photo

NASA’s Pandora SmallSat Mission is on track for its launch readiness this fall! Pandora will observe 20+ exoplanets and their host stars to precisely measure water and clouds/hazes in the planets’ atmospheres. Check out the press release (and video!) here:science.nasa.gov/directorates/s…

Ben Hord (@benhord) 's Twitter Profile Photo

Want to learn more about exoplanets, their atmospheres, and NASA’s Pandora mission to investigate them? Check out this interview I did with Fraser Cain of Universe Today discussing just that! I promise it’s out of this world: youtu.be/96Ee8Z-sbSU?si…

Ben Hord (@benhord) 's Twitter Profile Photo

NASA’s Pandora SmallSat officially has a launch vehicle! It’ll be hitching a ride on a SpaceX rocket later this Fall. Now the work of scheduling observations of exoplanets and their host stars can begin in earnest! nasa.gov/news-release/n…

Ben Hord (@benhord) 's Twitter Profile Photo

The Pandora mission team has been hard at work getting ready for launch. Stay tuned for all of the awesome discoveries that this space telescope will make in 2026!

NASA Universe (@nasauniverse) 's Twitter Profile Photo

How will our upcoming Pioneer satellite Pandora help us learn about the atmospheres of worlds outside our solar system? By observing planets and stars simultaneously! It'll study stars' spotty surfaces to separate the signal of a planet from its host star: go.nasa.gov/4bhjyv2

NASA's Kennedy Space Center (@nasakennedy) 's Twitter Profile Photo

🕢 Pandora is on the clock! Pandora is part of SpaceX’s Twilight rideshare mission and is targeting launch on Sunday, Jan. 11. The 57-minute launch window opens at 5:19 am PST (8:19 am EST) from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

NASA Universe (@nasauniverse) 's Twitter Profile Photo

Meet Pandora, NASA’s first satellite in the Pioneers Program! Launching no earlier than Jan. 11 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Pandora will study the atmospheres of worlds beyond our solar system to help scientists look for chemical "fingerprints." go.nasa.gov/49q6h0z

Meet Pandora, <a href="/NASA/">NASA</a>’s first satellite in the Pioneers Program!
Launching no earlier than Jan. 11 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Pandora will study the atmospheres of worlds beyond our solar system to help scientists look for chemical "fingerprints." go.nasa.gov/49q6h0z
NASA's Kennedy Space Center (@nasakennedy) 's Twitter Profile Photo

🛰️Pandora’s near-infrared detector is a spare developed for NASA Webb Telescope, which is THE observatory most sensitive to exoplanet atmospheres. Pandora will observe its targets for 24 hours, something flagship missions like Webb, which are in high demand, cannot regularly do.

🛰️Pandora’s near-infrared detector is a spare developed for <a href="/NASAWebb/">NASA Webb Telescope</a>, which is THE observatory most sensitive to exoplanet atmospheres.

Pandora will observe its targets for 24 hours, something flagship missions like Webb, which are in high demand, cannot regularly do.
SpaceX (@spacex) 's Twitter Profile Photo

The payloads on this mission will be deployed to a dusk-dawn Sun-synchronous orbit, meaning the spacecraft will be flying roughly along the boundary between day and night, or Twilight, where it's always breaking dawn

NASA's Kennedy Space Center (@nasakennedy) 's Twitter Profile Photo

Successful separation! NASA’s Pandora space telescope satellite is in sun-synchronous orbit after deploying from SpaceX’s second stage. Pandora will soon begin studying planets and their respective host stars beyond our solar system. go.nasa.gov/4pwYHaw

Successful separation! NASA’s Pandora space telescope satellite is in sun-synchronous orbit after deploying from SpaceX’s second stage.

Pandora will soon begin studying planets and their respective host stars beyond our solar system.
go.nasa.gov/4pwYHaw
Ben Hord (@benhord) 's Twitter Profile Photo

I was interviewed about NASA’s Pandora mission on “Are We There Yet?” NPR’s space exploration podcast! Listen to me talk about exoplanets, searching for chemicals on other worlds, and how Pandora helps JWST do its job better: cfpublic.org/podcast/are-we…

Ben Hord (@benhord) 's Twitter Profile Photo

Nature wrote an article about my role on NASA’s Pandora mission! Aside from being a cutting-edge exoplanet explorer, Pandora serves as a way for early career folks to gain hands-on experience serving in mission leadership roles. Read about it here: nature.com/articles/d4158…