Official portrait, Leland Melvin, NASA Headquarters, Thursday Jan. 6, 2011 in Washington. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Official portrait, Laurie Leshin, NASA Headquarters, Thursday Jan. 6, 2011 in Washington. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Portrait, Lori B. Garver, Deputy Administrator, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Washington, DC, August 5, 2009. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Official portrait, Waleed Abdalati, NASA Chief Scientist, NASA Headquarters, Thursday Jan. 6, 2011 in Washington. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Portrait, Charles F. Bolden, Jr., Administrator, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Washington, DC, July 29, 2009. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

NASA Chief Technologist Mason Peck, official portrait, taken at NASA Headquarters on Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2012 in Washington. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Dara Entekhabi, SMAP science team lead, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, speaks during a briefing about the upcoming launch of the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission, Thursday, Jan. 08, 2015, at NASA Headquarters in Washington DC. The mission is scheduled for a Jan. 29 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, and will provide the most accurate, highest-resolution global measurements of soil moisture ever obtained from space. The data will be used to enhance scientists' understanding of the processes that link Earth's water, energy and carbon cycles. Photo Credit: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)

Brad Doorn, SMAP applications lead, Science Mission Directorate’s Applied Sciences Program at NASA Headquarters speaks during a briefing about the upcoming launch of the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission, Thursday, Jan. 08, 2015, at NASA Headquarters in Washington DC. The mission is scheduled for a Jan. 29 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, and will provide the most accurate, highest-resolution global measurements of soil moisture ever obtained from space. The data will be used to enhance scientists' understanding of the processes that link Earth's water, energy and carbon cycles. Photo Credit: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)

Christine Bonniksen, SMAP program executive with the Science Mission Directorate’s Earth Science Division at NASA Headquarters speaks during a briefing about the upcoming launch of the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission, Thursday, Jan. 08, 2015, at NASA Headquarters in Washington DC. The mission is scheduled for a Jan. 29 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, and will provide the most accurate, highest-resolution global measurements of soil moisture ever obtained from space. The data will be used to enhance scientists' understanding of the processes that link Earth's water, energy and carbon cycles. Photo Credit: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)

Kent Kellogg, SMAP project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, CA, speaks during a briefing about the upcoming launch of the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission, Thursday, Jan. 08, 2015, at NASA Headquarters in Washington DC. The mission is scheduled for a Jan. 29 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, and will provide the most accurate, highest-resolution global measurements of soil moisture ever obtained from space. The data will be used to enhance scientists' understanding of the processes that link Earth's water, energy and carbon cycles. Photo Credit: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)

Dara Entekhabi, SMAP science team lead, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, center, speaks during a briefing about the upcoming launch of the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission, Thursday, Jan. 08, 2015, at NASA Headquarters in Washington DC. The mission is scheduled for a Jan. 29 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, and will provide the most accurate, highest-resolution global measurements of soil moisture ever obtained from space. The data will be used to enhance scientists' understanding of the processes that link Earth's water, energy and carbon cycles. Photo Credit: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)

Christine Bonniksen, SMAP program executive with the Science Mission Directorate’s Earth Science Division, NASA Headquarters, left, Kent Kellogg, SMAP project manager, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), second from left, Dara Entekhabi, SMAP science team lead, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, second from right, and Brad Doorn, SMAP applications lead, Science Mission Directorate’s Applied Sciences Program, NASA Headquarters, right, are seen during a briefing about the upcoming launch of the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission, Thursday, Jan. 08, 2015, at NASA Headquarters in Washington DC. The mission is scheduled for a Jan. 29 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, and will provide the most accurate, highest-resolution global measurements of soil moisture ever obtained from space. The data will be used to enhance scientists' understanding of the processes that link Earth's water, energy and carbon cycles. Photo Credit: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)

Christine Bonniksen, SMAP program executive with the Science Mission Directorate’s Earth Science Division, NASA Headquarters, left, Kent Kellogg, SMAP project manager, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), second from left, Dara Entekhabi, SMAP science team lead, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, second from right, and Brad Doorn, SMAP applications lead, Science Mission Directorate’s Applied Sciences Program, NASA Headquarters, right, are seen during a briefing about the upcoming launch of the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission, Thursday, Jan. 08, 2015, at NASA Headquarters in Washington DC. The mission is scheduled for a Jan. 29 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, and will provide the most accurate, highest-resolution global measurements of soil moisture ever obtained from space. The data will be used to enhance scientists' understanding of the processes that link Earth's water, energy and carbon cycles. Photo Credit: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)

S72-55170 (11 Dec. 1972) --- These five men in the Mission Control Center ponder the solution to the problem of the damage to the right rear fender of the Apollo 17 Lunar Roving Vehicle at the Taurus-Littrow landing site. During the first lunar surface extravehicular activity a hammer got underneath the fender and a part of it was knocked off. Astronauts Eugene A. Cernan and Harrison H. Schmitt were reporting a problem with lunar dust because of the damaged fender. They sought some way to repair the broken fender. Clockwise are astronauts John W. Young and Charles M. Duke Jr., two Apollo 17 CAPCOM; Donald K. Slayton, director of flight crew operations at MSC; Dr. Roco A. Petrone, Apollo program director, Office of Manned Space Flight, NASA HQ; and Ronald V. Blevins, an EVA-1 flight controller with General Electric. They are looking over a makeshift repair arrangement which uses lunar maps and clamps from the optical alignment telescope lamp, a repair suggestion made by astronaut Young. The suggestion was relayed to Cernan and Schmitt and the repair made at the beginning of EVA-2. The problem was solved satisfactorily.