User talk:Gazamp/Archive 2

Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals update #023, 25 Nov 2018[edit]

There are now 4,180 portals.

Will we break 5,000 by the end of the year?

I know we can. But, that is up to you!

( New portals are created with {{subst:Basic portal start page}} or {{subst:bpsp}} )

Happy Holidays[edit]

Hello everyone! Enjoy the holiday season and winter solstice (if it's occurring in your area of the world), and thanks for your work in maintaining, improving, and expanding portals. Cheers, — The Transhumanist 06:51, 26 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Spread the WikiLove; use {{subst:Season's Greetings}} to send this message

Jingling along[edit]

The following portals have been created since the last issue:

Keep 'em coming!

By the way, the above list was generated using this Petscan query. It can be easily modified by changing the date. The data page (under the Output tab) also has options for receiving the data in CSV or tabbed format, which some operating systems automatically load into a spreadsheet program for ease of use, such as copying and pasting the desired column (like page names).

In closing[edit]

We'll keep it short this issue.

Expect a flood next time. Or the one after that.

Cheerio, — The Transhumanist 07:14, 26 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

See the diffs[edit]

To see how I modified the portal, check out the diffs. Portals are now mostly parameter-driven. Master the parameters, and you master portals.

Parameter specifics are covered in the instructions to each template.

You'll be a master in no time! — The Transhumanist 18:43, 27 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

P.S.: If you have any questions, any whatsoever, please feel free to fire away! — The Transhumanist 18:47, 27 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

P.P.S.: I look forward to seeing what other portals you create! — The Transhumanist 18:48, 27 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@The Transhumanist: Thanks! This really helps - it's just what I needed... Gazamp (talk) 18:51, 27 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Portal tips[edit]

Portal tip #1[edit]

There are two basic approaches to creating portals of the new design:

Find subjects that have support in place
Create a portal on whatever interests you

The first approach is by far the fastest, because, with the right resources in place, it results in almost instant portals.

What support?

A like-named navbox footer template, and pictures on the portal's corresponding root article.

Try creating Portal:Convicts in Australia, to see what I mean. All it will need is the category name changed in the Subcategories section, and add the corresponding category (Category:Convictism in Australia) to the bottom of the page.

Have fun. — The Transhumanist 19:22, 27 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Portal tip #2: Making more Selected sections[edit]

You can have more than one Selected articles section. Here's how:

Portal:NASA would make an excellent portal.

However, the navigation footer isn't named Template:NASA, and so you'll get an error message in that section.

Checking the bottom of the NASA article, we discover 2 juicy navigation templates!

You could use them both in the same section, or better yet, make a section in the portal for each.

Like this:

Selected general NASA articles

Image 1

Ingenuity at Wright Brothers Field on April 6, 2021, its third day of deployment on Mars

Ingenuity, nicknamed Ginny, is an autonomous NASA helicopter that operated on Mars from 2021 to 2024 as part of the Mars 2020 mission. Ingenuity made its first flight on April 19, 2021, demonstrating that flight is possible in the extremely thin atmosphere of Mars, and becoming the first aircraft to conduct a powered and controlled extra-terrestrial flight. It was designed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in collaboration with AeroVironment, NASA's Ames Research Center and Langley Research Center with some components supplied by Lockheed Martin Space, Qualcomm, and SolAero.

Ingenuity was delivered to Mars on February 18, 2021, attached to the underside of the Perseverance rover, which landed at Octavia E. Butler Landing near the western rim of the 45 km-wide (28 mi) Jezero crater. Because radio signals take between five and 20 minutes to travel between Earth and Mars, depending on the planets' positions, it could not be controlled directly in real time but flew autonomously to execute flight plans designed and sent to it by JPL. (Full article...)
Image 2

Still frame of John Glenn in orbit, taken by
a motion picture camera inside Friendship 7

Mercury-Atlas 6 (MA-6) was the first crewed American orbital spaceflight, which took place on February 20, 1962. Piloted by astronaut John Glenn and operated by NASA as part of Project Mercury, it was the fifth human spaceflight, preceded by Soviet orbital flights Vostok 1 and 2 and American sub-orbital flights Mercury-Redstone 3 and 4.

The Mercury spacecraft, named Friendship 7, was carried to orbit by an Atlas LV-3B launch vehicle lifting off from Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. After three orbits, the spacecraft re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, splashed down in the North Atlantic Ocean, and was safely taken aboard USS Noa. The total mission flight time was 4 hours 55 minutes and 23 seconds. (Full article...)
Image 3
The Science Mission Directorate (SMD) of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) engages the United States' science community, sponsors scientific research, and develops and deploys satellites and probes in collaboration with NASA's partners around the world to answer fundamental questions requiring the view from and into space.

The Science Mission Directorate also sponsors research that both enables, and is enabled by, NASA's exploration activities. The SMD portfolio is contributing to NASA's achievement of the Vision for Space Exploration by striving to: (Full article...)
Image 4
This is a list of images released to celebrate the Hubble Space Telescope's anniversaries. They celebrate its "birthday" when it was launched into orbit on April 24, 1990, by the crew of Space Shuttle Discovery. (Full article...)
Image 5
Gemini VI-A (foreground) and Gemini VII make the first rendezvous in orbit between two crewed spacecraft, December 15, 1965

The Gemini astronauts were sixteen pilots who flew in Project Gemini, NASA's second human spaceflight program, between projects Mercury and Apollo. Carrying two astronauts at a time, a senior command pilot and a junior pilot, the Gemini spacecraft was used for ten crewed missions. Four of the sixteen astronauts flew twice.

Gemini was the second phase in the United States space program's larger goal of "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" before the end of the 1960s, as proposed by president John F. Kennedy. As an intermediary step, Gemini afforded its astronauts the opportunity to gain critical spaceflight experience, performing tasks required in the later Apollo program which fulfilled this objective. Such tasks included rendezvous or station-keeping with other craft, docking, habitation in space over the course of several days, and flying spacecraft with more than one crew member. Importantly, most individuals who flew as Gemini astronauts returned to space as key personnel in the Apollo program, bringing with them their first-hand experience of the operations carried out during Gemini. Among the Gemini astronauts, six later walked on the Moon, another five flew to the Moon without landing, and two participated in Low Earth orbit Apollo missions. Gus Grissom and Ed White were killed in the Apollo 1 disaster, and former Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper did not perform any further spaceflights. (Full article...)
Image 6
Enos, the third great ape and only chimpanzee to orbit the Earth, being prepared for launch on Mercury-Atlas 5 (November 29, 1961)

The first primate launched into high subspace, although not a space flight, was Albert I, a rhesus macaque, who on June 18, 1948, rode a rocket flight to over 63 km (39 mi) in Earth's atmosphere on a V-2 rocket. Albert I died of suffocation during the flight and may actually have died in the cramped space capsule before launch.

On June 14, 1949, Albert II survived a sub-orbital V-2 flight into space (but died on impact after a parachute failure) to become the first monkey, first primate, and first mammal in space. His flight reached 134 km (83 mi) – past the Kármán line of 100 km which designates the beginning of space. (Full article...)
Image 7

A 1973 artist's conception of the docking of the two spacecraft

Apollo–Soyuz was the first crewed international space mission, carried out jointly by the United States and the Soviet Union in July 1975. Millions of people around the world watched on television as an American Apollo spacecraft docked with a Soviet Soyuz capsule. The project, and its handshake in space, was a symbol of détente between the two superpowers during the Cold War.

The mission was officially known as the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project (ASTP; Russian: Экспериментальный полёт «Союз» – «Аполлон» (ЭПАС), romanized: Eksperimentalniy polyot Soyuz–Apollon (EPAS), lit. 'Experimental flight Soyuz-Apollo', and commonly referred to in the Soviet Union as Soyuz–Apollo; the Soviets officially designated the mission as Soyuz 19). The unnumbered American vehicle was left over from the canceled Apollo missions, and was the last Apollo module to fly. (Full article...)
Image 8

Artist impression of a Viking orbiter releasing a lander descent capsule

The Viking program consisted of a pair of identical American space probes, Viking 1 and Viking 2, which landed on Mars in 1976. The mission effort began in 1968 and was managed by the NASA Langley Research Center. Each spacecraft was composed of two main parts: an orbiter designed to photograph the surface of Mars from orbit, and a lander designed to study the planet from the surface. The orbiters also served as communication relays for the landers once they touched down.

The Viking program grew from NASA's earlier, even more ambitious, Voyager Mars program, which was not related to the successful Voyager deep space probes of the late 1970s. Viking 1 was launched on August 20, 1975, and the second craft, Viking 2, was launched on September 9, 1975, both riding atop Titan IIIE rockets with Centaur upper stages. Viking 1 entered Mars orbit on June 19, 1976, with Viking 2 following on August 7. (Full article...)
Image 9

Artist's rendering of the Juno spacecraft

Juno is a NASA space probe orbiting the planet Jupiter. It was built by Lockheed Martin and is operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on August 5, 2011 UTC, as part of the New Frontiers program. Juno entered a polar orbit of Jupiter on July 5, 2016, UTC, to begin a scientific investigation of the planet. After completing its mission, Juno will be intentionally deorbited into Jupiter's atmosphere.

Juno's mission is to measure Jupiter's composition, gravitational field, magnetic field, and polar magnetosphere. It will also search for clues about how the planet formed, including whether it has a rocky core, the amount of water present within the deep atmosphere, mass distribution, and its deep winds, which can reach speeds up to 620 km/h (390 mph). (Full article...)
Image 10
Mars Exploration Program (MEP) is a long-term effort to explore the planet Mars, funded and led by NASA. Formed in 1993, MEP has made use of orbital spacecraft, landers, and Mars rovers to explore the possibilities of life on Mars, as well as the planet's climate and natural resources. The program is managed by NASA's Science Mission Directorate by Doug McCuistion of the Planetary Science Division. As a result of 40% cuts to NASA's budget for fiscal year 2013, the Mars Program Planning Group (MPPG) was formed to help reformulate the MEP, bringing together leaders of NASA's technology, science, human operations, and science missions. (Full article...)
Image 11
The final meeting of the NACA, before being absorbed into NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 (Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 85–568) is the United States federal statute that created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The Act, which followed close on the heels of the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik, was drafted by the United States House Select Committee on Astronautics and Space Exploration and on July 29, 1958 was signed by President Eisenhower. Prior to enactment, the responsibility for space exploration was deemed primarily a military venture, in line with the Soviet model that had launched the first orbital satellite. In large measure, the Act was prompted by the lack of response by a US military infrastructure that seemed incapable of keeping up the space race.

The original 1958 act charged the new Agency with conducting the aeronautical and space activities of the United States "so as to contribute materially to one or more of the following objectives:" (Full article...)
Image 12

The Chief of the Astronaut Office is the most senior leadership position for active astronauts at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The Chief Astronaut serves as head of the NASA Astronaut Corps and is the principal advisor to the NASA Administrator on astronaut training and operations. The Chief's responsibilities include managing Astronaut Office resources and operations and helping to develop operating concepts and assignments for astronaut flight crew. (Full article...)
Image 13

A selfie taken by NASA's Orion Spacecraft
Photo of Orion taken during the flight of Artemis 1

Orion (Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle or Orion MPCV) is a partially reusable crewed spacecraft used in NASA's Artemis program. The spacecraft consists of a Crew Module (CM) space capsule designed by Lockheed Martin and the European Service Module (ESM) manufactured by Airbus Defence and Space. Capable of supporting a crew of four beyond low Earth orbit, Orion can last up to 21 days undocked and up to six months docked. It is equipped with solar panels, an automated docking system, and glass cockpit interfaces modeled after those used in the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. A single AJ10 engine provides the spacecraft's primary propulsion, while eight R-4D-11 engines, and six pods of custom reaction control system engines developed by Airbus, provide the spacecraft's secondary propulsion. Orion is intended to launch atop a Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, with a tower launch escape system.

Orion was conceived in the early 2000s by Lockheed Martin as a proposal for the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) to be used in NASA's Constellation program and was selected by NASA in 2006. Following the cancellation of the Constellation program in 2010, Orion was heavily redesigned for use in NASA's Journey to Mars initiative; later named Moon to Mars. The SLS became Orion's primary launch vehicle, and the service module was replaced with a design based on the European Space Agency's Automated Transfer Vehicle. A development version of Orion's CM was launched in 2014 during Exploration Flight Test-1, while at least four test articles were produced. Orion was primarily designed by Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Littleton, Colorado, with former Space Shuttle engineer Julie Kramer White at NASA as Orion's chief engineer. (Full article...)
Image 14
Olivine basalt collected from the rim of Hadley Rille by the crew of Apollo 15

Moon rock or lunar rock is rock originating from Earth's Moon. This includes lunar material collected during the course of human exploration of the Moon, and rock that has been ejected naturally from the Moon's surface and landed on Earth as meteorites. (Full article...)
Image 15
Launch of Space Shuttle Columbia on 12 April 1981 at Pad 39A for mission STS-1

The Space Shuttle was a partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated by NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration). Its official program name was Space Transportation System (STS), taken from a 1969 plan for a system of reusable spacecraft of which it was the only item funded for development. Operational missions launched numerous satellites, conducted science experiments in orbit, and participated in construction and servicing of the International Space Station (ISS). The first of four orbital test flights occurred in 1981, leading to operational flights beginning in 1982.

From 1981 to 2011 a total of 135 missions were flown, all launched from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. During that time period the fleet logged 1,322 days, 19 hours, 21 minutes and 23 seconds of flight time. The longest orbital flight of the Shuttle was STS-80 at 17 days 15 hours, while the shortest flight was STS-51-L at one minute 13 seconds when the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart during launch. The cold morning shrunk an O-Ring on the right Solid Rocket Booster causing the external fuel tank to explode. The shuttles docked with Russian space station Mir nine times and visited the ISS thirty-seven times. The highest altitude (apogee) achieved by the shuttle was 386 mi (621 km) when deploying the Hubble Space Telescope. The program flew a total of 355 people representing 16 countries, and with 852 total shuttle fliers. The Kennedy Space Center served as the landing site for 78 missions, while 54 missions landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California and one mission landed at White Sands, New Mexico. (Full article...)
Image 16
The Earth Observing System (EOS) is a program of NASA comprising a series of artificial satellite missions and scientific instruments in Earth orbit designed for long-term global observations of the land surface, biosphere, atmosphere, and oceans. Since the early 1970s, NASA has been developing its Earth Observing System, launching a series of Landsat satellites in the decade. Some of the first included passive microwave imaging in 1972 through the Nimbus 5 satellite. Following the launch of various satellite missions, the conception of the program began in the late 1980s and expanded rapidly through the 1990s. Since the inception of the program, it has continued to develop, including; land, sea, radiation and atmosphere. Collected in a system known as EOSDIS, NASA uses this data in order to study the progression and changes in the biosphere of Earth. The main focus of this data collection surrounds climatic science. The program is the centrepiece of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise. (Full article...)
Image 17
Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt standing next to a boulder at Taurus-Littrow.

Since its establishment in 1958, NASA has conducted research on a range of topics. Because of its unique structure, work happens at various field centers and different research areas are concentrated in those centers. Depending on the technology, hardware and expertise needed, research may be conducted across a range of centers. (Full article...)
Image 18
An Explorer mission observes Sagittarius A*, the Milky Way's central black hole, flaring.

The Explorers program is a NASA exploration program that provides flight opportunities for physics, geophysics, heliophysics, and astrophysics investigations from space. Launched in 1958, Explorer 1 was the first spacecraft of the United States to achieve orbit. Over 90 space missions have been launched since. Starting with Explorer 6, it has been operated by NASA, with regular collaboration with a variety of other institutions, including many international partners.

Launchers for the Explorer program have included Juno I, Juno II, various Thor, Scout, Delta and Pegasus launch vehicles, and Falcon 9. (Full article...)
Image 19
The first six primary mirror segments being prepared for final cryogenic acceptance testing, 2011

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is an international 21st-century space observatory that was launched on 25 December 2021. It is intended to be the premier observatory of the 2020s, combining the largest mirror yet on a near-infrared space telescope with a suite of technologically advanced instruments from around the world.

The telescope is designed to last at least five and a half years (six months calibration plus five years science operations), but with a goal of ten years. The limiting factor is expected to be fuel to maintain its halo orbit, of which there is enough for at least ten years. (Full article...)
Image 20

Aerial view of KSC Launch Complex 48. Launch Complexes 39A and 39B are both visible behind the pad.

Launch Complex 48 (LC-48) is a multi-user launch site for small launchers and spacecraft. It is located south of Launch Complex 39A and north of Space Launch Complex 41.

The construction of LC-48 began in November 2019 but was halted in March 2020 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Construction was resumed in June 2020, with the completion of the first pad in October 2020. (Full article...)
Image 21
This is a list of persons who served aboard Space Shuttle crews, arranged in chronological order by Space Shuttle missions.

Abbreviations:
- PC = Payload Commander
- MSE = USAF Manned Spaceflight Engineer
- Mir = Launched to be part of the crew of the Mir Space Station
- ISS = Launched to be part of the crew of the International Space Station.
(Full article...)
Image 22
The Lunar Precursor Robotic Program (LPRP) is a NASA program that uses robotic spacecraft to prepare for future crewed missions to the Moon. The program gathers data such as lunar radiation, surface imaging, areas of scientific interest, temperature and lighting conditions, and potential resource identification.

Two LPRP missions, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), were launched in June 2009. The lift-off above Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on June 18, 2009, was successful. The uncrewed Atlas V rocket launched the two space probes towards the Moon, where they will provide a 3D map and search for water in conjunction with the Hubble Space Telescope, launching on June 17, 2009. (Full article...)
Image 23

The Mars Exploration Rover-2 (MER-2) during testing for mobility and maneuverability

Spirit, also known as MER-A (Mars Exploration Rover – A) or MER-2, is a Mars robotic rover, active from 2004 to 2010. Spirit was operational on Mars for 2208 sols or 3.3 Martian years (2269 days; 6 years, 77 days). It was one of two rovers of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Mission managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Spirit landed successfully within the impact crater Gusev on Mars at 04:35 Ground UTC on January 4, 2004, three weeks before its twin, Opportunity (MER-B), which landed on the other side of the planet. Its name was chosen through a NASA-sponsored student essay competition. The rover got stuck in a "sand trap" in late 2009 at an angle that hampered recharging of its batteries; its last communication with Earth was on March 22, 2010.

The rover completed its planned 90-sol mission (slightly less than 92.5 Earth days). Aided by cleaning events that resulted in more energy from its solar panels, Spirit went on to function effectively over twenty times longer than NASA planners expected. Spirit also logged 7.73 km (4.8 mi) of driving instead of the planned 600 m (0.4 mi), allowing more extensive geological analysis of Martian rocks and planetary surface features. Initial scientific results from the first phase of the mission (the 90-sol prime mission) were published in a special issue of the journal Science. (Full article...)
Image 24

Oblique underside view in November 2021

The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station assembled and maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), CSA (Canada), and their contractors. ISS is the largest space station ever built. Its primary purpose is performing microgravity and space environment experiments.

Operationally the station is divided into two sections: the Russian Orbital Segment assembled by Roscosmos and the US Orbital Segment assembled by NASA, JAXA, ESA and CSA. A striking feature of the ISS is the Integrated Truss Structure, which connects the large solar panels and radiators to the pressurized modules. The pressurized modules are specialized for research, habitation, storage, spacecraft control and airlock functions. Visiting spacecraft dock to the station via its eight docking and berthing ports. The ISS maintains an orbit with an average altitude of 400 kilometres (250 mi) and circles the Earth in roughly 93 minutes, completing 15.5 orbits per day. (Full article...)
Image 25

Artist's impression of the Kepler telescope

The Kepler space telescope is a defunct space telescope launched by NASA in 2009 to discover Earth-sized planets orbiting other stars. Named after astronomer Johannes Kepler, the spacecraft was launched into an Earth-trailing heliocentric orbit. The principal investigator was William J. Borucki. After nine and a half years of operation, the telescope's reaction control system fuel was depleted, and NASA announced its retirement on October 30, 2018.

Designed to survey a portion of Earth's region of the Milky Way to discover Earth-size exoplanets in or near habitable zones and estimate how many of the billions of stars in the Milky Way have such planets, Kepler's sole scientific instrument is a photometer that continually monitored the brightness of approximately 150,000 main sequence stars in a fixed field of view. These data were transmitted to Earth, then analyzed to detect periodic dimming caused by exoplanets that cross in front of their host star. Only planets whose orbits are seen edge-on from Earth could be detected. Kepler observed 530,506 stars and detected 2,778 confirmed planets as of June 16, 2023. (Full article...)

Selected NASA facilities

Image 1

Space Launch System atop LC-39B on March 18, 2022

Launch Complex 39B (LC-39B) is the second of Launch Complex 39's three launch pads, located at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida. The pad, along with Launch Complex 39A, was first designed for the Saturn V launch vehicle, which at the time was the United States' most powerful rocket. Typically used to launch NASA's crewed spaceflight missions since the late 1960s, the pad is currently configured for use by the agency's Space Launch System rocket, a Shuttle-derived launch vehicle which is currently used in the Artemis program and subsequent Moon to Mars campaigns. The pad had also been leased by NASA to aerospace company Northrop Grumman, for use as a launch site for their Shuttle-derived OmegA launch vehicle, for National Security Space Launch flights and commercial launches, before the OmegA program was cancelled. (Full article...)
Image 2
The Carnarvon Tracking Station was an Earth tracking station in Australia, located 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) south of Carnarvon, Western Australia. It operated from 1963 until 1975, during which it supported the Gemini, Apollo and Skylab space programs. (Full article...)
Image 3
Fellow Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard watches launch at the CAPCOM console in Mercury Control during Gus Grissom's July 21, 1961, Mercury-Redstone 4 (Liberty Bell 7) flight

The Mercury Control Center (also known as Building 1385 or simply MCC) provided control and coordination of all activities associated with the NASA's Project Mercury flight operation as well as the first three Project Gemini flights (the first two had no crew). It was located on the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, east of Samuel C. Phillips Parkway.

The facility was expanded in 1963 to support Project Gemini by contractor Pan American World Airways to provide more meeting space along with space for data analysis, and a large space for a new Gemini spacecraft trainer. (Full article...)
Image 4

The Central Instrumentation Facility (CIF) was a building in the Kennedy Space Center industrial area that functioned as the core of instrumentation and data processing operations during the Apollo program and the early years of the Space Shuttle program. It centralized the handling of the center's data including offices, laboratories and test stations; and housed general instrumentation activities serving more than one launch complex. The CIF also included the Central Timing Facility, where a precision clock drove countdown clocks and other timing devices at KSC that required a high degree of accuracy.

The CIF also housed computers and other electronic equipment for reduction of telemetry data, analysis, and transmission to other NASA centers. The three-story structure of approximately 134,335 sq ft (12,480.1 m²) just west of the KSC Headquarters Building was one of the most distinctive buildings in the KSC Industrial Area with its rooftop array of various antennas. (Full article...)
Image 5

Aerial view of Shuttle Landing Facility in 2012

The Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF), also known as Launch and Landing Facility (LLF) (IATA: QQS, ICAO: KTTS, FAA LID: TTS), is an airport located on Merritt Island in Brevard County, Florida, United States. It is a part of the Kennedy Space Center and was used by Space Shuttle for landing until July 2011. It was also used for takeoffs and landings for NASA training jets such as the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft and for civilian aircraft.

Starting in 2015, Space Florida manages and operates the facility under a 30-year lease from NASA. In addition to ongoing use by NASA, private companies have been utilizing the SLF since the 2011 end of the Space Shuttle program. (Full article...)
Image 6
The Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex (GDSCC), commonly called the Goldstone Observatory, is a satellite ground station located in Fort Irwin in the U.S. state of California. Operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), its main purpose is to track and communicate with interplanetary space missions. It is named after Goldstone, California, a nearby gold-mining ghost town.

The station is one of three satellite communication stations in the NASA Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program’s Deep Space Network (DSN), whose mission is to provide the vital two-way communications link that tracks and controls interplanetary spacecraft and receives the images and scientific information they collect. The others are the Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex in Spain and the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex in Australia. These three stations are located at separations of approximately 120° longitude so that as the Earth rotates a spacecraft will always be in sight of at least one station. (Full article...)
Image 7

The pad in January 2024 during the launch of Axiom Mission 3 with the SpaceX Starship launch tower in the background

Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) is the first of Launch Complex 39's three launch pads, located at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida. The pad, along with Launch Complex 39B, was first designed to accommodate the Saturn V launch vehicle. Typically used to launch NASA's crewed spaceflight missions since the late 1960s, the pad was leased by SpaceX and has been modified to support their launch vehicles. (Full article...)
Image 8
The Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES) Directorate performs the physical science research at the Johnson Space Center (JSC). It serves as the JSC focus for support to the HQ Science Mission Directorate. ARES scientists and engineers also provide support to the human and robotic spaceflight programs with expertise in orbital debris modeling, analysis of micrometeoroid/orbital debris risks to spacecraft, image analysis and Earth observations. The responsibilities of ARES also include interaction with the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance and the Human Space Flight Programs. They perform research in Earth, planetary, and space sciences and have curatorial responsibility for all NASA-held extraterrestrial samples.

The ARES Directorate recently added a Wordpress Blog that will allow social media Twitter updates to new research and Laboratory discoveries. Posts will also be made by the Expedition Earth and Beyond Education Program that will be adding their classroom connection events to the NASA ARES YouTube page. (Full article...)
Image 9

The NASA Railroad (reporting mark NLAX) is a Class III industrial short-line railroad at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The railroad consists of 38 miles (61 km) of track connecting the mainline of the Florida East Coast Railway and trackage at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. NASA uses the railroad to deliver large or bulk materials to support its operations, particularly solid rocket boosters and chemicals such as helium and oxygen for rocket fuel. (Full article...)
Image 10

Top to bottom, left to right: Aerial view of MAF in January 2020, the factory floor, Artemis 1 liquid oxygen tank in the South Vertical Assembly Building, and the entrance to the lobby and administration offices.

The Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) is an 832-acre (1.3 sq mi; 3.4 km²) manufacturing complex owned by NASA in New Orleans East, a section of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the United States. Organizationally it is part of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, and is currently a multi-tenant complex to allow commercial and government contractors, as well as government agencies, to use the site.

MAF is one of the largest manufacturing plants in the world with 43 environmentally controlled acres—174,000 m² (1,870,000 sq ft)—under one roof, and it employs more than 4,200 people. From September 1961 to the end of the Apollo program in December 1972 the site was utilized by Chrysler Corporation to build the first stages of the Saturn I and Saturn IB, later joined by Boeing Corporation to build the first stage of the Saturn V rockets. From September 5, 1973, to September 20, 2010, the factory was used for the construction of the Space Shuttle's external fuel tanks by Martin Marietta Corporation. (Full article...)
Image 11

Aerial view of the Operations and Checkout building at KSC, c. 2017

The Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building (O&C) (previously known as the Manned Spacecraft Operations Building) is a historic building on Merritt Island, Florida, United States. The five-story structure is in the Industrial Area of NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Its has twin-block facilities that include the crew quarter dormitories for astronauts, suit-up preparations prior to their flights, and the other is a large spacecraft workshop used for manufacturing and checking activities on crewed spacecraft. On January 21, 2000, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. (Full article...)
Image 12

The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten field centers. Since December 1968, KSC has been NASA's primary launch center of American spaceflight, research, and technology. Launch operations for the Apollo, Skylab and Space Shuttle programs were carried out from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39 and managed by KSC. Located on the east coast of Florida, KSC is adjacent to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS). The management of the two entities work very closely together, share resources and operate facilities on each other's property.

Though the first Apollo flights and all Project Mercury and Project Gemini flights took off from the then-Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the launches were managed by KSC and its previous organization, the Launch Operations Directorate. Starting with the fourth Gemini mission, the NASA launch control center in Florida (Mercury Control Center, later the Launch Control Center) began handing off control of the vehicle to the Mission Control Center in Houston, shortly after liftoff; in prior missions it held control throughout the entire mission. (Full article...)
Image 13

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center in La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States. Founded in 1936 by Caltech researchers, the laboratory is now owned and sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and administered and managed by the California Institute of Technology.

The laboratory's primary function is the construction and operation of planetary robotic spacecraft, though it also conducts Earth-orbit and astronomy missions. It is also responsible for operating the NASA Deep Space Network. (Full article...)
Image 14
In the 1980s, the airport was chosen as a launch site for NASA's high-altitude balloon program (see Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility). NASA spent about $100,000 to construct large insulated walls and air conditioning inside the one remaining wartime hangar so payloads could use the place in a controlled environment. Three bays with tall sliding doors that opened into the main hangar area provided a workable area for scientists and their payloads with large steel A-frames used to suspend the payloads. Other NASA buildings were constructed at the airport.

Currently two operational balloon launch campaigns are conducted at the airport each year. These occur in the May–June and September–October timeframe surrounding the two stratospheric turnaround events. The NASA Ft. Sumner facility has grown in capability over the years and now includes a machine shop and still utilizes the old World War II hangar as a work area, storage area for support vehicles, and a hangar for NSBF aircraft during balloon flight operations. (Full article...)
Image 15
The Headquarters of the Space Task Group (STG) at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia

The Space Task Group was a working group of NASA engineers created in 1958, tasked with managing America's human spaceflight programs. Headed by Robert Gilruth and based at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, it managed Project Mercury and follow-on plans. After President John F. Kennedy set the goal in 1961 for the Apollo Program to land a man on the Moon and bring him back safely to Earth, NASA decided a much larger organization and a new facility was required to perform the Task Group's function, and it was transformed into the Manned Spacecraft Center (now the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center), located in Houston, Texas.

In later years, the term Space Task Group was ambiguously reused to refer to an ad hoc committee appointed by the President to recommend human spaceflight programs, usually chaired by the Vice President. For instance, President Richard Nixon appointed such a group in February 1969 to outline a post-Apollo spaceflight strategy, chaired by Vice President Spiro T. Agnew. (Full article...)
Image 16
Aerial view of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in the Simi Hills, with the San Fernando Valley and San Gabriel Mountains beyond to the east. The Energy Technology Engineering Center site is in the flat Area IV at the lower left, with the Rocket Test Field Laboratory sites in the hills at the center. (Spring 2005)

The Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL), formerly known as Rocketdyne, is a complex of industrial research and development facilities located on a 2,668-acre (1,080 ha) portion of Southern California in an unincorporated area of Ventura County in the Simi Hills between Simi Valley and Los Angeles. The site is located approximately 18 miles (29 km) northwest of Hollywood and approximately 30 miles (48 km) northwest of Downtown Los Angeles. Sage Ranch Park is adjacent on part of the northern boundary and the community of Bell Canyon is along the entire southern boundary.

SSFL was used mainly for the development and testing of liquid-propellant rocket engines for the United States space program from 1949 to 2006, nuclear reactors from 1953 to 1980 and the operation of a U.S. government-sponsored liquid metals research center from 1966 to 1998. Throughout the years, about ten low-power nuclear reactors operated at SSFL, (including the Sodium Reactor Experiment, the first reactor in the United States to generate electrical power for a commercial grid, and the first commercial power plant in the world to experience a partial core meltdown) in addition to several "critical facilities" that helped develop nuclear science and applications. At least four of the ten nuclear reactors had accidents during their operation. The reactors located on the grounds of SSFL were considered experimental, and therefore had no containment structures. (Full article...)
Image 17

Docking practice during Apollo program

The Rendezvous Docking Simulator, also known as the Real-Time Dynamic Simulator, is a simulator at the Langley Research Center. It was constructed for the Gemini program in Building 1244 and it became operational in June 1963 at a cost of $320,000 and later reconfigured for the Apollo program. The simulator consists of a gantry frame, with an overhead carriage from which test craft were suspended by cables. A gimbal was powered hydraulically and was capable of changing pitch and yaw at a rate of 1 radian per second or roll at 2 radians per second. The gantry also moved like an overhead crane using electric motors and was capable of travelling 210 feet (64 m) longitudinally at up to 20 feet per second (6.1 m/s), 16 feet (4.9 m) laterally at up to 4 feet per second (1.2 m/s) and vertically 45 feet (14 m) at up to 10 feet per second (3.0 m/s).

It is the only surviving simulator from the NASA Gemini and Apollo space programs that was used by astronauts to practice docking of space capsules with other vessels. Ability to dock reliably with the Apollo Lunar Module was a crucial skill essential for the mission to return from the Moon. The docking simulator was used alongside the Projection Planetarium in training exercises. (Full article...)
Image 18

Vintage (left) and contemporary (right) glove boxes as seen in 2015

The Lunar Sample Laboratory Facility (LSLF) is a repository and laboratory facility at NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, opened in 1979 to house geologic samples returned from the Moon by the Apollo program missions to the lunar surface between 1969 and 1972. The facility preserves most of the 382 kilograms (842 lb) of lunar material returned over the course of Apollo program and other extraterrestrial samples, along with associated data records. It also contains laboratories for processing and studying the samples without contamination. (Full article...)
Image 19

LC-39 Launch Control Center

The Rocco A. Petrone Launch Control Center (commonly known as just the Launch Control Center or LCC) is a four-story building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida, used to manage launches of launch vehicles from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39. Attached to the southeast corner of the Vehicle Assembly Building, the LCC contains offices; telemetry, tracking, and instrumentation equipment; and firing rooms.

LCC has conducted launches since the unmanned Apollo 4 (Apollo-Saturn 501) launch on November 9, 1967. LCC's first launch with a human crew was Apollo 8 on December 21, 1968. NASA's Space Shuttle program also used LCC. NASA has renovated the center for Space Launch System (SLS) missions, which began in 2022 with Artemis 1. In February 2022, the center was renamed after former launch director Rocco A. Petrone. (Full article...)
Image 20

Emblem of Space Launch Delta 45

Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) is an installation of the United States Space Force's Space Launch Delta 45, located on Cape Canaveral in Brevard County, Florida.

Headquartered at the nearby Patrick Space Force Base, the station is the primary launch site for the Space Force's Eastern Range with three launch pads currently active (Space Launch Complexes 37B, 40, and 41). The facility is south-southeast of NASA's Kennedy Space Center on adjacent Merritt Island, with the two linked by bridges and causeways. The Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Skid Strip provides a 10,000-foot (3,000 m) runway close to the launch complexes for military airlift aircraft delivering heavy and outsized payloads to the Cape. (Full article...)
Image 21

White Sands Test Facility (WSTF) is a U.S. government rocket engine test facility and a resource for testing and evaluating potentially hazardous materials, space flight components, and rocket propulsion systems. NASA established WSTF on the White Sands Missile Range in 1963. WSTF services are available to NASA, the United States Department of Defense, other federal agencies, universities and commercial industry. WSTF is managed by the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. WSTF is located in the western foothills of the Organ Mountains, eleven miles east of Las Cruces, New Mexico. (Full article...)
Image 22
The Manned Space Flight Network (abbreviated MSFN, pronounced "misfin") was a set of tracking stations built to support the American Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and Skylab space programs.

There were two other NASA space communication networks at the time, the Spacecraft Tracking and Data Acquisition Network (STADAN) for tracking satellites in low Earth orbit, and the Deep Space Network (DSN) for tracking more distant uncrewed missions. After the end of Skylab, the MSFN and STADAN were merged to form the Spaceflight Tracking and Data Network (STDN). STDN was in turn replaced by the satellite-based Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) during the Space Shuttle program, being used . (Full article...)
Image 23

Top to bottom, left to right: Aerial view of JSC with Space Center Houston in the foreground, Space Vehicle Mockup Facility, Christopher C. Kraft Jr. Mission Control Center, Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, and the Space Center Houston Saturn V exhibit.

The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight in Houston, Texas (originally named the Manned Spacecraft Center), where human spaceflight training, research, and flight control are conducted. It was renamed in honor of the late US president and Texas native, Lyndon B. Johnson, by an act of the United States Senate on February 19, 1973.

JSC consists of a complex of 100 buildings constructed on 1,620 acres (660 ha) in the Clear Lake Area of Houston. The center is home to NASA's astronaut corps, and is responsible for training astronauts from both the US and its international partners. It also houses the Christopher C. Kraft Jr. Mission Control Center, which has provided the flight control function for every NASA human spaceflight since Gemini 4 (including Apollo, Skylab, Apollo–Soyuz, and Space Shuttle). It is popularly known by its radio call signs "Mission Control" and "Houston". (Full article...)
Image 24

Insignia for the Deep Space Network's 50th anniversary celebrations (1963–2013)

The NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) is a worldwide network of spacecraft communication ground segment facilities, located in the United States (California), Spain (Madrid), and Australia (Canberra), that supports NASA's interplanetary spacecraft missions. It also performs radio and radar astronomy observations for the exploration of the Solar System and the universe, and supports selected Earth-orbiting missions. DSN is part of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). (Full article...)
Image 25

The John C. Stennis Space Center (SSC) is a NASA rocket testing facility in Hancock County, Mississippi, United States, on the banks of the Pearl River at the Mississippi–Louisiana border. , it is NASA's largest rocket engine test facility. There are over 50 local, state, national, international, private, and public companies and agencies using SSC for their rocket testing facilities. (Full article...)

Note that |SPAN=yes|EDIT=yes|TOC=yes are needed only when posting to non-portal pages, like talk pages. — The Transhumanist 19:40, 27 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Portal:Stonehenge[edit]

I really like this one you did. I've touched it up a bit. — The Transhumanist 10:07, 29 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Disambiguation link notification for December 3[edit]

An automated process has detected that when you recently edited List of British postage stamps, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page CEPT (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver).

(Opt-out instructions.) --DPL bot (talk) 09:26, 3 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Philatety Portal[edit]

With this edit you removed a load of links and critical information and now there are just 3 big images and loads of empty space. I think it looks dreadful and sparse. If that's you best effort it's hardly worth having. ww2censor (talk) 22:49, 3 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Ww2censor: I have reverted my edits to Portal:Philately. I hope this is OK. Apologies, Gazamp (talk) 18:26, 4 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Portal:Demography[edit]

Thank you for creating this portal! You filled a blatant gap. Nice catch.

I've renamed it from Portal:Demographics, added topics to the topics section (I copy/pasted them from Category:Demography while displaying them with the userscript User:The Transhumanist/ViewAsOutline-Category.js, and filled in or changed some parameters so that the various sections auto-generated. I also added another cattree to the subcats section, and moved that section down to the one-column area because it became so big.

I hope you like the changes, and that you find these techniques useful in your own portal work.

Keep up the great work, and keep the new portals coming!

Sincerely, — The Transhumanist 03:56, 5 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Portal tip #3: Official maintainers of portals[edit]

Some portals have dedicated maintainers who watch over and maintain them.

Maintenance status, and/or maintainers may be specified in the categories at the bottom of the portal, in the {{Portal maintenance status}} template at the top of the portal (in the wikicode), or in the project's participants list at Wikipedia:WikiProject_Portals#Specific_portal_maintainers.

It is worth checking these before converting an old-style portal.

I accidentally did the same thing to Portal:American Civil War, and got my ass chewed. Portals maintainers can be very, well, very...

...expressive. — The Transhumanist 06:35, 5 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Portal tip #4: refining the internal search parameters[edit]

Each portal has a search built-in that powers its Did you know and In the news sections.

Unfortunatey, the default search term isn't that great. It's the magic word {{PAGENAME}}. That just generates the subject of the portal, which is always capitalized, and in many cases, pluralized. That works great for terms that are usually capitalized, like person and place names, but not for the rest.

So, it helps to add to or replace the default search parameter with other search terms. You can put in as many as you like, separated by pipes (|).

By the way "%s" means space in Lua search notation.

And you can specify groups with "[]" square brackets. "[Aa]" means big A or little a, and apple with either would look like this: [Aa]pple

For more info on Lua search parameters, see [[]].

Some examples of portals with improved Did you know and In the news search parameters include:

Remember, the search parameters should be specified in both the Did you know and In the news sections.

I hope you liked this tip.

Sincerely, — The Transhumanist 07:58, 5 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Portal counter: 538[edit]

It auto-updates. To keep track of where we are at.

5,000, here we come! — The Transhumanist 08:16, 5 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Portal titles should be plural[edit]

Just a heads up...

For items that have a plural, the portal should be named for the plural.

For example, Portal:Tigers, instead of Portal:Tiger.

I've renamed Template:Rose to Template:Roses, and Portal:Rose to Portal:Roses. Nice portal, by the way.

Portal titles generally match the corresponding category. See Category:Roses.

When renaming a navbox template, be sure to also update its name= in its wikicode (near the top of the page in the wiki editor). That controls the view and edit links displayed on the template itself.

You are doing a great job pushing the project forward into new content territory.

Keep the new portals coming!

Sincerely, — The Transhumanist 02:36, 9 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Power search: SearchSuite.js[edit]

I wrote a userscript for making Wikipedia search results more powerful.

It's SearchSuite.

It provides several menu items on the search results page to reformat the results for ease of use.

It can show the results as a straight list, which is extremely useful when searching for templates, for example.

I hope you like it. — The Transhumanist 10:25, 10 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Got it, thanks!

Gazamp (talk) 18:16, 10 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Refining a portal's internal search parameters can make a big difference[edit]

Each portal has a conditional Did you know, and a conditional In the news, section that only show up when there are results to display. Unfortunately, the default search parameter is {{PAGENAME}}, which is always interpreted as the portal title capitalized.

Take a look at Portal:Suffragettes.

By changing the search parameters in this edit, the Did you know section is activated and displays 5 results. Makes quite a difference, because the lua program wasn't searching for the title with a small "s", or for its singular. Now it searches for both of those.

For subjects that are not usually capitalized or pluralized, changing the search parameters is needed in order for those 2 sections to show anything.

Keep up the good work, and keep those new portals coming! — The Transhumanist 08:08, 13 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

A barnstar for you![edit]

	The Original Barnstar
	Nice article you wrote (I'm a new page patroller reviewing it) DannyS712 (talk) 06:57, 15 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@DannyS712: Thank you! Gazamp (talk) 19:06, 16 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Disambiguation link notification for December 16[edit]

An automated process has detected that when you recently edited Ryan Zinke, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page John Kelly (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver).

(Opt-out instructions.) --DPL bot (talk) 09:30, 16 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals update #024, 26 Dec 2018[edit]

Last issue, I mentioned there would be a flood, and so, here it is...

Portals status[edit]

We now have 4,620 portals.

And the race to pass 5,000 by year's end is on...

Can we make it?

The New Year, and the 5,001st portal, await.

( New portals are created with {{subst:Basic portal start page}} or {{subst:bpsp}} )

Evad is back![edit]

After disappearing in mid-thread, Evad37 has returned from a longer than expected wikibreak.

Be sure to welcome him back.

Improved cropping is coming to Portal image banner[edit]

User:FR30799386 is working on making {{Portal image banner}} even better by enabling it to chop the top off an image as well as the bottom.

Many pictures aren't suitable for banners because they are too tall. Therefor, User:FR30799386 added cropping to this template, so that an editor could specify part of a picture to be used rather than the whole thing.

Upgrade of flagship portals is underway[edit]

Work has begun on upgrading Wikipedia's flagship portals (those listed at the top of the Main page).

So far, Portal:Geography, Portal:History, and Portal:Technology have been revamped. Of course, you are welcome to improve them further.

Work continues on the other five. Feel free to join in on the fun.

Spotting missing portals that are redirects[edit]

In place of many missing portals, there is a redirect that leads to "the next best topic", such as a parent topic.

Most of these were created before we had the tools to easily create portals (they used to take 6 hours or more to create, because it was all done manually). Rather than leave a portal link red, some editors thought it was best that those titles led somewhere.

The subjects that have sufficient coverage should have their own portals rather than a redirect to some other subject.

Unfortunately, being blue like all other live links, redirects are harder to spot than redlinks.

To spot redirects easily, you can make them all appear green.

What's new in portal space?[edit]

Here are the new portals since the last issue:

Keep 'em coming![edit]

And I'll see you next issue.

Sincerely, — The Transhumanist 08:08, 26 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

We're almost there[edit]

We just hit 4,940 portals.

We have 3 more days left in the year to make it to 5,000.

We're almost there! — The Transhumanist 09:30, 28 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals update #025, 30 Dec 2018[edit]

We can now crop the tops of pics to make banners[edit]

Before, we could only cut off the bottom of pics.

User:FR30799386 has pulled it off, and made the upgrade to {{Portal image banner}}...

So, this:

Niagara falls, from the Canadian side

Becomes this:

Niagara falls, from the Canadian side

Here's the code for the above banner:

{{Portal image banner|File:American Falls from Canadian side in winter.jpg | [[Niagara falls]], from the Canadian side |maxheight=175px |overflow=Hidden|croptop=10}}

To see it employed in a portal, check out Portal:Niagara Falls.

About that end of the year goal...[edit]

We were racing against time to create 5,000 portals by the end of the year (just for the heck of it).

We made it. We've passed the 5,000 portals mark, with time to spare!

And the 5,000th portal is Portal:Major League Baseball, by Happypillsjr.

Congratulations!

What's next?[edit]

The 10,000th portal mark. But...

...there is plenty else to do in addition to building new portals:

The new portals need to be linked to from the encyclopedia.
On those portals about subjects that are not typically capitalized, the search parameters need to be refined/expanded, to maximize the chances of Did you know and In the news items being found and displayed.
A Recognized content section needs to be added to each portal that has a corresponding WikiProject.
Addition of a category on those portals that lack a subject category.
Implement the portal category system, adding the appropriate categories to each portal.
Upgrade, and complete (as per the tasks enumerated above), the old-style portals that are not regularly maintained, which have not been converted yet (about 1,100 of them).
Find and fix the remaining bugs in the underlying lua modules.
Build portal tools (scripts) to assist in the creation, development, and maintenance of portals.
Build a script to help build navbox footer templates, via the harvesting of categories, amongst other methods.
Update the portal building instructions.
Update the portal guideline.
Refine the programming of the portals to reduce their load time.
Design and develop the next generation of portals and portal components.

And whatever else you can dream up.

But most of all, have a...

Happy New Year!

Gazamp, thank you for your contributions to the Portals Project, and have a prosperous, productive and enjoyable New Year.

Sincerely, — The Transhumanist 11:54, 30 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Help reviewing proposed edits?[edit]

Hi!

I see you are a member of the Wikipedia project for journalism. I was a journalist for 25 years so it's a topic that interests me. Anyway, I have a conflict of interest with respect to the article about the journalist Jonathan Swan as a paid consultant to his current publisher, Axios. I think the article can be massively improved and I've made a series of proposed changes here: Talk:Jonathan_Swan#Request_Edits. If you could take a look, it would be much appreciated. I don't make edits directly on the article because of the WP: COI policy. Thanks! Ed BC1278 (talk) 19:16, 1 January 2019 (UTC)BC1278[reply]

Ways to improve Donald Heflin[edit]

Hello, Gazamp,

Thanks for creating Donald Heflin! I edit here too, under the username Rosguill and it's nice to meet you :-)

I wanted to let you know that I have tagged the page as having some issues to fix, as a part of our page curation process and note that:-

The article could use citations to additional reliable sources that are independent of the US government

The tags can be removed by you or another editor once the issues they mention are addressed. If you have questions, leave a comment here and prepend it with {{Re|Rosguill}}. And, don't forget to sign your reply with ~~~~ . For broader editing help, please visit the Teahouse.

Delivered via the Page Curation tool, on behalf of the reviewer.

_signed,Rosguill ^talk 23:58, 12 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals update #026, 20 Jan 2019[edit]

Well, here's the first issue of the new year. Enjoy...

New participants[edit]

A hearty welcome to new arrivals to the portals department:

Harvesting categories tool prototype[edit]

DannyS712 has created a user script prototype, User:DannyS712/Cat links, that can pull members from a category, a functionality we've been after since the project's revamp last Spring. Now, it's a matter of applying this technique to scripts that will place the items where needed, such as in a section starter script and/or portal builder script.

New portals since last issue[edit]

What else is going on[edit]

There have been some discussions at Wikipedia talk:Portal guidelines.

DreamyJazz is working on a bot to place links to portals on root articles, category pages, and navigation footer templates.

Portal bugs are getting dealt with soon after they are reported.

Lots of wikignome activity (using Hotcat, etc.).

Keep up the good work. — The Transhumanist 08:16, 20 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

An invitation to discussion[edit]

I kindly invite you to the discussion on Template talk:Infobox election#The Bolding issue to decide whether to bold the winner in the election infobox. Lmmnhn (talk) 19:23, 20 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals update #027, 28 Jan 2019[edit]

Portal styles[edit]

For a visually intensive portal, see Portal:Hummingbirds.

If you find any other portals that stand out, please send me the links so I can include them in the next issue. Thank you.

Conversion continues[edit]

There are about 1100 portals left in the old style, with subpages and static excerpts. As those are very labor intensive to maintain (because their maintenance is manual), all those except the ones with active maintainers (about 100) are slated for upgrade = approximately 1000. We started with 1500, and so over a quarter of them have been processed so far. That's good, but at this rate, conversion will take another 3 years. So, some automation (AWB?) is in order. We just need to keep at it, and push down on the gas pedal a bit harder.

You can find the old-style portals with an insource search of "box portal skeleton".

Flagship portals: the portals on the Main Page[edit]

Speaking of upgrades...

The following portals are listed in the header at the top of Wikipedia's Main Page, and get far more traffic than all other portals:

Of those, all but one have been revamped to an automated self-updating single-page design.

The remaining one, Portal:Mathematics has manual maintainers, and has been partially upgraded.

As these are our flagship fleet, they need to be kept in top-notch condition.

Check 'em out, and improve them if you can.

And be sure they are on your watchlist.

New portals since last issue[edit]

Keep 'em coming!

Deorphanizing the new portals[edit]

As you know, thousands of the new portals are orphans, that is, having no links to them from article space. For all practical purposes, that means they are not part of the encyclopedia yet, and readers will be unlikely to find them.

What is needed are links to these portals from the See also sections of the corresponding root articles.

Dreamy Jazz to the rescue...

Dreamy Jazz has created a bot to place the corresponding category link to the end of each portal (if it is missing), and place a link to each portal in the See also section of the corresponding root articles.

That bot, named User:Dreamy Jazz Bot, is currently in its trial period performing the above described edits!

To take a look at the edits it has made so far, see Special:Contributions/Dreamy_Jazz_Bot.

It shouldn't be long before the bot is processing the entire set of new portals.

Good news indeed.

Way to go, Dreamy Jazz!

And, that's a wrap[edit]

That's all I have to report this time around.

No doubt there will be more to tell soon.

Until then, — The Transhumanist 13:12, 28 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals update #028, 04 Feb 2019[edit]

Here's a quicky status report:

Old-style portals: 1,018

Single-page portals: 4,367

Total portals: 5,385

But of course, there has been more going on than just that...

Dreamy Jazz Bot is up and running![edit]

Dreamy Jazz Bot has been approved and is now up and running.

What it does is places missing links to orphaned portals. It places a link in the See also section of the corresponding root article, and it puts one at the top of the corresponding category page.

We have thousands of new portals that have yet to be added to the encyclopedia proper, just waiting to go live.

When they do go live, over the coming days or weeks, due to Dreamy Jazz Bot, it will be like an explosion of new portals on the scene. We should expect an increase in awareness and interest in the portals project. Perhaps even new participants.

Get ready...

Get set...

Go!

Another sockpuppet infiltrator has been discovered[edit]

User:Emoteplump, a recent contributor to the portals project, was discovered to be a sockpuppet account of an indefinitely blocked user.

When that happens, admins endeavor to eradicate everything the editor contributed. This aftermath has left a wake of destruction throughout the portals department, again.

The following portals which have been speedy deleted, are in the process of being re-created. Please feel free to help to turn these blue again:

And the corresponding talk pages:

New portals since the last issue[edit]

Keep up the great work[edit]

Until next time, — The Transhumanist 09:00, 4 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals update #029, 13 Feb 2019[edit]

Where we are at:

Single-page portals: 4,704

Total portals: 5,705

The Ref desks survived the proposal to shut them down[edit]

You might be familiar with the Ref desks, by their link on every new portal. They are a place you can go to ask volunteers almost any knowledge-related question, and have been a feature of Wikipedia since August of 2005 (or perhaps earlier). They were linked to from portals in an effort to improve their visibility, and to provide a bridge from the encyclopedia proper to project space (the Wikipedia community).

Well, somebody proposed that we get rid of them, and the community decided that that was not going to happen. Thank you for defending the Ref desks!

Here's a link to the dramatic discussion:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_(proposals)/Indefinitely_semiprotecting_the_refdesk#Proposal_II:_Shut_down_the_Ref_Desks

The cleanup after sockpuppet Emoteplump continues...[edit]

The wake of disruption left by Emoteplump and the admins who reverted many (but not all) of his/her edits is still undergoing cleanup. We could use all the help we can get on this task...

Almost all of the speedy deleted portals have been rebuilt from scratch.

For the portals he/she restarted (many of which were done mistakenly, overwriting restarts and further development that had already been done), and/or tagged as the maintainer, see https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Emoteplump&oldid=881568794#Additional_Portals_under_my_watch

10,000 portals, here we come...[edit]

We're at 5,705 portals and counting.

New portals since issue #28[edit]

Prior to 2018, for the previous 14 years, portal creation was at about 80 portals per year on average. We did over 3 times that in just the past 9 days. At this rate, we'll hit the 10,000 portal mark in 5 months. But, I'm sure we can do it sooner than that.

What's next for portal pages?[edit]

There are 5 drives for portal development:

Create new portals
Expand existing portals, such as with new sections like Recognized content
Convert or restart old-style portals into automated single-page portals
Link to new portals from the encyclopedia
Pageless portals

Let's take a closer look at these...

1: Creating new portals[edit]

Portal creation, for subjects that happen to have the necessary support structures already in place, is down to about a minute per portal. The creation part, which is automated, takes about 10 seconds. The other 50 seconds is taken up by manual activities, such as finding candidate subjects, inspecting generated portals, and selecting the portal creation template to be used according to the resources available. Tools are under development to automate these activities as much as possible, to pare portal creation time down even more. Ten seconds each is the goal.

Eventually, we are going to run out of navigation templates to base portals off of. Though there are still thousands to go. But, when they do run out, we'll need an easy way to create more. A nav footer creation script.

Meanwhile, other resources are being explored and developed, such as categories, and methods to harvest the links they contain.

2: Expanding existing portals[edit]

The portal collection is growing, not only by the addition of new portals, but by further developing the ones we already have, by...

Improving and/or adding search parameters to better power the Did you know and In the news sections.
Adding more selected content sections, like Selected biographies.
Adding and maintaining Recognized content sections, via JL-Bot.
Adding pictures to the image slideshow.
Adding panoramic pics.
Categorizing portals.

More features will be added as we dream them up and design them. So, don't be shy, make a wish.

3: Converting old portals[edit]

By far the hardest and most time-consuming task we have been working on is updating the old portals, the very reason we revamped this WikiProject in the first place.

There are two approaches here:

A) Restart a portal from scratch, using our automated tools. For basic no-frills portals, that works find. But, for more elaborate portals, as that tends to lose content and features, the following approach is being tried...

B) Upgrade a portal section by section, so little to nothing is lost in the process.

4: Linking to new portals[edit]

Or "portal deorphanization"...

Dreamy Jazz Bot is purring along.

And a tool in the form of a script is under development for linking to portals at the time they are created, or shortly thereafter.

5...[edit]

See below...

New WikiProject for the post-saved-portal phase of operations...[edit]

Saved portals, are portals with a saved page.

What is the next stage in the evolutionary progression?

Quantum portals.

What are quantum portals?

Portals that come into existence when you click on the portal button, and which disappear when you leave the page.

Or, as Pbsouthwood put it:

...portals that exist only as a probability function (algorithm) until you collapse the wave form by observing through the portal button (run the script), and disappear again after use...

Introducing...

Wikipedia:WikiProject Quantum portals (see it's talk page).

Keep on keepin' on[edit]

...'til next time, — The Transhumanist 10:22, 14 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

v t e Portal templates
Visual overview of template usage
Layout and formatting	{{Box portal skeleton}} {{Box-header}} color palettes plain round square watch {{Box-header colour}}¹ {{Box-footer}} {{Flex columns}} {{Plain navboxes}}
Content transclusion	{{Transclude lead excerpt}}² {{Transclude linked excerpt}}² {{Transclude list item excerpt}}² {{Transclude random excerpt}}² {{Transclude selected excerpt}}² {{Excerpt}} {{Transclude DYK}}⁹ {{Transclude selected current events}}³ {{Transclude selected recent additions}}⁴
Content slideshows	{{Random slideshow}}⁵ {{Transclude files as random slideshow}}⁵ {{Transclude excerpts as random slideshow}}⁶ {{Transclude linked excerpts as random slideshow}}⁶ {{Transclude list item excerpts as random slideshow}}⁶
Content randomisation	{{Random portal component}}⁷ {{Random quotation}} {{Random subpage}}
General	{{Portals}} {{Portals browsebar}} {{Portal description}} {{Portal information sidebar}} {{Portal navbar no header2}} {{Purge link portals}} {{Wikimedia for portals}}
Linking templates	{{Portal}}¹¹ {{Portal bar}}¹² {{Portal-inline}}¹³ {{Pbox}} {{Related portals2}}
Talk pages / Maintenance	{{Portal talk}} {{Portal maintenance status}}⁸ {{Portal suggestions}} {{Portal toolbox}} {{WikiProject Portals}}⁸
Images	{{Portal dynamic image}} {{Portal image banner}}¹⁰ {{Portal pictures}}¹⁴ {{Portal POTD}}
Modules	¹ Module:Box-header ² Module:Excerpt/portals ³ Module:Selected current events ⁴ Module:Selected recent additions ⁵ Module:Random slideshow ⁶ Module:Excerpt slideshow ⁷ Module:Random portal component ⁸ Module:Portal maintenance status ⁹ Module:Transclude DYK ¹⁰ Module:Portal image banner ¹¹ Module:Portal ¹² Module:Portal bar ¹³ Module:Portal-inline ¹⁴ Module:Portal pictures
Usage	Wikipedia:Portal Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals
For more information, see: Category:Template-Class Portal pages and Category:Wikipedia Portal templates