Craft Barn's latest challenge: alpha letter N

The latest Craft Barn alpha dictionary letter is N.  There are no twists which means we can use any word that begins with the letter N.

I want to begin by thanking everyone who visited last time.  I was unfortunately unable to visit due to 1) first being offline for six days because both my phone and internet (served by AT&T) were out due to a flood we had in the neighborhood, and 2) once I was back online, I was (and still am) cleaning up a flood that took out much of the paper and books that I had stored in the basement.  The clean-up became more important than anything else because of potential mold which would affect my breathing if it wasn't dealt with immediately.  It's ironic, too, that I won the random number challenge on the fortnight I couldn't visit everyone.

So now let's get to this fortnight's challenge.

I considered lots of words, but finally settled on NASA, the U.S.A.'s National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

This is a program that is very near and dear to me because like many young girls, I wanted to grab a ticket and take that same space flight as Sally Ride did twice in her career as a NASA astronaut.

When most of us think of NASA, we think of the space aspect of NASA.   But there is another area of NASA, which is the Jet Propulsion Laboratory or JPL.  Attached to CalTech (or California Institute of Technology), one of its many functions is robotics.  Another is receiving data from spacecraft.

Back in October, 2001, I was privy to seeing some of the first images that were being sent by the orbiting Mars Odyssey.  I have been told there are tours you can take, but I was there as a friend of one of the engineers who worked on the design of the Odyssey.  He and the rest of the group were celebrating the first successful mission photos.  I even got to meet the new director of JPL, Charles Elachi.  I understand he has just stepped down as director after 16 years.

My dictionary definition is really sparse, but since it's a legitimate word, I'm using it.  The special significance is very important to me.

Thank you for your visit and your continued support of my art.  And I promise to visit each participant this time, even though I have limited time to do so.  As a group, I have made several friends because of this challenge and I want you to know I am sorry I missed your entry last time.