Three new International Space Station crew members are making final preparations a day before their launch to the orbital laboratory. They will join the orbiting Expedition 44 trio which is busy today with a variety of advanced microgravity experiments to benefit life on Earth and future space crews. An international crew from Russia, Japan and …
Every month on Earth Matters, we offer a puzzling satellite image. The July 2015 puzzler is above. Your challenge is to use the comments section to tell us what part of the world we are looking at, when the image was acquired, what the image shows, and why the scene is interesting. How to answer. Your answer can be a […]
The CYGNSS satellite mission is actually eight satellites working together as a constellation, instead of one big satellite. The good and bad of having 8 small satellites versus one big satellite were discussed in the previous post. When the mission was proposed, we had already decided how many satellites we needed to have. Deciding on […]
This is a cross-post from Laura Rocchio and our colleagues at NASA’s Landsat Science Team. The European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2A successfully launched into orbit on June 22, 2015, from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, aboard a Vega rocket (10:52 p.m. local time; 01:52 GMT). The Sentinel-2A satellite has spectral bands similar to Landsat 8’s (excluding […]
Habitability: Kelly used the iShort application on the iPad to document his observations on the habitability of the ISS. Habitability assesses the relationship between crew members and their environment in order to better prepare for future long-duration spaceflights to destinations, such as Near Earth Asteroids (NEA) and Mars. The ultimate goal is to understand how …
The three-member Expedition 44 crew explored microgravity science today while maintaining the systems of the International Space Station. Back on Earth, a Soyuz rocket rolled out to its launch pad today before Wednesday’s launch of three new crew members to the orbital laboratory. One-Year crew member Scott Kelly worked throughout Monday primarily on station life …
Our July 16 Image of the Day—Changing Forest Cover Since the Soviet Era—features a Landsat-derived map showing how forests have changed in Eastern Europe since 1985. After exploring the three areas we highlighted, I highly recommend browsing the map at full resolution using either Google Earth or GigaPan. The amount of detail you will find […]
Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, and Reorient Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) Slosh: Kelly configured two SPHERES satellites and coordinated with ground controllers to observe the dominance of fluid forces during higher accelerations. The investigation uses small robotic satellites to examine how liquids move inside containers in microgravity. A water bottle’s contents slosh around differently in space than …
Late Notice Conjunction: The Flight Control Team was notified of a late notice, red conjunction early this morning with insufficient time to execute a Predetermined Debris Avoidance Maneuver (PDAM). The ISS crew was directed to take steps to safe the ISS and shelter in place in the Soyuz. The conjunction passed without incident and the …
The Expedition 44 crew is back at work after taking precautions as a piece of orbital debris safely passed the International Space Station this morning. Meanwhile, three new crew members are conducting final preparations before next week’s launch to the orbital laboratory. Mission Control in Houston tracked a fragment of an old weather satellite and …
