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    Advanced Life Support, Robotics, and Repair Tech Studies Wrap Up Week

    The Expedition 72 crew explored new technologies on Friday including life support systems supported by photosynthesis, capturing satellites with robots, and cold welding in microgravity. The International Space Station residents also continued checking out spacesuits while keeping up standard lab maintenance tasks at the end of the week. Using micro-algae to remove carbon dioxide, produce …

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    Station Crew Studies Immunity, Digestion Systems to Benefit Health

    The Expedition 72 crew’s space biology research on Thursday explored how the human immune and digestion systems react to weightlessness to improve health on Earth and in space. The seven residents aboard the International Space Station also worked on a variety of other experiments while continuing the upkeep of the orbital lab. NASA astronauts Suni …

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    DNA Tech, Life Science Top Science Schedule as Station Boosts Orbit

    Wednesday’s research schedule aboard the International Space Station was packed with DNA-like nanomaterials, ultrasound scans, and a variety of advanced science hardware maintenance.  The Expedition 72 crew also continued its ongoing life support and systems servicing ensuring the upkeep of the orbital outpost. NASA Flight Engineers Suni Williams and Nick Hague continued exploring manufacturing DNA-like …

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    Biotech and Human Research Fill Station Crew’s Schedule

    Biotechnology research topped the science schedule aboard the International Space Station on Tuesday to advance in-space manufacturing of health therapies. The Expedition 72 crew members also took a physical fitness test, studied futuristic piloting techniques, and maintained a variety of research and electronics hardware throughout the day. NASA Flight Engineers Don Pettit and Nick Hague …

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    Dragon Spacecraft Boosts Station for First Time

    NASA and SpaceX monitored operations as the company’s Dragon spacecraft performed its first demonstration of reboost capabilities for the International Space Station at 12:50 p.m. EST on Friday. The spacecraft’s Draco thrusters adjusted the station’s orbit through a reboost of altitude by 7/100 of a mile at apogee and 7/10 of a mile at perigee, …

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    Science Activation and Training Top Friday’s Orbital Schedule

    A host of activities topped Friday’s schedule aboard the orbital outpost as the Expedition 72 crew penned in time for experiment activation, spacesuit work, training, and more. International Space Station Commander Suni Williams spent the first half of her day on spacesuit duty, removing the impact shields and inspecting the gear for any leaks. In …

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    Monitoring Webb’s Mirrors for Optimal Optics

    This image is composed of three square panels in a row, taken by one of the James Webb Space Telescope’s onboard instruments known as the Near Infrared Camera. Each of the three panels contains their own different image that are set on a black background. The panel on the left has a small very blurry, and pixelated white and gray hexagon at the center. From each of the flat surfaces of the hexagon, a small gray and pixelated triangle with its tip facing away, totaling six gray pixelated triangles pointing away from the central hexagon. This picture is ‘selfie’ using a specialized ‘pupil imaging’ lens, designed to take images of the mirror segments and not of the sky. The central panel shows the 18 hexagons of Webb’s primary mirror, akin to the hexagons of a beehive in bright white and gray, but are intentionally defocused and very blurry and pixelated. From the edges of the outer hexagons, light white and gray streak extend nearly all the way to the edge of the picture. The panel on the right is very similar to the image in the center panel, but the hexagon at the very center has black dots at each of the sixe points of the hexagon. At the outer edges it also has streaking blurry gray and white lines that emanate away from the center towards the edge of the picture

    NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is the largest and most powerful telescope ever launched to space. Its mirror is composed of 18 individual segments that have been aligned so accurately, that they effectively work as a single giant (21.6-foot, or 6.5-meter) reflector. The process of adjusting each of these separately functioning hexagonal mirror segments requires …

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