Blogs

Samples collected from Panama’s forest canopy are providing information that will ultimately be linked to remote sensing data.

The Expedition 72 crew spent Tuesday setting up a free-flying robotics competition for students and a cleaning a 3D biological printer. The International Space Station residents also conducted blood and saliva tests, cleaned crew quarters, and packed a cargo ship for departure.

Muscle stimulation and blood tests topped the International Space Station research schedule on Friday helping doctors learn how to keep astronauts healthy on long-term missions. The Expedition 72 residents also winded down the work week cleaning spacesuits and life support gear aboard the orbital outpost.

After about a month in transit to the Moon, Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander successfully completed a four-minute lunar orbit insertion burn Thursday – the longest and most challenging burn conducted to date by the lander’s main engine and reaction control system thrusters. Now that the lander is in lunar trajectory, over the next 16 …

Human research, the series of ongoing investigations to understand how an astronaut’s body adapts to living long-term in space, was the main science topic aboard the International Space Station on Thursday. The Expedition 72 residents also continued packing a cargo craft for its upcoming departure and conducted an emergency drill to stay familiar with response, communication, and coordination procedures.

Trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) are icy bodies ranging in size from Pluto and Eris (dwarf planets with diameters of about 1,500 miles) down to tens of miles (Arrokoth) and even smaller. TNOs are on orbits comparable in size, or even much larger than, that of Neptune. The existence of TNOs was postulated by Kenneth Edgeworth, and …

The Expedition 72 crew continued its research on Wednesday to better understand space-caused eye pressure changes and ensure crew members stay healthy on future missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. The orbital residents also kept up the continuous operations of critical science gear and life support systems on the International Space Station.

Editor’s note: This blog was updated on Feb. 12, 2025, to add the target launch time. NASA and SpaceX are accelerating the target launch and return dates for the upcoming crew rotation missions to and from the International Space Station. The agency’s Crew-10 launch now is targeting 7:48 p.m. EDT, Wednesday, March 12, pending mission …

Tuesday’s International Space Station research objectives included learning how to grow crops on spacecraft and produce vitamins and nutrients in space to sustain crews farther away from Earth. The Expedition 72 crewmates also explored how the human body orients itself in weightlessness and serviced a pair of docked spacecraft.702