I’m Christina Williamson, a postdoctoral scientist at CIRES CU-Boulder/NOAA-ESRL interested in Atmospheric Aerosols, the small particles in the air that cause haze, and on which clouds are formed. I’m working with a few colleagues from NOAA to take a suite of instruments on NASA’s ATom mission that will measure the number and size of particles […]
ISS Daily Summary Report – 07/21/16
Dragon Operations: The crew was scheduled to ingress and configure Dragon for on-orbit operations today, however, these tasks were completed yesterday. Today they transferred critical cargo and unpacked double cold bags to retrieve science as well as transferring 2 “Polar” freezers from Dragon into the EXPRESS rack locations that had been prepared for them. Mouse …
ATom Mission to Sample the Atmosphere is Ready for Take Off
Take 78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen, 0.9 percent argon, 0.03 percent carbon dioxide – that’s 99.93 percent of the atmosphere. But the trace gases and airborne particles that make up that last approximately 0.07 percent are what NASA’s Atmospheric Tomography (ATom) mission is interested in. ATom is a chemistry mission to study the movement […]
Hatches Between Dragon and the Station are Open
The hatches between Dragon and station were opened at 2:27 p.m. EDT Wednesday, July 20. The crew entered to document the interior and will begin unloading cargo this afternoon. The spacecraft delivered nearly 5,000 pounds of science, hardware and supplies, including instruments to perform the first-ever DNA sequencing in space, and the first of two …
Platform Milestone Reached at Kennedy Space Center for NASA’s Space Launch System
Installation of new work platforms for NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and the journey to Mars reached the halfway point this week inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The F North and South platforms were lifted by crane from the transfer aisle floor of the VAB, slowly …
ISS Daily Summary Report – 07/20/16
SpaceX (SpX)-9 Capture: The Dragon vehicle was successfully captured by the SSRMS at 5:56AM CDT today. Ground teams then berthed the vehicle to the Node 2 Nadir (N2N) port at approximately 9 AM, after which the crew performed vestibule pressurization and outfitting. Thanks to the crew and ground operators getting ahead of the timeline, they …
Ready for the Field
We are ready for the big day! Tomorrow (Wednesday) we will start our put-in to the field. With a total of 5 helicopter flights all our gear, science equipment and the entire team will be flown to our field site, approx. 130 km northwest of Kulusuk. However, we have to take the weather in account; […]
Dragon Attached to Station’s Harmony Module
The SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft was bolted into place on the Harmony module of the International Space Station at 10:03 a.m. EDT as the station flew about 252 statute miles over the California and Oregon border. The spacecraft is delivering nearly 5,000 pounds of science, hardware and supplies, including instruments to perform the first-ever DNA …
Dragon Arrives and Captured by Robotic Arm
While the International Space Station was traveling 252 statute miles over the Great Lakes, NASA’s Expedition 48 Commander Jeff Williams and NASA Flight Engineer Kate Rubins used the station’s 57.7-foot (17.6-meter) robotic arm to reach out and capture the Dragon spacecraft at 6:56 a.m. EDT. NASA Television coverage will resume at 8:30 a.m. for Dragon …