3D Printing in Zero-G Experiment Setup: Today, the crew set up the 3D Printer in the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) work volume. The payload ground team remotely operated the device to produce two 3D printed test coupons, and the crew removed and stowed each of them. The 3D Printing In Zero-G experiment demonstrates that a …
A World Beyond Pluto: Finding a New Target for New Horizons
Today's post is written by Alex Parker, a research scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, working on NASA's New Horizons mission. Pluto and its moons are the most distant worlds ever visited by any of humanity's robotic explorers, but for how much longer will that remain true? New Horizons is outbound through …
Platform D North Arrives at Kennedy Space Center for NASA’s Space Launch System
The second half of the D-level work platforms for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), D North, arrived at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center on June 27. The D work platforms are the seventh set of new platforms to arrive at Kennedy. A total of 10 levels of work platforms will surround the SLS rocket and …
3-D Printer Work Ahead of Weekend Departure of Cargo Ship
Expedition 48 Commander Jeff Williams is conducting a 3-D printing experiment inside the Destiny laboratory module today. His crewmates, Flight Engineers Oleg Skripochka and Alexey Ovchinin, worked on a variety of Russian experiments and readied a cargo ship for departure. Williams gathered the 3-D Printing payload hardware and set up the gear in the Destiny …
ISS Daily Summary Report – 06/27/16
Ultrasonic Background Noise Test (UBNT): The crew replaced batteries and transmitted data by closing out the Station Support Computer (SSC’s) Distributed Impact Detection System (DIDS) software and removing the UBNT hardware. UBNT detects high-frequency sounds generated by hardware on the U.S.-built portions of the ISS. Identifying sources of noise will aid in development of a …
Crew Preps for Cargo Ship Maneuvers
A pair of Expedition 48 cosmonauts are getting a Progress cargo ship ready to undock and redock Friday morning before its ultimate departure Saturday night. The maneuver will test an upgraded telerobotically operated rendezvous system installed in the Zvezda service module after the Progress docked in December. The Progress 62 (62P) resupply ship will undock …
NASA’s super pressure balloon at 40
Forty days at float as of Saturday, June 25, and NASA's super pressure balloon (SPB) is presently flying above the south Pacific as it continues on its long-duration technology test and science flight. For the past two weeks, the balloon has etched out a whimsical groundtrack over the Pacific, slipping out of the more southerly …
Fourth Set of New Work Platforms Installed in Vehicle Assembly Building High Bay 3
The G-level work platforms for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, were installed this week in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. A heavy-lift crane was used to raise G south and G north platforms up from the transfer aisle, then over and down to about the …
ISS Daily Summary Report – 06/24/16
Multi-Omics: The crew checked the remaining Fructooligosaccharide (FOS) packages and stowed the Fructooligo Bag for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Multi-Omics investigation. The Multi-Omics analysis of human microbial-metabolic cross-talk in the space ecosystem evaluates the impacts of space environment and prebiotics on astronauts’ immune function by combining the data obtained from the measurements of …