Ocular Health (OH): Virts and Cristoforetti completed their Return (R)-30 OH today. They each performed ultrasounds of their eye with the assistance of the other crewmember acting as a Crew Medical Officer (CMO). Virts, again with Cristoforetti as his CMO, performed an ultrasound echocardiogram. The Ocular Health protocol calls for a systematic gathering of physiological …
Q&A: Life in the Field with SMAPEx-4
Researcher Amy McNally spent two weeks in Yanco, Australia to participate in the three week Soil Moisture Active Passive Experiment-4 (SMAPEx-4) field campaign in May. The field campaign measures soil moisture and related data using ground and airborne instruments. The data is used to validate actual data and algorithms from the SMAP satellite. In the […]
See One of the First Climate Models
Based on email and social media comments we receive, climate models are one of the least understood and most maligned tools used by Earth scientists. What is a climate model? Putting aside the scientists from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory who posed for a climate model calendar in 2014 (cover above), climate models are simply mathematical […]
ISS Daily Summary Report – 05/21/2015
SpaceX-6 Dragon Departure: Overnight, the crew disconnected both power jumpers, installed the Center Disk Cover, and closed Node 2 Nadir Hatch. They then successfully depressurized and pressure checked the Node 2/Dragon vestibule. Dragon was unberthed from the Node 2 Nadir docking port and subsequently released by the crew utilizing the Space Station Remote Manipulator System …
Dragon Splashes Down in Pacific On Time
SpaceX’s Dragon cargo craft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean at 12:42 p.m. EDT, about 155 miles southwest of Long Beach, California, marking the end of the company’s sixth contracted cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station. The spacecraft is returning more than 3,100 pounds of NASA cargo and science samples from the International …
Dragon Headed for Splashdown as Crew Gets Back to Work
Scott Kelly, NASA’s One-Year crew member, flawlessly released the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft from the grips of the Canadarm2 at 7:04 a.m. EDT this morning. Mission Control in Houston had earlier commanded the station’s 57.7 foot long robotic arm to remove Dragon from the Harmony module and place it in its release position. After its release, …
Dragon Released for Pacific Splashdown
The SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft was released from the International Space Station’s robotic arm at 7:04 a.m. EDT. The capsule will begin a series of departure burns and maneuvers to move beyond the 656-foot (200-meter) “keep out sphere” around the station and begin its return trip to Earth. The capsule is currently scheduled to splashdown …
NASA TV Provides Live Coverage of SpaceX Dragon Departure
NASA Television will provide live coverage of the departure of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft from the International Space Station beginning at 6:45 a.m. EDT. Dragon was detached from the Earth-facing side of the station’s Harmony module earlier this morning. Mission control will maneuver Dragon into place then turn it over to Expedition 43 robotic arm …
ISS Daily Summary Report – 05/20/15
Double Cold Bag (DCB) Packing: Virts and Kelly packed the +4 degrees Celsius (°C) DCB with conditioned Ice Bricks and samples from Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI)-2 and -32°C DCBs with Ice Bricks and frozen samples from MELFI-3. The +4°C DCB will be returning with Cell Shape and Expression, CASIS PCG-3, …