Launch of NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive, or SMAP observatory, aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket remains on schedule. Liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California is targeted for 9:20 a.m. EST on Thursday, Jan. 29 at the opening of a 3-minute launch window. The full launch team, spacecraft test team and …
After a week of medical science activities, the space station residents began the new week focusing on worms, fruit flies and plants. The tiny organisms provide scientists a model for larger organisms and how microgravity affects such things as immunity, muscles and bones. › Read more about the Epigenetics experiment › Read more about the …
Every month on Earth Matters, we offer a puzzling satellite image. The January 2015 puzzler is above. Your challenge is to use the comments section to tell us what part of the world we are looking at, when the image was acquired, what the image shows, and why the scene is interesting. How to answer. Your answer can be a […]
On Monday evening, January 26 from 10 p.m. to midnight CST Marshall scientists will observe the large Asteroid 2004 BL86 as it passes by Earth. The public is welcome to follow their observations via the Marshall Ustream feed The asteroid will safely pass about three times the distance of Earth to the moon, or approximately …
Combustion Integrated Rack (CIR) Maintenance: In preparation for CIR maintenance activities, Wilmore reviewed overview materials, set up and configured the Maintenance Work Area (MWA) and gathered tools. The crew then removed the Multi-user Droplet Combustion Apparatus (MDCA) Chamber Insert Assembly (CIA) from the CIR Combustion Chamber, and restrained it to the MWA Work Surface Area. …
With CATS successfully installed to an external platform on Japan’s Kibo laboratory, the Expedition 42 crew spent Friday working life science, combustion and a variety of other experiments. › Read more about CATS The Combustion Integrated Rack (CIR), located inside the Destiny lab module, needs fuel so scientists can ignite materials to study the behavior …
Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS) Transfer: Overnight, Robotic Flight Controllers used the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) with the Special Purpose Dexterous manipulator (SPDM) in order to extract CATS from the Dragon trunk. They then performed a handoff of CATS to the Japanese Experiment Module Remote Manipulator System (JEMRMS) and installed the experiment onto the …
Ground controllers overnight remotely guided the Canadarm2, with its Dextre robotic hand attached, to deftly remove the CATS experiment from the SpaceX Dragon trunk. They then handed it off to the Japanese robotic arm for installation on the Kibo laboratory’s external platform. CATS, or Cloud-Aerosol Transport System, will collect data on the pollution, dust, smoke, …
Remote Power Control Module (RPCM) Change Out: Today, Wilmore successfully replaced RPCM LAD11B_A located in Lab Avionics Rack 2. On January 15th, the RPCM had experienced a failure with a switch that provides power to Video Switching Unit (VSU)-1. VSU-1 is responsible for processing 3 of 6 possible external camera views and is also needed …
