Blogs

Cube Satellite (CubeSat) Deploys: Yesterday the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) Remote Manipulator System (RMS) was used to move 8 NanoRacks CubSat Deployers (NRCSDs) from the JEM Airlock to the deploy position.  These NRCSDs contain a total of 16 small cube satellites. Today JAXA Robotic Flight Controllers successfully deployed the first 4 CubeSats.  The remaining satellites …

Cosmo Shoot Operation:  Flight Engineer (FE)-6 Wakata set up JAXA’s Cosmo Shoot laptop and 4K camera in the Cupola and captured images of the US west coast, India and the Himalayas, Africa and South America. Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) Resonant Inductive Near-field Generation System (RINGS):  FE-6 Wakata integrated the RINGS hardware …

Update: Reddit AMA with Bill Cooke has been rescheduled to March 6 at 1 p.m. CST.  NASA meteor and fireball experts Dr. Bill Cooke, Danielle Moser and Rhiannon Blaauw are participating in Reddit Ask Me Anything event on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2014 at 1 p.m. CST on the Reddit “IAmA” forum. Reddit is a popular online …

FGB Power and Data Grapple Fixture (PDGF) Resistance Test:   Today Flight Engineer (FE)-4 Tyurin disconnected Russian to American Converter Unit (RACU)-5 and RACU-6 Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) system power from the FGB PDGF Connection Panel.  FE-6 Wakata and Tyurin then performed a connection resistance test which confirmed that the SSRMS system and payloads …

Medaka Osteoclast 2:  Flight Engineer (FE)-6 Wakata activated the Multi-Purpose Small Payload Rack (MSPR) Hub unit and installed the Medaka Chamber in the fluorescent microscope for observation of a Medaka sample over the next seven days. Preparation for Cube Satellite (CubeSat) Deploys:  Last Friday, January 31st, Wakata experienced an issue installing the NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer …

The SpaceX mission to ferry cargo to the International Space Station is to launch Sunday, March 16 at 4:41 a.m. eastern time from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.  

Progress 54P Launch and Dock: Today, 54P launched successfully from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 10:23am CST. After a nominal ascent then performing a four orbit rendezvous, the spacecraft docked automatically to the ISS DC-1 docking port at 4:22pm CST. The Progress is delivering more than 1400 kg of cargo to the ISS. Microbiome Investigation: Flight …

Last week we shared an image of an 800-kilometer long bloom of marine protists off the coast of Brazil. In satellite imagery, the bloom appeared navy to black in color, even though the species—Myrionecta rubra—appears red when viewed close-up. The blooms tend to occur just below the water surface, so much red light that the […]

Editor’s Note: This guest post was written by David Wolfe, a remote sensing specialist working with the Global Land Ice Measurements from Space (GLIMS) project, and Jeffrey Kargel, a professor at the University of Arizona and the GLIMS project coordinator. Wolfe wrote his thesis for Alaska Pacific University about glacier-dammed lakes in Alaska and recently […]