Blogs

Payloads: Veg-05: The Veggie facility completed its dry out period and was deactivated. The Pick-and-Eat Salad-Crop Productivity, Nutritional Value, and Acceptability to Supplement the ISS Food System (Veg-05) investigation is the next step in efforts to address the need for a continuous fresh-food production system in space.  Systems: Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Reviews and Conferences: The …

The Expedition 69 crew is ready for a spacewalk set to begin on Friday to upgrade the International Space Station’s power generation system. In the meantime, fitness evaluations and robotic tests rounded out the schedule aboard the orbital outpost on Thursday. Flight Engineers Stephen Bowen of NASA and Sultan Alneyadi of UAE (United Arab Emirates) …

Payloads: Actiwatch-Plus: Actiwatch devices were attached to the HRF-1 rack for data downlink and charging. The Actiwatch-Plus is a waterproof, non-intrusive, sleep-wake activity monitor worn on the wrist of a crewmember and contains a miniature uniaxial accelerometer that produces a signal as the subject moves. The data is stored in non-volatile memory within the Actiwatch …

As spacewalk preparations are under way aboard the International Space Station, the Expedition 69 crew is continuing its advanced microgravity research while maintaining orbital lab systems. Two astronauts are readying their tools today for a six-and-a-half hour spacewalk planned to start at 9:15 a.m. EDT on Friday. NASA Flight Engineer Stephen Bowen will be going …

NASA's football-stadium-sized scientific super pressure balloon crossed the 169.24 east longitude line at about 11:32 p.m. EDT, April 25, officially completing its first mid-latitude circumnavigation after launch April 15 (U.S. Eastern time) from Wānaka Airport, New Zealand. NASA achieved the milestone just 10 days, 3 hours, and 50 minutes after launch. The balloon is …

Payloads: JEM Water Recovery System (JWRS): Treated Water Bag and Cation Exchange Tank Port valves were opened as part of system verification objectives. The demonstration of JWRS generates potable water from urine. In the past, urine and wastewater were collected and stored, or vented overboard. However, for long-term space missions, water supply could become a …

Four Expedition 69 astronauts aboard the International Space Station worked throughout Tuesday preparing for a spacewalk and cleaning space biology hardware. Meanwhile, the orbiting lab’s three cosmonauts had an off-duty day following several days of their own spacewalk preparations. Flight Engineers Stephen Bowen of NASA and Sultan Alneyadi of UAE (United Arab Emirates) spent Tuesday …

Payloads: NanoRacks CubeSats Deployer-25 (NRCSD-25): The NRCSD satellites were successfully deployed.  NRCSD-25 deployed six different satellites: NEUDOSE will measure and map the real-time radiation dose received by astronauts performing EVAs. YukonSat demonstrates using student-designed satellites for on-demand display of art and audio recordings from Northern Peoples. The project also supports a world-wide game with coded …

Two astronauts on the Expedition 69 crew are gearing up for a spacewalk at the end of the week. Meanwhile, two cosmonauts are standing down after their spacewalk planned for Tuesday was postponed. Flight Engineers Stephen Bowen of NASA and Sultan Alneyadi of UAE (United Arab Emirates) are preparing for a spacewalk scheduled for 9:15 …

This year’s Lyrid meteor shower will peak in the predawn hours of April 23. On average, the shower can produce up to 15 meteors per hour under ideal viewing conditions. The Lyrids occur every year in mid-April, when Earth crosses the trail of debris left by the Comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher. These bits of comet …