Blogs

Payloads: Engineered Heart Tissues-2: A media change, sampling and assigned treatment dosing was performed on each Tissue Chamber on Saturday. Engineered Heart Tissues-2 continues work with 3D cultured cardiac muscle tissue to assess human cardiac function in microgravity. Previous work with 3D cultures in space detected changes at the cellular and tissue level that could …

This week, we are recapping noteworthy OSIRIS-REx mission events each day so you can catch up on anything you may have missed so far in NASA's first mission to collect a sample from an asteroid. (Post #1 in a series of four) NASA's first mission to sample an asteroid, OSIRIS-REx, launched on Sept. 8, 2016, …

The Expedition 68 crew members conducted space health experiments and prepared for the final plant harvest aboard the International Space Station while inspiring the next generation of explorers in a virtual robotics competition. NASA Flight Engineer Woody Hoburg spent most of his day installing tissue cassettes for the BFF-Meniscus-2, an investigation to print and culture a meniscus using the BioFabrication facility …

Payloads: BioFabrication Facility (BFF): Tissue Cassettes were installed into BFF. Using 3D biological printers to produce usable human organs has long been a dream of scientists and doctors around the globe. However, printing the tiny, complex structures found inside human organs, such as capillary structures, has proven difficult to accomplish in Earth’s gravity environment. To …

After seven years in space, including a nail-biting touchdown on Bennu in 2020 to gather up dust and rocks, NASA's intrepid OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is about to face one of its biggest challenges yet: deliver an asteroid sample to Earth while protecting it from heat, vibrations, and earthly contaminants. "Once the sample capsule touches down, …

NASA's GLIMR instrument — short for Geostationary Littoral Imaging and Monitoring Radiometer — is moving to its building phase. Originally selected in 2019, GLIMR recently underwent a review known as Key Decision Point C – which evaluated the instrument's preliminary design and project plan to deliver the instrument by January 2025. On March 21, GLIMR …

Welcome to the OSIRIS-REx blog. Here you will find updates on NASA's first mission to collect an asteroid sample for analysis in labs around the globe. NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is cruising back to Earth now with samples it collected at the rocky surface of asteroid Bennu on Oct. 20, 2020. The spacecraft will deliver …

The study of exoplanets is a key part of the James Webb Space Telescope's science goals. We asked Webb's Deputy Observatory Project Scientist Christopher Stark of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center to tell us about one of the ways Webb studies other worlds. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has many different observing modes to study …

Since the earliest days of the International Space Station expeditions, student groups in schools, camps, museums, and planetariums have had the opportunity to talk with astronauts aboard the orbital laboratory about career choices and science activities. On Thursday, NASA Flight Engineer Woody Hoburg conducted an ISS Ham Radio (ARISS) session with Lana’i High and Elementary School, in …

Payloads: Cardinal Heart 2.0: A preservative was injected into each Cardinal Heart 2.0 tissue chamber and microscopy imagery was conducted for specific chambers. A previous investigation showed that four weeks of microgravity exposure caused significant changes in heart cell function and gene expression that could lead to long-term damage or cardiac muscle atrophy. Effect of …