Blogs

NASA's Atmospheric Waves Experiment, or AWE, is set to launch in November 2023. From its perch aboard the International Space Station 250 miles above Earth, AWE will study atmospheric gravity waves to better understand how they transport energy into Earth's upper atmosphere and affect space weather.

Air pollution is an existential threat to millions of Americans with asthma and other health issues. Responding to that threat, NASA and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory are innovating to improve observations of air quality in North America. Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) is an ultraviolet and visible spectrometer that will be hosted on Intelsat …

Payloads: Human Research Program (HRP) sample collection: The crew collected multiple body samples in support of the Food Physiology, Repository, Host Pathogen, and Standard Measures investigations.  Food Physiology is designed to characterize the key effects of an enhanced spaceflight diet on immune function, the gut microbiome, and nutritional status indicators. Repository is a storage bank …

Four Expedition 68 crew members are nearing the end of their stay aboard the International Space Station this weekend. Their replacements are completing their first week aboard the orbital outpost and getting up to speed with life in space. The SpaceX Crew Dragon Endurance with four crewmates is targeted to depart the space station at …

NASA and SpaceX are targeting 8:30 p.m. EDT Tuesday, March 14, to launch the company’s 27th commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station. Liftoff will be from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Launch timing is dependent upon the undocking and return of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5. On Monday, March 13, …

The four new Expedition 68 crew members are getting used to life in space while four other crewmates are preparing to go home this month. Also, today’s research includes replacing fuel bottles in the Combustion Integrated Rack and collecting samples for the Food Physiology and Host Pathogen experiment. Flight engineers Frank Rubio of NASA and …

Payloads: Combustion Integrated Rack/Solid Fuel Ignition and Extinction/Growth and Extinction Limit (CIR/SoFIE/GEL): The crew gained access to the CIR rack and exchanged a used manifold gas bottle with a new one of the same composition (85% O2, 15% N2). SoFIE is a hardware insert for the CIR that enables a wide range of solid-material combustion …

On NASA’s next Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) mission, a pair of small satellites, called CubeSats, will hitch a ride on SpaceX’s 27th commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station for NASA. The ELaNa 50 complement of CubeSats will launch aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft this March, from Launch Complex …

Payloads: Combustion Integrated Rack/Solid Fuel Ignition and Extinction/Growth and Extinction Limit (CIR/SoFIE/GEL):The GEL experiment samples, igniter tip, and adsorber cartridge were replaced in support of continuing experiment runs. SoFIE is a hardware insert for the CIR that enables a wide range of solid-material combustion and fire suppression studies, providing common infrastructure including sample holders, flow …

The International Space Station’s 11 residents are comprised of three individual crews that arrived at the orbital outpost on three different crew ships. The most recent crew to arrive was SpaceX Crew-6 docking on Friday at 1:40 a.m. EST in the Crew Dragon Endeavour vehicle. The four Crew-6 members are now Expedition 68 flight engineers …