The Expedition 69 astronauts had their day full on Tuesday servicing a variety of science hardware and maintaining critical life support gear. The cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station cleared their schedule and relaxed before finalizing preparations for Friday’s spacewalk. NASA Flight Engineer Frank Rubio began Tuesday removing a small satellite deployer from inside the …
Crew-6 Port Relocation: On Saturday, May 6th, Crew Dragon Endeavor was successfully relocated from Node 2 Zenith to Node 2 Forward. This relocation was completed in preparation for the arrival of SpX-28 in early June, which requires the Node 2 Zenith port for robotic arm access. The crew will be off duty today to recover …
Four Expedition 69 crew members are relaxing today following Saturday’s relocation of a U.S. crew ship. At the same time, three cosmonauts are gearing up for another spacewalk to outfit a science module on the International Space Station. Sunday and Monday were off-duty days for flight engineers Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, both from NASA, …
Team members successfully sent commands to the first CubeSat at 1:48 a.m. EDT, May 8. Subsequently, they established communications with the second CubeSat at 6:31 a.m. EDT. Read the NASA release here. For imagery of this mission, please check here. Follow launch updates on this blog and stay connected with the mission on social media. …
By Richard Witherspoon, OSIRIS-REx Ground Recovery Lead, Lockheed Martin In anticipation of NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample delivery this fall, the team held our first round of rehearsals April 17 to April 27. Our goal was to practice retrieving the spacecraft's sample capsule from a simulated landing site at Lockheed Martin's campus near Denver. I am …
Two TROPICS CubeSats successfully deployed from a Rocket Lab Electron rocket after launch. The team is working toward signal acquisition from the pair of TROPICS CubeSats. NASA will continue to assess data from periodic pass opportunities. It is not unexpected for CubeSats to take some time to establish communications. We will provide confirmation when signal …
Rocket Lab confirms Electron has successfully deployed the two TROPICS satellites to orbit.
NASA’s TROPICS CubeSats are expected to have deployed from the Rocket Lab’s Electron kick stage. The two CubeSats will reach low-Earth orbit to begin their mission. Each of the CubeSats was designed to last approximately two years, but analysis, lifetime testing of key parts, and on-orbit experiences with similar hardware could help the satellites surpass …
The second stage of Rocket Lab’s Electron has cut off and separated from the payload kick stage. Soon, the kick stage engine will ignite and burn for about three minutes before it cuts off.
The Electron rocket has successfully completed the battery hot swap, switching power between batteries. The next milestone is second stage separation in about three minutes.
