Blogs

The seven-member Expedition-67 crew split their time studying burning in microgravity, space manufacturing, testing an ultrasound device, and more, in addition to conducting some maintenance work aboard the International Space Station. NASA Flight Engineer Jessica Watkins focused on setting up the Combustion Integrated Rack inside the U.S. Destiny laboratory module to support the operations for the SoFIE-GEL, or Solid Fuel Ignition and Extinction – Growth …

NASA’s Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) successfully completed its third trajectory correction maneuver (TCM) on Monday. CAPSTONE is taking a long but fuel-efficient route to the Moon, flying about 958,000 miles (1.54 million kilometers) from Earth before looping back around to its near rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO).  At the completion of the …

Payloads: Actiwatch: Actiwatch Plus Kits S/N 1002 and 1004 were packed for return. The Actiwatch 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 until they …

The Expedition 67 crew members focused on exercise, science beneficial to humans on Earth and future crews in space, and routine maintenance checks as part of their activities aboard the International Space Station today. The seven station residents prioritized space exercise and took turns working out. They used the Tranquility module’s advanced resistive exercise device (ARED) to perform …

December 2019 marked the beginning of Solar Cycle 25. The Sun's activity has quickly ramped up and even though we haven't reached peak levels in this cycle, the Sun's activity is already exceeding predictions. Solar events will continue to increase as we near solar maximum in 2025, and our lives and technology on Earth, as …

Payloads: Cold Atom Lab (CAL): Leaking compression fittings were tightened on the Cold Atom Lab MTL Jumper hoses and routine maintenance was performed on the Parker Quick Disconnect (QD) hardware. The CAL produces clouds of atoms that are chilled to about one ten billionth of a degree above absolute zero — much colder than the …

The Expedition 67 crewmembers aboard the International Space Station spent Tuesday predominantly on research, maintenance, and cargo transfer operations. Research beneficial to humans on Earth and future crews in space is happening around the clock aboard the orbiting laboratory. NASA Flight Engineer Kjell Lindgren used a majority of his day to service samples for the Immunosenescence investigation inside the Life Science …

With the recent cancellation of the 2022 launch of NASA's Psyche spacecraft, NASA is assessing options for its Janus mission, which was scheduled to launch as a rideshare on the same rocket. Janus is a SIMPLEx-class mission originally designed to send two small satellites (SmallSats) to study two near-Earth binary asteroid systems orbiting between Earth …

On July 24, 2022, InSight was generating an average of 408 watt-hours of energy per Martian day, or sol. The tau, or level of dust cover in the atmosphere, was estimated at .94 (typical tau levels outside of dust season range from 0.6-0.7).

Payloads: Fiber Optic Production-2 (FOP-2): FOP-2 operations are concluded, and the hardware was removed from the MSG and stowed. FOP-2 builds on previous work to manufacture commercial optical fibers in microgravity using a blend of elements called ZBLAN. Earlier theoretical and experimental studies suggest ZBLAN optical fibers produced in microgravity exhibit qualities superior to those …