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 …
ELaNa 50: What’s on Board?
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 …
ISS Daily Summary Report – 3/07/2023
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 …
Crew of 11 Staying Focused on Advanced Space Research
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 …
Expanded Station Crew Works Together Before Quartet Departure
The newly-expanded International Space Station crew of 11 members kicked off a busy work week today conducting a variety of research and visiting vehicle activities. Meanwhile, four Expedition 68 crew members are also getting ready to complete their mission and return to Earth. New station residents Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg of NASA, who commanded …
ISS Daily Summary Report – 3/06/2023
Payloads: Investigating Structure and Function of the Eye (ISAFE): In preparation for experiment activities, the crew reviewed the Big Picture Words package. Microgravity causes blood and cerebrospinal fluid to shift toward the head, which is believed to be an underlying cause of structural changes to the eyes, known as “Spaceflight Associated Neuro-Ocular Syndrome” or SANS. …
NASA’s IBEX Spacecraft Resumes Science Operations
NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) is fully operational after the mission team successfully reset the spacecraft on March 2. To take the spacecraft out of a contingency mode it entered last month, the mission team performed a firecode reset (which is an external reset of the spacecraft) instead of waiting for the spacecraft to perform …
ISS Daily Summary Report – 3/03/2023
Crew-5 Dock: SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavor successfully docked to the ISS at 12:40 AM CT. The Endurance crew welcomed aboard NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren Hoburg, United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. The ISS crew complement has officially increased from 7 to 11. Payloads: Actiwatch-Plus: Arriving crewmembers donned the Actiwatch-Plus …
Sun Releases Strong Solar Flare
The Sun emitted a strong (X-class) solar flare, peaking at 12:52 p.m. EST on March 3, 2023. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the Sun constantly, captured an image of the event. Solar flares are powerful bursts of energy. Flares and solar eruptions can impact high-frequency (HF) radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals, and …