Blogs

Landsat 9, a joint mission of NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), passed its post-launch assessment review and is now in its operational phase. Continuing the Landsat program's nearly 50-year record of imaging Earth from orbit, USGS plans to start releasing Landsat 9 data to the public in mid-February and will announce data availability …

Payloads: Combustion Integrated Rack (CIR):  The CIR Manifold #4 Bottle was swapped out with a bottle containing 100% C2H4.  The CIR includes an optics bench, combustion chamber, fuel and oxidizer control, and five different cameras for performing combustion investigations in microgravity. Concrete Hardening:  The Maintenance Work Area (MWA) was cleared in preparation of the Concrete …

The seven-member Expedition 66 crew started the last day of January working on a wide variety of research gear supporting biology, physics, and Earth science. Spacewalk tool work and vision tests were also on Monday’s schedule aboard the International Space Station. NASA astronauts Kayla Barron and Thomas Marshburn kicked off Monday servicing science components, flight …

Payloads: Metabolic Space: A crewmember performed a CEVIS exercise session with Metabolic Space protocols and hardware. The aim of the Metabolic Space experiment is to perform a technology demonstration of cardio-pulmonary diagnosis in space during physical activities of astronauts living aboard the ISS, while maintaining unrestricted mobility. This is achieved with a wearable measurement system …

Spinal scans and cardiopulmonary measurements were the key research operations taking place aboard the International Space Station on Friday. The Expedition 66 crew also serviced spacesuits, life support gear, and a Russian science module. Human research is fundamental to understanding how the body adapts to weightlessness with doctors seeking to keep astronauts healthy during long-term …

NASA's HERMES mission – a four-instrument suite to be mounted outside NASA's Moon-orbiting Gateway – passed a critical mission review on Jan. 27, 2022. The review, Key Decision Point C, evaluated the mission's preliminary design and program plan to achieve launch by its target launch readiness date no earlier than November 2024. With the …

The big news for Webb this week was the final insertion into orbit around the second Lagrange point. The team also turned on the High-Gain Antenna, enabling downlink to Earth through the Deep Space Network using the Ka radio band. The Ka-band provides a much higher data rate than the S-band that Webb has been …

Payloads: Biological Experiment Laboratory (BioLab): A crew member cleaned the Biolab Temperature Controlled Units (TCUs) and exchanged the Silica Gel Bags. The BioLab is a multiuser research facility located in the European Columbus laboratory. The facility is used to perform space biology experiments on microorganisms, cells, tissue cultures, small plants, and small invertebrates. BioLab allows …

By Jim Cawley NASA's Kennedy Space Center An activity completed at Astrotech's Space Operations facility in Titusville today brings NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite T (GOES-T) mission one significant step closer to its March 1, 2022, liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida in just over a month. On Jan. 27, 2022, the …

The Expedition 66 crew split its research schedule between space botany and life science aboard the International Space Station today. NASA Flight Engineer Thomas Marshburn started Thursday watering plants growing for the Veggie PONDS study that explores ways to reliably grow vegetables in microgravity. Afterward, the three-time space station visitor verified the operability of the …