Blogs

NASA Television coverage of NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and two Roscosmos cosmonauts’ end of mission aboard the International Space Station and return to Earth is underway. Vande Hei, along with Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov, will close the hatch to the Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft to begin the journey back to Earth. The Soyuz will undock from the Rassvet …

Payloads: Gravitational References for Sensimotor Performance (GRASP): The first of three GRASP sessions in the seated configuration were performed by ISS crew. The purpose of the GRASP investigation is to better understand how the central nervous system (CNS) integrates information from different sensations (e.g. sight or hearing), encoded in different reference frames, in order to …

NASA Television coverage of Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov’s hand over of the space station to NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn will begin at 9:45 a.m. EDT during a change of command ceremony. The event will air live on NASA TV, the NASA app, and the agency’s website. Mark Vande Hei, along with Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr …

Three Expedition 66 Flight Engineers are returning to Earth in less than two days as four private astronauts prepare for their mission to the International Space Station. The crew activities haven’t stopped the ongoing space research as the orbital residents studied biology, botany, and physics on Monday. NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei is nearing the …

In a pre-test review on March 28, NASA gave the “go” to proceed with the Artemis I wet dress rehearsal scheduled for April 1-3. The approximately two-day test will run the Artemis I launch team through operations to load propellant into the rocket’s tanks, conduct a full launch countdown, demonstrate the ability to recycle the …

Payloads: Analyzing Interferometer for Ambient Air-2 (ANITA-2): Air samples were manually taken from an assigned ISS location for chemical analysis in ANITA-2. The ANITA-2 is a compact gas analyzer which can analyze and quantify 33 trace contaminants in the atmosphere aboard the ISS automatically. ANITA-2 can also detect the presence of unknown substances which can …

The Flight Readiness Review for Axiom Mission 1 has concluded, and teams are proceeding toward launch of the first private astronaut mission to the International Space Station. Pending range availability, launch is targeted no earlier than Sunday, April 3, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA will hold a media …

Payloads: Cold Atom Lab (CAL): A visual inspection was performed of the CAL moderate temperature coolant jumper, and any coolant observed was cleaned up. The CAL produces clouds of atoms that are chilled to about one ten billionth of a degree above absolute zero — much colder than the average temperature of deep space. At …

The 10 Expedition 66 crew members aboard the International Space Station wrapped up the workweek exploring ways to adapt to microgravity, cleaning up after a spacewalk, and completing robotics work. The orbital crewmates also prepared a crew ship for departure and checked emergency gear. NASA Flight Engineers Raja Chari and Kayla Barron took turns in …