Blogs

Launched on Earth Day in 1995, the program connects scientists, teachers and students in 126 countries with hands-on scientific activities.

Payloads: Cold Atom Lab (CAL): To address a boot-up issue which was first seen in mid-November, the crew gained access to the CAL interior components and exchanged the Solid-State Drive (SSD) on the Central Processing Unit (CPU) card.  This should allow the CAL to resume nominal operations and science collection.  CAL produces clouds of atoms …

The seven-member Expedition 66 crew spent Thursday servicing physics research gear and exercise hardware aboard the International Space Station. Meanwhile, the orbiting lab’s three visitors are preparing for their departure on Sunday. The coldest temperatures in the Universe can be found inside the space station’s Cold Atom Lab (CAL). Atoms are chilled to temperatures near …

NASA's newest X-ray observatory – the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer, or IXPE – extended its boom successfully Dec. 15, giving IXPE the ability to see high-energy X-rays. The mission, which launched on Dec. 9, is one step closer to studying some of the most energetic and mysterious places in the universe in a new way. …

Payloads: EasyMotion:  After donning the EasyMotion Suit, the crew performed Treadmill 2 (T2) exercise science session.  Following the experiment session, the crew removed the suit and charged the experiment batteries.  The EasyMotion investigation uses whole body Electro-Myo-Stimulation (EMS) with a wearable body skin suit for an ISS crew member to perform pre- and postflight EMS-assisted …

Wednesday’s research schedule aboard the International Space Station highlighted the human muscular and circulatory systems as well as botany. The Expedition 66 crew also continued its space physics studies while working on docked Russian spacecraft. The lack of gravity affects the human body and station crew members exercise about two hours a day to counteract …

The CYGNSS constellation of 8 SmallSats was launched into low Earth orbit five years ago, on December 15, 2016. It began as a two year mission to study how well GPS signals reflected from the ocean surface can help us measure the winds in hurricanes and improve our ability to forecast them. Well, we’ve done […]

The James Webb Space Telescope team is working a communication issue between the observatory and the launch vehicle system. This will delay the launch date to no earlier than Friday, Dec. 24. We will provide more information about the new launch date no later than Friday, Dec. 17.

Payloads: Behavioral Core Measures (BCM): The crew completed two Robotic On-Board Trainer (ROBoT) research sessions for BCM. The Standardized Behavioral Measures for Detecting Behavioral Health Risks during Exploration Missions (Behavioral Core Measures) experiment initially examined a suite of measurements to reliably assess the risk of adverse cognitive or behavioral conditions and psychiatric disorders during long-duration …