By Jim Cawley NASA's Kennedy Space Center With three days to go until liftoff of NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover, everything is on track for Thursday's planned launch to the Red Planet. "The launch readiness review is complete and we are indeed ‘go' for launch," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said during Monday's news conference at …
The Expedition 63 crew focused on robotic assistants and biomedicine today while preparing for two crew members to depart this weekend. The International Space Station residents are also cleaning U.S. spacesuits and unloading a Russian cargo craft. NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken are packing up for their return to Earth this weekend after …
Payloads Astrobee: In preparation for the upcoming Kibo Robot Programming challenge checkout, the crew reviewed the Astrobee On-Board Training. The Astrobee team has been working for the past several weeks to map the Japanese Experiment Module to allow Astrobee navigation. Astrobee is made up of three free-flying, cube-shaped robots which are designed to help scientists …
Payloads Spectrum: The crew performed a shutdown of the Spectrum hardware after the ground teams performed a checkout. The hardware will be used to process samples arriving on NG-14. Spectrum takes fluorescent images of biological specimens contained within a controlled environment. A high resolution, monochrome camera captures images of fluoresced proteins of plants within Petri …
By Jim Cawley NASA's Kennedy Space Center A historic mission years in the making is now less than a week from liftoff. Final preparations are being made for launch of NASA's Mars Perseverance rover, targeted for Thursday, July 30, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Perseverance will lift off aboard a United Launch …
The Expedition 63 crew has started the weekend following a spacewalk and a same-day delivery this week to resupply the International Space Station. Two NASA astronauts are also getting ready to return to Earth after a two-month stay in space. Commander Chris Cassidy cleaned water loops today inside the U.S. spacesuits he and Flight Engineer …
By Emily Fischer, Goddard Space Flight Center In the early 1900s, Ernest Shackleton attempted to travel across Antarctica, but as they neared the continent his ship became stuck in an pack of sea ice and was slowly crushed before it reached the landmass. Over 100 years later and on the opposite side of the globe …
76 Progress (76P) Launch and Docking: 76P launched today from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 9:26 AM CT carrying food, fuel and supplies. Following a 2-orbit rendezvous, the vehicle successfully docked to the ISS Docking Compartment 1 (DC-1) Nadir Port at 12:45 PM CT. The crew then performed leak checks, opened hatches, and began cargo unloading. Payloads …
An uncrewed Russian Progress 76 spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station’s Pirs docking compartment on the station’s Russian segment at 1:45 p.m. EDT, a little more than three hours after lifting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 10:26 a.m. (7:26 p.m. Baikonur time). At the time of docking, the spacecraft were traveling …
