Blogs

Many of the crew’s activities on Wednesday continued preparation for the arrival of Orbital ATK’s Cygnus cargo craft, which launched successfully Tuesday night at at 11:05 p.m. EDT. NASA astronaut Jeff Williams prepared one of the station’s payload racks for the new Additive Manufacturing Facility (AMF). The AMF enables the production of components on the …

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center conducted its semiannual Robert H. Goddard Honor Awards ceremony at the center's Greenbelt campus on Tuesday, March 22. Among those honored was the Mid-Latitude Southern Hemisphere Long-Duration Balloon (LDB) Team for their work in establishing Wanaka, New Zealand, as a site for NASA's Scientific Balloon missions in 2015. Representatives from …

The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket lifted off at 11:05 p.m. EDT/3:05 a.m. UTC, and Cygnus has begun its journey to the International Space Station with an arrival on March 26. Cygnus will separate from the upper stage of the Atlas rocket 21 minutes after launch. An hour and half after launch, commands will …

Orbital 6 (OA-6) Launch:  Cygnus is scheduled to launch from Kennedy Space Center tonight at 10:05PM CDT. Capture is scheduled for Saturday, March 26 at 5:40AM CDT with ingress on Sunday, March 27 and the beginning of cargo transfer operations.   NeuroMapping: Kopra completed a NeuroMapping Neurocognitive test on a Human Research Facility (HRF) laptop.  …

Officials in Florida are forecasting a 90% chance of favorable weather for tonight’s launch of Orbital ATK’s Cygnus space freighter to the International Space Station. Meanwhile, the crew explored advanced space science today and reviewed their roles and responsibilities in the event of an emergency aboard the station. Cygnus is scheduled to launch from Cape …

by Steve Cole / WASHINGTON / Over the next six months this blog will take you on a globe-circling journey of exploration. You'll travel alongside scientists who are pushing back the frontiers of what we know about how our planet works. With a collection of innovative instruments and intricately choreographed experiments adapted to the vagaries …

NASA's scientific balloon technicians marked another flight checklist item complete today after joining the base fitting of the Super Pressure Balloon (SPB) to the payload parachute. After making the connection, technicians worked to verify power and signal cables were aligned and properly connected. The team continues to work toward an April 1 launch date from …

Strata-1 Locker Preparation: On Saturday, Peake removed the EXPRESS Rack 8 locker from the Lab in preparation for the OA-6 Strata-1 installation. Strata-1 investigates the properties and behavior of regolith on small, airless bodies.  Regolith is the impact-shattered “soil” found on asteroids, comets, the Moon, and other airless worlds, but it is different from soil …

The Expedition 47 crew is at full strength after the arrival of three new crew members Friday night. NASA astronaut Jeff Williams and cosmonauts Oleg Skripochka and Alexey Ovchinin will be familiarizing themselves with station systems over the next few days and will be staying in space till September. All six crew members, including Commander …

Preparations continued throughout the weekend for NASA's upcoming super pressure balloon flight. Technicians worked on the top and bottom fittings of the balloon, installing electrical systems and the inflation ports that pass helium into the balloon. The team's next major milestone is the balloon payload hang test, essentially a full-up launch day rehearsal going through …