Blogs

A pair of spaceships is getting ready for launch to the International Space Station in less than a week. A Soyuz rocket will launch three new Expedition 47 crew members Friday evening from Kazakhstan. A few days later Orbital ATK will launch its Cygnus cargo ship from Florida and deliver new science, spacewalk gear and …

Observation and Analysis of Smectic Islands in Space (OASIS) Gylcerol/Water Fill: Kopra completed a science run of the OASIS Gylcerol/Water Fill activity by filling the Inkjet droplet device with glycerol/water for the final experiment protocol on each sample container and will exchange the hard drive for continued operations. OASIS studies the unique behavior of liquid …

Much of the research taking place onboard the International Space Station helps doctors improve health for citizens on Earth and astronauts living in space. Other station experiments help engineers design smarter materials and better technologies to advance business and space industries. At the beginning of the day, British astronaut Tim Peake joined Commander Tim Kopra …

MAGVECTOR: Peake activated the 8th and final MAGVECTOR run for Increments 47 and 48. The experiment will run for the next 5 days with completion planned for Friday, March 18. MAGVECTOR qualitatively investigates the interaction between a moving magnetic field and an electrical conductor. The expected changes in the magnetic field structure on the ram …

The three residents onboard the International Space Station are busy today researching space science to benefit life on Earth and future crews. The trio is also ramping up to welcome a new set of Expedition 47-48 crew members when they arrive at the end of the week. Scientists are researching how astronauts perform complex and …

Space Headaches:  Peake completed his Weekly Space Headaches questionnaire. Headaches can be a common complaint during spaceflight. The Space Headaches experiment will provide information that may help in the development of methods to alleviate associated symptoms and improvement in the well-being and performance of crew members in space.   Combustion Integrated Rack (CIR) Alignment Guide …

Today's blog post is from Orkan Umurhan, a mathematical physicist currently working as a senior post-doc at NASA Ames Research Center. He has been on the New Horizons Science Team for over two years. He specializes in astrophysical and geophysical fluid dynamics, and now works on a variety of geophysical problems, including landform evolution modeling …

Combustion Integrated Rack (CIR) Alignment Guide Removal: Kopra removed the Alignment Guides from CIR to unlock PaRIS before the beginning of CIR operations that require a microgravity environment. CIR provides sustained, systematic microgravity combustion research and it houses hardware capable of performing combustion experiments to further research of combustion in microgravity.   Multi-Omics Saliva Operations: …

The International Space Station is being upgraded with new communications gear as NASA moves ahead with its Commercial Crew Program. Meanwhile, science taking place on the orbital laboratory today included human research and Earth photography. Astronauts Tim Kopra and Tim Peake were back at work today installing hardware that will communicate with future commercial crew …

The first half of the F-level work platforms for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket arrived today at the Vehicle Assembly Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Ground Systems Development and Operations Program is overseeing upgrades and modifications to High Bay 3 to support processing of the SLS and Orion spacecraft. A …