SpX-14 Mission: At 5:40 am CDT this morning, the ISS crew used the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) to capture the Dragon vehicle. This capture marked the first use of Forced Based Capture, a software enhancement to the Latching End Effector (LEE) that reduces loads on the snare cables, during SpaceX operations. Ground specialists …
Sleeping on a ship… Sleep. We all need it. But how much do we actually need? As I’ve discovered the past couple of days, half an hour just won’t cut it! I became a grumbling, tired zombie – an absolute pleasure to be around (not…). Throw in an extra 2-hour post-second-breakfast nap, however, and I […]
While the International Space Station was traveling more than 250 miles over the southern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Africa, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Norishige Kanai and NASA astronaut Scott Tingle captured the Dragon spacecraft at 6:40 a.m. EDT using the space station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm. Ground controllers will now send …
SpaceX-14 Status: SpaceX has completed the CUCU Broadcast Test and configured CUCU and Dragon UHF for rendezvous. The Dragon vehicle continues to follow the nominal rendezvous profile that supports an ISS capture tomorrow at 6:00 am CDT. Advanced Combustion via Microgravity Experiments (ACME) Electric-Field Effects on Laminar Diffusion (E-Field) Flames: In preparation for the upcoming …
Back when I was in Boy Scouts, my troop would spend the better part of a week at summer camp doing Scout things. Tying square knots, whittling sticks, trying to swim, not showering. Pretty typical stuff. To spice things up a bit, my buddies and I would go down to the Trading Post in camp […]
The SpaceX Dragon space freighter is midway on its trip to the resupply the International Space Station’s Expedition 55 crew. Waiting to capture Dragon Wednesday morning are Flight Engineers Norishige Kanai and Scott Tingle. The two astronauts have been reviewing procedures and training on a computer for Dragon’s capture for a few weeks now. Kanai …
50 Things I Worry About If we are defined as humans in part by the things we choose to worry over, let the following list be a window into the psyche of a Mate on a research vessel, and a portrait of a modern sailor in the style of Picasso. 200 pounds of the Chinese […]
At Sea This is the second of the NAAMES cruises that I have been able to sail. The first was NAAMES #1, November, 2015, and I am lucky to be on this, the last of four cruises that were scheduled for this campaign. Having bookended these cruises, I recognize a couple of changes in both […]
A New Adventure NAAMES #4 is my first long-term ocean-going research cruise. The anticipation built as I prepared to leave my husband and Paisley, my golden retriever, at home for an entire month. Did I pack everything that I need? Would the food be good? Would I enjoy the experience? Yes, yes and yes! Not […]
