Blogs

Today is homecoming day for International Space Station Expedition 44 Commander Gennady Padalka of Roscosmos and visiting crew members Andreas Mogensen of ESA (European Space Agency) and Aidyn Aimbetov of the Kazakh Space Agency. They are preparing to return to Earth in the Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft at 8:51 p.m. EDT, southeast of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. At …

Human Research Program (HRP) Operations: Salivary Markers: Yui collected saliva and urine samples in support of his FD 90 Salivary Markers and inserted them into MELFI.  Salivary Markers samples will be used to measure markers of latent viral reactivation (a global indicator of immune impairment and infection risk) in conjunction with salivary antimicrobial proteins and …

Expedition 44 Commander Gennady Padalka is packing gear inside the Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft for his return home Friday with two first time space visitors. Padalka will be completing his fifth mission for a record 879 cumulative days in space. Padalka will be flanked by visiting crew members Andreas Mogensen from Europe and cosmonaut Aidyn Aimbetov …

A bright meteor occurred over West Virginia last night at 9:27 EDT. It was seen across Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, and Maryland! NASA’s Pennsylvania and Ohio all sky cameras caught it near the edge of the field-of-view, but what also saw it was an EarthCam located on the Washington Monument!

Human Research Program (HRP) Operations: Microbiome: Kelly collected saliva samples in support of the Flight Day 180 (FD 180) Microbiome activities.  The Microbiome experiment investigates the impact of space travel on both the human immune system and an individual’s microbiome (the collection of microbes that live in and on the human body at any given …

The nine-member International Space Station crew participated in a wide variety of advanced microgravity science throughout the orbital laboratory. Three of those crew members are also getting ready to return to Earth at the end of the week. NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, who is now the station commander, worked in the Japanese Kibo laboratory to …

Hi, I'm Carly Howett, a senior research scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. I've been working on NASA's New Horizons mission since 2012, focusing on an instrument named Ralph, which among other things provides the color "eyes" for the spacecraft. When I started looking at Ralph images of Pluto and its largest …

Biological Rhythms 48-Hour: On Monday, Kelly attempted to don the Biological Rhythms Holter Electrocardiogram (ECG), however he was unable to get good signal conduction.  He changed the battery but was still unable to register a good signal.  He is scheduled to restart the activity tomorrow with additional prep time for donning the harness. Biological Rhythms …

Cosmonaut Gennady Padalka handed command of the International Space Station to astronaut Scott Kelly Saturday. The following day a docked Russian resupply ship fired its engines raising the orbital laboratory’s altitude to prepare for upcoming Soyuz and Progress missions. Visiting crew members Andreas Mogensen and Aidyn Aimbetov joined Padalka for a Soyuz descent drill as …

44 Soyuz (44S) Docking: 44S, carrying Aidyn Aimbetov, Andreas Mogensen and Sergey Volkov to the ISS, successfully docked this morning at 2:42 am CDT followed by leak checks and hatch opening, increasing the ISS crew complement to nine members. Padalka and Kelly conducted a safety briefing with the newly arrived 44S crew, covering potential hazards …