Blogs

Join us for continuous countdown coverage Thursday morning beginning at 7 a.m. EST. Liftoff of NASA's SMAP spacecraft aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket is scheduled for 9:20 a.m. from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. In the meantime, visit this page for in-person viewing information, and check out our new video highlighting …

The Expedition 42 crew worked Wednesday with fruit flies, a humanoid robot and a Dragon spacecraft. Also, Europe’s Automated Transfer Vehicle-5 fired its engines for nearly five minutes, slightly lowering the station’s orbit to prepare for an upcoming ISS Progress 58 resupply mission. Commander Barry Wilmore and Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti packed gear inside the …

Sally RideEarth Knowledge Acquired by Middle School Students (Sally Ride EarthKAM):  Samokutyaev installed the 180 mm lens on the EarthKam and continued with the week long imaging session.  Not everyone can go to space, but everyone can see Earth from an astronaut’s perspective with the Sally Ride EarthKAM program. Thousands of students can remotely control …

Managers from NASA and United Launch Alliance (ULA) met Tuesday at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to assess the status of NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) spacecraft and the ULA Delta II rocket that will boost SMAP into space. At the conclusion of the Launch Vehicle Readiness Review, a poll was taken and …

NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) spacecraft will be boosted into orbit aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Learn how SMAP and the Delta II were readied for liftoff.

Loss of Port Thermal Radiator (PTR) Multiplexer/Demultiplexer (MDM):  This morning, there was a loss of the PTR MDM.  This MDM controls and provides insight to the Radiator Beam Valve Module (RBVM) system on External Thermal Control System (ETCS) Loop B.   This afternoon, flight controllers downlinked and analyzed supplementary telemetry then reinitialized the MDM without issue.  …

NASA astronauts Terry Virts and Barry Wilmore are getting a pair of U.S. spacesuits ready for a set of spacewalks beginning in February. Throughout Tuesday in the Quest airlock, they recharged suit batteries and checked out fans and other suit components. Virts also joined Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti transferring cargo to and from the SpaceX …

Weather forecasters from the U.S. Air Force 30th Weather Squadron are predicting an 80 percent chance of favorable weather for launch of NASA's SMAP observatory aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket. Liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California is targeted for 9:20 a.m. EST on Thursday, Jan. 29 at the opening of …

On Monday evening, January 26 from 10 p.m. to midnight CST Marshall scientists will observe the large Asteroid 2004 BL86 as it passes by Earth. The public is welcome to follow their observations via the Marshall Ustream feed The asteroid will safely pass about three times the distance of Earth to the moon, or approximately …

Advanced Plant Experiment (APEX) 03-1: Wilmore prepared the Maintenance Work Area (MWA), gathered the APEX hardware, and configured the Advanced Biological Research System (ABRS) photo grid.  The crew then retrieved the APEX fixation tube kit from the General Laboratory Active Cryogenic ISS Experiment Refrigerator (GLACIER) and proceeded to harvest and fix the second set of …