In two weeks, NASA astronauts Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren will step outside the U.S. Quest airlock for the first of two maintenance spacewalks. The International Space Station is also being readied to host the next Orbital ATK Cygnus cargo mission set for early December. Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui has been servicing the two spacesuits …
Plant Gravity Sensing 2 (PGS2): Today Lindgren retrieved culture dishes from a Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI) and treated the plants growing in them with a chemical reagent that induces a bioluminescence response that is dependent on the concentration of calcium ions in the plants. The Plant calcium concentrations have been …
Body Measures: Lindgren, with Kelly as the operator, completed his Flight Day 80 Body Measures data collection. Lindgren set up the cameras and video, donned the body marker instrumentation, and then collected the calibration and body pose photographs and physical body measurements. With Kelly’s assistance he collected the Neutral Body Posture video. NASA is collecting …
Hello! It’s Kelsi Singer again from the New Horizons science team to talk about one of my favorite planetary geologic features –impact craters. They may just look like holes in the ground, but amazingly, craters can give us all sorts of useful clues to a planet’s history. There are many ways scientists investigate a planet …
The six-member Expedition 45 crew focused on human research and physics Tuesday as NASA prepares for deep space missions and learns how to live in space for longer periods. Two astronauts are also getting ready for a pair of maintenance spacewalks beginning at the end of the month. Commander Scott Kelly and Flight Engineer Kjell …
Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) Vertigo: Kelly and Yui set up and performed a SPHERES Vertigo run today. This investigation uses the SPHERES free-flying satellites to demonstrate and test enhanced technologies and techniques related to visual inspection and navigation. This effort incorporates hardware and software that enables multiple SPHERES to construct 3 …
NanoRack Cubesat Deployer (NRCSD) #6 Operations: Overnight, three unsuccessful attempts were made to retract the secondary latch associated with deployer # 6, which would have allowed the deployment of the remaining two cubesats for this operation. The next troubleshooting attempt to launch the cubesats will involve cycling the latches during a Japanese Experiment Module Remote …
The Draconids are an “occasional” shower – they are either in outburst, with a fair number of meteors, or are so few the casual observer would not notice them. Rates this year are expected to be about 10 per hour on the night of October 8 into the early morning of the 9th, most of …
Payload controllers are exploring why two Cubesats were unable to deploy this week from the Kibo lab module so they can be released later. Meanwhile, the six-member Expedition 45 crew is finalizing cable work for the next Cygnus cargo mission, unloading cargo from a new Progress 61 (61P) resupply ship and conducting human research. NASA …
NanoRack Cubesat Deployer (NRCSD) Operations: Yesterday evening two Dove cubesats were launched successfully from Deployer #5. However, an overnight attempt to launch an additional two cubesats from Deployer #6 was not successful. Subsequently, two cubesats from Deployer #7 were launched this morning. Ground teams are investigating the launch failure for Deployer #6 and working the …
