The fireball over southern California last night at 7:49 PM PST was a North Taurid. Brighter than the Full Moon, it was caused by a piece of Comet Encke about 2 feet in diameter hitting the atmosphere at 56,000 mph. Information about the fireball was provided by NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office (MEO) and is the NASA organization responsible for …
35 Soyuz (35S) Undock and Landing: Following the change of command ceremony, Soyuz 35S undocked from the Service Module Aft Port bringing Commander (CDR) Yurchikhin, Flight Engineer (FE)-5 Parmitano and FE-6 Nyberg back to earth. The undock command, which initiated the opening of the Soyuz vehicle docking hooks was issued at 5:25pm CST with physical …
Russian Extravehicular Activity (EVA) #36: Flight Engineer (FE)-1 Kotov and FE-2 Ryazanskiy completed the EVA in 5 hours 50 min. The following tasks were performed: Olympic Torch Relay Removal of YAKOR Foot Restraint (FR) from Service Module (SM) ПхО. Installation onto the EVA Work Station (VRM) did not occur after the crew experienced orientation issues …
Soyuz Motion Control Test: Commander (CDR) Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer (FE)-5 Parmitano successfully conducted a Soyuz 35S Motion Control System Test. The test was performed in preparation for their upcoming undocking on Sunday, November 10th at 5:26pm (CST) Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) Wireless Access Point (WAP) Installation: FE-3 Hopkins and FE-6 Nyberg completed installation of …
We’re one small but important step closer to Mars this morning after the launch team placed MAVEN on the top of the Atlas V rocket that will send the probe to the Red Planet. While most of the Cape Canaveral region was sleeping, a crew drove the MAVEN spacecraft from its processing hangar at Kennedy …
37 Soyuz Launch, Docking and Hatch Opening: Soyuz Commander Tyurin, Mastracchio, and Wakata launched onboard Soyuz 37S last night at 10:14pm CST. Following a successful four-orbit rendezvous, they docked to the Mini-Research Module (MRM)-1 port at 4:27am CST this morning. Once leak checks between the MRM1 and 37S were performed, the hatches were opened at …
Body Measures: Flight Engineer (FE)-3 Hopkins, with operator assistance from FE-6 Nyberg, set up cameras and cabin video, performed body marker instrumentation, and collected calibration and body pose photos and circumference measurements. It is anticipated that body measurements will change due to microgravity and fluid shifts. The goal of this study is to gather preliminary …
After showing they could build rockets strong enough to reach space, it didn’t take long for rocket scientists in America and Russia to begin sending satellites toward Mars. The first launch took place Oct. 10, 1960, from the Soviet Union almost three years to the day since the nation launched the first satellite, Sputnik. This …
Biological Rhythms 48 Hour Experiment: As part of the continuing JAXA Biological Rhythms 48 hour experiment, Flight Engineer (FE)-5 Parmitano terminated the first 24-hour measurement, exchanged the Multi Media Card and battery, and then started the latter 24 hour measurement. Data for this portion of the experiment is being taken from the Digital Walk Holter …
Here’s what MAVEN looked like just before engineers and technicians fit the two-piece payload fairing around it. The spacecraft’s solar arrays and instruments have been folded up. The fairing with MAVEN inside will be bolted to the top of an Atlas V rocket for launch at 1:28 p.m. EST on Nov. 18 from Cape Canaveral …
