On this day five years ago, the largest earthquake in modern Japanese history shook the mainland region of Tohoku. The tsunami that followed was devastating. Nearly 16,000 people were killed, and more than 127,000 buildings completely collapsed. The wave triggered power outages, explosions, and reactor meltdowns at a nuclear plant in Fukushima. What is perhaps […]
ISS Daily Summary Report – 03/10/16
Combustion Integrated Rack (CIR) Alignment Guide Removal: Kopra removed the Alignment Guides from CIR to unlock PaRIS before the beginning of CIR operations that require a microgravity environment. CIR provides sustained, systematic microgravity combustion research and it houses hardware capable of performing combustion experiments to further research of combustion in microgravity. Multi-Omics Saliva Operations: …
Communications Gear Work to Ready Station for Future
The International Space Station is being upgraded with new communications gear as NASA moves ahead with its Commercial Crew Program. Meanwhile, science taking place on the orbital laboratory today included human research and Earth photography. Astronauts Tim Kopra and Tim Peake were back at work today installing hardware that will communicate with future commercial crew …
First F-Level Work Platform for NASA’s Space Launch System Arrives at Kennedy Space Center
The first half of the F-level work platforms for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket arrived today at the Vehicle Assembly Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Ground Systems Development and Operations Program is overseeing upgrades and modifications to High Bay 3 to support processing of the SLS and Orion spacecraft. A …
ISS Daily Summary Report – 03/9/16
MAGVECTOR: Peake performed a data transfer from the jump drive to an SSC folder and reconfigured the switches on the portable power supply 1 (PPS1), completing the 7th run of European Space Agency’s (ESA) MAGVECTOR experiment. Run #8 scheduled for next week will be the last experiment run for Increment 47. MAGVECTOR qualitatively investigates the …
Crew Practices Emergency Escape before Afternoon Research
This morning the three Expedition 47 crew members practiced evacuating the International Space Station in the event of an emergency. Afterward, it was back to work on advanced space science and orbital lab maintenance. Several times a year the station residents get together to practice the communication and procedures necessary to escape an emergency situation. …
Moabi Trees of Lope
The AfriSAR campaign is in its second week of collecting data over different forests of Gabon using airborne radar and laser instruments, UAVSAR and LVIS. While most of the NASA airborne crew are located in the City of Libreville supporting the data acquisitions and logistics, the science teams have been busy collecting data on […]
ISS Daily Summary Report – 03/8/16
Rodent Research (RR) Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) Hardware Gather: Peake gathered hardware and consumables needed to set up MSG for RR operations which will begin following the arrival of SpX-8. Spaceflight causes a rapid loss of bone and muscle mass especially in the legs and spine with symptoms similar to those experienced by people with …
Tournament Earth: Round 2 Open for Voting
Round 2 is open for voting. How is your bracket?
NASA to Provide Live Coverage, Interviews, and Social Media for March 8 Solar Eclipse
Editor’s note: You can watch both the solar eclipse program and the raw video feed on the Watch the March 8 Solar Eclipse Live page. NASA, in partnership with the Exploratorium Science Center in San Francisco, will host activities around the March 8 total solar eclipse, including opportunities to talk with solar scientists and live …