Our July 16 Image of the Day—Changing Forest Cover Since the Soviet Era—features a Landsat-derived map showing how forests have changed in Eastern Europe since 1985. After exploring the three areas we highlighted, I highly recommend browsing the map at full resolution using either Google Earth or GigaPan. The amount of detail you will find […]
Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, and Reorient Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) Slosh: Kelly configured two SPHERES satellites and coordinated with ground controllers to observe the dominance of fluid forces during higher accelerations. The investigation uses small robotic satellites to examine how liquids move inside containers in microgravity. A water bottle’s contents slosh around differently in space than …
Late Notice Conjunction: The Flight Control Team was notified of a late notice, red conjunction early this morning with insufficient time to execute a Predetermined Debris Avoidance Maneuver (PDAM). The ISS crew was directed to take steps to safe the ISS and shelter in place in the Soyuz. The conjunction passed without incident and the …
The Expedition 44 crew is back at work after taking precautions as a piece of orbital debris safely passed the International Space Station this morning. Meanwhile, three new crew members are conducting final preparations before next week’s launch to the orbital laboratory. Mission Control in Houston tracked a fragment of an old weather satellite and …
The crew of the International Space Station is resuming normal operations after getting an all clear from Mission Control following a close pass by space debris this morning at 7:01 a.m. CDT. All station systems are operating normally and the crew will move out of the Soyuz spacecraft in which they stayed during the debris …
The crew of the International Space Station has moved into the Soyuz vehicle docked to the station as a precaution due to an anticipated close approach of a piece of space debris to the orbiting complex. The debris is expected to pass closest to the station at about 7:01 a.m. CDT July 16, 2015. The …
NanoRack Cubesat Deployer (NRCSD) Operations: Overnight and this morning ground teams deployed 6 more Cubesats for a total of 12 of 16 planned. Final deployments are scheduled for 5:50 PM CDT today and 12:30 AM CDT tomorrow. The complement consists of 14 Planet Lab Doves, 1 Arkyd-3 and 1 Centennial-1 satellite. Integrated Resistance and Aerobic …
The three Expedition 44 crew members commemorated today the July 15, 1975, launch of the Apollo and Soyuz spaceships that would dock two days later. The day before, the crew celebrated the successful Pluto flyby of the New Horizons spacecraft. Then it was back to work as the station residents continued space research and orbital …
NanoRack Cubesat Deployer (NRCSD) Operations: Overnight there was an issue with a NRCSD deploy. Ground teams sent the command but only one door opened. Later during a night pass it was discovered that the CubeSat had deployed. Ground teams met and agreed to go forward with an additional deploy which was completed successfully. So far …
As the Expedition 44 crew orbited above the Earth at 17,500 miles per hour the New Horizons spacecraft flew by Pluto this morning at more than 30,000 mph. New Horizons’ closest approach was about 7,750 miles above the dwarf planet’s surface after a nine-year trip. The International Space Station has been orbiting at an average …
