International Space Station Program officials, the international partners and representatives of SpaceX agreed Sunday to proceed with Monday’s scheduled launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and its Dragon cargo craft on the company’s third commercial resupply mission to the orbital laboratory. After a series of meetings and reviews of procedures, flight controllers, engineers and …
International Space Station Program officials and representatives of SpaceX decided Saturday to continue preparations for the launch of the Falcon 9 rocket and the Dragon cargo craft to the space station Monday from Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., despite the failure Friday of a backup computer component that provides …
The Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite was orbiting at an altitude of about 700 kilometers (400 miles) when it captured our April 11 Image of the Day — a nadir view of Kilauea’s Kahaualeʻa 2 lava flow creeping through forests northeast of Pu’u ’O’o crater. Much closer to the surface, the U.S. Geological Survey monitors the lava flow with helicopter […]
Air Force weather forecasters said there is a 70 percent chance of acceptable conditions Monday afternoon for the 4:58 p.m. EDT launch of the SpaceX-3 mission. The concern is that thick clouds will develop during the afternoon as the countdown winds toward liftoff. If the launch is scrubbed Monday, the next opportunity will come Friday, …
Hybrid Training Part Four: Commander (CDR) Wakata donned the Hybrid Training hardware which provides electrical impulses to his non-dominant arm during concentric and eccentric arm motions. This was the fourth of twelve planned sessions. The electrical impulses help to simulate the resistance gravity would provide on the ground. Hybrid Training will be used for Wakata’s …
55 Progress (P) Launch and Dock: 55P successfully launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome today at 10:26am CDT. After a nominal ascent and four orbit rendezvous, the spacecraft docked to the ISS DC-1 docking port at 4:14pm CDT. The Progress is delivering more than 1300 kg of cargo to the ISS. Ocular Health: Flight Engineer (FE)-3 …
In spite of the rough weather, the FSG fellows have taken advantage of some calmer days to deploy a radiometer. A radiometer measures apparent optical properties or AOPs. AOPs describe how the light is entering and exiting the water column. Remember that sunlight contains a whole spectrum of colors that are determined by their wavelength. The character of the light that is reflected back out of the water can be different than what went in. More specifically, the wavelengths or colors that are reflected back out are the colors that were not absorbed or scattered forward.
Skin-B: Flight Engineer (FE) 3 Swanson conducted his first Skin-B data collection using the Tewameter probe to measure the skin barrier function; the Visioscan Camera to measure skin surface topography; and the Corneometer probe to measure skin hydration. The Skin-B experiment will improve understanding of skin aging, which is slow on Earth but very much …
For the second year in a row, an image from the Canary Islands took the championship of Tournament: Earth. In 2013, a submarine volcano near El Hierro Island was the crowd favorite. This year, it was a shot of the entire island chain that dominated the vote. When “Trailing the Canaries” faced “Activity at Kliuchevskoi” in […]
54 Progress (54P) Undock: 54P successfully undocked from the ISS at 8:58am CDT. Progress will remain in orbit for the non-ISS-related “Radar-Progress” experiment April 13-18. Deorbit is planned for April 18 at 9:52am CDT. SpaceX-3 Preparations: In preparation for SpaceX (SpX)-3 arrival, Commander (CDR) Wakata and Flight Engineer (FE)-5 Mastracchio performed Dragon Robot 3 Onboard …
