The Perseids are back! Well… sort of. Usually bringing one of the most vivid annual meteor showers visible in Earth’s night sky, commonly delivering 50-100 “shooting stars” per hour at its height, the Perseids will peak Aug. 12 and 13. There’s just one problem: the full Moon. “Sadly, this year’s Perseids peak will see the …
The Expedition 67 crew members kickstarted their week aboard the International Space Station by configuring a plant habitat, transferring cargo, and completing vision tests. NASA Flight Engineers Jessica Watkins and Bob Hines made adjustments to the plant growth chamber. The system monitors vegetables grown in space that could help sustain astronauts on future missions. Meanwhile, NASA Flight …
With approximately one month until NASA’s first launch attempt for the Artemis I mission, teams move closer to finishing operations for the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft in the Vehicle Assembly Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA is currently targeting launch for no earlier than Monday, Aug. 29, …
Payloads: Analyzing Interferometer for Ambient Air-2 (ANITA-2): Air samples were manually acquired from assigned ISS locations and the crew connected the samples to ANITA-2 for chemical analysis. The ANITA-2 is a compact gas analyzer which can analyze and quantify 33 trace contaminants in the atmosphere aboard the ISS automatically. ANITA-2 can also detect the presence …
The Expedition-67 crew members focused on maintenance checks, exercise, and space research as part of their activities aboard the International Space Station today. NASA Flight Engineer Kjell Lindgren concluded a busy work week by transferring cargo from the SpaceX CRS-25 Dragon spacecraft and completing a fitness test on the exercise cycle. He attached sensors to his chest and pedaled …
Payloads: Butterfly IQ Ultrasound: The fourth Medical Tech Demo of the Butterfly Ultrasound Device was performed. Butterfly IQ Ultrasound demonstrates the effectiveness of a portable ultrasound device used in conjunction with a mobile computing device in the space environment. Such commercial off-the-shelf technology could provide important medical capabilities for future exploration missions beyond low-Earth orbit. …
The seven-member Expedition-67 crew split their time studying burning in microgravity, space manufacturing, testing an ultrasound device, and more, in addition to conducting some maintenance work aboard the International Space Station. NASA Flight Engineer Jessica Watkins focused on setting up the Combustion Integrated Rack inside the U.S. Destiny laboratory module to support the operations for the SoFIE-GEL, or Solid Fuel Ignition and Extinction – Growth …
NASA’s Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) successfully completed its third trajectory correction maneuver (TCM) on Monday. CAPSTONE is taking a long but fuel-efficient route to the Moon, flying about 958,000 miles (1.54 million kilometers) from Earth before looping back around to its near rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO). At the completion of the …
Payloads: Actiwatch: Actiwatch Plus Kits S/N 1002 and 1004 were packed for return. The Actiwatch is a waterproof, non-intrusive, sleep-wake activity monitor worn on the wrist of a crewmember and contains a miniature uniaxial accelerometer that produces a signal as the subject moves. The data is stored in non-volatile memory within the Actiwatch until they …
The Expedition 67 crew members focused on exercise, science beneficial to humans on Earth and future crews in space, and routine maintenance checks as part of their activities aboard the International Space Station today. The seven station residents prioritized space exercise and took turns working out. They used the Tranquility module’s advanced resistive exercise device (ARED) to perform …