On Sept. 10, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft briefly fired its ACS (attitude control system) thrusters to point itself toward Earth, putting it on course to release its sample capsule, carrying rocks and dust from asteroid Bennu, from 63,000 miles (or 102,000 kilometers) above Earth’s surface on Sunday, Sept. 24. Yesterday’s trajectory-correction maneuver changed the spacecraft’s velocity …
The seven Expedition 69 crew members enjoyed an off-duty day on Monday aboard the International Space Station. They will be welcoming three new crewmates at the end of the week when they launch and dock to the orbital outpost. Three future station crew members are at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan counting down to their …
ISS Reboost: This afternoon, the ISS performed a reboost using the Aft Progress 85P rendezvous and docking (R&D) thrusters. This reboost will set up proper phasing conditions for the Soyuz 70S 2-orbit rendezvous in August. The burn was nominal with a 2.05 Payloads: Immunity Assay: Samples were retrieved and reaction tubes were prepared for centrifuge operations …
Human research and spacesuit work topped the schedule for the Expedition 69 crew aboard the International Space Station at the end of the week. The orbital residents also analyzed microbes, maintained life support systems, and worked on cargo transfers. Researchers on the ground continuously investigate how living in space affects astronauts to keep crews healthy. …
Early morning on Sunday, Sept. 24, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft’s sample capsule will come face-to-face with Earth’s atmosphere for the first time since the mission’s 2016 launch. On board are an estimated 8.8 ounces, or 250 grams, of rocky material collected from the surface of Bennu in 2020 – NASA’s first asteroid sample and the largest …
Life science and space physics continued aboard the International Space Station on Thursday helping researchers improve human health and advance fundamental knowledge. The Expedition 69 crew members also worked on spacesuit maintenance and ongoing cargo activities. Flight Engineers Andreas Mogensen and Satoshi Furukawa concentrated their research activities on space biology to learn how weightlessness affects …
Payloads: Astrobee: The JEM was prepared for Astrobee flyer remote operations. Astrobee is made up of three free-flying, cube-shaped robots. These robots are designed to help scientists and engineers develop and test technologies for use in microgravity to assist astronauts with routine chores, and give ground controllers additional eyes and ears on the space station. …
Payloads: Actiwatch-Plus: Actiwatch units were hooked up to Human Research Facility 1 (HRF-1) for charging and data downlinks. The Actiwatch-Plus 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 …
The Expedition 69 crew aboard the International Space Station focused its main research activities on biotechnology on Wednesday. The orbital residents also continued the ongoing maintenance of lab hardware. Researchers on the ground use the facilities aboard the space station to understand how living in weightlessness affects the human body. Some of the experiments operate …
Consider it the “mother of all tests.” This summer, the PACE spacecraft (short for Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) completed a critical phase of its launch journey: the thermal vacuum test (TVAC), where it was subjected to extreme temperatures and pressures in a specialized chamber at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The …
