After departing distant retrograde orbit the afternoon of Thursday, Dec. 1, Orion completed a planned trajectory correction burn to fine-tune its course toward the Moon. The five-second burn occurred at 9:54 p.m. CST Thursday, and changed the spacecraft’s velocity by about 0.3 mph or less than half a foot per second. Dec. 2, teams collected additional …
Payloads: JEM Small Satellite Orbital Deployer-23 (J-SSOD-23): Crewmembers observed the J-SSOD-23 deployed satellites. J-SSOD-23 CubeSat deployment mission launched to the ISS aboard the NG-18 Cargo Vehicle. The CubeSats planned deployables are: PearlAfricaSat-1 (1U), Science, Technology, and Innovation Office of the President (Uganda); TAKA (2U) Kyushu Institute of Technology (Japan); ZIMSAT-1 (1U), Zimbabwe National Geospatial and …
The cosmos’ annual gift to sky watchers, the Geminids Meteor shower, will peak on Dec. 13-14 this year. During peak activity and perfect weather conditions, which are rare, the Geminids produce approximately 100-150 meteors per hour for viewing. However, this year a waning gibbous moon will make it harder to view most of the shower, …
NASA has renamed its Global Lyman-alpha Imager of the Dynamic Exosphere, or GLIDE, mission in honor of Dr. George R. Carruthers.
The Ocean Color Instrument (OCI) is integrated onto the PACE spacecraft in the cleanroom at Goddard Space Flight Center. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. The PACE satellite now has all three of its scientific instruments attached to the spacecraft, as the integration crew bolted the Ocean Color Instrument into place with its two polarimeter …
Two astronauts are preparing to exit the International Space Station on Saturday to install a new roll-out solar array. Their Expedition 68 crewmates assisted the duo on Friday while continuing an array of advanced space science and orbital lab maintenance. NASA Flight Engineers Josh Cassada and Frank Rubio spent Friday checking their batteries, tools, and …
Orion has left its distant lunar orbit and is on its return journey home. The spacecraft successfully completed the distant retrograde departure burn at 3:53 p.m. CST, firing its main engine for 1 minute 45 seconds to set the spacecraft on course for a close lunar flyby before its return home. The burn changed Orion’s …
Payloads: Human Research Facility Veggie Facility (HRF Veg): Profile of Mood States (POMS) short form questionnaires was completed. The Pick-and-Eat Salad-Crop Productivity, Nutritional Value, and Acceptability to Supplement the ISS Food System investigation is a phased research project that includes Veg-04A, Veg-04B, Veg-05, and HRF Veg. This work addresses the need for a system to …
The Expedition 68 crew began installing a new space botany experiment today while gearing up for a spacewalk planned for this weekend. The orbital residents are also continuing their research into the nervous system, unpacking a U.S. cargo craft, and keeping up International Space Station systems. NASA and its international partners have been learning how …
Editor’s Note: This post highlights data from Webb science in progress, which has not yet been through the peer-review process. On the morning of Saturday, Nov. 5, an international team of planetary scientists woke up with great delight to the first Webb images of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. Here, Principal Investigator Conor Nixon and others …
