The Orion spacecraft is on its last full day in space with splashdown off the Baja Coast near Guadalupe Island targeted for 11:39 a.m. CST (12:39 p.m. EST) on Sunday, Dec. 11. Engineers conducted the final Artemis I in-space developmental flight test objective to characterize temperature impacts on solar array wings from plumes, or exhaust …
Since Nov. 26, NASA’s Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) team has not been able to make contact with one of the eight CYGNSS spacecraft, FM06. The team is currently still working to acquire a signal and establish a connection. The other seven spacecraft continue to operate normally and have been collecting science measurements since …
Teams in Mission Control Houston conducted spacecraft system checks ahead of Orion’s planned splashdown on Dec. 11, while the Exploration Ground Systems recovery team made its way toward the landing area off the Baja Coast near Guadalupe Island. Flight controllers activated the crew module reaction control system heater and conducted a hot-fire test for each …
NASA, SpaceX, and Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) launch managers met today, Dec. 9, to conduct a Flight Readiness Review (FRR) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. During the FRR, teams provided an update on the mission status, closed out actions from previous readiness reviews, and certified the readiness to initiate final launch …
Payloads: JEM Small Satellite Orbital Deployer-23 (J-SSOD-23): The J-SSOD-23 experiment hardware was removed from the JEM Airlock slide table and stowed. The four J-SSOD-23 satellites were successfully deployed in early December. J-SSOD provides a novel and safe small satellite launching capability to the ISS. The J-SSOD is a unique satellite launcher, handled by the JEM …
Leerlo en español aquí. The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite mission is now encapsulated in its payload fairing in preparation for launch. Technicians at the SpaceX processing facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California completed the operation and will soon mate the fairing to the top of a Falcon 9 rocket. The fairing …
One year ago, NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) lit up the early morning sky as it started its journey into space. The satellite was launched on a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Dec. 9, 2021. IXPE is the first satellite dedicated to measuring the polarization of X-rays from …
The workweek wrapped up with the Expedition 68 crew working on botany and physics hardware aboard the International Space Station. Spacesuit maintenance is still proceeding as the astronauts and cosmonauts continue preparing for more spacewalks before the end of the year. Growing fresh food off the Earth is a key mission objective as NASA and …
Editor’s Note: This post highlights data from Webb science in progress, which has not yet been through the peer-review process. An international team of astronomers has used data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to report the discovery of the earliest galaxies confirmed to date. The light from these galaxies has taken more than 13.4 …
On flight day 23 of NASA’s Artemis I mission, the Orion spacecraft continues making the return trip to Earth, capturing photos and video along the way. “At present, we are on track to have a fully successful mission with some bonus objectives that we’ve achieved along the way,” said Mike Sarafin, Artemis I mission manager. …