Since replacing an engine controller on RS-25 engine number four that is on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket core stage, NASA, and lead engines contractor Aerojet Rocketdyne, have performed a series of tests to ensure the engines and controllers are ready to support the Artemis I mission. All four engine controllers performed as expected …
The Webb team continues to make progress in aligning the observatory’s mirrors. Engineers have completed the first stage in this process, called “Segment Image Identification.” The resulting image shows that the team has moved each of Webb’s 18 primary mirror segments to bring 18 unfocused copies of a single star into a planned hexagonal formation. …
A U.S. resupply ship is poised to blast off Saturday morning on a day-and-a-half-long journey to replenish the International Space Station. While two astronauts train for its robotic capture, the rest of the Expedition 66 crew focused on maintaining science hardware and orbital lab systems. Weather at the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia is forecast …
80 Progress (80P) Docking: Following the completion of a 34-orbit rendezvous, 80P successfully docked to the MRM2 SM Zenith docking port this morning at 01:06 AM CT. The crew then performed leak checks, opened hatches, and began unloading cargo. Carrying food, fuel, and supplies, 80P launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Monday, February 14th, at …
A U.S. rocket carrying Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus space freighter is counting down to launch toward the International Space Station on Saturday. Meanwhile, Russia’s Progress 80 cargo craft completed a two-day space delivery mission to the Expedition 66 crew early Thursday. An Antares rocket stands at the Wallops Flight Facility launch pad in Virginia ready to …
After starting the mirror alignment with Webb’s first detection of starlight in the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), the telescope team is hard at work on the next steps for commissioning the telescope. To make more progress, the team needs to use another instrument, the Fine Guidance Sensor, to lock onto a guide star and keep the …
An uncrewed Russian Progress 80 spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station’s Poisk module at 2:03 a.m. EST, about two days after launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Progress is delivering almost three tons of food, fuel and supplies to the International Space Station for the Expedition 66 crew. Learn more about station activities by following …
NASA Television, the agency’s website and the NASA app now are providing live coverage of the docking of a Russian cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station. The uncrewed Russian Progress 80 launched on a Soyuz rocket at 11:25 p.m. EST (9:25 a.m. on Feb. 15 Baikonur time) on Monday, Feb. 14, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome …
Payloads: Astrobee/Smartphone Video Guidance Sensor (SVGS): Following the installation of the SVGS LED targets, an SVGS science session was performed. SVGS demonstrates the use of a photogrammetric vision-based technology for guidance, navigation, and control of a small spacecraft. Developed by NASA, the vision-based sensor computes the position and orientation vector of a target relative to …
A Russian resupply ship is targeting the International Space Station for a cargo delivery early Thursday. While two cosmonauts get ready to support the cargo craft’s arrival, the rest of the Expedition 66 crew juggled lab maintenance, space research, and robotics training ahead of a U.S. cargo mission due to launch on Saturday. Nearly three-and-a-half …
