The months-long process of preparing NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope for science is now complete. All of the seventeen ways or ‘modes’ to operate Webb’s scientific instruments have now been checked out, which means that Webb has completed its commissioning activities and is ready to begin full scientific operations. Each of Webb’s four scientific instruments …
Preparations for a cargo mission this week and a spacewalk next week are keeping the Expedition 67 crew busy aboard the International Space Station. The seven orbital residents are also staying busy with their ongoing research into human biology, space physics, and robotics. The SpaceX Dragon cargo craft attached to the Falcon 9 rocket is …
After rigorous review, NASA’s Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer (EZIE) mission – a mission to study electrical currents in Earth’s upper atmosphere – passed a key developmental milestone, pushing the mission from the design phase to the construction phase.
The team for NASA’s Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) is standing down from the trajectory correction maneuver scheduled for July 9 to perform additional analysis on the spacecraft’s performance. The mission team will make a determination whether the maneuver is still needed at this time, and updates will be provided. …
Payloads: Acoustic Diagnostics: The Acoustic Diagnostic instrument hardware was set up and calibrated, and measurements were recorded. Following this, a questionnaire was filled out on the EveryWear device. The Acoustic Upgraded Diagnostics In-Orbit (Acoustic Diagnostics) investigation tests the hearing of ISS crew members before, during, and after flight. This study assesses the possible adverse effects …
Since the Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion arrived back at the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 2, teams extended the access platforms surrounding the rocket and spacecraft to perform repairs and conduct final operations before returning to launch pad 39B for the Artemis I mission. Technicians …
Artificial intelligence, hearing tests, and a microscope setup topped the research agenda aboard the International Space Station on Friday. The seven Expedition 67 crew members also divided their day with ongoing spacewalk preparations, training video recording, and orbital plumbing duties. The astronauts have been exploring space manufacturing techniques to take advantage of the weightless environment …
Payloads: Grip: The crew performed the third and final day of the experiment session, transferred the data, and stowed the experiment hardware. The Grip experiment studies the long-duration spaceflight effects on the abilities of human subjects to regulate grip force and upper limbs trajectories when manipulating objects during different kinds of movements: oscillatory movements, rapid …
NASA’s CAPSTONE successfully completed its first trajectory correction maneuver, which started at 11:30 a.m. EDT Thursday. This is the first in a series of thruster burns over the next few months to more accurately target CAPSTONE’s transfer orbit to the Moon. The maneuver lasted just over 11 minutes and changed the spacecraft’s velocity by about 45 …
Three of the four science instruments on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have completed their commissioning activities and are ready for science. Each of Webb’s instruments has multiple modes of operation, which need to be tested, calibrated, and ultimately verified before they can begin to conduct science. The latest instrument to complete this process, the …