NASA and SpaceX teams remain “Go” for the return of the agency’s SpaceX Demo-2 test flight with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley from the International Space Station following the Return Flight Readiness Review, with the primary factor being weather. NASA and SpaceX are targeting 7:34 p.m. EDT Saturday, Aug. 1, for undocking of the Dragon “Endeavour” …
The Expedition 63 crew checked out SpaceX Crew Dragon suits today and stayed busy with a full slate of space research. The International Space Station also completed the first of three orbital reboosts to get ready for the next crew mission in October. Flight Engineers Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken inspected the suits they will …
With less than 24 hours to go until launch, the weather is doing its part to cooperate. The U.S. Air Force 45th Weather Squadron is continuing to predict an 80% chance of favorable weather conditions for the Thursday, July 30, liftoff of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, carrying NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover. …
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine will conduct a briefing today at noon at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, in advance of Thursday’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover launch. Also participating in the briefing are: NASA Deputy Administrator Jim Morhard, Kennedy Deputy Director Janet Petro and NASA astronaut Zena Cardman. The event, scheduled for one hour, …
By Jim Cawley NASA’s Kennedy Space Center With two days to go until NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover blasts off on its seven-month journey to the Red Planet, everything is proceeding as planned. On Tuesday, July 28, the rover made the one-third-mile trek from United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Vertical Integration Facility to Cape Canaveral Air …
Payloads Astrobee: Astrobee was activated in support of checkout-2 for the Kibo Robotic Programming Challenge. The goal of the checkout is to confirm good data and voice communication between the 3 space centers involved, ensure the data markers (tags and targets) are in their proper locations, and ensure the files generated during the checkout are …
The Expedition 63 crew tackled a wide range of advanced space science today as NASA’s first commercial astronauts near their departure. Robotics, genetics and fluids were just a portion of today’s research schedule as the International Space Station residents work with scientists helping to improve conditions for astronauts and Earthlings. Flight Engineer Doug Hurley checked …
The Expedition 63 crew focused on robotic assistants and biomedicine today while preparing for two crew members to depart this weekend. The International Space Station residents are also cleaning U.S. spacesuits and unloading a Russian cargo craft. NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken are packing up for their return to Earth this weekend after …
Payloads Astrobee: In preparation for the upcoming Kibo Robot Programming challenge checkout, the crew reviewed the Astrobee On-Board Training. The Astrobee team has been working for the past several weeks to map the Japanese Experiment Module to allow Astrobee navigation. Astrobee is made up of three free-flying, cube-shaped robots which are designed to help scientists …
Payloads Spectrum: The crew performed a shutdown of the Spectrum hardware after the ground teams performed a checkout. The hardware will be used to process samples arriving on NG-14. Spectrum takes fluorescent images of biological specimens contained within a controlled environment. A high resolution, monochrome camera captures images of fluoresced proteins of plants within Petri …
