Blogs

Payloads: Advanced Plant EXperiment-07 (APEX -07): The crew configured the Veggie facility for initial APEX-07 operations and inserted data loggers and Petri Plates into the facility. APEX-07 examines how changes in gravity and other environmental factors associated with spaceflight affect plants at the level of gene expression. Previous research shows that microgravity conditions during spaceflight …

By Mikayla Cote, Master’s student at the University of Rhode Island / UNITED KINGDOM / After flying to the United Kingdom, the EXPORTS scientists were in quarantine for two weeks prior to embarking on a month-long research cruise. While there was still some last-minute work to be done before departure, for most of us this …

Payloads: AC Touch: Per standard procedure, the crew touched both the coated and uncoated coupons for this long-term investigation.  Boeing Environment Responding Antimicrobial Coatings tests an antimicrobial coating on several different materials that represent high-touch surfaces. Some microbes change characteristics in microgravity, which could create new risks to crew health and spacecraft systems as well …

Cotton plants and kidney cells were the dominant research topics aboard the International Space Station today. NASA TV will also broadcast a preview on Monday of two upcoming Expedition 65 spacewalks. The orbiting lab is hosting a variety of life forms to help researchers understand how weightlessness affects biology. Observations provide insights often advancing health …

Payloads: Bioculture system: The crew removed the Bioculture system from Dragon, installed it into EXPRESS rack 4, and successfully powered it up.  This facility will be used to support the Cell Science-04 investigation in mid-July.  The tardigrade (water bear) is the model organism for studying biological survival under the most extreme environmental stress conditions on …

Mission controllers will command the Canadarm2 robotic arm to remove a new pair of solar arrays from the SpaceX Cargo Dragon resupply ship tonight. Four Expedition 65 astronauts are also training for robotics activities to support two spacewalks scheduled to begin next week. Packed inside the unpressurized segment of the Cargo Dragon, also known as …

By Diana Fontaine, Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography / NORTHERN ATLANTIC OCEAN / We have about one more week of full science fun left in the North Atlantic NASA EXPORTS campaign. It has certainly been a wild ride at sea given that we’ve experienced about four storms to …

Payloads: AC Touch: Per standard procedure, the crew touched both the coated and uncoated coupons for this long-term investigation.  Boeing Environment Responding Antimicrobial Coatings tests an antimicrobial coating on several different materials that represent high-touch surfaces. Some microbes change characteristics in microgravity, which could create new risks to crew health and spacecraft systems as well …

By Delfina Navarro-Estrada and Shannon Burns, oceanography graduate students at the University of South Florida / NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN / In the sunlit portion of the ocean exist single-celled microscopic organisms called phytoplankton. They are called the ‘grass of the sea’ because these tiny plants and algae perform many of the same ecological functions as …

Kidney cells, oral health and pharmaceuticals were the science highlights aboard the International Space Station on Wednesday. The Expedition 65 crew is also continuing to ramp up for a pair of spacewalks set to begin next week. New experiments delivered Saturday aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon resupply ship are already under way on the orbiting …