Payloads Combustion Integrated Rack/Advanced Combustion via Microgravity Experiments/Cool Flames Investigation with Gasses (CIR/ACME/CFI-G): A crewmember exchanged a used 100% propane bottle with a new bottle of the same composition. Cool diffusion flames were discovered during droplet combustion experiments aboard the ISS in 2012, and this initiated a rapidly growing field of combustion research. A cool …
Spacewalk is Postponed
The U.S. spacewalk outside the International Space Station originally planned for Tuesday, Aug. 24 with NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide has been postponed due to a minor medical issue involving Vande Hei. This issue is not a medical emergency. The spacewalk is not time-sensitive and crew …
August 2021 Brings Rare Seasonal ‘Blue Moon’
This month we’ll get to see a Full Moon on Aug. 22, 2021, known by some early Native American tribes of the northeastern United States, as the Sturgeon Moon. The name was given to the Moon because the large sturgeon fish of the Great Lakes, and other major lakes, were more easily caught at this …
ISS Daily Summary Report – 8/20/2021
Payloads Cardinal Muscle: A crewmember captured images of Cardinal Muscle BioCell Wells. Muscle mass diminishes with age on Earth via a condition called sarcopenia, and astronauts experience similar and accelerated loss of muscle mass during spaceflight. Tissue Engineered Muscle in Microgravity as a Novel Platform to Study Sarcopenia (Cardinal Muscle) evaluates whether engineered human muscle …
NASA’s ESCAPADE Mission – Twin Martian Orbiters – Moves Toward Launch
NASA’s Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers, or ESCAPADE mission, passed a mission review on August 17, 2021, moving the mission into its next phase with a new target launch readiness date of October 2024.
Weekend Starts with Spacewalk Preps and Space Science
The Expedition 65 crew is going into the weekend preparing for a spacewalk on Tuesday while juggling a variety of microgravity research. Astronauts Mark Vande Hei of NASA and Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) are less than a week away from exiting the U.S. Quest airlock to prepare the International Space …
Starliner Returns to Factory, Preparations Underway to Resolve Valve Issue
Teams from Boeing and United Launch Alliance (ULA) safely returned the CST-100 Starliner to its production facility in Florida on Aug. 19 for continued work on the spacecraft’s service module propulsion system. The Starliner Orbital Flight Test-2 spacecraft was removed from its Atlas V rocket inside the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex-41 on …
ISS Daily Summary Report – 8/19/2021
Payloads Anti-Atrophy: A crewmember performed a medium exchange for Anti-Atrophy samples. Muscle atrophy that occurs in microgravity affects the quality of life of astronauts. Research on Inhibitory Effects of Novel Concept Biomaterials, an HSP Inducer and Ubiquitin Ligase Inhibitor, on Microgravity-induced Muscle Atrophy (Anti-Atrophy) tests the ability of these biomaterials to inhibit muscle atrophy in …
Robotics, Muscle Research During Ongoing Spacewalk Preps
The Astrobee robotic free-flyers were powered up aboard the International Space Station and cell samples were set up for human muscle research today. The Expedition 65 crew is also headlong into U.S. and Russian spacewalk preparations while working on a variety of other science experiments. NASA Flight Engineer Megan McArthur started Thursday morning turning on …
NASA Invites Public to Share Excitement of SpaceX 23rd Commercial Resupply Mission
NASA is inviting the public to take part in virtual activities and events ahead of the launch of SpaceX’s 23rd commercial resupply service mission to send research and supplies to the International Space Station aboard a Dragon spacecraft. Launch is targeted for 3:37 a.m. EDT on Saturday, Aug. 28, 2021, from Launch Complex 39A at …