Teams from NASA and SpaceX are proceeding with preparations to bring NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley home from the International Space Station to Earth with a splashdown on Sunday, Aug. 2, off the Florida coast aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon “Endeavour” spacecraft. Watch the crew farewell ceremony on YouTube. Return conditions remained “Go” at several of the needed target …
The first pieces of flight hardware for Gateway’s Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) have arrived at Thales Alenia Space Italy (TASI) sent by NASA’s HALO contractor Northrop Grumman. These forgings are the base metal that is used to create the pressure shell, barrel sections, and interface rings for HALO. The manufacturing process is based on the same process employed by …
Payloads BioMole: The crew performed BioMole part 3 of the science session, which consists of preparation of the previously amplified DNA (DeoxyriboNucleic Acid), followed by sequencing using the MinION. The BioMole Facility non-culture based samples are capable of providing microbial identification on-orbit within days of sampling. The goal of this tech demonstration is to conduct …
NASA and SpaceX mission managers met Thursday night and are proceeding, weather permitting, with the return to Earth of two astronauts. Meanwhile, space research to improve life for humans on and off the planet kept the Expedition 63 crew busy today. Flight Engineers Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken are packing up to end a two-month …
Flight controllers for NASA’s Mars 2020 mission have returned the spacecraft to nominal flight operations. Launched on July 30 at 7:50 a.m. EDT (4:50 a.m. PDT), Mars 2020 entered a state called safe mode soon after it was placed on an interplanetary trajectory because a sensor indicated that part of the spacecraft was slightly colder …
The team controlling NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover has received telemetry (detailed spacecraft data) down from the spacecraft and has also been able to send commands up to the spacecraft, according to Matt Wallace, the mission’s deputy project manager. The team, based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, has confirmed that the spacecraft …
The second to last piece of hardware for the Artemis I test flight around the Moon has arrived at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The launch vehicle stage adapter (LVSA) connects the core stage of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket to the upper stage, called the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage. The cone-shaped connector also helps protect the RL10 engine …
Payloads Colloidal Clusters: The crew enabled the UV (ultraviolet) illumination system for the Colloidal Clusters sample bags. UV light is used to activate the UV-curable gelling agent and terminate the experiment. Following the appropriate UV exposure time, the crew performed steps needed to close out the experiment. JAXA’s Colloidal Clusters investigates the mechanism for formation …
Two Flight Engineers and the Expedition 63 Commander, all from NASA, will talk to journalists Friday morning before the SpaceX Crew Dragon completes its stay at the International Space Station. Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, NASA’s first commercial crew, have been aboard the orbiting lab since May 31. They have been packing the Crew Dragon …
By Jim Cawley NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Not obstacles, not complexity — not even a worldwide pandemic — could keep NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover from blasting off on its historic mission to the Red Planet. On Thursday, July 30, at 7:50 a.m. EDT, Perseverance lifted off aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V …
