Blogs

Members of the media were given the opportunity to view and photograph the Solar Orbiter spacecraft up close inside the Astrotech Space Operations payload processing facility in Titusville, Florida, on Dec. 16, 2019. Representatives from NASA’s Launch Services Program (LSP), the European Space Agency (ESA), United Launch Alliance (ULA), Airbus Defence and Space, and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center provided an overview of the mission, spacecraft and launch vehicle.

Two vital pieces of equipment for the Mars 2020 rover were flown from Lockheed Martin Space in Denver, Colorado, and recently delivered to the agency’s Kennedy Space Center. The rover’s heat shield and back shell arrived at Kennedy’s Launch and Landing Facility (formerly the Shuttle Landing Facility) on Dec. 11, 2019, and were then transported …

The International Space Station is gearing up for the arrival of Boeing’s new CST-100 Starliner crew ship this weekend. Meanwhile, the Expedition 61 crew checked out a new baking oven, researched life science and replaced a treadmill belt. Boeing’s first Orbital Flight Test of its first commercial crew vehicle is moving ahead toward launch Friday …

CBEF-L (Cell Biology Experiment Facility – Left): The crew installed the CBEF-L centrifuge and performed the necessary temperature/humidity sensor relocations to support the ground-commanded checkout activities.  CBEF-L is a new JAXA subrack facility, which is an upgraded facility of the original Cell Biology Experiment Facility (CBEF) currently aboard the International Space Station (ISS). CBEF-L provides …

Acoustic Diagnostics: The crew set up the appropriate hardware, performed the audio measurements, and used the EveryWear application to answer the questionnaires.  The investigation tests the hearing of ISS crew members before, during, and after flight. This study assesses the possible adverse effects of noise and the microgravity environment aboard the ISS on human hearing. …

Boeing is ramping up for the launch of its first commercial crew vehicle to the International Space Station this week. The Expedition 61 crew is preparing for the new U.S. crew ship’s arrival while working human research and space biology today. Boeing is targeting 6:36 a.m. EST Friday, Dec. 20, for the launch of its …

Gravitational References for Sensimotor Performance:  Reaching and Grasping (GRASP): The crew performed GRASP quasi-free sessions. The hardware was then stowed. The purpose of GRASP investigation is to better understand how the central nervous system (CNS) integrates information from different sensations (e.g. sight or hearing), encoded in different reference frames, in order to coordinate the hand …

With the holidays right around the corner, most of us are in gift-giving mode… and one of our favorite gifts every December is the Geminid meteor shower! This year, the peak is during the overnight hours of December 13 and into the morning of December 14. If you can’t catch the Geminids on Friday night, …

Bio-Monitor: The crew doffed and stowed the headband and Garment hardware. The crew then connected the data unit to the controller for data downlink. Although the ISS is equipped with health and life sciences research tools, the existing instrumentation for continuous and simultaneous recording of several physiological parameters is lacking. To tackle this issue, the …

NASA and Boeing are proceeding with plans for Boeing’s Orbital Flight Test following a full day of briefings and a Flight Readiness Review that took place at the Kennedy Space Center. Launch of the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is scheduled for 6:36 a.m. EST Friday, Dec. 20, from …