The crew aboard the International Space Station is preparing to split up while also getting ready for a U.S. space delivery. NASA astronaut Christina Koch is packing up and cleaning her crew quarters today ahead of her return to Earth early Thursday. She will board the Soyuz MS-13 crew ship on Wednesday about 9:30 p.m. …
Mobile Companion (CIMON): Over the weekend, the crew updated software to the CIMON hardware and then performed a Mood test as part of activation and checkout steps. The Pilot Study with the Crew Interactive MObile companioN (Cimon) is a technology demonstration project, and an observational study, that aims to obtain the first insights into the …
NASA astronaut Christina Koch and two fellow Expedition 61 crewmembers are in their final week aboard the International Space Station. The other three lab residents are gearing up for next week’s arrival of a U.S. space freighter. Koch will wrap up a 328-day mission aboard the orbiting lab on Thursday. Koch blasted off to join …
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is healthy and operating as designed following its fourth close approach to the Sun, called perihelion, on Jan. 29.
CAL (Cold Atom Lab): The crew completed the last steps of the Fiber Optics inspections for Module 3 and closed out the CAL in Express Rack 7. The CAL produces clouds of atoms that are chilled to about one ten billionth of a degree above absolute zero – much colder than the average temperature of …
Northrup Grumman’s Cygnus cargo spacecraft departed the International Space Station’s at 9:36 a.m. EST after Expedition 61 Flight Engineers Andrew Morgan and Jessica Meir of NASA commanded its release from the Canadarm2 robotic arm. At the time of release, the station was flying about 250 miles over the South Pacific just off the West Coast of Chile. For this mission, Cygnus …
NASA, ESA (European Space Agency), Airbus and United Launch Alliance now are targeting 11:03 p.m. EST Sunday, Feb. 9, for the launch of the Solar Orbiter mission on an Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The launch has a two-hour window. The two-day launch delay was caused by two items that delayed transport of the spacecraft to the pad. The first item was a schedule conflict on Wednesday with a commercial mission launch from a nearby launch pad. The second item was the weather Thursday morning.
A Northrop Grumman cargo ship, dubbed the SS Alan Bean, is set to depart the International Space Station Friday, Jan. 31. Live coverage of the spacecraft’s release will begin on NASA Television and the agency’s website at 9:15 a.m. with release scheduled for 9:35 a.m. With Expedition 61 Flight Engineers Andrew Morgan and Jessica Meir …
Electro-static Levitation Furnace (ELF): The crew removed and cleaned sample cartridge #3 from the ELF and installed a new sample cartridge. The ground then initiated an experiment run. ELF is an experimental facility designed to levitate, melt and solidify materials by containerless processing techniques using the electrostatic levitation method. With this facility thermophysical properties of …
Cardiology, combustion and CubeSats filled Thursday’s research schedule as three Expedition 61 crewmates are one week away from returning to Earth. The Cygnus space freighter is also poised to depart the International Space Station on Friday and complete one more mission. NASA astronaut Christina Koch is nearing the end of her 328-day mission aboard the …
