Two NASA astronauts and a European Space Agency astronaut headed into the weekend with a light day Friday. Meanwhile, the three cosmonauts from Roscosmos packed a Soyuz spacecraft for departure and worked on maintenance and science. Commander Shane Kimbrough, who is returning to Earth early Monday, took it easy Friday aboard the International Space Station. …
NASA postponed the scheduled launch of its super pressure balloon (SPB) from Wanaka, New Zealand, at 2 a.m. Saturday, April 8 (New Zealand time) due to unacceptable stratospheric weather conditions for operations. Along with monitoring ground and lower-level winds (up to 300 meters) on launch day, stratospheric wind conditions at 33.5 km (110,000 feet), which is …
NASA is targeting Saturday, April 8 (Friday, April 7 in Eastern Time), to conduct a super pressure balloon (SPB) test flight launching from Wanaka Airport, New Zealand, on a potential 100-day journey. NASA will begin flight preparations in the early morning hours Saturday and will continue to evaluate real-time and forecast weather conditions throughout the …
Flight Day 120 (FD120) Human Research Program (HRP) Collections: The 49S subject performed a fasting blood draw and urine collections. Both samples were stowed in Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI) for freezing and storage until their return and analysis. The Biochemical Profile experiment tests blood and urine samples obtained from astronauts …
Three crew members aboard the International Space Station are packing up their gear for a homecoming on Monday. NASA also decided to extend the mission of an astronaut living aboard the station since November. Two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut will take a ride back to Earth early Monday inside the Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft. Commander …
As the latest super pressure balloon (SPB) prepares to lift off from New Zealand, carrying the Extreme Universe Space Observatory-SPB (EUSO-SPB) payload, one may reflect back on how this balloon, the 6th iteration in the current model of long duration balloons, came to be and what goes into its construction — acres and acres of …
Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) Universal Docking Port (UDP): The crew completed a test run for the SPHERES UDP payload. They loaded the test software and performed the session with ground support staff direction. Objectives of the UDP session are to demonstrate a reliably successful docking through running multiple, repeatable docking maneuvers …
A demonstration of the automated command and control software for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft, recently took place in Firing Room 3 in the Launch Control Center at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The software, called the ground launch sequencer, will be responsible for nearly all of the launch …
The Expedition 50 crew is checking out U.S. spacesuits today and testing tiny internal satellites for research. Three crew members are also packing up for a ride back to Earth on Monday. Commander Shane Kimbrough worked on a pair of spacesuits today following the completion of two spacewalks last month. He sampled and tested the …
Return minus 15 (R-15) Human Research Program (HRP) Collections: The 48S returning crewmember performed a fasting blood draw followed by urine collections. Both blood and urine samples were stowed in Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI) for freezing and storage for return and analysis. The Biochemical Profile experiment tests blood and urine …
