In preparation for its upcoming super pressure balloon launch, NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility kicked off a compatibility test Wednesday, March 30, at Wanaka Airport. The test, also referred to as a hang test because it involves suspending the payload from the launch crane and hooking the entire system up from top to bottom, is …
Exposed Facility Unit (EFU) Adapter, Global Positioning System (GPS)/Wheel Demo Unit Installation: Peake opened the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) Air Lock (AL) inner hatch and extended the Slide Table into the JEM Pressurized Module (JPM). Then, with assistance from Williams, he installed the EFU adapter to the Slide Table. The EFU adapter is a new …
It will be rush hour at the International Space Station for the next two weeks as a pair of spaceships gets ready to launch new science, hardware and crew supplies to the Expedition 47 crew. As the crew prepares for the new shipments, they are already working on the latest research delivered Saturday on the …
Tuesday’s preparations for the upcoming super pressure balloon launch from Wanaka, New Zealand, kicked off with a weather forecast for Friday, April 1, the first potential launch opportunity for the team. At this time, the weather for Friday is less than ideal for launch, but the team continues to monitor conditions and will make a …
A little post-airshow excitement occurred at Wanaka Airport March 28 when a World War II era Harvard aircraft safely belly landed on the airport’s runway around 9:30 a.m. March 28. After touching down, the aircraft’s landing gear apparently collapsed, bringing the aircraft’s belly down to the runway surface. No injuries were reported in the incident, …
Crew Off Duty: Today was a full off duty day for the USOS crew. This is to pay the crew back for performing Cygnus operations over the weekend. Orbital 6 (OA-6) Capture and Berthing: Cygnus was successfully captured and berthed to the ISS on Saturday. The crew ingressed the vehicle on Sunday, spent 12.5 hours …
by Patrick Lynch / KEFLAVIK, ICELAND / On Monday morning, the Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) team left the chill of Keflavik (32 degrees Fahrenheit but with a relentless, stinging wind) for the more ruthless cold of -8 degrees Fahrenheit in Thule, Greenland. Before landing, the seven-person team will fly over coastline near Thule today to …
by Patrick Lynch / KEFLAVIK, ICELAND / Here’s the second part of our Q&A with Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) principal investigator Josh Willis, an oceanographer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, specializing in sea level rise. Josh is also a graduate of the improv program at Second City Hollywood Conservatory in Los Angeles. …
As the location for NASA’s long-duration, mid-latitude super pressure balloon missions, one might ask: Why Wanaka, New Zealand? Six reasons come to mind: latitude, attitude, solitude, duration, weather and night. Latitude Some science experiments need to observe phenomena in the sky at locations only accessible by launching mid-latitude balloon flights centered around 45 degrees south …
The first A in NASA was celebrated to the full in Wanaka, New Zealand, this Easter weekend with more than 50,000 turning out for the Warbirds Over Wanaka Airshow. The biennial homage to aeronautics past and present featured aircraft from World War II to the present, fixed wing and rotary aircraft, as well as modern …
