Launch and mission controllers are at their consoles this afternoon in a dress rehearsal for the upcoming launch of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and Goddard Space Flight Center, United Launch Alliance and Lockheed Martin all are participating in today’s test. OSIRIS-REx is sealed inside …
Two astronauts are cleaning up after a spacewalk while a pair of cosmonauts are getting a Soyuz spacecraft ready for departure after the Labor Day weekend. On the ground, three new crew members are preparing for a launch to the International Space Station at the end of the month. Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer …
By Eric Lindstrom Kyla Drushka from University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) received a National Science Foundation grant to participate in SPURS-2. It is one cornerstone of our work and is entitled “Rain-Formed Fresh Lenses in SPURS-2.” The idea of rainfall resulting in freshwater puddles or lenses at the sea surface is (perhaps) easy […]
Trailing Thermal Control Radiator (TTCR) Extravehicular Activity (EVA): Today, CDR Williams and FE-6 Rubins completed the TTCR EVA, with Airlock egress at 6:53 am CDT. Once outside the Airlock, the crew performed the following scheduled tasks: Retract, cover, and cinch down the TTCR using hook straps Replace a failed External Television Camera Group (ETVCG) light …
Expedition 48 Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Kate Rubins concluded their spacewalk at 2:41 p.m. EDT. During the six-hour, 48-minute spacewalk, the two NASA astronauts successfully retracted a thermal radiator, installed two enhanced high definition cameras on the station’s truss and tightened bolts on a joint that enables one of the station’s solar arrays …
Launch and mission officials gathered this morning for the OSIRIS-REx Flight Readiness Review and concluded that there are no issues or concerns that would preclude continuing to target launch next Thursday, Sept. 8. Liftoff aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is planned for 7:05 p.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex 41 on Florida’s …
Two NASA astronauts switched their spacesuits to battery power this morning at 7:53 a.m. EDT aboard the International Space Station to begin a spacewalk planned to last approximately six-and-a-half hours. Expedition 48 Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Kate Rubins will retract a thermal radiator, install the first of several enhanced high definition cameras on …
By Eric Lindstrom A longstanding technical challenge for oceanography has been how to measure the sea surface – temperature, salinity, gas exchange, or surfactants – to name a few examples. Obviously enough, the surface is where the ocean and atmosphere interact and exchange heat, freshwater, gases, momentum, and particles of all kinds. So, how do […]
Trailing Thermal Control Radiator (TTCR) Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Preparations: The Commander and Flight Engineer-6 completed their pre-EVA medical checkup, final EVA tool configuration and EVA timeline review earlier today. This afternoon the crew performed a conference with EVA ground specialist to discuss any final question about tomorrow’s TTCR EVA. The crew also prepared the Equipment …
I have always wanted to visit Greenland, the “ground zero” for climate change. Its ice cap rises more than 3,200 meters (2 miles!) above sea level and it holds so much ice that if it all melted, the height of sea level would rise by 7 meters (23 feet). The landscape is stark and inhospitable […]
