In Hawaii, land of palm trees, pineapples, and year-round surfing, a full-blown blizzard hit last week. The early March storm brought more than 8 inches (20 centimeters) to the top of Mauna Kea volcano, leading authorities to shut the road to the peak. The snow was all the more surprising given how little has fallen […]
ISS Daily Summary Report – 3/09/2017
Fluid Shifts Chibis Measurements, Day 1: The 48S crew member performed the first of two days of operations in the Russian Segment conducting the Return minus 45 day (R-45) Fluid Shifts operations. The subject donned the Lower Body Negative Pressure (LBNP/Chibis) device while the operator, with ground support in Moscow, assisted in the medical monitoring. …
The Surreal Beauty of Lightning Seen from Space
New videos of lightning from the GOES-16 satellite and a blue jet from the International Space Station are spectacular.
SAGE III Instrument is installed on the Nadir Viewing Platform!
On Wednesday, March 8 around 6:30 p.m. EST the SAGE III Instrument Payload was successfully installed on the Nadir Viewing Platform at ELC-4 on the outside of the space station. The mission operations team confirmed that electricity was flowing and the survival heaters were on with good temperature readings. The next step is activation which […]
Harvest Day on Station as Kids Space Research Begins
The crew is harvesting plants today grown on the International Space Station that will be returned to Earth aboard the SpaceX Dragon. Also, a variety of student experiments submitted from schools across the United States were activated inside the orbital laboratory. Dragon is due to return to Earth and splash down in the Pacific Ocean …
ISS Daily Summary Report – 3/08/2017
Mobile Servicing System (MSS) Operations: Overnight, Robotics Ground Controllers unstowed the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) Instrument Panel from the SPDM Enhanced Orbital Replacement Unit (ORU) Temporary Platform (EOTP) and installed it on the SAGE Nadir Viewing Platform (NVP). They then maneuvered the SSRMS to support surveys of the SAGE IP, the EXpedite the …
March Puzzler
Your challenge for the March puzzler is to tell us what part of the world we are looking at, when the image was acquired, what the image shows, and why the scene is interesting.
ISS Daily Summary Report – 3/07/2017
Energy Requirements for Long-Term Space Flight (Energy): The crew completed urine collections for Day 6 of the 11-day Energy protocol, logging food and drink consumptions as well. The Energy investigation measures adaptations in the components of total energy expenditure of crewmembers so that an equation to determine the energy requirements of crewmembers during space flight …
Ongoing Space Science Seeks to Keep Astronauts Healthy
NASA is preparing for longer human journeys deeper into space and is exploring how to keep astronauts healthy and productive. The Expedition 50 crew members today studied space nutrition, measured their bodies and checked their eyes to learn how to adapt to living in space. The space residents also unloaded a cargo ship, worked on …
ISS Daily Summary Report – 3/06/2017
Microgravity Expanded Stem Cells (MESC) Microscope Operations: Over the weekend the crew completed the MESC experiment, performing two days of back-to-back operations. The crew viewed the BioCells on the microscope, then sampled and preserved the BioCells which were inserted into the Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI) for cold stowage. The crew …