Tag: Missions

Leadership to Discuss NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test

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Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft that launched NASA’s Crew Flight Test astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station is pictured docked to the Harmony module’s forward port. (Credit: NASA) NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and leadership will hold an internal Agency Test Flight Readiness Review on Saturday, Aug. 24, for NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test. About an hour later, NASA will host a live news conference at 1 p.m. EDT from the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Watch the media event on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app,…

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SpaceX shows off Dragon capsules for Polaris Dawn, Crew-9 astronaut missions (photos)

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These two Dragons are getting ready to spread their wings. SpaceX just gave us a look at the Crew Dragon capsules that will fly on the Polaris Dawn and Crew-9 astronaut missions, which are set to launch on Aug. 26 and Sept. 24, respectively. “Double Dragons readying for flight ahead of the Polaris Dawn and Crew-9 human spaceflight missions,” the company wrote in an X post on Wednesday (Aug. 21) that featured two photos of the capsules, side by side in a processing facility on Florida’s Space Coast. Polaris Dawn…

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NASA CubeSats Launch as Commercial Rideshares

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A pair of CubeSats from NASA’s Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator series launched on SpaceX’s Transporter-11 rideshare mission at 11:56 a.m. PDT Friday, August 16, from Vandenburg Space Force Base in California. Photo credit: SpaceX A pair of CubeSats from NASA’s Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator, or PTD, series lifted off on SpaceX’s Transporter-11 rideshare mission at 11:56 a.m. PDT Friday, August 16, from Vandenburg Space Force Base in California. The two small satellites, PTD-4 and PTD-R, will help advance NASA’s efforts to validate novel technologies and increase small spacecraft capabilities in order to…

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Station Science Top News: August 16, 2024

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Locations designed as a maintenance work area and an exercise area on the International Space Station are commonly used by crew members for stowage and body maintenance activities, respectively. These differences between intended and actual use demonstrate that systematic observation of material culture can help researchers identify how astronauts adapt to life in microgravity and support better design of future spacecraft and habitats. The first archaeological fieldwork in space, SQuARE examined the space station’s material culture – objects and built spaces and their symbolic and social meanings – and how these objects and spaces…

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Hubble Rings in a New Galactic View

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This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image reveals the galaxy LEDA 857074. ESA/Hubble & NASA, I. Chilingari The subject of this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is situated in the Perseus Cluster, also known as Abell 426, 320 million light-years from Earth. It’s a barred spiral galaxy known as MCG+07-07-072, seen here among a number of photobombing stars that are much closer to Earth than it is. MCG+07-07-072 has quite an unusual shape for a spiral galaxy, with thin arms emerging from the ends of its barred core to draw a near-circle around its…

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James Webb Space Telescope adds to the confusing drama of Hubble tension

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It would appear that James Webb Space Telescope observations of 10 nearby galaxies suggests the Hubble tension — which is a puzzling discrepancy in measurements regarding the rate of the expansion of the universe — may not be real after all. The James Webb Space Telescope‘s observations put the average value of the Hubble constant (H0), key in determining the rate at which the universe is expanding, at 69.96 kilometers per second per megaparsec. This is indeed consistent with predictions stemming from the standard model of cosmology, which should sound…

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Will Boeing’s Starliner astronauts ride a SpaceX Dragon home in 2025? NASA could decide next week

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Boeing’s two Starliner astronauts may learn their fate in the next two weeks — but, for now, NASA still doesn’t know when the duo is coming home.  So, while the space agency’s best and brightest works with Boeing engineers to continue assessing data from ground tests of Starliner’s systems, the spacecraft’s crew, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, will remain aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for now. Wilmore and Williams launched to the ISS aboard Starliner for the spacecraft’s Crew Flight Test (CFT) on June 5. Their mission,…

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Station Science Top News: August 9, 2024

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Researchers tested a treatment on cartilage and bone tissue cultures subjected to compressive impact injury and found differences in the metabolites and proteins released by cells in space and on Earth along with partial improvement in both gravity conditions. The findings suggest the treatment is safe and could help ensure the health of crew members on future missions and patients on Earth. Astronauts have high rates of musculoskeletal injuries, and post-traumatic osteoarthritis from joint injuries is a major contributor to disability across all ages on the ground. MVP Cell-06 used cultures of human knee…

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NASA shuts down NEOWISE asteroid hunter after almost 15 years in space

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A prolific NASA asteroid-hunting mission has come to an end. Engineers sent a final command to the agency’s NEOWISE (Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) spacecraft on Thursday (Aug. 8), ordering the probe to turn off its transmitter after nearly 15 years of operation in low Earth orbit.  “The NEOWISE mission has been an extraordinary success story as it helped us better understand our place in the universe by tracking asteroids and comets that could be hazardous for us on Earth,” Nicola Fox, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate…

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