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By NASA
NASA astronaut and Expedition 72 Flight Engineer Nick Hague in the space station cupola. (Credit: NASA) Students from Iowa will have the opportunity to hear NASA astronaut Nick Hague answer their prerecorded questions while he’s serving an expedition aboard the International Space Station on Monday, Oct. 21.
Watch the 20-minute space-to-Earth call at 11:40 a.m. EDT on NASA+. Students from Iowa State University in Ames, First Robotics Clubs, World Food Prize Global Youth Institute, and Plant the Moon teams will focus on food production in space. Learn how to watch NASA content on various platforms, including social media.
Media interested in covering the event must contact Angie Hunt by 5 p.m., Friday, Oct.18 at amhunt@iastate.edu or 515-294-8986.
For more than 23 years, astronauts have continuously lived and worked aboard the space station, testing technologies, performing science, and developing skills needed to explore farther from Earth. Astronauts aboard the orbiting laboratory communicate with NASA’s Mission Control Center in Houston 24 hours a day through SCaN’s (Space Communications and Navigation) Near Space Network.
Important research and technology investigations taking place aboard the space station benefit people on Earth and lays the groundwork for other agency missions. As part of NASA’s Artemis campaign, the agency will send astronauts to the Moon to prepare for future human exploration of Mars; inspiring Artemis Generation explorers and ensuring the United States continues to lead in space exploration and discovery.
See videos and lesson plans highlighting space station research at:
https://www.nasa.gov/stemonstation
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Abbey Donaldson
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
Abbey.a.donaldson@nasa.gov
Sandra Jones
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov
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By NASA
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Dr. Rainee Simons (right) and Dr. Félix Miranda work together to create technology supporting heart health at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.Credit: NASA Prioritizing health is important on Earth, and it’s even more important in space. Exploring beyond the Earth’s surface exposes humans to conditions that can impact blood pressure, bone density, immune health, and much more. With this in mind, two NASA inventors joined forces 20 years ago to create a way to someday monitor astronaut heart health on long-duration spaceflight missions. This technology is now being used to monitor the health of patients with heart failure on Earth through a commercial product that is slated to launch in late 2024.
NASA inventors Dr. Rainee Simons, senior microwave communications engineer, and Dr. Félix Miranda, deputy chief of the Communications and Intelligent Systems Division, applied their expertise in radio frequency integrated circuits and antennas to create a miniature implantable sensor system to keep track of astronaut health in space. The technology, which was created at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland with seed funds from the agency’s Technology Transfer Office, consists of a small bio-implanted sensor that can transmit a person’s health status from a sensor to a handheld device. The sensor is battery-less and wireless.
“You’re able to insert the sensor and bring it up to the heart or the aorta like a stent – the same process as in a stent implant,” Simons said. “No major surgery is needed for implantation, and operating the external handheld device, by the patient, is simple and easy.”
After Glenn patented the invention, Dr. Anthony Nunez, a heart surgeon, and Harry Rowland, a mechanical engineer, licensed the technology and founded a digital health medical technology company in 2007 called Endotronix, now an Edwards Lifesciences company. The company focuses on enabling proactive heart failure management with data-driven patient-to-physician solutions that detect dangers, based on the Glenn technology. The Endotronix primary monitoring system is called the Cordella Pulmonary Artery (PA) Sensor System. Dr. Nunez became aware of the technology while reading a technical journal that featured the concept, and he saw parallels that could be used in the medical technology industry.
The concept has proven to be an aid for heart failure management through several clinical trials, and patients have experienced improvements in their quality of life. Based on the outcome of Endotronix’s clinical testing to demonstrate safety and effectiveness, in June 2024 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted premarket approval to the Cordella PA Sensor System. The system is meant to help clinicians remotely assess, treat, and manage heart failure in patients at home with the goal of reducing hospitalizations.
“If you look at the statistics of how many people have congestive heart failure, high blood pressure… it’s a lot of people,” Miranda said. “To have the medical community saying we have a device that started from NASA’s intellectual property – and it could help people worldwide to be healthy, to enjoy life, to go about their business – is highly gratifying, and it’s very consistent with NASA’s mission to do work for the benefit of all.”
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By NASA
NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson works on a computer inside the International Space Station. Credit: NASA NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson will share details of her recent six-month mission aboard the International Space Station in a news conference at 11 a.m. EDT Friday, Oct. 4, at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The news conference will air live on NASA+ and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.
Media interested in participating in person must contact the NASA Johnson newsroom no later than 5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 3, at 281-483-5111 or jsccommu@mail.nasa.gov.
Media wishing to participate by phone must contact the newsroom no later than two hours before the start of the event. NASA’s media accreditation policy is available online. To ask questions by phone, media must dial into the news conference no later than 10 minutes prior to the start of the call. Questions may also be submitted on social media by using #AskNASA.
Spanning 184 days in space, Dyson’s third spaceflight covered 2,944 orbits of the Earth and a 78-million-mile journey as an Expedition 70/71 flight engineer. Dyson also conducted one spacewalk of 31 minutes, bringing her career total to 23 hours, 20 minutes on four spacewalks. Dyson returned to Earth on Sept. 23, as planned, along with her crewmates, Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub.
Dyson launched on March 23 and arrived at the station March 25 alongside Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy and spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus. Novitskiy and Vasilevskaya were aboard the station for 12 days before returning home with NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara on April 6.
While aboard the orbiting lab, Dyson conducted dozens of scientific and technology activities to benefit future exploration in space and life back on Earth. She remotely controlled a robot on Earth’s surface from a computer aboard the station and evaluated orbit-to-ground operations. She operated a 3D bioprinter to print cardiac tissue samples, which could advance technology for creating replacement organs and tissues for transplants on Earth.
Dyson also participated in the crystallization of model proteins to evaluate the performance of hardware that could be used for pharmaceutical production and ran a program that uses student-designed software to control the station’s free-flying robots, inspiring the next generation of innovators.
Learn more about space station activities by following @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook, ISS Instagram, and the space station blog.
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Joshua Finch / Claire O’Shea
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / claire.a.o’shea@nasa.gov
Courtney Beasley
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
courtney.m.beasley@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Sep 30, 2024 EditorJessica TaveauLocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
Humans in Space Astronauts Expedition 70 Expedition 71 International Space Station (ISS) ISS Research Tracy Caldwell Dyson View the full article
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By NASA
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 commander Nick Hague is pictured in his flight suit during training at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California. Hague will perform human health and performance research on the International Space Station as part of his mission.SpaceX NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov will soon dock with the International Space Station as part of the agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission, a venture which will enhance scientific research and bolster the knowledge about how people can live and work in space.
During the planned five-month mission, Hague’s mission tasks will include participating in a variety of research projects for NASA’s Human Research Program. Each study is designed to help address the health challenges that astronauts may face during future long-duration missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
“Hague’s experiences and research may potentially lead to scientific breakthroughs that may not be possible on Earth,” said Steven Platts, chief scientist for human research at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
A major focus for Hague’s time aboard the station is to study the suite of space-related vision disorders called Spaceflight Associated Neuro-ocular Syndrome (SANS) which occur as body fluids shift toward the head in weightlessness. These shifts can cause changes to the eye: the optic nerve can swell, the retina may develop folds, and the back of the eye can even flatten. Earlier research suggests multiple factors contribute to the syndrome, so two vision-related studies on this mission will tackle different yet distinct approaches that may help address or even prevent such changes during future missions.
One project, called Thigh Cuff, will explore whether wearing fitted cuffs could counter the syndrome by keeping more bodily fluids in the legs. Thigh cuffs are compact, lightweight, and easy to use, which makes them appealing for potential use during long-duration, deep space missions.
For this study, Hague will wear the thigh cuffs for six hours during two sessions. To help researchers measure how well the cuffs work, he will record ultrasound images of blood flow in his legs and neck veins during the sessions. Researchers will also compare this data against ultrasounds taken without the cuff to examine flow differences.
“Thigh cuffs like these may allow researchers to better investigate medical conditions that result in extra fluid in the brain or too much blood returning to the heart,” said study leader Brandon Macias at NASA Johnson.
In another study, Hague will test if a vitamin regimen may help combat SANS. The study, led by Sara Zwart, a nutritional biochemist at NASA Johnson, seeks to examine if a daily vitamin B supplement—taken before, during, and after flight—can prevent or mitigate swelling at the back of the eye. The research will also assess how an individual’s genetics may influence the response.
“Earlier research suggests that some people are more susceptible to this ocular syndrome than others based on genetics that can influence B vitamin requirements, so taking daily vitamins may make all the difference,” Zwart said. “We think by giving the B vitamins, we could be taking that piece of genetic variability out of the equation.”
The work also may eventually improve care options for women on Earth with polycystic ovary syndrome, a condition that can cause eye changes and infertility in women. Researchers hope that patients may similarly benefit from targeting the same genetic pathways and vitamin supplementation as crew members in space.
Hague also will record data to study whether a new way of administering a common anti-nausea medicine can help alleviate motion sickness following launch and landing. In this study, Hague can self-administer a novel nasal gel formulation of the medication scopolamine. Hague will note his experiences using this medicine and any other motion sickness aides, including alternative medications or behavioral interventions like specific head movements.
This research, led by neuroscientist Scott Wood of NASA Johnson, eventually will include 48 people.
“Our goal is to understand how to help future space travelers adapt to motion sickness when living and working in space,” Wood said. “Crew members must stay healthy and perform key tasks, including landing on the Moon and other destinations.”
To help NASA plan future missions, Hague also will participate in human research studies that tackle other space challenges, such as avoiding injury upon landing back on Earth and learning how space travel affects the human body on a molecular level.
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NASA’s Human Research Program pursues the best methods and technologies to support safe, productive human space travel. The program studies how spaceflight affects human bodies and behaviors through science conducted in laboratories, ground-based analogs, commercial missions, and the International Space Station. Such research continues to drive NASA’s mission to innovate ways that keep astronauts healthy and mission-ready as space exploration expands to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
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By NASA
NASA/Jim Grossmann In this photo from Aug. 7, 2009, Jose Hernandez, mission specialist, smiles at the camera as he waits for his turn to enter the space shuttle Discovery as part of STS-128. It was the 128th Shuttle mission and the 30th mission to the International Space Station. While at the orbital lab, the STS-128 crew conducted three spacewalks.
Hernandez joined NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston in 2001. There, he was a materials research engineer in the Materials & Processes branch; eventually, he became branch chief. In 2004, he was selected as an astronaut candidate, and in 2009, he became a crew member of STS-128.
Get to know some of our Hispanic colleagues, past and present, during Hispanic Heritage Month.
Image credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann
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