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By NASA
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket propelled the Dragon spacecraft into orbit carrying NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov. (Credit: NASA) Four crew members of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission launched at 7:03 p.m. EDT Friday from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a science expedition aboard the International Space Station.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket propelled the Dragon spacecraft into orbit carrying NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov. The spacecraft will dock autonomously to the forward-facing port of the station’s Harmony module at approximately 11:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 15. Shortly after docking, the crew will join Expedition 72/73 for a long-duration stay aboard the orbiting laboratory.
“Congratulations to our NASA and SpaceX teams on the 10th crew rotation mission under our commercial crew partnership. This milestone demonstrates NASA’s continued commitment to advancing American leadership in space and driving growth in our national space economy,” said NASA acting Administrator Janet Petro. “Through these missions, we are laying the foundation for future exploration, from low Earth orbit to the Moon and Mars. Our international crew will contribute to innovative science research and technology development, delivering benefits to all humanity.”
During Dragon’s flight, SpaceX will monitor a series of automatic spacecraft maneuvers from its mission control center in Hawthorne, California. NASA will monitor space station operations throughout the flight from the Mission Control Center at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
NASA’s live coverage resumes at 9:45 p.m., March 15, on NASA+ with rendezvous, docking, and hatching opening. After docking, the crew will change out of their spacesuits and prepare cargo for offload before opening the hatch between Dragon and the space station’s Harmony module around 1:05 a.m., Sunday, March 16. Once the new crew is aboard the orbital outpost, NASA will broadcast welcome remarks from Crew-10 and farewell remarks from the agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 crew, beginning at about 1:40 a.m.
Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.
The number of crew aboard the space station will increase to 11 for a short time as Crew-10 joins NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams, Butch Wilmore, and Don Pettit, as well as Roscosmos cosmonauts Aleksandr Gorbunov, Alexey Ovchinin, and Ivan Vagner. Following a brief handover period, Hague, Williams, Wilmore, and Gorbunov will return to Earth no earlier than Wednesday, March 19.Ahead of Crew-9’s departure from station, mission teams will review weather conditions at the splashdown sites off the coast of Florida.
During their mission, Crew-10 is scheduled to conduct material flammability tests to contribute to future spacecraft and facility designs. The crew will engage with students worldwide via the ISS Ham Radio program and use the program’s existing hardware to test a backup lunar navigation solution. The astronauts also will serve as test subjects, with one crew member conducting an integrated study to better understand physiological and psychological changes to the human body to provide valuable insights for future deep space missions.
With this mission, NASA continues to maximize the use of the orbiting laboratory, where people have lived and worked continuously for more than 24 years, testing technologies, performing science, and developing the skills needed to operate future commercial destinations in low Earth orbit and explore farther from our home planet. Research conducted at the space station benefits people on Earth and paves the way for future long-duration missions to the Moon under NASA’s Artemis campaign and beyond.
More about Crew-10
McClain is the commander of Crew-10 and is making her second trip to the orbital outpost since her selection as an astronaut in 2013. She will serve as a flight engineer during Expeditions 72/73 aboard the space station. Follow McClain on X.
Ayers is the pilot of Crew-10 and is flying her first mission. Selected as an astronaut in 2021, Ayers will serve as a flight engineer during Expeditions 72/73. Follow Ayers on X and Instagram.
Onishi is a mission specialist for Crew-10 and is making his second flight to the space station. He will serve as a flight engineer during Expeditions 72/73. Follow Onishi on X.
Peskov is a mission specialist for Crew-10 and is making his first flight to the space station. Peskov will serve as a flight engineer during Expeditions 72/73.
Learn more about NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission and the agency’s Commercial Crew Program at:
https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew
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Josh Finch / Jimi Russell
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / james.j.russell@nasa.gov
Steven Siceloff / Stephanie Plucinsky
Kennedy Space Center, Florida
321-867-2468
steven.p.siceloff@nasa.gov / stephanie.n.plucinsky@nasa.gov
Kenna Pell / Sandra Jones
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
kenna.m.pell@nasa.gov / sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Mar 14, 2025 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
Humans in Space International Space Station (ISS) View the full article
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By NASA
4 min read
NASA Atmospheric Wave-Studying Mission Releases Data from First 3,000 Orbits
Following the 3,000th orbit of NASA’s AWE (Atmospheric Waves Experiment) aboard the International Space Station, researchers publicly released the mission’s first trove of scientific data, crucial to investigate how and why subtle changes in Earth’s atmosphere cause disturbances, as well as how these atmospheric disturbances impact technological systems on the ground and in space.
“We’ve released the first 3,000 orbits of data collected by the AWE instrument in space and transmitted back to Earth,” said Ludger Scherliess, principal investigator for the mission and physics professor at Utah State University. “This is a view of atmospheric gravity waves never captured before.”
Available online, the data release contains more than five million individual images of nighttime airglow and atmospheric gravity wave observations collected by the instrument’s four cameras, as well as derived temperature and airglow intensity swaths of the ambient air and the waves.
This image shows AWE data combined from two of the instrument’s passes over the United States. The red and orange wave-structures show increases in brightness (or radiance) in infrared light produced by airglow in Earth’s atmosphere. NASA/AWE/Ludger Scherliess “AWE is providing incredible images and data to further understand what we only first observed less than a decade ago,” said Esayas Shume, AWE program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “We are thrilled to share this influential data set with the larger scientific community and look forward to what will be discovered.”
Members of the AWE science team gather in the mission control room at Utah State University to view data collected by the mapping instrument mounted on the outside of the International Space Station. SDL/Allison Bills Atmospheric gravity waves occur naturally in Earth’s atmosphere and are formed by Earth’s weather and topography. Scientists have studied the enigmatic phenomena for years, but mainly from a few select sites on Earth’s surface.
“With data from AWE, we can now begin near-global measurements and studies of the waves and their energy and momentum on scales from tens to hundreds and even thousands of kilometers,” Scherliess said. “This opens a whole new chapter in this field of research.”
Data from AWE will also provide insight into how terrestrial and space weather interactions affect satellite communications, and navigation, and tracking.
“We’ve become very dependent on satellites for applications we use every day, including GPS navigation,” Scherliess said. “AWE is an attempt to bring science about atmospheric gravity waves into focus, and to use that information to better predict space weather that can disrupt satellite communications. We will work closely with our collaborators to better understand how these observed gravity waves impact space weather.”
AWE’s principal investigator, Ludger Scherliess, briefs collaborators of initial analysis of early AWE data. Information from the NASA-funded mission is helping scientists better understand how weather on Earth affects weather in space. SDL/Allison Bills The tuba-shaped AWE instrument, known as the Advanced Mesospheric Temperature Mapper or AMTM, consists of four identical telescopes. It is mounted to the exterior of the International Space Station, where it has a view of Earth.
As the space station orbits Earth, the AMTM’s telescopes capture 7,000-mile-long swaths of the planet’s surface, recording images of atmospheric gravity waves as they move from the lower atmosphere into space. The AMTM measures and records the brightness of light at specific wavelengths, which can be used to create air and wave temperature maps. These maps can reveal the energy of these waves and how they are moving through the atmosphere.
To analyze the data and make it publicly available, AWE researchers and students at USU developed new software to tackle challenges that had never been encountered before.
“Reflections from clouds and the ground can obscure some of the images, and we want to make sure the data provide clear, precise images of the power transported by the waves,” Scherliess said. “We also need to make sure the images coming from the four separate AWE telescopes on the mapper are aligned correctly. Further, we need to ensure stray light reflections coming off the solar panels of the space station, along with moonlight and city lights, are not masking the observations.”
As the scientists move forward with the mission, they’ll investigate how gravity wave activity changes with seasons around the globe. Scherliess looks forward to seeing how the global science community will use the AWE observations.
“Data collected through this mission provides unprecedented insight into the role of weather on the ground on space weather,” he said.
AWE is led by Utah State University in Logan, Utah, and it is managed by the Explorers Program Office at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Utah State University’s Space Dynamics Laboratory built the AWE instrument and provides the mission operations center.
By Mary-Ann Muffoletto
Utah State University, Logan, UT
NASA Media Contact: Sarah Frazier
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Last Updated Mar 14, 2025 Related Terms
Heliophysics Heliophysics Division Ionosphere Mesosphere Science Mission Directorate The Sun Uncategorized Explore More
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By NASA
4 Min Read NASA Cameras on Blue Ghost Capture First-of-its-Kind Moon Landing Footage
This compressed, resolution-limited video features a preliminary sequence of the Blue Ghost final descent and landing that NASA researchers stitched together from SCALPSS 1.1’s four short-focal-length cameras, which were capturing photos at 8 frames per second. Altitude data is approximate. Credits: NASA/Olivia Tyrrell A team at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, has captured first-of-its-kind imagery of a lunar lander’s engine plumes interacting with the Moon’s surface, a key piece of data as trips to the Moon increase in the coming years under the agency’s Artemis campaign.
The Stereo Cameras for Lunar-Plume Surface Studies (SCALPSS) 1.1 instrument took the images during the descent and successful soft landing of Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander on the Moon’s Mare Crisium region on March 2, as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.
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This compressed, resolution-limited video features a preliminary sequence of the Blue Ghost final descent and landing that NASA researchers stitched together from SCALPSS 1.1’s four short-focal-length cameras, which were capturing photos at 8 frames per second. Altitude data is approximate.NASA/Olivia Tyrrell The compressed, resolution-limited video features a preliminary sequence that NASA researchers stitched together from SCALPSS 1.1’s four short-focal-length cameras, which were capturing photos at 8 frames per second during the descent and landing.
The sequence, using approximate altitude data, begins roughly 91 feet (28 meters) above the surface. The descent images show evidence that the onset of the interaction between Blue Ghost’s reaction control thruster plumes and the surface begins at roughly 49 feet (15 meters). As the descent continues, the interaction becomes increasingly complex, with the plumes vigorously kicking up the lunar dust, soil and rocks — collectively known as regolith. After touchdown, the thrusters shut off and the dust settles. The lander levels a bit and the lunar terrain beneath and immediately around it becomes visible.
Although the data is still preliminary, the 3000-plus images we captured appear to contain exactly the type of information we were hoping for…
Rob Maddock
SCALPSS project manager
“Although the data is still preliminary, the 3000-plus images we captured appear to contain exactly the type of information we were hoping for in order to better understand plume-surface interaction and learn how to accurately model the phenomenon based on the number, size, thrust and configuration of the engines,” said Rob Maddock, SCALPSS project manager. “The data is vital to reducing risk in the design and operation of future lunar landers as well as surface infrastructure that may be in the vicinity. We have an absolutely amazing team of scientists and engineers, and I couldn’t be prouder of each and every one of them.”
As trips to the Moon increase and the number of payloads touching down in proximity to one another grows, scientists and engineers need to accurately predict the effects of landings. Data from SCALPSS will better inform future robotic and crewed Moon landings.
The SCALPSS 1.1 technology includes six cameras in all, four short focal length and two long focal length. The long-focal-length cameras allowed the instrument to begin taking images at a higher altitude, prior to the onset of the plume-surface interaction, to provide a more accurate before-and-after comparison of the surface. Using a technique called stereo photogrammetry, the team will later combine the overlapping images – one set from the long-focal-length cameras, another from the short focal length – to create 3D digital elevation maps of the surface.
This animation shows the arrangement of the six SCALPSS 1.1 cameras and the instrument’s data storage unit. The cameras are integrated around the base of the Blue Ghost lander. Credit: NASA/Advanced Concepts Lab The instrument is still operating on the Moon and as the light and shadows move during the long lunar day, it will see more surface details under and immediately around the lander. The team also hopes to capture images during the transition to lunar night to observe how the dust responds to the change.
“The successful SCALPSS operation is a key step in gathering fundamental knowledge about landing and operating on the Moon, and this technology is already providing data that could inform future missions,” said Michelle Munk, SCALPSS principal investigator.
The successful SCALPSS operation is a key step in gathering fundamental knowledge about landing and operating on the Moon, and this technology is already providing data that could inform future missions
Michelle Munk
SCALPSS principal investigator
It will take the team several months to fully process the data from the Blue Ghost landing. They plan to issue raw images from SCALPSS 1.1 publicly through NASA’s Planetary Data System within six months.
The team is already preparing for its next flight on Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander, scheduled to launch later this year. The next version of SCALPSS is undergoing thermal vacuum testing at NASA Langley ahead of a late-March delivery to Blue Origin.
The SCALPSS 1.1 project is funded by the Space Technology Mission Directorate’s Game Changing Development program.
NASA is working with several American companies to deliver science and technology to the lunar surface under the CLPS initiative. Through this opportunity, various companies from a select group of vendors bid on delivering payloads for NASA including everything from payload integration and operations, to launching from Earth and landing on the surface of the Moon.
About the Author
Joe Atkinson
Public Affairs Officer, NASA Langley Research Center
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Last Updated Mar 13, 2025 Related Terms
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4 min read Five Facts About NASA’s Moon Bound Technology
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By European Space Agency
High above the Arctic Circle, on the rugged terrain of Andøya, three ESA radionavigation engineers take a rare moment to unwind with a game of shuffleboard. Outside, sheep graze under the shimmering northern lights, a serene backdrop to their demanding mission: test how navigation technologies withstand interference signals. With 100TB of data collected over 5 days, their efforts promise to strengthen the reliability of satellite navigation for the benefit of us all.
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By NASA
2 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
The Rocket City Regional – Alabama’s annual For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) Robotics Regional Competition – is scheduled for Friday, March 14, through Saturday, March 15, at the Von Braun Center South Hall in Huntsville, Alabama.
FIRST Robotics is a global robotics competition for students in grades 9-12. Teams are challenged to raise funds, design a team brand, hone teamwork skills, and build and program industrial-sized robots to play a difficult field game against competitors.
Students from RAD Robotics Team 7111 – a FIRST Robotics team from Huntsville, Alabama, and sponsored by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center – make adjustments to their robot during the 2024 Rocket City Regional FIRST Robotics Competition in Huntsville. District and regional competitions – such as the Rocket City Regional – are held across the country during March and April, providing teams a chance to qualify for the 2025 FIRST Robotics Competition Championship events held in mid-April in Houston.
Hundreds of high school students from 44 teams from 10 states and 2 countries will compete in a new robotics game called, “REEFSCAPE.”
This event is free and open to the public. Opening ceremonies begin at 8:30 a.m. CDT followed by qualification matches on March 14 and March 15. The Friday awards ceremony will begin at 5:45 p.m., while the Saturday awards ceremony will begin at 1:30 p.m.
NASA and its Robotics Alliance Project provide grants for high school teams and support for FIRST Robotics competitions to address the critical national shortage of students pursuing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) careers. The Rocket City Regional Competition is supported by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement.
News media interested in covering this event should respond no later than 4 p.m. on Thursday, March 13 by contacting Taylor Goodwin at 256-544-0034 or taylor.goodwin@nasa.gov.
Learn more about the Rocket City Regional event:
https://www.firstinspires.org/team-event-search/event?id=72593
Find more information about Marshall’s support for education programs:
https://www.nasa.gov/marshall/marshall-stem-engagement
Taylor Goodwin
256-544-0034
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
taylor.goodwin@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Mar 12, 2025 EditorBeth RidgewayLocationMarshall Space Flight Center Related Terms
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