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By NASA
24 Min Read The Marshall Star for October 16, 2024
Liftoff! NASA’s Europa Clipper Sails Toward Ocean Moon of Jupiter
NASA’s Europa Clipper has embarked on its long voyage to Jupiter, where it will investigate Europa, a moon with an enormous subsurface ocean that may have conditions to support life. The spacecraft launched at 11:06 a.m. CDT on Oct. 14 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket carrying NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center at 11:06 a.m. CDT on Oct. 14. After launch, the spacecraft plans to fly by Mars in February 2025, then back by Earth in December 2026, using the gravity of each planet to increase its momentum. With help of these “gravity assists,” Europa Clipper will achieve the velocity needed to reach Jupiter in April 2030.Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett The largest spacecraft NASA ever built for a mission headed to another planet, Europa Clipper also is the first NASA mission dedicated to studying an ocean world beyond Earth. The spacecraft will travel 1.8 billion miles on a trajectory that will leverage the power of gravity assists, first to Mars in four months and then back to Earth for another gravity assist flyby in 2026. After it begins orbiting Jupiter in April 2030, the spacecraft will fly past Europa 49 times.
“Congratulations to our Europa Clipper team for beginning the first journey to an ocean world beyond Earth,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “NASA leads the world in exploration and discovery, and the Europa Clipper mission is no different. By exploring the unknown, Europa Clipper will help us better understand whether there is the potential for life not just within our solar system, but among the billions of moons and planets beyond our Sun.”
Approximately five minutes after liftoff, the rocket’s second stage fired up and the payload fairing, or the rocket’s nose cone, opened to reveal Europa Clipper. About an hour after launch, the spacecraft separated from the rocket. Ground controllers received a signal soon after, and two-way communication was established at 12:13 p.m. with NASA’s Deep Space Network facility in Canberra, Australia. Mission teams celebrated as initial telemetry reports showed Europa Clipper is in good health and operating as expected.
“We could not be more excited for the incredible and unprecedented science NASA’s Europa Clipper mission will deliver in the generations to come,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. “Everything in NASA science is interconnected, and Europa Clipper’s scientific discoveries will build upon the legacy that our other missions exploring Jupiter – including Juno, Galileo, and Voyager – created in our search for habitable worlds beyond our home planet.”
The main goal of the mission is to determine whether Europa has conditions that could support life. Europa is about the size of our own Moon, but its interior is different. Information from NASA’s Galileo mission in the 1990s showed strong evidence that under Europa’s ice lies an enormous, salty ocean with more water than all of Earth’s oceans combined. Scientists also have found evidence that Europa may host organic compounds and energy sources under its surface.
If the mission determines Europa is habitable, it may mean there are more habitable worlds in our solar system and beyond than imagined.
“We’re ecstatic to send Europa Clipper on its way to explore a potentially habitable ocean world, thanks to our colleagues and partners who’ve worked so hard to get us to this day,” said Laurie Leshin, director, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). “Europa Clipper will undoubtedly deliver mind-blowing science. While always bittersweet to send something we’ve labored over for years off on its long journey, we know this remarkable team and spacecraft will expand our knowledge of our solar system and inspire future exploration.”
In 2031, the spacecraft will begin conducting its science-dedicated flybys of Europa. Coming as close as 16 miles to the surface, Europa Clipper is equipped with nine science instruments and a gravity experiment, including an ice-penetrating radar, cameras, and a thermal instrument to look for areas of warmer ice and any recent eruptions of water. As the most sophisticated suite of science instruments NASA has ever sent to Jupiter, they will work in concert to learn more about the moon’s icy shell, thin atmosphere, and deep interior.
To power those instruments in the faint sunlight that reaches Jupiter, Europa Clipper also carries the largest solar arrays NASA has ever used for an interplanetary mission. With arrays extended, the spacecraft spans 100 feet from end to end. With propellant loaded, it weighs about 13,000 pounds.
In all, more than 4,000 people have contributed to Europa Clipper mission since it was formally approved in 2015.
“As Europa Clipper embarks on its journey, I’ll be thinking about the countless hours of dedication, innovation, and teamwork that made this moment possible,” said Jordan Evans, project manager, JPL. “This launch isn’t just the next chapter in our exploration of the solar system; it’s a leap toward uncovering the mysteries of another ocean world, driven by our shared curiosity and continued search to answer the question, ‘are we alone?’”
Europa Clipper’s three main science objectives are to determine the thickness of the moon’s icy shell and its interactions with the ocean below, to investigate its composition, and to characterize its geology. The mission’s detailed exploration of Europa will help scientists better understand the astrobiological potential for habitable worlds beyond our planet.
Managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California, JPL leads the development of the Europa Clipper mission in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. The main spacecraft body was designed by APL in collaboration with JPL and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Marshall Space Flight Center, and Langley Research Center. The Planetary Missions Program Office at Marshall executes program management of the Europa Clipper mission.
NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at NASA Kennedy, managed the launch service for the Europa Clipper spacecraft.
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Staying the Course: 30 Years of NASA’s Student Rover Challenge
Get ready, get set, and let’s go take a look back at NASA’s 2024 Human Exploration Rover Challenge! Watch as talented student teams from around the world gather in Huntsville for the 30th annual competition to push the boundaries of innovation and engineering. These student teams piloted their human-powered rovers over simulated lunar and Martian terrain for a chance at winning an award during this Artemis student challenge. From jaw-dropping triumphs to unexpected setbacks, this year’s competition was a thrilling ride from start to finish. Buckle up and enjoy the ride as you witness the future of space exploration unfold!
The challenge is managed by NASA’s Southeast Regional Office of STEM Engagement at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center. Learn more about the challenge.
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Black Hole Destroys Star, Goes After Another, NASA Missions Find
NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes have identified a supermassive black hole that has torn apart one star and is now using that stellar wreckage to pummel another star or smaller black hole, as described in our latest press release. This research helps connect two cosmic mysteries and provides information about the environment around some of the bigger types of black holes.
This artist’s illustration shows a disk of material (red, orange, and yellow) that was created after a supermassive black hole (depicted on the right) tore apart a star through intense tidal forces.X-ray: NASA/CXC/Queen’s Univ. Belfast/M. Nicholl et al.; Optical/IR: PanSTARRS, NSF/Legacy Survey/SDSS; Illustration: Soheb Mandhai / The Astro Phoenix; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk This artist’s illustration shows a disk of material (red, orange, and yellow) that was created after a supermassive black hole (depicted on the right) tore apart a star through intense tidal forces. Over the course of a few years, this disk expanded outward until it intersected with another object – either a star or a small black hole – that is also in orbit around the giant black hole. Each time this object crashes into the disk, it sends out a burst of X-rays detected by Chandra. The inset shows Chandra data (purple) and an optical image of the source from Pan-STARRS (red, green, and blue).
In 2019, an optical telescope in California noticed a burst of light that astronomers later categorized as a “tidal disruption event”, or TDE. These are cases where black holes tear stars apart if they get too close through their powerful tidal forces. Astronomers gave this TDE the name of AT2019qiz.
Meanwhile, scientists were also tracking instances of another type of cosmic phenomena occasionally observed across the Universe. These were brief and regular bursts of X-rays that were near supermassive black holes. Astronomers named these events “quasi-periodic eruptions,” or QPEs.
This latest study gives scientists evidence that TDEs and QPEs are likely connected. The researchers think that QPEs arise when an object smashes into the disk left behind after the TDE. While there may be other explanations, the authors of the study propose this is the source of at least some QPEs.
In 2023, astronomers used both Chandra and Hubble to simultaneously study the debris left behind after the tidal disruption had ended. The Chandra data were obtained during three different observations, each separated by about 4 to 5 hours. The total exposure of about 14 hours of Chandra time revealed only a weak signal in the first and last chunk, but a very strong signal in the middle observation.
From there, the researchers used NASA’s Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) to look frequently at AT2019qiz for repeated X-ray bursts. The NICER data showed that AT2019qiz erupts roughly every 48 hours. Observations from NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and India’s AstroSat telescope cemented the finding.
The ultraviolet data from Hubble, obtained at the same time as the Chandra observations, allowed the scientists to determine the size of the disk around the supermassive black hole. They found that the disk had become large enough that if any object was orbiting the black hole and took about a week or less to complete an orbit, it would collide with the disk and cause eruptions.
This result has implications for searching for more quasi-periodic eruptions associated with tidal disruptions. Finding more of these would allow astronomers to measure the prevalence and distances of objects in close orbits around supermassive black holes. Some of these may be excellent targets for the planned future gravitational wave observatories.
The paper describing these results appears in the Oct. 9 issue of the journal Nature. The first author of the paper is Matt Nicholl of Queen’s University Belfast in Ireland.
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.
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Revealing the Hidden Universe with Full-shell X-ray Optics at Marshall
The study of X-ray emission from astronomical objects reveals secrets about the universe at the largest and smallest spatial scales. Celestial X-rays are produced by black holes consuming nearby stars, emitted by the million-degree gas that traces the structure between galaxies, and can be used to predict whether stars may be able to host planets hospitable to life. X-ray observations have shown that most of the visible matter in the universe exists as hot gas between galaxies and have conclusively demonstrated that the presence of “dark matter” is needed to explain galaxy cluster dynamics, that dark matter dominates the mass of galaxy clusters, and that it governs the expansion of the cosmos.
A composite X-ray/Optical/Infrared image of the Crab Pulsar. The X-ray image from the Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue and white), reveals exquisite details in the central ring structures and gas flowing out of the polar jets. Optical light from the Hubble Space Telescope (purple) shows foreground and background stars as pinpoints of light. Infrared light from the Spitzer Space Telescope (pink) traces cooler gas in the nebula. Finally, magnetic field direction derived from X-ray polarization observed by the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer is shown as orange lines.Magnetic field lines: NASA/Bucciantini et al; X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/STScI; Infrared: NASA-JPL-Caltech X-ray observations also enable us to probe mysteries of the universe on the smallest scales. X-ray observations of compact objects such as white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes allow us to use the universe as a physics laboratory to study conditions that are orders of magnitude more extreme in terms of density, pressure, temperature, and magnetic field strength than anything that can be produced on Earth. In this astrophysical laboratory, researchers expect to reveal new physics at the subatomic scale by conducting investigations such as probing the neutron star equation of state and testing quantum electrodynamics with observations of neutron star atmospheres.
At NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, a team of scientists and engineers is building, testing, and flying innovative optics that bring the universe’s X-ray mysteries into sharper focus.
Unlike optical telescopes that create images by reflecting or refracting light at near-90-degree angles (normal incidence), focusing X-ray optics must be designed to reflect light at very small angles (grazing incidence). At normal incidence, X-rays are either absorbed by the surface of a mirror or penetrate it entirely. However, at grazing angles of incidence, X-rays reflect very efficiently due to an effect called total external reflection. In grazing incidence, X-rays reflect off the surface of a mirror like rocks skipping on the surface of a pond.
A classic design for astronomical grazing incidence optics is the Wolter-I prescription, which consists of two reflecting surfaces, a parabola and hyperbola (see figure below). This optical prescription is revolved around the optical axis to produce a full-shell mirror (i.e., the mirror spans the full circumference) that resembles a gently tapered cone. To increase the light collecting area, multiple mirror shells with incrementally larger diameters and a common focus are fabricated and nested concentrically to comprise a mirror module assembly (MMA).
Focusing optics are critical to studying the X-ray universe because, in contrast to other optical systems like collimators or coded masks, they produce high signal-to-noise images with low background noise. Two key metrics that characterize the performance of X-ray optics are angular resolution, which is the ability of an optical system to discriminate between closely spaced objects, and effective area, which is the light collecting area of the telescope, typically quoted in units of cm2. Angular resolution is typically measured as the half-power diameter (HPD) of a focused spot in units of arcseconds. The HPD encircles half of the incident photons in a focused spot and measures the sharpness of the final image; a smaller number is better.
Schematic of a full-shell Wolter-I X-ray optic mirror module assembly with five concentrically nested mirror shells. Parallel rays of light enter from the left, reflect twice off the reflective inside surface of the shell (first off the parabolic segment and then off the hyperbolic segment), and converge at the focal plane.NASA Marshall has been building and flying lightweight, full-shell, focusing X-ray optics for over three decades, always meeting or exceeding angular resolution and effective area requirements. Marshall utilizes an electroformed nickel replication technique to make these thin full-shell X-ray optics from nickel alloy.
X-ray optics development at Marshall began in the early 1990s with the fabrication of optics to support NASA’s Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF-S) and then continued via the Constellation-X technology development programs. In 2001, Marshall launched a balloon payload that included two modules each with three mirrors, which produced the first focused hard X-ray images of an astrophysical source by imaging Cygnus X-1, GRS 1915, and the Crab Nebula. This initial effort resulted in several follow-up missions over the next 12 years and became known as the High Energy Replicated Optics (HERO) balloon program.
In 2012, the first of four sounding rocket flights of the Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager (FOXSI) flew with Marshall optics onboard, producing the first focused images of the Sun at energies greater than 5 keV. In 2019 the Astronomical Roentgen Telescope X-ray Concentrator (ART-XC) instrument on the Spectr-Roentgen-Gamma Mission launched with seven Marshall-fabricated X-ray MMAs, each containing 28 mirror shells. ART-XC is currently mapping the sky in the 4-30 keV hard X-ray energy range, studying exotic objects like neutron stars in our own galaxy as well as active galactic nuclei, which are spread across the visible universe. In 2021, the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE), flew and is now performing extraordinary science with a Marshall-led team using three, 24-shell MMAs that were fabricated and calibrated in-house.
Most recently, in 2024, the fourth FOXSI sounding rocket campaign launched with a high-resolution Marshall MMA. The optics achieved 9.5 arcsecond HPD angular resolution during pre-flight test with an expected 7 arcsecond HPD in gravity-free flight, making this the highest angular resolution flight observation made with a nickel-replicated X-ray optic. Currently Marshall is fabricating an MMA for the Rocket Experiment Demonstration of a Soft X-ray (REDSoX) polarimeter, a sounding rocket mission that will fly a novel soft X-ray polarimeter instrument to observe active galactic nuclei. The REDSoX MMA optic will be 444 mm in diameter, which will make it the largest MMA ever produced by MSFC and the second largest replicated nickel X-ray optic in the world.
The ultimate performance of an X-ray optic is determined by errors in the shape, position, and roughness of the optical surface. To push the performance of X-ray optics toward even higher angular resolution and achieve more ambitious science goals, Marshall is currently engaged in a fundamental research and development effort to improve all aspects of full-shell optics fabrication.
Scientists Wayne Baumgartner, left, crouched, and Nick Thomas, left, standing, calibrate an IXPE MMA in the Marshall 100 m Beamline. Scientist Stephen Bongiorno, right, applies epoxy to an IXPE shell during MMA assembly.NASA Given that these optics are made with the electroformed nickel replication technique, the fabrication process begins with creation of a replication master, called the mandrel, which is a negative of the desired optical surface. First, the mandrel is figured and polished to specification, then a thin layer of nickel alloy is electroformed onto the mandrel surface. Next, the nickel alloy layer is removed to produce a replicated optical shell, and finally the thin shell is attached to a stiff holding structure for use.
Each step in this process imparts some degree of error into the final replicated shell. Research and development efforts at Marshall are currently concentrating on reducing distortion induced during the electroforming metal deposition and release steps. Electroforming-induced distortion is caused by material stress built into the electroformed material as it deposits onto the mandrel. Decreasing release-induced distortion is a matter of reducing adhesion strength between the shell and mandrel, increasing strength of the shell material to prevent yielding, and reducing point defects in the release layer.
Additionally, verifying the performance of these advanced optics requires world-class test facilities. The basic premise of testing an optic designed for X-ray astrophysics is to place a small, bright X-ray source far away from the optic. If the angular size of the source, as viewed from the optic, is smaller than the angular resolution of the optic, the source is effectively simulating X-ray starlight. Due to the absorption of X-rays by air, the entire test facility light path must be placed inside a vacuum chamber.
At the center, a group of scientists and engineers operate the Marshall 100-meter X-ray beamline, a world-class end-to-end test facility for flight and laboratory X-ray optics, instruments, and telescopes. As per the name, it consists of a 100-meter-long vacuum tube with an 8-meter-long, 3-meter-diameter instrument chamber and a variety of X-ray sources ranging from 0.25 – 114 keV. Across the street sits the X-Ray and Cryogenic Facility (XRCF), a 527-meter-long beamline with an 18-meter-long, 6-meter-diameter instrument chamber. These facilities are available for the scientific community to use and highlight the comprehensive optics development and test capability that Marshall is known for.
Within the X-ray astrophysics community there exist a variety of angular resolution and effective area needs for focusing optics. Given its storied history in X-ray optics, Marshall is uniquely poised to fulfill requirements for large or small, medium- or high-angular-resolution X-ray optics. To help guide technology development, the astrophysics community convenes once per decade to produce a decadal survey. The need for high-angular-resolution and high-throughput X-ray optics is strongly endorsed by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report, Pathways to Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 2020s.In pursuit of this goal, Marshall is continuing to advance the state of the art in full-shell optics. This work will enable the extraordinary mysteries of the X-ray universe to be revealed.
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Hubble, New Horizons Team Up for a Simultaneous Look at Uranus
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and New Horizons spacecraft simultaneously set their sights on Uranus recently, allowing scientists to make a direct comparison of the planet from two very different viewpoints. The results inform future plans to study like types of planets around other stars.
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (left) and NASA’s New Horizon’s spacecraft (right) image the planet Uranus.NASA, ESA, STScI, Samantha Hasler (MIT), Amy Simon (NASA-GSFC), New Horizons Planetary Science Theme Team; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Joseph Olmsted (STScI) Astronomers used Uranus as a proxy for similar planets beyond our solar system, known as exoplanets, comparing high-resolution images from Hubble to the more-distant view from New Horizons. This combined perspective will help scientists learn more about what to expect while imaging planets around other stars with future telescopes.
“While we expected Uranus to appear differently in each filter of the observations, we found that Uranus was actually dimmer than predicted in the New Horizons data taken from a different viewpoint,” said lead author Samantha Hasler of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and New Horizons science team collaborator.
Direct imaging of exoplanets is a key technique for learning about their potential habitability, and offers new clues to the origin and formation of our own solar system. Astronomers use both direct imaging and spectroscopy to collect light from the observed planet and compare its brightness at different wavelengths. However, imaging exoplanets is a notoriously difficult process because they’re so far away. Their images are mere pinpoints and so are not as detailed as the close-up views that we have of worlds orbiting our Sun. Researchers can also only directly image exoplanets at “partial phases,” when only a portion of the planet is illuminated by their star as seen from Earth.
Uranus was an ideal target as a test for understanding future distant observations of exoplanets by other telescopes for a few reasons. First, many known exoplanets are also gas giants similar in nature. Also, at the time of the observations, New Horizons was on the far side of Uranus, 6.5 billion miles away, allowing its twilight crescent to be studied – something that cannot be done from Earth. At that distance, the New Horizons view of the planet was just several pixels in its color camera, called the Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera.
On the other hand, Hubble, with its high resolution, and in its low-Earth orbit 1.7 billion miles away from Uranus, was able to see atmospheric features such as clouds and storms on the day side of the gaseous world.
“Uranus appears as just a small dot on the New Horizons observations, similar to the dots seen of directly imaged exoplanets from observatories like Webb or ground-based observatories,” Hasler said. “Hubble provides context for what the atmosphere is doing when it was observed with New Horizons.”
The gas giant planets in our solar system have dynamic and variable atmospheres with changing cloud cover. How common is this among exoplanets? By knowing the details of what the clouds on Uranus looked like from Hubble, researchers can verify what is interpreted from the New Horizons data. In the case of Uranus, both Hubble and New Horizons saw that the brightness did not vary as the planet rotated, which indicates that the cloud features were not changing with the planet’s rotation.
In this image, two three-dimensional shapes, top, of Uranus are compared to the actual views of the planet from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, bottom left, and NASA’s New Horizon’s spacecraft, bottom right. Comparing high-resolution images from Hubble to the smaller view from New Horizons offers a combined perspective that will help researchers learn more about what to expect while imaging planets around other stars with future observatories. NASA, ESA, STScI, Samantha Hasler (MIT), Amy Simon (NASA-GSFC), New Horizons Planetary Science Theme Team; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Joseph Olmsted (STScI) However, the importance of the detection by New Horizons has to do with how the planet reflects light at a different phase than what Hubble, or other observatories on or near Earth, can see. New Horizons showed that exoplanets may be dimmer than predicted at partial and high phase angles, and that the atmosphere reflects light differently at partial phase.
NASA has two major upcoming observatories in the works to advance studies of exoplanet atmospheres and potential habitability.
“These landmark New Horizons studies of Uranus from a vantage point unobservable by any other means add to the mission’s treasure trove of new scientific knowledge, and have, like many other datasets obtained in the mission, yielded surprising new insights into the worlds of our solar system,” added New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute.
NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, set to launch by 2027, will use a coronagraph to block out a star’s light to directly see gas giant exoplanets. NASA’s Habitable Worlds Observatory, in an early planning phase, will be the first telescope designed specifically to search for atmospheric biosignatures on Earth-sized, rocky planets orbiting other stars.
“Studying how known benchmarks like Uranus appear in distant imaging can help us have more robust expectations when preparing for these future missions,” concluded Hasler. “And that will be critical to our success.”
Launched in January 2006, New Horizons made the historic flyby of Pluto and its moons in July 2015, before giving humankind its first close-up look at one of these planetary building block and Kuiper Belt object, Arrokoth, in January 2019. New Horizons is now in its second extended mission, studying distant Kuiper Belt objects, characterizing the outer heliosphere of the Sun, and making important astrophysical observations from its unmatched vantage point in distant regions of the solar system.
The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, Colorado, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.
The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, built and operates the New Horizons spacecraft and manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. Southwest Research Institute, based in San Antonio and Boulder, Colorado, directs the mission via Principal Investigator Alan Stern and leads the science team, payload operations and encounter science planning. New Horizons is part of NASA’s New Frontiers program, managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
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Crew-8 Awaits Splashdown; Expedition 72 Stays Focused on Science
Four International Space Station crew members continue waiting for their departure date as mission managers monitor weather conditions off the coast of Florida. The rest of the Expedition 72 crew stayed focused Oct. 14 on space biology and lab maintenance aboard the orbital outpost.
The SpaceX Dragon Freedom spacecraft is pictured through the window of the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft with a vivid green and pink aurora below.NASA NASA and SpaceX mission managers are watching unfavorable weather conditions off the Florida coast right now for the splashdown of the SpaceX Crew-8 mission with NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Mike Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin. The homebound quartet spent Oct. 14 mostly relaxing while also continuing departure preps. Mission teams are currently targeting Dragon Endeavour’s undocking for no earlier than 2:05 a.m. CDT on Oct. 18. The Crew-8 foursome is in the seventh month of their space research mission that began on March 3.
The other seven orbital residents will stay aboard the orbital outpost until early 2025. NASA astronaut Don Pettit is scheduled to return to Earth first in February with Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner aboard the Soyuz MS-26 crew ship. Next, station Commander Suni Williams and flight engineer Butch Wilmore are targeted to return home aboard SpaceX Dragon Freedom with SpaceX Crew-9 Commander Nick Hague, all three NASA astronauts, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.
Williams had a light duty day Oct. 14 disassembling life support gear before working out for a cardio fitness study. Wilmore installed a new oxygen recharge tank and began transferring oxygen into tanks located in the Quest airlock. Hague collected his blood and saliva samples for incubation and cold stowage to learn how microgravity affects cellular immunity. Pettit also had a light duty day servicing biology hardware including the Cell Biology Experiment Facility, a research incubator with an artificial gravity generator, and the BioLab, which supports observations of microbes, cells, tissue cultures and more.
The Huntsville Operations Support Center (HOSC) at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center provides engineering and mission operations support for the space station, the CCP, and Artemis missions, as well as science and technology demonstration missions. The Payload Operations Integration Center within HOSC operates, plans, and coordinates the science experiments onboard the space station 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.
The first flight of Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser to the space station is now scheduled for no earlier than May 2025 to allow for completion of spacecraft testing. Dream Chaser, which will launch atop a ULA (United Launch Alliance) Vulcan rocket and later glide to a runway landing at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, will carry cargo to the orbiting laboratory and stay on board for approximately 45 days on its first mission.
Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog.
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By NASA
Researchers verified that 3D micro-computed tomography scans can map the orientation of plant roots in space and used the method to demonstrate that carrots grown in actual and simulated microgravity both had random root orientation. These findings suggest that simulated microgravity offers a reliable and more affordable tool for studying plant adaptation to spaceflight.
MULTI-TROP evaluated the role of gravity and other factors on plant growth. Plant roots grow downward in response to gravity on Earth, but in random directions in microgravity, which is a challenge for developing plant growth facilities for space. Results from this investigation could help address this challenge, advancing efforts to grow plants for food and other uses on future space missions as well as improving plant cultivation on Earth.
Preflight image of the BIOKON facility used to grow carrots for MULTI-TROP. Kayser Italia For climate model simulations, researchers developed four parameters of electrical discharges from thunderclouds that produce visual emissions known as Blue LUminous Events or BLUEs. BLUEs are thought to affect regional atmospheric chemistry and climate. The parameters reported by this study could inform models that help test the global and regional effects of thunderstorm corona discharges, including how their geographic distribution and global occurrence rate will change as the atmosphere warms.
ASIM, an investigation from ESA (European Space Agency), studies high-altitude lightning in thunderstorms and the role it plays in Earth’s atmosphere and climate. Scientists need to understand processes occurring in Earth’s upper atmosphere to determine how lightning is connected to Earth’s climate and weather so they can develop better atmospheric models to guide weather and climate predictions.
Lightning in a thunderstorm off the coast of Africa as seen from the International Space Station. NASA/Matthew Dominick A technique to detect sounds generated by the inner ear could be used as a non-invasive tool for monitoring changes in fluid pressure in the head during spaceflight. Increased fluid pressure in the head that occurs in microgravity can cause visual impairment and may also affect the middle and inner ear. Insight into fluid pressure changes could help scientists develop ways to protect astronauts from these effects.
The ESA and ASI investigation Acoustic Diagnostics monitored hearing function in astronauts on long-term missions using otoacoustic emissions (sounds generated by the inner ear in response to specific tones). Researchers compared these measurements before and during flight to indirectly detect changes in fluid pressure in the head. Different body position and fit of the ear probes affected results of the test and the authors note that these issues need to be addressed.
NASA astronaut Drew Morgan participates in a hearing test for the Acoustic Diagnostics investigation. ESA (European Space Agency)/Luca ParmitanoView the full article
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By NASA
In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, we recognize Hispanic astronauts who have flown in space. The table below lists these individuals of various nationalities who have made significant contributions to their space programs. The first Hispanic astronauts completed short flights to a Soviet space station and aboard the space shuttle. In the past 23 years, many more have completed flights to the International Space Station and contributed to its assembly, operations, and research activities.
Table of Hispanic astronauts who have flown in space.
Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez of Cuba holds the title of the first person of Hispanic heritage to fly in space. He spent eight days aboard the Salyut-6 space station in September 1980 as part of the Soviet Union’s Interkosmos program to fly cosmonauts from friendly socialist countries. The first Hispanic to fly on the space shuttle, Payload Specialist Rodolfo Neri Vela of Mexico, also introduced tortillas to astronauts’ on board menus during his flight on STS-61B in November 1985. Tortillas continue to be a staple on the space station today, for everything from breakfast tacos, to burgers, sandwiches, and pizzas. Selected as an astronaut in 1980, Costa Rican-born Franklin R. Chang-Díaz holds the honor as the first Hispanic American in space. He flew in space a record-tying seven times, including one visit to the Russian space station Mir and one to the International Space Station.
Left: Portrait of Cuban cosmonaut Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez. Middle: Mexican payload specialist Rodolfo Neri Vela enjoys a trend-setting tortilla during the STS-61B mission. Right: Portrait of NASA astronaut Franklin R. Chang-Díaz.
Franklin R. Chang-Díaz
Chang-Díaz’s first flight, STS-61C aboard space shuttle Columbia, took place in January 1986, a six-day flight to deploy a communications satellite and to remotely observe Halley’s comet. The crew included two future NASA administrators, NASA astronauts Charles F. Bolden and U.S. Senator (D-FL) C. William “Bill” Nelson. The flight landed just 10 days before the tragic loss of space shuttle Challenger. His next mission, STS 34 aboard Atlantis, in October 1989 saw the deployment of the Galileo spacecraft to explore Jupiter with an orbiter and an atmospheric probe. Chang-Díaz launched on his third mission, STS 46 in July 1992, an eight-day flight aboard Atlantis to test fly the first Tethered Satellite System (TSS-1).
Left: Franklin R. Chang-Díaz, center, the first Hispanic American astronaut, with his fellow STS-61C crew members. Middle: Chang-Díaz, center, and the STS-34 crew. Right: Chang-Díaz, upper right, with the STS-46 crew.
Chang-Díaz returned to space for his fourth mission in January 1994 aboard Discovery. The eight-day STS-60 flight comprised the first flight in the Shuttle-Mir program, with Russian cosmonaut Sergey K. Krikalev a member of the crew. Chang-Díaz launched on his fifth flight in February 1996, the 16-day STS-75 mission aboard Columbia to refly the TSS. On his sixth mission in June 1998, the STS-91 crew docked Discovery with the Russian space station Mir and returned astronaut Andrew S.W. Thomas to earth, the final Shuttle-Mir mission.
Left: Franklin R. Chang-Díaz, lower left, with the STS-60 crew. Middle: Chang-Díaz, left, with his STS-75 crew mates. Right: Chang-Díaz, with the STS-91 and Mir 25 crews.
During his record-tying seventh trip into space, Chang-Díaz made his only visit to the space station. The main goals of Endeavour’s STS-111 mission in June 2002 included the exchange of the Expedition 4 and 5 crews and the resupply of the station using the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM). Two new research facilities rode in the MPLM, the fifth Expedite the Processing of Experiments to the Space Station (EXPRESS) rack and the Microgravity Sciences Glovebox. Chang-Díaz completed three spacewalks with his fellow mission specialist, French astronaut Philippe Perrin, to install the Mobile Base System portion of the Canadarm2’s remote manipulator system and perform maintenance tasks on the station.
Left: NASA astronaut Franklin R. Chang-Díaz, left of center, with his STS-111 crewmates and the Expedition 4 and 5 crews. Middle: Chang-Díaz during the first STS-111 spacewalk. Right: Chang-Díaz in Endeavour’s middeck following undocking from the space station.
Sidney M. Gutierrez
NASA selected New Mexico native Sidney M. Gutierrez as an astronaut in 1984. On his first mission in June 1991, he served as the pilot of Columbia on the STS-40 Spacelab Life Sciences-1 mission, a nine-day flight dedicated to investigating the responses of the human body to weightlessness. He also served as a test subject for several of the experiments. During his second mission in April 1994, Gutierrez served as the commander of STS-59, the Space Radar Laboratory-1 flight, an 11-day mission aboard Endeavour. The payload included a synthetic aperture imaging radar.
Left: NASA astronaut Sidney M. Gutierrez, center, with his STS-40 crew mates. Right: Gutierrez, center, with the STS-59 crew.
Ellen Ochoa
Selected as the first female Hispanic astronaut in 1990, Ellen Ochoa completed four spaceflights and then served as the first Hispanic director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. On her first mission in April 1993, she served as a mission specialist on the nine-day STS-56 flight, the second Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science (ATLAS) mission aboard Discovery. An accomplished flautist, she played her flute during the flight. On her second flight, STS-66 in March 1994, Ochoa flew aboard Atlantis and operated the experiments of the ATLAS-3 payload during the 11-day mission.
Left: Ellen Ochoa, top left, and the rest of the STS-56 crew. Middle: Ochoa plays the flute on Discovery’s flight deck. Right: Ochoa, top left, and the rest of the STS-66 crew.
Ochoa holds the distinction as the first Hispanic astronaut to visit the space station, making her first visit in May 1999 as a mission specialist aboard Discovery’s 10-day STS-96 mission. The goals of the mission – only the second shuttle flight to the station that, at the time, comprised only two modules – included the transfer of two tons of logistics to the station, launched inside a Spacehab double module, and the delivery of the Russian Strela cargo crane.
Left: The space station as seen from STS-96. Middle: NASA astronaut Ellen Ochoa, lower right, with the STS-96 crew in the Unity Node 1. Right: Ochoa, bottom, with fellow STS-96 crewmembers Julie Payette of the Canadian Space Agency in the Zarya module.
Ochoa returned to a much-enlarged space station aboard space shuttle Atlantis in April 2002 during the STS-110 mission that delivered the 13-ton S0 truss – the center segment section to which future truss segments were later attached. Ochoa operated the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS), also known as Canadarm2, to lift the S0 truss from the shuttle’s payload bay and attach it atop the Destiny module. The S0 truss also contained the Mobile Transporter to allow the SSRMS to translate up and down the trusses. Ochoa was named as JSC’s deputy director in 2007, then as JSC’s first Hispanic director in 2013. She served in that position until her retirement from NASA in 2018.
Left: NASA astronaut Ellen Ochoa operating Canadarm2 in the Destiny module. Middle: The space station as seen from the departing STS-110, showing the S0 truss mounted on Destiny. Right: Portrait of Ochoa as director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Michael E. Lopez-Alegria
NASA selected Michael E. “LA” Lopez-Alegria, born in Madrid, Spain, as an astronaut in 1992. On his first spaceflight, he served as a mission specialist on STS-73, the second flight of the United States Microgravity Laboratory. The 16-day mission aboard Columbia in October 1995 included 37 investigations supported by 11 facilities, with the seven-member crew working around the clock in two shifts in a Spacelab module.
Left: Michael E. Lopez-Alegria, center, with the rest of the STS-73 crew inside the Spacelab module. Right: Lopez-Alegria working on biological experiment in the Spacelab module.
Lopez-Alegria served as a mission specialist on STS-92 during his first visit to the space station. He and his six crewmates launched aboard Discovery in October 2000, the 100th launch of the program and the last to visit an unoccupied station. At the time, the station comprised just three modules. During the mission, the STS-92 crew installed the Z1 truss atop the Unity module, four Control Moment Gyros, and the third Pressurized Mating Adaptor. The Z1 truss enabled the addition of solar arrays and radiators on the subsequent assembly flight and also contained high-rate communications equipment including the first Space-to-Ground antenna. Lopez-Alegria participated in two of the mission’s four spacewalks with Peter J. “Jeff” Wisoff to complete the assembly tasks. During their last spacewalk, the two conducted the first flight evaluation at the station of the Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue (SAFER), a propulsive backpack to be used by astronauts should they become detached from the spacecraft. The STS-92 crew left the station ready for its first inhabitants, and indeed less than two weeks later, the first Expedition crew arrived to begin permanent residency in low Earth orbit.
Left: NASA astronaut Michael E. Lopez-Alegria working outside the space station during STS-92. Middle: Lopez-Alegria, left, tests the Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue as fellow NASA astronaut Peter J. “Jeff” Wisoff looks on. Right: The space station as seen from Discovery shortly after undocking, showing the Z1 Truss with the Space-to-Ground Antenna at top and the third Pressurized Mating Adaptor at bottom.
For his third flight into space, Lopez-Alegria returned to the station in November 2002 during the STS-113 mission, the facility now permanently occupied and having grown significantly in the intervening two years. The primary tasks for the STS-113 crew included adding the P1 truss on the station’s port side, installing the Crew Equipment Translation Aid (CETA) cart, and assisting in the exchange between the Expedition 5 and 6 crews. Lopez-Alegria and fellow STS-113 mission specialist John B. Harrington conducted three spacewalks to complete the installation of the P1 truss and the CETA cart. After STS-113, assembly of the station came to a temporary halt following the Feb. 1, 2003, Columbia accident, and the subsequent grounding of the space shuttle fleet. Flights did not resume until September 2006.
Left: NASA astronaut Michael E. Lopez-Alegria during the first STS-113 spacewalk. Middle: Lopez-Alegria, second from right in the middle row, posing in the Destiny module with his STS-113 crewmates, as well as the Expedition 5 and 6 crews. Right: The space station as seen by the departing STS-113 crew, with the newly installed P1 truss visible at right.
Lopez-Alegria returned to the space station again shortly after assembly resumed. For his fourth spaceflight, he launched aboard Soyuz TMA9 in September 2006, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan,. Mikhail V. Tyurin of Roscosmos accompanied him during the 215-day mission, to that time the longest space station expedition, was Mikhail V. Tyurin of Roscosmos. European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Thomas A. Reiter, onboard the station since July 2006, became part of the Expedition 14 crew. As Commander of Expedition 14, Lopez-Alegria oversaw one of the most complex set of activities in the assembly of the station – the reconfiguration of its power and cooling systems. A week before his arrival, the STS-115 mission had delivered the second set of solar arrays to the station as part of the P3/P4 truss segment, positioning them outboard of the P1 segment. As part of the reconfiguration, the port side P6 array mounted atop the Z1 truss needed to be retracted to prevent interference with the rotation of the new arrays, a task that was completed during the visiting STS-116 mission in December that also added the P5 short spacer to the port side truss. That mission brought NASA astronaut Sunita L. “Suni” Williams to the station as a new addition to Expedition 14 and returned Reiter back to Earth. During Expedition 14, Lopez-Alegria took part in five spacewalks, two in Orlan spacesuits with Tyurin to conduct work on the outside of the Russian segment and three in American spacesuits, with Williams to reconfigure the cooling system of the U.S. segment. He accumulated a total of 67 hours and 40 minutes over 10 spacewalks – still the record among American astronauts. Lopez-Alegria also conducted a variety of scientific experiments.
Left: Space station configuration when NASA astronaut Michael E. Lopez-Alegria arrived in September 2006. Middle: Lopez-Alegria, back row middle, with STS-116 and Expedition 14 crew members. Right: Celebrating the holidays aboard the space station.
Left: NASA astronaut Michael E. Lopez-Alegria conducting a session of the Canadian TRAC experiment in the Destiny module. Middle: In an Orlan suit, Lopez-Alegria conducts maintenance on the exterior of the Russian segment. Right: The space station’s configuration at the end of Lopez-Alegria’s mission – note the retracted P6 solar array.
Lopez-Alegria retired from NASA in 2012, joining Axiom Space shortly thereafter. In April 2022, he commanded the Ax-1 mission, the first commercial astronaut mission to the space station. He and his three crewmates spent 17 days aboard, conducting a variety of experiments. Lopez-Alegria returned to space as commander of the Ax-3 mission in January 2024. He and his three multi-national crewmates spent 22 days aboard the space station conducting numerous experiments. Across his six missions, Lopez-Alegria accumulated a total of 297 days in space.
Left: Axiom Space astronaut Michael E. Lopez-Alegria floats into the space station during the Ax-1 mission.
Middle: Lopez-Alegria, second from right, and the rest of the Ax-1 crew. Right: The 11 crew members
aboard the space station during the Ax-1 mission, with Lopez-Alegria at far right.
Left: Axiom Space astronaut Michael E. Lopez-Alegria answers questions from the space station’s Cupola during the Ax-3 mission. Middle: Lopez-Alegria, second from left, and the rest of the Ax-3 crew. Right: The 11 members of the Expedition 70 and Ax-3 crews, with Lopez-Alegria at far left.
Carlos I. Noriega
In 1994, NASA selected Carlos I. Noriega as the first Peruvian-born astronaut. On his first spaceflight in May 1997, he served as a mission specialist aboard STS-84, the sixth Shuttle-Mir docking mission. During the nine-day flight, the crew resupplied the Mir space station, brought NASA astronaut C. Michael Foale to the Russian outpost, and returned Jerry M. Linenger to Earth.
Left: Carlos I. Noriega sets up an experiment during the STS-84 mission. Middle: Noriega working on an experiment in the Spacecab module. Right: The 10 members of the STS-84 and Mir resident crew, with Noriega at upper right.
In December 2000, Noriega launched on his second mission, aboard Endeavour with his four crewmates on STS-97, their primary goal to install the P6 truss segment with the first set of solar arrays and radiators atop the Z1 truss. STS-97 marked the first time a shuttle visited the station after its occupancy began, but given the busy spacewalk schedule, the hatches between the two vehicles were only open for 24 hours. Noriega and fellow mission specialist Joseph R. Tanner conducted three spacewalks to complete the P6 installation and other assembly tasks. The new solar arrays generated enough power for the arrival of the U.S. laboratory module Destiny early in 2001 and the start of intensive research aboard the space station.
Left: NASA astronaut Carlos I. Noriega waves to the camera as he installs the P6 truss and solar arrays. Middle: Noriega, center, with the STS-97 and Expedition 1 crews in the Zarya Service Module. Right: The space station as seen from the departing STS-97 showing the newly deployed P6 solar arrays.
Pedro Duque
The European Space Agency (ESA) selected Pedro Duque, born in Madrid, Spain, as an astronaut in 1992. Four years later, he joined NASA’s astronaut class of 1996 in training and two years later certified as a mission specialist. His first launch into space took place in October 1998 on Discovery’s STS-95 mission, the nine-day flight that saw astronaut John H. Glenn’s return to space. Duque returned to space in October 2003 aboard Soyuz TMA3, conducting experiments aboard the space station as part of his Cervantes visiting mission. He returned to Earth 10 days later aboard Soyuz TMA2.
Left: Spanish astronaut Pedro Duque, lower left, representing the European Space Agency, with his STS-95 crewmates. Middle: Duque conducting an experiment in the Microgravity Science Glovebox aboard the space station. Right: Duque, center, with his Expedition 7 and 8 crewmates.
Marcos C. Pontes
The Brazilian Space Agency selected Marcos C. Pontes as an astronaut in 1998. He trained with NASA’s astronaut class of 1998 and certified as a mission specialist two years later. Pontes made his one and only spaceflight in March 2006 aboard Soyuz TMA8, carrying out eight experiments. He returned to Earth 10 days later aboard Soyuz TMA7.
Left: Brazilian astronaut Marcos Pontes, center at rear, with his Expedition 12 and 13 crewmates. Middle: Pontes works on an experiment in the Destiny Laboratory Module. Right: Pontes at work on an experiment in the Russian Zvezda module.
John D. “Danny” Olivas
Selected as a member of NASA’s Astronaut Class of 1998, John D. “Danny” Olivas visited the space station on two occasions as a shuttle mission specialist. His first visit took place aboard Atlantis during the STS-117 mission in June 2007. During the flight, Olivas and fellow mission specialist James F. Reilly conducted two of the four spacewalks to install the S3/S4 truss segment that included the third set of solar arrays. To prevent interfering with the rotation of the new arrays, the crew retracted the starboard P6 array mounted atop the Z1 truss. The STS-117 mission also served as a crew exchange flight, with NASA astronaut Clayton C. Anderson replacing Suni Williams as a member of Expedition 15.
Left: NASA astronaut John D. “Danny” Olivas during an STS-117 spacewalk working on the S3/S4 truss installation. Middle: Olivas, back row at right, with the STS-117 and Expedition 15 crews. Right: The space station as seen by the departing STS-117 crew, showing the new set of starboard solar arrays at right.
On his return to the station, Olivas found it a bit more crowded – three months earlier, the permanent crew aboard the station had expanded from three to six. He and his crewmates launched aboard Discovery on the STS-128 mission in August 2009. The shuttle’s payload bay contained the Leonardo MPLM bringing supplies to help maintain a 6-person crew on the space station, including three systems racks: a crew quarters, an Air Revitalization System rack, and the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill (COLBERT) for crew exercise – as well as three research racks – the Fluid Integrated Rack , the Materials Science Research Rack, and the second Minus Eighty-degree Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI). Olivas participated in three spacewalks to replace the Ammonia Tank Assembly on the P1 truss and to retrieve two experiments from the European Columbus module’s External Payload Facility. STS-128 also completed the final shuttle-based crew exchange, with NASA astronauts Nicole P. Stott and Timothy L. Kopra exchanging places as Expedition 20 crewmembers.
Left:NASA astronaut John D. “Danny” Olivas poses during spacewalk work on the Ammonia Tank Assembly. Middle: Olivas eating a chocolate and peanut butter snack. Right: Olivas, at center, with the STS-128 and Expedition 20 crews.
George D. Zamka
Selected as a NASA astronaut in 1998, George D. Zamka completed his first space flight as pilot on Discovery’s STS-120 mission. Launching in October 2007, Zamka and his crewmates brought the Harmony Node 2 module to the station, temporarily berthing it on the Unity Node 1’s port side until the Expedition 16 crew relocated it to Destiny’s forward hatch. In its final location, Harmony enabled the later installation of the European and Japanese elements. The crew also relocated the P6 truss segment from atop Z1 to the outboard port truss. During the redeployment of the P6 solar arrays, one of the arrays developed a tear that required repair using a cufflink-like device to sew up the gap in the panel. STS-120 also conducted a crew exchange, with NASA astronauts Daniel M. Tani and Clay Anderson exchanging places as members of Expedition 16. As the STS-120 pilot, Zamka completed the undocking from the station and the departure fly-around maneuver.
Left: NASA astronaut George D. Zamka holding the cufflink device used to repair the torn solar array. Middle: Zamka, lower right, with the STS-120 and Expedition 16 crews. Right: The space station as seen from STS-120 departing, showing the newly delivered Harmony Node 2 module temporarily berthed at the Unity Node 1 and the relocated and redeployed P6 truss segment and solar arrays at left.
When he returned to the orbiting lab in February 2010, Zamka did so as commander of space shuttle Endeavour’s STS-130 mission. After guiding the shuttle to a successful docking with the station, Zamka and his crewmates, along with the Expedition 22 crew, installed the Tranquility Node 3 module to Unity’s port side and activated the new element. The new module provided accommodations for life support and habitation facilities for the station’s six-person crew. The crew removed the Cupola from its launch position at the end of Tranquility and relocated it to the module’s Earth-facing port. The Cupola’s six trapezoidal and one circular center window provide crews not only visibility for approaching visiting vehicles, but also spectacular views of their home planet passing by below.
Left: NASA astronaut George D. Zamka peering through one of the Cupola’s windows. Middle: Zamka, front row second from right, with the STS-130 and Expedition 22 crews. Right: The space station as seem from the departing STS-130, showing the Tranquility Node 3 and Cupola berthed at the Unity Node 1, left of center.
Joseph M. “Joe” Acaba
Joseph M. “Joe” Acaba was selected in 2004 as part of NASA’s Educator Astronaut Program and qualified as a mission specialist. His first flight into space was aboard STS-119 in March 2009. Discovery brought up the S6 final truss segment with the fourth and final set of solar arrays, bringing the U.S. segment of the station’s useable power generating capability between 42 and 60 kilowatts. Acaba completed two of the mission’s three spacewalks, one with fellow mission specialist Steven R. Swanson and the other with fellow educator-astronaut and mission specialist Richard R. “Ricky” Arnold. During the STS-119 mission, Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) replaced NASA astronaut Sandra H. Magnus as a member of the Expedition 18 crew.
Left: NASA astronaut Joseph M. Acaba during the third STS-119 spacewalk. Middle: Acaba, front row at right, with the STS-119 and Expedition 18 crews. Right: The space station as seen from the departing STS-119, with the newly added S6 truss segment and solar arrays, at right.
For his second visit to the station, Acaba stayed for 125 days as part of Expeditions 31 and 32, launching in May 2012 from Kazakhstan aboard Soyuz TMA-04M. A week after arriving, Acaba and his crewmates welcomed the first commercial vehicle to dock with the space station, the SpaceX Dragon cargo resupply vehicle on its Demo-2 mission carrying food, water, scientific experiments and other supplies. The Expedition 31 crew loaded the Dragon spacecraft with cargo and experiment samples for return to Earth. The crew observed and photographed a rare celestial event, a transit of Venus across the Sun on June 5. In addition to conducting numerous science experiments, Acaba helped fire prevention icon Smokey the Bear celebrate his 68th birthday.
Left: NASA astronaut Joseph M. Acaba, top right, with his Expedition 31 crewmates inside the SpaceX Dragon resupply vehicle. Middle: Acaba running on the COLBERT treadmill. Right: Acaba refracted in a globule of water.
Left: NASA astronaut Joseph M. Acaba, right, drawing a blood sample from Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Middle: Acaba with a toy Smokey the Bear in the Cupola to help celebrate the forest fire prevention icon’s 68th birthday. Right: Acaba, lower right, with this Expedition 32 crewmates.
Acaba returned to the space station five years later as a member of Expedition 53 and 54, launching in September 2017, aboard Soyuz MS-06 Acaba joined NASA astronaut Randolph J. “Randy” Bresnik for a nearly seven-hour spacewalk to lubricate the newly installed replacement Latching End Effector on the SSRMS. Acaba continued with the research program and celebrated his Puerto Rican heritage with several events. He returned to Earth after a 168-day flight. Over his three missions, Acaba accumulated 306 days in space and nearly 20 hours in spacewalk time. Since February 2023, he has served as the chief of the astronaut office.
Left: NASA astronaut Joseph M. Acaba conducting an experiment in the Microgravity Sciences Glovebox. Middle left: In the Cupola, Acaba showing Puerto Rico pride. Middle right: During a spacewalk, Acaba is lubricating the Candarm2 Latching End Effector. Right: Acaba, left, with his Expedition 53 crewmates.
Left: NASA astronaut Joseph M. Acaba working with the Biological Research in Canisters experiment. Middle left: Acaba speaking with the Puerto Rico Institute of Robotics. Middle right: During the holidays, Acaba participating in a parranda by video. Right: Acaba, upper left, with his Expedition 54 crewmates.
José M. Hernández
Selected in 2004 as a NASA astronaut, José M. Hernández made his single visit to the space station during the STS-128 mission. Launched aboard space shuttle Discovery in August 2009, Hernández operated both the shuttle and station robotic arms to move the Leonardo MPLM back and forth and translate astronauts during the mission’s three spacewalks. He participated in the transfer and installation of the three systems racks and the three research racks aboard the orbiting laboratory. STS-128 also completed the final shuttle-based crew exchange, with Stott replacing Kopra as an Expedition 20 crew member. In collaboration with Amazon Studios, NASA is helping chronicle Hernández’ life and career through the film “A Million Miles Away,” telling the story of his journey from migrant farmer to NASA space explorer.
Left: NASA astronaut José M. Hernández operating the shuttle’s robotic arm to transfer the Leonardo Multipurpose Logistics Module (MPLM) to the station. Middle: Hernández operating the station’s robotic arm to return the MPLM to the shuttle’s payload bay. Right: Hernández, front row center, with the STS-128 and Expedition 20 crews.
Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor
Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor was selected as a member of NASA’s Astronaut Class of 2009 and made her first spaceflight nine years later. She launched aboard Soyuz MS-09 in June 2018and began work on the more than 300 research investigations she carried out during her stay aboard the orbiting laboratory. Auñón-Chancellor returned to Earth after completing a 197-day flight.
Left: NASA astronaut Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor conducting the AngieX Cancer Therapy experiment in the Microgravity Sciences Glovebox. Middle: Auñón-Chancellor completing a session of the Eye Exam – Fundoscope experiment to help understand vision changes in microgravity. Right: Auñón-Chancellor, top, posing with her Expedition 56 crewmates in the Harmony Node 2 module.
Left: NASA astronaut Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor working on the BioServe Protein Crystalography-1 experiment. Middle: Expedition 57 crew members in their best Halloween outfits – Sergei V. Prokopiev of Roscosmos, left, as Elvis, ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst as Darth Vader, and Auñón-Chancellor as a mad scientist. Right: Auñón-Chancellor and her Expedition 57 crewmates in the Destiny module.
Francisco “Frank” C. Rubio
Selected as an astronaut by NASA in 2017, Dr. Francisco “Frank” C. Rubio began his first trip to space in September 2022, with Russian cosmonauts Sergei V. Prokopyev and Dmitri A. Petelin aboard Soyuz MS-22, for a planned six-month stay aboard the space station. A leak aboard their Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft in December resulted in the loss of its coolant, and they could no longer rely on it to return to Earth. Roscosmos sent the replacement Soyuz MS-23 to the station in February 2023. The incident extended their mission to over one year. On Sept. 11, Rubio broke the record of 355 days for the longest single flight by an American astronaut, set by Mark T. Vande Hei in March 2022. Prokopyev, Petelin, and Rubio landed on Sept. 27 after a 371-day flight, the longest aboard the space station up to that time.
Left: Shortly after arriving at the space station, NASA astronaut Francisco “Frank” C. Rubio receives his gold astronaut pin from Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut and fellow Expedition 68 crew member Koichi Wakata. Middle: Rubio during one of his two spacewalks. Right: Rubio, left, with Russian cosmonauts Sergey V. Prokopyev and Dmitri A. Petelin with a cake with “356” written on it to signify they surpassed the previous record of 355 days as the longest flight aboard the space station up to that time.
To be continued…
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