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By NASA
NASA astronaut and Expedition 73 Flight Engineer Jonny KimCredit: Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center Students from Santa Monica, California, will connect with NASA astronaut Jonny Kim as he answers prerecorded science, technology, engineering, and mathematics-related questions aboard the International Space Station.
Watch the 20-minute space-to-Earth call at 12:10 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, April 29, on the NASA STEM YouTube Channel.
Media interested in covering the event must RSVP by 5 p.m., Friday, April 25, to Esmi Careaga at: ecareaga@smmusd.org or 805-651-3204 x71582.
The event is hosted by Santa Monica High School, Kim’s alma mater, and includes students from Roosevelt Elementary School and Lincoln Middle School in Santa Monica. The schools hope to inspire students to follow their dreams and explore their passions through curiosity, service, and interest in learning.
For more than 24 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 highlighting space station research at:
https://www.nasa.gov/stemonstation
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Gerelle Dodson
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
gerelle.q.dodson@nasa.gov
Sandra Jones
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Apr 23, 2025 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
NASA Headquarters Humans in Space International Space Station (ISS) Johnson Space Center View the full article
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By NASA
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
As associate administrator for NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate Ken Bowersox puts it, “nothing happens without communications.”
And effective communications require the use of radio waves.
None of NASA’s exciting science and engineering endeavors would be possible without the use of radio waves to send data, communications, and commands between researchers or flight controllers and their flight platforms or instruments.
Reflecting on his time as a pilot, commander, and mission specialist during the Space Shuttle Program, Bowersox says, “If you’re not there physically, you can’t be a part of the team. But if you’re getting the data, whether it’s video, telemetry data with states of switches, or individual parameters on temperatures or pressures, then you can act on it and provide information to the spacecraft team so they can do the right thing in their operation.”
These vital data and communications functions, as well as the gathering of valuable scientific data through remote sensing applications, all use radio frequencies (RF) within the electromagnetic spectrum. NASA centers and facilities also use the RF spectrum to support their everyday operations, including the walkie-talkies used by security guards, air traffic control systems around airfields, and even office Wi-Fi routers and wireless keyboards.
Nothing happens without communications.
Ken Bowersox
NASA Astronaut & Associate Administrator for NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate
All of NASA’s uses of the RF spectrum are shared, with different radio services supporting other kinds of uses. Service allocation is a fundamental concept in spectrum regulation and defines how the spectrum is shared between different types of applications. A service allocation defines ranges, or bands, of radio frequencies that can be used by a particular type of radio service. For example, a television broadcasting satellite operates in frequency bands allocated to the broadcasting satellite service, terrestrial cellular services operate in bands allocated for the mobile service, and the communications antennas on the International Space Station (ISS) operate in bands allocated to space operations service.
However, an allocation is not a license to operate — it does not authorize a specific system or operator to use particular frequencies. Such authority is granted through domestic and international regulatory processes.
Most frequency bands of the RF spectrum are shared, and each frequency band typically has two or more radio services allocated to it. Careful spectrum regulation, planning, and management aim to identify mutually compatible services to share frequency bands while limiting its negative impacts.
NASA’s Most Notable Spectrum Uses
Many of NASA’s most notable uses of spectrum rely on the following service allocations:
Earth exploration-satellite service Space research service Space operations service Inter-satellite service Note that allocations in the Earth exploration-satellite service and the space research service are designated either for communications links in the Earth-to-space, space-to-Earth, or space-to-space directions or designated for active or passive sensing of Earth or celestial objects (respectively) to differentiate the types of uses within the service and afford the requisite protections.
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Watch the video to learn more about how each kind of system uses the radio frequency spectrumNASA Learn how NASA manages its use of the RF spectrum. Learn about who NASA collaborates with to inform the spectrum regulations of the future. Learn about the scientific principles of the electromagnetic spectrum, including radio waves. Share
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Last Updated Apr 23, 2025 Related Terms
General Communicating and Navigating with Missions Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics
Missions
Humans in Space
Climate Change
Solar System
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By NASA
The Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft is seen as it lands in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan with Expedition 72 NASA astronaut Don Pettit, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner aboard, April 19, 2025 (April 20, 2025, Kazakhstan time). The trio are returning to Earth after logging 220 days in space as members of Expeditions 71 and 72 aboard the International Space Station.NASA/Bill Ingalls NASA astronaut Don Pettit returned to Earth Saturday, accompanied by Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, concluding a seven-month science mission aboard the International Space Station.
The trio departed the space station at 5:57 p.m. EDT aboard the Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft before making a safe, parachute-assisted landing at 9:20 p.m. (6:20 a.m. on Sunday, April 20, Kazakhstan time), southeast of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. Pettit also celebrates his 70th birthday on Sunday, April 20.
Spanning 220 days in space, Pettit and his crewmates orbited the Earth 3,520 times, completing a journey of 93.3 million miles. Pettit, Ovchinin, and Vagner launched and docked to the orbiting laboratory on Sept. 11, 2024.
During his time aboard the space station, Pettit conducted research to enhance in-orbit metal 3D printing capabilities, advance water sanitization technologies, explore plant growth under varying water conditions, and investigate fire behavior in microgravity, all contributing to future space missions. He also used his surroundings aboard station to conduct unique experiments in his spare time and captivate the public with his photography.
This was Pettit’s fourth spaceflight, where he served as a flight engineer for Expeditions 71 and 72. He has logged 590 days in orbit throughout his career. Ovchinin completed his fourth flight, totaling 595 days, and Vagner has earned an overall total of 416 days in space during two spaceflights.
NASA is following its routine postlanding medical checks, the crew will return to the recovery staging area in Karaganda, Kazakhstan. Pettit will then board a NASA plane bound for the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. According to NASA officials at the landing site, Pettit is doing well and in the range of what is expected for him following return to Earth.
For more than two decades, people have lived and worked continuously aboard the International Space Station, advancing scientific knowledge and making research breakthroughs that are not possible on Earth. The station is a critical testbed for NASA to understand and overcome the challenges of long-duration spaceflight and to expand commercial opportunities in low Earth orbit. As commercial companies focus on providing human space transportation services and destinations as part of a strong low Earth orbit economy, NASA is focusing more resources on deep space missions to the Moon as part of Artemis in preparation for future astronaut missions to Mars.
Learn more about International Space Station research and operations at:
https://www.nasa.gov/station
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Joshua Finch
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov
Sandra Jones
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Apr 19, 2025 EditorJessica TaveauLocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 72 Humans in Space ISS Research View the full article
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