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By NASA
On May 22, 2025, NASA hosted an Expedition 72 crew debrief and awards ceremony at Space Center Houston, where more than 1,000 attendees gathered to celebrate. The event recognized the achievements of the crew as well as NASA employees and partners whose dedication and support contributed to the expedition’s success. Crew members from Expedition 72 shared reflections and anecdotes from their time on the International Space Station and expressed gratitude for the opportunity to contribute to scientific research aboard the orbiting laboratory.
A group photo of participants from the Expedition 72 crew debrief and awards ceremony on May 22, 2025, at Space Center Houston’s IMAX theater. NASA/James Blair The event included four NASA astronauts:
Nick Hague, Crew-9 commander and Expedition 72 flight engineer Butch Wilmore, Boeing Starliner commander and Expedition 72 flight engineer Suni Williams, Boeing Starliner pilot and Expedition 72 commander Don Pettit, Soyuz MS-26 and Expedition 72 flight engineer The Expedition 72 crew also included Roscosmos cosmonauts Aleksandr Gorbunov, Aleksey Ovchinin, and Ivan Vagner, who were not in attendance. The cosmonauts served as Crew-9 mission specialist, Soyuz-MS commander, and Soyuz-MS flight engineer, respectively.
NASA astronaut Matt Dominick kicked off the event by striking the ceremonial bell, a tradition symbolizing the end of the mission for the crew and those that support them.
Johnson Space Center Acting Director Stephen Koerner recognized the crew’s commitment to the mission and their role in the advancement of human spaceflight. “These brave men and women make the tough yet rewarding choice to embark on long-duration missions away from their family and friends,” he said. “They do this to conduct groundbreaking research and inspire generations. Spaceflight is hard, but through togetherness we make giant leaps, going further than ever before.”
NASA astronauts (from left) Don Pettit and Butch Wilmore, Expedition 72 flight engineers, pack external research hardware which housed a variety of samples exposed to the vacuum of space such as polymers, photovoltaic devices, and more. The samples were returned to Earth to be examined to understand how space radiation, the extreme thermal environment, micrometeoroids, and more affect materials possibly benefitting the space industry. NASA NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Suni Williams, Expedition 72 Flight Engineer and Commander respectively, discuss orbital lab maintenance procedures aboard the International Space Station.NASA The Expedition 72 crew dedicated more than 1,000 combined hours to scientific research and technology demonstrations aboard the International Space Station. Their work included enhancing metal 3D printing capabilities in orbit, exploring the potential of stem cell technology for treating diseases, preparing the first wooden satellite for deployment, and collecting samples from the station’s exterior to examine whether microorganisms can survive in the harsh environment of space. They also conducted studies on plant growth and quality, investigated how fire behaves in microgravity, and advanced life support systems, all aimed at improving the health, safety, and sustainability of future space missions.
Pettit also used his spare time and surroundings aboard the station to conduct unique experiments and captivate the public with his photography. Expedition 72 captured a record 1 million photos during the mission, showcasing the unique research and views aboard the orbiting laboratory through astronauts’ eyes.
The expedition was a historic venture, with Williams and Wilmore launching aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft as part of NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test before being integrated with the Expedition 71/72 crew and returning on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9. While working aboard the orbiting laboratory, Williams established a new record for the most cumulative spacewalking time by a woman — 62 hours and 6 minutes — placing her fourth among the most experienced spacewalkers in history. Additionally, Expedition 72 saw the first reboost of the International Space Station by a Dragon spacecraft.
The crew participated in a panel discussion, sharing further details about the expedition including experiments conducted, favorite foods, and experiencing the Aurora Borealis. The conversation closed with a special patch presentation from Wilmore to Williams to highlight her achievement of exceeding Mach 25 in the Boeing Starliner spacecraft.
Following the panel, an award ceremony recognized team members for their efforts in supporting the mission, with recipients including the crew, NASA employees, and commercial partners.
The Expedition 72 crew poses for a portrait inside the International Space Station’s Harmony module with a cake commemorating a total of 3,000 cumulative days in space gained between the individual crew members. Front row (from left): Roscosmos cosmonaut Ivan Vagner, NASA astronaut Nick Hague, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. Back row (from left): NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Don Pettit, Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin, and NASA astronaut Suni Williams.NASA Flight Operations Directorate Acting Director Kjell Lindgren discussed the impact of collaboration with commercial and international partners. “Your collaboration is vital not just to mission success but to the very identity of this program,” he said. “Together, we can demonstrate what global collaboration can achieve in pursuit of excellence and exploration.”
Watch below to recap the Expedition 72 crew members’ journey aboard the International Space Station and to celebrate those who helped make the mission a success.
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A lot can change in a year for Earth’s forests and vegetation, as springtime and rainy seasons can bring new growth, while cooling temperatures and dry weather can bring a dieback of those green colors. And now, a novel type of NASA visualization illustrates those changes in a full complement of colors as seen from space.
Researchers have now gathered a complete year of PACE data to tell a story about the health of land vegetation by detecting slight variations in leaf colors. Previous missions allowed scientists to observe broad changes in chlorophyll, the pigment that gives plants their green color and also allows them to perform photosynthesis. But PACE now allows scientists to see three different pigments in vegetation: chlorophyll, anthocyanins, and carotenoids. The combination of these three pigments helps scientists pinpoint even more information about plant health. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) satellite is designed to view Earth’s microscopic ocean plants in a new lens, but researchers have proved its hyperspectral use over land, as well.
Previous missions measured broad changes in chlorophyll, the pigment that gives plants their green color and also allows them to perform photosynthesis. Now, for the first time, PACE measurements have allowed NASA scientists and visualizers to show a complete year of global vegetation data using three pigments: chlorophyll, anthocyanins, and carotenoids. That multicolor imagery tells a clearer story about the health of land vegetation by detecting the smallest of variations in leaf colors.
“Earth is amazing. It’s humbling, being able to see life pulsing in colors across the whole globe,” said Morgaine McKibben, PACE applications lead at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “It’s like the overview effect that astronauts describe when they look down at Earth, except we are looking through our technology and data.”
Anthocyanins, carotenoids, and chlorophyll data light up North America, highlighting vegetation and its health.Credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio Anthocyanins are the red pigments in leaves, while carotenoids are the yellow pigments – both of which we see when autumn changes the colors of trees. Plants use these pigments to protect themselves from fluctuations in the weather, adapting to the environment through chemical changes in their leaves. For example, leaves can turn more yellow when they have too much sunlight but not enough of the other necessities, like water and nutrients. If they didn’t adjust their color, it would damage the mechanisms they have to perform photosynthesis.
In the visualization, the data is highlighted in bright colors: magenta represents anthocyanins, green represents chlorophyll, and cyan represents carotenoids. The brighter the colors are, the more leaves there are in that area. The movement of these colors across the land areas show the seasonal changes over time.
In areas like the evergreen forests of the Pacific Northwest, plants undergo less seasonal change. The data highlights this, showing comparatively steadier colors as the year progresses.
The combination of these three pigments helps scientists pinpoint even more information about plant health.
“Shifts in these pigments, as detected by PACE, give novel information that may better describe vegetation growth, or when vegetation changes from flourishing to stressed,” said McKibben. “It’s just one of many ways the mission will drive increased understanding of our home planet and enable innovative, practical solutions that serve society.”
The Ocean Color Instrument on PACE collects hyperspectral data, which means it observes the planet in 100 different wavelengths of visible and near infrared light. It is the only instrument – in space or elsewhere – that provides hyperspectral coverage around the globe every one to two days. The PACE mission builds on the legacy of earlier missions, such as Landsat, which gathers higher resolution data but observes a fraction of those wavelengths.
In a paper recently published in Remote Sensing Letters, scientists introduced the mission’s first terrestrial data products.
“This PACE data provides a new view of Earth that will improve our understanding of ecosystem dynamics and function,” said Fred Huemmrich, research professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, member of the PACE science and applications team, and first author of the paper. “With the PACE data, it’s like we’re looking at a whole new world of color. It allows us to describe pigment characteristics at the leaf level that we weren’t able to do before.”
As scientists continue to work with these new data, available on the PACE website, they’ll be able to incorporate it into future science applications, which may include forest monitoring or early detection of drought effects.
By Erica McNamee
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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Last Updated Jun 05, 2025 EditorKate D. RamsayerContactKate D. Ramsayerkate.d.ramsayer@nasa.gov Related Terms
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Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA test pilot Nils Larson inspects the agency’s F-15D research aircraft at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, ahead of a calibration flight for a newly installed near-field shock-sensing probe. Mounted on the F-15D, the probe is designed to measure shock waves generated by the X-59 quiet supersonic aircraft during flight. The data will help researchers better understand how shock waves behave in close proximity to the aircraft, supporting NASA’s Quesst mission to enable quiet supersonic flight over land.NASA/Steve Freeman NASA test pilot Nils Larson inspects the agency’s F-15D research aircraft at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, ahead of a calibration flight for a newly installed near-field shock-sensing probe. Mounted on the F-15D, the probe is designed to measure shock waves generated by the X-59 quiet supersonic aircraft during flight. The data will help researchers better understand how shock waves behave in close proximity to the aircraft, supporting NASA’s Quesst mission to enable quiet supersonic flight over land.NASA/Steve Freeman NASA’s F-15D research aircraft conducts a test flight near Edwards, California, with a newly installed near-field shock-sensing probe. Identical to a previously flown version that was intended as the backup, this new probe will capture shock wave data near the X-59 as it flies faster than the speed of sound, supporting NASA’s Quesst mission.NASA/Jim Ross NASA’s F-15D research aircraft conducts a test flight near Edwards, California, with a newly installed near-field shock-sensing probe. Identical to a previously flown version that was intended as the backup, this new probe will capture shock wave data near the X-59 as it flies faster than the speed of sound, supporting NASA’s Quesst mission.NASA/Jim Ross When you’re testing a cutting-edge NASA aircraft, you need specialized tools to conduct tests and capture data –but if those tools need maintenance, you need to wait until they’re fixed. Unless you have a backup. That’s why NASA recently calibrated a new shock-sensing probe to capture shock wave data when the agency’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft begins its test flights.
When an aircraft flies faster than the speed of sound, it produces shock waves that travel through the air, creating loud sonic booms. The X-59 will divert those shock waves, producing just a quiet supersonic thump. Over the past few weeks, NASA completed calibration flights on a new near-field shock-sensing probe, a cone-shaped device that will capture data on the shock waves that the X-59 will generate.
This shock-sensing probe is mounted to an F-15D research aircraft that will fly very close behind the X-59 to collect the data NASA needs. The new unit will serve as NASA’s primary near-field probe, with an identical model NASA developed last year acting as a backup mounted to an additional F-15B.
The two units mean the X-59 team has a ready alternative if the primary probe needs maintenance or repairs. For flight tests like the X-59’s – where data gathering is crucial and operations revolve around tight timelines, weather conditions, and other variables – backups for critical equipment help to ensure continuity, maintain schedule, and preserve efficiency of operations.
“If something happens to the probe, like a sensor failing, it’s not a quick fix,” said Mike Frederick, principal investigator for the probe at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. “The other factor is the aircraft itself. If one needs maintenance, we don’t want to delay X-59 flights.”
To calibrate the new probe, the team measured the shock waves of a NASA F/A-18 research aircraft. Preliminary results indicated that the probe successfully captured pressure changes associated with shock waves, consistent with the team’s expectations. Frederick and his team are now reviewing the data to confirm that it aligns with ground mathematical models and meets the precision standards required for X-59 flights.
Researchers at NASA Armstrong are preparing for additional flights with both the primary and backup probes on their F-15s. Each aircraft will fly supersonic and gather shock wave data from the other. The team is working to validate both the primary and backup probes to confirm full redundancy – in other words, making sure that they have a reliable backup ready to go.
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Last Updated Apr 17, 2025 EditorDede DiniusContactNicolas Cholulanicolas.h.cholula@nasa.gov Related Terms
Aeronautics Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate Armstrong Flight Research Center Commercial Supersonic Technology Low Boom Flight Demonstrator Quesst (X-59) Supersonic Flight Explore More
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Risks Concept Risk is inherent in human spaceflight. However, specific risks can and should be understood, managed, and mitigated to reduce threats posed to astronauts. Risk management in the context of human spaceflight can be viewed as a trade-based system. The relevant evidence in life sciences, medicine, and engineering is tracked and evaluated to identify ways to minimize overall risk to the astronauts and to ensure mission success. The Human System Risk Board (HSRB) manages the process by which scientific evidence is utilized to establish and reassess the postures of the various risks to the Human System during all of the various types of existing or anticipated crewed missions. The HSRB operates as part of the Health and Medical Technical Authority of the Office of the Chief Health and Medical Officer of NASA via the JSC Chief Medical Officer.
The HSRB approaches to human system risks is analogous to the approach the engineering profession takes with its Failure Mode and Effects Analysis in that a process is utilized to identify and address potential problems, or failures to reduce their likelihood and severity. In the context of risks to the human system, the HSRB considers eight missions which different in their destinations and durations (known as Design Reference Missions [DRM]) to further refine the context of the risks. With each DRM a likelihood and consequence are assigned to each risk which is adjusted scientific evidence is accumulated and understanding of the risk is enhanced, and mitigations become available or are advanced.
Human System Risks This framework enables the principles of Continuous Risk Management and Risk Informed Decision Making (RIDM) to be applied in an ongoing fashion to the challenges posed by Human System Risks. Using this framework consistently across the 29 risks allows management to see where risks need additional research or technology development to be mitigated or monitored and for the identification of new risks and concerns. Further information on the implementation of the risk management process can be found in the following documents:
Human System Risk Management Plan – JSC-66705 NASA Health and Medical Technical Authority (HMTA) Implementation – NPR 7120.11A NASA Space Flight Program and Project Management Requirements – NPR 7120.5 Human System Risk Board Management Office
The HSRB Risk Management Office governs the execution of the Human System Risk management process in support of the HSRB. It is led by the HSRB Chair, who is also referred to as the Risk Manager.
Risk Custodian Teams
Along with the Human System Risk Manager, a team of risk custodians (a researcher, an operational researcher or physician, and an epidemiologist, who each have specific expertise) works together to understand and synthesize scientific and operational evidence in the context of spaceflight, identify and evaluate metrics for each risk in order to communicate the risk posture to the agency.
Directed Acyclic Graphs
Summary
The HSRB uses Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAG), a type of causal diagramming, as visual tools to create a shared understanding of the risks, improve communication among those stakeholders, and enable the creation of a composite risk network that is vetted by members of the NASA community and configuration managed (Antonsen et al., NASA/TM– 20220006812). The knowledge captured is the Human Health and Performance community’s knowledge about the causal flow of a human system risk, and the relationships that exist between the contributing factors to that risk.
DAGs are:
Intended to improve communication between: Managers and subject matter experts who need to discuss human system risks Subject matter experts in different disciplines where human system risks interact with one another in a potentially cumulative fashion Visual representations of known or suspected relationships Directed – the relationship flows in one direction between any two nodes Acyclic – cycles in the graph are not allowed Example of a Directed Acyclic Graph. This is a simplified illustration of how and the individual, the crew, and the system contribute to the likelihood of successful task performance in a mission. Individual readiness is affected by many of the health and performance-oriented risks followed by the HSRB, but the readiness of any individual crew is complemented by the team and the system that the crew works within. Failures of task performance may lead to loss of mission objectives if severe.NASA View Larger (Example of a Directed Acyclic Graph) Image
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At NASA, the Human System Risks have historically been conceptualized as deriving from five Hazards present in the spaceflight environment. These are: altered gravity, isolation and confinement, radiation, a hostile closed environment, and distance from Earth. These Hazards are aspects of the spaceflight environment that are encountered when someone is launched into space and therefore are the starting point for causal diagramming of spaceflight-related risk issues for the HSRB.
These Hazards are often interpreted in relation to physiologic changes that occur in humans as a result of the exposure; however, interaction between human crew (behavioral health and performance), which may be degraded due to the spaceflight environment – and the vehicle and mission systems that the crew must operate – can also be influenced by these Hazards.
Each Human System Risk DAG is intended to show the causal flow of risk from Hazards to Mission Level Outcomes. As such, the structure of each DAG starts with at least one Hazard and ends with at least one of the pre-defined Mission Level Outcomes. In between are the nodes and edges of the causal flow diagrams that are relevant to the Risk under consideration. These are called ‘contributing factors’ in the HSRB terminology, and include countermeasures, medical conditions, and other Human System Risks. A graph data structure is composed of a set of vertices (nodes), and a set of edges (links). Each edge represents a relationship between two nodes. There can be two types of relationships between nodes: directed and undirected. For example, if an edge exists between two nodes A and B and the edge is undirected, it is represented as A–B, (no arrow). If the edge were directed, for example from A to B, then this is represented with an arrow (A->B). Each directed arrow connecting one node to another on a DAG indicates a claim of causality. A directed graph can potentially contain a cycle, meaning that, from a specific node, there exists a path that would eventually return to that node. A directed graph that has no cycles is known as acyclic. Thus, a graph with directed links and no cycles is a DAG. DAGs are a type of network diagram that represent causality in a visual format.
DAGs are updated with the regular Human System Risk updates generally every 1-2 years. Approved DAGs can be found in the NASA/TP 20220015709 below or broken down under each Human System Risk.
Documents
Directed Acyclic Graph Guidance Documentation – NASA/TM 20220006812 Directed Acyclic Graphs: A Tool for Understanding the NASA Human Spaceflight System Risks – NASA/TP 20220015709 Publications
npj Microgravity – Causal diagramming for assessing human
system risk in spaceflight
Apr 22, 2024
PDF (3.09 MB)
npj Microgravity –
Levels of evidence for human system risk
evaluation
Apr 22, 2024
PDF (2.47 MB)
npj Microgravity –
Updates to the NASA human system risk management process
for space exploration
Apr 22, 2024
PDF (2.24 MB)
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Human System Risks Share
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Last Updated Mar 11, 2025 EditorRobert E. LewisLocationJohnson Space Center Related Terms
Human Health and Performance Human System Risks Explore More
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NASA astronaut Douglas Hurley is helped out of the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft onboard the SpaceX GO Navigator recovery ship after he and NASA astronaut Robert Behnken landed in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2020. The Demo-2 test flight for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program was the first to deliver astronauts to the International Space Station and return them safely to Earth onboard a commercially built and operated spacecraft. Behnken and Hurley returned after spending 64 days in space. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)NASA New spacecraft that will transport crews to the Lunar and Martian surfaces and return them to Earth may have diverse landing modalities which will function in different landing environments. Additionally, the crew may be deconditioned on landing, impacting their ability to independently egress the vehicles, perform post-landing tasks in a timely manner, and perform surface EVAs post-landing -including those required for emergencies.
Boeing and NASA teams work around Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft after it landed at White Sands Missile Range’s Space Harbor, Wednesday, May 25, 2022, in New Mexico. Boeing’s Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) is Starliner’s second uncrewed flight test to the International Space Station as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. OFT-2 serves as an end-to-end test of the system’s capabilities. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls) Directed Acyclic Graph Files
+ DAG File Information (HSRB Home Page)
+ Crew Egress Risk DAG and Narrative (PDF)
+ Crew Egress Risk DAG Code (TXT)
Human System Risks Share
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Last Updated Mar 11, 2025 EditorRobert E. LewisLocationJohnson Space Center Related Terms
Human Health and Performance Human System Risks Explore More
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