Members Can Post Anonymously On This Site
Juice moves into Large Space Simulator
-
Similar Topics
-
-
By NASA
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore, Suni Williams, Nick Hague, and Don Pettit show off their ‘Proud to be American’ socks in a photo taken aboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: NASA Four NASA astronauts will participate in a welcome home ceremony at Space Center Houston after recently returning from missions aboard the International Space Station.
NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams, Butch Wilmore, and Don Pettit will share highlights from their missions at 6 p.m. CDT Thursday, May 22, during a free, public event at NASA Johnson Space Center’s visitor center. The astronauts also will recognize key mission contributors during an awards ceremony after their presentation.
Williams and Wilmore launched aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft and United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on June 5, 2024, from Space Launch Complex 41 as part of NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test. The duo arrived at the space station on June 6. In August, NASA announced the uncrewed return of Starliner to Earth and integrated Wilmore and Williams with the Expedition 71/72 crew and a return on Crew-9.
Hague launched Sept. 28, 2024, with Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida as part of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission. The next day, they docked to the forward-facing port of the station’s Harmony module.
Hague, Gorbunov, Wilmore, and Williams returned to Earth on March 18, 2025, splashing down safely off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida, in the Gulf of America.
Williams and Wilmore traveled 121,347,491 miles during their mission, spent 286 days in space, and completed 4,576 orbits around Earth. Hague and Gorbunov traveled 72,553,920 miles during their mission, spent 171 days in space, and completed 2,736 orbits around Earth. Hague has logged 374 days in space during two missions. It was the third spaceflight for both Williams and Wilmore. Williams has logged 608 total days in space, and Wilmore has logged 464 days.
Pettit launched aboard the Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft on Sept. 11, 2024, alongside Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner. The seven-month research mission as an Expedition 72 flight engineer was the fourth spaceflight of Pettit’s career, completing 3,520 orbits of the Earth and a journey of 93.3 million miles. He has logged a total of 590 days in orbit. Pettit and his crewmembers safely landed in Kazakhstan on April 19, 2025 (April 20, 2025, Kazakhstan time).
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 station to conduct unique experiments and captivate the public with his photography. Expedition 72 captured a record one million photos during the mission, showcasing the unique research and views aboard the orbiting laboratory through astronauts’ eyes.
For more than 24 years, people have lived and worked continuously aboard the International Space Station, advancing scientific knowledge, and conducting critical research for the benefit of humanity and our home planet. Space station research supports the future of human spaceflight as NASA looks toward deep space missions to the Moon under the Artemis campaign and in preparation for future human missions to Mars, as well as expanding commercial opportunities in low Earth orbit and beyond.
Learn more about the International Space Station at:
https://www.nasa.gov/station
-end-
Jaden Jennings
Johnson Space Center, Houston
713-281-0984
jaden.r.jennings@nasa.gov
Dana Davis
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-244-0933
dana.l.davis@nasa.gov
View the full article
-
By NASA
4 min read
Unearthly Plumbing Required for Plant Watering in Space
NASA is demonstrating new microgravity fluids technologies to enable advanced “no-moving-parts” plant-watering methods aboard spacecraft.
Boeing Astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore during operations of Plant Water Management-6 (PWM-6) aboard the International Space Station. Image: NASA Crop production in microgravity will be important to provide whole food nutrition, dietary variety, and psychological benefits to astronauts exploring deep space. Unfortunately, even the simplest terrestrial plant watering methods face significant challenges when applied aboard spacecraft due to rogue bubbles, ingested gases, ejected droplets, and myriad unstable liquid jets, rivulets, and interface configurations that arise in microgravity environments.
In the weightlessness of space, bubbles do not rise, and droplets do not fall, resulting in a plethora of unearthly fluid flow challenges. To tackle such complex dynamics, NASA initiated a series of Plant Water Management (PWM) experiments to test capillary hydroponics aboard the International Space Station in 2021. The series of experiments continue to this day, opening the door not only to supporting our astronauts in space with the possibility of fresh vegetables, but also to address a host of challenges in space, such as liquid fuel management, Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC), and even urine collection.
The latest PWM hardware (PWM-5 and -6) involves three test units, each consisting of a variable-speed pump, tubing harness, assorted valves and syringes, and either one serial or two parallel hydroponic channels. This latest setup enables a wider range of parameters to be tested—e.g., gas and liquid flow rates, fill levels, inlet/outlet configurations, new bubble separation methods, serial and parallel flows, and new plant root types, numbers, and orders.
Most of the PWM equipment shipped to the space station consists of 3-D printed, flight-certified materials. The crew assembles the various system configurations on a workbench in the open cabin of the station and then executes the experiments, including routine communication with the PWM research team on the ground. All the quantitative data is collected via a single high-definition video camera.
The PWM hardware and procedures are designed to incrementally test the system’s capabilities for hydroponic and ebb and flow, and to repeatedly demonstrate priming, draining, serial/parallel channel operation, passive bubble management, limits of operation, stability during perturbations, start-up, shut-down, and myriad clean plant-insertion, saturation, stable flow, and plant-removal steps.
PWM-5 Hydroponic channel flow on the International Space Station with: (1) packed synthetic plant root model in passive bubble separating hydroponic channel, (2) passive aerator, (3) passive fluid reservoirs for water and nutrient solution balance, (4) passive bubble separator, (5) passive water trap, and (6) passive gas/bubble diverter. The flow is left to right across the channel and the aerated oxygenating bubbly flow is fully separated (no bubbles) by the bubble separator returning only liquid to the ‘root zone.’ The water trap, bubble diverter, root bundle and hydroponic channel dramatically increase the reliability of the plumbing by providing redundant passive bubble separating functions. Image courtesy of J. Moghbeli/NASA PWM-5 and -6 Root Models R1 – R4 from smallest to largest: perfectly wetting polymeric strands modelling Asian Mizuna. Image courtesy of IRPI LLC The recent results of the PWM-5 and -6 technology demonstrations aboard the space station have significantly advanced the technology used for passive plant watering in space. These quantitative demonstrations established hydroponic and ebb and flow watering processes as functions of serial and parallel channel fill levels, various types of engineered plant root models, and pump flow rates—including single-phase liquid flows and gas-liquid two-phase flows.
Critical PWM plumbing elements perform the role of passive gas-liquid separation (i.e., the elimination of bubbles from liquid and vice versa), which routinely occurs on Earth due to gravitational effects. The PWM-5 and -6 hardware in effect replaces the passive role of gravity with the passive roles of surface tension, wetting, and system geometry. In doing so, highly reliable “no-moving-parts” plumbing devices act to restore the illusive sense of up and down in space. For example,
hundreds of thousands of oxygenating bubbles generated by a passive aerator are 100% separated by the PWM bubble separator providing single-phase liquid flow to the hydroponic channel, 100% of the inadvertent liquid carry-over is captured in the passive water trap, and all of the bubbles reaching the bubble diverter are directed to the upper inlet of the hydroponic channel where they are driven ever-upward by the channel geometry, confined by the first plant root, and coalesce leaving the liquid flow as a third, redundant, 100% passive phase-separating mechanism. The demonstrated successes of PWM-5 and -6 offer a variety of ready plug-and-play solutions for effective plant watering in low- and variable-gravity environments, despite the challenging wetting properties of the water-based nutrient solutions used to water plants. Though a variety of root models are demonstrated by PWM-5 and -6, the remaining unknown is the role that real growing plants will play in such systems. Acquiring such knowledge may only be a matter of time.
100% Passive bubbly flow separations in microgravity demonstrated for PWM ‘devices’: a. bubble separator, b. bubble diverter, c. hydroponic channel and root model, and d. water trap. Liquid flows denoted by red arrows, air flows denoted by white arrows. Images courtesy of NASA Project Lead: Dr. Mark Weislogel, IRPI LLC
Sponsoring Organization: Biological and Physical Sciences Division
Share
Details
Last Updated May 20, 2025 Related Terms
Science-enabling Technology Biological & Physical Sciences International Space Station (ISS) Technology Highlights Explore More
5 min read NASA’s NICER Maps Debris From Recurring Cosmic Crashes
Article
2 weeks ago
6 min read Quantum Sensing via Matter-Wave Interferometry Aboard the International Space Station
Article
2 weeks ago
4 min read Entrepreneurs Challenge Winner PRISM is Using AI to Enable Insights from Geospatial Data
Article
4 weeks ago
View the full article
-
By NASA
This article is for students grades 5-8.
The International Space Station is a large spacecraft in orbit around Earth. It serves as a home where crews of astronauts and cosmonauts live. The space station is also a unique science laboratory. Several nations worked together to build and use the space station. The space station is made of parts that were assembled in space by astronauts. It orbits Earth at an average altitude of approximately 250 miles. It travels at 17,500 mph. This means it orbits Earth every 90 minutes. NASA is using the space station to learn more about living and working in space. These lessons will make it possible to send humans farther into space than ever before.
How Old Is the Space Station?
The first piece of the International Space Station was launched in November 1998. A Russian rocket launched the Russian Zarya (zar EE uh) control module. About two weeks later, the space shuttle Endeavour met Zarya in orbit. The space shuttle was carrying the U.S. Unity node. The crew attached the Unity node to Zarya.
More pieces were added over the next two years before the station was ready for people to live there. The first crew arrived on Nov. 2, 2000. People have lived on the space station ever since. More pieces have been added over time. NASA and its partners from around the world completed construction of the space station in 2011.
______________________________________________________________________
Words to Know
Airlock: an air-tight chamber that can be pressurized and depressurized to allow access between spaces with different air pressure.
Microgravity: a condition, especially in space orbit, where the force of gravity is so weak that weightlessness occurs.
Module: an individual, self-contained segment of a spacecraft that is designed to perform a particular task.
Truss: a structural frame based on the strong structural shape of the triangle; functions as a beam to support and connect various components.
______________________________________________________________________
How Big Is the Space Station?
The space station has the volume of a six-bedroom house with six sleeping quarters, two bathrooms, a gym, and a 360-degree view bay window. It is able to support a crew of seven people, plus visitors. On Earth, the space station would weigh almost one million pounds. Measured from the edges of its solar arrays, the station covers the area of a football field including the end zones. It includes laboratory modules from the United States, Russia, Japan, and Europe.
What Are the Parts of the Space Station?
In addition to the laboratories where astronauts conduct science research, the space station has many other parts. The first Russian modules included basic systems needed for the space station to function. They also provided living areas for crew members. Modules called “nodes” connect parts of the station to each other.
Stretching out to the sides of the space station are the solar arrays. These arrays collect energy from the sun to provide electrical power. The arrays are connected to the station with a long truss. On the truss are radiators that control the space station’s temperature.
Robotic arms are mounted outside the space station. The robot arms were used to help build the space station. Those arms also can move astronauts around when they go on spacewalks outside. Other arms operate science experiments.
Astronauts can go on spacewalks through airlocks that open to the outside. Docking ports allow other spacecraft to connect to the space station. New crews and visitors arrive through the ports. Astronauts fly to the space station on SpaceX Dragon and Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Robotic spacecraft use the docking ports to deliver supplies
Why Is the Space Station Important?
The space station has made it possible for people to have an ongoing presence in space. Human beings have been living in space every day since the first crew arrived. The space station’s laboratories allow crew members to do research that could not be done anywhere else. This scientific research benefits people on Earth. Space research is even used in everyday life. The results are products called “spinoffs.” Scientists also study what happens to the body when people live in microgravity for a long time. NASA and its partners have learned how to keep a spacecraft working well. All of these lessons will be important for future space exploration.
NASA currently is working on a plan to explore other worlds. The space station is one of the first steps. NASA will use lessons learned on the space station to prepare for human missions that reach farther into space than ever before.
Career Corner
Are you interested in a career that is related to living and working in space? Many different types of jobs make the space station a success. Here are a few examples:
Astronaut: These explorers come from a wide variety of backgrounds including military service, the medical field, science research, and engineering design. Astronauts must have skills in leadership, teamwork, and communications. They spend two years training before they are eligible to be assigned to spaceflight missions.
Microgravity Plant Scientist: These scientists study ways to grow plants in the microgravity environment of space. Growing plants on future space missions could provide food and oxygen. Plant scientists design experiments to be conducted by astronauts on the space station. These test new techniques for maximizing plant growth.
Fitness Trainer: Spending months on the space station takes a toll on astronauts’ bodies. Fitness trainers work with astronauts before, during, and after their space station missions to help keep them strong and healthy. This includes creating workout plans for while they’re living and working in space.
More About the International Space Station
International Space Station Home Page
Spot the Station
Video: #AskNASA What Is the International Space Station?
Read What Is the International Space Station? (Grades K-4)
Explore More For Students Grades 5-8
View the full article
-
By NASA
6 Min Read A Defining Era: NASA Stennis and Space Shuttle Main Engine Testing
The numbers are notable – 34 years of testing space shuttle main engines at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, 3,244 individual tests, more than 820,000 seconds (totaling more than nine days) of cumulative hot fire.
The story behind the numbers is unforgettable.
“It is hard to describe the full impact of the space shuttle main engine test campaign on NASA Stennis,” Center Director John Bailey said. “It is hundreds of stories, affecting all areas of center life, within one great story of team achievement and accomplishment.”
NASA Stennis tested space shuttle main engines from May 19, 1975, to July 29, 2009. The testing made history, enabling 135 shuttle missions and notable space milestones, like deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope and construction of the International Space Station.
The testing also:
Established NASA Stennis as the center of excellence for large propulsion testing. Broadened and deepened the expertise of the NASA Stennis test team. Demonstrated and expanded the propulsion test capabilities of NASA Stennis. Ensured the future of the Mississippi site. The first space shuttle main engine is installed on May 8, 1975, at the Fred Haise Test Stand (formerly A-1). The engine would be used for the first six tests and featured a shortened thrust chamber assembly.NASA Assignment and Beginning
NASA Stennis was not the immediate choice to test space shuttle main engines. Two other sites also sought the assignment – NASA’s Marshall Flight Center in Alabama and Edwards Air Force Base in California. However, following presentations and evaluations, NASA announced March 1, 1971, that the test campaign would take place in south Mississippi.
“(NASA Stennis) was now assured of a future in propulsion testing for decades,” summarized Way Station to Space, a history of the center’s first decades.
Testing did not begin immediately. First, NASA Stennis had to complete an ambitious project to convert stands built the previous decade for rocket stage testing to facilities supporting single-engine hot fire.
Propellant run tanks were installed and calibrated. A system was fashioned to measure and verify engine thrust. A gimbaling capability was developed on the Fred Haise Test Stand to allow operators to move engines as they must pivot in flight to control rocket trajectory. Likewise, engineers designed a diffuser capability for the A-2 Test Stand to allow operators to test at simulated altitudes up to 60,000 feet.
NASA Stennis teams also had to learn how to handle cryogenic propellants in a new way. For Apollo testing, propellants were loaded into stage tanks to support hot fires. For space shuttle, propellants had to be provided by the stand to the engine. New stand run tanks were not large enough to support a full-duration (500 seconds) hot fire, so teams had to provide real-time transfer of propellants from barges, to the run tanks, to the engine.
The process required careful engineering and calibration. “There was a lot to learn to manage real-time operations,” said Maury Vander, chief of NASA Stennis test operations. “Teams had to develop a way to accurately measure propellant levels in the tanks and to control the flow from barges to the tanks and from the tanks to the engine. It is a very precise process.”
NASA Stennis teams conduct a hot fire of the space shuttle Main Propulsion Test Article in 1979 on the B-2 side of the Thad Cochran Test Stand. The testing involved installing a shuttle external fuel tank, a mockup of the shuttle orbiter, and the vehicle’s three-engine configuration on the stand, then firing all three engines simultaneously as during an actual launch.NASA Testing the Way
The biggest challenge was operation of the engine itself. Not only was it the most sophisticated ever developed, but teams would be testing a full engine from the outset. Typically, individual components are developed and tested prior to assembling a full engine. Shuttle testing began on full-scale engines, although several initial tests did feature a trimmed down thrust chamber assembly.
The initial test on May 19, 1975, provided an evaluation of team and engine. The so-called “burp” test did not feature full ignition, but it set the stage for moving forward.
“The first test was a monstrous milestone,” Vander said. “Teams had to overcome all sorts of challenges, and I can only imagine what it must have felt like to go from a mostly theoretical engine to seeing it almost light. It is the kind of moment engineers love – fruits-of-all-your-hard-labor moment.”
NASA Stennis teams conducted another five tests in quick succession. On June 23/24, with a complete engine thrust chamber assembly in place, teams achieved full ignition. By year’s end, teams had conducted 27 tests. In the next five years, they recorded more than 100 annual hot fires, a challenging pace. By the close of 1980, NASA Stennis had accumulated over 28 hours of hot fire.
The learning curve remained steep as teams developed a defined engine start, power up, power down, and shutdown sequences. They also identified anomalies and experienced various engine failures.
“Each test is a semi-controlled explosion,” Vander said. “And every test is like a work of art because of all that goes on behind the scenes to make it happen, and no two tests are exactly the same. There were a lot of knowledge and lessons learned that we continue to build on today.”
NASA Stennis test conductor Brian Childers leads Test Control Center operations during the 1000th test of a space shuttle main engine on the Fred Haise Test Stand (formerly A-1). on Aug. 17, 2006.NASA Powering History
Teams took a giant step forward in 1978 to 1981 with testing of the Main Propulsion Test Article, which involved installing three engines (configured as during an actual launch), with a space shuttle external tank and a mock orbiter, on the B-2 side of the Thad Cochran Test Stand.
Teams conducted 18 tests of the article, proving conclusively that the shuttle configuration would fly as needed. On April 12, 1981, shuttle Columbia launched on the maiden STS-1 mission of the new era. Unlike previous vehicles, this one had no uncrewed test flight. The first launch of shuttle carried astronauts John Young and Bob Crippen.
“The effort that you contributed made it possible for us to sit back and ride,” Crippen told NASA Stennis employees during a post-test visit to the site. “We couldn’t even make it look hard.”
Testing proceeded steadily for the next 28 years. Engine anomalies, upgrades, system changes – all were tested at NASA Stennis. Limits of the engine were tested and proven. Site teams gained tremendous testing experience and expertise. NASA Stennis personnel became experts in handling cryogenics.
Following the loss of shuttles Challenger and Columbia, NASA Stennis teams completed rigorous test campaigns to ensure future mission safety. The space shuttle main engine arguably became the most tested, and best understood, large rocket engine in the world – and NASA Stennis teams were among those at the forefront of knowledge.
NASA conducts the final space shuttle main engine test on July 29, 2009, on the A-2 Test Stand at NASA Stennis. The Space Shuttle Program concluded two years later with the STS-135 shuttle mission in July 2011.NASA A Foundation for the Future
NASA recognized the effort of the NASA Stennis team, establishing the site as the center of excellence for large propulsion test work. In the meanwhile, NASA Stennis moved to solidify its future, growing as a federal city, home to more than 50 resident agencies, organizations, and companies.
Shuttle testing opened the door for the variety of commercial aerospace test projects the site now supports. It also established and solidified the test team’s unique capabilities and gave all of Mississippi a sense of prideful ownership in the Space Shuttle Program – and its defining missions.
No one can say what would have happened to NASA Stennis without the space shuttle main engine test campaign. However, everything NASA Stennis now is rests squarely on the record and work of that history-making campaign.
“Everyone knows NASA Stennis as the site that tested the Apollo rockets that took humans to the Moon – but space shuttle main engine testing really built this site,” said Joe Schuyler, director of NASA Stennis engineering and test operations. “We are what we are because of that test campaign – and all that we become is built on that foundation.”
Share
Details
Last Updated May 19, 2025 EditorNASA Stennis CommunicationsContactC. Lacy Thompsoncalvin.l.thompson@nasa.gov / (228) 688-3333LocationStennis Space Center Related Terms
Stennis Space Center Explore More
9 min read 45 Years Ago: First Main Propulsion Test Assembly Firing of Space Shuttle Main Engines
The development of the space shuttle in the 1970s required several new technologies, including powerful…
Article 2 years ago 5 min read 40 Years Ago: Six Months until the STS-1 Launch
Article 5 years ago 8 min read 55 Years Ago: First Saturn V Stage Tested in Mississippi Facility
Article 4 years ago View the full article
-
-
Check out these Videos
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.