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By NASA
NASA Astronaut Kate RubinsNASA NASA astronaut and microbiologist Kate Rubins retired Monday after 16 years with the agency. During her time with NASA, Rubins completed two long-duration missions aboard the International Space Station, logging 300 days in space and conducting four spacewalks.
“I want to extend my sincere gratitude to Kate for her dedication to the advancement of human spaceflight,” said Steve Koerner, acting director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “She is leaving behind a legacy of excellence and inspiration, not only to our agency, but to the research and medical communities as well. Congratulations, Kate, on an extraordinary career.”
Rubins’ first mission to the orbiting laboratory began in July 2016, aboard the first test flight of the new Soyuz MS spacecraft. As part of Expedition 48/49, she contributed to more than 275 scientific experiments, including molecular and cellular biology research, and she was the first person to sequence DNA in space. Her work enabled significant advances with in-flight molecular diagnostics, long-duration cell culture, and the development of molecular biology tools and processes, such as handling and transferring small amounts of liquids in microgravity. Rubins also led the integration and deployment of biomedical hardware aboard the space station, supporting crew health and scientific research in space and on Earth.
She again launched in October 2020, aboard a Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, taking part in Expedition 63/64. Alongside her crewmates, Rubins spent hundreds of hours working on new experiments and furthering research investigations conducted during her mission, including heart research and multiple microbiology studies. She also advanced her work on DNA sequencing in space, which could allow future astronauts to diagnose illness or identify microbes growing aboard the station or during future exploration missions.
“From her groundbreaking work in space to her leadership on the ground, Kate has brought passion and excellence to everything she’s done,” said Joe Acaba, chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA Johnson. “She’s been an incredible teammate and role model. We will miss her deeply, but her impact will continue to inspire.”
In addition to her flight assignments, Rubins served as acting deputy director of NASA’s Human Health and Performance Directorate, where she helped guide strategy for crew health and biomedical research. More recently, she contributed to developing next-generation lunar spacesuits, helping prepare for future Artemis missions to the Moon.
Before her selection as an astronaut in 2009, Rubins received a bachelor’s degree in molecular biology from the University of California, San Diego, and a doctorate in cancer biology from Stanford University Medical School’s Biochemistry Department and Microbiology and Immunology Department. After returning from her second space mission, Rubins commissioned as a major in the U.S. Army Reserve, serving as a microbiologist in the Medical Service Corps. She currently holds the role of innovation officer with the 75th U.S. Army Reserve Innovation Command’s MedBio Detachment, headquartered in Boston.
A frequent keynote speaker at scientific, educational, and industry events on space biology, biomedical engineering, and human exploration, Rubins has advocated for NASA’s scientific and exploration missions. As she transitions from government service, she remains committed to advancing innovation at the intersection of biology, technology, and space.
“It has been the honor of a lifetime to live and work in space,” said Rubins. “I am grateful for the extraordinary advances at NASA, and it was a privilege to serve and contribute to something so meaningful. The mission of exploration continues, and I can’t wait to watch this nation do what once seemed impossible.”
Learn more about how NASA explores the unknown and innovates for the benefit of humanity at:
https://www.nasa.gov/
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Raegan Scharfetter
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-910-4989
raegan.r.scharfetter@nasa.gov
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By NASA
Curiosity Navigation Curiosity Home Mission Overview Where is Curiosity? Mission Updates Science Overview Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Curiosity Raw Images Images Videos Audio Mosaics More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions The Solar System The Sun Mercury Venus Earth The Moon Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto & Dwarf Planets Asteroids, Comets & Meteors The Kuiper Belt The Oort Cloud 2 min read
Sols 4402-4415: Rover Decks and Sequence Calls for the Holidays
An image under the left-front wheel of NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity shows a block that Curiosity drove over and possibly broke in half. The rover acquired this image using its Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) on sol 4396 — Martian day 4,396 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — on Dec. 18, 2024 at 06:03:35 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Earth planning date: Friday, Dec. 20, 2024
Welcome to the 2024 holiday plan for Curiosity! This year we’re spanning 14 sols to last us through the Earth new year. And this is my fourth year operating Mastcam during the holidays (throwback to 2023 Marsmas!). I already knew to expect a long day, so I got my lunch prepared — blew Mars a kiss in the pre-dawn sky — and headed to work at 0600 Pacific time to start planning prep. Luckily my team got a head start on Mastcam images by including a full 360-degree panorama, post-drive, last plan, so I just had to fill in some gaps and cover some buttes with our higher-resolution camera. In total we’re only planning about 438 images this holiday, which is a pretty light haul if you can believe it! We also didn’t pass SRAP to unstow the arm (again) today, which is a bummer for science but usually makes my job easier since Mastcam doesn’t have to worry about where the arm might be during our imaging. One instrument’s coal is another instrument’s present!
So we’re doing things a little funky this holiday. We’re planning science on the first, seventh, 13th, and 14th sols — with a drive and a soliday! The hardest part of this plan was keeping it all straight in our heads.
Without any contact science planned, MAHLI went on holiday early (actually, she’s been out all week!) and APXS only had to babysit an atmospheric integration, which doesn’t require any arm motion. ChemCam has three LIBS and four RMI mosaics planned, which is definitely more than usual. But actually, the highest sequence count for today goes to Mastcam! Our usual limit is around 20 sequences for complexity reasons, but today I delivered 34 total sequences. Of those 34 sequences, 10 are for tracking surface changes from wind, seven are for measuring the atmospheric opacity, three are ChemCam LIBS documentations, three are for documenting our location post-drive, two are large mosaics of Texoli and Wilkerson buttes, and two are for noctilucent cloud searching (our first attempts to find clouds this Martian winter!).
With any luck, we’ll start passing SRAP again in 2025 after another approximately 58-meter drive (about 190 feet). Until then, Earthlings — Merry Marsmas and Happy Earth New Year!
Written by Natalie Moore, Mission Operations Specialist at Malin Space Science Systems
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