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Guiding Aeolus' safe reentry
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By Space Force
A joint team of AFGSC Airmen supported by Space Force Guardians launched an unarmed Minuteman III ICBM equipped with one re-entry vehicle June 4, from Vandenberg SFB, California.
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By NASA
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA Marshall Space Flight Center’s payload technician Chris Honea, left, and quality assurance specialist Keith Brandon, right, on Feb. 29 carefully inspect the temperature sensors that help gather data and monitor progress during a crystals experiment. The zinc selenide-based crystals were grown on the International Space Station as part of an experiment to see how gravity affects their structure or growth, then de-integrated and inspected in Marshall’s Space Systems Integration & Test Facility (SSITF). By Jessica Barnett
During the International Space Station’s more than 25 years of operation, there have been more than 3,000 experiments conducted aboard the microgravity laboratory, and making sure scientific samples are kept safe through launch, spaceflight, experimentation, and the return trip to Earth takes a great deal of planning, testing, and preparation across NASA.
In February, team members at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, handled the de-integration of zinc selenide-based crystals grown on the space station as part of an experiment to study how a lack of gravity might affect the crystals’ growth and structure. The experiment was conducted using six sample cartridge assemblies heated up to 1,200 degrees Celsius (2,192 degrees Fahrenheit) inside the Materials Science Laboratory of the Materials Science Research Rack on the space station.
John Luke Bili, lead systems test engineer for the sample cartridge assemblies within Marshall’s Instrument Development, Integration, and Test Branch, begins the process by working with engineers, scientists, project personnel, and the experiment’s principal investigator to create an ampoule, or sealed glass vial, to use as a sample container.
“We’ll take the ampoule and do some ground testing, like a normal flight integration,” Bili said. “We’ll assemble it with the hardware we have, then we are responsible for completing different mitigation efforts to prepare for sealing the ampoule up and processing it at the required high temperatures.”
The team exposes the test article to extreme heat and pressure using a duplicate of the furnace on the space station, allowing them to also test the experiment’s software.
We have people in our branch that will write the code to run it on the space station automatically. We develop that code, then we work with Marshall’s Quality Department to test it.
John Luke Bili
Lead Systems Test Engineer
The zinc selenide-based crystal experiment required six sample cartridge assemblies. After a month of preparation from Marshall’s team, the assemblies traveled to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston for a final round of packing before arriving at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for launch.
The assemblies launched on NASA’s SpaceX 24th commercial resupply services mission in December 2021 and NASA’s Northrop Grumman 19th commercial resupply services mission in August 2023. Each sample took about a week to process through the space station’s lab furnace. The samples were then brought back to Earth, with three of the six arriving at Marshall on Feb. 9, 2024.
While unpacking the crystal samples, team members took photos and notes of the tubes throughout the de-integration process in Marshall’s Space Systems Integration & Test Facility. The team includes technicians with 20 to 30 years of experience, ensuring samples safely travel to and from the station and helping expand access for researchers to explore microgravity, space exposure, and future missions in low Earth orbit.
An ampoule containing zinc selenide-based crystals rests on a table Feb. 29 in Marshall Space Flight Center’s Space Systems Integration & Test Facility. The ampoule was part of the sixth sample cartridge assembly retrieved from the International Space Station as part of an experiment to see how gravity affects the crystals’ structure or growth. “It’s really nice having that kind of experience when we’re working on the hardware that’s going in space,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of people that are very skilled machinists that are able to help us in a moment’s notice, we have people with a really good understanding of technical tolerances and stuff like that, and we have people with a lot of varying experience doing flight hardware integration and tests.”
For more than two decades, humans 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.
Learn more about the space station at:
https://nasa.gov/international-space-station/
Joel Wallace
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256-544-0034
joel.w.wallace@nasa.gov
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Last Updated May 24, 2024 LocationMarshall Space Flight Center Related Terms
Marshall Space Flight Center Explore More
5 min read Marshall Teams Combine to Make Space Station Science Reality
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By NASA
The four crew members of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 mission are seated inside the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft after landing in the Gulf of Mexico on March 12, 2024.Credits: NASA/Joel Kowsky After spending 199 days in space, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 crew members will discuss their science mission aboard the International Space Station during a news conference at 2:30 p.m. EDT Monday, March 25, at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov returned to Earth aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, splashing down at 5:47 a.m., March 12, off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, before flying back to Houston. Crew will answer media questions about their mission aboard the space station and their return to Earth.
Event coverage will stream live on NASA+, NASA Television, and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms including social media.
Media are invited to attend in-person or virtually. Media must RSVP to the Johnson newsroom no later than 12:30 p.m. March 25 at jsccommu@mail.nasa.gov or 281-483-5111. Media should dial-in to the news conference by 2 p.m. the day of the event to ask a question. Questions also may be submitted on social media using #AskNASA. A copy of NASA’s media accreditation policy is online.
The crew spent six-and-a-half months in space, with 197 days total aboard the space station. During the mission, Moghbeli completed a spacewalk, a first in her career, alongside NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara. It was the first spaceflight for Moghbeli and Borisov, and the second for Furukawa and Mogensen.
The crew lived and worked aboard the station since Aug. 26, 2023. During the mission, crew contributed to hundreds of experiments and technology demonstrations, including studying plant immune function in microgravity, testing materials in the space environment, and observing thunderstorms to understand the effects of lightning and electrical activity on Earth’s climate and atmosphere. These experiments are helping to prepare for exploration beyond low Earth orbit and to benefit life on Earth.
They spent five days with the newly arrived crew of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission, who docked to the station on March 5, and conducted a direct handover introducing three first-time flyers to the space station, discussing ongoing tasks and system statuses.
Get the latest NASA space station news, images and features on Instagram, Facebook, and X.
Learn more about NASA’s Commercial Crew Program:
https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew
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Josh Finch / Claire O’Shea
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / claire.a.o’shea@nasa.gov
Chelsey Ballarte
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
chelsey.n.ballarte@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Mar 20, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
International Space Station (ISS) Astronauts Humans in Space ISS Research Jasmin Moghbeli Johnson Space Center View the full article
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By European Space Agency
Video: 00:03:29 Mission complete. ESA’s second European Remote Sensing (ERS-2) satellite has reentered Earth’s atmosphere over the North Pacific Ocean. The satellite returned at 18:17 CET (17:17 UTC) between Alaska and Hawaii.
ERS-2 was launched almost 30 years ago, on 21 April 1995. Together with ERS-1, it provided invaluable long-term data on Earth’s land surfaces, ocean temperatures, ozone layer and polar ice extent that revolutionised our understanding of the Earth system.
ERS-2’s reentry was ‘natural’. ESA used the last of its fuel, emptied its batteries and lowered the satellite from its altitude of 785 km to 573 km. This reduced the risk of collision with other satellites and space debris. As a result, it was not possible to control ERS-2 at any point during its reentry and the only force driving its descent was unpredictable atmospheric drag.
As well as leaving a remarkable legacy of data that still continue to advance science, this outstanding mission set the stage for many of today’s satellites and ESA’s position at the forefront of Earth observation.
The ERS-2 reentry is part of ESA's wider efforts to ensure the long-term sustainability of space activities. These include ESA's Clean Space initiative which promotes the development of new technologies for more sustainable space missions in collaboration with the wider European space community, as well as the Zero Debris Approach, which will even further reduce the debris left in both Earth and lunar orbits by future missions.
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