NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 Completes Scientific Mission on Space Station

After months aboard the International Space Station, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 is returning to Earth. NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov each completed their first spaceflight. JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen each completed their second spaceflight.

During their time on the station, Crew-7 conducted science experiments and technology demonstrations to benefit people on Earth and prepare humans for future space missions. Here’s a look at some scientific milestones accomplished during their mission:

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The Human Body in Space

ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen processes blood samples for the Immunity Assay investigation, which monitors the impact of spaceflight on immune function. Prior to the experiment, scientists could only test the immune function before and after flight. Taking samples while on station provides scientists a clearer assessment of changes to the immune system during spaceflight.

Since physiological changes in microgravity can resemble how the human body ages on Earth, scientists can use the space station for age-related studies. NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli collects cell samples inside the Life Science Glovebox for Space AGE, a study to understand how microgravity-induced age-like changes affect liver regeneration. Results could boost our understanding of aging and its effects on disease mechanisms.

JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa exercises with ARED Kinematics, a device that mimics forces generated when lifting free weights on Earth. The experiment assesses the current exercise programs on station to understand the most effective countermeasures to maintain muscle and bone strength.

Safe Water

ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen works on ESA’s Aquamembrane-3 technology demonstration, which tests a special membrane to eliminate contaminants from wastewater. The membrane incorporates proteins called aquaporins, found in biological cells, and may be able to filter water using less energy. An aquaporin membrane-based system could improve water reclamation and reduce materials needed for future deep space missions.

NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli prepares a water sample for DNA sequencing using the EHS BioMole Facility, a technology demonstration used to monitor microbes in water samples aboard a spacecraft. Future exploration missions will need to analyze water to ensure it is safe for crews to drink while far from Earth.

Growing Food on Station

Tomato seedlings sprout in the space station’s Advanced Plant Habitat. At the beginning of Crew-7’s mission, Plant Habitat-03 wrapped up a months-long experiment that tests whether epigenetics are passed to subsequent generations. Epigenetic changes involve the addition of extra information to DNA, which regulates how genes turn on or off but does not change the sequence of the DNA itself. Crew-7 also grew tomatoes for Plant Habitat-06, which investigates how the plant immune functions adapt to spaceflight and how spaceflight affects plant production.

BioNutrients completed five years of demonstrating technology to produce nutrients on demand aboard the space station. Since vitamins can degrade over time, the investigation used engineered microbes to test generating fresh nutrient supply for future long-duration missions.

Outside the Station

JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa retrieves MISSE-17 hardware after the experiment spent six months outside the station. MISSE experiments expose materials and organisms to the space environment to analyze performance and durability. Crew-7 installed MISSE-18, which houses several materials including printed quantum dots arrays used to make a miniaturized and ultra-compact spectrometer.

CubeSats deployed from the space station are a lower-cost alternative to traditional satellites. Crew-7 deployed two CubeSats from Japanese schools, including BEAK CubeSat, which tests novel technologies for future nano-sized planetary probes and Clark sat-1, which transmits voice and imagery data to ground control stations on Earth.

Picture Perfect

Using handheld digital cameras, astronauts capture images of the Earth below. This imagery is used by researchers across disciplines from glaciology to ecology. A Crew-7 member captured this image of the Aladaghlar Mountains in northwest Iran, where the convergent boundary of the Arabia and Eurasia tectonic plates created folds in the landscape over millions of years.

These bright red streaks above a thundercloud on Earth are a rare phenomenon known as red sprites. Red sprites happen above the clouds and are not easily studied from Earth. This image was captured on the space station with a high-speed camera for the Thor-Davis experiment. Imagery collected from the station is instrumental in studying the effects of thunderstorms and electrical activity on Earth’s climate and atmosphere.

Biology on Station

Recent spaceflight experiments found individual animal cells can sense the effects of gravity. Cell Gravisensing investigation from JAXA (Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency) seeks to understand how cells can do this. JAXA astronaut Satoshi Furukawa uses a microscope to examine cells during spaceflight and document cell responses to microgravity. Understanding the mechanisms of cell gravity sensing could contribute to new drug development.

NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli works in the BioFabrication Facility (BFF), which bioprints organ-like tissues in microgravity. During the Crew-7 mission, BFF-Cardiac tested bioprinting and processing cardiac tissue samples. This experiment could help to advance technology to support the development of biological patches to replace damaged tissues and potentially entire muscles.

Special Delivery

Two commercial spacecraft visited during Crew-7’s time in space bringing critical science, hardware, and supplies to the station: SpaceX Dragon in November 2023 and Northop Grumman’s Cygnus in February 2024.

Andrea Lloyd
International Space Station Program Research Office
Johnson Space Center

Search this database of scientific experiments to learn more about those mentioned above.

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Andrea Lloyd

NASA, SpaceX Test Starship Lunar Lander Docking System

As part of NASA’s Artemis campaign that will establish the foundation for long-term scientific exploration at the Moon, crew will need to move between different spacecraft to carry out lunar landings. NASA and SpaceX recently performed qualification testing for the docking system that will help make that possible. 

For the Artemis III mission, astronauts will ride the Orion spacecraft from Earth to lunar orbit, and then once the two spacecraft are docked, move to the lander, the Starship Human Landing System (HLS) that will bring them to the surface. After surface activities are complete, Starship will return the astronauts to Orion waiting in lunar orbit. During later missions, astronauts will transfer from Orion to Starship via the Gateway lunar space station. Based on SpaceX’s flight-proven Dragon 2 docking system used on missions to the International Space Station, the Starship docking system can be configured to connect the lander to Orion or Gateway.

The docking system tests for Starship HLS were conducted at NASA’s Johnson Space Center over 10 days using a system that simulates contact dynamics between two spacecraft in orbit. The testing included more than 200 docking scenarios, with various approach angles and speeds. These real-world results using full-scale hardware will validate computer models of the Moon lander’s docking system.

This dynamic testing demonstrated that the Starship system could perform a “soft capture” while in the active docking role. When two spacecraft dock, one vehicle assumes an active “chaser” role while the other is in a passive “target” role. To perform a soft capture, the soft capture system (SCS) of the active docking system is extended while the passive system on the other spacecraft remains retracted. Latches and other mechanisms on the active docking system SCS attach to the passive system, allowing the two spacecraft to dock.

Since being selected as the lander to return humans to the surface of the Moon for the first time since Apollo, SpaceX has completed more than 30 HLS specific milestones by defining and testing hardware needed for power generation, communications, guidance and navigation, propulsion, life support, and space environments protection.

Under NASA’s Artemis campaign, the agency will land the first woman, first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the lunar surface, and prepare for human expeditions to Mars for the benefit of all. Commercial human landing systems are critical to deep space exploration, along with the Space Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft, advanced spacesuits and rovers, exploration ground systems, and the Gateway space station.

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Jenalane (Rowe) Strawn
Marshall Space Flight Center
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Lee Mohon

Mission Manager Update: All VIPER Flight Instruments Installed!

The VIPER team continues to push forward with the build of the flight rover that’ll go to the surface of the Moon. As of this writing, all of VIPER’s flight instruments are installed, and the rover is more than 80% built! This is a major accomplishment and shows the great progress being made by the dedicated VIPER team, who are excited to see the rover coming together.

What comes next – the confirmational tests of the rover – will strengthen our confidence in the rover’s ability to survive launch, landing, and the challenging environment of the lunar South Pole. 

For example, as we assemble and install various subsystems onto the rover, we also perform channelization tests. Channelization tests let us confirm that through our design and build of the rover system – from piece-parts to cable harnesses and connectors, and mechanical installation activities, and even through avionics software – the connections all work. Now, you might think, “Of course what we installed should work!” but it’s important to remember how complicated these space systems are (and planetary rover systems in particular). 

An example of an upcoming channelization test for VIPER is to command the flight vehicle’s high gain antenna to move in a particular way: Does it actually move in the correct direction and to the correct position? Sometimes we will perform even more complex tests, like sending a command to the NIRVSS instrument to take an image: Is the image taken successful? Is the field of view of the image correct? Did the image make its way into the rover’s avionics for downlink? We make these determinations now because we don’t want to discover any issues later in the assembly flow that could result in us needing to perform some disassembly to correct matters. 

So we test as we go, to decrease risk later when we’re performing whole-rover environmental tests. This way if the rover doesn’t work as expected after one of VIPER’s environmental tests, we know it once worked fine, and that can help us more quickly problem solve what might have gone wrong.

The pace in which we’ve been working through the build and subsystem checkouts has been blistering lately, and we’ve had a good run of successes. 

Go VIPER!

– Dan Andrews, VIPER Project Manager

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Rachel Hoover

Ocean Worlds Planetary Scientist Dr. Lynnae Quick

“I was not interested in science until I got to high school, and I didn’t find what I wanted to focus on as far as what I liked the most about science until I was in grad school. I spent a summer doing an internship at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab focused on Jupiter’s moon Europa, completely fell in love with Europa, and completely fell in love with planetary science. 

“I found it amazing that this world was covered in ice and had an ocean underneath. I was mapping this area on Europa called Conamara Chaos, where we believe that the surface is locally heated. Because of this, there are ginormous icebergs that broke off and floated around in this slushy ice, so I learned to map [that part of the surface]. Having my physics and math background and thinking about a world with a subsurface ocean, I was like, ‘OK, this is a good marriage of fluid mechanics and heat transfer. Europa is a nice world to study that will combine my background with this new planetary science thing that I love.’

“What happened with Europa Clipper was I decided to do my dissertation topic on [the moon]. We’d seen images of these beautiful south polar plumes on Enceladus, these geyser-like plumes, but Europa is much bigger. It has much more water and receives much more tidal heating. Why didn’t the Galileo spacecraft see plumes on Europa? Why don’t we see geysers?

“My dissertation focused on what it would take to have this geyser activity on Europa and for spacecraft cameras to image it. I remember defending my dissertation well but sitting there thinking, ‘People will think I’m a quack because we’ve never seen geysers on Europa.’ That was in May, and by December, Lorenz Roth’s paper came out that Hubble may have detected geysers on Europa. That’s when I was like, ‘Oh yes, I might actually have a career!’

“Shortly after that, the call came out for instrument proposals. Zibi Turtle [Principal Investigator for the Europa Imaging System] met me at a conference and said, ‘We’re writing a proposal for a camera for the Europa mission. Would you want to be on it?’ At that point, I was a year out of my Ph.D. and was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ Because that usually never happens. Usually, the people on these instrument teams are more senior. They’ve been around longer, so it’s very rare to be just finishing up your Ph.D. and someone asks you. I felt like it was the best thing in the world because Europa was already my favorite place in the solar system. It would be like a dream to be on the team that will send a spacecraft there to study it. That doesn’t happen very often. So, I said, ‘Sure. I would love to.’

“Our camera got selected, and is an instrument on the Europa Clipper mission, and my role on the team is to look for those geysers! I’ve come a long way from thinking, ‘Well, I did this whole dissertation on geysers, what it would take for them to erupt, for a spacecraft to see them, and that people might not take me seriously as a scientist because of it,’ to being on the Europa Clipper camera team involved in investigating these plumes and ensuring we can image them if they’re there. It’s a full-circle moment.” 

– Dr. Lynnae Quick, Ocean Worlds Planetary Scientist, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Image Credit: NASA/Thalia Patrinos
Interviewer: NASA/Tahira Allen

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Tahira S. Allen

Listen to the Universe: New NASA Sonifications and Documentary

Three new sonifications of images from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes have been released in conjunction with a new documentary about the project that makes its debut on the NASA+ streaming platform.

Sonification is the process of translating data into sounds. In the case of Chandra and other telescopes, scientific data are collected from space as digital signals that are commonly turned into visual imagery. The sonification project takes these data through another step of mapping the information into sound.

The three new sonifications feature different objects observed by NASA telescopes.

The first is MSH 11-52, a supernova remnant blowing a spectacular cloud of energized particles resembling the shape of a human hand, seen in data from Chandra, NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE), and ground-based optical data.

M74 is a spiral galaxy like our Milky Way and this sonification combines data taken with NASA’s James Webb and Hubble Space Telescopes as well as X-rays from Chandra.

The third object in this new sonification trio is nicknamed the Jellyfish Nebula, also known as IC 443. These data include X-rays from Chandra and the now-retired German ROSAT mission as well as radio data from NSF’s Very Large Array and optical data from the Digitized Sky Survey.

The new documentary, “Listen to the Universe,” now available on NASA+ (https://plus.nasa.gov/) explores how these sonifications are created and profiles the team that makes them possible.

Started in 2020, the NASA sonification project built off of other Chandra projects aimed at reaching blind and visually-impaired audiences. It has since shown to be meaningful to that community but also impacts much wider audiences, finding listeners through traditional and social media around the world.

“We are so excited to partner with NASA+, along with her collaborators at SYSTEMS Sounds, to help tell the story about NASA’s sonification project,” said Kimberly Arcand, Chandra’s Visualization and Emerging Technology Scientist, who leads the sonification efforts. “It’s wonderful to see how this project has grown and reached so many people.”

NASA+ is the agency’s new streaming platform, delivering video and other content about NASA to the public whenever and wherever they want to access it. The on-demand streaming service is available to download on most major platforms via the NASA App on iOS and Android mobile and tablet devices, as well as streaming media players Roku and Apple TV.

“Sonifications add a new dimension to stunning space imagery, and make those images accessible to the blind and low-vision community for the first time,” said Liz Landau, who leads multimedia efforts for NASA’s Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters, Washington, and oversaw production of the “Listen to the Universe” documentary. “I was honored to help tell the story of how Dr. Arcand and the System Sounds team make these unique sonic experiences and the broad impact those sonifications have had.”

More information about the NASA sonification project through Chandra, which is made in partnership with NASA’s Universe of Learning, can be found at https://chandra.si.edu/sound/

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.

NASA’s Universe of Learning materials are based upon work supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number NNX16AC65A to the Space Telescope Science Institute, working in partnership with Caltech/IPAC, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.  

Read more from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.

For more Chandra images, multimedia and related materials, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/mission/chandra-x-ray-observatory/

News Media Contact

Megan Watzke
Chandra X-ray Center
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617-496-7998

Jonathan Deal
Marshall Space Flight Center
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Lee Mohon