https://www.nasa.gov/sbir_sttr/nasa-sbir-sttr-program-program-year-2026-information-hub
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Sonja Caldwell
More biotechnology research was underway aboard the International Space Station on Wednesday taking advantage of the microgravity environment to boost knowledge about the properties of DNA and DNA-like nanomaterials. The Expedition 74 crew also completed the installation of an advanced exercise device and tested a set of new virtual reality goggles while continuing to unpack a U.S. cargo spacecraft.
Flight engineers Chris Williams of NASA and Sophie Adenot of ESA (European Space Agency) joined each other in the Kibo laboratory module processing samples of genetic materials for the DNA Nano Therapeutics-3 experiment. The investigation is exploring DNA-inspired assembly techniques as a way to manufacture treatments, or nano-therapies such as chemotherapy and immunotherapy, to kill cancer cells and activate the immune system. The manufactured samples will be analyzed first on the orbital outpost with a spectrophotometer then returned to Earth for more analysis.
NASA flight engineer Jessica Meir began her shift swapping scientific hardware inside the Columbus laboratory module’s BioLab, an incubator supporting research into the effects of microgravity on small organisms. The science maintenance work is supporting the Lux in Space investigation that observes how DNA damaged by space radiation repairs itself. While still working inside Columbus, Meir checked and secured power connections for the new European Enhanced Exploration Exercise Device, or E4D. The E4D is being tested for its ability to support crew workouts on missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Finally, Meir reviewed the Nevada Vision Screening System, a head-mounted virtual reality display that measures as astronaut’s visual function to protect eyesight in space.
NASA flight engineer Jack Hathaway worked throughout Wednesday supporting his crewmates with the scientific work then continued with cargo transfers and medical inventory management. He first activated Kibo’s Life Science Glovebox enabling Williams and Adenot to work on the DNA therapy study then photographed Meir as she swapped hardware on the BioLab. Next, Hathway unpacked more cargo from Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL resupply ship then refilled the Columbus lab’s Human Research Facility with medical gear including blood tube kits, needles, electrodes, and gloves.
Working together in the Roscosmos segment of the orbital outpost, flight engineers Sergei Mikaev and Andrey Fedyaev participated in a fitness evaluation. Mikaev pedaled on an exercise cycle while attached to sensors measuring his cardiac activity while Fedyaev assisted him. Next, Fedyaev tested the operation of the Zvezda service module’s treadmill then worked on the Nauka science module’s orbital plumbing system.
Later, Mikaev joined station commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and began configuring simulation hardware that will help the duo prepare for the automated rendezvous and docking of the Progress 95 cargo mission planned for 8 p.m. EDT on Monday, April 27. Kud-Sverchkov also worked inside the Zarya module replacing battery units inside its power supply system.
Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.
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Mark A. Garcia
NASA’s Boeing 777 has returned to the agency’s fleet after undergoing heavy structural modifications as it transforms from a giant passenger plane into the agency’s next-generation airborne science laboratory. After a check flight and a three-hour transit from Waco, the aircraft returned to NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, on April 22.
Since January 2025, the aircraft has been in Texas receiving hardware and structural upgrades to prepare for science operations. The modifications include installing dedicated research stations and extensive wiring. This allows payload systems to communicate with sensors such as lidar and infrared imaging spectrometers during flights. Cabin windows were enlarged and open portals installed at the bottom of the fuselage to mount remote-sensing instruments.
“Airborne missions at NASA use cutting-edge instruments to explore and understand our home planet,” said Derek Rutovic, program manager for the Airborne Science Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “The 777 will be the largest airborne research laboratory in our fleet, collecting data to improve life on our home planet and extend our knowledge of the Earth system as a whole.”
Acquired in 2022 to succeed NASA’s retired DC-8 aircraft, the 777 will expand the agency’s airborne research capacity. It can accommodate 50 to 100 operators and carry 75,000 pounds of equipment for flights lasting up to 18 hours.
“NASA’s DC-8 was an incredible workhorse for Earth science for nearly 40 years,” said Kirsten Boogaard, the NASA 777 program manager at NASA Langley and former deputy program manager of NASA’s DC-8. “Being part of that team, I got to see the impact up close. I’m excited for what the 777 will bring. It gives us the ability to bring together more partners, more educational opportunities, and more instruments. That will make a real difference in the data we collect moving forward.”
The aircraft’s inaugural science mission, slated to deploy in January 2027, will investigate high-impact winter weather events, such as severe cold air outbreaks, wind, snow and ice storms, and hazardous seas. Known as the North American Upstream Feature-Resolving and Tropopause Uncertainty Reconnaissance Experiment (NURTURE), the mission will collect detailed atmospheric observations across a vast region spanning North America, Europe, Greenland, and the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans.
“We’ve been completing the engineering design and analysis to install the NURTURE payload into the aircraft in parallel with the portal modification,” Rutovic said. “We’re excited to get the airplane back home to NASA and on the road to its first mission.”
The NASA 777’s major structural modification was performed by L3Harris Technologies in partnership with Yulista Holding, LLC. Research station and wiring upgrades in the cabin are being performed by NASA and HII. NASA’s Airborne Science Program is responsible for providing aircraft systems that further science and advance the use of satellite data and is part of the Science Mission Directorate’s Earth Science Division.
To learn more about NASA’s airborne science missions, visit:
https://airbornescience.nasa.gov
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Charles G. Hatfield
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team now is targeting as soon as early September 2026 for launch, ahead of the agency’s commitment to flight no later than May 2027.
“Roman’s accelerated development is a true success story of what we can achieve when public investment, institutional expertise, and private enterprise come together to take on the near-impossible missions that change the world,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, who announced the update at a news conference on April 21 at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Roman will pair a large field of view with crisp infrared vision to survey deep, vast swaths of sky. While the mission was designed with dark energy, dark matter, and exoplanets in mind, Roman’s unprecedented observational capability will offer practically limitless opportunities for astronomers to explore all kinds of cosmic topics.
By the end of its five-year primary mission, Roman is expected to amass a 20,000-terabyte data archive. Scientists can draw on it to identify and study 100,000 exoplanets, hundreds of millions of galaxies, billions of stars, and rare objects and phenomena — including some that astronomers have never witnessed before.
Roman will launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA and SpaceX will share more information about a specific launch date, and the agency will continue to share updates concerning prelaunch preparations as new information becomes available.
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is managed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, with participation by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech/IPAC in Southern California, the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, and scientists from various research institutions.
To learn more about the Roman mission, visit:
Media contact:
Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
301-286-1940
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Ashley Balzer
NASA will host a news conference at 1:45 p.m. EDT Wednesday, April 29, from the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to preview astronaut Anil Menon’s upcoming mission to the International Space Station.
Watch the news conference live on NASA’s YouTube channel. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of online platforms, including social media.
Following the news conference, individual interviews with Menon will begin at 3 p.m.
United States-based media interested in attending the news conference in person must contact the NASA Johnson newsroom at jsccommu@mail.nasa.gov by 5 p.m. Monday, April 27. U.S. and international media interested in participating by phone must contact NASA Johnson by 9:45 a.m. Thursday, April 23. A copy of NASA’s media accreditation policy is available online.
Requests for interviews with Menon should be submitted by 5 p.m., April 27. In-person interviews are limited to U.S. media. International media may request to conduct interviews virtually.
The Soyuz MS-29 mission, targeted to launch Tuesday, July 14, will carry Menon and his crewmates, Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina, to the International Space Station for an eight-month stay as part of Expeditions 74/75. It will be Menon’s first spaceflight.
Selected as a NASA astronaut in 2021, Menon graduated with the 23rd astronaut class in 2024. After completing initial astronaut candidate training, he began preparing for his first space station flight assignment.
Menon was born and raised in Minneapolis and is an emergency medicine physician, mechanical engineer, and lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force. He holds a bachelor’s degree in neurobiology from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He also earned a master’s degree in mechanical engineering and a medical degree from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. Menon completed his emergency medicine and aerospace medicine residency at Stanford and the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, respectively.
Menon still actively practices emergency medicine at Memorial Hermann’s Texas Medical Center and teaches residents at the University of Texas’ residency program. For NASA, Menon also has served as an expedition flight surgeon for the agency’s crew members aboard the space station. Previously, Menon worked at SpaceX and served as the company’s first flight surgeon, helping to launch the first crewed Dragon spacecraft on NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission in 2020 and building its medical organization to support humans on future missions.
For more than 25 years, people 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 testbed for NASA to understand and overcome the challenges of long-duration spaceflight, expand commercial opportunities in low Earth orbit, and prepare for deep space missions to the Moon as part of the Artemis program in preparation for future human missions to Mars.
Learn more about the International Space Station at:
-end-
Joshua Finch / Jimi Russell
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / james.j.russell@nasa.gov
Anna Schneider / Shaneequa Vereen
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
anna.c.schneider@nasa.gov / shaneequa.y.vereen@nasa.gov
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Elizabeth Shaw
