SpaceX Dragon Departure from Space Station for NASA Targets Tuesday
The SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft is pictured departing the vicinity of the space station following its undocking from the Harmony module’s space-facing port on January 9, 2023.
Joint teams continue to evaluate weather conditions as a cold front passes through the splashdown zones off the coast of Florida to determine the best autonomous undocking opportunity.
Coverage of Dragon’s departure Tuesday will begin at 4:45 p.m. on the NASA+ streaming service via the web or the NASA app. Coverage also will air live on NASA Television, YouTube, and on the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms including social media.
After re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, the spacecraft will splash down off the coast of Florida, which will not be broadcast on NASA TV. Follow updates on return plans on the agency’s space station blog.
Crew Loads Dragon with NASA Science, Keeps Up Space Research
The waning gibbous Moon is pictured just above Earth’s horizon in this photograph from the station as it orbited 262 miles above a cloudy central Asia.
The Expedition 70 crew is continuing to pack a U.S. cargo spacecraft readying for its departure early next week. The seven residents living aboard the International Space Station also explored virtual reality while servicing a variety of science and life support hardware.
NASA and SpaceX are postponing the Sunday, Dec. 17, undocking of a SpaceX Dragon cargo resupply spacecraft from the International Space Station due to unfavorable weather conditions as a cold front passes through the splashdown zones off the coast of Florida.
Joint teams continue to evaluate weather conditions to determine the best opportunity for Dragon to autonomously undock from the space station with the next available opportunity no earlier than 5:05 p.m. EST Monday, Dec. 18.
Weather permitting for the Monday undocking, coverage of Dragon’s departure will begin at 4:45 p.m. on the NASA+ streaming service via the web or the NASA app. Coverage also will air live on NASA Television, YouTube, and on the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms including social media.
After re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, the spacecraft will splash down off the coast of Florida, which will not be broadcast on NASA TV. Follow updates on return plans on the agency’s space station blog.
Astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli of NASA and Satoshi Furukawa of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) resumed transferring science-packed cargo freezers from the station’s EXPRESS racks and into Dragon. The duo activated and configured the science freezers inside Dragon securing the preserved biological samples for retrieval and analysis on Earth.
Earlier, Moghbeli swapped out hardware inside the Solution Crystallization Observation Facility, a research device that investigates the morphology and growth of crystals. She also shook mixture tubes containing seed samples for a space botany study. Furukawa reconnected a power and communications unit inside combustion research hardware located in the Kibo laboratory module.
Commander Andreas Mogensen from ESA (European Space Agency) started his day on an experiment that aims to strengthen computer programming skills and promote STEM careers for students on Earth. Mogensen later wore virtual reality googles and watched a 360-degree movie to understand its stabilizing effect on the nervous system for the VR Mental Care experiment.
NASA Flight Engineer Loral O’Hara of NASA spent her day working on lab maintenance throughout the orbital outpost. She replaced orbital plumbing components and deployed a portable fan inside the Tranquility module then swapped out a broken wireless antenna in the Unity module.
The space station’s three cosmonauts stayed focused on their contingent of science activities and orbital systems upkeep. Flight Engineers Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub once again scanned their stomachs with an ultrasound device after breakfast for a Roscosmos space digestion study. Kononenko then repositioned eggs inside an incubator for a biology experiment while Chub transferred dismantled life support gear from the Zarya module and into Unity. Flight Engineer Konstantin Borisov spent his morning on orbital plumbing tasks then finished the day photographing and inspecting windows on the Zvezda service module.
Dream Chaser Undergoes Testing at NASA Test Facility in Ohio
NASA and Sierra Space are making progress on the first flight of the company’s Dream Chaser spacecraft to the International Space Station. The uncrewed cargo spaceplane is planned to launch its demonstration mission in 2024 to the orbital complex as part of NASA’s commercial resupply services. Credit: Sierra Space/Shay Saldana
NASA and Sierra Space are preparing for the first flight of the company’s Dream Chaser spacecraft to the International Space Station. Dream Chaser and its companion cargo module, called Shooting Star, arrived at NASA’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio, for environmental testing, scheduled to start in mid-December, ahead of its first flight, scheduled for the first half of 2024.
The Neil Armstrong Test Facility, part of NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, is home to multiple test facilities, including the Space Environments Complex and the In-Space Propulsion Facility, both stops for Dream Chaser. The complex is home to the Mechanical Vibration Facility, which subjects test articles to the rigorous conditions of launch.
While at Armstrong, the Dream Chaser winged spacecraft will be stacked atop its Shooting Star cargo module on the vibration table to experience vibrations like those during launch and re-entry to the Earth’s atmosphere.
Following vibration testing, Dream Chaser will be moved to the propulsion facility for thermal vacuum testing. Dream Chaser will be placed in a vacuum and exposed to low ambient pressures, low-background temperatures, and replicated dynamic solar heating, which simulates the environment the spacecraft will encounter during its mission. This facility is the only one capable of testing full-scale, upper stage rockets and rocket engines under simulated space conditions and conducting altitude hot fire.
After completion of testing at Armstrong, Dream Chaser will be shipped to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for further launch preparations, currently scheduled for liftoff in the first half of 2024.
Research Physical Scientist Tra-My Justine Richardson
“When I mentor students, their academic [talents] are a given. They’re very bright. They’re very smart. But I mentor them to teach them what they don’t learn in school: how to work with other people, how to seek help, and how to mature from a student to a professional.
“[I teach them that] when you fail, it’s OK. Admit what you did wrong, be honest about it, and talk through it. Don’t hide it. Don’t avoid it. We will deal with it together.
“That takes a lot of courage and a lot of maturity, but I try to show them to grow from the challenge and move past it. Face it head on. That is one thing that I did not learn [growing up] and had to learn later in life. It takes a lot of courage to confront your fears and failures. Each and every time is really difficult, but you will feel really empowered. It’s a very significant step in your life if you can do that.”
—Tra-My Justine Richardson, Research Physical Scientist, NASA’s Ames Research Center
Image Credit: NASA / Brandon Torres Interviewer: NASA / Thalia Patrinos
120th Anniversary of the First Powered, Controlled Flight
Library of Congress
In this image from Dec. 17, 1903, Orville Wright makes the first powered, controlled flight on Earth as his brother Wilbur looks on. Orville Wright covered 120 feet in 12 seconds during the first flight of the day. The Wright brothers made four flights that day, each longer than the last.
The aircraft, Flyer 1, was wrecked beyond repair after the fourth flight, but Orville took the wreckage home to Ohio and restored it. It went on display at the London Science Museum until 1948 when the Smithsonian Institution took ownership.
The Wrights’ legacy has traveled beyond Earth; engineers attached a postage-stamp-sized piece of Flyer 1’s wing material to a cable underneath NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter. As of Dec. 2, 2023, Ingenuity has traveled a total distance of 9.6 miles with a total flight time of 2 hours 1 minute 5 seconds. Its ground-breaking mission continues, paving the way for future aerial explorers of Mars.
