NASA Sets Coverage for Northrop Grumman’s 21st Station Resupply Launch

NASA, Northrop Grumman, and SpaceX are targeting 11:28 a.m. EDT on Saturday, Aug. 3, for the next launch to deliver science investigations, supplies, and equipment to the International Space Station. This launch is the 21st Northrop Grumman commercial resupply services mission to the orbital laboratory for the agency.

NASA’s live launch coverage will begin at 11:10 a.m. on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms, including social media.

Filled with nearly 8,200 pounds of supplies, the Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft, carried on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

NASA coverage of arrival will begin at 2:30 a.m. Monday, Aug. 5 on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website. NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick will capture Cygnus using the station’s robotic arm, and NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps will act as backup to Dominick. After capture, the spacecraft will be installed on the Unity module’s Earth-facing port.

Highlights of space station research facilitated by delivery aboard this Cygnus are:

• Test articles to evaluate liquid and gas flow through porous media found in space station life support systems.
• A balloon, penny, and hexnut for a new STEMonstration on centripetal force.
• Microorganisms known as Rotifers to examine the effects of spaceflight on DNA repair mechanisms.
• A bioreactor to demonstrate the production of many high-quality blood and immune stem cells.
• Vascularized liver tissue to analyze the development of blood vessels in engineered tissue flown to the space station.

NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative also is sending two CubeSats to deploy from the orbiting laboratory, CySat-1 from Iowa State University and DORA (Deployable Optical Receiver Aperture) from Arizona State University, making up ELaNa 52 (Educational Launch of Nanosatellites).

Media interested in speaking to a science subject matter expert, should contact Sandra Jones at sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov.

The Cygnus spacecraft is scheduled to remain at the space station until January when it will depart the orbiting laboratory at which point it will burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere. This spacecraft is named the S.S. Richard “Dick” Scobee after the former NASA astronaut.

NASA’s mission coverage is as follows (all times Eastern and subject to change based on real-time operations):

Friday, Aug. 2

3 p.m. – Prelaunch media teleconference (no earlier than one hour after completion of the Launch Readiness Review) with the following participants:

• Bill Spetch, operations integration manager, NASA’s International Space Station Program
• Meghan Everett, deputy chief scientist, NASA’s International Space Station Program
• Ryan Tintner, vice president, civil space systems, Northrop Grumman
• Jared Metter, director, flight reliability, SpaceX
• Melody Lovin, launch weather officer, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s 45th Weather Squadron

Media who wish to participate by phone must request dial-in information by 1 p.m. Aug. 2, by emailing Kennedy’s newsroom at ksc-media-accreditat@mail.nasa.gov.

Audio of the teleconference will stream live on the agency’s website at:

https://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

Saturday, Aug. 3:

11:10 a.m. – Launch coverage begins on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website.

11:28 a.m. – Launch

NASA Television launch coverage
Live coverage of the launch on NASA Television will begin at 11:10 a.m., Aug. 3. For downlink information, schedules, and links to streaming video, visit: https://nasa.gov/nasatv.

Audio of the news teleconference and launch coverage will not be carried on the NASA “V” circuits. Launch coverage without NASA TV commentary via a tech feed will not be available for this launch.

NASA website launch coverage
Launch day coverage of the mission will be available on the NASA website. Coverage will include live streaming and blog updates beginning no earlier than 11:10 a.m., Aug. 3, as the countdown milestones occur. On-demand streaming video on NASA+ and photos of the launch will be available shortly after liftoff. For questions about countdown coverage, contact the NASA Kennedy newsroom at 321-867-2468. Follow countdown coverage on our International Space Station blog for updates.

Attend Launch Virtually

Members of the public can register to attend this launch virtually. NASA’s virtual guest program for this mission also includes curated launch resources, notifications about related opportunities or changes, and a stamp for the NASA virtual guest passport following launch.

Engage on Social Media

Let people know you’re watching the mission on X, Facebook, and Instagram by following and tagging these accounts:

X: @NASA, @NASAKennedy, @NASASocial, @Space_Station, @ISS_Research, @ISS_CASIS

Facebook: NASA, NASAKennedy, ISS, ISS National Lab

Instagram: @NASA, @NASAKennedy, @ISS, @ISSNationalLab

Coverage en Espanol

Did you know NASA has a Spanish section called NASA en Espanol? Check out NASA en Espanol on X, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube for additional mission coverage.

Para obtener información sobre cobertura en español en el Centro Espacial Kennedy o si desea solicitar entrevistas en español, comuníquese con Antonia Jaramillo o Messod Bendayan a: antonia.jaramillobotero@nasa.gov o messod.c.bendayan@nasa.gov.

Learn more about the commercial resupply mission at:

https://www.nasa.gov

-end-

Claire O’Shea / Josh Finch
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
claire.a.o’shea@nasa.gov / joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov

Stephanie Plucinsky / Steven Siceloff
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
321-876-2468
stephanie.n.plucinsky@nasa.gov / steven.p.siceloff@nasa.gov

Sandra Jones
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov

Laura Keefe
Northrop Grumman, Cygnus
571-205-0258
laura.keefe@ngc.com

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Tiernan P. Doyle

Overview for NASA’s Northrop Grumman 21st Commercial Resupply Mission

NASA, Northrop Grumman, and SpaceX are targeting no earlier than 11:28 a.m. EDT on Saturday, Aug. 3, for the next launch to deliver scientific investigations, supplies, and equipment to the International Space Station. Filled with more than 8,200 pounds of supplies, the Cygnus cargo spacecraft, carried on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. This launch is the 21st Northrop Grumman commercial resupply services mission to the orbital laboratory for the agency.

Live launch coverage will begin at 11:10 a.m. and stream on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms.

Learn more at: www.nasa.gov/northropgrumman

Northrop Grumman S.S. Richard “Dick” Scobee

Arrival & Departure

The Cygnus spacecraft will arrive at the orbiting laboratory on Monday, Aug. 5, filled with supplies, hardware, and critical materials to directly support dozens of scientific and research investigations during Expeditions 71 and 72. NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick will capture Cygnus using the station’s robotic arm, and NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps will act as backup.

After capture, the spacecraft will be installed on the Unity module’s Earth-facing port and will spend almost six months connected to the orbiting laboratory before departing in January 2025. Cygnus also provides the operational capability to reboost the station’s orbit.

Live coverage of Cygnus’ arrival will begin at 2:30 a.m. Aug. 5 on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website.

Research Highlights

Scientific investigations traveling in the Cygnus spacecraft include tests of water recovery technology and a process to produce blood and immune stem cells in microgravity, studies of the effects of spaceflight on engineered liver tissue and microorganism DNA, and live science demonstrations for students.

Gravitational Effects on Filtration Systems

The Packed Bed Reactor Experiment: Water Recovery Series investigates how gravity affects two-phase flow or simultaneous movement of gas and liquid through porous media. Teams will evaluate eight different test articles representing components found in the space station’s water processor or urine processor to understand two-phase flows for both liquid and gas in microgravity.

Packed bed reactors are structures that use “packing” of objects, usually pellet-like catalysts, of various shapes and materials to increase contact between different phases of fluids. These systems are used for a variety of applications such as water recovery, thermal management, and fuel cells, and the experiment develops a set of guidelines and tools to optimize their design and operation for water filtration and other systems in microgravity and on the Moon and Mars. Insights from the investigation also could lead to improvements in this technology for applications on Earth such as water purification and heating and cooling systems.

Balloon Sounds in Space

STEMonstrations, as part of NASA’s Next Gen STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) Project, are performed and recorded by astronauts on the space station. Each NASA STEMonstration illustrates a different scientific concept, such as centripetal force, and includes resources to help teachers further explore the topics with their students.

Astronauts will demonstrate centripetal force on the space station using a penny, a hexnut, and two clear balloons. The penny and the hexnut are whirled inside of the inflated balloon to compare the sounds made in a microgravity environment.

Cell Production on Station

In-Space Expansion of Hematopoietic Stem Cells for Clinical Application (InSPA-StemCellEX-H1) tests hardware to produce human hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in space. HSCs give rise to blood and immune cells and are used in therapies for patients with certain blood diseases, autoimmune disorders, and cancers.

Researchers use BioServe In-Space Cell Expansion Platform, a stem cell expansion bioreactor designed to expand the stem cells three hundredfold without the need to change or add new growth media.

Someone in the United States is diagnosed with a blood cancer about every three minutes. Treating patients with transplanted stem cells requires a donor-recipient match and long-term repopulation of transplanted stem cells. This investigation demonstrates whether expanding stem cells in microgravity could generate far more continuously renewing stem cells.

Spaceflight Effects on DNA

Rotifer-B2, an ESA (European Space Agency) investigation, explores how spaceflight affects DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) repair mechanisms in a microscopic organisms called bdelloid rotifer, or Adineta vaga. These tiny but complex organisms are known for their ability to withstand harsh conditions, including radiation doses 100 times higher than human cells can survive.

Researchers culture rotifers, microorganisms that inhabit mainly freshwater aquatic environments, in an incubator facility on the space station. After exposure to microgravity conditions, the samples provide insights into how spaceflight affects the rotifer’s ability to repair sections of damaged DNA in a microgravity environment and could improve the general understanding of DNA damage and repair mechanisms for applications on Earth.

Bioprinting Tissue

Maturation of Vascularized Liver Tissue Construct in Zero Gravity (MVP Cell-07) examines engineered liver tissue constructs that contain blood vessels. Researchers aim to learn more about the progression of tissue and development of blood vessels in engineered tissues on the space station.

The experiment observes how bioprinted liver tissue behaves in space and whether microgravity causes changes in cell shape, size, and volume. The formation of tissue structures and vascular linings also are studied to ensure proper structure generation in orbit. Bioprinting in microgravity may enable the manufacturing of high-quality tissues and organs that are difficult to maintain on the ground, which could help advance space-based production of tissues and functional organs to treat patients on Earth.

Cargo Highlights

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will launch the Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft to the International Space Station.

Hardware

International Space Station Roll Out Solar Array Modification Kit 8 – This upgrade kit consists of power cables and large structural components such as a backbone, mounting brackets, and two sets of struts. This kit will support the installation of the eighth set of roll out solar arrays located on the S6 truss segment of orbiting laboratory in 2025. The new arrays are designed to augment the station’s original solar arrays which have degraded over time. The replacement solar arrays are installed on top of existing arrays to provide a net increase in power with each array generating more than 20 kilowatts of power.

Plant Habitat Environmental Control System – The environmental control system is a component of the Advanced Plant Habitat and controls the temperature, humidity, and air flow in the growth chamber. The habitat is an enclosed, fully automated plant growth facility that will conduct plant bioscience research in orbit for up to 135 days and complete at least one year of continuous operation without maintenance.

Rate Gyro Enclosure Assembly – The Rate Gyro Assembly determines the rate of angular motion of the space station. The assembly is integrated into the enclosure housing on ground to protect the hardware for launch and in-orbit storage. This unit will serve as an in-orbit spare.

European Enhanced Exploration Exercise Device & Vibration Isolation and Stabilization System (E4D VIS) Assembly Kit – This assembly kit consists of fasteners, clips, and labels to be used during the in-orbit assembly projected to be completed in mid-2025. ESA and the Danish Aerospace Company developed the E4D to address the challenge of preventing muscle and bone deterioration during long space missions. Some key features of E4D are resistive exercise, cycling ergonomic exercise, rowing, and rope pulling.

X-Y Rotation Axis Launch Configuration – This assembly consists of the X-Y-Rotational and Translational subassemblies in the flight configuration and adds the launch stabilization hardware to protect the various axes of motions for the transport to the space station. Once in orbit, the stabilizing hardware will be discarded, and the remaining assembly will then be installed into the Columbus module location with other subassemblies to provide a base for the E4D exercise device.

Pressure Control and Pump Assembly – This assembly evacuates the Distillation Assembly at startup, periodically purges non-condensable gases and water vapor, and pumps them into the Separator Plumbing Assembly as part of the Urine Processing Assembly. This unit will serve as an in-orbit spare to ensure successful urine processing operation capability without interruption.

Resupply Water Tanks – The resupply water tanks are cylindrical composite fibrewound pressure tanks that provide stored potable water for the space station.

NORS (Nitrogen/Oxygen Recharge System) Maintenance Tank/Recharge Tank Assembly, Nitrogen – The NORS Maintenance Kit is comprised of two separate assemblies: the NORS Recharge Tank Assembly and the NORS Vehicle Interface Assembly. The recharge tank assembly will be pressurized for launch with Nitrogen gas. The vehicle interface assembly will protect the recharge tank assembly for launch and stowage aboard the space station.

Tungsten Plates – A total of 14 tungsten plates will serve as the counter mass of the Vibration Isolation & Stabilization System designed to integrate with the European Enhanced Exercise Device.

Watch and Engage

Live coverage of the launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station will stream on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website. Coverage will begin at 11:10 a.m. on Aug. 3.

Live coverage of Cygnus’ arrival at the space station will begin at 2:30 a.m. Aug. 5 on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website.

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Mark A. Garcia

Repair Kit for NASA’s NICER Mission Heading to Space Station

NASA will deliver a patch kit for NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer), an X-ray telescope on the International Space Station, on the agency’s Northrop Grumman 21st commercial resupply mission. Astronauts will conduct a spacewalk to complete the repair.

Located near the space station’s starboard solar array, NICER was damaged in May 2023. The mission team delivered the patch kit to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston in May 2024 so it could be prepped and packed for the upcoming resupply mission.

“It’s incredible that in just one year, we were able to diagnose the problem and then design, build, test, and deliver a solution,” said Steve Kenyon, NICER’s mechanical lead at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “We’re so excited to see the patches installed during a future spacewalk, return to a more regular operating schedule, and keep doing groundbreaking science.”

From its perch on the station, the washing machine-sized NICER studies the X-ray sky. It has precisely measured superdense stellar remnants called neutron stars, which contain the densest matter scientists can directly observe. It has also investigated mysterious fast radio bursts, observed comets in our solar system, and collected data about Earth’s upper atmosphere.

But in May 2023, NICER developed a “light leak,” where unwanted sunlight began entering the telescope.

Photos taken aboard the station revealed several areas of damage to NICER’s thermal shields. The shields are 500 times thinner than a human hair and filter out infrared, ultraviolet, and visible light while allowing X-rays to pass through. They cover each of NICER’s 56 X-ray concentrators, sets of 24 nested circular mirrors designed to skip X-rays into corresponding detectors. A sunshade tops each concentrator and shield assembly, with a slight gap in between. The sunshades are segmented by six internal struts, resembling a sliced pie.

The largest damage to the shields is around the size of a typical U.S. postage stamp. The other areas are closer in size to pinheads. During the station’s daytime, the damage allows sunlight to reach the detectors, saturating sensors and interfering with NICER’s measurements. The mission team altered their daytime observing strategy to mitigate the effect. The damage does not impact nighttime observations.

“NICER wasn’t designed to be serviced or repaired,” said Keith Gendreau, the mission’s principal investigator at Goddard. “It was installed robotically, and we operate it remotely. When we decided to investigate the possibility of patching the largest damaged areas on the thermal shields, we had to come up with a method that would use the existing parts of the telescope and station toolkits. We couldn’t have done it without all the support and collaboration from our colleagues at Johnson and throughout the space station program.”

The solution, in the end, was simple. The team designed patches, each shaped like a piece of pie, that will slide into the sunshades. A tab at the bottom of each patch will turn into the space between the bottom of the sunshade and the top of the thermal shield, keeping it in place.

Astronauts will install five patches during the spacewalk. They’ll cover the most significant areas of damage and block the sunlight affecting NICER’s X-ray measurements.

The repair kit contains 12 patches in total, allowing for spares if needed. Astronauts will carry the patches in a caddy, a rectangular frame containing two spare sunshades with the patches held inside.

“NICER will be the first X-ray telescope in orbit to be serviced by astronauts and only the fourth science observatory to be repaired overall — joining the ranks of missions like NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope,” said Charles Baker, the NICER project systems engineer at Goddard. “It’s been amazing to watch the patch kit come together over the last year. NICER has taught us so many wonderful things about the cosmos, and we’re really looking forward to this next step of its journey.”

The NICER telescope is an Astrophysics Mission of Opportunity within NASA’s Explorers Program, which provides frequent flight opportunities for world-class scientific investigations from space utilizing innovative, streamlined, and efficient management approaches within the heliophysics and astrophysics science areas. NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate supported the SEXTANT component of the mission, demonstrating pulsar-based spacecraft navigation.

By Jeanette Kazmierczak
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli
301-286-1940
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

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Ames Science Directorate’s Stars of the Month, July 2024

The NASA Ames Science Directorate recognizes the outstanding contributions of (pictured left to right) Ryan T. Scott, Mike Kubo, Ehsan (Sam) Gharib-Nezhad, and Kristen Okorn. Their commitment to the NASA mission represents the talent, camaraderie, and vision needed to explore this world and beyond.

Space Biosciences Star: Ryan T. Scott

Ryan Scott, a Space Biosciences Research Branch (SCR) scientist, serves as the Science Lead for the Open Science Data Repository (OSDR) and chairs the Ames Life Sciences Data Archive (ALSDA) analysis working group, where he guides the efforts of nearly 200 professionals. He contributed significantly to the Space Omics and Medical Atlas (SOMA) Nature publication package, the largest-ever collection of data for aerospace medicine and space biology.

Space Science Star: Mike Kubo

Mike Kubo is an indispensable member of the Exobiology Branch (STX) with expertise in astrobiology and biogeochemistry who plays a vital role in the conduct of research and outreach.  While always a star in the branch, most recently, Mike saved the day by noticing the imminent failure of a shared research-grade freezer in building N239 that stored irreplaceable samples, and quickly identified a replacement.

Space Science Star: Ehsan (Sam) Gharib-Nezhad

Dr. Ehsan (Sam) Gharib-Nezhad is a data and research scientist with the Planetary Systems Branch (STT). A specialist in exoplanetary atmospheres and artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML), Sam was recently selected as lead for the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) working group for AI/ML.

Earth Science Star: Kristen Okorn

Kristen Okorn is a Research Scientist with the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute (BAERI), affiliated with the Atmospheric Science Branch (SGG). She is one of the two center coordinators for NASA’s Disasters Response Coordination System, and the PI for the recently awarded NASA Mentoring and Opportunities in STEM with Academic Institutions for Community Success (MOSAICS) seed project focused on year-round hands-on learning and mentoring of three undergraduate students from a minority-serving institution (Whittier College) in the use of low-cost sensors and satellite-based measurements to study regional air pollution.

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Aaron McKinnon