Low Leakage Cryogenic Disconnects for Fuel Transfer and Long-Term Storage
To enable deep space missions, the capability to transfer and store cryogenic fuels (typically liquid hydrogen, methane, and oxygen) without significant leakage over long duration missions is critical. NASA has been actively developing zero boil-off cryocooler technology to reduce storage losses. Another source of fuel loss is from leakage at the fuel disconnect used for in-space refueling. Current designs use fluoroelastomer seals which are excellent for applications such as natural gas but are susceptible to embrittlement at the lower temperatures required for liquid hydrogen. In addition, the high contact forces needed to reduce leakage can cause cracking of the seals. NASA is seeking potential low or zero leakage cryogenic disconnect seal designs that could be fabricated and tested.
NASA Science, Cargo Launch on 21st Northrop Grumman Mission to Station
Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft for the company’s 21st commercial resupply services mission for NASA launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Credit: NASA
Following a successful launch of NASA’s Northrop Grumman 21st commercial resupply mission, new scientific experiments and cargo for the agency are bound for the International Space Station.
Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft, carrying more than 8,200 pounds of supplies to the orbiting laboratory, lifted off at 11:02 a.m. EDT Sunday on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Shortly after launch, the spacecraft missed its first burn due to a late entry to burn sequencing. Known as the targeted altitude burn, or TB1, it was rescheduled, but aborted shortly after the engine ignited due to a slightly low initial pressure state. There is no indication the engine itself has any problem at this time.
Cygnus is at a safe altitude and completed the deployment of its two solar arrays at 2:21 p.m. Northrop Grumman engineers are working a new burn and trajectory plan and aim to achieve the spacecraft’s original capture time on station.
If all remains on track, live coverage of the spacecraft’s arrival will begin at 1:30 a.m., Tuesday, Aug. 6, on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’swebsite. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms including social media.
NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick will capture Cygnus using the station’s robotic arm at approximately 3:10 a.m., and NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps is backup.
The resupply mission will support dozens of research experiments conducted during Expedition 71. Included among the investigations are:
Test articles to evaluate liquid and gas flow through porous media found in space station life support systems
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
These are just a sample of the hundreds of investigations conducted aboard the orbiting laboratory in the areas of biology and biotechnology, physical sciences, and Earth and space science. Such research benefits humanity and lays the groundwork for future human exploration through the agency’s Artemis campaign, which will send astronauts to the Moon to prepare for future expeditions to Mars.
NASA’s arrival and in-flight event coverage is as follows (all times Eastern and subject to change based on real-time operations):
3:10 a.m. – Capture of Cygnus with the space station’s robotic arm.
4:30 a.m. – Cygnus installation coverage begins on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website.
All times are estimates and could be adjusted based on operations after launch. Follow the space station blog for the most up-to-date operations information.
The company’s 21st mission to the space station for NASA is the 10th under its Commercial Resupply Services 2 contract.
Cygnus will remain at the orbiting laboratory until January before it departs and disposes of several thousand pounds of trash through its re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere where it will harmlessly burn up. The spacecraft is named the S.S. Francis R. “Dick” Scobee after the former NASA astronaut.
Learn more about NASA’s commercial resupply mission at:
NASA Johnson Dedicates Dorothy Vaughan Center to Women of Apollo
On the eve of the 55th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston commemorated the unsung heroes who helped make humanity’s first steps on the Moon possible.
To celebrate their enduring legacy, Johnson named one of its central buildings the “Dorothy Vaughan Center in Honor of the Women of Apollo” on July 19, 2024, during a ceremony recognizing the early pioneers who laid the groundwork for the Artemis Generation.
NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston named one of its central building the “Dorothy Vaughan Center in Honor of the Women of Apollo.”
NASA/David DeHoyos
Dorothy Vaughan, a mathematician and NASA’s first Black manager, played a crucial role in this historic achievement. As the head of the West Area Computing Unit at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, from 1949 to 1958, she led her team in mastering new computer programming languages, helping to pave the way for the agency’s current diverse workforce and leadership.
The program included remarks from Johnson Director Vanessa Wyche, NASA astronaut Christina Koch, and Deputy Associate Administrator Casey Swails.
Johnson Director Vanessa Wyche gives opening remarks at the building naming ceremony on July 19, 2024.
NASA/Robert Markowitz
“Dorothy Vaughan, alongside all of our Women of Apollo, represents the best of NASA’s past, and their legacies serve as the inspiration and foundation for our future,” said Wyche. “As we prepare to take our next giant leap, the Women of Apollo will take each step with us.”
NASA leadership joined for the special occasion, including Associate Administrator Jim Free, Acting Associate Administrator for Space Technology Mission Directorate and Langley Director Clayton Turner, Director of NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi John Bailey, and former Johnson Director Mike Coats. Also in attendance were Reps. Lizzie Fletcher and Sylvia Garcia, and representatives from the offices of Sen. Ted Cruz, Sen. John Cornyn, and Rep. Brian Babin.
NASA astronauts Suni Williams, Jeanette J. Epps, and Tracy C. Dyson celebrated the historic moment with a special message from the International Space Station.
“We have accomplished our dreams of space exploration thanks to the many NASA women that paved the way for diversity, inclusion, and excellence,” said Epps.
“Building on the efforts of our space exploration pioneers, we continue to work for the benefit of humanity,” said Dyson. “NASA’s success is only possible because of the tenacity and expertise of individuals like Dorothy Vaughan whose legacy of brilliance continues to inspire us today.”
Texas Southern University’s Dr. Thomas F. Freeman Debate Team delivers a speech during the building naming event.
NASA/Robert Markowitz
The program also featured the reading of a poem by Dr. Vivian Ayers Allen, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated poet, cultural activist, and former NASA editor and typist. The poem, titled “Hawk,” was published just 11 weeks before humankind’s first venture into space with Sputnik I as an allegory where space flight symbolizes freedom. Allen’s daughter, Phylicia Rashad, recited the poem ahead of the presentation by Texas Southern University’s Dr. Thomas F. Freeman Debate Team.
The Women of Apollo stand behind the “Women in Human Spaceflight” panelists. From left: Sandy Johnson, CEO of Barrios Technology; Andrea Mosie, manager and senior sample processor for NASA’s Lunar Materials Repository Laboratory; NASA astronaut Christina Hammock Koch; Dr. Shirley Price, former NASA equal opportunity specialist; Lara Kearney, manager of NASA’s Extravehicular Activity and Human Surface Mobility Program; and panel moderator Debbie Korth, deputy manager of the Orion Program.
NASA/Robert Markowitz
The ceremony also included a “Women in Human Spaceflight” panel discussion with some of the impactful Women of Apollo and current trailblazers in human spaceflight.
The panelists inspired the crowd with their collective experiences of breaking barriers and making monumental contributions to space exploration.
Debbie Korth, deputy manager of the Orion Program, moderated the event with panelists Lara Kearney, manager of NASA’s Extravehicular Activity and Human Surface Mobility Program; Sandy Johnson, CEO of Barrios Technology; NASA astronaut Christina Hammock Koch; Andrea Mosie, manager and senior sample processor for NASA’s Lunar Materials Repository Laboratory; and Dr. Shirley Price, former NASA equal opportunity specialist.
“I learned that as long as I am being myself, I can make a difference,” said Price. “Dorothy Vaughan helped me make that difference because she paved the way for me, and I am here to pave the way forward for more to follow.”
Koch reflected on the future, saying, “I am looking forward to us being driven by our values of inclusivity, making sure that we are going for all and by all in a non-hidden way and that we are calling out the amazing contributions of every single person that has a dream.”
Dorothy Vaughan’s granddaughter Heather Vaughan-Batten cuts the ribbon to officially name building 12 the Dorothy Vaughan Center in Honor of the Women of Apollo.
NASA/David DeHoyos
Heather Vaughan-Batten, Vaughan’s granddaughter, marked the official naming of the building with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Vaughan’s family reacts to the surprise unveiling of Dorothy Vaughan’s painted portrait, created by artist Eliza Hoffman.
NASA/David DeHoyos
The event concluded with a surprise unveiling of a painting of Vaughan to her family. The portrait, created by Eliza Hoffman, an artist and student from Clear Creek Independent High School, now illuminates the main hallway of the Dorothy Vaughan Center in honor of the Women of Apollo.
More than 30 portraits of women who made notable contributions to NASA during the Apollo era now line the building’s main hallway.
Watch the building dedication ceremony, ribbon-cutting, and portrait unveiling below.
Teams transport NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) core stage into the Vehicle Assembly Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 24, 2024. Tugboats and towing vessels moved the Pegasus barge and 212-foot-long core stage 900-miles to the Florida spaceport from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, where it was manufactured and assembled.
In the coming months, teams will integrate the rocket core stage atop the mobile launcher with the additional Artemis II flight hardware, including the twin solid rocket boosters, launch vehicle stage adapter, and the Orion spacecraft.
The Artemis II test flight will be NASA’s first mission with crew under the Artemis campaign, sending NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Reid Wiseman, as well as CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, on a 10-day journey around the Moon and back.
Dr. Ariadna Farrés-Basiana would look up at the sky and marvel at the immensity of space when she was younger. Now, the bounds are limitless as she helps NASA explore the expansive universe by computing the trajectories and maneuvers to get a spacecraft into space.
Name: Dr. Ariadna Farrés-Basiana Title: Astrodynamics and solar radiation pressure specialist, Formal Job Classification: Scientific collaborator Organization Navigation and Mission Design Branch (Code 595)
Dr. Ariadna Farrés-Basiana is an astrodynamics and solar radiation pressure specialist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
Photo courtesy of Ariadna Farrés-Basiana
What is your role at Goddard? What do you focus on?
I am part of the flight dynamics team. We are the ones in charge of computing the trajectories, maneuvers, amongst other things to get a spacecraft into space to its final destination. I am currently working on two main projects: the Space Weather Follow On-Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) mission, which is a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) mission that will monitor space weather, and NASA’s Roman Space Telescope. I participate in both missions as part of the flight dynamics team. I am in charge of calculating the transfer trajectory, which would be the path through space that these missions must follow to go from Earth to Lagrange points L1 and L2. These are places in space where gravitational forces balance each other and a spacecraft doesn’t need to spend as much fuel to maintain its orbit. In addition to that, I work on station-keeping strategies, which are the routine maneuvers that we must do to keep our telescope in orbit.
What was your path to NASA?
My Ph.D. focused on solar sails, which is a way of navigating through space using the force of light emitted by the Sun as if it were wind that drives the sails of the spacecraft. I always thought that my contribution to NASA would be as a researcher or as a professor at a university. I had always dreamed of joining NASA, but I never thought it was possible. At the time, I was trying to find a position as a tenured professor at the University of Barcelona. While I was waiting, a professor of mine who had collaborated with people at NASA back in the ’90s called his former colleagues and told them that he had a Ph.D. student who was looking for a summer internship; then he asked if I could intern with them for a few months. And they said yes. I came to Goddard one summer as an intern and it was amazing. In the end I didn’t get the position as a tenured professor in Spain, and when I told my colleagues that I didn’t have a job, they asked me if I wanted to come and finish the research project I had started here, and after that I continued to extend my internship. In May 2017, I joined Goddard for the second time, this time as a full-time employee. What would have been only seven months of internship ended up being seven years that I have been here.
What made you interested in mathematics and specialize in it?
When it came time to choose what I wanted to major in, I was deciding between two majors: aerospace engineering, because I’ve always had space on my mind, or mathematics because I really enjoyed it. I chose mathematics, mainly because I could stay in my country. About 20 to 25 years ago, research in aerospace was not a thing in Spain; specializing in space engineering would have meant moving from my hometown and going to Madrid, which is where the only university I knew I could do that was. So, I ended up choosing math and decided it would be cool to learn more about it.
You mentioned that you were interested in space since you were a child. What fascinated you about the sky?
I remember looking at the sky, looking at the Moon and wondering what’s out there. My dad was also into science, and he would explain things regarding space. He had a friend that had a telescope and from time to time, we’d go observe it which was fascinating. There was something about the immensity of space and the fact that we don’t know much about it that interested me.
How do you feel about getting to work on two different telescopes, having been inspired by telescopes when you were younger?
It is very gratifying to know that my work will help these telescopes go to space and operate from there. Finding solutions for this makes me very proud of what I do. I feel like all the knowledge I have is being applied to something physical, practical, that will be in space and that will help other scientists make great discoveries.
What story or tradition from your hometown makes you smile when you think about it?
The most beautiful day is the Sant Jordi festival, it is a precious day. It’s the day of the book and the rose. It’s not a holiday, but everyone is looking for an excuse, any time of the day to go out and buy a book and a rose for their loved ones. The atmosphere is beautiful during those days. Also, my brother’s name is Jordi, so it’s a special day because we all celebrate it together.
“My dad was also into science, and he would explain things regarding space,” said Ariadna. “He had a friend that had a telescope and from time to time, we’d go observe it which was fascinating. There was something about the immensity of space and the fact that we don’t know much about it that interested me.”
Photo courtesy of Ariadna Farrés-Basiana
Are you involved in other activities outside of your work at NASA?
I am part of the Hypatia project. It encourages scientific vocations among girls who are potentially interested in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers. We do analog missions in the Utah desert, which simulates day-to-day life on Mars. Who has not dreamed of going to space, or has simply wondered what a trip to Mars or life on Mars would be like? With these simulations we help bring these dreams closer to students. What I like most about this initiative is being able to go to schools to explain our experiences to them. It is important to show different women who do research. This helps change the ideology of many who imagine that to be a scientist you must be a man with glasses and a white coat. There are few women in the space field. Many times, you have the feeling that you have to prove that you are worth more, show that you are there because you deserve it. It’s nice to be involved in projects like Hypatia, because I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about gender in STEM disciplines. It is my contribution so that the next generations are not so afraid to try to pursue a STEM career.
Where do you see yourself in the next five years?
I see myself here at NASA, working on different missions, perhaps taking on a role with a little more leadership or more responsibility.
Conversations With Goddard is a collection of Q&A profiles highlighting the breadth and depth of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s talented and diverse workforce. The Conversations have been published twice a month on average since May 2011. Read past editions on Goddard’s “Our People” webpage.
