NASA to Send Research to Station Aboard 30th SpaceX Resupply Mission

New research and technology demonstrations for NASA are set to launch aboard the agency’s SpaceX 30th commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station. Launch is targeted for 4:55 p.m. EDT Thursday, March 21, lifting off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Live launch coverage will air on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website, with prelaunch events starting Tuesday, March 19. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms.

SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft will deliver new scientific investigations, food, supplies, and equipment to the international crew. NASA and its partners will send studies aboard the mission on plant metabolism in space and a set of new sensors for free-flying Astrobee robots to provide 3D mapping capabilities. Other research includes a fluid physics study that could benefit solar cell technology and a university project from CSA (Canadian Space Agency) that will monitor sea ice and ocean conditions.

Arrival at the station is scheduled for approximately 7:30 a.m. Saturday, March 23. The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft will dock autonomously to the zenith port of the station’s Harmony module.

The spacecraft is expected to spend about a month attached to the orbiting outpost before it returns to Earth with research and cargo, splashing down off the coast of Florida.

Full mission coverage is as follows (all times Eastern and subject to change based on operations):

Tuesday, March 19

3 p.m. – Prelaunch media teleconference with the following participants:

• Kristi Duplichen, deputy manager, NASA’s International Space Station Transportation Integration Office
• Heidi Parris, associate program scientist, NASA’s International Space Station Program Research Office
• Sarah Walker, director, SpaceX Dragon mission management
• Melody Lovin, launch weather officer, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s 45th Weather Squadron

Media may ask questions during the media teleconference by phone only. For the dial-in number and passcode, please contact NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida no later than 2 p.m. EDT March 19, at: ksc-newsroom@mail.nasa.gov.

Thursday, March 21

• 4:35 p.m. – Launch coverage begins
• 4:55 p.m. – Launch

Saturday, March 23

• 5:30 a.m. – NASA arrival coverage begins
• 7:30 a.m. – Targeted docking to the zenith port of the station’s Harmony module

NASA’s coverage is subject to change based on real-time operational activities. Follow the International Space Station blog for updates.

NASA Television launch coverage

Live coverage of the launch on NASA Television will begin at 4:35 p.m. Thursday, March 21. For downlink information, schedules, and links to streaming video, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

Audio only of the news conferences and launch coverage will be carried on the NASA “V” circuits, which may be accessed by dialing 321-867-1220, -1240, or -7135. On launch day, the full mission broadcast can be heard on -1220 and -1240, while the countdown net only can be heard on -7135 beginning approximately one hour before the mission broadcast begins.

On launch day, live coverage of the launch without NASA Television commentary will be carried on the NASA Television media channel.

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 4:35 p.m. Thursday, March 21, as the countdown milestones occur. On-demand streaming video and photos of the launch will be available shortly after liftoff. For questions about countdown coverage, contact the Kennedy newsroom at 321-867-2468. Follow countdown coverage on our commercial resupply services mission blog for updates.

Attend launch virtually

Members of the public can register to attend this launch virtually. Registrants will receive mission updates and activities by email. NASA’s virtual guest program for this mission also includes curated launch resources, notifications about related opportunities, and a virtual guest passport stamp following a successful launch.

Watch, engage on social media

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

Twitter: @NASA, @NASAKennedy, @NASASocial, @Space_Station, ISS_Research, @ISS National Lab

Facebook: NASA, NASAKennedy, ISS, ISS National Lab

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

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

Learn more about NASA commercial resupply services missions at:

https://www.nasa.gov/international-space-station/commercial-resupply/

-end-

Julian Coltre / Claire O’Shea
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
julian.n.coltre@nasa.gov / claire.a.o’shea@nasa.gov

Stephanie Plucinsky / Steven Siceloff
Kennedy Space Center, Florida
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

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Tiernan P. Doyle

NASA Volunteers Find Fifteen Rare “Active Asteroids”

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NASA Volunteers Find Fifteen Rare “Active Asteroids”

Some extraordinary asteroids have “activity”—comet-like tails or envelopes of gas and dust.  NASA’s Active Asteroids project announced the discovery of activity on fifteen asteroids, challenging conventional wisdom about the solar system.

To find these fifteen rare objects, more than 8000 volunteers combed through 430,000 images from the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) on the Victor M. Blanco telescope in Chile. A paper about the results, now published in the Astronomical Journal, includes nine volunteers among the co-authors.

“For an amateur astronomer like me it’s a dream come true.” said volunteer Virgilio Gonano from Udine, Italy. “Congratulations to all the staff and the friends that also check the images!”

Studying these rare active asteroids teaches scientists about the formation and evolution of the solar system, including the origins of water here on Earth. These objects may also aid future space exploration because the same ices that cause comet-like tails can power rockets or provide breathable air.

“I have been a member of the Active Asteroids team since its first batch of data,” said volunteer Tiffany Shaw-Diaz from Dayton, Ohio. “And to say that this project has become a significant part of my life is an understatement. I look forward to classifying subjects each day, as long as time or health permits, and I am beyond honored to work with such esteemed scientists on a regular basis.”

The Active Asteroids project was founded by Dr. Colin Orion Chandler, a LINCC Frameworks project scientist at the University of Washington and DiRAC Institute.  To join the project and help discover the next active asteroid, visit https://www.activeasteroids.net.

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Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff Participates in Women in Space Roundtable

The National Space Council hosted the Women in Space Roundtable on Monday, March 12, and Deputy Center Director Laurie Grindle from NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, was there to welcome Second Gentleman Mr. Douglas Emhoff and moderate a panel discussion.

NASA has partnered with the National Space Council, and our private partners, to invest in building a workforce, needed to support the growing private space sector. The Space Council, along with the Vice President as its chair, has been an important voice in the White House for how NASA’s work directly benefits the lives of people here on Earth, from tackling climate change, to creating good paying jobs, to inspiring the next generation.

The discussion included Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff, National Space Council Chief of Staff Tahara Dawkins, Cal Poly Pomona student Ericka Ontiveros, while moderated by Grindle. The panel shared its experience and thoughts with the group on a wide range of topics related to women in space. The event was hosted by the South Bay Workforce Investment Board in Hawthorne, California.

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NASA Delivers Science Instrument to JAXA’s Martian Moons Mission

On March 14, NASA delivered its gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer instrument to JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) for integration onto JAXA’s MMX (Martian Moons eXploration) mission spacecraft and final system-level testing.  

NASA’s Mars-moon Exploration with Gamma Ray and Neutrons (MEGANE) instrument, developed by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, in collaboration with colleagues from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California, will play a major role in the MMX mission, which aims to characterize and determine the origin of Mars’ moons Phobos and Deimos and deliver a sample from Phobos to Earth. 

Scientists suspect the asteroid-sized bodies either are remnants of an ancient collision between Mars and a large impactor or are themselves asteroids captured by Mars’ gravity. By measuring the energies of neutrons and gamma rays emitted from the surface of Phobos, MEGANE will let MMX “see” the elemental composition of the moon’s surface and help peg the likely origin of the moon. 

“MEGANE will be a key instrument on MMX, making a big contribution toward the goal of understanding the origin of the Martian moons,” said Thomas Statler, MEGANE program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “NASA is glad to see MEGANE ready for integration, another step in NASA’s continuing collaboration with JAXA on this groundbreaking mission.”

The instrument team received the green light last fall to ship MEGANE (pronounced meh-GAH-nay, the Japanese word for “eyeglasses”) after the project’s standing review board evaluated the device’s readiness. That milestone marked the end of a demanding 6-year design and development process, which met NASA’s cost and schedule constraints. 

“Passing the pre-ship review and delivering the hardware are significant steps for all those working on MEGANE,” said APL’s David Lawrence, the instrument’s principal investigator. “Like all spaceflight builds, we have had challenges getting to this point, but we are excited to see how MEGANE works with all the other spacecraft components for this exciting MMX mission.”    

With MEGANE now in Japan, the MMX team will begin integrating the scientific instruments, including MEGANE, with other spacecraft components, before putting the entire system through a series of tests in preparation for launch, which is scheduled for fiscal year 2026, aboard a JAXA H3 rocket. 

“For me personally, I’m looking forward to all the integration and test operations that are to come,” said Sarah Bucior, a space systems engineer in SES and the MEGANE I&T Lead Engineer. “I love rockets, so I’m really interested to see how they build their spacecraft and then follow it along to launch operations and liftoff.”

MEGANE was developed under NASA’s Discovery Program, which provides low-cost access to space. The Discovery Program is managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The instrument science team includes investigators from APL, LLNL, Marietta College, NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, and JAXA. 

To learn more about MEGANE and the MMX mission, visit http://megane.jhuapl.edu.

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St. Patrick’s Aurora Illuminates the Night Sky

This majestic image of the dazzling green lights of the aurora borealis was captured on March 17, 2015, around 5:30 a.m. EDT in Donnelly Creek, Alaska.

The aurora borealis and aurora australis, often called the northern lights and southern lights, are common occurrences at high northern and southern latitudes, less frequent at mid-latitudes, and seldom seen near the equator.

These colorful ribbons of light are the visible manifestation of the solar wind – the flow of charged particles from the Sun – interacting with the Earth’s magnetosphere. Strong geomagnetic storms stimulate our atmosphere and light up the night sky, creating auroras.

See how you can help track auroras around the world with the Aurorasaurus project.

Image Credit: Sebastian Saarloos

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