Author: Abby Graf

Dragon Spacecraft Boosts Station for First Time

The SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft is pictured by an external camera attached to the International Space Station. Credit: NASA
The SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft is pictured by an external camera attached to the International Space Station. Credit: NASA

NASA and SpaceX monitored operations as the company’s Dragon spacecraft performed its first demonstration of reboost capabilities for the International Space Station at 12:50 p.m. EST on Friday. The spacecraft’s Draco thrusters adjusted the station’s orbit through a reboost of altitude by 7/100 of a mile at apogee and 7/10 of a mile at perigee, lasting approximately 12 minutes and 30 seconds.

By testing the spacecraft’s ability to provide reboost and, eventually, attitude control, NASA’s International Space Station Program will have multiple spacecraft available to provide these capabilities for the orbital complex.

Currently, the Roscosmos Progress spacecraft and the Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft also provide reboost for the space station.

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft recently delivered more than 6,000 pounds of supplies to the orbiting laboratory. The resupply mission lifted off Nov. 4 on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and arrived at the space station on Nov. 5. This launch was the 31st SpaceX commercial resupply services mission for the agency.

For more than two decades, the International Space Station has served as a critical testbed for NASA to understand and overcome the challenges of long-duration spaceflight and to expand commercial opportunities in low Earth orbit. The space station is a springboard for developing a low Earth economy and NASA’s next great leaps in exploration, including missions to the Moon under Artemis and, ultimately, human exploration of Mars.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

Get weekly updates from NASA Johnson Space Center at: https://roundupreads.jsc.nasa.gov/

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Science Activation and Training Top Friday’s Orbital Schedule

NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Suni Williams, Expedition 72 Flight Engineer and Commander respectively, discuss orbital lab maintenance procedures aboard the International Space Station.
NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Suni Williams, Expedition 72 Flight Engineer and Commander respectively, discuss orbital lab maintenance procedures aboard the International Space Station.

A host of activities topped Friday’s schedule aboard the orbital outpost as the Expedition 72 crew penned in time for experiment activation, spacesuit work, training, and more.

International Space Station Commander Suni Williams spent the first half of her day on spacesuit duty, removing the impact shields and inspecting the gear for any leaks. In the afternoon, she serviced biotechnology hardware and installed new cassettes for crystallization research.

Later on, Williams was joined by her three of her crewmates, NASA Flight Engineers Nick Hague and Butch Wilmore, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, to review medical emergency procedures and hardware.

Both Hague and Wilmore separately assisted NASA Flight Engineer Don Pettit throughout the day to illuminate space-induced inflammation changes in organisms. Hague also set up new experiment containers for an investigation that will test how to transplant and grow micro-algae in space.

Meanwhile, Wilmore continued work that Williams began yesterday and activated additional mixing tubes that contain protein and bacteria for the NanoRacks Module-9 investigation, which is a student-led experiment that examines how microgravity affects protein synthesis.

The orbiting lab’s three cosmonauts completed an array of upkeep tasks throughout the day. Gorbunov and Flight Engineer Ivan Vagner conducted some orbital plumbing, while Flight Engineer Alexey Ovchinin worked some life support systems and electronics tasks before photographing various landmarks on Earth. At the end of the day, the trio was joined by their four NASA crewmates to review Dragon cargo emergency training materials and response.

On Earth, the four crew members of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8, who splashed down off the coast of Florida on Oct. 25, will discuss their microgravity science mission during a post-flight news conference this afternoon, Nov. 8, at 3:15 p.m. EST. Watch the quartet live on NASA+ and the agency’s website.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

Get weekly updates from NASA Johnson Space Center at: https://roundupreads.jsc.nasa.gov/

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Expedition 72 Welcomes New Crew, Crew-8 Departing Soon

NASA's SpaceX Crew-9 crew joins Expedition 72 aboard the International Space Station. Credit: NASA
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 crew joins Expedition 72 aboard the International Space Station. Credit: NASA

The seven astronauts and four cosmonauts representing the Expedition 72 crew slept in on Monday working half-a-day during the afternoon following Sunday’s arrival of the SpaceX Crew-9 mission.

The International Space Station’s two newest crew members, Nick Hague of NASA and Aleksandr Gorbunov of Roscosmos, launched to the orbital outpost aboard the SpaceX Dragon at 1:17 p.m. EDT on Saturday. The duo docked to the Harmony module’s forward port at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday beginning a five-month space research mission.

Hague, on his second spaceflight, began his day on Monday afternoon joining NASA Flight Engineer Jeanette Epps as she demonstrated how to operate the advanced resistive exercise device to maintain muscle and bone mass in weightlessness. Afterward, he joined NASA Flight Engineer Matthew Dominick and transferred standard emergency gear inside the newly arrived Dragon spacecraft.

Gorbunov kicked off his first full day on the orbital lab getting familiar with life on the space station and learning its systems and procedures. Next, he joined fellow cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin who began handing over his mission responsibilities to Gorbunov.

Flight Engineers Mike Barratt and Butch Wilmore with Commander Suni Williams, all three from NASA, helped unpack cargo and fresh scientific samples from Dragon. The trio removed and stowed a variety of crew supplies and station hardware then transferred portable science freezers containing the research samples and installed them inside station science freezers for preservation and later analysis.

Having been aboard the space station since Sept. 11, NASA Flight Engineer Don Pettit spent his shift on orbital plumbing duties, analyzing station water for microbes, and configuring specialized watches that monitor a crew member’s sleep/wake cycle. His Soyuz MS-26 crewmates, Flight Engineers Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, spent the day servicing electronics systems and Earth observation hardware.

The next crew to depart the orbital outpost, SpaceX Crew-8, has been stepping up its cargo packing duties and mission handover responsibilities the last several days. NASA and SpaceX are evaluating departure opportunities before Dominick leads Barratt, Epps and Grebenkin back to Earth inside Dragon ending a six-and-a-half-month mission orbiting Earth.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

Get weekly updates from NASA Johnson Space Center at: https://roundupreads.jsc.nasa.gov/

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Expedition 72 Welcomes Crew-9 Duo Aboard Station

NASA's SpaceX Crew-9 crew joins Expedition 72 aboard the International Space Station. Credit: NASA
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 crew joins Expedition 72 aboard the International Space Station. Credit: NASA

NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov entered the International Space Station after opening the hatch between the space station and the pressurized mating adapter at 7:04 p.m. EDT before opening the hatch to Dragon.

Hague and Gorbunov were welcomed by the space station’s Expedition 72 crew, including NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, Jeanette Epps, Don Petitt, Butch Wilmore, and Suni Williams, as well as Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexander Grebenkin, Alexey Ovchinin, and Ivan Vagner.

NASA’s live coverage continues through crew welcome remarks aboard the station on NASA+, YouTube, and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

Get weekly updates from NASA Johnson Space Center at: https://roundupreads.jsc.nasa.gov/

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SpaceX Dragon with Crew-9 Aboard Docks to Station

Sept. 29, 2024: International Space Station Configuration. Six spaceships are parked at the space station including the SpaceX Dragons Endurance and Endeavour, the Northrop Grumman resupply ship, the Soyuz MS-26 crew ship, and the Progress 88 and 89 resupply ships.
Sept. 29, 2024: International Space Station Configuration. Six spaceships are parked at the space station including the SpaceX Dragons Endeavour and Freedom, the Northrop Grumman resupply ship, the Soyuz MS-26 crew ship, and the Progress 88 and 89 resupply ships.

NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov arrived at the International Space Station Sunday, as the SpaceX Dragon Freedom docked to the orbiting complex at 5:30 p.m. EDT while the station was 260 statute miles over Botswana.

Following Dragon’s link up to the Harmony module, the astronauts aboard the Dragon and the space station will begin conducting standard leak checks and pressurization between the spacecraft in preparation for hatch opening scheduled for approximately 7:15 p.m.

Hague and Gorbunov will join the space station’s Expedition 72 crew of NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, Jeanette Epps, Don Petitt, Butch Wilmore, and Suni Williams, as well as Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexander Grebenkin, Alexey Ovchinin, and Ivan Vagner. For a short time, the number of crew aboard the space station will increase to 11 people until Crew-8 members Dominick, Barratt, Epps, and Grebenkin return to Earth in early October.

NASA’s live coverage continues on NASA+, YouTube, and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

Get weekly updates from NASA Johnson Space Center at: https://roundupreads.jsc.nasa.gov/

Get the latest from NASA delivered every week. Subscribe here: www.nasa.gov/subscribe

SpaceX Crew-9 Approaching Station Live on NASA+

SpaceX Crew-9 members (from left) Mission Specialist Aleksandr Gorbunov from Roscosmos and Commander Nick Hague from NASA pose for an official crew portrait at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Credit: NASA/Josh Valcarel
SpaceX Crew-9 members (from left) Mission Specialist Aleksandr Gorbunov from Roscosmos and Commander Nick Hague from NASA pose for an official crew portrait at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Credit: NASA/Josh Valcarel

NASA+, YouTube, and the agency’s website are continuing to provide live coverage of the agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission carrying NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov to the International Space Station.

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to dock about 5:30 p.m. EDT, Sunday, Sept. 29. Dragon is designed to dock autonomously, but the crew aboard the spacecraft and the space station will monitor the performance of the spacecraft as it approaches and docks to the forward port of the station’s Harmony module.

When the hatches open at about one hour and 45 minutes after docking, the Crew-9 astronauts will join the Expedition 72 crew of NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, Jeanette Epps, Don Petitt, Butch Wilmore, and Suni Williams, as well as Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexander Grebenkin, Alexey Ovchinin, and Ivan Vagner.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

Get weekly updates from NASA Johnson Space Center at: https://roundupreads.jsc.nasa.gov/

Get the latest from NASA delivered every week. Subscribe here: www.nasa.gov/subscribe

Soyuz Lands Returning Dyson, Two Crewmates Back to Earth

The Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft lands in Kazakhstan at 7:59 a.m. EDT Monday, Sept. 23. Credit: NASA
The Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft lands in Kazakhstan at 7:59 a.m. EDT Monday, Sept. 23. Credit: NASA

At 7:59 a.m. EDT (4:59 p.m. Kazakhstan time), the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft made a parachute-assisted landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan, southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan.

Spanning 184 days in space, NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson’s mission includes covering 2,944 orbits of the Earth and a journey of 78 million miles. The Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft launched March 23, and arrived at the station March 25, with Dyson, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, and spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus. Novitskiy and Vasilevskaya were aboard the station for 12 days before returning home with NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara on April 6.

Roscosmos cosmonauts Nikolai Chub and Oleg Kononenko, who launched with O’Hara to the station on the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft last September, returned after 374 days in space and a trip of 158.6 million miles, spanning 5,984 orbits.

Dyson spent her third spaceflight aboard the station as an Expedition 70 and 71 flight engineer, and returned with Kononenko, completing his fifth flight into space and accruing an all-time record 1,111 days in orbit, and Chub, who completed his first spaceflight.

The three crew members will fly on a helicopter from the landing site to the recovery staging city of Karaganda, Kazakhstan. Dyson will board a NASA plane and return to Houston, while Kononenko and Chub will depart for a training base in Star City, Russia.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

Get weekly updates from NASA Johnson Space Center at: https://roundupreads.jsc.nasa.gov/

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NASA Astronaut Tracy C. Dyson and Crewmates Returning to Earth Live on NASA+

Individual pre-flight crew portraits of NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson and Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub wearing their Soyuz launch and landing suits.
Individual pre-flight crew portraits of NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson and Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub wearing their Soyuz launch and landing suits.

NASA’s live return coverage is underway on NASA+ and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.

The Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft, with NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson and Roscosmos cosmonauts Nikolai Chub and Oleg Kononenko, will make a parachute-assisted landing at 7:59 a.m. (4:59 p.m. Kazakhstan time) on the steppe of Kazakhstan, southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan. The spacecraft will execute its deorbit burn at 7:05 a.m.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

Get weekly updates from NASA Johnson Space Center at: https://roundupreads.jsc.nasa.gov/

Get the latest from NASA delivered every week. Subscribe here: www.nasa.gov/subscribe

Soyuz Spacecraft Undocks, Three Crew Members Headed Back to Earth

The Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft undocks from the International Space Station's Prichal module. Credit: NASA
The Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft undocks from the International Space Station’s Prichal module. Credit: NASA

At 4:36 a.m. EDT, the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft undocked from the orbiting laboratory’s Prichal module with NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson and Roscosmos cosmonauts Nikolai Chub and Oleg Kononenko.

NASA’s live coverage of deorbit burn, entry, and landing will begin at 6:45 a.m. on NASA+ and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.

The spacecraft will make a parachute-assisted landing at 7:59 a.m. (4:59 p.m. Kazakhstan time) on the steppe of Kazakhstan, southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

Get weekly updates from NASA Johnson Space Center at: https://roundupreads.jsc.nasa.gov/

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Trio Departing Space Station Soon Live on NASA+

Expedition 71 crew members (from left) Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, both Roscosmos cosmonauts, and NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson pose for a portrait inside the International Space Station's Rassvet module.
Expedition 71 crew members (from left) Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, both Roscosmos cosmonauts, and NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson pose for a portrait inside the International Space Station’s Rassvet module.

NASA’s live coverage of undocking is now underway on NASA+ and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.

At 1:02 a.m. EDT, hatches between the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft and the International Space Station closed in preparation for undocking and return to Earth of NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson and Roscosmos cosmonauts Nikolai Chub and Oleg Kononenko.

The spacecraft will undock from the orbiting laboratory’s Prichal module at 4:36 a.m., heading for a parachute-assisted landing at 7:59 a.m. (4:59 p.m. Kazakhstan time) on the steppe of Kazakhstan, southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan.

NASA will provide coverage of deorbit burn, entry, and landing at 6:45 a.m. on NASA+ and the agency’s website.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

Get weekly updates from NASA Johnson Space Center at: https://roundupreads.jsc.nasa.gov/

Get the latest from NASA delivered every week. Subscribe here: www.nasa.gov/subscribe