Computer Programmer and Mathematician Josephine Jue

Hired by NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston in 1963, Josephine Jue was a Chinese-American computer programmer and mathematician who worked for the agency for more than 30 years.

from NASA http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/computer-programmer-and-mathematician-josephine-jue
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ISS Daily Summary Report – 5/30/2023

 

Axiom-2 (Ax-2) Private Astronaut Mission (PAM) Undock: SpaceX Crew Dragon Freedom undocked from the ISS at 10:05 AM CT to return private astronauts Peggy Whitson, John Shoffner, Ali Alqarni, and Rayyanah Barnawi following a successful eight day docked mission. The vehicle is scheduled to splash down near Panama City, Florida, at 10:04 PM CT. ElectroMagnetic … ...

May 30, 2023 at 12:00PM
From NASA: https://blogs.nasa.gov/stationreport/2023/05/30/iss-daily-summary-report-5-30-2023/

How did we get here? We know that we live on a planet orbiting a star orbiting a galaxy, but how did all of this form? Since our universe moves too slowly to watch, faster-moving computer simulations are created to help find out. Specifically, this featured video from the IllustrisTNG collaboration tracks gas from the early universe (redshift 12) until today (redshift 0). As the simulation begins, ambient gas falls into and accumulates in a region of relatively high gravity. After a few billion years, a well-defined center materializes from a strange and fascinating cosmic dance. Gas blobs -- some representing small satellite galaxies -- continue to fall into and become absorbed by the rotating galaxy as the present epoch is reached and the video ends. For the Milky Way Galaxy, however, big mergers may not be over -- recent evidence indicates that our large spiral disk Galaxy will collide and coalesce with the slightly larger Andromeda spiral disk galaxy in the next few billion years.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230531.html ( May 31, 2023)

TROPICS Prepped to Track Storms

A Rocket Lab Electron rocket stands on Pad B, Launch Complex 1, in Māhia, New Zealand, just ahead of a successful launch on Friday, May 26, with NASA’s Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats (TROPICS) CubeSats payload.

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ISS Daily Summary Report – 5/29/2023

 

Exposed Experiment Bracket Attached on i-SEEP (ExBAS): The crew removed and stowed the ExBAS system from the payload attachment plate on the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) Airlock slide table. ExBAS is support hardware that provides a means of exposing a variety of experiments to the space environment. ExBAS attaches to the Small Payload Support Equipment … ...

May 29, 2023 at 12:00PM
From NASA: https://blogs.nasa.gov/stationreport/2023/05/29/iss-daily-summary-report-5-29-2023/

Is this what will become of our Sun? Quite possibly. The first hint of our Sun's future was discovered inadvertently in 1764. At that time, Charles Messier was compiling a list of diffuse objects not to be confused with comets. The 27th object on Messier's list, now known as M27 or the Dumbbell Nebula, is a planetary nebula, one of the brightest planetary nebulae on the sky and visible with binoculars toward the constellation of the Fox (Vulpecula). It takes light about 1000 years to reach us from M27, featured here in colors emitted by sulfur (red), hydrogen (green) and oxygen (blue). We now know that in about 6 billion years, our Sun will shed its outer gases into a planetary nebula like M27, while its remaining center will become an X-ray hot white dwarf star. Understanding the physics and significance of M27 was well beyond 18th century science, though. Even today, many things remain mysterious about planetary nebulas, including how their intricate shapes are created.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230530.html ( May 30, 2023)

What glows there? The answer depends: sea or sky? In the sea, the unusual blue glow is bioluminescence. Specifically, the glimmer arises from Noctiluca scintillans, single-celled plankton stimulated by the lapping waves. The plankton use their glow to startle and illuminate predators. This mid-February display on an island in the Maldives was so intense that the astrophotographer described it as a turquoise wonderland. In the sky, by contrast, are the more familiar glows of stars and nebulas. The white band rising from the artificially-illuminated green plants is created by billions of stars in the central disk of our Milky Way Galaxy. Also visible in the sky is the star cluster Omega Centauri, toward the left, and the famous Southern Cross asterism in the center. Red-glowing nebulas include the bright Carina Nebula, just right of center, and the expansive Gum Nebula on the upper right.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230529.html ( May 29, 2023)

This asteroid has a moon. The robot spacecraft Galileo on route to Jupiter in 1993 encountered and photographed two asteroids during its long interplanetary voyage. The second minor planet it photographed, 243 Ida, was unexpectedly discovered to have a moon. The tiny moon, Dactyl, is only about 1.6 kilometers across and seen as a small dot on the right of the sharpened featured image. In contrast, the potato-shaped Ida is much larger, measuring about 60 kilometers long and 25 km wide. Dactyl is the first moon of an asteroid ever discovered -- now many asteroids are known to have moons. The names Ida and Dactyl are from Greek mythology.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230528.html ( May 28, 2023)

Crescent Neptune and Triton

Gliding through the outer Solar System, in 1989 the Voyager 2 spacecraft looked toward the Sun to find this view of most distant planet Neptune and its moon Triton together in a crescent phase. The elegant image of ice-giant planet and largest moon was taken from behind just after Voyager's closest approach. It could not have been taken from Earth because the most distant planet never shows a crescent phase to sunward eyes. Heading for the heliopause and beyond, the spacecraft's parting vantage point also robs Neptune of its familiar blue hue.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230527.html ( May 27, 2023)

Hubble Captures a Drifting Galaxy

The jellyfish galaxy JW39 hangs serenely in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

from NASA http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2023/hubble-captures-a-drifting-galaxy
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ISS Daily Summary Report – 5/25/2023

 

AstroPi: The 6mm Camera Lens was removed from the AstroPi Vis unit and the Bumper Legs were removed from both the AstroPi Vis and IR units. This completes the European AstroPi Challenge Mission ‘Life in Space’. Two augmented Raspberry Pi computers (called AstroPis) were flown to the ISS and are both equipped with the mighty … ...

May 25, 2023 at 12:00PM
From NASA: https://blogs.nasa.gov/stationreport/2023/05/25/iss-daily-summary-report-5-25-2023/

Virgo Cluster Galaxies

Galaxies of the Virgo Cluster are scattered across this nearly 4 degree wide telescopic field of view. About 50 million light-years distant, the Virgo Cluster is the closest large galaxy cluster to our own local galaxy group. Prominent here are Virgo's bright elliptical galaxies Messier catalog, M87 at bottom center, and M84 and M86 (top to bottom) near top left. M84 and M86 are recognized as part of Markarian's Chain, a visually striking line-up of galaxies on the left side of this frame. Near the middle of the chain lies an intriguing interacting pair of galaxies, NGC 4438 and NGC 4435, known to some as Markarian's Eyes. Of course giant elliptical galaxy M87 dominates the Virgo cluster. It's the home of a super massive black hole, the first black hole ever imaged by planet Earth's Event Horizon Telescope.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230526.html ( May 26, 2023)

ISS Daily Summary Report – 5/24/2023

 

Payloads: Ring Sheared Drop-Interfacial Bioprocessing of Pharmaceuticals (RSD-IBP): The existing syringe and test cell (Sample 24) were removed, and a new syringe and new test cell (Sample 25) were installed into the RSD hardware in the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) Work Volume. The ISS’s RSD module is a containerless liquid system that makes it possible … ...

May 24, 2023 at 12:00PM
From NASA: https://blogs.nasa.gov/stationreport/2023/05/24/iss-daily-summary-report-5-24-2023/

Strategic Partnerships Manager Anita Dey

"If I can advocate for all the groups that need equity, I'm glad to do it." – Anita Dey, Strategic Partnerships Manager, Outreach and Engagement, NASA Headquarters

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Cat s Eye Wide and Deep

The Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) is one of the best known planetary nebulae in the sky. Its more familiar outlines are seen in the brighter central region of the nebula in this impressive wide-angle view. But this wide and deep image combining data from two telescopes also reveals its extremely faint outer halo. At an estimated distance of 3,000 light-years, the faint outer halo is over 5 light-years across. Planetary nebulae have long been appreciated as a final phase in the life of a sun-like star. More recently, some planetary nebulae are found to have halos like this one, likely formed of material shrugged off during earlier episodes in the star's evolution. While the planetary nebula phase is thought to last for around 10,000 years, astronomers estimate the age of the outer filamentary portions of this halo to be 50,000 to 90,000 years. Visible on the right, some 50 million light-years beyond the watchful planetary nebula, lies spiral galaxy NGC 6552.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230525.html ( May 25, 2023)

Whistling Through the Wildflowers

Two black-bellied whistling ducks walk through a field of wildflowers at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 19, 2023.

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ISS Daily Summary Report – 5/23/2023

 

Private Astronaut Mission (PAM) Axiom-2 (Ax-2): ISS Familiarization, Emergency Overview, and On-Orbit Adaptation: The Ax-2 crew completed all their on-orbit handover/ISS familiarization activities with the ISS PAM facilitator. Additionally, the Ax-2 crew completed the Emergency Roles and Responsibility review with the full ISS crew and completed the Emergency On-Board Training (OBT). Emergency response hardware was … ...

May 23, 2023 at 12:00PM
From NASA: https://blogs.nasa.gov/stationreport/2023/05/23/iss-daily-summary-report-5-23-2023/

Sometimes we witness the Moon moving directly in front of -- called occulting -- one of the planets in our Solar System. Earlier this month that planet was Jupiter. Captured here was the moment when Jupiter re-appeared from behind the surface of our Moon. The Moon was in its third quarter, two days before the dark New Moon. Now, our Moon is continuously half lit by the Sun, but when in its third quarter, relatively little of that half can be seen from the Earth. Pictured, the Moon itself was aligned behind the famous Lick Observatory in California, USA, on the summit of Mount Hamilton. Coincidentally, Lick enabled the discovery of a moon of Jupiter: Amalthea, the last visually detected moon of Jupiter after Galileo's observations.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230524.html ( May 24, 2023)

SpaceX Dragon Crew Ship Approaches the International Space Station

The SpaceX Dragon crew spacecraft, named Freedom, is seen as it approaches the International Space Station with four Axiom Mission 2 private astronauts aboard on Monday, May 22, 2023.

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ISS Daily Summary Report – 5/22/2023

 

Private Astronaut Mission (PAM) Axiom 2: SpaceX Crew Dragon Freedom successfully launched on Sunday, May 21st, at 4:37 PM CST and docked to the ISS on Monday, May 22nd, at 8:25 AM CST. This was the fastest launch to dock time for a Crew Dragon. With the arrival of the four private astronauts, Peggy Whitson, … ...

May 22, 2023 at 12:00PM
From NASA: https://blogs.nasa.gov/stationreport/2023/05/22/iss-daily-summary-report-5-22-2023/

Big storms are different on Jupiter. On Earth, huge hurricanes and colossal cyclones are centered on regions of low pressure, but on Jupiter, it is the high-pressure, anti-cyclone storms that are the largest. On Earth, large storms can last weeks, but on Jupiter they can last years. On Earth, large storms can be as large as a country, but on Jupiter, large storms can be as large as planet Earth. Both types of storms are known to exhibit lightning. The featured image of Jupiter's clouds was composed from images and data captured by the robotic Juno spacecraft as it swooped close to the massive planet in August 2020.  A swirling white oval is visible nearby, while numerous smaller cloud swirls extend into the distance.  On Jupiter, light-colored clouds are usually higher up than dark clouds. Despite their differences, studying storm clouds on distant Jupiter provides insights into storms and other weather patterns on familiar Earth. 

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230523.html ( May 23, 2023)

Baby Stars in the Orion Constellation

Scores of baby stars shrouded by dust are revealed in this infrared image of the star-forming region NGC 2174.

from NASA http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/baby-stars-in-the-orion-constellation
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A nearby star has exploded and humanity's telescopes are turning to monitor it. The supernova, dubbed SN 2023ifx, was discovered by Japanese astronomer Koichi Itagaki three days ago and subsequently located on automated images from the Zwicky Transient Facility two days earlier. SN 2023ifx occurred in the photogenic Pinwheel Galaxy M101, which, being only about 21 million light years away, makes it the closest supernova seen in the past five years, the second closest in the past 10 years, and the second supernova found in M101 in the past 15 years. Rapid follow up observations already indicate that SN 2023ifx is a Type II supernova, an explosion that occurs after a massive star runs out of nuclear fuel and collapses. The featured image shows home spiral galaxy two days ago with the supernova highlighted, while the roll-over image shows the same galaxy a month before. SN 2023ifx will likely brighten and remain visible to telescopes for months. Studying such a close and young Type II supernova may yield new clues about massive stars and how they explode.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230522.html ( May 22, 2023)

Is this an alien? Probably not, but of all the animals on Earth, the tardigrade might be the best candidate. That's because tardigrades are known to be able to go for decades without food or water, to survive temperatures from near absolute zero to well above the boiling point of water, to survive pressures from near zero to well above that on ocean floors, and to survive direct exposure to dangerous radiations. The far-ranging survivability of these extremophiles was tested in 2011 outside an orbiting space shuttle. Tardigrades are so durable partly because they can repair their own DNA and reduce their body water content to a few percent. Some of these miniature water-bears almost became extraterrestrials in 2011 when they were launched toward to the Martian moon Phobos, and again in 2021 when they were launched toward Earth's own moon, but the former launch failed, and the latter landing crashed. Tardigrades are more common than humans across most of the Earth. Pictured here in a color-enhanced electron micrograph, a millimeter-long tardigrade crawls on moss.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230521.html ( May 21, 2023)

Galileo s Europa

Looping through the Jovian system in the late 1990s, the Galileo spacecraft recorded stunning views of Europa and uncovered evidence that the moon's icy surface likely hides a deep, global ocean. Galileo's Europa image data has been remastered here, with improved calibrations to produce a color image approximating what the human eye might see. Europa's long curving fractures hint at the subsurface liquid water. The tidal flexing the large moon experiences in its elliptical orbit around Jupiter supplies the energy to keep the ocean liquid. But more tantalizing is the possibility that even in the absence of sunlight that process could also supply the energy to support life, making Europa one of the best places to look for life beyond Earth. What kind of life could thrive in a deep, dark, subsurface ocean? Consider planet Earth's own extreme shrimp.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230520.html ( May 20, 2023)

Hubble Peers into a Glistening Star Cluster

The densely packed globular cluster NGC 6325 glistens in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

from NASA http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2023/hubble-peers-into-a-glistening-star-cluster
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Curly Spiral Galaxy M63

A bright spiral galaxy of the northern sky, Messier 63 is nearby, about 30 million light-years distant toward the loyal constellation Canes Venatici. Also cataloged as NGC 5055, the majestic island universe is nearly 100,000 light-years across, about the size of our own Milky Way. Its bright core and majestic spiral arms lend the galaxy its popular name, The Sunflower Galaxy. This exceptionally deep exposure also follows faint, arcing star streams far into the galaxy's halo. Extending nearly 180,000 light-years from the galactic center, the star streams are likely remnants of tidally disrupted satellites of M63. Other satellite galaxies of M63 can be spotted in the remarkable wide-field image, including faint dwarf galaxies, which could contribute to M63's star streams in the next few billion years.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230519.html ( May 19, 2023)

U.S. Senate Members Meet the Crew of Artemis II

U.S. Senate Members Meet the Crew of Artemis II

from NASA http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/us-senate-members-meet-the-crew-of-artemis-ii
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WR 134 Ring Nebula

Made with narrowband filters, this cosmic snapshot covers a field of view about the size of the full Moon within the boundaries of the constellation Cygnus. It highlights the bright edge of a ring-like nebula traced by the glow of ionized sulfur, hydrogen, and oxygen gas. Embedded in the region's interstellar clouds of gas and dust, the complex, glowing arcs are sections of bubbles or shells of material swept up by the wind from Wolf-Rayet star WR 134, brightest star near the center of the frame. Distance estimates put WR 134 about 6,000 light-years away, making the frame over 50 light-years across. Shedding their outer envelopes in powerful stellar winds, massive Wolf-Rayet stars have burned through their nuclear fuel at a prodigious rate and end this final phase of massive star evolution in a spectacular supernova explosion. The stellar winds and final supernovae enrich the interstellar material with heavy elements to be incorporated in future generations of stars.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230518.html ( May 18, 2023)

ISS Daily Summary Report – 5/16/2023

 

Payloads: Dreams: The crew doffed the Dreams dry-electroencephalogram (EEG) headband, charged it, and then set it up for a later science session. Sleep plays a major role in human health and well-being. Insufficient sleep or sleep disorders can increase the risk of developing medical conditions, such as cardiovascular diseases, and can impair task performance. The … ...

May 16, 2023 at 12:00PM
From NASA: https://blogs.nasa.gov/stationreport/2023/05/16/iss-daily-summary-report-5-16-2023/

Laguna San Rafael National Park Viewed from the Space Station

Laguna San Rafael National Park, photographed on May 9, 2023 as the space station orbited 268 miles above Chile.

from NASA http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/laguna-san-rafael-national-park-viewed-from-the-space-station
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Why would a small part of the Sun appear slightly dark? Visible is a close-up picture of sunspots, depressions on the Sun's surface that are slightly cooler and less bright than the rest of the Sun. The Sun's complex magnetic field creates these cool regions by inhibiting hot material from entering the spots. Sunspots can be larger than the Earth and typically last for about a week. Part of active region AR 3297 crossing the Sun in early May, the large lower sunspot is spanned by an impressive light bridge of hot and suspended solar gas. This high-resolution picture also shows clearly that the Sun's surface is a bubbling carpet of separate cells of hot gas. These cells are known as granules. A solar granule is about 1000 kilometers across and lasts for only about 15 minutes.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230517.html ( May 17, 2023)

Moon Over the Southern Atlantic

The waxing gibbous Moon stands out against the stark darkness of space on May 3, 2023.

from NASA http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/moon-over-the-southern-atlantic
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ISS Daily Summary Report – 5/15/2023

 

Payloads: Airborne Particulate Monitor (APM): The crew checked the APM hardware and display, then notified the ground team of the status. Air quality in crewed spacecraft is important for keeping astronauts healthy and comfortable. Although requirements exist for maximum allowable concentrations of particulate matter, currently no measurement capability verifies whether these requirements are met. APM … ...

May 15, 2023 at 12:00PM
From NASA: https://blogs.nasa.gov/stationreport/2023/05/15/iss-daily-summary-report-5-15-2023/

Most photographs don't adequately portray the magnificence of the Sun's corona. Seeing the corona first-hand during a total solar eclipse is unparalleled. The human eye can adapt to see coronal features and extent that average cameras usually cannot. Welcome, however, to the digital age. The featured image digitally combined short and long exposures taken in Exmouth, Australia that were processed to highlight faint and extended features in the corona during the total solar eclipse that occurred in April of 2023. Clearly visible are intricate layers and glowing caustics of an ever changing mixture of hot gas and magnetic fields in the Sun's corona. Looping prominences appear bright pink just past the Sun's edge. Images taken seconds before and after the total eclipse show glimpses of the background Sun known as Baily's Beads and diamond ring effect. The next total solar eclipse will cross North America in April of 2024.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230516.html ( May 16, 2023)

Hearing and Seeing the Music of the Spheres

Maestro Piotr Gajewski conducts the National Philharmonic in the world premiere performance of Henry Dehlinger’s “Cosmic Cycles,” in this photo from Thursday, May 11, 2023, as an enhanced color image of Jupiter is displayed above.

from NASA http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/hearing-and-seeing-the-music-of-the-spheres
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From afar, the whole thing looks like an eagle. A closer look at the Eagle Nebula, however, shows the bright region is actually a window into the center of a larger dark shell of dust. Through this window, a brightly-lit workshop appears where a whole open cluster of stars is being formed. In this cavity, tall pillars and round globules of dark dust and cold molecular gas remain where stars are still forming. Already visible are several young bright blue stars whose light and winds are burning away and pushing back the remaining filaments and walls of gas and dust. The Eagle emission nebula, tagged M16, lies about 6500 light years away, spans about 20 light-years, and is visible with binoculars toward the constellation of the Serpent (Serpens). This picture involved long and deep exposures and combined three specific emitted colors emitted by sulfur (colored as yellow), hydrogen (red), and oxygen (blue).

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230515.html ( May 15, 2023)

What would it be like to fly free in space? At about 100 meters from the cargo bay of the space shuttle Challenger, Bruce McCandless II was living the dream -- floating farther out than anyone had ever been before. Guided by a Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), astronaut McCandless, pictured, was floating free in space. During Space Shuttle mission 41-B in 1984, McCandless and fellow NASA astronaut Robert Stewart were the first to experience such an "untethered space walk". The MMU worked by shooting jets of nitrogen and was used to help deploy and retrieve satellites. With a mass over 140 kilograms, an MMU is heavy on Earth, but, like everything, is weightless when drifting in orbit. The MMU was later replaced with the SAFER backpack propulsion unit.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230514.html ( May 14, 2023)

Apollo 17: The Crescent Earth

Our fair planet sports a curved, sunlit crescent against the black backdrop of space in this stunning photograph. From the unfamiliar perspective, the Earth is small and, like a telescopic image of a distant planet, the entire horizon is completely within the field of view. Enjoyed by crews on board the International Space Station, only much closer views of the planet are possible from low Earth orbit. Orbiting the planet once every 90 minutes, a spectacle of clouds, oceans, and continents scrolls beneath them with the partial arc of the planet's edge in the distance. But this digitally restored image presents a view so far only achieved by 24 humans, Apollo astronauts who traveled to the Moon and back again between 1968 and 1972. The original photograph, AS17-152-23420, was taken by the homeward bound crew of Apollo 17, on December 17, 1972. For now it is the last picture of Earth from this planetary perspective taken by human hands.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230513.html ( May 13, 2023)

50th Anniversary of the Skylab 1 Launch

Clouds of smoke billow out over the surrounding area as the uncrewed Skylab 1/Saturn V space vehicle launches from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on May 14, 1973.

from NASA http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/50th-anniversary-of-the-skylab-1-launch
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ISS Daily Summary Report – 5/11/2023

 

Payloads: Actiwatch-Plus: Actiwatch devices were attached to the HRF-1 rack for data downlink and charging. The Actiwatch-Plus is a waterproof, non-intrusive, sleep-wake activity monitor worn on the wrist of a crewmember and contains a miniature uniaxial accelerometer that produces a signal as the subject moves. The data is stored in non-volatile memory within the Actiwatch … ...

May 11, 2023 at 12:00PM
From NASA: https://blogs.nasa.gov/stationreport/2023/05/11/iss-daily-summary-report-5-11-2023/

Halley Dust, Mars Dust, and Milky Way

Grains of cosmic dust streaked through night skies in early May. Swept up as planet Earth plowed through the debris streams left behind by periodic Comet Halley, the annual meteor shower is known as the Eta Aquarids. This year, the Eta Aquarids peak was visually hampered by May's bright Full Moon, though. But early morning hours surrounding last May's shower of Halley dust were free of moonlight interference. In exposures recorded between April 28 and May 8 in 2022, this composited image shows nearly 90 Eta Aquarid meteors streaking from the shower's radiant in Aquarius over San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. The central Milky Way arcs above in the southern hemisphere's predawn skies. The faint band of light rising from the horizon is Zodiacal light, caused by dust scattering sunlight near our Solar System's ecliptic plane. Along the ecliptic and entrained in the Zodiacal glow are the bright planets Venus, Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn. Of course Mars itself has recently been found to be a likely source of the dust along the ecliptic responsible for creating Zodiacal light.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230512.html ( May 12, 2023)

ISS Daily Summary Report – 5/10/2023

 

Payloads: There were no Payload activities today. Systems: In-Flight Maintenance (IFM) Node 1 Zenith Hatch Troubleshooting: Today, the crew performed troubleshooting on the Node 1 Zenith Hatch, which the crew had been unable to open earlier this year to access the Z1 Dome. As part of the troubleshooting, the crew removed the hatch Manual Pressure … ...

May 10, 2023 at 12:00PM
From NASA: https://blogs.nasa.gov/stationreport/2023/05/10/iss-daily-summary-report-5-10-2023/

Stabilizing Shorelines with Mangroves

A team member from the Environmental Management Branch at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center works to remove a mangrove seedling deposited by tropical winds on the shoreline of KARS Park at Kennedy in this image from April 12, 2023.

from NASA http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/stabilizing-shorelines-with-mangroves
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Fomalhaut is a bright star, a 25 light-year voyage from planet Earth in the direction of the constellation Piscis Austrinus. Astronomers first noticed Fomalhaut's excess infrared emission in the 1980s. Space and ground-based telescopes have since identified the infrared emission's source as a disk of dusty debris surrounding the hot, young star related to the ongoing formation of a planetary system. But this sharp infrared image from the James Webb Space Telescope's MIRI camera reveals details of Fomalhaut's debris disk never before seen, including a large dust cloud in the outer ring that is possible evidence for colliding bodies, and an inner dust disk and gap likely shaped and maintained by embedded but unseen planets. An image scale bar in au or astronomical units, the average Earth-Sun distance, appears at the lower left. Fomalhaut's outer circumstellar dust ring lies at about twice the distance of our own Solar System's Kuiper Belt of small icy bodies and debris beyond the orbit of Neptune.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230511.html ( May 11, 2023)

Vance Oyama, Searching for Life in Our Solar System

Vance I. Oyama holds a readout from the gas chromatograph in the life detection laboratory at NASA’s Ames Research Center in this picture from April 22, 1965.

from NASA http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/vance-oyama-searching-for-life-in-our-solar-system
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ISS Daily Summary Report – 5/09/2023

 

Payloads: Combustion Integrated Rack (CIR): Manifold #2 Bottle of High Percentage Oxygen was swapped out for a fresh bottle. The CIR includes an optics bench, combustion chamber, fuel and oxidizer control, and five different cameras for performing combustion investigations in microgravity. Human Research Facility-1 (HRF-1): The crew performed a resupply of HRF-1 hardware and accessories. … ...

May 09, 2023 at 12:00PM
From NASA: https://blogs.nasa.gov/stationreport/2023/05/09/iss-daily-summary-report-5-09-2023/

For ten years the stargazer dreamed of taking a picture like this. The dreamer knew that the White Desert National Park in Egypt's Western Desert is a picturesque place hosting numerous chalk formations sculpted into surreal structures by a sandy wind. The dreamer knew that the sky above could be impressively dark on a clear moonless night, showing highlights such as the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy in impressive color and detail. So the dreamer invited an even more experienced astrophotographer to spend three weeks together in the desert and plan the composite images that needed to be taken and processed to create the dream image. Over three days in mid-March, the base images were taken, all with the same camera and from the same location. The impressive result is featured here, with the dreamer -- proudly wearing a traditional Bedouin galabyia -- pictured in the foreground.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230510.html ( May 10, 2023)

Spacewalkers Stephen Bowen and Sultan Alneyadi Exit the Quest Airlock

Spacewalkers Stephen Bowen and Sultan Alneyadi are pictured in their Extravehicular Mobility Units, or spacesuits, exiting the International Space Station's Quest airlock and beginning a spacewalk.

from NASA http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/spacewalkers-stephen-bowen-and-sultan-alneyadi-exit-the-quest-airlock
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ISS Daily Summary Report – 5/08/2023

 

Crew-6 Port Relocation: On Saturday, May 6th, Crew Dragon Endeavor was successfully relocated from Node 2 Zenith to Node 2 Forward. This relocation was completed in preparation for the arrival of SpX-28 in early June, which requires the Node 2 Zenith port for robotic arm access. The crew will be off duty today to recover … ...

May 08, 2023 at 12:00PM
From NASA: https://blogs.nasa.gov/stationreport/2023/05/08/iss-daily-summary-report-5-08-2023/