NASA News – October 1st-15th

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Change of Command Aboard the Space Station

On Oct. 4 aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 65 Commander Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency officially handed over command of the station to European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet. Pesquet will command the station until he departs aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft in mid-to-late November with Hoshide and NASA astronauts Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough.

Get Curious for World Space Week

“Get Curious with Vice President Harris” is a YouTube Originals video released on Oct. 7 to kick off World Space Week. It follows a group of kids as they meet the Vice President and go on a scavenger hunt with clues delivered by our Shane Kimbrough from the International Space Station. The Vice President is the chair of the National Space Council.

Expanding Commercial Space Opportunities

On Oct. 5, Roscosmos cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, Russian actress Yulia Peresild and producer Klim Shipenko launched to the space station from Kazakhstan. Several hours later, the Expedition 65 crew welcomed the trio aboard the orbiting outpost. The actress and producer are filming scenes aboard the station for a movie as part of a commercial agreement that marks the expansion of commercial space opportunities to include feature filmmaking.

Space Station’s Next SpaceX Crew Rotation Mission

We previewed NASA’s SpaceX Crew-3 mission during a pair of virtual briefings Oct. 6 and 7. Crew-3 is the next crew rotation flight of a U.S. commercial spacecraft with astronauts to the International Space Station.

NASA’s Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, and Kayla Barron along with European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer are targeted for launch to the station Oct. 30 from our Kennedy Space Center. Meanwhile, NASA has reassigned astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada to our SpaceX Crew-5 mission, expected to launch to the space station no earlier than fall 2022. Mann and Cassada previously were assigned to missions on NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test and NASA’s Boeing Starliner-1 mission, respectively.

Build Your Own Lucy Time Capsule

The team for our Lucy mission invites you to create your very own time capsule for the mission and share it online using the hashtag #LucyTimeCapsule. The plan is to revisit your time capsule at future mission milestones, for personal reflection and/or to maybe add new items. The Lucy spacecraft will carry a time capsule that includes a plaque inscribed with words of wisdom on its 12-year odyssey to several asteroids, including the never-before-explored Trojan asteroids that share an orbit with Jupiter. Lucy is targeted for launch no earlier than Oct. 16.

Celebrating Hispanic Heritage: El Ayer y El Mañana

On Oct. 7, award-winning journalist Soledad O’Brien hosted “El Ayer y El Mañana,” which translates to “Yesterday and Tomorrow” in English. The NASA Hispanic Heritage month event featured a conversation about the new National Museum of the American Latino, NASA’s impact and influence, and the pioneering spirit of Latinos on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website.

The 10th International Space Apps Challenge

On Oct. 2-3, NASA collaborated with several space agency partners for the 10th International Space Apps Challenge, which was entirely virtual. Each year the event, which is recognized as the largest annual hackathon in the world, engages thousands of people around the globe to work with the agency’s open source data to answer some of the most pressing challenges on Earth and in space. Space Apps is managed by NASA’s Earth Science Division.

New Mission Launches to Monitor Earth’s Landscapes

“And liftoff. Liftoff of an Altas V rocket and Landsat 9!”—Launch Commentator

On Sept. 27, our Landsat 9 satellite launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. This joint mission with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) will capture images of Earth from space that will be added to the nearly 50 years of freely available Landsat data researchers and officials use to monitor the health of Earth and manage essential resources. Learn more at nasa.gov/landsat9.

Space Station Soyuz Spacecraft Relocated

On Sept. 28, aboard the International Space Station, three crew members, including our Mark Vande Hei, relocated their Soyuz spacecraft from the station’s Rassvet module to the brand new “Nauka” Multipurpose Laboratory Module. It is the first time a spacecraft has docked to Nauka. The move also frees up Rassvet for the Oct. 5 arrival of another Soyuz spacecraft.

U.S. Cargo Ship Departs Space Station with Science

A SpaceX Dragon cargo resupply spacecraft left the space station on Sept. 30 to return more than 4,600 pounds of supplies and valuable science to Earth. The experiments include research on neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, a study that could help treat muscle atrophy in elderly people on Earth, and more. This was SpaceX’s 23rd Commercial Resupply Services mission for NASA.

Artemis Moon Rocket Engine Test

On Sept. 30, engineers at our Stennis Space Center conducted a hot fire test of an RS-25 engine on the center’s A-1 test stand. This was the seventh and final planned test of the current test series to support development and production of the engine for our Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. Four RS-25s will help power the SLS on future Moon missions, including Artemis I targeted for later this year. For more details, visit: nasa.gov/SLS.

Martian Spacecraft Laying Low During Mars Solar Conjunction

For the next few weeks, we will be mostly incommunicado with our fleet of spacecraft on and around Mars. This communications “time out” happens about every two years during Mars solar conjunction – when Earth and Mars are on opposite sides of the Sun, and can’t “see” each other. Sending radio signal commands to spacecraft during this time is risky, because solar activity can corrupt those commands and cause unexpected behavior.

Winds in Jupiter’s Great Red Spot Are Speeding Up

Researchers using data from our Hubble Space Telescope have determined that the wind speeds just inside the boundary of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot are accelerating. Their research shows that the average wind speed in this region of the storm increased by up to 8 percent from 2009 to 2020. The massive storm spins counterclockwise at more than 400 miles per hour – and the vortex is bigger than Earth itself.

NASA Transfers Air Traffic Management Tools to FAA

NASA has transferred findings from the agency’s Airspace Technology Demonstration 2 or (ATD-2) project to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for nationwide implementation. Over the past six years, the project demonstrated this suite of airport operations tools at several U.S. airports to save fuel, reduce carbon emissions, and increase information sharing between the FAA and industry. Find out more at nasa.gov/aeronautics.

NASA Armstrong Celebrates 75th Anniversary

On Sept. 30, our Armstrong Flight Research Center marked its 75th year of innovation, milestones, and discoveries. In its early history, the center helped achieve the first supersonic flight. Today, Armstrong continues its groundbreaking aeronautics research, as well as work in space transportation and in many Earth and space science missions. Check out go.nasa.gov/armstrong75 for more about Armstrong’s 75th anniversary.