“Cameras on the International Space Station captured views of Hurricane Lane churning in the Pacific Ocean August 22 as it flew 254 miles south of the Hawaiian Islands at 12:47 p.m. EDT. At the time of the station’s pass, Lane was a major hurricane packing winds of 155 miles an hour moving west-northwest on a track that would bring the storm close to or over the islands between Wednesday and Saturday. Hurricane warnings and watches were posted by the Central Pacific Hurricane Center in Honolulu for the entire island chain.”
“Orbital debris poses a risk to all spacecraft in Earth orbit, so the International Space Station is getting a new debris impact sensor to provide information on the micrometeoroid orbital debris environment in low Earth orbit. The Space Debris Sensor, launching on the next SpaceX Dragon cargo vehicle, will monitor impacts caused by small-scale orbital debris for a period of two to three years. That data will improve station safety by generating a more accurate estimate of the amount of small-scale debris that cannot be tracked from the ground and helping define better spacecraft shielding requirements.”
“This time-lapse video, obtained June 8, 2018, shows the precise choreography of NASA’s Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) as it studies pulsars and other X-ray sources from its perch aboard the International Space Station. NICER observes and tracks numerous sources each day, ranging from the star closest to the Sun, Proxima Centauri, to X-ray sources in other galaxies. Movement in the movie, which represents a little more than one 90-minute orbit, is sped up by 100 times.
One factor in NICER’s gyrations is the motion of the space station’s solar arrays, each of which extends 112 feet (34 meters). Long before the panels can encroach on NICER’s field of view, the instrument pirouettes to aim its 56 X-ray telescopes at a new celestial target.
As the movie o pens, the station’s solar arrays are parked to prepare for the arrival and docking of the Soyuz MS-09 flight, which launched on June 6 carrying three members of the Expedition 56 crew. Then the panels reorient themselves and begin their normal tracking of the Sun.
Neutron stars, also called pulsars, are the crushed cores left behind when massive stars explode. They hold more mass than the Sun in a ball no bigger than a city. NICER aims to discover more about pulsars by obtaining precise measures of their size, which will determine their internal make-up. An embedded technology demonstration, called Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology (SEXTANT), is paving the way for using pulsars as beacons for a future GPS-like system to aid spacecraft navigation in the solar system — and beyond.”
“Housed within the European Columbus Laboratory aboard the International Space Station, the Fluid Science Laboratory is a multi-user facility designed to investigate how fluids and granules behave in space. In July 2018, the Fluid Science Laboratory received an upgrade. The new video management unit, installed by ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst in this clip, enables even more precise recording so researchers on Earth can better analyse results.”
“Known to the crew as an EVA (extravehicular activity), each spacewalk provides a valuable opportunity to carry out repairs, test new equipment and even perform science experiments beyond the confines of a spacecraft. Exiting the International Space Station however, brings heightened risk and activities are planned down to the minute. In this clip, ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst and NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor help NASA astronauts Feustel and Ricky Arnold prepare to step out into space for EVA 51. ”
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