Mar 24 2016

From The Space Library

MEDIA ADVISORY M16-033 NASA Highlights Array of Experiments Launching on Next SpaceX Cargo Mission

NASA will host a media teleconference at 1 p.m. EDT Monday, March 28, to discuss cutting edge science investigations launching aboard the upcoming SpaceX commercial resupply flight to the International Space Station. Experiments include the demonstration of an expandable space habitat, a student-designed DNA investigation, and other research that will inform NASA’s journey to Mars.

The briefing will include:

• Julie Robinson, chief scientist for the International Space Station Program at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, will provide an overview of the more than 250 valuable science investigations that will take place during Expeditions 47 and 48.
• Rajib Dasgupta, NASA project and technical integration manager for the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) at Johnson, and Lisa Kauke, BEAM deputy program manager at Bigelow Aerospace in Las Vegas, will discuss BEAM -- a technology demonstration to study the radiation protection, thermal performance and general operations of expandable habitats in space.

Future astronauts will require highly reliable habitation systems to keep them healthy and productive during missions that take them farther from Earth than humans have ever gone before. Through public-private partnerships with U.S. industry, NASA is investigating habitation concepts that can support astronauts who are living and working in the harsh environment of deep space. Expandable habitats are one such concept under consideration.

More about BEAM

• Kenneth Savin, Kristofer Gonzalez-DeWhitt, Michael Hickey and Rosamund Smith, of Eli Lilly and Company in Indianapolis, will discuss life science investigations focusing on musculoskeletal changes in space, which could provide insight into muscle-wasting diseases on Earth, and protein crystallization in microgravity, which could enhance the development and potency of therapeutic drugs.
• Kasthuri Venkateswaran, principal investigator for Microbial Observatory-1 at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, will discuss tracking and monitoring changes to microbial flora on the space station over time, which could help us understand how such microbes could affect crew health during future long duration missions.
• Gioia Massa, principal investigator for Veg-03 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, will explain how the Veggie plant growth facility will cultivate cabbage as part of the Pick-and-Eat Salad initiative to develop a sustainable food supplement for long-duration spaceflight.
• Clay Wang, principal investigator for Micro-10 at the University of Southern California School Of Pharmacy in Los Angeles, will discuss this study of fungi in space for the purpose of potentially developing new medicine for use both in space and on Earth.
• Anna-Sophia Boguraev, student researcher, and Scott Copeland, ISS Research, Systems & Specialty Engineering manager for The Boeing Company in Pasadena, Texas, will discuss Genes in Space-1, a student-designed experiment to test whether the polymerase chain reaction -- a fast and relatively inexpensive technique that can amplify or “photocopy” small segments of DNA -- could be used to study DNA alterations that astronauts experience during spaceflight.

The SpaceX Dragon capsule is targeted to launch at 4:43 p.m. Friday, April 8 on a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The spacecraft will carry crew supplies, scientific research and hardware to the orbital laboratory to support the Expedition 47 and 48 crews.

This launch is the eighth contracted mission by SpaceX under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services contract.

MEDIA ADVISORY M16-032 Media Invited to See NASA's Green Propulsion Spacecraft

Media are invited to see a NASA spacecraft that is safer on the ground and more efficient in space during a tour March 31 at Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colorado, showcasing NASA's Green Propulsion Infusion Mission (GPIM).

Media are asked to arrive by 10:15 a.m. MDT for badging at the Ball Fisher Building, located at 1600 Commerce St. in Boulder. Remarks will begin at 10:30 a.m., followed at 11 a.m. by a tour of Ball facilities and GPIM spacecraft viewing. NASA and industry officials will be available for questions and one-on-one interviews from 11:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.

Speakers include:

• Steve Jurczyk, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate in Washington
• Rob Strain, president of Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.
• Chris McLean, principal investigator for GPIM at Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.
• Julie Van Kleeck, vice president of Space Programs at Aerojet Rocketdyne
• U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter of Colorado

Media interested in participating must contact Gina Anderson at gina.n.anderson@nasa.gov and Roz Brown at rbrown@ball.com by 5 p.m. March 29.

GPIM recently passed a major flight readiness milestone with the successful completion of functional and environmental testing of its systems and software. The spacecraft is scheduled for launch in early 2017 and will demonstrate the practical capabilities of a hydroxyl ammonium nitrate based fuel/oxidizer propellant blend, known as AF-M315E, developed by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The new propellant offers higher performance and is safer to handle and easier on the environment than traditional chemical fuels such as hydrazine currently used in spacecraft thrusters. It also requires fewer handling restrictions and has potentially shorter launch processing times, resulting in lowered costs.

More of the new propellant can be stored in propellant tanks of the same volume, resulting in a 50-percent increase in spacecraft maneuvering capability for a given volume. It also has a lower freezing point than hydrazine, requiring less spacecraft power to maintain the propellant temperature. These characteristics make it ideal for a wide range of emerging small, deep space satellite missions.

The GPIM Mission is managed by the Technology Demonstration Missions program office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and funded by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate.

MEDIA ADVISORY M16-031 Russian Space Station Cargo Ship Launch, Docking to Air on NASA TV

NASA Television will provide live coverage of the launch and docking of an unpiloted Russian cargo spacecraft, Progress 63P, to resupply the International Space Station.

Launch of the spacecraft carrying three tons of food, fuel and supplies for the Expedition 47 crew is scheduled for 12:23 p.m. EDT (10:23 p.m. Baikonur time) on Thursday, March 31, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. NASA TV coverage will begin at noon.

Progress 63P is scheduled to dock to the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module at 2 p.m. on April 2. NASA TV coverage of rendezvous and docking will begin at 1:15 p.m. This will be the second of three cargo ships that will arrive at the station in as many weeks, flanked by Orbital ATK’s Cygnus craft and SpaceX’s Dragon vehicle.

The two-day rendezvous for the Progress is deliberately planned to enable Russian flight controllers to test new software and communications equipment for the new vehicle configuration that will be standard for future Progress and piloted Soyuz spacecraft.

The ISS Progress 61 cargo vehicle, currently docked at the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module, will depart the station on Wednesday, March 30. Its undocking will not be broadcast on NASA TV. Loaded with trash, the older Progress will be used for engineering tests before it is deorbited on Friday, April 8 to burn up over the Pacific Ocean.

The new Progress will spend more than six months at the station before departing in mid-October for its deorbit into the Earth’s atmosphere.