Daily Archives: April 6, 2024

Astronaut Mike Barratt processes brain organoid samples to learn how microgravity affects the central nervous system and ways to counteract neurodegenerative conditions.

Brain research topped the science schedule on Wednesday while the Expedition 70 crew kept up its cargo work. Three individuals also continue focusing on their departure from the International Space Station this weekend.

The Human Brain Organoid Models for Neurogenerative Disease and Drug Discovery (HBOND) investigation on the station is helping researchers understand how microgravity affects the central nervous system. Results may also shed light on ways to prevent and treat Parkinsons disease and multiple sclerosis on Earth. NASA astronauts Mike Barratt and Tracy C. Dyson treated brain organoid samples exposed to Parkinsons and multiple sclerosis with a drug injection for the neurodegenerative disease study today. Those samples will be analyzed under the KERMIT fluorescence microscope to evaluate the effectiveness of the drug treatment.

Barratt then moved on and cleaned cupola window scratch panes in preparation for the total eclipse of the sun on April 8 before joining NASA Flight Engineer Loral OHara for an eye exam. OHara imaged Barratts retina, optic nerve, and cornea using standard medical imaging hardware with support from doctors on the ground. Earlier in the day, OHara operated the Ultrasound 2 device and scanned the neck, shoulder, and leg veins on NASA Flight Engineer Jeanette Epps. The eye and vein exams were part of regularly scheduled medical checkups ensuring astronauts remain healthy in space. OHara also spent a few moments with Dyson replacing batteries on and calibrating chemical sensors.

NASA Flight Engineer Matthew Dominick started his day exploring how the brain regulates blood flow in weightlessness. He wore a specialized cap and attached sensors to himself measuring his blood flow, blood pressure, and electrical heart activity simultaneously. Results may help counteract Earthbound and space-caused blood pressure issues such as light-headedness or fainting. Dominick then spent the rest of the day on a variety of cargo and cleaning tasks. Epps and Barratt also continued unpacking some of the more than 6,000 pounds of science and supplies aboard the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft.

Cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy continued stowing equipment and readying the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft that he, OHara, and Belarus spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya will ride back to Earth on April 6. OHara packed personal items for return aboard the Soyuz as well as excess gear that will be returned aboard the Dragon spacecraft. Vasilevskaya spent her day researching how diet affects microbes that live in a crew members gut system.

Station Commander Oleg Kononenko gathered science hardware and radiation detectors for return to Earth aboard the Soyuz spacecraft. Flight Engineer Nikolai Chub explored futuristic spacecraft and robotic piloting techniques then collected station microbe samples for analysis. Flight Engineer Alexander Grebenkin assisted Chub with the microbe collections and also serviced computer and video gear throughout the stations Roscosmos segment.

Learn more about station activities by following thespace station blog,@space_stationand@ISS_Researchon X, as well as theISS FacebookandISS Instagramaccounts.

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Brain Research Tops Science Schedule Ahead of Crew Departure - NASA Blogs

A mysterious object that came crashing through a house in Florida is possibly debris from the International Space Station (ISS).

The cylindrical tube was a few inches long and weighed nearly 2 pounds (0.9 kilograms). It crashed through the roof and both floors of Alejandro Otero's home in Naples, Florida, at 2:34 pm local on March 8, startling his son.

The origins of the object have yet to be determined, but Otero thinks it's likely one of nine drained batteries discarded from the ISS. Earlier the same day, a large cargo pallet carrying the batteries and belonging to the Japanese space agency JAXA re-entered Earth's atmosphere over the Gulf of Mexico. Jettisoned from the space station in 2021, the debris was expected to burn up in the atmosphere, one may have survived reentry.

"Looks like one of those pieces missed Ft Myers and landed in my house in Naples," Otero wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, in response to a post describing the jettisoned pallet. "Tore through the roof and went thru 2 floors. Almost his [hit] my son."

Related: Sci-fi inspired tractor beams are real, and could solve a major space junk problem

Otero has handed over the home-wrecking debris to officials from NASA.

"NASA collected an item in cooperation with the homeowner, and will analyze the object at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida as soon as possible to determine its origin," Joshua Finch, a NASA spokesperson, told Live Science.

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Once engineers identify the provenance of the object, Otero will seek to make a claim against the federal government to pay for his house's repair, although this process could prove complex if the material is deemed to have come from JAXA.

Florida isn't the only place that's been hit by falling space junk. Four of China's Long March 5B boosters the workhorses of the country's growing space program fell to Earth between 2020 and 2022, raining debris down on the Ivory Coast, Borneo and the Indian Ocean. In 2021 and 2022, debris from falling SpaceX rockets smashed into a farm in Washington state and landed on a sheep farm in Australia.

Space agencies around the world try to keep tabs on the more than 30,000 largest pieces of junk, but many more pieces of debris are too small to monitor.

Scientists have proposed multiple ways of tidying Earth's skies, such as gathering junk up in nets; collecting it with clawed robots; or firing a halfmile-long (0.8 kilometer) tether from another spacecraft to grab it.

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Mysterious object that crashed through Florida home was likely space junk from the International Space Station - Livescience.com

A picture of the International Space Station captured by the Space Shuttle Discovery in 2007. Last month, a two-ton pallet of batteries released by the space station in 2021 re-entered Earth's atmosphere. It was expected to mostly burn up upon re-entry, but a two-pound piece of debris that struck a Florida home may have come from the batteries. NASA

A cylindrical object weighing about two pounds tore through the roof of Alejandro Oteros home in Naples, Florida, last month. Otero was on vacation when his son, who was in the house when the debris fell, gave him a call, WINK News Annalise Iraola reported in March.

Something ripped through the house and then made a big hole on the floor and on the ceiling, Otero told the publication. It was a tremendous sound. It almost hit my son. He was two rooms over and heard it all.

Now, experts speculate the falling object might have come from the International Space Station (ISS)the crash occurred shortly after some batteries ejected from the station in 2021 re-entered Earths atmosphere, per Ars Technicas Stephen Clark.

The total mass of the batteries was originally 2.6 metric tons, but most of it was expected to burn up upon re-entry, according to the European Space Agency (ESA).

So you had a two-ton thing that re-entered the atmosphere, and this is some small fragment of it that survived and went through this poor guys house, Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian, who studies atmospheric re-entries, theorizes to Gizmodos Passant Rabie.

NASA has retrieved the object and is planning to analyze it to determine its origin, as Joshua Finch, a NASA spokesperson, tells Live Sciences Ben Turner.

In 2018, nine used batteries on the ISS got stranded at the station instead of being shipped back to Earth on a supply ship due to a series of delays, per Ars Technica. On March 11, 2021, the ISS released the batteries, attached to a cargo pallet, into space.

The pallet is safely moving away from the station and will orbit Earth between two to four years before burning up harmlessly in the atmosphere, NASA said in a 2021 statement. As the pallet approached Earth last month however, the ESA said in a statement that some parts of the debris could reach the groundthough the likelihood of someone getting hit was very low.

The ESA estimated that the batteries would reach Earth between 1:30 p.m. and 3:08 p.m. Eastern time on March 8. Changing levels of atmospheric drag, among other factors, made it difficult to predict where the re-entry would occur. The crash at Oteros home occurred at 2:34 p.m. Eastern time on March 8, per Ars Technica.

Such instances of falling debris are far from uncommona large object from space makes an uncontrolled re-entry into Earths atmosphere around once a week, with much of the object burning up. But the pallet with nine batteries was the most massive object to ever be released from the ISS. And on this occasion, a fragment may have survived and struck Oteros home.

I was shaking. I was completely in disbelief. What are the chances of something landing on my house with such force to cause so much damage, Otero told WINK News. Im super grateful that nobody got hurt.

NASA was rolling the dice and they made an unlucky throw, McDowell tells Gizmodo of the batteries release.

Around 28,000 objects launched to space remain in orbit around Earth, per the ESA. The Ivory Coast, Borneo and the Indian Ocean have been hit by falling debris from Chinas Long March 5B boosters, and SpaceX rockets have rained material on farms in Washington state and Australia, per Live Science.

Otero could make a claim against the federal government for the cost of the damage if the object is NASAs, Michelle Hanlon, an aviation and space law expert at the University of Mississippi, tells Ars Technica. Even if the object was launched by another country, that country would be absolutely liable to the homeowner for the damage caused, Hanlon says to the publication.

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Falling Object That Crashed Into Florida Home May Be Debris From the International Space Station - Smithsonian Magazine

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. Japans Mitsubishi Corp. is joining Starlab Space, the joint venture of Voyager Space and Airbus Defence and Space that is developing a commercial space station.

Starlab Space announced April 4 that Mitsubishi has become a strategic partner of Starlab Space and would take an equity stake in the joint venture. A Starlab spokesperson declined to provide specific details about the agreement, including its financial value or the size of the equity stake.

We are excited to join forces withStarlab, a best-in-class team comprising Airbus and Voyager, to drive innovation and catalyze advancements in space exploration, said Mikito Nakaniwa, division chief operating officer of Mitsubishis Infrastructure, Ship & Aerospace Division, in a statement.

The announcement did not identify any specific roles or responsibilities for Mitsubishi in Starlab, stating only that the company would significantly increase the value ofStarlab by using space research to support terrestrial product development in a range of industries. It would also provide Japanese industry with access to Starlabs capabilities.

Our next-generation space station relies on both innovation and experience. Hence Mitsubishi Corporation, a pioneer of space business in Japan since the 1960s with a strong drive for shaping the future, is a perfect addition to our team, said Mike Schoellhorn, chief executive of Airbus Defence and Space, in the statement.

Having a Japanese company involved in Starlab could also help the company access funding from the Japanese government. Current partners in the International Space Station are pondering how they will continue their current activities on the station once it is retired around the end of the decade, with a preference for keeping investments in their countries rather than making direct payments to an American commercial space station operator.

Voyager and Airbus announced the creation of the Starlab Space joint venture in August, with Voyager holding a majority stake. The companies had previously announced an agreement where Airbus would provide technical support, including work on the stations single large module, for Starlab.

One reason for the partnership was to give Starlab better access to European markets through Airbus. In November, Airbus and Voyager announced they signed a memorandum of understanding with the European Space Agency to explore how to use Starlab to provide ESA with continued access to low Earth orbit after the retirement of the ISS. That could involve using commercial cargo and crew vehicles developed in Europe with the support of ESA, which announced a cargo vehicle initiative around the time the memorandum was signed.

Starlab Space announced in January that it reached an agreement with SpaceX to launch the Starlab station on a single flight of SpaceXs Starship vehicle in the late 2020s.

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Mitsubishi takes stake in Starlab Space - SpaceNews

Roscosmos Cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky, the first female cosmonaut from Belarus Marina Vasilevskaya and NASA astronaut Loral OHara returned from the International Space Station to Earth.

At 09:24 Moscow time, the engine of the Soyuz MS-24 manned spacecraft was turned on to decelerate from orbit, at 09:54 the descent vehicle entered the dense layers of the atmosphere and at 10:03 the main parachute was inserted.

At exactly 10:18 Moscow time, the Soyuz MS-24 international crew landed 147km south-east of the Kazakh city of Zhezkazgan.

Marina Vitalyevna Vasilevskaya(born 14 September 1990) is a flight instructor andflight attendantforBelavia AirlinesinBelarus.She is the firstBelarusianwoman to be launched into space.

In December 2022, during a competitive selection held inBelarus, she was selected among six applicants from more than three thousand women to participate in a space flight under theBelarusian Woman in Space project on the RussianSoyuzspacecraft toISS.

On 24 July 2023, she commenced theoretical and practical training for the flight at theYuri A. Gagarin Cosmonaut Training CenterinStar City, Russia.In October, she began practical training on theSoyuz MSspacecraft simulator to conduct routine flight andundockingoperations,and underwent training inzero gravityconditions on theIlyushin II-76 laboratory aircraft.

She traveled to the station withRoscosmoscosmonautOleg NovitskyandNASAastronautTracy Caldwell-Dyson, where she and Oleg spent approximately 13 days aboard the orbital complex as a part of21st ISS visiting expedition.

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Former flight attendant for Belavia Airlines is back on earth from the ISS - AIRLIVE