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Station Commander: Suni Williams Roscosmos (Russia) Flight Engineers: Alexey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner, Aleksandr Gorbunov NASA Flight Engineers: Butch Wilmore, Don Pettit, Nick Hague
An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada.
Image Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)/Don Pettit Release Date: Jan. 4, 2025
Shenzhou-19 Crew Tests New "Xiao Hang" Smart Assistant | China Space Station
Last week, the crew aboard the Shenzhou-19 spacecraft conducted a series of in-orbit verifications for China's first space station intelligent flight robot, "Xiao Hang."
During the mission, astronauts utilized Xiao Hang alongside human-robot collaborative interaction software. This allowed them to carry out a variety of experiments related to human-robot spatial relationships, robot behavior characterization, and multimodal interaction technologies. The goal of these experiments is to help improve mission efficiency through effective interaction between astronauts and robotic systems.
In the field of space life sciences and human research, the crew made significant progress on the "biological effects of fruit flies under sub-magnetic environment in space and molecular mechanisms" experiment.
Last week, the crew successfully completed tasks such as collecting fruit flies, emptying their culture containers, and organizing samples. With careful attention, the "fruit fly family" has grown and may become the first species to achieve "three generations under one roof" on China's space station.
The astronauts also performed a series of detailed movement measurements and related experiments using precision motion measurement devices and experimental software.
Tests focused on fine motor adaptation, force control, and object weight perception. The results will assist ground researchers in studying the changes in fine motor control and the adaptive learning mechanisms of astronauts during long-term space missions.
In addition to these experiments, the astronauts used specialized software to test their emotional states and assess their emergency decision-making abilities while in orbit. This data will be crucial for understanding how long-term spaceflight impacts astronauts' emotions and decision-making skills in high-pressure situations.
In the realm of space technology and applications, the crew completed the installation of the fourth batch of microbial sampling module test samples.
Research on space microbial control technology plays a crucial role in understanding and preventing microbial contamination and corrosion issues aboard the space station.
Currently, the findings in this field have been applied to spacecraft design and material selection for various mission models. This includes evaluating the antimicrobial and antifungal properties of spacecraft materials in orbit, as well as verifying the service performance of these materials under space conditions.
In the field of microgravity physical sciences, the crew carried out routine tasks such as replacing experimental samples in fluid physics and high-temperature materials cabinets.
They also cleaned non-container experimental chambers and performed maintenance on axis mechanisms and electrodes.
The astronauts followed their planned maintenance schedule for life-supporting systems and other station equipment. They used specialized noise measurement tools to assess noise levels in different areas of the station, contributing to the ongoing monitoring of the station's acoustic environment. In addition, they carried out cleaning and organizing tasks to ensure a clean and efficient workspace.
After more than two months in orbit, the crew has maintained a regular exercise routine and undergone periodic medical check-ups.
Last week, astronauts completed ultrasound exams of their abdomen and muscles, bone density measurements, as well as electrocardiogram and blood pressure tests. They also conducted maximum isometric strength tests using resistance exercise devices to measure muscle strength during isometric contractions. This is crucial for assessing the functional state of specific muscle groups under fixed postures.
The Shenzhou-19 mission continues to make significant strides in scientific research and technological advancements, paving the way for the future of human space exploration.
Saturn's Rings with Moons Janus & Titan | NASA Cassini Mission
Planet Saturn's Titan moon and tiny Janus moon almost appear to be embedded within Saturn's rings from the viewpoint of NASA's Cassini spacecraft.
Janus is an inner satellite of Saturn. It is also known as Saturn X. It is named after the mythological Roman god, Janus. This natural satellite was first identified by French astronomer Audouin Dollfus on December 15, 1966, although it had been unknowingly photographed earlier by French optical engineer, Jean Texereau.
Titan is larger than the planet Mercury and is the second largest moon in our solar system. Jupiter's moon Ganymede is just a little bit larger (by about 2 percent). Titan’s atmosphere is made mostly of nitrogen, like Earth’s, but with a surface pressure 50 percent higher than Earth’s. Titan has clouds, rain, rivers, lakes and seas of liquid hydrocarbons like methane and ethane. The largest seas are hundreds of feet deep and hundreds of miles wide. Beneath Titan’s thick crust of water ice is more liquid—an ocean primarily of water rather than methane. Titan’s subsurface water could be a place to harbor life as we know it, while its surface lakes and seas of liquid hydrocarbons could conceivably harbor life that uses different chemistry than we are used to—that is, life as we do not yet know it.
NASA's Cassini spacecraft arrived in the Saturn system in 2004 and ended its mission in 2017 by deliberately plunging into Saturn's atmosphere. This method was chosen because it is necessary to ensure protection and prevent biological contamination to any of the moons of Saturn thought to offer potential habitability.
The Cassini-Huygens mission was a cooperative project of NASA, European Space Agency (ESA) and the Italian Space Agency. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed, developed and assembled the Cassini orbiter. The Cassini radar instrument was built by JPL and the Italian Space Agency, working with team members from the U.S. and several European countries.
Astrophotographer Michael Burch: "The Aurora was so brilliant and strong I was able to see the pink color dancing in the sky with my naked eye, it was an incredible start to the new year!"
The aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, occurs in an upper layer of Earth’s atmosphere called the ionosphere, but they typically originate with activity on the Sun. Occasionally, during explosions called coronal mass ejections, the Sun releases charged particles that speed across the solar system.
Auroras are produced when the Earth's magnetosphere is sufficiently disturbed by the solar wind that the trajectories of charged particles in solar wind and magnetospheric plasma, mainly in the form of electrons and protons, precipitate them into the upper atmosphere (thermosphere/exosphere) due to Earth's magnetic field, where their energy is lost. The resulting ionization and excitation of atmospheric constituents emits light of varying color and complexity. [Wikipedia]
Solid Colored Aurora
Green is common at the upper latitudes, while red is rare. On the other hand, aurora viewed from lower latitudes tend to be red.
Element Emission Colors
Oxygen: The big player in the aurora is oxygen. Oxygen is responsible for the vivid green (wavelength of 557.7 nm) and also for a deep brownish-red (wavelength of 630.0 nm). Pure green and greenish-yellow aurorae result from the excitation of oxygen.
Nitrogen: Nitrogen emits blue (multiple wavelengths) and red light.
Other Gases: Other gases in the atmosphere become excited and emit light, although the wavelengths may be outside of the range of human vision or else too faint to see. Hydrogen and helium, for example, emit blue and purple. Although our eyes cannot see all of these colors, photographic film and digital cameras often record a broader range of hues.
Station Commander: Suni Williams Roscosmos (Russia) Flight Engineers: Alexey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner, Aleksandr Gorbunov NASA Flight Engineers: Butch Wilmore, Don Pettit, Nick Hague
An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada.
Image Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)/Don Pettit Release Date: Jan. 4, 2025
Cosmic Cliffs in Carina: Nebula NGC 3324 | Hubble Space Telescope
Located in the Southern Hemisphere, NGC 3324 is at the northwest corner of the Carina Nebula (NGC 3372), home of the Keyhole Nebula and the active, outbursting star Eta Carinae. The entire Carina Nebula complex is located at a distance of roughly 7,200 light-years, and lies in the constellation Carina.
This image is a composite of data taken with two of Hubble's science instruments. Data taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) in 2006 isolated light emitted by hydrogen. More recent data, taken in 2008 with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2), isolated light emitted by sulfur and oxygen gas. To create a color composite, the data from the sulfur filter are represented by red, from the oxygen filter by blue, and from the hydrogen filter by green.
Credit: NASA, European Space Agency, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) Release Date: Oct. 2, 2008
Nebula NGC 3324 in Carina | NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory & Webb
Astronomers nicknamed this region of star formation the “Cosmic Cliffs.” It is found in the nearby Carina Nebula. X-rays from young stars in two clusters are detected by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. X-rays from Chandra (purple); infrared from Webb (yellow, green, cyan, and blue)
Distance:7,500 light years
This composite image features two star clusters, viewed through a churning tunnel of golden cloud. The cloud creates a border around the entire image, like a thick swirling smoke ring. Beyond it, in the open center, is a vast field of neon purple specks. These specks are young stars observed by Chandra. Within the central field, two cluster groupings are suggested by separate swirls of faint, steel blue mist. One sits near our upper right. The other is near the bottom left, partially obscured by the golden yellow ring cloud.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Ludwig Maximilian Univ./T. Preibisch et al. Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI; Image processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk Release Date: Dec. 7, 2024
Journey to Nebula NGC 3324 in Carina | MPG/ESO Telescope
The Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at the La Silla Observatory has imaged a region of star formation called NGC 3324. The intense radiation from several of NGC 3324's massive, blue-white stars has carved out a cavity in the surrounding gas and dust. The ultraviolet radiation from these young hot stars also cause the gas cloud to glow in rich colors.
Star Formation Region: Nebula NGC 3324 in Carina | MPG/ESO Telescope
The Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at the La Silla Observatory has imaged a region of star formation called NGC 3324. The intense radiation from several of NGC 3324's massive, blue-white stars has carved out a cavity in the surrounding gas and dust. The ultraviolet radiation from these young hot stars also cause the gas cloud to glow in rich colors.
Sonification: Three Years of Solar Fireworks | Solar Orbiter Mission
At the start of this new year, close-up pictures and solar flare data that the European Space Agency-led Solar Orbiter mission has been recording for more than three years. See and hear for yourself how the number of flares and their intensity increase, a clear sign of the Sun approaching the peak of the 11-year solar cycle.
This video combines ultraviolet images of the Sun's outer atmosphere (the corona, yellow) taken by Solar Orbiter's Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) instrument, with the size and locations of solar flares (blue circles) as recorded by the Spectrometer/Telescope for Imaging X-rays (STIX) instrument. The accompanying audio is a sonification based on the detected flares and the spacecraft's distance to the Sun.
Solar Orbiter moves on an elliptical path around the Sun, making a close approach to our star every six months. We can see this in the video from the spacecraft's perspective with the Sun moving closer and farther over the course of each year. In the sonification, this is represented by the low background humming that loudens as the Sun gets closer and becomes quieter as it moves further away. (There are some abrupt shifts in distance visible in the video, as it skips over dates where one or both instruments were inactive or collecting a different type of data.)
The blue circles represent solar flares: bursts of high-energy radiation of which STIX detects the X-rays. Flares are sent out by the Sun when energy stored in 'twisted' magnetic fields (usually above sunspots) is suddenly released. The size of each circle indicates how strong the flare is, with stronger flares sending out more X-rays. We can hear the flares in the metallic clinks in the sonification, where the sharpness of the sound corresponds to how energetic the solar flare is.
Many thanks to Klaus Nielsen (DTU Space / Maple Pools) for making the sonification in this video. If you would like to hear more sonifications and music by this artist, please visit: https://linktr.ee/maplepools
Solar Orbiter is a space mission of international collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA, operated by ESA.
Credits Credit: ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/EUI & STIX, Klaus Nielsen (DTU Space/Maple Pools) Acknowledgements: Data processing for video by Laura Hayes License: CC BY-SA 3.0 or ESA Standard License Duration: 1 minute, 20 seconds Release Date: Jan. 3, 2025
The sixth flight test of Starship, launched from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, on November 19, 2024, sought to expand the envelope on ship and booster capabilities and to move us closer to bringing reuse to the entire system.
The Super Heavy booster successfully lifted off at the start of the launch window with all 33 Raptor engines powering it and Starship off the pad from Starbase. Following a nominal ascent and stage separation, the booster successfully transitioned to its boostback burn to begin the return to launch site. During this phase, automated health checks of critical hardware on the launch and catch tower triggered an abort of the catch attempt. The booster then executed a pre-planned divert maneuver, performing a landing burn and soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.
Starship completed another successful ascent, placing it on the expected trajectory. The ship successfully reignited a single Raptor engine while in space, demonstrating the capabilities required to conduct a ship deorbit burn before starting fully orbital missions. With live views and telemetry being relayed by Starlink, the ship successfully made it through reentry and executed a flip, landing burn, and soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean.
Data gathered from the multiple thermal protection experiments, as well as the successful flight through subsonic speeds at a more aggressive angle of attack, provides invaluable feedback on flight hardware performing in a flight environment as we aim for eventual ship return and catch.
With data and flight learnings as our primary payload, Starship’s sixth flight test once again delivered. Lessons learned will directly make the entire Starship system more reliable as we close in on full and rapid reusability.
"Starship is essential to both SpaceX’s plans to deploy its next-generation Starship system as well as for NASA, which will use a lunar lander version of Starship for landing astronauts on the Moon during the Artemis III mission through the Human Landing System (HLS) program."
Haolong Space Cargo Shuttle Cuts Costs for Frequent Deliveries | China Space Station
The Haolong space cargo shuttle, a Chinese independently developed reusable winged space cargo vehicle, is expected to further reduce the cost of delivering cargo to China's space station in 2025, according to its chief designer.
Can carry up to 2 tons of cargo, suitable for 3-month resupply missions
- Reusable, adding downmass capacity
- foldable wings
- 10m long, 8m wide
Leveraging new aviation technologies, the Haolong is designed to be launched by a carrier rocket, dock with the space station, and, after separation, perform de-orbit braking and re-entry maneuvers, culminating in a horizontal landing on an airport runway. It also demonstrates exceptional flight performance in atmospheric and space environments.
Compared to the Tianzhou cargo spacecraft series, the Haolong offers lower-cost short-cycle in-orbit cargo transportation missions.
"The Haolong space cargo shuttle will normally carry around two tons of payload each time, which will exactly meet the space station's need for the replenishment of supplies for about three months. So, it will be able to provide several replenishments to the space station each year. Such a way of delivery especially fits the replenishment of fresh vegetables and fruits, as well as other supplies that can't be stored for too long. Additionally, the Haolong space cargo shuttle's cold chain system is able to keep these foods fresh," said Fang Yuanpeng, chief designer of the Haolong space cargo shuttle.
The China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) announced the winners of its solicitation for overall schemes targeting a low-cost cargo transportation system—a vital component of the space station's operations—on Oct. 29. The Haolong space cargo shuttle, developed by the Chengdu Aircraft Design and Research Institute under the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), was one of two schemes selected for contracts in the flight verification phase.
"After docking with the orbiting space station, the Haolong will operate as part of a combined system. We can select the return window as well as the landing site for the space cargo shuttle, allowing it to return to the same site where it was launched. However, this is not the most challenging aspect of developing the craft; it is relatively easy to accomplish," said Fang.
The Team That "Touched the Sun" | NASA's Parker Solar Probe Mission | JHUAPL
"Decades of dedication. Years of innovation. One historic moment." The Parker Solar Probe’s record-breaking closest approach to the Sun on December 24, 2024, was more than just a milestone for the team who built the spacecraft. "It was the culmination of a bold vision, relentless ingenuity and dedication to advancing humanity’s understanding of our closest star."
Hear from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) team that dared to "touch the Sun" as they reflect on the work that made the mission possible and enabled groundbreaking discoveries that will advance solar science.
"Our New Year’s Light Show" | International Space Station
NASA astronaut and Expedition 72 Flight Engineer Don Pettit released this photo of aurora captured on January 1, 2025 during a severe geomagnetic storm due to continued effects from the coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that left the Sun on December 29th, 2024. The Sun's outer atmosphere, the corona, is structured by strong magnetic fields. Where these fields are closed, often above sunspot groups, the confined solar atmosphere can suddenly and violently release bubbles of gas and magnetic fields called CMEs. A large CME can contain a billion tons of matter that can be accelerated to several million miles per hour in a spectacular explosion. Solar material streams out through the interplanetary medium, impacting any planet or spacecraft in its path.
Auroras are produced when the Earth's magnetosphere is sufficiently disturbed by the solar wind that the trajectories of charged particles in solar wind and magnetospheric plasma, mainly in the form of electrons and protons, precipitate them into the upper atmosphere (thermosphere/exosphere) due to Earth's magnetic field, where their energy is lost. The resulting ionization and excitation of atmospheric constituents emits light of varying color and complexity. [Wikipedia]
Solid Colored Aurora
Green is common at the upper latitudes, while red is rare. On the other hand, aurora viewed from lower latitudes tend to be red.
Element Emission Colors
Oxygen: The big player in the aurora is oxygen. Oxygen is responsible for the vivid green (wavelength of 557.7 nm) and also for a deep brownish-red (wavelength of 630.0 nm). Pure green and greenish-yellow aurorae result from the excitation of oxygen.
Nitrogen: Nitrogen emits blue (multiple wavelengths) and red light.
Other Gases: Other gases in the atmosphere become excited and emit light, although the wavelengths may be outside of the range of human vision or else too faint to see. Hydrogen and helium, for example, emit blue and purple. Although our eyes cannot see all of these colors, photographic film and digital cameras often record a broader range of hues.
Expedition 72 Crew Station Commander: Suni Williams Roscosmos (Russia) Flight Engineers: Alexey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner, Aleksandr Gorbunov NASA Flight Engineers: Butch Wilmore, Don Pettit, Nick Hague
An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada.
Image Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)/Don Pettit Release Date: Jan. 2, 2025
Alpha Centauri: The Closest Star System | Heaven's Mirror Observatory
The closest star system to the Sun is the Alpha Centauri system. Of the three stars in the system, the dimmest—called Proxima Centauri—is actually the nearest star. The bright stars Alpha Centauri A and B form a close binary as they are separated by only 23 times the Earth-Sun distance—slightly greater than the distance between Uranus and the Sun. The Alphasystem is not visible in much of the northern hemisphere. Alpha Centauri A, also known as Rigil Kentaurus, is the brightest star in the constellation of Centaurus and is the fourth brightest star in the night sky. Sirius is the brightest even though it is more than twice as far away. By an exciting coincidence, Alpha Centauri A is the same type of star as our Sun, and Proxima Centauri is now known to have a potentially habitable exoplanet.
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