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Week of October 20, 2023: Highlighting the “Ring of Fire” solar eclipse, learning how the human body reacts to long spaceflights, and a new engine test series for future Artemis missions . . . a few of the stories to tell you about—This Week at NASA!
Credit: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
A "Green Flash" Sunset: Gone in 60 Seconds| Earth-Sun Science
One minute sunset with multiple “green flashes.” Location: Big Island, Hawaii, USA
Witnessing green flashes at sunset is a rare event that many Sun watchers pride themselves on having seen. Once thought to be a myth, green flashes are now understood to occur when the Earth's atmosphere acts like a prism and a lens. Atmospheric layers create altitude-variable refractions that take light from the top of the Sun, dispersing its colors, creating multiple images, and magnifying it in just the right way to make thin slivers appear green, just before it disappears.
Distant Galaxy NGC 7497 Behind The Milky Way Galaxy's Integrated Flux Nebula
Distant barred spiral galaxy NGC 7497 can be seen through the Milky Way Galaxy's Integrated Flux Nebula (IFN). This galaxy is not surrounded by this nebula. It just appears that way. This nebula's dust is much closer to us than the galaxy. It is like looking at the moon on a partially cloudy night. This dust, unlike classic reflection nebulas that are usually illuminated by neighboring stars, is actually illuminated by the glow of our own Milky Way Galaxy. The IFN nebula is very faint. Amateur astronomer Steve Mandel named this nebulosity the Integrated Flux Nebula, or IFN. The IFN nebula is estimated to be between 400 and 1,000 light years away. The galaxy NGC 7497 is around 50-60 million light years from Earth.
The 0.81 m (32 in) Schulman Telescope is a Ritchey-Chrétien reflector built by RC Optical Systems and installed in 2010. It is operated by the Mount Lemmon SkyCenter and is Arizona's largest dedicated public observatory. The Schulman Telescope was designed from inception for remote control over the Internet by amateur and professional astrophotographers worldwide. It is currently the world's largest telescope dedicated for this purpose.
Technical Details:
Optics: Schulman 32-inch RCOS Telescope
Camera: SBIG STX16803
Image Credit & Copyright: Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona
Caption Acknowledgements: European Space Agency/The Cloudy Nights Astronomical Community
Jasmin & Loral Talk with 2023 ASCEND Conference | International Space Station
Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 70 Flight Engineers Loral O’Hara and Jasmin Moghbeli of NASA discussed life and work aboard the orbital outpost during an in-flight interview Oct. 23, 2023, with ASCEND conference attendees in Las Vegas.
2023 Accelerating Space Commerce, Exploration, and New Discovery (ASCEND)
O’Hara and Moghbeli are in the midst of a long-duration mission living and working aboard the microgravity laboratory to advance scientific knowledge and demonstrate new technologies for future human and robotic exploration missions.
This research benefits people on Earth and lays the groundwork for future human exploration through the agency’s Artemis missions, which will send astronauts to the Moon to prepare for future expeditions to Mars.
Station Commander: Andreas Mogensen of the European Space Agency (Denmark)
Roscosmos (Russia): Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub, Konstantin Borisov
JAXA: Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa (Japan)
NASA: Jasmin Moghbeli, Loral O'Hara (USA)
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. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.
Geographic "Heart" of The Middle East | International Space Station
The Canadarm2 robotic arm extends from the International Space Station as it orbited 261 miles above Turkey. Below, the Sinai Peninsula, the Red Sea, and the Nile River Delta are pictured leading toward the Mediterranean Sea at bottom.
Station Commander: Andreas Mogensen of the European Space Agency (Denmark)
Roscosmos (Russia): Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub, Konstantin Borisov
JAXA: Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa (Japan)
NASA: Jasmin Moghbeli, Loral O'Hara (USA)
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. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.
Firefly Aerospace's Victus Nox Mission "fundamentally changed how the space industry accesses space." Instead of spending weeks or months prepping a payload and rocket for launch, we condensed the timeline into "24 hours." "Responsive space has been a concept for years, and our team showed the world that it's now possible."
Firefly Aerospace successfully launched the U.S. Space Force’s Victus Nox Mission mission with 24-hour notice, demonstrating a critical capability for the United States to rapidly respond to on-orbit needs. Upon receiving the notice to launch and orbit requirements from the Space Force, Firefly completed all final mission preparations, including trajectory software updates, payload encapsulation, transport to the launch pad, mating to Alpha, and fueling, within "24 hours." Alpha then launched at the first available window.
The flight began with a nominal countdown and liftoff at 7:28 p.m. PDT on September 14, 2023 and progressed seamlessly through each stage of flight, including stage one main engine cutoff (MECO), stage separation, and stage two ignition. Alpha then deployed the Millennium Space Systems satellite at the target destination in low Earth orbit. Firefly also successfully tested an Alpha stage two relight and targeted re-entry.
Following payload deployment in low Earth orbit, Millennium fully initialized the space vehicle in less than 48 hours and then began operations for its Space Domain Awareness (SDA) mission.
Firefly Aerospace is "an end-to-end space transportation company with launch, lunar, and on-orbit services. Headquartered in central Texas, Firefly is a portfolio company of AE Industrial Partners ('AEI') focused on delivering responsive, reliable, and affordable space access for government and commercial customers. Firefly’s small- to medium-lift launch vehicles, lunar landers, and orbital vehicles provide the space industry with a single source for missions from low Earth orbit to the surface of the Moon and beyond."
Interacting Galaxy Pair Arp-Madore 2339-661 in Tucana | Hubble
A dynamic duo . . . or trio?
This striking image captures the interacting galaxy pair known as Arp-Madore 2339-661, so named because they belong to the Arp-Madore catalogue of peculiar galaxies. However, this particular peculiarity might be even odder than first meets the eye, as there are in fact three galaxies interacting here, not just two.
The two clearly defined galaxies are NGC 7733 (smaller, lower right) and NGC 7734 (larger, upper left). The third galaxy is currently referred to as NGC 7733N, and can actually be spotted in this picture if you look carefully at the upper arm of NGC 7733, where there is a visually notable knot-like structure, glowing with a different color to the arm and obscured by dark dust. This could easily pass as part of NGC 7733, but analysis of the velocities (speed, but also considering direction) involved in the galaxy shows that this knot has a considerable additional redshift, meaning that it is very likely its own entity and not part of NGC 7733. This is actually one of the many challenges that observational astronomers face: working out whether an astronomical object really is just one, or one lying in front of another as seen from Earth’s perspective!
All three galaxies lie quite close to each other, roughly 500 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Tucana, and, as this image shows, they are interacting gravitationally with one another. In fact, some science literature refers to them as a ‘merging group’, meaning that they are on a course to ultimately become a single entity.
Image Description: Two spiral galaxies. Each glows brightly in the center, where a bar stretches from side to side. The upper one is more round and its arms form two thin rings. The lower galaxy is flatter and its arms make one outer ring; a dusty knot atop its upper arm marks out a third object. Gravity is pulling gas and dust together where the galaxies come close. A number of small galaxies surround them on a black background.
Credit: European Space Agency/Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton, Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA
Meet the Axiom 3 Crew | Axiom Space | International Space Station
Axiom 3 Official Crew Portrait
Michael López Alegría - Ax-3 Commander
Walter Villadei - Ax-3 Pilot
Alper Gezeravcı - Ax-3 Mission Specialist
Marcus Wandt - Ax-3 Mission Specialist
Axiom 3 Crew Portrait
Axiom 3 Mission Patch
Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3): The first all European commercial astronaut mission representing five nations. Axiom Space has announced the full crew complement for its third mission, Ax-3, to the International Space Station (ISS) after receiving NASA and ISS-partner approval for the four-person, multinational team to travel to the orbiting laboratory no earlier than January 2024.
Three countries—Italy, Türkiye, and Sweden through the European Space Agency (ESA)—have united for Ax-3, with Axiom Space’s Chief Astronaut and Commander Michael López-Alegría leading the commercial mission, representing both the U.S. and Spain as a dual-citizen. The Ax-3 pilot is Italian Air Force Col. Walter Villadei, and the two mission specialists are Alper Gezeravcı of Türkiye and ESA project astronaut Marcus Wandt of Sweden. Villadei, Gezeravcı, and Wandt have extensive flight crew experience and have all served in their nation’s Air Forces.
Meet the Ax-3 Crew | Axiom Space | International Space Station
Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3): The first all European commercial astronaut mission representing five nations. Axiom Space has announced the full crew complement for its third mission, Ax-3, to the International Space Station (ISS), after receiving NASA and ISS-partner approval for the four-person, multi-national team to travel to the orbiting laboratory no earlier than January 2024.
Three countries—Italy, Türkiye, and Sweden through the European Space Agency (ESA)—have united for Ax-3, with Axiom Space’s Chief Astronaut and Commander Michael López-Alegría leading the commercial mission, representing both the U.S. and Spain as a dual-citizen. The Ax-3 pilot is Italian Air Force Col. Walter Villadei, and the two mission specialists are Alper Gezeravcı of Türkiye and ESA project astronaut Marcus Wandt of Sweden. Villadei, Gezeravcı, and Wandt have extensive flight crew experience and have all served in their nation’s Air Forces.
India Prepares for First Crewed Space Mission: Crew Escape System Test | ISRO
For the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Gaganyaan TV-D1 mission, a liquid-propelled single stage test vehicle launched a Gaganyaan Crew Module (CM) for an in-flight abort demonstration of the Crew Escape System (CES), on Oct. 21, 2023, at 04:30 UTC (10:00 IST).
This test vehicle mission with this crew module (CM) is a significant milestone for India's overall Gaganyaan crewed spaceflight program. It represents a near-complete system integrated for a flight test. This successful test flight sets the stage for the remaining qualification tests and uncrewed missions, leading to the first Gaganyaan mission with Indian astronauts.
The CM is where astronauts would be contained in a pressurized earthlike atmospheric condition during the upcoming Gaganyaan mission. However, for the Test Vehicle Abort mission-1 (TV-D1), the CM was an unpressurised version with the overall size and mass of the actual Gaganyaan CM. It houses all the systems for deceleration and recovery with its complete set of parachutes, recovery aids actuation systems and pyros. The avionics systems in the CM were in a dual redundant mode configuration for navigation, sequencing, telemetry, instrumentation and power. The Crew Module was recovered after touchdown in the Bay of Bengal, using a dedicated vessel and diving team from the Indian Navy.
The flight test vehicle (TV-D1) was a single-stage liquid rocket developed for this abort mission. The payload consisted of the crew module (CM) and crew escape systems (CES) with their fast-acting solid motors, along with CM fairing (CMF) and Interface Adapters. This flight simulated an abort condition during an ascent trajectory corresponding to a Mach number of 1.2 that could be encountered in the official Gaganyaan mission.
The CES and CM separated from the test vehicle at an altitude of about 17 km. A series of parachutes deployed ending with a safe touchdown of the CM in the Bay of Bengal, about 10 km from the coast of Sriharikota.
Robotic Arm "Waves" at The Moon | International Space Station
The Canadarm2 robotic arm is pictured extending from the International Space Station while orbiting 260 miles above the Pacific Ocean near the Aleutian Islands. The Canadarm2 robotic arm is 17-meters-long (55+ feet) and has a 3.7m (12 feet) high Dextre fine-tuned robotic hand attached.
The robot is operated by ground control teams at the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) headquarters outside Montreal, Quebec, and at NASA.
Station Commander: Andreas Mogensen of the European Space Agency (Denmark)
Roscosmos (Russia): Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub, Konstantin Borisov
JAXA: Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa (Japan)
NASA: Jasmin Moghbeli, Loral O'Hara (USA)
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. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.
Galaxies abound in this sharp telescopic image recorded on October 12, 2023, in dark skies over June Lake, California. The celestial scene spans nearly 2 degrees within the boundaries of the well-trained northern constellation Canes Venatici. Prominent at the upper left 23.5 million light-years distant is big, beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 4258, known to some as Messier 106. Eye-catching edge-on spiral NGC 4217 is above and right of center about 60 million light-years away.
Just passing through the pretty field of view is comet C/2023 H2 Lemmon, discovered during April 2023 in image data from the Mount Lemmon Survey. Here the comet sports more of a lime green coma though, along with a faint, narrow ion tail stretching toward the top of the frame. This visitor to the inner Solar System is presently less than 7 light-minutes away and still difficult to spot with binoculars, but it is growing brighter.
Comet C/2023 H2 Lemmon will reach perihelion, its closest point to the Sun, on October 29, 2023, and perigee, its closest to our fair planet, on November 10 as it transitions from morning to evening northern skies.
Highlighting the “Ring of Fire” Solar Eclipse | This Week @NASA
Week of October 20, 2023: Highlighting the “Ring of Fire” solar eclipse, learning how the human body reacts to long spaceflights, and a new engine test series for future Artemis missions . . . a few of the stories to tell you about—This Week at NASA!
Credit: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Video Producer, Video Editor & Narrator: Andre Valentine
NASA’s 2021 Class of Astronaut Candidates Visit Kennedy Space Center
NASA's 2021 Astronaut Class
Astronauts in-training Nora Al Matrooshi and Mohammad al-Mulla of the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
NASA’s 2021 class of astronaut candidates visit the Vehicle Assembly Building during a familiarization tour of facilities on Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023, at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Astronauts in-training Nora Al Matrooshi and Mohammad al-Mulla of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are training with NASA 2021 class.
NASA RAMFIRE Nozzle Hot Fire Test | Marshall Space Flight Center
The RAMFIRE nozzles complete hot fire testing at Marshall’s East test area using liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen (orange/clear plume), as well as liquid oxygen and liquid methane (blue plume) fuel configurations. As hot combustion gases approach 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit, icicles are forming on the outside of the engine nozzle. The nozzle is made of the novel aluminum alloy 6061-RAM2.
NASA built and tested this additively-manufactured—or 3D printed—rocket engine nozzle made of aluminum, making it lighter than conventional nozzles. This will support deep space flights that can carry higher payloads.
Credit: NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC)
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