The science never stops on the International Space Station 🌱
At any given time, up to 100 scientific experiments are running at once on the @ISS's EXPRESS Racks, from cutting-edge medical research to orbiting veggie gardens that're helping us learn how to grow plants in space.
The refrigerator-sized lockers can be operated directly by our @NASAAstronauts (like @astro_kayla is here)—or controlled from the ground by a team of experts working around the clock at @NASA_Marshall's Payload Operations Integration Center. Thanks to this 24/7 collaboration, our EXPRESS racks just logged their 1,000,000th hour of combined powered duty: that's nearly 115 years' worth of research in just over two decades!
Even with all this science, the EXPRESS Racks are just one of the many research facilities on our orbiting laboratory. Check out nasa.gov/iss for the latest updates from the International Space Station!
Credit: NASA
#NASA#Space#ISS#InternationalSpaceStation#SpaceStation#Science#SpaceVeggies
Under the same sky, looking at the same Moon 🌝
The Moon sets below the Earth’s horizon as the atmosphere refracts, or bends, its light making it appear flatter in this photograph taken from the International Space Station (@ISS) as it orbited 261 miles (421 km) above the Himalayas near Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal.
Did you look up this morning? Our crescent moon joined the line-up of four planets visible to the naked eye in the dawn skies. Over the next few months, Saturn, Mars, Jupiter, and Venus will appear to increasingly spread out across the morning sky, so much so that Venus and Saturn will make their exits as morning objects for most observers by September.
Set your alarms early to enjoy this planetary parade in the morning sky 💫
Credit: NASA
#NASA#Space#InternationalSpaceStation#ISS#Moon#Luna#Skywatching
How It Started → How It’s Going
📷 — "This is the greatest experience, it's just tremendous," said astronaut Ed White as he performs the first NASA astronaut spacewalk outside the Gemini IV spacecraft on June 3, 1965 for twenty minutes. On his chest is an emergency oxygen pack. He is secured to the spacecraft by a 25-foot umbilical line and tether wrapped in gold tape. Credits: NASA astronaut Jim McDivitt
📷 — NASA spacewalker @astro_kayla Barron is pictured during a six-hour and 32 minute spacewalk on December 2, 2021 to replace a failed antenna system on the International Space Station's Port-1 truss structure. Credits: NASA astronaut Thomas Marshburn
#nasaastronauts#nasa#space#iss#crew3#edwhite#kaylabarron#spacewalk#spacestation#internationalspacestation#astronaut#astronauts
Scenes from an orbital restaurant 🍕 Here’s a slice of life from the International Space Station (@ISS). While crew members orbit about 250 miles (402 km) above us, they’re never too far from some of our favorite traditions here on Earth – like pizza night. 📸 Crew members can choose from about 200 different items for their standard menu – all of which has been tested, prepared, and packaged by the Space Food Systems Laboratory at @NASAJohnson. @Astro_FarmerBob poses with his personal-sized pie. 📸 Pass the pepperoni! The crew enjoys a family-style spread of pizza toppings. Clockwise from left are, Denis Matveev, Oleg Artemyev, and Sergey Korsakov, all from @Roscosmosofficial; @NASAAstronauts Kjell Lindgren and Jessica Watkins; and @EuropeanSpaceAgency's Samantha Cristoforetti. 📸 Add chef to her resume: @Astro_Watkins takes on the challenge of assembling her pizza in microgravity Credit: NASA #NASA#InternationalSpaceStation#ISS#Astronauts#DayInTheLife#PizzaNight#PizzaPlanet
One month ago, #Crew4 astronauts were on their way to the @iss.
How would you feel looking out the window?
📷 — iss067e034505 (April 27, 2022) NASA astronauts (from left) Kjell Lindgren, Jessica Watkins, and Bob Hines, Crew-4 Commander, Mission Specialist, and Pilot, respectively, are pictured looking out the SpaceX Dragon Freedom spacecraft’s windows during their journey to the International Space Station.
#nasaastronauts#nasa#space#iss#crew4#expedition67#spacestation#internationalspacestation#astronaut#astronauts
That golden hour glow 🌞 The Earth basks in the Sun’s light as it glints off the Atlantic Ocean in this image captured from the International Space Station (@ISS) as it orbits 262 miles above. While the football field-sized space station is a great place to gaze lovingly back to Earth, it also hosts a plethora of science and technology experiments that are continuously being conducted by crew members. Want to gaze right back? You can watch the International Space Station pass overhead from several thousand worldwide locations. It is the third brightest object in the sky and easy to spot if you know when to look up. Visible to the naked eye, it looks like a fast-moving plane only much higher and traveling thousands of miles an hour faster! Check out spotthestation.nasa.gov to find out when it will pass over your location. Credit: NASA #NASA#ISS#InternationalSpaceStation#GoldenHour#Earth#EarthViews#SpotTheStation#AtlanticOcean#Space
A match made in low-Earth orbit 💕
The free-floating helpers of the International Space Station (@ISS) are pictured here during their first photoshoot in space after more than two years of working separately aboard the station. Astrobee and Project CIMON (Crew Interactive Mobile CompanioN) come from different countries and have unique functions, but share a mission to assist astronauts, support station operation, and enable research that will take humans to the Moon and Mars. Bumble, pictured in blue, is one of three identical robots that make up Team Astrobee, each differentiated by the colors on their shells. Designed and bulit by @NASAAmes, the Astrobees operate autonomously or via remote control by operators on the ground to perform tasks such as taking inventory or monitoring the environment aboard the station. Bumble was first launched to the station in 2019 with Honey (yellow Astrobee), and Queen (green) joined the crew later that year. Project CIMON, which was commissioned by the @GermanAeroSpaceCenter, is a voice-controlled robot is designed to act as a hands-free database, computer, and camera to support research. The teams behind Project CIMON also hope to study the platform’s potential to help reduce astronaut stress associated with isolation or group dynamics by providing social assistance. The Project CIMON free flyer launched to the space station in June 2018. Credit: NASA/Kayla Barron #NASA#Space#Robots#InternationalSpaceStation#ISS#Astrobee#ProjectCIMON#Bots