Tariq Malik
Sat, August 26, 2023
three astronauts in white spacesuits with open helmet faceplates sit inside a SpaceX capsule in orbit
A SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carrying four astronauts will arrive at the International Space Station early Sunday (Aug. 27) and you can watch it all live online in a free livestream.
The Crew Dragon capsule Endurance is scheduled to reach the International Space Station (ISS) at 8:39 a.m. EDT (1239 GMT), where it will dock itself to a space-facing port on the outpost's U.S.-built Harmony module.
The docking will mark the end of a nearly 30-hour journey for the capsule's four-person crew, which launched in the wee hours of Saturday from NASA's Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. You can watch the docking live online, courtesy of NASA TV and SpaceX, starting at 6:45 a.m. EDT (1045 GMT). It will appear at start time in the window above, or you can watch directly from NASA TV.
"SpaceX, thanks for the ride, it was awesome," Crew-7 commander Jasmin Moghbeli of NASA said after the crew reached orbit. "Go Crew-7, awesome ride."
SpaceX's Crew-7 mission for NASA is ferrying Moghbeli to the ISS with a truly international crew: pilot Andreas Mogensen of the European Space Agency; and mission specialists Konstantin Borisov of Russia's Roscosmos agency and Satoshi Furukawa of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The quartet is the first all-international crew, with members from four different agencies and countries, to fly on the same Dragon capsule.
The mission is the seventh operational commercial crew flight for NASA by SpaceX, and the company's eighth for the U.S. space agency overall (including a crewed test flight). It is SpaceX's 11th crewed mission when including three private astronaut flights in recent years.
three astronauts in white spacesuits with open helmet faceplates sit inside a SpaceX capsule in orbit
The Crew-7 astronauts are beginning a six-month expedition to the space station and will relieve the four astronauts of NASA's Crew-6 mission, who are due to return shortly after Moghbeli and her crew arrive.
Crew-7 is the first spaceflight for Moghbeli, a U.S. Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel who became the second Iranian-American to fly in space on the flight. It is also Borisov's first flight.
Related: Meet the astronauts of Crew-7 flying with SpaceX
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While Morgensen and Furukawa have both flown to the ISS before, Morgensen is the first European ever to pilot a SpaceX Dragon capsule. SpaceX's Endurance capsule is also a space veteran, having flown the Crew-3 and Crew-5 astronaut missions to the station for NASA.
NASA and SpaceX have a special treat planned for Crew-7's arrival at the ISS on Sunday.
"We're gonna do a fly around fly around of the International Space Station and get some cool photos, and get that out to everybody to show what an awesome outpost we have," Joel Montalbano, NASA's space station program manager, told reporters after the launch.
'Sasha' the sloth breaks speed records as SpaceX Crew-7 zero-g indicator (photos)
Robert Z. Pearlman
Sat, August 26, 2023
"Sasha" the sloth, the SpaceX Crew-7 astronauts' zero-g indicator, is seen floating aboard the Dragon spacecraft "Endurance" after it entered Earth orbit on Saturday, Aug. 26, 2023.
A new record may have just been set for the fastest-moving sloth in the world.
And not just any sloth — a three-toed sloth.
"It is a three-toed sloth, not a two-toed sloth, because apparently that would be too fast for me," said Crew-7 pilot Andreas "Andy" Mogensen, a Danish astronaut with the European Space Agency (ESA), from on board SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft "Endurance," which was launched from Florida early Saturday morning (Aug. 26).
Now on his way to a six-month stay on the International Space Station, Mogensen, together with his three crewmates Jasmin Moghbeli of NASA, Satoshi Furukawa with JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and Konstantin Borisov of Russia's federal space corporation Roscosmos, are in Earth orbit traveling 17,500 mph (28,200 kph).
As is "Sasha" the sloth.
The average speed of a three-toed sloth (on Earth) is 0.15 miles per hour (0.24 km/h).
Related: SpaceX launches international Crew-7 astronauts to ISS
More: SpaceX-Crew-7 mission - Live updates
Wild Republic EcoKins Mini Sloth: $13.33 at Amazon
You can get a plush sloth just like the Crew-7 astronauts in space on SpaceX's Dragon through Wild Republic's EcoKins Mini Sloth, which is 5% off right now.View Deal
Sasha had a reason to move. As the astronauts' "zero-g indicator," it was the sloth's job to start floating in the cabin when the spacecraft entered orbit, signaling to the crew that they were now in the microgravity environment of space.
"I would like to introduce our zero-g indicator, which was selected by my three children," Mogensen radioed to Earth via SpaceX's mission control in Hawthorne, California. "They chose the sloth because it is one of their favorite animals."
ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen in Costa Rica, where he and his family saw sloths in the wild.
Mogensen recounted that on a trip to Costa Rica, he and his family were able to see sloths "in the wild," particularly on one memorable occasion.
"We were at the beach when a sloth — a very young sloth — appeared in the trees above us and hung out," Mogensen said. "It was a very special moment for us as a family."
Not that his children did not also have a second, less complimentary reason for choosing a sloth.
"Additionally, it is what my children like to call me — with strong encouragement from my wife," Mogensen said. "I'm always the last to leave the house whenever we are going anywhere. Personally, I think it's with good reason, but they say I'm the slowest person alive, which is also why it is a three-toed sloth."
The practice of flying zero-g indicators can be traced back to the very first person to fly into space, Soviet-era cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who took a small doll with him on his 1961 mission to watch it float. Since then, other Russian missions have done the same and it became a custom.
When SpaceX began preparing to fly astronauts in 2019, it borrowed the tradition, which has also been adopted by other companies and NASA. Sasha the sloth will meet "Suhail," the symbol of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) astronaut program and Crew-6 zero-g indicator, when Crew-7 reaches the space station on Sunday.
Other dolls recently flown on SpaceX missions include a co-branded Build-A-Bear dressed in an Axiom Space AxEMU spacesuit; a "Little Thinker" Albert Einstein that flew with Crew-5; and a plush modeled after the golden retrievers that serve as assistance dogs at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
The Crew-7 zero-g indicator appears to be part of Wild Republic's Ecokins line of "soft and cuddly" plush animals made out of 100 percent recycled water bottles. The 8-inch (20-centimeter) Ecokins Sloth Mini retails for $14.
Whether slow or fast, Sasha the sloth may have one other lesson to teach about life in space.
"We have a saying in space and it's often true: Slow is smooth, smooth is fast," said Jessica Meir, a NASA astronaut who co-hosted the space agency's broadcast of the Crew-7 launch. "When you rush too much, especially in space doing a spacewalk or anything that you're doing, you get in trouble. So slow is smooth and smooth is fast."
Sat, August 26, 2023
"Sasha" the sloth, the SpaceX Crew-7 astronauts' zero-g indicator, is seen floating aboard the Dragon spacecraft "Endurance" after it entered Earth orbit on Saturday, Aug. 26, 2023.
A new record may have just been set for the fastest-moving sloth in the world.
And not just any sloth — a three-toed sloth.
"It is a three-toed sloth, not a two-toed sloth, because apparently that would be too fast for me," said Crew-7 pilot Andreas "Andy" Mogensen, a Danish astronaut with the European Space Agency (ESA), from on board SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft "Endurance," which was launched from Florida early Saturday morning (Aug. 26).
Now on his way to a six-month stay on the International Space Station, Mogensen, together with his three crewmates Jasmin Moghbeli of NASA, Satoshi Furukawa with JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and Konstantin Borisov of Russia's federal space corporation Roscosmos, are in Earth orbit traveling 17,500 mph (28,200 kph).
As is "Sasha" the sloth.
The average speed of a three-toed sloth (on Earth) is 0.15 miles per hour (0.24 km/h).
Related: SpaceX launches international Crew-7 astronauts to ISS
More: SpaceX-Crew-7 mission - Live updates
Wild Republic EcoKins Mini Sloth: $13.33 at Amazon
You can get a plush sloth just like the Crew-7 astronauts in space on SpaceX's Dragon through Wild Republic's EcoKins Mini Sloth, which is 5% off right now.View Deal
Sasha had a reason to move. As the astronauts' "zero-g indicator," it was the sloth's job to start floating in the cabin when the spacecraft entered orbit, signaling to the crew that they were now in the microgravity environment of space.
"I would like to introduce our zero-g indicator, which was selected by my three children," Mogensen radioed to Earth via SpaceX's mission control in Hawthorne, California. "They chose the sloth because it is one of their favorite animals."
ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen in Costa Rica, where he and his family saw sloths in the wild.
Mogensen recounted that on a trip to Costa Rica, he and his family were able to see sloths "in the wild," particularly on one memorable occasion.
"We were at the beach when a sloth — a very young sloth — appeared in the trees above us and hung out," Mogensen said. "It was a very special moment for us as a family."
Not that his children did not also have a second, less complimentary reason for choosing a sloth.
"Additionally, it is what my children like to call me — with strong encouragement from my wife," Mogensen said. "I'm always the last to leave the house whenever we are going anywhere. Personally, I think it's with good reason, but they say I'm the slowest person alive, which is also why it is a three-toed sloth."
The practice of flying zero-g indicators can be traced back to the very first person to fly into space, Soviet-era cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who took a small doll with him on his 1961 mission to watch it float. Since then, other Russian missions have done the same and it became a custom.
When SpaceX began preparing to fly astronauts in 2019, it borrowed the tradition, which has also been adopted by other companies and NASA. Sasha the sloth will meet "Suhail," the symbol of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) astronaut program and Crew-6 zero-g indicator, when Crew-7 reaches the space station on Sunday.
Other dolls recently flown on SpaceX missions include a co-branded Build-A-Bear dressed in an Axiom Space AxEMU spacesuit; a "Little Thinker" Albert Einstein that flew with Crew-5; and a plush modeled after the golden retrievers that serve as assistance dogs at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
The Crew-7 zero-g indicator appears to be part of Wild Republic's Ecokins line of "soft and cuddly" plush animals made out of 100 percent recycled water bottles. The 8-inch (20-centimeter) Ecokins Sloth Mini retails for $14.
Whether slow or fast, Sasha the sloth may have one other lesson to teach about life in space.
"We have a saying in space and it's often true: Slow is smooth, smooth is fast," said Jessica Meir, a NASA astronaut who co-hosted the space agency's broadcast of the Crew-7 launch. "When you rush too much, especially in space doing a spacewalk or anything that you're doing, you get in trouble. So slow is smooth and smooth is fast."
James Webb Space Telescope instrument experiences glitch — but observatory remains in 'good health'
Monisha Ravisetti
Sat, August 26, 2023
This animation of the James Webb Space Telescope shows how light is reflected from its mirrors onto its scientific instruments.
There's good news and bad news about the James Webb Space Telescope.
The bad news is that one of the 'scope's instruments named the Mid-Infrared Instrument, or MIRI, has experienced a bit of an anomaly. But before you get too worried, the good news is that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is still happy, healthy and heartily able to continue decoding the invisible universe for us.
Basically, in April, the JWST team announced that one of MIRI's four observing modes indicated a reduction in the amount of light registered by the instrument. However, after conducting an investigation into the issue, NASA said this change doesn't pose a risk to MIRI's science capabilities. "There is no risk to the instrument," NASA said in a blog post on Thursday (Aug. 24).
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Although, the anomaly might have an impact on the amount of exposure time needed when the instrument switches to the particular mode that's been affected.
The mode at hand, called Medium-Resolution Spectroscopy (MRS), is calibrated to obtain infrared data coming from distant regions of the cosmos associated with wavelengths between 5 and 28.5 microns. That range, according to NASA, is where emission from molecules and dust are typically found, making MRS perfect for finding things like planet-forming disks. But, as NASA explains in the blog post, the reduced signal is specific for MIRI imaging at the longer wavelengths specifically.
One of MIRI's other modes, called Low-Resolution Spectrography that specializes in wavelengths between 5 and 12 microns normally connected to object surfaces (like planets), is operating normally, the team says. A fourth MIRI mode, called Coronagraphic Imaging, is currently under investigation. That mode is programmed to directly detect exoplanets and dust disks around host stars through a mechanism known as coronagraphy, which relies on blocking light from one source to gather data about surrounding sources.
The JWST team also confirmed that the observatory is generally in "good health," and that "each of Webb's other scientific instruments remain unaffected." Those instruments include its Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec), Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) and Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS).
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