Outside the International Space Station, Expedition 48 Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Kate Rubins of NASA conducted a spacewalk Sept. 1 to retract a thermal radiator, install the first of several enhanced high definition cameras on the station’s truss and tighten bolts on a joint that enables one of the station’s solar arrays to rotate. This was the second spacewalk for the pair in just 13 days. They installed the station’s first international docking adapter during their previous spacewalk on Aug. 19. The adapter will provide a parking place for new U.S. commercial crew spacecraft delivering astronauts to the station on future missions. Also, Space Station Cameras Capture Hurricanes, Future Space Station Crews Prepare for Missions, Record-Breaking Galaxy Cluster Discovered, Up-Close with Jupiter, and more.

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Second ISS Spacewalk in Two Weeks

Outside the International Space Station, Expedition 48 Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Kate Rubins of NASA conducted a spacewalk Sept. 1 to retract a thermal radiator, install the first of several enhanced high definition cameras on the station’s truss and tighten bolts on a joint that enables one of the station’s solar arrays to rotate. This was the second spacewalk for the pair in just 13 days. They installed the station’s first international docking adapter during their previous spacewalk on Aug. 19. The adapter will provide a parking place for new U.S. commercial crew spacecraft delivering astronauts to the station on future missions.

Space Station Cameras Capture Hurricanes

On Aug. 30, cameras outside the International Space Station captured images of three powerful tropical systems churning across the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Hurricane Lester was seen as it moved westward across the Pacific – packing 125 miles per hour winds. Hurricane Madeline also was seen making a westerly trek in the Pacific with wind in excess of 130 miles per hour. At the time, both storms were on a track that could threaten Hawaii. Station cameras also captured views of Hurricane Gaston as it churned across the open Atlantic. When this video was recorded, that storm had winds of 100 miles per hour.

Future Space Station Crews Prepare for Missions

The next crews in line to serve aboard the International Space Station are busy preparing for their respective missions. The Expedition 49-50 crew, including NASA’s Shane Kimbrough, is conducting crew qualification training in Star City, Russia. Kimbrough and cosmonauts Andrey Borisenko and Sergey Ryzhikov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos will launch on Sept. 23 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Following them will be Expedition 50/51. That crew, which includes NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, previewed their mission during an Aug. 30 news conference at Johnson Space Center in Houston. Launch for Expedition 50/51 is targeted for November.

Record-Breaking Galaxy Cluster Discovered

Using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes, researchers have discovered the most distant galaxy cluster on record. This composite image shows the galaxy cluster, known as CL J1001+0220. It’s located about 11.1 billion light years from Earth and may have been imaged shortly after it was born – a brief, but important stage of cluster evolution never seen before. This cluster is remarkable because of its high levels of star formation in galaxies near its center. Stars are forming there at a rate equivalent to more than 3,000 a year.

Up-Close with Jupiter

NASA’s Juno spacecraft successfully completed the first and closest of its 36 orbital flybys of Jupiter on Aug. 27 – zipping past the planet about 2,600 miles above its swirling clouds. This also was the first time Juno’s entire suite of science instruments was activated and looking at the giant planet as the spacecraft zoomed past – resulting in the highest-resolution views yet of the Jovian atmosphere and the first glimpses of Jupiter’s north and south poles. Juno’s mission to gather data on Jupiter’s polar regions is targeted to last until February 2018.

New Horizons: Pluto and Beyond

On Aug. 31, NASA headquarters hosted a program titled, “New Horizons Mission to Pluto and Beyond.” The event featured a presentation from Alan Stern – principal investigator of NASA’s New Horizons mission – about the spacecraft’s historic encounter with the Pluto system in 2015 and what’s planned for the extended mission. New Horizons currently is traveling in the Kuiper Belt beyond Pluto. The spacecraft is on its way to a New Year’s Day encounter in 2019 with an ancient object considered to be an early building block of the solar system. New Horizons continues to send back interesting imagery of the region – this animated series of images, released on Aug. 31, shows a dwarf planet called Quaoar (“Kwa-war”), which – at 690 miles in diameter – is roughly half the size of Pluto.

And that’s what’s up this week @NASA.