Station Spinal Ultrasounds Seeking Why Astronauts Grow Taller in Space

Did you ever wish you could be just a teensy bit taller? Well, if you spend a few months in space, you could get your wish - temporarily. It is a commonly known fact that astronauts living aboard the International Space Station grow up to 3 percent taller while living in microgravity. They return to their normal height when back on Earth.

Treadmill Kinematics Flight Experiment Completes Inflight Sessions

On November 5, 2012, Treadmill Kinematics completed its final in-flight exercise session. All 8 crewmembers, which consented to participate, have now completed all their data collection, including exercise sessions on the ISS. In-flight exercise sessions have spanned the period from April 2011 to November 2012.

TROPI-2 Results Published

Results of the TROPI-2 experiment were published in April 2012 in the Online First Edition of Planta (http://www.springerlink.com/content/wq61621488n52703/), an International Plant Biology Journal. The title of the article is Phototropism of Arabidopsis thaliana in microgravity and fractional gravity on the International Space Station authored by Drs. John Z. Kiss, Katherine D. L. Millar and Richard E. Edelmann, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio.

ESA Turns Over Ground European Modular Cultivation System to NASA Ames

Beginning in 2003 the Flight Systems Implementation Branch (Code SCF) has performed on ISS three successful plant biology experiments(TROPI-1,2006;TROPI-2,2010; Plant Signaling, 2011) inside the European Space Agency’s (ESA) European Modular Cultivation System (EMCS).

STS-135 Spaceflight Experiment Highlighted by AAOS

STS-135 Spaceflight Experiment Highlighted by AAOS: The American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons highlighted results from STS-135 mouse experiments in their annual meeting newsletter and on-line with the article, "Taking Off: The Impact of Spaceflight on Musculoskeletal Tissue."

Station crew studies how microgravity affects eyesight

Onboard the ISS in July, the STS-135 crew members used the new Ultrasound 2 device to study microgravity effects on human health.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/Ultrasound_2.html

Micro-6 Experiment Returns from ISS

All on-orbit operations for the Micro-6 experiment were completed and the samples were returned to earth on October 28, 2012 on SpaceX-1 Dragon. The Micro-6 experiment was designed by Dr. Sheila Neilsen-Preiss of Montana State University who hopes to study how spaceflight affects the opportunistic yeast Candida albicans.

International Space Orchestra featured on This Week at NASA!

Watch the video here:

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=153949661

International Space Orchestra

SCF assistant branch chief and trumpeter BJ Navarro is a member of the International Space Orchestra. The "world premier" concert entitled: Ground Control: An Opera in Space was held Sept 13 in San Jose. The concert will be dedicated to Neil Armstrong.

Ultrasound-2 Flight Unit Delivery

The final three backup flight units for the Ultrasound-2 were delivered to Johnson Space Center on January 5, 2012. The Ultrasound-2 project led by Dave Pletcher with team members Tianna Shaw, Julie Levri and Dan Morgan from the Flight Systems Implementation Branch developed the next generation device which has replaced the existing Ultrasound system onboard the ISS.