Space to Ground: The Return of Crew-8: Oct. 25, 2024

NASA's Space to Ground is your weekly update on what's happening aboard the International Space Station.

What is said in the film

Welcome to Space to Ground, I'm Nilufar Ramji. Sometimes, it can get windy in space. But unlike the winds that we experience here on Earth, solar wind are streams of charged particles released from the Sun’s corona and are million degrees hotter than the Sun’s surface, at speeds of almost a million miles per hour. NASA and its international partners are launching scientific investigations on SpaceX’s 31st commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station in the coming weeks, including one that will study solar wind. The investigation is called CODEX, or the Coronal Diagnostic Experiment.

It will examine solar winds, creating a globally comprehensive data set to help scientists validate various theories for what heats the solar wind. The instrument takes multiple daily measurements that determine the temperature and speed of solar wind ejections. When the solar wind reaches Earth, it triggers auroras at the poles and can generate space weather storms that sometimes disrupt satellite and land-based communications and even power grids on the ground. Understanding the source of the solar wind could help improve space-weather forecasts and response. As we prepare to conduct this exciting new science aboard the space station, a fascinating new result has emerged that could enhance our models of how thunderstorms impact Earth’s climate.

Researchers are refining climate models by studying electrical discharges from thunderclouds, known as Blue Luminous Events or BLUEs BLUEs are thought to affect regional atmospheric chemistry and climate. The parameters reported by this study could inform models that help predict how these discharges will behave and spread as the planet warms. Data comes from ASIM, the Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor, a European Space Agency investigation studying high-altitude lightning in thunderstorms and the role it plays in Earth’s atmosphere and climate. And finally, the return of Crew-8. After a couple of weeks of unfavorable weather off the Florida coast, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission is back on Earth after an early morning splashdown on Friday.

The Crew Dragon Endeavour, with NASA astronauts Mike Barratt, Matt Dominick, and Jeanette Epps, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, undocked from the space station on Wednesday afternoon for its journey back home. As the space station orbits at nearly 17,500 miles an hour, the activities continue. For all of the latest, visit blogs. nasa. gov/spacestation.

That’s Space to Ground, thanks for watching.

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