Space to Ground: Spacewalk 273: Jan. 17, 2025

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

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Welcome to Space to Ground, I'm Sandra Jones. For the 273rd time, humans ventured into the vacuum of space in support of the assembly, maintenance, and upgrades to the International Space Station. Two NASA astronauts had an office with a view during the first spacewalk of the year. On Thursday NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Suni Williams went for the walk of a lifetime... on a space walk that is.

The duo floated out into the vacuum of space and worked together to replace a Rate Gyro Assembly that helps provide orientation control for the station, installed patches to cover damaged areas of light filters for an x-ray telescope called NICER, or the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer, and replace a reflector device used for navigational data on one of the International Docking Adapters. Additionally, the pair worked to check access areas and connector tools that will be used for future maintenance work on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. This was the fourth spacewalk for Hague and the eighth for Williams, Can't get enough of those out of the world views during a spacewalk? Tune in to see more of them as two NASA astronauts venture outside the space station hatch yet again. On Thursday January 23rd, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore will remove a Radio Frequency Group Antenna Assembly from the station's trust, and collect samples from outside the space station focusing on sites near life support system vents, to examine whether the spacecraft releases microorganisms, how many, and how far they may travel.

This research could help determine whether changes are needed to crewed spacecraft, including space suits, used to explore destinations where life may exist now or previously existed, and to limit the spread of human contamination. Wilmore and Williams will also prepare a spare elbow joint for the Canadarm2 Robotic Arm in the event it is needed for a replacement. You can tune in live beginning at 6:45 a. m. eastern on NASA+.

Multiple destructive fires broke out in the hills of Los Angeles California in early January. Several major wildland fires fueled by a dry landscape and winds that gusted up to 100 mph have destroyed thousands of structures and prompted officials to issue evacuation orders for thousands of people in several parts of the region. Powerful Santa Ana winds and a lack of rain created critical fire weather conditions in Southern California according to the National Weather Service. Although windy conditions are typical this time of year, the lack of rain contributed to the dangerous fire weather. As the frequency and severity of wildfires increases worldwide, experts need reliable models of fire susceptibility to protect public safety and support natural resource planning and risk management.

Researchers demonstrated that data from the Space Station's ECOSTRESS instrument has played a significant role in the ability of machine learning algorithms to predict wildfire susceptibility. ECOSTRESS measures water use efficiency and other plant water dynamics on Earth. Researchers report that water use efficiency consistently emerged as the leading factor in predicting wildfires, along with evaporative stress which impacts overall plant moisture. As always, we invite you to visit nasa. gov for more stories blogs updates and media broadcasts And that's Space to Ground for this week.

Thanks so much for watching. We'll see you next week. "Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Butch...

Happy Birthday to you! " "Thank you, thank you! " "And many more... with peanut butter honey cake. "

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