Mission update, after the successful berth of the Dragon capsule with the ISS yesterday, our astronauts wasted no time unloading it. In the early hours of this morning, my team was teleconferencing with Peggy Whitson, an American astronaut and scientist aboard the International Space Station. She coordinated the unpacking of our VFBs and stowing them […]

After a two day journey, our flies are finally there! I had to borrow an image from NASA TV since I couldn’t be there. Check out Spaceflightinsider.com for coverage of the docking event, and here is a cool video on YouTube, SpaceX CRS-11: Dragon capture, 5 June 2017 for you to experience the event. I predict the astronauts are […]

Not much to report today. We headed into lab to finalize our paperwork. (NASA loves paperwork) Can you tell how excited we all were?! Then we started packing up the lab, as our space was only allocated for the this mission. Time to clear out for the next group. Now, I’m off to the airport […]

Well, after a long night in the ER and waiting for my heart to stop racing from the epinephrine, I did not make it into lab for the second handover today. So, I borrowed the picture Kevin put out in his daily reports that he sends out the the team. Look how good everyone looks! […]

About thirty minutes to launch, a bolt of lightning split the sky and hit Merritt Island, violating the rules for launch. We were scrubbed.  At least we were prepared. We spent all day prepping for our backup mission, just in case. Glad we have that in the pipeline now. During the afternoon, Christina and Medaya […]

A buzz of professional, okay giddy, yet nervous excitement filled the lab this morning as we prepared our flies for handover. Tomorrow, our rocket is scheduled to launch, and the SpaceX Dragon capsule needs to be loaded. As of now, the weather is starting to look ominously stormy, and we have a 50-60% chance of […]

It’s getting down to the wire. We are crossing our t’s and dotting our i’s. Last night, we put adults into vials, like the ones imaged above, so they could get busy laying eggs to send up in the Dragon capsule. Tonight, we will return to remove the adults so that we have well staged […]

This one was not a drill. Everything turned out okay in the end though.

Many people have been asking for more details about our payload. What exactly are you sending up? Well, here it is… The astronauts will receive a cargo transfer bag (CTB) containing 6 vented fly boxes (VFBs) packed in Zotek foam. Each box will contain 15 fly food vials. Four of the boxes will have vials […]