Spacecraft separation! @SpaceX's #Dragon cargo craft separated from 2nd stage engine. Heads to @Space_Station. NICER is visible in the Dragon Trunk near the top of the video. — NASA (@NASA) June 3, 2017
(05/24/16) -- Animated video of the extraction of the NICER payload
from the SpaceX Dragon and its installation on the ISS ExPRESS Logistics Carrier 2 (ELC2). [avi (426 Megabytes)]
(04/11/16) -- Time-lapse movie of the NICER range of motion test at
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. [mov (1450 Megabytes)]
(02/03/16) -- Time-lapse movie of the NICER payload returning to its
stowed configuration after electromagnetic testing at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. [mov (1050 Megabytes)]
(12/30/15) -- Time-lapse movie of the NICER payload's first
deployment, using a gravity-mitigation system, during electromagnetic testing at NASA's Goddard Space Flight
Center. [mov (401 Megabytes)]
(12/23/15) -- Time-lapse movie of NICER's box-shaped X-ray Timing Instrument, with
attached flight electronics and the payload's pointing system, being lifted and positioned onto the flight Adapter Plate,
NICER's interface to the International Space Station-provided hardware for installation on Station, in a clean-tent at NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Center. [mov (395 Megabytes)]
NICER also enables an exciting technology demonstration in which millisecond
pulsars are used as precise clocks, analogous to the atomic clocks on GPS satellites, to determine a spacecraft's position in
the galaxy. Future travels into the outer Solar system and beyond will use this Pulsar Navigation technique to plot out the
voyage. [QT |MP4]
NICER operations: NICER is shown at faster than real time tracking pulsars with
slews between targets. Notice that the solar panels are tracking the Sun and appear fixed in the sky relative to the stars.
[QT | MP4]