NICER / ISS Science Nugget
for August 8, 2024

Fixing a hole

Orbital-debris damage sustained by the NICER payload in May 2023 resulted in a "light leak" - illumination of NICER's detectors during orbit-day that interferes with their ability to register cosmic X-rays, while orbit-night observations remained unaffected. While operating around the payload's reduced data-acquisition efficiency, and in close collaboration with the ISS program, the NICER team developed, fabricated, tested, and delivered - one year and two days after the damage - a repair kit for transport to ISS. Those efforts were rewarded this week with the successful launch, on August 4th, of the 21st Northrup Grumman (NG-21) commercial resupply services flight of the Cygnus spacecraft atop a SpaceX Falcon9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, FL, followed by its successful berthing in the early hours of August 6th. A nasa.gov feature story describing the patch kit and repair efforts was widely viewed across social media.

The NICER team is immensely grateful for the cooperation, dedication, and support of our partners within the Research Integration, Extra-Vehicular Activity, Payload Operations, and other components of the ISS program at JSC and MSFC.