Dr. Ralf Bennartz, 56, currently is the principal investigator at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, is leading the NASA space mission to study ice clouds in our dynamic atmosphere and how they change in our atmosphere from day to day.  It simply means equipment will be in place to study and evaluate the world’s weather patterns. Since 1997, he has had nine Vanderbilt University appointments and 11 Synergistic university appointments, all within the Cloud-Formations and accurate weather prognostication.  Inclusively, he also is a Geology Professor.  This new NASA mission, Polarized Submillimeter Ice-Cloud Radiometer, will study high-altitude ice clouds.  Understanding how such clouds change throughout the day is crucial for improving global climate models, wrote NASA.

“Studying ice clouds is crucial for improving climate forecasts – and, this will be the first time we can study ice clouds in this level of detail,” said Nicola Fox of NASA’s Science Mission program from Washington, DC.

The investigation consists of two identical CubeSats – each small satellite is just over a foot tall – flying in orbits separated by three to nine hours.  Over time, these two instruments will observe the clouds’ daily cycle of ice content.

Updating Monday’s SpaceX’s chartered flight, which arrived less than 16 hours after blasting off from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Sunday.  The four guests will spend just over a week at the International Space Station (ISS) before returning to earth in the same capsule.  The total ISS’s population is now 11 astronauts.  The seven in-house astronauts will be aboard the ISS for several forthcoming months.

On board as visitors are, in part, John Shoffner, a Knoxville, Tennessee businessman who started his own car racing team and is a race car driver, is paying his own way.  There are two additional foreign overseas astronauts on board. 

Current ticket prices are unknown, but last year’s cost was $55 million each!  NASA’s latest price list shows per-person and per-day charges of $2,000 for food, and up to $1,500 for sleeping bags and other gear.  Need to get your stuff to the ISS in advance?  Figure roughly $10.000 per pound!  Need your items returned intact?  Double the price.  Now, add these items together with $55 million and you’ll have your traveling price to space.  Don’t forget your Dramamine!

The astronauts reached the ISS early Monday morning following a Sunday take-off.   For more than one week, they will live on the Space Station until their splashdown off the Florida cost.

“The four astronauts, including one from Knoxville, Tennessee, arrived at the ISS as part of a private astronaut mission by Axion Space, which hopes to build its own space station in low Earth orbit later this decade,” said Amy Thompson of The Hill.  “Its diverse crew consists of two women and two men.  They joined seven other astronauts aboard the Space Station.”

Additional information supplied by Thompson reads, “They will conduct a host of scientific investigations and technology demonstration before returning to Earth on May 31, 2023, which is next Wednesday.

In conclusion, “Every NASA mission is carefully chosen to better understand our home planet,” said Fox.