NICER Does the Twist

NICER in Operation

NICER First Deployment and Range of Motion Tests

Extraction of NICER from the Dragon Trunk

Rendezvous and capture of Dragon capsule carrying CRS-11/NICER (June 5, 2017)

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

The Launch of CRS-11 and NICER (June 3, 17:07 2017 EDT)

(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)]

Animation of the pointing system [MP4]

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]

Short animation of the pointing system [avi | QT]

NICER Science Overview