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]
