NASA studies fire aboard uncrewed Cygnus after ISS departure
NASA's Saffire project is all about understanding how fire acts in space.
Instead of risking astronauts, they use uncrewed Cygnus cargo spacecraft, lighting up different materials after these ships leave the International Space Station.
It's a pretty smart way to figure out how flames behave when there's basically no gravity, which is super important for keeping future space crews safe.
Saffire finds lower pressure slows flames
Saffire ran six experiments, each testing how fires start and spread under different spacecraft conditions.
Turns out, flames move differently in microgravity: they can keep going steadily, but lowering the air pressure slows them down.
The final experiment examined what happens with a bigger blaze.
All these findings help make sure future missions are safer if anything ever catches fire up there.