Astronaut Mark Vande Hei peers at the Earth below from inside the seven-windowed cupola, the International Space Station’s window to the world.
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NASA Television will provide live coverage of the launch and docking of a Russian cargo spacecraft delivering almost three tons of food, fuel and supplies to the International Space Station.
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The International Space Station is orbiting slightly higher today placing it in position for a crew swap taking place in March. Meanwhile, the seven-member Expedition 66 crew participated in life science and physics research and a variety of robotics activities.
Russia’s ISS Progress 79 cargo craft, docked to the aft end of the Zvezda service module, fired its engines early Tuesday morning for two minutes and 22 seconds. The orbital maneuver boosted the station’s orbit by six-tenths of a mile in preparation for the Soyuz MS-20 crew ship arriving in mid-March as well as the Soyuz MS-19 trio departing on March 30. NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei will be returning to Earth inside the Soyuz MS-19 crew ship completing a NASA single spaceflight record-breaking mission of 355 days.
Today’s science schedule aboard the orbiting lab covered a wide variety of subjects exploring phenomena benefitting astronauts in space and humans on Earth.
NASA Flight Engineer Thomas Marshburn configured the Combustion Integrated Rack to begin operations for a pair of studies exploring fire growth in microgravity. Marshburn also took a robotics test for the Behavioral Core Measures investigating how living in space affects crew stress, performance, and behavior. ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Matthias Maurer watered and photographed plants growing for the Veggie PONDS space agriculture study.
NASA astronaut Kayla Barron set up an Astrobee robotic assistant to collect visual data and create a localization map inside the Harmony module. She also joined fellow NASA Flight Engineer Raja Chari and reviewed spacewalk responsibilities and configured spacewalk tools. Vande Hei swapped samples and cleaned the inside the Electrostatic Levitation Furnace, a research device that enables the observation of thermophysical properties at high temperatures.
In the station’s Russian segment, Commander Anton Shkaplerov joined Flight Engineer Pyotr Dubrov and studied how the heart and circulation system adapt to weightlessness . The duo from Roscosmos also partnered together on cargo activities and air repressurization activities inside the Progress 79 vehicle.
Mark Garcia
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Mathematician Daniel G. Nichols, who worked in the Real-Time Program Development Branch, Mission Planning and Analysis Division, is photographed in NASA’s Manned Space Center.
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The Expedition 66 crew kicked off the week today exploring how living in space affects psychology and ways to manipulate objects with sound. The residents aboard the International Space Station also serviced U.S. spacesuits and worked on an artificial gravity-generating incubator.
NASA Flight Engineers Kayla Barron and Raja Chari took turns participating in a robotics test for the Behavioral Core Measures experiment on Monday. The monthly sessions investigate how living in a confined space in microgravity affects crew stress, performance, and behavior.
Barron then joined ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Matthias Maurer and practiced measuring fluid pressure in the eye. She also photographed cotton cell samples growing for the Plant Habitat-05 space agriculture study. Maurer and Chari partnered together on Monday afternoon resizing a pair of U.S. spacesuits.
Maurer started his day on the Ultrasonic Tweezers study using acoustics to manipulate objects remotely and without physical contact. Vande Hei assisted the German astronaut during the experiment that explores using ultrasonics to trap and isolate objects to study samples and avoid contamination on planetary surfaces.
NASA astronaut Thomas Marshburn worked throughout Monday on science hardware ensuring critical research operations run smoothly in weightlessness. The three-time station visitor installed and serviced components inside the Cell Biology Experiment Facility, an incubator with an artificial gravity generator. He finally swapped drying agents, or desiccants, inside science freezers that preserve research samples.
Vande Hei joined Roscosmos Flight Engineer Pyotr Dubrov in the station’s Russian segment for more wireless gear maintenance. Commander Anton Shkaplerov set up hardware that will monitor how natural and man-made events on Earth affect the upper atmosphere.
Mark Garcia
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