The SpaceX Crew-3 astronauts and support personnel participate in water survival training at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory.
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The Expedition 65 crew is turning its attention to this weekend’s arrival of a U.S. cargo craft and a pair of Russian spacewalks starting several days later.
SpaceX is planning to launch its Cargo Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station on Saturday at 3:37 a.m. EDT. It will arrive on Sunday and dock autonomously at 11 a.m. to the Harmony module’s forward international docking adapter packed with new science experiments and crew supplies. NASA TV will broadcast both launch and docking and NASA Flight Engineers Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur will be on duty monitoring the Cargo Dragon’s arrival.
Cargo transfers are still ongoing inside the U.S. Cygnus space freighter from Northrop Grumman attached to the Unity module. Commander Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) partnered with Flight Engineer Thomas Pesquet of ESA (European Space Agency) offloading some of the four tons cargo packed inside Cygnus during the afternoon.
Two spacewalks are planned to set up Russia’s newest module, the Nauka Multipurpose Laboratory Module, for science operations on Sept. 3 and 9. Cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov have been preparing their Orlan spacesuits and Russian spacewalk hardware inside the Poisk module where they will begin both spacewalks.
NASA Flight Engineer Mark Vande Hei joined Hoshide in the U.S. Quest airlock today stowing their U.S. spacesuits and spacewalk tools. Today’s spacewalk to prepare the International Space Station for its third Roll-Out Solar Array was postponed by station managers early Monday.
Mark Garcia
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The U.S. spacewalk outside the International Space Station originally planned for Tuesday, Aug. 24 with NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide has been postponed due to a minor medical issue involving Vande Hei. This issue is not a medical emergency. The spacewalk is not time-sensitive and crew members are continuing to move forward with other station work and activities. Teams are assessing the next available opportunity to conduct the spacewalk following the SpaceX CRS-23 cargo resupply launch planned for Aug. 28 and upcoming Russian spacewalks. The preview briefing Aug. 23 is also being rescheduled and will be announced at a later date.
Mark Garcia
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Space Station Commander Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency checked the fit of his U.S. spacesuit.
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The Expedition 65 crew is going into the weekend preparing for a spacewalk on Tuesday while juggling a variety of microgravity research.
Astronauts Mark Vande Hei of NASA and Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) are less than a week away from exiting the U.S. Quest airlock to prepare the International Space Station for its third Roll-Out Solar Array. The two spacewalkers have been gearing up all week checking their spacesuits, configuring their tools, and reviewing their procedures for the planned six-hour and 50-minute excursion.
They will set their U.S. spacesuits to battery power on Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. EDT signifying the start of their spacewalk with NASA TV, NASA app, and agency website coverage beginning at 7 a.m. NASA TV will also broadcast a briefing on Monday at 2 p.m. discussing Tuesday’s spacewalk activities.
The spacewalkers will be assisted by Flight Engineers Megan McArthur of NASA and Thomas Pesquet of ESA (European Space Agency). The pair joined Vande Hei and Hoshide today for more spacewalk reviews and a conference with experts on the ground.
Vande Hei, despite preparations for his fifth career spacewalk, also had time today for biology research taking microscopic photographs of engineered tissue samples for the Cardinal Muscle investigation. Observations may help doctors learn how to treat space-caused muscle loss and Earth-bound muscle conditions.
NASA Flight Engineer Shane Kimbrough spent his day on human research, physics and botany duties aboard the orbiting lab. First, he collected his urine samples and stowed them in a science freezer for later analysis as part of the Repository human research study. Following that, Kimbrough opened up the Combustion Integrated Rack and swapped fuel bottles to support research into flames and fuels in microgravity. Finally, the three-time space visitor cleaned up debris around the Plant Habitat Facility that is growing Hatch chiles for the Plant Habitat-04 experiment.
Cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov spent Friday unpacking hardware and testing cable connections between the Nauka Multipurpose Laboratory Module and the Zvezda service module. The Russian Flight Engineers will also exit the Poisk module’s airlock twice in early September for more configuration work on the outside of Nauka.
Mark Garcia
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