Comentarios desactivados en New Crew in Final Preps Before Historic July 20 Launch
New Crew in Final Preps Before Historic July 20 Launch
Expedition 60 crewmembers (from left) Drew Morgan, Alexander Skvortsov and Luca Parmitano affix a crew insignia sticker to the hull of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center aircraft as they flew to their training base in Kazakhstan July 4.
The next crew to liftoff to the International Space Station arrived at the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch site on the U.S. Independence Day awaiting a historic July 20 liftoff.
New Expedition 60 crewmates Andrew Morgan, Luca Parmitano and Alexander Skvortsov are in final mission preparations in Kazakhstan. The trio arrived July 4 counting down to a July 20 launch to the orbiting lab 50 years to the NASA landed humans on the Moon for the first time.
Morgan is going to space for the first time and will meet his fellow Class of 2013 NASA astronaut members, Christina Koch and Nick Hague, who have been at the station since March. Parmitano is on his second mission. Skvortsov, who is leading the mission aboard the Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft, is making his third visit to the space station.
Back aboard the station, the three orbiting Expedition 60 crewmembers continued science and maintenance duties. Koch sampled the station’s life support system for microbes while Hague serviced a specialized science furnace. Skvortsov checked on Russian station systems and monitored a radiation exposure study.
Comentarios desactivados en Crew Explores Space Biology, Radiation Exposure Before Independence Day
Crew Explores Space Biology, Radiation Exposure Before Independence Day
Expedition 60 Flight Engineer Christina Koch of NASA playfully demonstrates how fluids behave in the weightless environment of microgravity aboard the International Space Station.
The Expedition 60 crew explored space biology and radiation exposure aboard the International Space Station today. The orbital residents also filmed a virtual reality experience and oversaw the deployment of a set microsatellites.
NASA astronaut Christina Koch tended plants and stored microalgae samples for a pair of biology studies investigating ways to support long-term missions farther away from Earth. The two-part VEG-04 study is researching space agriculture as a method to nourish future crews as NASA prepares to go to the Moon and beyond. Microalgae is being observed for the Photobioreactor experiment that aims to demonstrate a hybrid life support system.
A series of seven CubeSats were deployed outside Japan’s Kibo laboratory module today. NASA Flight Engineer Nick Hague configured the seven microsatellites last week and installed them in a Kibo’s small satellite deployer. An international team of engineers and students designed the CubeSats for a variety of experiments and technology demonstrations.
Both astronauts teamed up in the afternoon for another filming session depicting life aboard the orbital outpost. The crew has been videotaping a cinematic, virtual reality experience on the station to share with audiences on Earth.
Commander Alexey Ovchinin set up radiation detectors throughout the station’s Russian segment this morning. The Matroyshka experiment is observing the amount of radiation the station and the crew are exposed to on its flight path.
The orbiting trio will take a day off on July 4 and relax aboard the station. Back on Earth, a new set of Expedition 60 crewmates will fly from Russia on the U.S. Independence Day to their launch site at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Astronauts Andrew Morgan and Luca Parmitano are in final preparations with cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov for a July 20 liftoff to their new home in space. Their launch comes 50 years to the day NASA landed humans on the Moon for the first time.
