NASA Television to Broadcast Launch, Docking of Space Station Cargo Ship
A Russian Progress cargo ship is scheduled to launch on a three-hour flight to the International Space Station Thursday, April 4.
NASA Breaking News
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Spacewalks Preps and More Brain Research At Station Today
Spacewalks Preps and More Brain Research At Station Today
Two days away from the second International Space Station spacewalk of 2019 and the Expedition 59 crew is studying the human brain and an astronaut’s wake-sleep cycle in space.
Flight Engineers Nick Hague and Christina Koch will exit the Quest airlock Friday for about 6.5 hours of battery swaps to upgrade the station’s power storage capacity. The duo will set their spacesuits to battery power about 8:20 a.m. EDT Friday signifying the start of their spacewalk. NASA TV will begins its live coverage at 6:30 a.m.
While Hague and Koch were organizing their spacewalk tools today, the duo had time to research how blood flows to the brain in microgravity. Koch took Doppler waveform measurements of her arterial blood pressure for the Cerebral Autoregulation study. Hague then closed out the brain blood-flow experiment and stowed its gear in the Kibo lab module.
Astronaut David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency was back on spacesuit duty today cleaning cooling loops, checking tools and readying the SAFER jetpacks. He later worked on a wearable device, the Actiwatch Spectrum (AWS), which measures an astronaut’s daily wake-sleep cycle, or circadian rhythm. The AWS provides doctors insights into sleep quality, sleep onset and ambient light quality aboard the orbital lab.
NASA astronaut Anne McClain also assisted with the spacesuit work today checking the SAFER jet packs and reconfiguring the U.S. spacesuits. She also worked on a science freezer and trashed obsolete ultrasonic hardware designed to detect pressure leaks.
Mark Garcia
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Joan Stupik, Guidance and Control Engineer
Joan Stupik, Guidance and Control Engineer
When Joan Stupik was a child, her parents bought her a mini-planetarium that she could use to project the stars on her bedroom ceiling.
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NASA Administrator Statement on Return to Moon in Next Five Years
NASA Administrator Statement on Return to Moon in Next Five Years
The following is a statement from NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine on Tuesday’s announcement by Vice President Mike Pence, at the fifth meeting of the National Space Council, about putting American astronauts back on the Moon in the next five years:
NASA Breaking News
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Spacewalkers Swapping Places; Crew Studies Brain and Muscles
Spacewalkers Swapping Places; Crew Studies Brain and Muscles
A pair of astronauts are trading places on the next two spacewalks as the Expedition 59 crew continues upgrades and maintenance outside of the International Space Station. The orbital residents are also conducting space research to improve life for humans on and off Earth.
NASA announced Monday that Flight Engineer Nick Hague is joining fellow NASA astronaut Christina Koch on this Friday’s spacewalk. The duo will continue swapping old nickel-hydrogen batteries with new lithium-ion batteries on the station’ Port-4 truss structure. Hague and astronaut Anne McClain performed the exact same work last week on the other side of the truss structure.
Hague is swapping places with McClain this Friday due to a spacesuit-sizing issue. McClain is tentatively planned to go outside on an April 8 spacewalk with Canadian Space Agency astronaut David Saint-Jacques. The spacewalkers will install truss jumpers to provide secondary power to the Canadarm2 robotic arm.
McClain and Hague successfully installed new lithium-ion batteries during a spacewalk on March 22. Ground teams checked out the power channel immediately after the spacewalk with no issues. Over the weekend, attempts to recharge one of the batteries were unsuccessful. Engineers on the ground are continuing to identify the cause of the issue and explore possible solutions. There has been no impact to standard space station operations.
Science work is always ongoing aboard the orbital lab with the crew researching blood flow to the brain and muscle adaptation in space.
Hague spent a couple of hours this morning in the Kibo lab module measuring his arterial blood pressure using waveform data. The results will inform the Cerebral Autoregulation experiment that observes the brain’s blood vessels in microgravity.
Hague then joined Koch and collected leg, shoulder and back measurements for the Myotones muscle study in the Columbus lab module. Results could improve muscle rehabilitation techniques on Earth and in space.
Mark Garcia
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