NASA is honoring John Culberson, former U.S. representative from Texas, with an agency Distinguished Public Service Medal. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine presented the award to Culberson during a presentation Friday at the 70th International Astronautical Congress in Washington.
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The six residents living aboard the International Space Station are busy today ensuring advanced microgravity research continues to provide benefits for citizens on Earth and in space. The Expedition 61 crew is also brushing up on repair techniques for a cosmic particle detector attached to the outside of the orbiting lab.
NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch juggled an array of life science activities throughout Thursday. Meir cared for plants for a new field of botany research exploring how to provide fresh food for long-term space crews. Meir later swapped out a failed computer hard drive that supports combustion experiments. Koch organized biology hardware for a study seeking therapies for aging-related conditions. Koch then serviced microbial DNA samples to understand how microorganisms adapt to weightlessness.
The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) is due for an upgraded thermal control system after being installed on the outpost’s Starboard-3 truss structure in 2011. NASA is planning a series of spacewalks to restore the AMS-02 to full service. Commander Luca Parmitano of ESA (European Space Agency) and NASA Flight Engineer Andrew Morgan are reviewing the tools and techniques necessary to complete the AMS repair job.
Over in the station’s Russian segment, composed of five modules, a pair of cosmonauts focused on hardware and systems maintenance. Alexander Skvortsov inspected lab windows and checked batteries. Fellow cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka worked on air conditioning and plumbing tasks inside the orbital lab. The duo also explored how to improve accuracy when detecting and photographing Earth landmarks.
Mark Garcia
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The Expedition 61 crew tackled a variety of maintenance jobs and microgravity science onboard the International Space Station today. The orbital residents are also gearing up for the departure of a Japanese cargo ship and more spacewalks tentatively scheduled for November.
Flight Engineer Christina Koch continued loading trash and obsolete gear in Japan’s resupply ship before stowing spacewalk tools and hardware today. Commander Luca Parmitano began his day getting up to speed on future spacewalks planned for the repair of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. Koch and Parmitano later joined together and installed new stowage racks inside the Permanent Multipurpose Module.
NASA astronaut Jessica Meir spent all day Wednesday cleaning cooling loops inside the U.S. spacesuits she and Koch wore last week. Parmitano and Flight Engineer Andrew Morgan were also on spacesuit duty checking tethers and recharging the metal oxide canisters that scrub carbon dioxide from the suit atmosphere.
Morgan was back in the Japanese Kibo laboratory module this morning installing an incubator into the Saibo biology research rack. He then watered plants for a space agriculture study exploring how to provide fresh food for long-term space crews.
In the Russian segment of the orbiting lab, veteran cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov researched ways to improve geographic accuracy when photographing the Earth. Flight Engineer Oleg Skripochka continued testing acoustic gear to detect and locate micrometeoroid impacts on the station.
Mark Garcia
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Japan’s resupply ship is nearing the end of its month-long stay at the International Space Station. Meanwhile, the Expedition 61 crew is exploring how microgravity impacts humans and plants today.
Fresh off her fourth spacewalk last Friday, NASA astronaut Christina Koch is packing the Japanese HTV-8 cargo craft with discarded hardware and trash for disposal. Commander Luca Parmitano of ESA (European Space Agency) joined Koch for the cargo transfers today.
Koch and NASA Flight Engineer Jessica Meir will be in the cupola on Friday, Nov. 1 commanding the Canadarm2 robotic arm to release the HTV-8. It will reenter Earth’s atmosphere the following day for a fiery, but safe demise above the Pacific Ocean.
Parmitano and Koch switched roles during the afternoon from space movers to crew medical officers (CMO) examining Meir and NASA Flight Engineer Andrew Morgan. The CMOs operated an ultrasound scanner looking at the cornea, lens and optic nerve inside the eyes of Meir and Morgan.
Koch also researched surface tension in space to understand afflictions such as Alzheimer’s disease and design advanced materials. Meir tended to plants for an ongoing space agriculture study. Morgan installed new life science hardware inside the Kibo lab module’s Saibo biology research rack.
Cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Skripochka set up acoustic gear testing the detection and location of micrometeoroid impacts on the space station. The duo spent the rest of the afternoon checking docking hardware on the Zvezda service module and the Pirs docking compartment.
Mark Garcia
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The Expedition 61 crew is cleaning up today after the first all-woman spacewalk at the International Space Station. Eye checks and lab maintenance also kicked off the workweek as two cosmonauts took the day off.
NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir are stowing the tools they used on Friday during a seven-hour and 17-minute spacewalk. Koch is also packing a failed power controller for return to Earth after replacing it with spare unit during last week’s excursion. Meir recorded how she felt about the first spacewalk of her career for a 3-D virtual reality film.
During the afternoon, Meir joined Commander Luca Parmitano and fellow Flight Engineer Andrew Morgan for eye exams. The trio took turns peering into Optical Coherence Tomography hardware so ground doctors could check the astronauts’ retinas.
Morgan partnered with Koch in the morning transferring hardware from the Permanent Multipurpose Module to Japan’s HTV-8 resupply ship. The HTV-8 will complete its 34-day cargo mission at the station’s Harmony module on Nov. 1.
Cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Skripochka are relaxing today after a busy week of space research and maintenance over the station’s Russian segment. The veteran space duo are each on their third long-duration mission at the orbiting lab.
Mark Garcia
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