Archivo de la etiqueta: International Space Station

Crew Relaxes Day Before Three Tons of Station Cargo Arrives

The Expedition 67 crew is taking a well-deserved day off following a busy few weeks of commercial crew and private astronaut missions. Meanwhile, the next cargo craft to resupply the International Space Station stands ready to launch from Kazakhstan on Friday morning.

The seven orbital residents are relaxing today following an intense period that saw three different SpaceX Crew Dragon vehicles come and go, as well as the arrival and departure of Boeing’s Starliner crew ship. Axiom Mission 1 arrived first at the station on April 9, aboard the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour for a two-week stay. Following that, Crew-4 docked to the station inside the Dragon Freedom on April 27. On May 5, Crew-3 ended its six-month mission after undocking aboard the Dragon Endurance. Finally, the station crew welcomed NASA’s and Boeing’s Orbital Flight Test-2 for a five-day mission when it docked on May 20.

Three tons of food, fuel, and supplies are packed inside the Progress 81 cargo craft destined to replenish the station residents on Friday. The Progress is counting down to a liftoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 5:32 a.m. on Friday. After just two orbits, the space freighter will approach the Zvezda service module’s rear port for an automated docking at 9:02 a.m. The  Progress 79 cargo craft undocked from Zvezda early Wednesday ending its 214-day stay.

Commander Oleg Artemyev and Flight Engineer Denis Matveev will be on duty Friday morning monitoring the space freighter’s arrival. The duo from Roscosmos has been reviewing approach and rendezvous procedures as well as practicing manual docking techniques with Zvezda’s tele-robotically operated rendezvous unit, or TORU. NASA TV begins its live Progress 81 launch coverage at 5:15 a.m. on NASA’s app and website.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

Get weekly video highlights at: http://jscfeatures.jsc.nasa.gov/videoupdate/

Get the latest from NASA delivered every week. Subscribe here: www.nasa.gov/subscribe

Get The Details…

Mark Garcia

Powered by WPeMatico

Station Preps for Progress and Dragon Cargo Missions

There are now four spacecraft parked at the International Space Station today after a Russian cargo craft undocked Wednesday morning. A fifth spaceship will arrive on Friday to replace it and replenish the Expedition 67 crew with food, fuel, and supplies.

The ISS Progress 79 resupply ship undocked from the rear port of the Zvezda service module at 4:03 a.m. EDT today completing a 214-day cargo mission at the station. The trash-filled space freighter reentered Earth’s atmosphere just over three hours later for a fiery, but safe demise over the Pacific Ocean.

A new resupply ship, the ISS Progress 81 (81P), stands at its launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan counting down to a lift off at 5:32 a.m. on Friday. The 81P will dock three-and-a-half hours later to the same Zvezda port vacated by the 79P. The launch and docking activities will be broadcast live on the NASA app and on the NASA website.

Less than a week later, SpaceX will launch its 25^th commercial resupply mission to the space station. The Cargo Dragon will launch atop the company’s Falcon 9 rocket from Florida at 10:45 a.m. on June 9. It will arrive the next day at 1:30 p.m. automatically docking to the Harmony module’s forward port previously occupied by Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. NASA TV will broadcast both the Dragon’s liftoff and its arrival at the station.

Meanwhile, the seven station residents orbiting Earth started their shifts today with body mass measurements. The crew mates took turns attaching themselves to a mass measurement device that applies a known force to the individual with the resulting acceleration being used to calculate body mass. The measurements are based on a formula using Newton’s Second Law of Motion (force equals mass times acceleration).

Lab maintenance took precedence today for NASA Flight Engineers Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, and Jessica Watkins as they worked throughout Wednesday on life support gear and orbital plumbing components. Lindgren and Hines also had time for blood sample collections as well as tending to the XROOTS space botany experiment.

ESA (European Space Agency) Flight Engineer Samantha Cristoforetti also worked on the space botany study as she checked and photographed the growing plants. The two-time station visitor from Italy also analyzed changes in her body composition for the NutrISS investigation then checked out a robotics control terminal.

Commander Oleg Artemyev and Flight Engineer Denis Matveev took turns today studying future planetary piloting and robotic control techniques. Flight Engineer Sergey Korsakov serviced power supply systems inside the Zarya module then replaced a laptop computer battery in the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module.

Get The Details…

Mark Garcia

Powered by WPeMatico

Science Full Speed Ahead as Station Preps for Cargo Mission

A muscle study, a robotics test, and space physics hardware were the main research topics aboard the International Space Station on Tuesday. The Expedition 67 crew will also see a Russian cargo craft depart and a new one launch to replace it this week.

Scientists have been exploring how an astronaut’s muscles adapt to weightlessness in order to ensure crews stay healthy in space and can withstand the return to Earth’s gravity. NASA Flight Engineers Kjell Lindgren and Bob Hines paired up today marking their foot, leg, shoulder, and back muscles for the Myotones study. The duo then took turns scanning the marked areas using the Myotones device and the Ultrasound device to measure the muscle’s biochemical properties. Results may improve health monitoring during spaceflight and treatments for muscle conditions on Earth.

Hines then joined NASA Flight Engineer Jessica Watkins for orbital plumbing work in the Tranquility module’s bathroom. The pair also had a robotics test on their schedule today for the Behavioral Core Measures investigation looking at how working on the surface of Mars might affect a crew member’s performance.

ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti serviced sample cartridges from inside the Electrostatic Levitation Furnace (ELF) located in the Kibo laboratory module. The ELF can safely measure the thermophysical properties of materials at temperatures of over 2,000 degrees Celsius in microgravity.

Roscosmos Commander Oleg Artemyev and Flight Engineer Denis Matveev trained on a computer today for the automated arrival of the ISS Progress 81 (81P) resupply ship set for 9:03 a.m. EDT on Friday. The 81P is due to blast off three-and-a-half hours earlier from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It will replace the trash-filled ISS Progress 79 cargo craft after it undocks from the rear port of the Zvezda service module early Wednesday morning.

Flight Engineer Sergey Korsakov deactivated Earth observation gear before conducting a physical evaluation on the advanced resistive device that mimics a workout in Earth’s gravity. The first time space-flyer later studied future planetary piloting and robotic control techniques then explored ways to improve communications between international crews and mission controllers from around the world.

Get The Details…

Mark Garcia

Powered by WPeMatico

End of Week Sees Crew Explore How Space Affects Eyes, Brain and Heart

The Expedition 67 crew continued its ongoing human research today with ultrasound eye exams and blood flow measurements in the brain. The orbital residents also explored robotics and space navigation techniques.

The four astronauts aboard the International Space Station took turns Friday morning scanning each other’s eyes using the Ultrasound 2 device. Flight Engineers Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, Samantha Cristoforetti, and Jessica Watkins gathered in the Columbus laboratory module for the eye scans with real time support from personnel on the ground. Results will help doctors understand how living in weightlessness impacts the eye, the retina, and vision.

Earlier, Hines completed a session that required him to wear electrodes and sensors that measured blood flow in his head and chest. The Cerebral Autoregulation investigation is exploring how the human brain regulates its blood flow in microgravity. Results may benefit astronauts who experience lightheadedness and a change in blood pressure after returning to Earth’s gravity.

Watkins turned on an Astrobee robotic free-flyer inside the Kibo laboratory module testing its autonomous maneuvers ahead of the Kibo Robot Programming Challenge 3 for students. Lindgren worked in the cupola setting up a camera to photograph Moon imagery for a study that may help future Artemis astronauts navigate their way to the lunar surface.

Cristoforetti transferred the AstroPi computer from the Harmony module to the Columbus module during the morning. She then spent the afternoon checking out a robotics control system before terminating lithium-ion battery charging operations on pistol grip tools.

Commander Oleg Artemyev joined Flight Engineer Denis Matveev and spent Friday replacing components on the Zvezda service module’s treadmill vibration isolation system. Flight Engineer Sergey Korsakov worked on two different Russian experiments on Friday, one exploring the cardiovascular system’s adaptation to microgravity and the other researching advanced Earth photography techniques.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

Get weekly video highlights at: http://jscfeatures.jsc.nasa.gov/videoupdate/

Get the latest from NASA delivered every week. Subscribe here: www.nasa.gov/subscribe

Get The Details…

Heidi Lavelle

Powered by WPeMatico

Crew Returns to Space Science Day after Starliner Lands

The seven Expedition 67 crew members are resuming their normal schedule of science and maintenance activities following Wednesday’s departure of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. The orbital residents focused on vein scans, robotics, and a host of other space research onboard the International Space Station today.

NASA and Boeing completed its Orbital Flight Test-2 mission on Wednesday. NASA Flight Engineers Kjell Lindgren and Bob Hines monitored the crew ship’s arrival last week, conducted cargo and test operations inside the vehicle, then closed the hatch on Tuesday before finally seeing Starliner undock from the Harmony module’s forward port at 2:36 p.m. EDT on Wednesday.

Lindgren started Thursday with a hearing assessment for the Acoustic Diagnostics experiment then setup the Astrobee robotic free-flyers for the Kibo Robot Programming Challenge 3. Hines set up hardware that will measure blood flow in the brain for the Cerebral Autoregulation investigation.

Both astronauts later joined astronauts Jessica Watkins of NASA and Samantha Cristoforetti of ESA (European Space Agency) for vein scans on Thursday. The quartet used the Ultrasound 2 device to scan each other’s neck, shoulder and leg veins. Doctors on the ground monitored the downlinked biomedical scans in real time to gain insight into how the astronaut’s bodies are adapting to microgravity.

Watkins and Cristoforetti began their day collecting their blood and urine samples, spinning them in a centrifuge, and stowing the samples in a science freezer for future analysis. The duo then joined Lindgren in checking out the U.S. spacesuits.

The station’s three cosmonauts from Roscosmos also contributed to the array of space research taking place today on the orbiting lab. The trio, including Commander Oleg Artemyev, with Flight Engineers Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov, took turns exploring ultrasound techniques to improve locating landmarks on Earth for photography. Artemyev also completed a session that monitored his cardiac activity for 24 hours. Matveev assisted Korsakov, attached to a variety of sensors, as he worked out on an exercise cycle for a fitness evaluation.

Get The Details…

Mark Garcia

Powered by WPeMatico