Archivo de la etiqueta: International Space Station

Ax-1 Crew Preps for Departure as Crew-4 Mission Nears Launch

Commander Tom Marshburn of NASA joined his six Expedition 67 flight engineers and held a farewell ceremony for the four-member Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) crew on Tuesday morning. At the same time back on Earth, four SpaceX Crew-4 astronauts arrived at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to prepare for their launch to the International Space Station this weekend.

Watch the Axiom Mission 1 farewell ceremony on YouTube.

Marshburn called down to Mission Control today to recognize the contribution the four Ax-1 private astronauts have made to human spaceflight. The private quartet then spoke about the research and education events they conducted and thanked the Expedition 67 crew for hosting and guiding them during their 10-day stay on the station. Ax-1 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria will lead Pilot Larry Connor and Mission Specialists Mark Pathy and Eytan Stibbe back to Earth inside the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour. They will undock from the Harmony module’s space-facing port at 10 p.m. EDT today live on NASA TV on NASA’s website and the app. The foursome will splashdown off the coast of Florida on Wednesday afternoon.

The current seven-member Expedition 67 crew will sleep in on Wednesday following the late night departure of the Ax-1 crew. The four astronauts and three cosmonauts will get right back to work on Thursday with more science and maintenance. Marshburn and NASA Flight Engineers Raja Chari and Kayla Barron along with ESA (European Space Agency) Flight Engineer Matthias Maurer will also check out their Crew Dragon suits ahead of their departure aboard the SpaceX Dragon Endurance in a couple of weeks. Roscosmos Flight Engineers Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev, and Sergey Korsakov will tend to their complement of Russian space research and lab upkeep tasks.

The station will stay at a seven-member crew status for just a few days until the arrival of the SpaceX Crew-4 mission. Four commercial crew astronauts representing NASA and ESA are scheduled to launch at 5:26 a.m. EDT on Saturday from Kennedy inside the SpaceX Dragon Freedom crew ship and dock to the same port vacated by the Ax-1 mission on Sunday at 6 a.m. The quartet commanded by NASA’s Kjell Lindgren, with Pilot Robert Hines and Mission Specialists Jessica Watkins of NASA and ESA’s Samantha Cristoforetti, will live and work aboard the orbiting lab for just over four-and-a-half months. The Crew-4 astronauts will become Expedition 67 flight engineers after they open the hatches and enter the space station.

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.

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Mark Garcia

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Cosmonauts Complete Spacewalk to Set Up Robotic Arm

Russian cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveev of Roscosmos concluded their spacewalk at 5:37 p.m. EDT today after 6 hours and 37 minutes.

Artemyev and Matveev completed their major objectives for today in which they installed and connected a control panel for the European robotic arm, a 37-foot-long manipulator system mounted to the recently arrived Nauka multipurpose laboratory module. They also removed protective covers from the arm and installed handrails on Nauka. The arm will be used to move spacewalkers and payloads around the Russian segment of the station.

This was the fourth spacewalk in Artemyev’s career, and the first for Matveev. It will be the fourth spacewalk at the station in 2022 and the 249th spacewalk for space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.

During the next Russian spacewalk scheduled for Thursday, April 28, the duo will jettison thermal blankets used to protect the arm during its July 2021 launch with Nauka. They will also flex the arm’s joints, release launch restraints, and monitor the arm’s ability to use two grapple fixtures.

Additional spacewalks are planned to continue outfitting the European robotic arm and to activate Nauka’s airlock for future spacewalks.

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/

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Mark Garcia

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Axiom Mission 1: Dragon Endeavour Departure Postponed

Mission Control has informed the Expedition 67 and Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) crews aboard the International Space Station that because of unfavorable weather at the splashdown location for recovery of the Dragon Endeavour and the Ax-1 crew, the integrated operations team at NASA, Axiom Space, and SpaceX has postponed the spacecraft’s planned departure from the orbiting laboratory.

Weather permitting, the four-member private astronaut crew now is targeted to undock at about 10 p.m. Tuesday, April 19, to begin the journey home with splashdown off the coast of Florida no earlier than approximately 3:24 p.m. EDT Wednesday, April 20.

NASA coverage of the farewell ceremony will remain as previously scheduled, and the updated NASA Ax-1 return coverage is as follows (all times Eastern):

Tuesday, April 19

• 7 a.m. – Coverage begins for farewell ceremony
• 7:45 p.m. – Coverage begins for hatch closure at approximately 8 p.m.
• 9:45 p.m. – Coverage begins for undocking at about 10 p.m.

Teams will continue to monitor weather at the splashdown sites prior to undocking to ensure conditions are acceptable for a safe recovery of the Dragon spacecraft and Ax-1 astronauts. If needed for any reason, there are additional opportunities for the crew’s departure from the space station on Wednesday, April 20.

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.

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Heidi Lavelle

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Two Cosmonauts Exit Station and Begin Spacewalk

Expedition 67 Flight Engineers Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveev of Roscosmos began Russian spacewalk 52 at 11:01 a.m. EDT to activate a new robotic arm attached to the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module at the International Space Station by opening the hatch of the Poisk docking compartment airlock.

Artemyev is wearing a Russian Orlan spacesuit with red stripes. Matveev will wear a spacesuit with blue stripes. This is the fourth spacewalk in Artemyev’s career, and the first for Matveev. It will be the fourth spacewalk at the station in 2022 and the 249th spacewalk for space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.

Coverage of the spacewalk continues on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website.

The duo’s primary tasks for today’s spacewalk are to install and connect a control panel for the European robotic arm, a 37-foot-long manipulator system mounted to the recently arrived Nauka. They will also remove protective covers from the arm and install handrails on Nauka. The arm will be used to move spacewalkers and payloads around the Russian segment of the station.

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/

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Mark Garcia

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NASA TV Covering Station Spacewalk with Two Cosmonauts

NASA Television coverage is underway of today’s spacewalk with two Russian cosmonauts venturing outside the International Space Station to activate a new robotic arm attached to the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module. Coverage of the spacewalk is on NASA Television, the NASA app, and agency’s website.

Expedition 67 Flight Engineers Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveev of Roscosmos will conduct this first in a series of spacewalks to activate the European robotic arm, a 37-foot-long manipulator system mounted to the recently arrived Nauka.

During the spacewalk, the cosmonauts will install and connect a control panel for the robotic arm. They also will remove protective covers from the arm and install handrails on Nauka. The arm will be used to move spacewalkers and payloads around the Russian segment of the station. The spacewalks will be staged out of the Poisk module airlock.

Artemyev will wear a Russian Orlan spacesuit with red stripes. Matveev will wear a spacesuit with blue stripes. This will be the fourth spacewalk in Artemyev’s career, and the first for Matveev. It will be the fourth spacewalk at the station in 2022 and the 249th spacewalk for space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.

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

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