Archivo de la etiqueta: International Space Station

Station Crew Looks to Crew-4 Arrival and Spacewalk This Week

The Expedition 67 crew is gearing up for the arrival of the SpaceX Crew-4 mission following Sunday’s departure of the Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) crew. The International Space Station will also see another spacewalk to set up a new robotic arm.

The orbiting lab’s four astronauts from NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) slept in on Monday after seeing off the Ax-1 crew on Sunday evening. Commander Tom Marshburn and Flight Engineers Raja Chari, Kayla Barron and Matthias Maurer woke up just before lunch time on the orbital lab and worked on housecleaning duties while testing a garment that may prevent space-caused dizziness and blurred vision, also known as orthostatic intolerance.

The next mission, SpaceX Crew-4, to visit the space station is at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The four commercial crew astronauts are in final preparations for launch aboard the Dragon Freedom targeted for 3:52 a.m. EDT on Wednesday. Commander Kjell Lindgren, Pilot Robert Hines and Mission Specialists Jessica Watkins and Samantha Cristoforetti, would dock to the station several hours later to begin a four-and-a-half month stay on the orbiting lab.

Two cosmonauts are once again getting ready for a spacewalk to activate the European robotic arm (ERA) attached to the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module. Flight Engineer Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveev are scheduled to exit the Poisk module’s airlock at 10:30 a.m. EDT on Thursday for a six-and-a-half hour excursion to set up the ERA for its first motion. The ERA is the station’s third robotic arm and will operate on the space lab’s Russian segment for both payload and spacewalk operations.

Roscosmos Flight Engineer Sergey Korsakov joined his cosmonaut crew mates today and reviewed the spacewalk tasks planned for Thursday. Korsakov will be inside the station assisting the spacewalkers and helping them in and out of their Orlan spacesuits. Artemyev and Matveev will release the ERA launch locks on Nauka, install new handrails, and monitor the robotic arm’s first motion.

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Mark Garcia

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Dragon Endeavour Departs Station With Axiom Space Astronauts

The SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft undocked from the space-facing port of the International Space Station’s Harmony module at 9:10 p.m. EDT to complete the first all-private astronaut mission to the orbiting laboratory. Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1).

The Crew Dragon is slowly maneuvering away from the orbital laboratory into an orbital track that will return the astronaut crew and its cargo safely to Earth, targeting a splashdown off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, targeted for 1:06 p.m. EDT Monday, April 25.

Ax-1 Commander Michael López-Alegría, Pilot Larry Connor, and Mission Specialists Eytan Stibbe and Mark Pathy will complete 17 days in space at the conclusion of their mission. SpaceX Dragon Endeavour, the Ax-1 spacecraft, will return to Earth with more than 200 pounds of science and supplies, including NASA experiments and hardware.

Joint operations with the Axiom and SpaceX mission teams end and NASA coverage of the mission concludes when the spacecraft exits the area of the space station, approximately 30 minutes after undocking.

Axiom Space leads independent mission operations for Ax-1 and will resume coverage of Dragon’s re-entry and splashdown beginning about an hour before splashdown at 12 p.m. Monday, April 25, on the company’s 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/

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Mark Garcia

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Axiom Mission 1 Astronauts Close Hatch to Dragon Endeavour

At  7:26 p.m. EDT, the hatch closed between the Dragon Endeavour spacecraft and the  International Space Station  in preparation for undocking and return to Earth of the Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) with astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria, Larry Connor, Eytan Stibbe, and Mark Pathy.

NASA Television will air  live coverage  resuming at 8:30 p.m. in advance of the planned departure of Dragon Endeavour with undocking at 9:10 p.m. and will continue until about 30 minutes after undocking when joint operations with the Axiom and SpaceX mission teams ends.

Today’s undocking will begin the Ax-1 mission’s journey home with splashdown off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, no earlier 1:06 p.m. EDT Monday, April 25.

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

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Mark Garcia

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NASA TV Broadcasts Departure of Axiom Mission 1 Astronauts

NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website are providing live coverage from the International Space Station for the closure of the hatches between the station and the Dragon Endeavour spacecraft to prepare for undocking and departure of the first private astronaut mission to the station, Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1).

Hatch closure is expected at about 6:50 p.m. EDT. The four-member private astronaut crew is scheduled to undock at 8:55 p.m. Sunday, April 24, to begin the journey home with splashdown off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, targeted for about 1:06 p.m. EDT Monday, April 25.

NASA coverage will break following hatch closure and resume at 8:30 p.m. in advance of the planned undocking at 8:55 p.m. and will continue until about 30 minutes after undocking when joint operations with the Axiom and SpaceX mission teams ends.

Ax-1 Commander Michael López-Alegría, Pilot Larry Connor, and Mission Specialists Eytan Stibbe and Mark Pathy will complete 17 days in space at the conclusion of their mission. SpaceX Dragon Endeavour, the Ax-1 spacecraft, will return to Earth with more than 200 pounds of science and supplies, including NASA experiments and hardware.

The Ax-1 mission represents both a culmination of NASA’s efforts to foster a commercial market in low-Earth orbit and the beginning of a new era of space exploration that enables more people to fly on more kinds of missions.

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

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Mark Garcia

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Teams are Go for Axiom Mission 1 Undocking Tonight

At the conclusion of a weather briefing today, NASA, Axiom Space, and SpaceX teams elected to proceed with today’s undocking of the Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) from the International Space Station at 8:55 p.m. EDT.

Ax-1 Commander Michael López-Alegría, Pilot Larry Connor, and Mission Specialists Eytan Stibbe and Mark Pathy are targeted to close the hatch about 6:50 p.m.  to begin the journey home in SpaceX Dragon Endeavour with splashdown off the coast of Florida approximately 1:06 p.m. Monday, April 25.

NASA Ax-1 return coverage is as follows (all times Eastern):

Sunday, April 24 

• 6:30 p.m. – Coverage begins for hatch closure at approximately 6:50 p.m.
• 8:30 p.m. – Coverage begins for undocking at about 8:55 p.m.

Axiom Space will resume coverage of Dragon’s re-entry and splashdown beginning at noon Monday, April 25, on the company’s 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

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