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NASA, Boeing Complete Second Docked Starliner Hot Fire Test

Engineering teams with NASA and Boeing completed a hot fire test of the Starliner spacecraft’s reaction control system jets on July 27 to evaluate the spacecraft’s propulsion system. NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, assigned to the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test, were seated inside the docked spacecraft during the test as part of preparations before their return aboard Starliner from the International Space Station.

The test involved firing 27 of the spacecraft’s 28 jets for short bursts, moving through them one at a time to check thruster performance and helium leak rates. Preliminary results show all the tested thrusters are back to preflight levels based on thrust and chamber pressure.

As part of the test configuration, all helium manifolds, which control and direct the flow of helium, were opened allowing engineers to continue evaluation of Starliner’s helium supply and leak rates. The teams verified Starliner continues to show the margin needed to support a return trip from the station. Following the test, the helium manifolds were closed and will remain closed until Starliner activates its propulsion system ahead of undocking. Teams also will verify the helium leak rate before Starliner undocks.

Teams are reviewing data from the docked hot fire test and the recent ground testing of a Starliner thruster at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico before holding an agency return readiness review. Following this agency-level review, NASA and Boeing will select a target return date.

While ground teams work to finalize Starliner’s return to Earth, Wilmore and Williams continue to work alongside the Expedition 71 crew, assisting with science investigations and maintenance activities. On July 29, Wilmore and Williams entered their spacecraft and checked its water systems, called down to Boeing mission personnel for a conference, and put on their space suits long enough to perform a pressure test. Wilmore started his morning in the Harmony module, assembling the BioServe centrifuge as Williams reviewed procedures for operating the Astrobee free-flying robotic assistants.

For the latest mission updates, follow the commercial crew blog, @commercial_crew on X, and commercial crew on Facebook.

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Danielle Sempsrott

Crews Prep for Cargo Mission and Checks Out Starliner Systems

The Expedition 71 crew turned its attention to an upcoming U. S. cargo mission, spacesuit work, and a variety of life science on Monday. NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test members began the week servicing their Starliner flight suits and the spacecraft’s life support systems following a morning of light research duties.

The next cargo mission to resupply the residents living and working aboard the International Space Station is counting down to a launch at 11:28 a.m. EDT on Saturday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus space freighter will launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 8,200 pounds of science, supplies, and hardware for the station. Cygnus will orbit Earth for just over a day-and-a-half before approaching the orbital outpost where the Canadarm2 robotic arm will be waiting to capture the spacecraft.

NASA Flight Engineers Matthew Dominick and Jeanette Epps spent Monday preparing for Cygnus’ arrival reviewing its mission profile and practicing robotic capture maneuvers on a computer. Dominick will command the Canadarm2 to capture Cygnus at 5 a.m. on Aug. 5 while Epps backs him up and monitors the approach and rendezvous activities. Afterward, robotics controllers on the ground will remotely take over Canadarm2 and guide Cygnus toward the Unity module’s Earth-facing port where it will be mated for five-and-a-half months.

NASA Flight Engineer Mike Barratt kicked off his day checking on plumbing hardware stowed in the Zarya module before swapping components and configuring a U.S. spacesuit in the Quest airlock. NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson spent her morning in the Columbus laboratory module troubleshooting the MARES rack, or Muscle Atrophy Research and Exercise System, then spent the afternoon installing drawer handle brackets on a pair of Human Research Facility racks.

Starliner Commander Butch Wilmore and Pilot Suni Williams entered their spacecraft Monday afternoon and checked its water systems, called down to Boeing mission personnel for a conference, then wore their flight suits momentarily for a pressure test. Wilmore started his morning in the station’s Harmony module assembling the BioServe centrifuge as Williams reviewed procedures for operating the Astrobee free-flying robotic assistants.

The orbiting lab’s three cosmonauts refocused their activities on Monday to standard space research and lab maintenance duties following a week of inspection tasks in the orbital outpost’s Roscosmos segment. Flight Engineer Nikolai Chub worked all day on science first studying a 3D printer’s ability to manufacture tools in microgravity, then explored how magnetic and electrical fields affect fluid physics, before finally installing hardware to image Earth’s nighttime atmosphere in near-ultraviolet wavelengths. Flight Engineer Alexander Grebenkin attached sensors to himself during the morning for a 24-session measuring his heart rate and blood pressure. Afterward, he pointed a camera outside a station window taking pictures for a pair of Earth observation studies. At the beginning of his shift, station Commander Oleg Kononenko installed radiation detection hardware cables then inventoried food rations.

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

Get weekly video highlights at: https://roundupreads.jsc.nasa.gov/videoupdate/

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Mark Garcia

Astronauts, Cosmonauts Focus on Maintenance; SpaceX Crew-9 Introduces Itself

The orbital residents representing Expedition 71 and NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test switched gears on Friday and turned their attention to a host of lab maintenance activities. The nine astronauts and cosmonauts living and working aboard the International Space Station focused on spacewalking tools, computer networks, housecleaning, and inspections at the end of the week.

NASA Flight Engineers Tracy C. Dyson, Mike Barratt, and Jeanette Epps joined each other midday Friday and reorganized cargo inside the Unity module ahead of the Aug. 5 arrival of Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus space freighter. Dyson and Barratt then finished the afternoon inside the Quest airlock collecting and stowing tools used during earlier spacewalk preparations.

Epps began her day with NASA astronaut and Starliner Commander Butch Wilmore examining the Permanent Multipurpose Module for open spaces before spending her afternoon exercising. NASA Flight Engineer Matthew Dominick checked the overhead crew quarters in the Harmony module and measured its ventilation system airflows after spending his morning working out.

Wilmore also joined Starliner Pilot Suni Williams and tested cloud network connectivity using a pair of computer tablets linked to mission applications and other computer services. Williams then recorded a video for junior high and high school students demonstrating 3D printing operations in microgravity. Toward the end of the day, the NASA duo called down to Boeing mission personnel and discussed Starliner spacecraft systems and operations. The day before, NASA and Boeing managers provided a Starliner status update during a televised news conference.

Station Commander Oleg Kononenko kicked off his day synchronizing digital cameras with space station cameras.  The five-time visitor to the orbital outpost worked the rest of the day with Flight Engineer Nikolai Chub continuing ongoing inspections in the aft-end of the Zvezda service module. Chub began his day conducting research activities in Zvezda before the inspection work.

The next crew to visit the International Space Station, SpaceX Crew-9, introduced itself today during a televised crew news conference live on NASA TV on Friday. Commander Zena Cardman, Pilot Nick Hague, and Mission Specialists Stephanie Wilson and Aleksander Gorbunov are counting down to a mid-August launch to the orbital lab aboard the SpaceX Dragon Endurance for a six-month mission. Earlier, mission managers from NASA and SpaceX discussed the Crew-9 mission and other upcoming missions to the orbiting lab. Watch the SpaceX Crew-9 Crew News Conference and the Mission Overview on YouTube.

Beginning Monday, July 29^th, the IMC Daily Summary will be discontinued.

To learn more about the groundbreaking science and engineering happening daily on the International Space Station, please visit the space station blog at https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/, or browse a variety of space station research resources at https://nasa.gov/iss-science.

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

Get weekly video highlights at: https://roundupreads.jsc.nasa.gov/videoupdate/

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Mark Garcia

Ultrasound Scans Continue to Understand Space Effects on Humans

Space biology was back on the schedule Thursday as the crewmates aboard the International Space Station resumed exploring how living in weightlessness affects the human  body. The orbital residents also worked on Starliner spacecraft configurations, serviced spacesuit components, and continued lab inspections.

Expedition 71 Flight Engineers Jeanette Epps and Matthew Dominick, both from NASA, kicked off their day collecting blood and saliva samples, processing them for upcoming analysis, and stowing the biological specimens in a science freezer. The duo then joined NASA astronaut Mike Barratt in the afternoon for vein scans with the commercial ButterlyIQ Ultrasound device before and after workout sessions on the advanced resistive exercise device. Results may inform researchers what happens to the body when exercising in microgravity and demonstrate the effectiveness of the FDA-approved portable scanner for space operations.

Barratt began his day with NASA Flight Engineer Tracy C. Dyson in the Columbus laboratory module and explored how living in space affects blood pressure. Dyson scanned Barratt’s veins with the Ultrasound 2 device and collected data from a monitor measuring his heart rate. The study is just one of 14 investigations that are part of the CIPHER human research experiment and explores the cardiovascular health risks of living and working on a long-term space mission. Dyson then spent her afternoon uninstalling and stowing spacesuit batteries and metal oxide containers in the Quest airlock.

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, Commander and Pilot for Boeing’s Crew Flight Test, entered their Starliner crew ship for checkouts on Thursday. The duo examined the spacecraft’s communications systems, set up computer tablets, and charged camera batteries inside the vehicle docked to the Harmony module’s forward port.

Commercial Crew Program manager Steve Stich of NASA and Mike Nappi of Boeing provided a status update of the Starliner spacecraft on NASA TV today. Watch the televised news conference on YouTube.

Station Commander Oleg Kononenko and Flight Engineer Nikolai Chub partnered together throughout Thursday continuing to inspect the vestibule in the aft end of the Zvezda service module where the Progress 87 is docked. While Kononenko spent most of his shift checking out Zvezda, Chub had time for swapping out an electronics unit on an exercise cycle then tested video communications and command gear in the Progress 88 resupply ship docked to the Poisk module.

Mission managers will discuss the upcoming SpaceX Crew-9 mission to the orbital outpost during a mission overview live on NASA TV at 11 a.m. EDT on Friday. Then at 1 p.m., the Crew-9 members Commander Zena Cardman, Pilot Nick Hague, and Mission Specialists Stephanie Wilson and Aleksander Gorbunov will introduce themselves and discuss more details of their space station mission.

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

Get weekly video highlights at: https://roundupreads.jsc.nasa.gov/videoupdate/

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

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Mark Garcia

Ultrasound Scans for Crew Today on Station Promoting Health

Human research to protect crew health was the dominant science topic aboard the International Space Station on Wednesday. Household duties such as cleaning and inspections to keep the orbital outpost in tip-top shape also continued in low Earth orbit for the nine lab crewmates.

Researchers have learned that living in the weightless environment for months at a time affects the human body in numerous ways. Scientists constantly examine crews working on the space station to understand the space-caused physiological changes. Observations will help doctors develop countermeasures and keep astronauts healthy as NASA plans months long and possibly years long missions beyond low Earth orbit and to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

Flight Engineers Matthew Dominick and Jeanette Epps partnered together all-day Wednesday to test a thigh cuff that may reverse fluid shifts that impact a crew member’s vision while living in space. Dyson attached sensors to her chest and the cuff to her leg with assistance from Epps during the morning. Next, Epps scanned Dominick’s veins with the Ultrasound 2 device then measured his blood pressure. Epps also examined Dominick’s eyes using standard medical imaging hardware found in an optometrist’s office on Earth. The thigh cuff study is exploring ways to prevent headward fluid shifts in astronauts that cause eye structure and vision changes.

Ultrasound scans were also on the schedule for NASA astronauts Mike Barratt from Expedition 71 and Butch Wilmore from Boeing’s Crew Flight Test to image an astronaut’s veins following an exercise session. Barratt led the biomedical work and scanned Wilmore’s veins after his hourlong workout on the advanced resistive exercise device. Barratt used the commercial ButterlyIQ Ultrasound imaging device during the 90-minute research session to understand how the human body adjusts to exercising in space. Results may also demonstrate the effectiveness of the FDA-approved portable scanner for space operations.

Expedition 71 Flight Engineer Tracy C. Dyson and Starliner Pilot Suni Williams from NASA spent their day on maintenance tasks including housecleaning and science hardware installations. Dyson started her morning cleaning the starboard side of the Unity module and organizing cargo stowed in the Columbus laboratory module. During the afternoon, she went back to Unity and wiped down surfaces in its deck compartment. Williams was back inside the Tranquility module finalizing the installation of the ArgUS Mission 1 hardware inside the NanoRacks Bishop airlock. The advanced technology demonstration will be placed outside in the vacuum of space to test the external operations of communications, computer processing, and high-definition video gear.

Over in the Roscosmos segment of the orbiting lab, Commander Oleg Kononenko kicked off his day exploring futuristic spacecraft and robotic piloting techniques crews may use on planetary missions. He worked the rest of the day continuing inspections in the aft end of the Zvezda service module. Flight Engineer Nikolai Chub began his shift with the ongoing Zvezda inspections then wrapped up his day servicing a Roscosmos oxygen generator.

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Mark Garcia