The ISS Progress 75 resupply ship is pictured with a Full Moon above the Earth’s horizon after undocking from the station. Credits: NASA
NASA+, NASA Television, the agency’s website and the NASA app are providing live coverage of the launch of a Roscosmos cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station.
The unpiloted Progress 87 is scheduled to lift off on a Soyuz rocket at 10:25 p.m. EST Wednesday, Feb. 14 (8:25 a.m. Baikonur time Thursday, Feb. 15) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Progress will dock to the aft port of the Zvezda service module two days later at 1:12 a.m. EST Saturday, Feb. 17 . NASA coverage of rendezvous and docking will begin at 12:30 a.m.
Crew Replaces Scientific Hardware; Cargo Craft Readies for Launch
The ISS Progress 81 resupply ship from Roscosmos is pictured 265 miles above the Pacific Ocean after undocking from the Zvezda service module’s rear port on Feb. 7, 2023.
The Expedition 70 crew is counting down to the arrival of new cargo as Progress nears its launch on Wednesday. Aboard the International Space Station, scientific hardware replacements and cargo audits topped the schedule for the seven orbital residents.
The Progress 87 cargo craft is scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 10:25 p.m. EST on Wednesday, Feb. 14. Loaded with nearly three tons of food, fuel, and supplies, Progress will dock to the station around 1:12 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 17, where it will remain for approximately six months.
In the Kibo Laboratory, Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) spent the day working on the Electrostatic Levitation Furnace (ELF). ELF allows safe thermophysical research in microgravity, providing scientists and engineers the opportunity to observe what happens to materials exposed to high temperatures in the space environment. With assistance from Flight Engineer Loral O’Hara of NASA, Furukawa retrieved ELF, then replaced sensor controllers on the device before reinstalling it.
O’Hara completed some orbital plumbing tasks in the morning, and after assisting Furukawa, she swapped the sleeves in the Life Sciences Glovebox, which is a sealed work area astronauts use to conduct various life sciences and technology investigations.
As part of ongoing science, crew members study burning in microgravity to determine how material flammability is affected by fuel temperatures through an experiment called SoFIE-GEL. In the morning, Flight Engineer Jasmin Moghbeli of NASA replaced experiment samples for the investigation. She then moved on to cargo ops, unloading supplies and science that were delivered aboard Northrop Grumman’s 20thcommercial resupply mission.
In the Roscosmos segment, the trio of cosmonauts—Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub, and Konstantin Borisov—kept busy with inventory and cargo audits throughout the day. Borisov also ran a Pilot-T session, an ongoing experiment that allows crew members to practice piloting techniques.
Tech Installs and Maintenance for Crew Ahead of Cargo Launch
Expedition 70 Flight Engineers (from left) Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara, both from NASA, pose for a portrait inside the Destiny laboratory module.
Equipment installs and station maintenance topped the in-orbit schedule aboard the International Space Station on Tuesday. The Expedition 70 crew members expanded on work that began yesterday while completing some maintenance around station as they await the arrival of an upcoming cargo craft.
The Progress 87 cargo craft is scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 10:25 p.m. EST on Wednesday, Feb. 14. Loaded with nearly three tons of food, fuel, and supplies, Progress will dock to the station around 1:12 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 17.
As one cargo resupply ship readies for launch, two cosmonauts—Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub—were on duty last night, Feb. 12, to monitor the departure of the Progress 85 cargo craft. Progress undocked from the orbital lab at 9:09 p.m. before it reentered Earth’s atmosphere three hours later and harmlessly burned up over the Pacific Ocean.
Kononenko and Chub had a light duty day afterward, focusing on cargo audits and preparations for future experiments.
Meanwhile, ESA (European Space Agency) Commander Andreas Mogensen spent the bulk of his day working in the Nanoracks Bishop Airlock. He installed the Nanoracks-GITAI S2 modular robotic arm, which demonstrates the design, build, and operations of extravehicular robotic systems. This tech demonstration aims to aid in the development of robots for in-space assembly and manufacturing, supporting future commercial lunar missions.
NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli spent her day on a few different tasks, collecting blood pressure data for the Vascular Aging investigation, stowing the Bio-Monitor garment and headband she donned yesterday, and collecting atmosphere samples throughout the station.
NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara assisted Mogensen with the Nanoracks-GITAI S2 install before photographing Plant-Microbe Interactions in Space (APEX-10) petri plates, which launched aboard Northrop Grumman’s 20th commercial resupply mission to the station. The new investigation examines whether beneficial microbes can mitigate some of the negative effects the space environment can have on plant growth and development.
In the Kibo Laboratory, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa spent his day recording space demonstrations suggested by students for JAXA’s Try Zero-Gravity educational activity. Students can vote for and suggest tasks for JAXA astronauts to carry out on station, such as putting in eye drops, performing push-ups on the ceiling, and more, to allow the youth to interact with station residents and learn about living and working in microgravity.
In the Roscosmos segment, Flight Engineer Konstantin Borisov completed some orbital maintenance tasks and ran a distillation cycle on the Roscosmos water management system.
Crew Conducts Stem Cell Research and Training as Cargo Craft Nears Launch
NASA astronaut and Expedition 70 Flght Engineer Jasmin Moghbeli works inside the Life Science Glovebox for the Microgravity Associated Bone Loss-A investigation.
A busy week of science and prep for an upcoming cargo delivery kicked off aboard the International Space Station on Monday as the Expedition 70 crew set its sights on new stem cell research and orbital training.
Two cosmonauts, Flight Engineers Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, are gearing up to be on duty monitoring the automated docking of the Progress 87 cargo craft, which is scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 10:25 p.m. EST on Wednesday, Feb. 14. Loaded with nearly three tons of food, fuel, and supplies, Progress will dock to the station around 1:12 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 17. In preparation of the upcoming cargo delivery, the cosmonauts trained on the telerobotically operated rendezvous unit, or TORU, which allows them to remotely control an arriving spacecraft in the unlikely event it could not automatically dock.
Meanwhile, the Progress 85 cargo craft, which arrived to the station about six months ago, will undock from the station at 9:09 p.m. Monday, Feb. 12 About three hours later, it will be commanded to deorbit before harmlessly burning up over the Pacific Ocean.
While training for the upcoming mission was underway, two NASA Flight Engineers, Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara, focused a majority of their day on the Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Microgravity Induced Bone Loss (MABL-A) investigation. MABL-A, which was delivered aboard Northrop Grumman’s 20th Commercial Resupply Mission nearly two weeks ago, assesses the effects of microgravity on bone marrow stem cells. The duo worked separately throughout the day to sample BioCells inside the habitat with assistance from JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa.
Later on, Moghbeli donned the Bio-Monitor garment and headband, which monitors and records vital signs while crew members perform daily activities. Afterward, she was joined by Furukawa, ESA (European Space Agency) Commander Andreas Mogensen, and Roscosmos Flight Engineer Konstantin Borisov to complete orbital training in the unlikely event an emergency were to occur on station.
Near the end of the day, Mogensen, with assistance from Furukawa, unstowed the NanoRacks External Platform then mounted a pressure management device to it before configuring power and data cables.
Expedition 70 Focuses on Science as Ax-3 Crew Returns to Earth
The space station is pictured from the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft during its departure and flyaround on Nov. 8, 2021.
The Expedition 70 crew was in the middle of its shift aboard the International Space Station when the Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3) crew splashed down off the coast of Florida on Friday. The seven orbital residents were exploring how microgravity affects bone cells and optical fibers while the Ax-3 crew was retrieved aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft in the Atlantic Ocean near Daytona.
NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara took turns on Friday processing bone cells inside the Kibo laboratory module on Friday afternoon. The cells are housed inside a specialized habitat designed for the Microgravity Associated Bone Loss-A investigation and may provide a better understanding of space-caused bone loss and aging-related bone conditions on Earth.
O’Hara also swapped optical fiber samples being drawn inside the Microgravity Science Glovebox for the Flawless Space Fibers study. The space physics study seeks to produce optical fibers in space that are superior to those manufactured in Earth’s gravity environment. Moghbeli photographed plants growing for the APEX-10 space botany study then checked power connections on the European Drawer Rack, a research facility that can support experiments running autonomously.
Commander Andreas Mogensen of ESA (European Space Agency) stowed centrifuge-spun and incubated blood samples in a science freezer. Those samples will be analyzed later to gain insights into the adaptability of the human immune system in weightlessness. The ESA astronaut later attached sensors and breathing monitors to himself then pedaled on an exercise bike for an aerobics and fitness test.
JAXA (Japan Aerospace and Exploration Agency) Satoshi Furukawa spent his day servicing a variety of orbital plumbing gear and exercise hardware. Furukawa started the day inside the Tranquility module replacing hydraulic components inside the station’s restroom, also known as the Waste and Hygiene Compartment. In the afternoon, he went back in Tranquility and installed a new instrumentation box and set up a laptop computer to support operations on the advanced resistive exercise device which mimics the inertial load of free-weights on Earth.
Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub joined each other Friday afternoon training on a computer for next week’s departure of the Progress 85 resupply ship. Earlier, Kononenko packed the Progress 85 with trash and discarded gear for disposal. Chub investigated futuristic spacecraft and robotic piloting techniques that may inform planetary missions. Flight Engineer Konstantin Borisov spent his day inside the Nauka science module cleaning smoke detectors.
Ax-3 Commander Michael López-Alegría returned to Earth on Friday with Pilot Walter Villadei and Mission Specialists Alper Gezeravcı and Marcus Wandt. The private quartet of astronauts from Axiom Space spent 18 days aboard the orbital outpost. The foursome orbited Earth for two more days after their departure before splashing down in the SpaceX Dragon Freedom spacecraft off the coast of Daytona, Florida.
