Cubesat Checks, Cable Work and Human Research Onboard Station Today

Moscow, Russia Underneath an Aurora
Moscow, Russia Underneath an Aurora
The city of Moscow, Russia sparkles in the night with spoke streets streaming out across the land while an aurora of blue, white and purple contrast the star filled sky.

Payload controllers are exploring why two Cubesats were unable to deploy this week from the Kibo lab module so they can be released later. Meanwhile, the six-member Expedition 45 crew is finalizing cable work for the next Cygnus cargo mission, unloading cargo from a new Progress 61 (61P) resupply ship and conducting human research.

NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren is completing cable connections and routing today in the Unity module, the first U.S. module delivered to space and installed in 1998. The Unity’s Earth-facing port, which will be powered by the cables, will host the Orbital ATK Cygnus commercial space freighter due to arrive in early December.

Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui assisted Lindgren with the Unity cable work before reviewing procedures for the SPHERES Vertigo experiment that uses a pair of bowling ball-sized satellites. Commander Scott Kelly replaced electronic gear inside a science freezer before attaching instruments and sensors to himself for the Sprint exercise study.

Cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Mikhail Kornienko continued cargo transfers from the 61P. Kononenko also worked on science hardware that monitors chemical reactions in Earth’s upper atmosphere. Kornienko joined veteran cosmonaut Sergey Volkov to process blood samples for the Neiroimmunitet study before working on the Algometriya medical monitoring experiment. Volkov then moved on to more science including the ongoing crystal magnetism experiment, the Calcium bone loss study and the Seismoprognoz earthquake study.

One-Year Crew members Mikhail Kornienko and Scott Kelly
One-Year Crew members Mikhail Kornienko and Scott Kelly are inside the Destiny lab module answering questions from media on the ground. Credit: NASA TV

6 thoughts on “Cubesat Checks, Cable Work and Human Research Onboard Station Today”

  1. Man that first picture looks awesome. Also, I see the guys are pretty occupied out there but I’m sure they are always doing a great job 🙂

  2. hi! I live in Portsmouth in England and last night we saw you fly over our house!!!! it was amazing, all of my family were waving out to you! we also saw some shooting stars too! will be watching out again this evening at7.23pm GMT!!!

  3. Friends & neighbours went outside starter I informed them of your time slot for a view.
    They were all in awe at you passing over tonight in between clouds!
    Incredibly exciting to know you are there & contributing to science in no other craft than the space station.
    Just for curiosity, are you ever visible through the day?
    Would get all the school children out to view!

      1. Thanks!
        I am on the emailing system.
        Good luck & safe journeys while continuing your amazing work & we will wait for clear skies for the next view to give us that WOW! Factor!

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