Astronauts Focus on Next Cargo Mission and Harvest Crops

Astronaut Ricky Arnold
NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold takes an out of this world “space-selfie” during a brief opportunity while conducting a spacewalk with fellow NASA astronaut Drew Feustel (out of frame) on March 29, 2018.

The Expedition 55 crew is cleaning up today after a spacewalk and getting ready for next week’s cargo delivery aboard the SpaceX Dragon space freighter. The four astronauts and two cosmonauts are also researching life science and reviewing emergency hardware today.

NASA astronauts Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold are checking their spacesuits and cleaning up the Quest airlock today after completing a six-hour, 10-minute spacewalk on Thursday. The duo also participated in a routine post-spacewalk health evaluation which consists of checking temperature, blood pressure and respiratory rate.

The next big event at the International Space Station is Wednesday’s planned rendezvous with Dragon carrying over 5,800 pounds of new science experiments, crew supplies and other station hardware. The commercial cargo craft will launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Monday at 4:30 p.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

Japanese astronaut Norishige Kanai will be inside the cupola operating the Canadarm2 robotic arm when he grapples Dragon around 7 a.m. Wednesday. Flight Engineer Scott Tingle will assist Kanai and monitor the cargo ship’s arrival until it reaches its capture point about 10 meters away from the station. Both astronauts were on a computer today practicing the procedures they will use in the moments before they capture Dragon next week.

The orbital lab residents watered and harvested small crops of leafy vegetables for consumption today. A pair of crew members also documented what a headache in space feels like and how it affects their performance. The entire crew also spent almost two hours today familiarizing themselves with the locations of safety gear and practiced emergency communication with Russian mission controllers.

2 thoughts on “Astronauts Focus on Next Cargo Mission and Harvest Crops”

  1. I was watching the ISS go over the south of England at 21.02 on wed 28th March 2018, it was a very clear night and I had a great view, however I noticed smaller light following the space station, it must of been quite a way behind but it was definitely following on the same course, anyone got any idea what it was ?

    1. It was Russia’s Progress 68 resupply ship that undocked from the space station March 28. It will orbit Earth until April 25 when it will reenter the Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean for a fiery demise.

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