The International Space Station crew from the United States, Russia and Germany is going into the Fourth of July holiday unpacking new research gear from the SpaceX Dragon cargo craft. The six Expedition 56 crew members also conducted advanced space research and orbital lab maintenance today.
NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold opened the hatches to the SpaceX Dragon space freighter Tuesday morning beginning a month of cargo swaps. He and Commander Drew Feustel began retrieving and unpacking a variety of new space cargo. Next, Flight Engineers Serena Auñón-Chancellor and Alexander Gerst transferred critical science gear into the space station. The duo reviewed the experiment installation and research operations to help scientists learn how microgravity affects physics and biology.
The space residents, including cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Sergey Prokopyev, will spend the Fourth of July holiday with light duty. Gerst and Auñón-Chancellor will begin transferring mice delivered aboard Dragon into their new habitats aboard the station on Wednesday. The rodents will be observed to understand how microbes impact the gastrointestinal system in microgravity. Arnold and Feustel will be swapping frozen research samples from the Japanese Kibo lab module into the U.S. Destiny lab module.
Can you email me when the space station is in my locality
You can find sighting times for the space station flying over your location here… https://spotthestation.nasa.gov
There are quite a few apps available free for tracking and viewing the ISS. I like the one called ISSLIVE because it has many options for viewing the earth while tracking it’s position in real time as it travels around the planet. It also provides NASA TV coverage of spacewalks and supply ships launches, arrival and departures and you can chat with people all over the planet that use the app. too.
This is so exciting. Hope the crew will enjoy the super cafinated coffee, Texas blueberties and icecream treats sent. Good luck on the science
experiments