Advanced space science, cargo transfers and orbital maintenance kept the three Expedition 63 crew members occupied Thursday aboard the International Space Station.
Commander Chris Cassidy spent a good portion of his day working inside JAXA’s (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Kibo laboratory module. The experienced shuttle and station astronaut retrieved the Handhold Experiment Platform-2 (HXP-2), packed with several experiments, from inside Kibo’s airlock.
The HXP-2 was grappled by Japan’s robotic arm, removed from Kibo’s Exposed Facility and placed inside the airlock last week. The small research platform housed a variety of experiment samples exposed to the vacuum of space for observation.
Russia’s newest resupply ship, the Progress 76 (76P) which delivered nearly three tons of food, fuel and supplies last month, continued to be offloaded today. Cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner unpacked electronics gear from the 76P and updated the space station’s inventory system.
Ivanishin then moved on to science exploring how bone marrow and enzymes adapt to weightlessness and studied Earth’s upper atmosphere. Vagner checked station smoke detectors and transferred waste fluids into the Progress 75 cargo craft.
Hi Commander and ISS crew! Thanks for all of your hard work keeping things in check up there1 I just found out the difference between an Astronaut and a Cosmonaut today lol well anyway, have a good one and hope you get some time to chill over the weekend❣
Totally amazing and I for one have followed the Space events since 1960s and still look upwards from England and think WOW. Thank you all for sharing some of the time that you have on the Space Station with us here on Earth.
Is the Japanese module attached to the ISS ?
Yes. For more details about the Japanese Kibo lab module and other station components please visit… https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/overview/index.html