Uncategorized – Space Station

Crew Preps for Spacewalk and Dragon Relocation During Research

The space station's Nauka science module, Prichal docking module, and Soyuz MS-23 crew ship are pictured as the orbital lab soared 259 miles above north Africa. — The space station’s Nauka science module, Prichal docking module, and Soyuz MS-23 crew ship are pictured as the orbital lab soared 259 miles above north Africa.

Two cosmonauts are getting ready to exit the International Space Station on Wednesday to conduct the year’s fifth spacewalk. The rest of the Expedition 69 crew spent Tuesday preparing to relocate the SpaceX Crew Dragon spaceship, setting up robotic free-flyers, and working on life support maintenance.

Commander Sergey Prokopyev and Flight Engineer Dmitri Petelin of Roscosmos are finalizing their procedure reviews and completing their Orlan spacesuit configurations today ahead of a spacewalk planned to start at 4:05 p.m. EDT on Wednesday. The duo will spend about six-and-a-half hours removing an experiment airlock from the Rassvet module then installing it on the Nauka science module. Flight Engineer Andrey Fedyaev will be inside the station assisting the spacewalkers and maneuvering the European robotic arm with the airlock in its grip.

Coming up on Saturday, four crew members will enter the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour and move the spaceship to a new station port. NASA Flight Engineers Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg will command and pilot, respectively, Endeavour while flanked by Flight Engineers Sultan Alneyadi of UAE (United Arab Emirates) and Fedyaev of Roscosmos. The quartet will undock from the Harmony module’s space-facing port at 7:10 a.m. then redock to Harmony’s forward port at 7:53 a.m.

The quartet joined each other on Tuesday and checked the pressure suits they will wear during their short ride inside Dragon. The foursome also reviewed their relocation procedures, checked vehicle hatches, and configured the spacecraft cabin.

NASA TV is covering both the spacewalk and the Dragon relocation activities live on the agency’s app and website. Spacewalk coverage begins at 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday and the Dragon relocation broadcast begins at 6 a.m. on Saturday.

Robotics and bioprinting were the top research priorities on Tuesday in the midst of the spacewalk and Dragon preparations. Hoburg turned on an Astrobee robotic free-flyer in the Kibo laboratory module during the morning and tested its operations in conjunction with mission controllers. The robotics work is being done to demonstrate ways to control the free-flyers using student-written code. NASA Flight Engineer Frank Rubio worked on the BioFabrication Facility (BFF) replacing and installing components. The BFF is designed to print organ-like tissues in microgravity and learn how to manufacture whole, fully-functioning human organs in space.

Bowen and Sultan partnered together during the morning inside the Destiny laboratory module working on life support gear. The duo took turns collecting water samples and replacing components from inside Destiny’s oxygen generation system.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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Spacewalk Preps and Science Cleaning Aboard Station on Tuesday

Expedition 69 Flight Engineers (from left) Stephen Bowen and Sultan Alneyadi prepare their spacesuits for an upcoming spacewalk to continue station power upgrades.

Four Expedition 69 astronauts aboard the International Space Station worked throughout Tuesday preparing for a spacewalk and cleaning space biology hardware. Meanwhile, the orbiting lab’s three cosmonauts had an off-duty day following several days of their own spacewalk preparations.

Flight Engineers Stephen Bowen of NASA and Sultan Alneyadi of UAE (United Arab Emirates) spent Tuesday configuring their Extravehicular Mobility Units, or spacesuits, to get ready for a spacewalk set for 9:15 a.m. EDT on Friday. The duo also organized their spacewalking tools and inspected the tethers that will keep the spacewalkers safely attached to the station. The pair were joined in the afternoon by NASA Flight Engineers Woody Hoburg and Frank Rubio reviewing spacewalk procedures with mission controllers on the ground. The two spacewalkers will spend about six-and-a-half hours in the vacuum of space continuing the process of upgrading the station’s power generation system.

Hoburg and Rubio began their day deactivating and cleaning space biology hardware inside the Kibo laboratory module. The pair disconnected power cables and wiped down the Cell Biology Experiment Facility, a research incubator that housed samples that have since returned to Earth for analysis aboard the SpaceX Dragon cargo craft.

Three cosmonauts are relaxing today after a busy period getting ready for a spacewalk that was originally planned for Tuesday. Roscosmos mission controllers opted to postpone the spacewalk for a few more days and continue studying the procedures necessary to move an experiment airlock from the Rassvet module to the Nauka science module. Commander Sergey Prokopyev and Flight Engineer Dmitri Petelin will exit the Poisk airlock in their Orlan spacesuits to perform the logistics spacewalk. Flight Engineer Andrey Fedyaev will assist the spacewalkers from inside the station and operate the European robotic arm with the experiment airlock in its grip.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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International Space Station Operations Update, Crew Continues Normal Activities

Earlier today, Feb. 11, the uncrewed Roscosmos Progress 83 cargo spacecraft docked automatically to the aft end of the Zvezda service module at the International Space Station. The rendezvous and docking operations were conducted with no issues.

Meanwhile, engineers at the Russian Mission Control Center outside Moscow recorded a depressurization in the unpiloted Roscosmos Progress 82 cargo ship’s coolant loop, which is docked to the space-facing Poisk module at the station. Progress 82, which arrived to the space station in October 2022, is scheduled to undock Friday, Feb. 17, filled with trash and will be deorbited over the Pacific Ocean.

The reason for the loss of coolant in the Progress 82 spacecraft is being investigated. The hatches between the Progress 82 and the station are open, and temperatures and pressures aboard the station are all normal. The crew, which was informed of the cooling loop leak, is in no danger and continuing with normal space station operations.

NASA specialists are assisting their Russian counterparts in the troubleshooting of the Progress 82 coolant leak. Officials are monitoring all International Space Station systems and are not tracking any other issues.

Biomedical Science, Space Plumbing as Crew Waits for Cargo Delivery

The waxing gibbous Moon is pictured above Earth's horizon from the International Space Station. — The waxing gibbous Moon is pictured above Earth’s horizon from the International Space Station.

The Expedition 68 crew is looking forward to a delivery mission that will arrive at the International Space Station this weekend. Meanwhile, space science and orbital plumbing took up the orbital residents’ day as well as more cleanup work following last week’s spacewalk.

Nearly three tons of food, fuel, and supplies, is on its way to replenish the seven residents living aboard the orbital outpost. The ISS Progress 83 (83P) resupply ship launched at 1:15 a.m. EST on Thursday and is orbiting Earth racing toward the space station. The 83P will automatically dock to the Zvezda module’s rear port at 3:49 a.m. on Saturday beginning a six-month stay at the station. NASA TV will cover the space freighter’s arrival live on the agency’s app and website.

NASA Flight Engineer Josh Cassada began his day with brain research attaching sensors to his head and chest to measure his blood flow for the Cerebral Autoregulation investigation. The research takes place inside the Kibo laboratory module and explores how the brain regulates blood pressure in weightlessness.

Astronauts Nicole Mann of NASA and Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) kicked off their day collecting blood and urine samples for processing and stowage. The duo, with Cassada, then took turns cleaning cooling loops inside a pair of Extravehicular Mobility Units, or spacesuits. Cassada also serviced the emergency jetpacks that spacewalkers would use to maneuver back to the station in the unlikely event they became untethered from the station.

Wakata also worked a couple of hours inside the Kibo lab removing the water recovery system from inside the module’s multipurpose small payload rack. NASA astronaut Frank Rubio spent a good portion of his day replacing components in the Waste and Hygiene Compartment, the station’s bathroom, located inside the Tranquility module. Rubio then ended his work day tending to tomato plants growing inside the Veggie space botany facility located in the Columbus laboratory module.

Roscosmos Flight Engineers Dmitri Petelin and Anna Kikina continued researching how microgravity affects the digestive system. The duo placed electrodes on themselves and conducted ultrasound scans of their gastrointestinal system shortly after breakfast. Station Commander Sergey Prokopyev spent some time inside the Columbus lab configuring video hardware that records how clouds of highly charged particles, or plasma crystals, behave in microgravity. He then spent the rest of the afternoon in the Zvezda service module working on maintenance activities.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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International Space Station Operations, Soyuz Status Update

NASA and Roscosmos are adjusting the International Space Station flight plan after completing an investigation into a coolant leak on the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft docked to the station.

NASA hosted a joint media briefing Wednesday about the Roscosmos-led investigation to update the public on the Soyuz status and the forward strategy.

As a part of the work, Roscosmos engineers determined the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft is not viable for a normal crew return, but is available for crew return in an emergency aboard the space station. The Soyuz MS-22 will be replaced by the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft that will launch to the space station without a crew on Monday, Feb. 20. NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin will return to Earth in the replacement Soyuz after spending several additional months on the station.

NASA has been working with Roscosmos throughout the investigation and will continue to work with its Commercial Crew Program and Canadian, Japanese, and European partners to refine upcoming flight dates over the next several weeks. NASA also continues its discussions with SpaceX regarding the possibility of using the Crew-5 spacecraft to return additional crew in the event of a station emergency prior to the arrival of Soyuz MS-23.

Meanwhile, NASA and SpaceX are prepared to launch the Crew-6 mission soon after Soyuz MS-23, incorporating the manifest changes previously mentioned. NASA still plans on having a direct handover between the Crew-5 and Crew-6 missions.

On Dec. 14, 2022, ground teams noticed significant leaking of external coolant from the aft portion of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft docked to the Rassvet module on the space station. The Soyuz spacecraft carried Prokopyev, Petelin, and Rubio into space after launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Sept. 21.

Spacesuits, eye scans, and cargo transfers were the dominant activities aboard the International Space Station on Wednesday. The seven Expedition 68 crew members also had time for space gardening and scientific hardware maintenance.

NASA astronauts Nicole Mann, Josh Cassada, and Frank Rubio joined each other cleaning cooling loops, checking water, and installing batteries inside a pair of Extravehicular Mobility Units (EMUs), also known as spacesuits, throughout the day. Mann later joined Flight Engineer Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) readying tools and hardware for an upcoming spacewalk to prepare the space station for its fourth roll-out solar array.

Cassada then spent the afternoon servicing research samples to support a study exploring how to treat bone wounds and conditions both on Earth and in space. Rubio deployed a pair of Human Research Facility laptop computers before watering tomato plants growing for the Veg-05 space botany study. Wakata replaced cables and light devices on the Confocal space microscope that provides fluorescence imagery of biological samples.

All four astronauts also gathered for a short session of eye scans just before lunchtime using the Ultrasound 2 device inside the Columbus laboratory module. The regularly scheduled exams collect images of an astronaut’s cornea, lens, optic nerve, and retina to help doctors understand how living long-term in weightlessness affects the human eye.

Commander Sergey Prokopyev and Flight Engineer Dmitri Petelin worked inside two different Progress space freighters transferring cargo in and out of the vehicles, as well as updating the station’s inventory management system. Prokopyev also worked on life support gear while Petelin checked out optical hardware and interfaces. Flight Engineer Anna Kikina configured and photographed electronics components then deployed radiation detectors throughout the orbiting lab.

The SpaceX Dragon cargo craft completed its station resupply mission when it parachuted to a splashdown off the coast of Florida at 5:19 a.m. EST today. The uncrewed Dragon returned about 4,400 pounds of lab hardware and scientific cargo for retrieval and analysis by engineers and researchers on Earth.

Crew Goes into Christmas Weekend After Spacewalk and Science Ops

The official portrait of the Expedition 68 crew with (from left) Frank Rubio, Dmitri Petelin, Koichi Wakata, Josh Cassada, Nicole Mann, Sergey Prokopyev, and Anna Kikina.

The seven Expedition 68 crew members wrapped up the work week cleaning up after a spacewalk and performing a variety of research operations. The space residents will spend a quiet weekend observing the Christmas holiday orbiting Earth aboard the International Space Station.

NASA Flight Engineers Frank Rubio and Josh Cassada worked throughout Friday cleaning up after conducting a seven-hour and eight minute spacewalk on Thursday. The duo started the day with standard post-spacewalk health checkups and measured each other’s temperature, blood pressure, pulse, and respiratory rate. Afterward, Rubio and Cassada stowed tools inside the Quest airlock and refilled water tanks inside their Extravehicular Mobility Units (EMUs), also known as spacesuits.

The spacewalking pair successfully installed and deployed a roll-out solar array on the International Space Station’s Port-4 truss segment during the Dec. 22 spacewalk. During a previous spacewalk on Dec. 3, the two NASA astronauts spent seven hours and 28 minutes installing another roll-out solar array on the Starboard-4 truss segment on the opposite side of the station.

Science operations continued aboard the orbiting lab on Friday with NASA Flight Engineer Nicole Mann attaching sensors to herself and pedaling on an exercise bike. She was working out for the Cardiobreath investigation that observes how an astronaut’s cardiovascular and respiratory systems affect blood pressure in weightlessness. Flight Engineer Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) worked all day in the Kibo laboratory module servicing a variety of research hardware and electronics components.

Roscosmos Commander Sergey Prokopyev worked on two different science experiments beginning Friday with cardiac research then spending the afternoon exploring ways to pilot futuristic spacecraft and robots. Flight Engineer Dmitri Petelin began the day on a space physics study before researching ways international crews and mission controllers can improve communications. Flight Engineer Anna Kikina assisted Prokopyev in the morning with the heart study then wrapped up her day setting up Earth observation gear.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

Get weekly video highlights at: https://roundupreads.jsc.nasa.gov/videoupdate/

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Spacewalk Postponed to Thursday, Managers Discuss Soyuz Leak Inquiry

NASA astronauts (from left) Frank Rubio and Josh Cassada will conduct their third spacewalk together and install the space station's fourth roll-out solar array. — NASA astronauts (from left) Frank Rubio and Josh Cassada will conduct their third spacewalk together and install the space station’s fourth roll-out solar array.

NASA astronauts Frank Rubio and Josh Cassada are now scheduled to begin a spacewalk at 8:30 a.m. EST Thursday to augment the International Space Station’s power generation system. Wednesday’s spacewalk was postponed for 24 hours so that the orbiting lab’s ISS Progress 81 cargo craft could fire its engines at 8:42 a.m. to maneuver the station and avoid an approaching piece of rocket debris.

Spacewalkers Rubio and Cassada will install another roll-out solar array, also known as an International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Array (iROSA), on the space station’s truss structure. This time the duo will maneuver to the opposite side of the station and install the fourth iROSA on the Port-4 truss structure. The external installation job will last about seven hours and broadcast live on NASA TV on the agency’s app and its website.

Expedition 68 Flight Engineers Nicole Mann of NASA and Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will operate the Canadarm2 robotic arm to support the spacewalkers during the fine-tuned iROSA installation job. The duo will also assist Rubio and Cassada in and out of their spacesuits, also known as Extravehicular Mobility Units (EMUs), in the Quest airlock before and after their spacewalk.

While Thursday’s spacewalk is under way, NASA space station program manager Joel Montalbano and Roscosmos human spaceflight executive director Sergei Krikalev will hold an audio-only media teleconference 11 a.m. The two space executives will discuss the ongoing investigation of an external leak detected on the Soyuz MS-22 crew ship on a live audio call streaming on NASA’s website at https://www.nasa.gov/live.

The three cosmonauts representing Expedition 68, Commander Sergey Prokopyev and Flight Engineers Dmitri Petelin and Anna Kikina, stayed focused on lab maintenance servicing and cleaning a variety station hardware today.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

Get weekly video highlights at: https://roundupreads.jsc.nasa.gov/videoupdate/

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NASA Updates Commercial Crew Flight Manifest to Space Station

NASA meatball NASA and its mission partners are gearing up for a busy 2023 with crew launches and returns from the International Space Station. NASA worked closely with its international partners and commercial crew providers, Boeing and SpaceX, to secure new target launch dates for the upcoming flights that are optimal for space station needs.

NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams pose for a picture during T-38 pre-flight activities at Ellington Field in Houston on Aug. 16, 2022. Photo credit: NASA/Robert Markowitz

Starliner Flight Date Targets

NASA and Boeing now are targeting April 2023 for the agency’s Crew Flight Test (CFT), the first flight with astronauts on the company’s CST-100 Starliner. The date adjustment deconflicts visiting spacecraft traffic at the space station as NASA and Boeing work together to achieve flight readiness.

The team continues to make progress toward Starliner’s crewed flight following the successful uncrewed Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) to the space station in May. Starliner and United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket hardware remain on track for readiness in early 2023. The joint team continues to close out the OFT-2 anomalies and partner closely together to identify forward work and ensure all requirements for crewed flight are met. NASA and Boeing currently are working on a variety of verification efforts across several critical systems that will be used for Starliner’s crew flight certification.

For CFT, Boeing recently completed the exterior of the Starliner crew module with the installation of the forward heat shield and entry cover. The previously flown crew module, named Calypso, will be connected to a new service module later this year. Formal qualification testing on the CFT version of Starliner’s flight software was completed last month. NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Suni Williams, CFT’s commander and pilot, respectively, and Mike Fincke, backup spacecraft test pilot, along with the Boeing team, also successfully completed the crew validation test during which the astronauts suited up and tested out the pressurized crew module to ensure seat fit, suit functionality, cabin temperature, audio system and day of launch operations.

The CFT astronauts will live and work on the space station for about two weeks. Following a successful crewed flight, NASA will work to complete certification of the Starliner spacecraft and systems for regular crew rotation missions to the space station. A launch date for NASA’s Boeing Starliner-1 mission will be determined following a successful flight test with astronauts and close out of the agency’s certification work.

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft for NASA's SpaceX Crew-5 mission — A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company’s Dragon spacecraft onboard is seen at Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A on Oct. 1, 2022, four days before liftoff of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 mission. Photo credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

SpaceX Flight Date Targets

NASA and SpaceX are targeting mid-February 2023, for launch of the agency’s Crew-6 mission to the International Space Station.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch Dragon and NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan AlNeyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrei Fedyaev to the space station from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew will spend approximately six months on the space station, starting with a short handover with Crew-5, which arrived at the station in October for a science expedition at the microgravity laboratory.

SpaceX certification and Falcon 9 hardware remain on track for the sixth crew rotation mission of the company’s human space transportation system and its seventh flight with NASA astronauts, including the Demo-2 test flight, to the space station.

The Crew-6 mission will be Dragon Endeavour’s fourth flight to the space station, which previously supported the Demo-2, Crew-2, and Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) missions, making the spacecraft the fleet leader in number of flights to and from the station. The Dragon spacecraft currently is undergoing refurbishment at SpaceX’s Dragonland facility at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

NASA and SpaceX also are targeting fall 2023 for launch of the agency’s Crew-7 mission to the International Space Station, ahead of the return of Crew-6.

Find out more about NASA’s Commercial Crew Program at:

https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew

Space Freighter with Three Tons of Cargo Docks to Station

The ISS Progress 82 cargo craft approaches the space station nearing the Poisk module for a docking two days after launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Credit: NASA TV

An uncrewed Roscosmos Progress 82 spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station’s space-facing side of the Poisk module at 10:49 p.m. EDT today. Progress delivered almost three tons of food, fuel and supplies to the International Space Station for the Expedition 68 crew.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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SpaceX Crew Nears Launch as Station Research Under Way

The SpaceX Dragon Endurance crew ship atop the Falcon 9 rocket stands at the launch at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

The next crew to the launch to the International Space Station is at the Kennedy Space Center counting down to liftoff this week. Back onboard the orbiting lab, the seven-member Expedition 68 crew is busy conducting advanced space research to improve life for humans on and off the Earth.

Four SpaceX Crew-5 crew members arrived in Florida on Saturday ahead of their launch aboard the Dragon Endurance at noon EDT on Wednesday. NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada will command and pilot Endurance respectively. They will ride along with Mission Specialists Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Anna Kikina of Roscosmos. The commercial crew quartet will dock to the forward port of the Harmony module 29 hours after launch to begin their station mission.

After the Dragon Endurance docks to the orbiting lab, another four station crew members will turn their attention to ending their mission and returning to Earth just over a week later. NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, and Jessica Watkins, with ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, who have been living on the station since April 27, will help their Crew-5 replacements adjust to life on the station. The homebound astronauts will then undock inside the SpaceX Dragon Freedom crew ship and parachute to a splashdown off the coast of Florida.

In the meantime, Lindgren and Hines began Monday focusing on how living in space is affecting their muscles. The duo used an Ultrasound device and the Myotones device to scan and measure the biochemical properties of their leg, neck, and back muscles. Watkins nourished vegetables and took photos of the plants growing for the XROOTS space agriculture study taking place in the Columbus laboratory module. NASA Flight Engineer Frank Rubio swapped glass fiber samples in the Microgravity Science Glovebox for the Intelligent Glass Optics space manufacturing investigation. Station Commander Cristoforetti serviced samples inside the Electrostatic Levitation Furnace that supports high-temperature thermophysical research in space.

The station’s two cosmonauts, two-time station visitor Sergey Prokopyev and first-time space flyer Dmitri Petelin, had their hands full on Monday keeping up with lab maintenance while continuing their station familiarization activities. Prokopyev inspected windows inside the Zvezda service module then set up Earth observation gear. Petelin worked on orbital plumbing duties before inventorying and restocking station docking hardware.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

Get weekly video highlights at: http://jscfeatures.jsc.nasa.gov/videoupdate/

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