Biomedical Research in Space Today Benefits Astronauts and Earthlings

The seven-member Expedition 67 crew poses for a portrait inside the International Space Station's Harmony module.
The seven-member Expedition 67 crew poses for a portrait inside the International Space Station’s Harmony module.

International Space Station studies about wound healing and cardiology kicked off the week for the Expedition 67 crew following last week’s departure of a U.S. resupply ship. A variety of other space research, spacesuit cleaning, and maintenance rounded out the day for the seven orbital residents.

Four astronauts spent the majority of the day on Monday exploring surgical techniques to heal wounds in microgravity. The quartet, including Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, and Jessica Watkins, all from NASA, with Samantha Cristoforetti of ESA (European Space Agency), worked throughout the day inside the Kibo laboratory module conducting research operations in the Life Science Glovebox. The medical study may provide advanced skin healing therapies both in space and on Earth.

Lindgren then installed an AstroPi science computer in the Harmony module where Cristoforetti would adjust its camera lens allowing European students to take night time photography of the Earth below. Watkins recorded video of the AstroPi activities and downlinked it for viewing by the participating students on Earth. Hines checked fluids and plants growing for the XROOTS botany study that uses hydroponics and aeroponics techniques to promote space agriculture.

The SpaceX Dragon resupply ship completed its cargo mission after 34 days attached to the space station on Friday. It undocked from the Harmony module’s forward port at 11:05 a.m. EDT and parachuted to a splashdown off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Saturday at 2:53 p.m. Shortly afterward, support personnel retrieved the commercial cargo craft, packed with scientific cargo and station gear, floating in the Atlantic.

Cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveev continued stowing spacewalking gear today after last week’s spacewalk to outfit the European robotic arm for payload operations on the station’s Russian segment. The duo also researched cardiology onboard the station today exploring how weightlessness affects blood circulation. Roscosmos Flight Engineer Sergey Korsakov also participated in the heart research before he and Artemyev studied how to pilot spacecraft and maneuver robots on future planetary missions.

Dragon Splashes Down With Scientific Cargo for Analysis

Aug. 19, 2022: International Space Station Configuration. Four spaceships are docked at the space station including the SpaceX Crew Dragon Freedom and Russia's Soyuz MS-21 crew ship and the Progress 80 and 81 resupply ships.
Aug. 19, 2022: International Space Station Configuration. Four spaceships are docked at the space station including the SpaceX Crew Dragon Freedom and Russia’s Soyuz MS-21 crew ship and the Progress 80 and 81 resupply ships.

SpaceX’s uncrewed Dragon cargo spacecraft splashed down at 2:53 p.m. EDT Saturday, Aug. 20, north of Cape Canaveral off the Florida coast, marking the return of the company’s 25th contracted cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station for NASA. The spacecraft carried more than 4,000 pounds of valuable scientific experiments and other cargo back to Earth.

Some of the scientific investigations returned by Dragon include:

  • Space’s impact on materials: The Materials International Space Station Experiment-15-NASA (MISSE-15-NASA) experiment tests, qualifies, and quantifies the impact of the low-Earth orbit environment on new materials and components, such as spacecraft materials and wearable radiation protection. Successful experiment results could have applications both in the harsh environments of space and on Earth.
  • Spacesuit cooling: Spacesuit Evaporation Rejection Flight Experiment (SERFE) demonstrates a new technology using water evaporation to remove heat from spacesuits and maintain appropriate temperatures for crew members and equipment during spacewalks. The investigation determines whether microgravity affects performance and evaluates the technology’s effect on contamination and corrosion of spacesuit material.
  • Cell signaling in microgravity: The ESA (European Space Agency) sponsored investigation Bioprint FirstAid Handheld Bioprinter (Bioprint FirstAid) enables the rapid use of formerly prepared bio-inks, containing the patient’s own cells, to form a band-aid patch in the case of injury.

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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Dragon Departs Station to Return Scientific Cargo to Earth

The SpaceX Dragon cargo craft backs away from the space station moments after undocking from the Harmony module's forward port during an orbital sunrise. Credit: NASA TV
The SpaceX Dragon cargo craft backs away from the space station moments after undocking from the Harmony module’s forward port during an orbital sunrise. Credit: NASA TV

At 11:00 a.m. EDT, flight controllers on the ground sent commands to release the uncrewed SpaceX Dragon spacecraft from the forward port of the International Space Station’s Harmony module. At the time of release at 11:05 a.m., the station was flying about 259 miles over the Pacific Ocean.

The Dragon spacecraft successfully departed the space station one month after arriving at the orbiting laboratory to deliver about 4,000 pounds of scientific investigations and supplies.

Tomorrow, ground controllers at SpaceX in Hawthorne, California, will command a deorbit burn. After re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, the spacecraft will make a parachute-assisted splashdown off the coast of Florida. NASA TV will not broadcast the de-orbit burn and splashdown, and updates will be posted on the agency’s space station blog.

Dragon arrived at the space station July 16, following a launch two days prior on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It was the company’s 25th commercial resupply services mission to the space station for NASA.

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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Dragon Resupply Ship Departing Station Live on NASA TV

The SpaceX Dragon resupply ship (at top) is pictured docked to the Harmony module's forward port on the space station.
The SpaceX Dragon resupply ship (at top) is pictured docked to the Harmony module’s forward port on the space station.

Live coverage of the departure of SpaceX’s uncrewed Dragon cargo spacecraft from the International Space Station is underway on NASA Television, the agency’s website, and the NASA app.

Ground controllers at SpaceX in Hawthorne, California, will send commands at approximately 11:00 a.m. EDT for Dragon to undock from the forward port of the station’s Harmony module and fire its thrusters to move a safe distance away from the station. Tomorrow, controllers will command a deorbit burn.

After re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, the spacecraft will make a parachute-assisted splashdown off the coast of Florida. NASA TV will not broadcast the de-orbit burn and splashdown. Updates will be posted on the agency’s space station blog.

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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Dragon Departing Friday; Cosmonauts Clean Up After Spacewalk

The SpaceX Dragon resupply ship approaches the space station during an orbital sunrise above the Pacific Ocean. Credit: NASA TV
The SpaceX Dragon resupply ship approaches the space station on July 16, 2022, during an orbital sunrise above the Pacific Ocean. Credit: NASA TV

The Expedition 67 crew will wait an extra day before seeing a U.S. space freighter depart the International Space Station. In the meantime, the cosmonauts are cleaning up following a shorter-than-planned spacewalk after a power issue on a Russian Orlan spacesuit.

Mission managers representing NASA and SpaceX waved off Thursday’s undocking of the Dragon cargo craft due to adverse weather conditions at the splashdown site off the coast of Florida. Dragon is now due to leave the Harmony module’s forward port at 11:05 a.m. EDT on Friday.

Four of the station’s astronauts including Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, and Jessica Watkins, all from NASA, with Samantha Cristoforetti of ESA (European Space Agency), will finish packing Dragon with critical research samples early Friday morning before closing the commercial resupply ship’s hatch. Dragon is scheduled to parachute back to Earth on Saturday loaded with over 4,000 pounds of cargo including completed scientific experiments for analysis. NASA TV, on the agency’s app and website, begins its live undocking coverage at 10:45 a.m. on Friday.

During a four-hour and one-minute spacewalk on Wednesday, Commander Oleg Artemyev and Flight Engineer Denis Matveev installed a pair of cameras on the European robotic arm (ERA) and removed parts attached to the arm’s end effector. Today, the cosmonauts powered down their Orlan spacesuits and removed suit components. Flight Engineer Sergey Korsakov reconfigured the Poisk module back to normal operations.

Just over two hours after Thursday’s spacewalk began, Artemyev informed Russian mission controllers his spacesuit was experiencing abnormal battery readings. Mission controllers directed Artemyev to return to the Poisk’s airlock and connect his spacesuit to the station’s power supply. Matveev continued his tasks before cleaning up and heading back to Poisk after managers called off the robotic maintenance excursion. Korsakov maneuvered the ERA to a safe post-spacewalk configuration while the cosmonaut spacewalkers were never in any danger.

Dragon Cargo Craft Undocking Postponed to Friday

The SpaceX Dragon resupply ship carrying over 5,800 pounds of cargo approaches the space station above the south Atlantic Ocean on July 16, 2022.
The SpaceX Dragon resupply ship carrying over 5,800 pounds of cargo approaches the space station above the south Atlantic Ocean on July 16, 2022.

At the conclusion of an early morning weather briefing, NASA and SpaceX are postponing the Thursday, Aug. 18 undocking of a SpaceX Dragon cargo resupply spacecraft from the International Space Station due to unfavorable weather conditions, including an elevated chance of precipitation at the splashdown sites. Mission teams now are targeting to undock the uncrewed Dragon spacecraft from the space station at 11:05 a.m. EDT Friday, Aug. 19.

NASA will provide coverage of Dragon’s undocking and departure on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website beginning at 10:45 a.m. EDT. Watch online at:

https://www.nasa.gov/live

After re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, the spacecraft will make a parachute-assisted splashdown off the coast of Florida on Saturday, Aug. 20. NASA TV will not broadcast the splashdown, and updates will be posted on the agency’s space station blog.v

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 Concludes After Abnormal Battery Readings

Spacewalkers Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveev are pictured during a spacewalk on April 28, 2022, monitoring the station's new European robotic arm.
Spacewalkers Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveev are pictured during a spacewalk on April 28, 2022, monitoring the station’s new European robotic arm.

Expedition 67 Commander Oleg Artemyev and Flight Engineer Denis Matveev, both of Roscosmos, concluded their spacewalk at 1:54 p.m. EDT after 4 hours and 1 minute.

During the spacewalk, the two cosmonauts completed the installation of two cameras on the European robotic arm prior to Artemyev’s Orlan spacesuit showing abnormal battery readings about 2 hours and 17 minutes into the extravehicular activity. Mission Control-Moscow instructed Artemeyev to return to the Poisk airlock to connect to the space station’s power supply. Cosmonaut Sergey Korsakov, inside the station, placed the European robotic arm in a safe configuration, and Matveev safely returned to the Poisk airlock after completing some final clean-up activities outside of the International Space Station. The duo was never in any danger during the operations.

NASA TV announces spacewalk is ending early (@Space_Station Twitter)

Additional spacewalks are planned to continue outfitting the European robotic arm and to activate Nauka’s airlock for future spacewalks. The work on the European robotic arm will be used to move spacewalkers and payloads around the Russian segment of the station.

This was the seventh spacewalk in Artemyev’s career, and the third for Matveev. It was the seventh spacewalk at the station in 2022 and the 252nd spacewalk for space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.

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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Russian Spacewalk Ends Early After Battery Power Issue

Flight Engineer Denis Matveev makes his way back inside the station after being instructed by Russian flight controllers to end the Aug. 17 spacewalk at the International Space Station due to a battery power issue on Artemyev’s Orlan spacesuit.
Flight Engineer Denis Matveev makes his way back inside the station after being instructed by Russian flight controllers to end the Aug. 17 spacewalk at the International Space Station due to a battery power issue on Artemyev’s Orlan spacesuit.

Expedition 67 Commander Oleg Artemyev and Flight Engineer Denis Matveev, both of Roscosmos, were instructed by Russian flight controllers to end the Aug. 17 spacewalk at the International Space Station due to a battery power issue on Artemyev’s Orlan spacesuit.

During the spacewalk, the two cosmonauts completed the installation of two cameras on the European robotic arm prior to Artemyev’s Orlan spacesuit showing abnormal battery readings. Mission Control-Moscow instructed Artemyev to return to the Poisk airlock to connect to the space station’s power supply. Cosmonaut Sergey Korsakov, inside the station, is placing the European robotic arm in a safe configuration, and Matveev has just returned to the Poisk airlock. The duo was never in any danger during the operations.

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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Spacewalkers Exit Station to Continue Outfitting European Robotic Arm

The European robotic arm is seen attached to the Nauka module of the International Space Station, the worksite for today’s spacewalk by two cosmonauts.
The European robotic arm is seen attached to the Nauka module of the International Space Station, the worksite for today’s spacewalk by two cosmonauts.

Expedition 67 Commander Oleg Artemyev and Flight Engineer Denis Matveev, both of Roscosmos, began a spacewalk at 9:53 a.m. EDT to continue outfitting the European robotic arm on the International Space Station’s Nauka laboratory by opening the hatch of the Poisk docking compartment airlock. Coverage of the spacewalk continues on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website.

The duo is installing cameras on the European robotic arm, relocating an external control panel for the arm from one operating area to another, removing launch restraints near the two end effectors or “hands” of the arm, and testing a rigidizing mechanism on the arm that will be used to facilitate the grasping of payloads.

Artemyev is wearing a Russian spacesuit with red stripes, while Matveev is wearing a Russian suit with blue stripes. This will be the seventh spacewalk in Artemyev’s career, and the third for Matveev. It will be the seventh spacewalk at the station in 2022 and the 252nd spacewalk for space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.

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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Spacewalkers to Continue Outfitting European Robotic Arm Live on NASA TV

Spacewalkers Samantha Cristoforetti of ESA (European Space Agency) and Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos work outside the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module on the International Space Station while wearing Russian Orlan spacesuits. The duo continued outfitting the European Robotic Arm attached to Nauka during a spacewalk that lasted seven hours and five minutes on July 21, 2022.
Spacewalkers Samantha Cristoforetti of ESA (European Space Agency) and Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos work outside the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module on the International Space Station while wearing Russian Orlan spacesuits. The duo continued outfitting the European Robotic Arm attached to Nauka during a spacewalk that lasted seven hours and five minutes on July 21, 2022.

NASA Television coverage is underway of today’s spacewalk with Russian cosmonauts to continue outfitting the European robotic arm on the International Space Station’s Nauka laboratory. Coverage of the spacewalk is on NASA Television, the NASA app, and agency’s website.

Expedition 67 Commander Oleg Artemyev and Flight Engineer Denis Matveev, both of Roscosmos, will install cameras on the European robotic arm, relocate an external control panel for the arm from one operating area to another, remove launch restraints near the two end effectors or “hands” of the arm, and test a rigidizing mechanism on the arm that will be used to facilitate the grasping of payloads.

Artemyev and Matveev will exit out of the Poisk module about 9:20 a.m. EDT to begin the six-and-a-half-hour excursion. Artemyev will wear a Russian Orlan spacesuit with red stripes, while Matveev will wear a Russian Orlan suit with blue stripes. This will be the seventh spacewalk for Artemyev and the third for Matveev. It will be the seventh spacewalk at the station in 2022 and the 252nd spacewalk for space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.

The European robotic arm will be used to move payloads and equipment outside the Russian segment of the station, joining the Canadian-built Canadarm2 robotic arm and the Japanese arm already supporting station maintenance, operations, and research.

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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