The Soyuz MS-21 rocket lifts off on time from Kazakhstan carrying three cosmonauts to the space station.
Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev, and Sergey Korsakov are safely in orbit on the Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft after launching at 11:55 a.m. EDT from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan (8:55 p.m. Baikonur time).
The Soyuz will dock to the station’s Prichal module at 3:05 p.m. About two hours after docking, hatches between the Soyuz and the station will open.
NASA TV coverage of docking will begin at 2:15 p.m. on NASA Television, the NASA app and the agency’s website.
Soyuz MS-21 crew members (from left) Sergey Korsakov, Oleg Artemyev, and Denis Matveev pose for a portrait at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Russia.
NASA TV coverage now is underway for the launch of a crewed Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station with Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev, and Sergey Korsakov. The Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 11:55 a.m. EDT (8:55 p.m. Baikonur time). Launch and docking activities will air live on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website.
After a three-hour and 10-minute flight, the Soyuz will dock to the station’s Prichal module at 3:05 p.m. About two hours after docking, hatches between the Soyuz and the station will open.
Astronaut Tom Marshburn of NASA (center) assists NASA astronaut Raja Chari (from left) and ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer during their U.S. spacesuit fit check.
A new trio awaits its launch to join the Expedition 66 crew on Friday while two astronauts are preparing for next week’s spacewalk. Human research rounded out the science schedule aboard the International Space Station on Thursday.
Three cosmonauts are counting down to their lift off aboard the Soyuz MS-21 crew ship at 11:55 a.m. EDT on Friday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Soyuz Commander Oleg Artemyev will lead first-time space-flyers Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov on a three-hour and 10-minute ride to the Prichal module where they will dock beginning a six-and-a-half-month mission aboard the station. NASA TV, on the app and the website, will begin its live mission coverage of the crew launch and docking activities at 11:15 a.m. on Friday.
Meanwhile, a second spacewalk is scheduled for Wednesday, March 23, for more upgrades at the orbiting lab. Flight Engineers Raja Chari of NASA and Matthias Maurer of ESA (European Space Agency) will set their spacesuits to battery power at 8:50 a.m. signifying the start of their spacewalk. The duo will spend about six-and-a-half-hours installing new thermal system and electronics components. NASA TV will begin its live spacewalk coverage at 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday.
The spacewalking pair was joined Thursday afternoon by NASA Flight Engineers Kayla Barron and Tom Marshburn reviewing robotics procedures necessary to support the astronauts during next week’s external maintenance job. Chari and Maurer also spent Thursday organizing their spacewalking tools and resizing their U.S. spacesuits.
Commander Anton Shkaplerov and Flight Engineer Pyotr Dubrov continued evaluating a specialized suit, the lower body negative pressure suit, for its ability to counteract the effects of weightlessness on the human body. Doctors are studying the suit’s ability to offset space-caused head and eye pressure by drawing fluids toward the legs and feet while expanding veins and tissues.
NASA spacewalker Raja Chari is pictured tethered to the space station with the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endurance behind him and the Atlantic coast of South America 268 miles below.
The International Space Station is set to welcome three new crewmates who are set to launch on Friday and arrive just over three hours later. In the meantime, the seven-member Expedition 66 crew turned its attention to science duties following Tuesday’s successful spacewalk.
The next crew ship to launch toward the orbiting lab has rolled out and now stands at the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch pad in Kazakhstan. The Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft is counting down to lift off on Friday at 11:55 a.m. EDT. It will carry three cosmonauts on a three-hour and 10-minute ride to the station where it will dock to the Prichal module. Veteran cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev, with first-time station visitors Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov, will open the hatch about an two-and-a-half hours later and begin a six-and-a-half-month mission aboard the space station. NASA TV, on the app and the website, will begin its live launch coverage at 11:15 a.m. on Friday.
Two NASA astronauts, Kayla Barron and Raja Chari, had a light schedule on Wednesday following Tuesday’s six-hour and 54-minute spacewalk to set up the station for its next roll-out solar array. The pair started the day with standard post-spacewalk medical exams looking at their hands, ears, blood pressure, and temperature. Barron then worked late in the afternoon in the Kibo laboratory module setting up the Confocal Microscope that looks at biological samples using spatial filtering techniques. Chari wrapped up his day charging the U.S. spacesuit’s lithium-ion batteries.
In the station’s Russian segment, two cosmonauts, Commander Anton Shkaplerov and Flight Engineer Pyotr Dubrov, packed gear and prepared for their return to Earth on March 30. Shkaplerov will lead the ride home flanked by Dubrov and Vande Hei inside the Soyuz MS-19 crew ship. Vande Hei surpassed NASA astronaut Scott Kelly’s single spaceflight record of 340 days on March 15 and will land in Kazakhstan with a NASA record-breaking 355 days in space.
NASA astronaut Kayla Barron works to ready the space station for a third set of roll-out solar arrays about 260 miles above the Earth. Credit: NASA TV
NASA astronauts Kayla Barron and Raja Chari concluded their spacewalk at 3:06 p.m. EDT after 6 hours and 54 minutes in preparation for upcoming solar array installation.
Barron and Chari completed their major objectives for today to prepare the space station for upcoming solar array upgrades by assembling and installing modification kits. The duo built a support bracket onto which a future ISS roll out solar array (iROSA) will be mounted. So far, two of six iROSAs have been deployed on station with four additional arrays to be delivered. The arrays will ultimately augment six of the station’s eight power channels, increasing the station’s total available power from 160 kilowatts to up to 215 kilowatts.
It was the 247th spacewalk in support of space station assembly, upgrades and maintenance, and was the first in Chari’s career and the second for Barron. Chari and Barron are in the midst of a planned six-month science mission living and working aboard the microgravity laboratory to advance scientific knowledge and demonstrate new technologies for future human and robotic exploration missions as part of NASA’s Moon and Mars exploration approach, including lunar missions through NASA’s Artemis program.
Astronaut roles for the next spacewalk on March 23 will be confirmed soon. NASA TV coverage for the March 23 spacewalk will begin at 7:30 a.m. for a spacewalk expected to begin around 8:50am.
For the Wednesday, March 23, spacewalk, designated U.S. EVA 80, two astronauts will install hoses on a Radiator Beam Valve Module that routes ammonia through the station’s heat-rejecting radiators to keep systems at the proper temperature. The crew members also will install a power and data cable on the Columbus module’s Bartolomeo science platform, replace an external camera on the station’s truss, and conduct other upgrades to station 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/
NASA astronauts Kayla Barron and Raja Chari will work outside the space station to prepare it for the next roll-out solar array due to be delivered soon.
Expedition 66 Flight Engineers Kayla Barron and Raja Chari of NASA began a spacewalk to assemble and install modification kits required for upcoming solar array upgrades on the International Space Station at 8:12 a.m. EDT.
Barron, designated extravehicular crew member 1 (EV1), is wearing a suit with red stripes. Chari, designated extravehicular crewmember 2 (EV 2), will wear a suit with no stripes. Coverage of the spacewalk continues on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website.
Barron and Chari’s primary task will be to assemble and install modification kits required for upcoming solar array upgrades. The pair will install brackets and struts to support the future installation of an ISS Roll-Out Solar Array (iROSA).
NASA Flight Engineers Kayla Barron and Raja Chari will conduct the Tuesday, March 15, spacewalk, designated U.S. EVA 79, assembling and installing modification kits required for upcoming solar array upgrades.
NASA Television coverage of today’s spacewalk with NASA Flight Engineers Kayla Barron and Raja Chari now is underway and also is available on the NASA app, the Space Station blog and the agency’s website.
The crew members of Expedition 66 are preparing to exit the International Space Station‘s Quest airlock for a spacewalk expected to begin at approximately 8:05 a.m. EDT and last approximately 6.5 hours.
Barron and Chari will assemble and install modification kits required for upcoming solar array upgrades. The pair will install brackets and struts to support the future installation of an ISS Roll-Out Solar Array (iROSA). So far, two of six iROSAs have been deployed on station with four additional arrays to be delivered. The arrays will ultimately augment six of the station’s eight power channels, increasing the station’s total available power from 160 kilowatts to up to 215 kilowatts.
Barron will serve as extravehicular crewmember 1 (EV 1) and will wear a suit with red stripes. Chari will serve as extravehicular crewmember 2 (EV 2) and will wear a suit with no stripes. The spacewalk will be the second of Barron’s career and the first for Chari. Astronauts Tom Marshburn and Matthias Maurer will assist the spacewalkers in and out of their spacesuits and monitor their external activities.
Astronaut roles for the next spacewalk on March 23 will be confirmed soon.
NASA astronaut Kayla Barron is pictured during spacewalk training at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory in Houston, Texas. Credit: NASA/Robert Markowitz
Two Expedition 66 astronauts are in final preparations today for Tuesday’s spacewalk after mission managers gave the final go early Monday. NASA TV will broadcast a live briefing today at 2 p.m. EDT with International Space Station managers discussing the upcoming spacewalk activities.
The U.S. Quest airlock has been configured to host NASA Flight Engineers Kayla Barron and Raja Chari when they set their U.S. spacesuits to battery power on Tuesday at 8:05 a.m. signifying the start of a six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk. The duo will exit Quest then translate over to the Starboard-4 truss structure and install modification kits that will ready the space station for its third roll-out solar array. NASA TV, on the app and the website, will begins its live spacewalk broadcast on Tuesday at 6:30 a.m.
Barron and Chari started Monday readying their spacesuits and staging their spacewalk tools inside Quest. They were joined afterward by Flight Engineers Tom Marshburn of NASA and Matthias Maurer of ESA (European Space Agency) for a final procedures review and a conference with specialists on the ground. Marshburn and Maurer will help the spacewalkers in and out of their suits and monitor and guide them during the exterior maintenance job.
NASA Flight Engineer Mark Vande Hei focused on another upcoming external job as he set up a small satellite deployer inside the Kibo laboratory module on Monday. He placed the deployer inside Kibo’s airlock where it will be grappled by the Japanese robotic arm, placed in the vacuum of outer space, and pointed away from the station. Soon a set of CubeSats will be released into Earth orbit for a variety of educational and scientific research activities.
The two cosmonauts in the station’s Russian segment, Commander Anton Shkaplerov and Flight Engineer Pyotr Dubrov, continued studying the effectiveness of an antigravity suit that may offset the effects of living in space. Known as the lower body negative pressure suit, it has the ability to draw fluids that pool toward a crew member’s head down to the legs and feet expanding veins and tissues. This may prevent space-caused head pressure and vision issues as well as easing a human’s return to Earth’s gravity.
NASA astronaut Kayla Barron works inside the Life Science Glovebox conducting botany research for the Plant Habitat-05 investigation.
Two astronauts spent the day getting their spacesuits and tools ready for a spacewalk set to begin on Tuesday at the International Space Station. The rest of the Expedition 66 crew focused on a variety of combustion and space biology research on Friday.
Flight Engineers Kayla Barron and Raja Chari worked throughout Friday preparing for a six-and-a-half hour spacewalk scheduled for 8:05 a.m. EDT on Tuesday. Barron and Chari checked out spacesuit emergency jet packs and other suit components including lights, cameras, and data recorders. They also configured a host of tools inside the U.S. Quest airlock they will use during their external maintenance job. The pair on Tuesday will install modification kits on the Starboard-4 truss structure that will ready the space station for its third roll-out solar array. NASA TV begins its live spacewalk broadcast on Tuesday at 6:30 a.m.
Astronauts Mark Vande Hei of NASA and Matthias Maurer of ESA (European Space Agency) took turns installing combustion science hardware in the Kibo laboratory module at the end of the week. Vande Hei later serviced samples for the Space Biofilms study that seeks to prevent molds from growing and impacting spacecraft systems and crew health. NASA Flight Engineer Tom Marshburn worked in the U.S. Destiny laboratory module servicing gear supporting a fire safety study that could inform future spacecraft designs.
Cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov continued evaluating the lower body negative pressure suit that expands veins and tissues in the lower body possibly preventing vision changes and head pressure in microgravity. Shkaplerov then attached sensors to himself and jogged on the Zvezda service module’s treadmill for a Russian exercise study. Dubrov collected microbe samples from station surfaces and photographed them for analysis.
Astronaut Kayla Barron points the camera at herself for an out-of-this-world “space-selfie” during a spacewalk that took place on Dec. 2, 2021.
The Expedition 66 crew continued preparing today for the first of two spacewalks set to begin next week to continue upgrading the International Space Station’s power system. Vein scans were also on Thursday’s schedule helping scientists understand how living in space affects the human body.
NASA Flight Engineers Kayla Barron and Raja Chari are set to switch their U.S. spacesuits to battery power at 8:05 a.m. EDT on Tuesday and spend six-and-a-half hours installing a modification kit on the space station’s Starboard-4 truss structure. The new hardware will enable the upcoming installation of a third roll-out solar array increasing the station’s power output and augmenting the existing solar arrays.
The duo was joined by fellow station astronauts Tom Marshburn of NASA and Matthias Maurer of ESA (European Space Agency) for a spacewalk procedures review and conference with specialists on the ground. Marshburn and Maurer will assist the spacewalkers in and out of their spacesuits, operate the Canadarm2 robotic arm, and monitor their external activities. Mission managers will talk about the spacewalk, as well as a second one planned for March 23, live on the NASA TV app and the website on Monday at 2 p.m. NASA TV begins its live spacewalk broadcast on Tuesday at 6:30 a.m.
The four astronauts also took turns scanning each other’s neck, shoulder and leg veins using the Ultrasound 2 device. Chari and Maurer took turns as the crew medical officer on Thursday afternoon imaging Marshburn’s and Barron’s veins. Doctors on the ground monitored the biomedical activities and will examine downlinked imagery as part of periodic crew health assessments.
NASA Flight Engineer Mark Vande Hei worked throughout the day on maintenance activities servicing research gear and communications hardware. He started the day in the Kibo laboratory module placing combustion science components inside a payload rack then installed a wireless system in the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module.
In the station’s Russian segment, Commander Anton Shkaplerov and Flight Engineer Pyotr Dubrov evaluated an artificial gravity suit that counteracts the pooling of fluids in a crew member’s upper body. The lower body negative pressure suit expands veins and tissues in the lower body possibly preventing vision changes and head pressure in microgravity.
