Cosmonauts Begin Spacewalk for Hardware, Science Work
Cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko (left) and Nikolai Chub (right) are pictured during a spacewalk on Oct.25, 2023, working on the Nauka science module.
Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub began a spacewalk at 10:57 a.m. EDT to complete the deployment of one panel on a synthetic radar communications system on the Russian segment of the complex and install equipment and experiments to analyze the level of corrosion on station surfaces and modules.
NASA’s coverage will continue on NASA+, NASA Television, YouTube, the NASA app, and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms including social media.
Kononenko is wearing an Orlan spacesuit with red stripes, while Chub is wearing the suit with blue stripes. This is the seventh spacewalk in Kononenko’s career, and the second for Chub. It is the 270th spacewalk for space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.
Roscosmos Spacewalkers Exiting Station Soon Live on NASA TV
Cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko (left) and Nikolai Chub (right) are pictured during a spacewalk on Oct.25, 2023, to install and inspect hardware.
NASA Television coverage is underway for today’s spacewalk with Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub. The duo will venture outside the station’s Poisk airlock to complete the deployment of one panel on a synthetic radar system on the Nauka module and install equipment and experiments on the Poisk module to analyze the level of corrosion on station surfaces and modules.
NASA’s coverage is on NASA+, NASA Television, YouTube, the NASA app, and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms including social media.
Kononenko and Chub will exit at about 10:55 a.m. EDT. Kononenko is wearing the Orlan spacesuit with red stripes, while Chub is wearing the suit with blue stripes. This is the seventh spacewalk in Kononenko’s career, and the second for Chub. It is the 270th spacewalk for space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.
NASA, Boeing Crew Fly Jet to Florida for Starliner Launch
Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams in T-38 pre-flight activities at Ellington Field on Tuesday, August 16, 2022. Photo credit: NASA/Robert Markowitz
The two NASA astronauts that will fly aboard a new spacecraft for the first time to the International Space Station are on their way on Thursday to the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to begin final launch preparations.
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are targeting 10:34 p.m. EDT Monday, May 6, for launch of the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
As retired U.S. Navy captains, Wilmore and Williams are flying on a T-38 jet from Ellington Field near NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston for the short flight to Kennedy’s Launch and Landing Facility.
At 1 p.m., NASA will host a crew arrival event at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with the following participants:
Jennifer Kunz, associate director, NASA Kennedy
Dana Hutcherson, deputy manager, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program
NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore
NASA astronaut Suni Williams
The arrival will air live on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms including social media.
Following launch, the astronauts will spend about a week at the orbiting laboratory before the crew capsule makes a parachute and airbag-assisted landing in the southwestern United States.
Spacewalkers Get Ready as Crew Packs Dragon with Science
Astronaut Matthew Dominick (center) poses with cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko (left) and Flight Engineer Nikolai Chub (right) while preparing Orlan spacesuits for a spacewalk.
The Expedition 71 crew is getting ready for a spacewalk on Thursday while finishing payload operations inside a U.S. cargo craft before its return to Earth. The International Space Station residents also investigated antibiotic resistance and participated in a cardiorespiratory study on Wednesday.
Two cosmonauts will exit the orbital outpost’s Poisk airlock at 10:55 a.m. EDT on Thursday for a planned seven-hour spacewalk. Station Commander Oleg Kononenko and Flight Engineer Nikolai Chub will work outside in the vacuum of space to install hardware and science experiments on the station’s Roscosmos segment. The duo from Roscosmos spent Wednesday finalizing their procedure reviews and completing checks and component installations on their Russian Orlan spacesuits.
Flight Engineer Alexander Grebenkin joined his cosmonaut crewmates for the procedure reviews and installed radiation detectors on the duo’s spacesuits. Grebenkin will be on duty Thursday helping Kononenko and Chub in and out of their Orlan spacesuits and monitoring them while they work outside the space station.
Watch the year’s first spacewalk live on the NASA+ streaming service via the web or the NASA app beginning at 10:30 a.m. Coverage also will air live on NASA Television, YouTube, and on the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms including social media.
Meanwhile, in the opposite side of the station, the astronauts are packing the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft with completed experiments and their research samples for return and analysis back on Earth. NASA Flight Engineers Tracy C. Dyson and Matthew Dominick removed science freezers containing the critical science from inside the station and transferred them to Dragon for stowage. NASA Flight Engineers Mike Barratt and Jeanette Epps assisted with the experiment loading and prepared more research hardware that will soon carry biology samples back to the planet.
Barratt and Epps spent half the day exploring why microbes are more resistant to antibiotics in space. Barratt worked in the Kibo laboratory module processing bacteria samples in the Life Science Glovebox. Epps selected some of those bacteria colonies then moved into the Harmony module and extracted DNA from the samples for genomic analysis. Results may help researchers understand how bacteria adapts to weightlessness and develop ways to protect space crews and humans on Earth.
Crew Packs Dragon, Works Neuroscience, and Preps for Spacewalk
NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick and Tracy C. Dyson both pose for a fun portrait as Dominick tests portable breathing gear.
Payload operations are underway aboard the International Space Station as a U.S. cargo craft prepares for its return to Earth at the end of the week. Meanwhile, the Expedition 71 crew continued researching neuroscience and getting ready for the year’s first spacewalk.
The four NASA astronauts in the orbital outpost’s U.S. segment spent the first half of their day packing the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft with science cargo for analysis back on Earth. Flight Engineers Tracy C. Dyson and Matthew Dominick started the day removing research samples from station science freezers and carefully placing them inside Dragon science freezers. Afterward, Flight Engineers Mike Barratt and Jeanette Epps ensured cargo already packed inside Dragon was properly strapped and secured for the flight back to Earth. Dragon is due to undock from the Harmony module’s space-facing port on April 26, weather dependent, and splash down off the coast of Florida the following day.
Afterward, Barratt worked in the Destiny laboratory module and set up a fluorescence microscope then joined Epps and Dominick swapping brain organoid samples inside the optical device. Scientists on the ground remotely operated the specialized microscope viewing the samples to observe the effects of a drug therapy on the brain organoid cultures. Researchers will use the results to study ways protect an astronaut’s central nervous system in microgravity as well as prevent and treat neurological conditions on Earth.
Dyson serviced components and cleaned hardware inside the BioFabrication Facility located in the Columbus laboratory module. The 3D biological printer is being tested for its ability to print organ-like tissues in microgravity potentially enabling space crews to print meals or medicines and allowing doctors to manufacture organs for patients on Earth. Dyson then had her eyes checked as Dominick operated medical imaging gear to view her cornea, retina, and optic nerve.
The next spacewalk at the space station is scheduled for Thursday, April 25. Cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub will exit the Poisk airlock and spend about seven hours configuring hardware and installing experiments on the Roscosmos segment of the space station. The duo spent most of Tuesday reviewing their spacewalk procedures and collecting tools planned for the excursion. The two cosmonauts began the day attaching sensors to themselves measuring their heart activity for a long-running Roscosmos cardiac study.
Flight Engineer Alexander Grebenkin joined his cosmonaut crewmates for the spacewalk procedure reviews on Thursday. He will help the duo in and out of their Orlan spacesuits and monitor the spacewalkers while they work outside the space station.
At the end of the day, Grebenkin joined Dominick, Barratt, and Epps, his SpaceX Dragon Endeavour crewmates, and checked out their Dragon pressure suits and communication systems. The quartet earlier tested a garment that may help crews adjust quicker to the effects of gravity after returning to Earth.
