Archivos de la categoría ISS News

Station Ends Week with Biology; New Crew Arrives at Launch Site

The seven residents aboard the International Space Station are wrapping up an intense week of biology investigations in low-Earth orbit. Three new crew members are also two weeks away from launching to the orbiting lab and joining the Expedition 64 crew.

The station astronauts have been focusing their research efforts this week on microgravity’s long-term impacts on the human body and other biological processes. NASA Flight Engineer Kate Rubins examined space-grown protein crystals in a microscope on Friday morning for insights into pharmaceutical production beyond Earth’s gravity. She later peered at microscopic worms wriggling in unique sample slides, set up by NASA Flight Engineer Shannon Walker, to understand how weightlessness affects genetic expression in muscles.

Flight Engineers Victor Glover and Soichi Noguchi partnered together in the ongoing Time Perception study inside Europe’s Columbus laboratory module. The astronauts wear virtual reality googles and click a trackball while performing a series of exercises to understand how their spatial orientation and cognitive performance changes in microgravity.

Lab maintenance is also critical to ensure station systems such as life support and computing remain in tip-top shape. Flight Engineer Michael Hopkins worked preventative maintenance in the Tranquility module’s Water Recycling System. He also replaced electrical components inside the Human Research Facility-2 rack.

The two cosmonauts, Commander Sergey Ryzhikov and Flight Engineer Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, kept up with their contingent of space research in the station’s Russian segment. Ryzhikov finalized this week’s plasma physics study closing out the experiment and stowing the advanced science gear. Kud-Sverchkov explored how the human circulatory system adapts to long-term spaceflight.

Three new Expedition 65 crew members have arrived at their launch site at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan today. Flight Engineers Mark Vande Hei of NASA and Pyotr Dubrov of Roscosmos with Soyuz MS-18 Commander Oleg Novitskiy are in final training for their April 9 launch to the space station.

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Mark Garcia

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Vein, Eye Scans on Station as Next Crew Nears Launch

The Expedition 64 crew continued researching how microgravity affects biology aboard the International Space Station today. The orbital residents also conducted vein and eye checks and prepared for three new crew members due in early April.

NASA Flight Engineer Shannon Walker joined Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov for vein and eye scans on Thursday. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi led the effort scanning veins in the trio’s neck, clavicle and shoulder areas using the Ultrasound 2 device in the morning. In the afternoon, Noguchi examined Walker’s eyes using the orbiting lab’s optical coherence tomography gear.

Walker also assisted fellow Flight Engineer Kate Rubins of NASA setting up samples of tiny worms for viewing in a microscope. Rubins captured video of the microscopic worms wriggling around to learn how microgravity affects genetic expression and muscle function. Insights from the Micro-16 study may benefit human health on and off the Earth.

Astronauts Michael Hopkins and Victor Glover focused on station maintenance throughout Thursday. Hopkins set up alternate sleep accommodations ahead of the Expedition 65 crew launch and docking set for April 9 when 10 people will be on the station until April 17. Glover serviced Water Recycling System components checking for leaks and tightening fittings on the rack located inside the Tranquility module.

Ryzhikov continued observing plasma dust crystals for the ongoing space physics study taking place in the station’s Russian segment. Kud-Sverchkov wiped down equipment inside the Zarya module then explored how pilots may operate spacecraft on future planetary missions.

Back on Earth in Moscow, three Expedition 65 crew members are getting ready to head to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan where their Soyuz MS-18 rocket is being processed for its April 9 launch. Flight Engineers Mark Vande Hei of NASA and Pyotr Dubrov of Roscosmos will flank Soyuz Commander Oleg Novitskiy during their three-and-a-half-hour ride to their new home in space.

Just over a week later, Rubins will return to Earth with her Expedition 64 crewmates Ryzhikov and Kud-Sverchkov. They will parachute to a landing in Kazakhstan inside the Soyuz MS-17 crew ship after 185 days aboard the station.

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Mark Garcia

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Human Research on Station Informing Health in Space and on Earth

Human research is key aboard the International Space Station as NASA and its international partners learn to keep crews healthy during long-term exploration missions. The station hosts a variety of advanced space science hardware enabling these unique experiments and more in the weightless environment of the orbiting lab.

Today aboard the orbiting lab, Expedition 64 Flight Engineers Kate Rubins and Victor Glover collected their blood, urine, and saliva samples, and stowed them for later analysis. Rubins also analyzed white blood cells for the HemoCue study that is demonstrating how to quickly monitor and diagnose crew health conditions, including viral infections and radiation exposure, aboard spacecraft.

NASA Flight Engineer Michael Hopkins spent Wednesday installing and powering up the new KEyence Research Microscope Testbed (KERMIT) microscope. KERMIT will allow astronauts and scientists to view and analyze biological and physical samples both on the station and remotely from the ground. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi worked on the Confocal Space Microscope, which provides fluorescence images of biological samples, during the morning.

The station’s computer network is in the process of being upgraded as Flight Engineer Shannon Walker of NASA spent the day routing new ethernet cables inside the Unity module. Glover assisted station Commander Sergey Ryzhikov and Roscosmos Flight Engineer Sergey Kud-Sverchkov setting up a cinematic virtual reality camera to film the cosmonauts working in the station’s Russian segment.

Ryzhikov was back on plasma physics research Wednesday, downloading data and swapping the gas supply from neon to argon for the study, observing plasma dust crystals in microgravity. Kud-Sverchkov serviced the ventilation system replacing air ducts inside the Rassvet module.

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Mark Garcia

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Science Speeds Up on Station, Next Crew Trains for Launch

The residents living aboard the International Space Station resumed their advanced space research activities today following a well-deserved break on Monday. The Expedition 64 septet conducted vision tests, explored genetic expression, and set up a cinematic virtual reality camera inside the orbital lab.

NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker joined JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Soichi Noguchi testing their visual acuity, visual field, and contrast sensitivity. The quartet tested each other’s vision using an eye chart during the afternoon inside the U.S. Destiny laboratory module.

Noguchi started his day servicing samples for the Ribosome Profiling study observing how mammalian cells regulate themselves in microgravity. Hopkins and Glover also worked on ethernet cable routing and station plumbing tasks.

NASA Flight Engineer Kate Rubins restocked the Human Research Facility-1 with supplies including blood and urine tube kits, ultrasound echo gel, and electrodes. During the afternoon, Walker purged moisture and replaced components inside the Tranquility module’s oxygen generation system.

In the Russian segment of the station, Flight Engineer Sergey Kud-Sverchkov installed gear for the ongoing effort to film life and work on the orbital lab in immersive virtual reality. Commander Sergey Ryzhikov explored plasma physics before filling lab tanks with water from the Progress 77 resupply ship.

Back on Earth in Moscow, three new Expedition 65 crew members have completed their qualification exams for their launch aboard the Soyuz MS-18 crew ship on April 9. Flight Engineers Mark Vande Hei of NASA and Pyotr Dubrov of Roscosmos will flank Soyuz Commander Oleg Novitskiy during their three-and-a-half-hour ride to their new home in space for the next six months.

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Mark Garcia

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Crew Relaxes Following Three Weeks of Spacewalks, Relocation

The seven-member Expedition 64 crew is taking a well-deserved break today following a Soyuz crew ship relocation and three spacewalks in just three weeks.

NASA Flight Engineer Kate Rubins and Roscosmos Flight Engineer Sergey Kud-Sverchkov hitched a ride on Friday inside the Soyuz MS-17 crew ship piloted by Commander Sergey Ryzhikov. The trio backed out from the Earth-facing Rassvet module and pulled into the space-facing port of the Poisk module during the 34-minute maneuver. This opens up Rassvet for the April 9 arrival of three new Expedition 65 crew members, including NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov, aboard the Soyuz MS-18 crew ship.

Rubins and her fellow astronauts Soichi Noguchi, Victor Glover and Michael Hopkins, completed a series of three spacewalks on Feb. 28, March 5 and March 13. Rubins and Glover set out on the first spacewalk to ready the International Space Station for new solar arrays. On the second excursion, Rubins and Noguchi continued the solar array upgrade work. Finally, Glover and Hopkins worked outside the station during the third spacewalk servicing the cooling system, communications gear, and the Bartolomeo science platform.

Science and maintenance will pick up back up again on Tuesday when the crew explores microgravity’s impact on genetic expression and vision. The orbital residents will also be reconfiguring a variety of research racks to ensure advanced space science remains up and running on the orbiting lab.

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Mark Garcia

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