Archivo de la etiqueta: spacestation

Station Boosts Orbit for March Crew Swap

The International Space Station is orbiting slightly higher today placing it in position for a crew swap taking place in March. Meanwhile, the seven-member Expedition 66 crew participated in life science and physics research and a variety of robotics activities.

Russia’s ISS Progress 79 cargo craft, docked to the aft end of the Zvezda service module, fired its engines early Tuesday morning for two minutes and 22 seconds. The orbital maneuver boosted the station’s orbit by six-tenths of a mile in preparation for the Soyuz MS-20 crew ship arriving in mid-March as well as the Soyuz MS-19 trio departing on March 30. NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei will be returning to Earth inside the Soyuz MS-19 crew ship completing a NASA single spaceflight record-breaking mission of 355 days.

Today’s science schedule aboard the orbiting lab covered a wide variety of subjects exploring phenomena benefitting astronauts in space and humans on Earth.

NASA Flight Engineer Thomas Marshburn configured the Combustion Integrated Rack to begin operations for a pair of studies exploring fire growth in microgravity. Marshburn also took a robotics test for the Behavioral Core Measures investigating how living in space affects crew stress, performance, and behavior. ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Matthias Maurer watered and photographed plants growing for the Veggie PONDS space agriculture study.

NASA astronaut Kayla Barron set up an Astrobee robotic assistant to collect visual data and create a localization map inside the Harmony module. She also joined fellow NASA Flight Engineer Raja Chari and reviewed spacewalk responsibilities and configured spacewalk tools. Vande Hei swapped samples and cleaned the inside the Electrostatic Levitation Furnace, a research device that enables the observation of thermophysical properties at high temperatures.

In the station’s Russian segment, Commander Anton Shkaplerov joined Flight Engineer Pyotr Dubrov and studied how the heart and circulation system adapt to weightlessness . The duo from Roscosmos also partnered together on cargo activities and air repressurization activities inside the Progress 79 vehicle.

Get The Details…

Mark Garcia

Powered by WPeMatico

Space Psychology and Ultrasonic Exploration Begin Week on Station

The Expedition 66 crew kicked off the week today exploring how living in space affects psychology and ways to manipulate objects with sound. The residents aboard the International Space Station also serviced U.S. spacesuits and worked on an artificial gravity-generating incubator.

NASA Flight Engineers Kayla Barron and Raja Chari took turns participating in a robotics test for the Behavioral Core Measures experiment on Monday. The monthly sessions investigate how living in a confined space in microgravity affects crew stress, performance, and behavior.

Barron then joined ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Matthias Maurer and practiced measuring fluid pressure in the eye. She also photographed cotton cell samples growing for the Plant Habitat-05 space agriculture study. Maurer and Chari partnered together on Monday afternoon resizing a pair of U.S. spacesuits.

Maurer started his day on the Ultrasonic Tweezers study using acoustics to manipulate objects remotely and without physical contact. Vande Hei assisted the German astronaut during the experiment that explores using ultrasonics to trap and isolate objects to study samples and avoid contamination on planetary surfaces.

NASA astronaut Thomas Marshburn worked throughout Monday on science hardware ensuring critical research operations run smoothly in weightlessness. The three-time station visitor installed and serviced components inside the Cell Biology Experiment Facility, an incubator with an artificial gravity generator. He finally swapped drying agents, or desiccants, inside science freezers that preserve research samples.

Vande Hei joined Roscosmos Flight Engineer Pyotr Dubrov in the station’s Russian segment for more wireless gear maintenance. Commander Anton Shkaplerov set up hardware that will monitor how natural and man-made events on Earth affect the upper atmosphere.

Get The Details…

Mark Garcia

Powered by WPeMatico

NASA, SpaceX Provide Update on Crewed Space Station Mission

NASA and SpaceX provided an update Feb. 4 on the status of preparations on the agency’s Crew-4 mission to the International Space Station. As part of the news conference, NASA and SpaceX answered media questions on Crew Dragon’s parachutes and work ahead of its next crew launch with NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, and Jessica Watkins, as well as with ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti.

Listen to a full replay of the news conference, and read the agency’s statement below:

Crew safety remains a top priority for NASA. The agency and SpaceX carefully and methodically monitor the operational parachute performance on all crew and cargo flights to increase safety and reliability.

During the return of the SpaceX CRS-24 mission, teams observed a single main parachute that lagged during inflation like the return of the Crew-2 mission. The vertical descent rate of both flights was within the system design margins at splashdown, and all four main parachutes fully opened prior to splashdown on both missions.

With the commonality between Dragon spacecraft, the mission teams prioritize parachute imagery during return and recovery of the parachutes following splashdown. As partners, NASA and SpaceX jointly review the imagery data and perform physical inspection of the drogue and main parachutes after flight. The inflation model also continues to be updated to better characterize and understand margins and splashdown conditions. This review of flight data and parachute performance models will be completed prior to the launch of the Crew-4 mission and the return of Crew-3 astronauts from the International Space Station.

NASA and SpaceX are completing the parachute analysis as part of the standard postflight reviews conducted at the end of each mission. The results of the data reviews are discussed as part of joint engineering and program control boards and findings presented at the agency’s flight readiness review in advance of the next crew mission. NASA and SpaceX still are targeting launch of the Crew-4 mission Friday, April 15, to the International Space Station.

Get The Details…

Patti Bielling

Powered by WPeMatico

Astronauts Relax After Busy Week, Cosmonauts Research Space Exercise

Five Expedition 66 astronauts had the day off on Friday while the two cosmonauts focused on human research and maintenance aboard the International Space Station.

The orbiting lab’s four NASA astronauts and one ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut relaxed at the end of the week following several days of life science and physics research. Off-duty time usually consists of activities such as watching movies, talking to family on the ground, and looking at the Earth below from the seven-windowed cupola.

This week’s science schedule included a pair of vision studies as well as weeklong eye scans using the Ultrasound 2 device. Another experiment is observing how a variety of cement mixtures harden in space that may inform construction techniques on lunar and planetary surfaces.

Robotics and space nutrition were also on the research slate earlier this week. The crew demonstrated Astrobee rendezvous techniques using an algorithm then explored how to produce and maintain nutrients during long-term space missions.

NASA Flight Engineer Mark Vande Hei reached a milestone on Thursday when he hit 300 continuous days of living in space. He is on his way to breaking NASA astronaut Scott Kelly’s single spaceflight record of 340 days on March 15. Vande Hei will return to Earth on March 30 accumulating 355 consecutive days in orbit.

The two cosmonauts stayed busy on Friday working in the space station’s Russian segment. Commander Anton Shkaplerov spent the morning on cargo transfers before studying ways to optimize exercise in microgravity during the afternoon. Flight Engineer Pyotr Dubrov worked on computer maintenance throughout the day before assisting the commander with his exercise research.

Get The Details…

Mark Garcia

Powered by WPeMatico

Astronaut Hits 300 Days in Space, On Way to Break NASA Record

NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei has lived in space continuously for 300 days since launching and docking to the orbiting lab on April 9, 2021. He is on his way to surpassing Christina Koch’s 328-day mission on March 3 and Scott Kelly’s 340 days on March 15. Vande Hei will return to Earth on March 30 with a NASA astronaut record-breaking 355 consecutive days in Earth orbit.

Vande Hei arrived at the station aboard the Soyuz MS-18 crew ship with Soyuz Commander Oleg Novitskiy and Flight Engineer Pyotr Dubrov. Novitskiy returned to Earth on Oct. 17, 2021, with spaceflight participants Yulia Peresild and Klim Shipenko. Dubrov will remain onboard the station with Vande Hei and parachute to a landing with station Commander Anton Shkaplerov in Kazakhstan aboard the Soyuz MS-19 crew ship at the end of March.

Meanwhile, aboard the International Space Station today the Expedition 66 crew continued its space biology and human research activities. Scientists will use the data to learn how to improve health in space and Earth.

Flight Engineers Raja Chari of NASA and Matthias Maurer of ESA (European Space Agency) joined each other Wednesday afternoon for a visual function study inside the Kibo laboratory module. The investigation explores how microgravity affects the vascular function and tissue remodeling in the eye. NASA Flight Engineer Kayla Barron participated in another vision study exploring how an astronaut visually interprets motion, orientation, and distance in space.

Chari then examined the eyes of NASA Flight Engineer Thomas Marshburn using medical imaging gear, or optical coherence tomography. Maurer assisted the pair in the afternoon, but started his day setting up virtual reality gear for a training session in the Columbus laboratory module.

Shkaplerov spent Thursday servicing video gear, transferring cargo from inside the Prichal docking module, and setting up Earth observation hardware. Dubrov and Vande Hei partnered together and installed internal wireless gear in the station’s Russian segment during the afternoon.

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/

Get the latest from NASA delivered every week. Subscribe here: www.nasa.gov/subscribe

Get The Details…

Mark Garcia

Powered by WPeMatico