38 Soyuz (38S) Launch: Soyuz Commander Skortsov, Artemyev, and Swanson launched onboard Soyuz 38S this afternoon at 4:17pm CDT. Ascent was nominal, but the subsequent DV3 burn was not performed as planned and today’s docking was postponed. Docking is now planned for Thursday evening at 6:58pm CDT. The vehicle is in a stable configuration and …
Japanese Experiment Pressurized Module Inter Module Ventilation (IMV) Cleaning: Commander (CDR) Wakata temporarily removed the Starboard Forward Fan and IMV grills and cleaned behind them. Wakata and and Flight Engineer (FE) Mastracchio then measured the air velocity in the JEM using the Velocicalc instrument. Ice Crystal-2 Troubleshooting: During an Ice Crystal-2 experiment run on March …
Conjunction with Object #27391 Status: The Pre-Determined Debris Avoidance Maneuver (PDAM) that was tentatively planned due to this high concern conjunction was cancelled. Ground teams tracked the object closely and determined that the probability of collision with the object had dropped significantly enough that the PDAM maneuver was not required. Time of closest approach has …
Capillary Flow Experiment (CFE) Interior Corner Flow (ICF)-2 Test: Commander (CDR) Wakata set up hardware on the Maintenance Work Area (MWA) and conducted an ICF test using the ICF2 hardware. CFE ICF studies capillary flow in interior corners of vessels with various geometries. Structured inside tanks providing interior corners are used in the design of fuel …
FLame Extinguishment Experiment (FLEX)-2 Operations: Commander (CDR) Wakata replaced the Combustion Integration Rack (CIR) manifold bottle within the CIR, allowing ground teams to start FLEX-2 operations via commanding. On Friday, March 14th, Wakata replaced a CIR needle that was bent during ground commanding in February. FLEX-2 uses small droplets of fuel to study the special …
Reversible Figures (RF): Commander (CDR) Wakata completed his fifth of six sessions of the RF protocol. RF investigates whether the perception of ambiguous perspective-reversible figures, a figure that can normally be seen to change in perspective or orientation in two different ways, is affected by microgravity. A comparison of the perceived reversals during visualization of …
National Geographic “Live from Space” Event: The ISS crew will participate in the National Geographic “Live from Space” program tonight and again on Sunday. The program is a live, two hour special being broadcast from Johnson Space Center’s Mission Control viewing room. Tonight’s episode, which starts at 7pm CDT, will be broadcast on the National …
From SpaceX: To ensure the highest possible level of mission assurance and allow additional time to resolve remaining open items, SpaceX is now targeting March 30 for the CRS-3 launch, with April 2 as a back-up. These represent the earliest available launch opportunities given existing schedules, and are currently pending approval with the Range. Both Falcon …
SpaceX-3 Launch Delayed: Due to contamination found on the beta cloth shields in the SpaceX-3 unpressurized external trunk, the decision was made to move the launch of SpX-3 to later in the month. The exact day of launch will be assessed by ground teams. Specialists are reviewing options for addressing the contamination issue on the …
The press kit for SpaceX-3 is out now and includes a wealth of details about the company’s Dragon spacecraft, Falcon 9 rocket and the payloads that will be taken to the International Space Station on this resupply mission. You can find the complete press kit here.
