Blogs

New Status: High-Rate Communications System (HRCS) Ku-band Communications Unit (Ku Comm Unit) Installation/Checkout: The Ku-band is a frequency used primarily for satellite communications, and specifically for ISS communications.  Some of the ISS original Ku-band system subcomponents are being replaced to increase data processing volume and speed.  Over the next two weeks the crew will replace the …

New Status: Fluids Control and Pump Assembly (FCPA) Remove and Replace (R&R):  Friday night, the Urine Processing Assembly (UPA) experienced a failure and was shut down. An error message was generated because the FCPA pump speed sensor did not match the FCPA pump motor speed sensor. Ground teams reviewed the data and recommended removing and replacing …

New Status: 34 Soyuz (S) Launch and Docking:  34S launched nominally at 3:43pm CDT.  Docking to the ISS is scheduled  at 9:32 pm CDT. The Soyuz is bringing Chris Cassidy, Alexander Misurkin and Pavel Vinogradov to the ISS. ENERGY Experiment: Flight Engineer (FE)-6 Marshburn completed days 2 and 3 of metabolic measurements today due to sleep shifting …

New Status: ENERGY Experiment: Flight Engineer (FE)-6 Marshburn began Day 1 of this 10-day experiment by powering on the equipment and performing 4 sessions of metabolic measurements. A loss in astronauts’ body mass is a systematic observation during space flight. The aim of ENERGY is to measure changes in energy balance during long term space flight; …

New Status: Mobile Servicing System (MSS) Operations: Last evening Robotics Ground Controllers powered up the MSS and the Crew unbolted and unlatched Dragon from the Node 2 Nadir Common Berthing System (CBM). Ground controllers then uninstalled Dragon using the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) and maneuvered it to the release position. After the crew …

New Status: SpaceX-2 Dragon Cargo Transfers and Departure Preparation: Commander (CDR) Chris Hadfield and Flight Engineer (FE)-6 Tom Marshburn loaded five full coldbags and an active GLACIER with returning science samples into the Dragon vehicle forward rack, and at 8:25 am CDT closed the Dragon hatch. Afterwards they configured the Dragon Pressurized Segment for closeout …

Last night (March 22) at around 8 p.m. EDT, a meteoroid with a boulder size of ~1 yard in diameter entered the atmosphere above Pennsylvania and moved southeast, passing just south of New York City. It went dark over the Atlantic Ocean, and may have produced meteorites which dropped harmlessly into the water below. This …

New Status: SpaceX-2 Unberth Delay:  The SpaceX Dragon vehicle unberth and departure from ISS was scheduled for Monday March 25th but has been deferred due to rough seas predicted at the splash-down location. The new unberth and departure date is Tuesday March 26, 2013.  On-board Training (OBT) for Emergency Response: All 3 crewmembers participated in this training. …

New Status: Marangoni Inside (MI) Fluid Physics Experiment Facility (FPEF): In preparation for the start of the experiment tonight, Flight Engineer (FE)-6 Tom Marshburn installed the sample cassette in the FPEF. The experiment will run through early July during crew sleep. Marangoni convection is the flow driven by the presence of a surface tension gradient which …

Images were taken by Rob Suggs and Aaron Kingery in twilight through cirrus clouds around 00:36 UT on 17 Mar 2013 with a 14 inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope at Marshall Space Flight Center’s Automated Lunar and Meteor Observatoryin Huntsville, Ala.  The detector was a low-light level B&W video camera with a focal reducer giving a 20 …