Water Recovery System (WRS) Catalytic Reactor Remove & Replace (R&R): On February 24th, the Water Processor Assembly (WPA) had a fault due to a leak into the catalytic reactor (approximately 1 liter of water). Today, Flight Engineer (FE)-3 Hopkins and FE-5 Mastracchio successfully R&Rd the catalytic reactor. In preparation for the R&R, Hopkins removed Treadmill …
Here’s a complete schedule of our coverage plans for the March 16 launch of SpaceX-3 to the International Space Station. Liftoff remains slated for 4:41 a.m. eastern time.
Water Recovery System (WRS) In-Flight Maintenance (IFM) Procedure Review: On February 25th, the Water Processor Assembly (WPA) had a fault due to a leak into catalytic reactor (approximately 1 liter of water). The catalytic reactor is scheduled to be removed and replaced (R&Rd) tomorrow. Flight Engineer (FE)-3 Hopkins and FE-5 Mastracchio conducted a procedures review …
Aniso Tubule Light Treatment: Flight Engineer (FE)-6 Wakata retrieved an Aniso Tubule sample from a Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI) and attached a Ziplock bag containing the Sample Chamber onto a Cell Biology Experiment Facility (CBEF) door to expose it to light. This is the fifth of five planned runs. Later …
A bright fireball was detected at extreme range (hundreds of kilometers) by two NASA meteor cameras located at the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI) in North Carolina, and at Hiram College in Ohio. At such distances (286 miles in the case of the PARI camera), trajectory determination is quite difficult. The fireball was first detected on …
Cube Satellite (CubeSat) Closeout Operations: Today, Flight Engineer (FE) 6 Wakata and FE-3 Hopkins closed out the Nanorack Cubesat Deployer (NRCSD) operations. This morning the slide table was moved from the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) Airlock into the JEM Pressurized Module (JPM). Later, the crew removed the empty Nanoracks Cubesat Deployers (NRCSDs) and Multi-Purpose Experiment …
This is not a mine, military base, salt farm, or solar plant. As explained in our March 2, 2014, Image of the Day, this is a date orchard near the Orange River in Northern Cape, South Africa. Thanks to all of you who weighed in our February 2014 puzzler. Reader JMR was first to identify […]
Every mission has its little offerings to fate to back up the hard work and attention to detail that goes into prepping for launch. While in Japan, the GPM team adopted the Japanese custom of coloring in one eye of a Daruma doll. I first encountered it when visiting the support control room for the […]
Cube Satellite (CubeSat) Operations: Overnight the final 7 CubeSats were successfully launched by JAXA Robotic Flight Controllers from two NanoRacks CubeSat Deployers (NRCSDs). Two Dove CubeSats and ArduSat-2, LitSat-1, LituanicaSat-1, UaPSat-1, and SkyCube CubeSats were launched. A total of 17 CubeSats have been deployed from the NRCSDs this week. The NRCSDs and Multi-Purpose Experiment Platform …
Launches are something special and this one was was spectacular. We were 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) from the launch pad, the absolute minimum safe distance at the Takesaki Observation Stand. The roof doubles as a tiered deck, and lined up at every available railing was a tripod and a camera. Since we had arrived a […]
