On June 19, 2013, the U.S. Geological Survey officially decommissioned Landsat 5 after an astonishing 29 years of operation. The satellite’s longevity was recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records, which dubbed Landsat 5 as the longest-operating Earth observation satellite. I recently listened to Dr. Steve Covington — the flight systems manager for Landsat […]
New Status: Crew Medical Officer (CMO) On-Board Training (OBT): Flight Engineer (FE)-3 Cassidy, FE-5 Parmitano and FE-6 Nyberg completed their CMO OBT. This is a Computer Based Training (CBT) module that requires no ground interaction and is performed periodically to maintain proficiency for designated onboard CMOs. Binary Colloidal Alloy Test (BCAT)-C1 Experiment Pre-Mix: Cassidy pre-mixed samples …
A successful field campaign collecting meteorological and hydrological data almost always involves a forecasting element. A detailed high quality forecast briefing on the potential evolution of weather events allows the scientists behind the scenes and out in the field to make crucial decisions that ultimately may determine the success of a project. While many joke […]
New Status: Spinal Ultrasound: Flight Engineer (FE)-5 Parmitano completed his first of three planned Spinal Ultrasound scans with FE-6 Nyberg as the operator and with remote guidance assistance from ground specialists. The Crew Medical Restraint System (CMRS) was used for subject positioning. Spinal Ultrasound aims to use ground and space-based studies to characterize spinal changes during and …
New Status: Biological Rhythms 48-hour Operations: Parmitano attached electrodes and will wear a Digital Walk Holter Electrocardiogram (ECG) for 48 hours. The investigation examines the circadian variations in the cardiac autonomic function during space flight. Results will be used to improve crew health technology on long-duration space flights. FASES Experiment: Parmitano installed the FASES experiment container …
New Status: Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV)-4 Operations: ATV4 hatch opening occurred early this morning with air samples taken by Vinogradov and Parmitano. Vinogradov installed quick-release clamps along the hatchway and initiated an air scrubbing which processed and cleaned the ATV4 atmosphere for approximately 4 hours. Following the cleaning crew ingressed the vehicle again taking post-cleaning …
New Status: ATV4 Operations: ATV4 successfully docked to the ISS on Saturday, June 15. Russian management expressed concerns with suspected microbial growth on some of the cargo bags in the vehicle and therefore hatch opening scheduled for today was delayed while the coordination on microbial remediation was determined. The current plan is to open the …
Each month, Earth Observatory offers up a puzzling satellite image here on Earth Matters. The seventeenth puzzler is above. Your challenge is to use the comments section to tell us what part of the world we are looking at, when the image was acquired, and why the scene is interesting. How to answer. Your answer […]
New Status: Off duty day for USOS Crew: Today was an off duty day for Flight Engineer (FE)-3 Cassidy, FE-5 Parmitano, and FE6 Nyberg as compensation for supporting tomorrow’s ATV4 operations. ATV4 is scheduled to dock tomorrow, Saturday June 15th at 8:46 am CST. Biological Rhythms: Nyberg terminated her first 24-hour Biological Rhythm measurement and exchanged the multimedia card …
New Status: Capillary Flow Experiment (CFE) Vane Gap-1: Flight Engineer (FE)-6 Nyberg completed the 8th of 11 planned test sessions. With ground direction, Nyberg used the CFE-2 vessel to observe fluid interface and critical wetting behavior in a cylindrical chamber with elliptic cross-section and an adjustable central perforated vane. CFE uses the low-gravity environment provided by …
