On June 25, 2023, teams completed installation of the heat shield for the Artemis II Orion spacecraft inside the high bay of the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The 16.5-foot-wide heat shield is one of the most important systems on the Orion spacecraft ensuring a safe return …
Payloads: Kibo Robot Programming Challenge-4 (Robo-Pro Challenge): A repeat of the rehearsal-1 session for Robo-Pro Challenge was performed. This session was not able to be completed in a previous attempt due to battery issues with the Astrobee free flyers. Technical Rehearsals are used to verify various elements of the real Robo-Pro Challenge. In the actual …
A U.S. cargo craft is being packed and readied for its undocking from the International Space Station and its retrieval on Earth at the end of the week. The Expedition 69 crew members also focused their Tuesday research activities on space botany, robotics, and human research. The SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft is nearing the end …
July 3, 2023 UPDATE: NASA confirmed its IXPE spacecraft resumed normal science operations July 1, following a successful reset on June 26. On Saturday, June 24, NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) stopped transmitting valid telemetry data. The IXPE team could command the spacecraft and operate it in pointing mode, but the spacecraft was not …
Payloads: Kibo Robot Programming Challenge-4 (Robo Pro Challenge): In preparation for the upcoming Robo Pro Challenge tech rehearsal, the perching arm was attached to the Astrobee free flyer. Technical Rehearsals are used to test and verify various elements of the real Robo-Pro challenge. In the actual competition, the student teams will develop code to direct …
Space botany, microbiology, and future piloting techniques were the main experiments aboard the International Space Station on Monday. The Expedition 69 crew members are also readying a cargo vehicle for its departure and continuing to clean up after last week’s spacewalk. Following a busy period of spacewalks at the orbital outpost, the station’s residents returned …
Payloads: Cold Atom Lab (CAL): Using a Grab Sample Container (GSC), the crew collected a sample of the cabin air around the lower quad area of LAB1P2. The CAL produces clouds of atoms that are chilled to about one ten billionth of a degree above absolute zero — much colder than the average temperature of …
The Expedition 69 crew is wrapping its work week loading a cargo vehicle for its upcoming return to Earth and cleaning up following Thursday’s spacewalk. Other activities scheduled for the International Space Station residents on Friday included a robotics competition and life support maintenance. The SpaceX Dragon cargo vehicle will end its stay at the …
Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin concluded their spacewalk June 22 at 4:48 p.m. EDT after 6 hours and 24 minutes. Prokopyev and Petelin completed their major objectives, which were to retrieve several experiment packages from the Zvezda and Poisk modules and install communications equipment outside the International Space Station. This was the seventh …
RS Extravehicular Activity (EVA) #59: Today, ISS CDR Sergey Prokopyev (EV1) and FE-2 Dmitry Petelin (EV2) performed RS EVA #59 with Andrey Fedyaev supporting as the Intravehicular (IV) operator. The trio performed a multitude of tasks in order to perform various external payload and system configuration updates, as well as take photos. The MRM2 hatch …
