It is departure day aboard the International Space Station for three Expedition 63 crew members. The entire six-member space station crew slept in and shifted their schedules to accommodate tonight’s homecoming activities. NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Roscosmos Flight Engineers Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner will board their Soyuz MS-16 crew ship and undock from …
Payloads Cold Atom Lab (CAL) Science Module 2 (SM2): The crew powered off the CAL SM2 to allow EXPRESS rack 6 updates to be performed, then powered the CAL SM2 back on. The CAL produces clouds of atoms that are chilled to about one ten billionth of a degree above absolute zero — much colder …
Two veteran International Space Station crew members will swap command of the orbiting lab during the traditional Change of Command Ceremony this afternoon. The six-member space station crew will gather together at 4:15 p.m. EDT when Expedition 63 Commander Chris Cassidy of NASA ceremonially hands control of the station to Expedition 64 cosmonaut Sergey Ryzhikov …
The Exploration Ground Systems and Jacobs teams rolled the mobile launcher, atop crawler-transporter 2, out of the Vehicle Assembly Building for its slow trek to Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Oct. 20. The roll began just after midnight, and the mobile launcher arrived at the top of the pad Tuesday morning. This trek to the …
Payloads Payload Network Attached Storage (PL NAS): In an effort to resolve issues with the PL NAS, which is currently unresponsive, the crew rebooted the unit. More troubleshooting will be required, and there are no immediate impacts. The Payload NAS is a file server with five hard drive bays that provides a total of twenty …
Two veteran International Space Station residents will have a Change of Command ceremony on Tuesday before the Expedition 63 crew returns to Earth the following day. Meanwhile, the Russian portion of the crew has temporarily sealed a leak on the orbiting lab. Commander Chris Cassidy of NASA will hand over control of the space station …
The first commercially funded airlock for the International Space Station is ready for its journey to space. On Saturday, Oct. 10, teams moved the Nanoracks Bishop Airlock to SpaceX’s processing facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Two days later, it was packed in the Dragon spacecraft’s trunk for its ride to the orbiting …
Science is doubling up on the International Space Station with the addition of three new space residents. However, they will split up on Oct. 21 before four more astronauts launch to join the Expedition 64 crew in November. NASA astronaut Kate Rubins, on her second station mission, is stepping into her role as space scientist …
Payloads Food Physiology: The crew performed the Saliva collection setup. The Integrated Impact of Diet on Human Immune Response, the Gut Microbiota, and Nutritional Status During Adaptation to Spaceflight (Food Physiology) experiment is designed to characterize the key effects of an enhanced spaceflight diet on immune function, the gut microbiome, and nutritional status indicators. These …
Payloads Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG): The crew performed a post Packed Bed Reactor Experiment-2 (PBRE-2) residual cleanup and wiped down the MSG. The MSG is a rack-level payload facility located in the U.S. Laboratory module on the ISS. MSG provides resources such as power, data, video, heat rejection, vacuum, nitrogen and containment for investigations. The …
