Blogs

Beginning at 1:45 p.m. EDT Friday, NASA Television and the agency’s website will air the undocking and departure from the International Space Station of an uncrewed Russian Soyuz spacecraft. The Soyuz MS-14  is scheduled to undock from the station’s aft-facing Zvezda module at 2:14 p.m. The uncrewed Soyuz launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan …

60 Soyuz (60S) Undock/Landing Preparation: The 60S unmanned vehicle has been activated in preparation for tomorrow’s undocking at 1:14 PM CT and landing in Kazakhstan at 4:34 PM CT.  The hatches between the Soyuz and ISS have been closed and successful leak checks performed.  No US cargo is manifested for return on this unmanned flight.  …

As the week near its close, the crew of Expedition 60 caught up on maintenance activities while also continuing science investigations integral for the future of space exploration to destinations further into the solar system.  ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Luca Parmitano performed servicing to the EXPRESS Rack located in the Columbus lab of the …

Biomolecule Extraction and Sequencing Technology (BEST):  In support of BEST Experiment 2, the crew reviewed the on-board training, retrieved and inserted the appropriate items in cold stowage, and transferred cells from the cell kit to media tubes. The investigation studies the use of sequencing for identification of unknown microbial organisms living on the ISS, and …

As cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka, NASA astronaut Jessica Meir and spaceflight participant Hazzaa Ali Almansoori ready for their Sept. 25 launch aboard a Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft, tomorrow they will pause in their mission preparations for the ceremonial laying of the flowers at the Kremlin Wall. On Sept. 10, the same day the H-II Transfer Vehicle-8 (HTV-8) …

ECHO:  The crew attached the USB keyboard, powered the ECHO unit and its power supply, and booted the ECHO unit from its backup system. Ground commanding to the ECHO unit was subsequently performed in an effort to correct recent issues. The ECHO unit experienced issues last week which prevented the Vascular Aging science session from …

After a quiet, off-duty day for the crew of Expedition 60 on Labor Day, operations supporting science for long-duration human space exploration and upcoming spaceship movements ramped up on the International Space Station.  Cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Alexander Skvortsov are busy packing the Soyuz MS-14 with return gear before the vehicle parachutes back to Earth …

At just before 1:50 p.m. EDT on Sept. 1, 2019, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe completed its third close approach of the Sun.

Fluid Shifts – FE9:  A second crewmember began the first of the Fluid Shifts experiment operations known as Dilution Measures.  Dilution Measures looks at fluid compartmentalization by assessing of total body water (via saliva and urine analysis) and extracellular and intracellular fluid volume (via blood and urine analysis).  Fluid Shifts is a NASA investigation, divided …

Human research kept the Expedition 60 crew busy today helping NASA and its partners understand how to keep astronauts healthy on long-term space missions. More spaceship activity is also coming up in September to ensure a well-stocked and fully staffed International Space Station. NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Andrew Morgan continued researching how fluid shifts …