Blogs

After making 18 orbits of Earth since its launch early Saturday morning, the Crew Dragon spacecraft successfully attached to the International Space Station’s Harmony module forward port via “soft capture” at 5:51 a.m. EST while the station was traveling more than 250 miles over the Pacific Ocean, just north of New Zealand. As the spacecraft …

The last time the Shelton family sent Mission Control Center (MCC) a bouquet of roses was July 9, 2011, the day after the last U.S. space shuttle launched. That was the 110th bouquet from the family and the last U.S. human spaceflight. The Shelton’s continued their tradition Saturday when they sent their 111th bouquet to …

EML (Electromagnetic Levitator) Lens switch: The crew changed the measurement mode of the EML High Speed Camera to STD mode to support the ongoing campaign. The EML is a multi-user facility designed for containerless materials processing in space. It supports research in the areas of meta-stable states and phases along with the measurement of high-accurate …

Bio-Monitor: A crew conference was held between the Bio-Monitor Team and David Saint-Jacques to discuss his experience on the 48-hour recording session with the Bio-Monitor Instrument. Although the ISS is equipped with health and life sciences research tools, the existing instrumentation for continuous and simultaneous recording of several physiological parameters is lacking. To tackle this …

The Expedition 58 crew continued filming in virtual reality onboard the International Space Station today. The orbital residents also conducted behavior tests and eye checks throughout Thursday while preparing for the first U.S. commercial crew vehicle mission. NASA astronaut Anne McClain logged into specialized software for a test session with the Behavioral Core Measures study. …

Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites Smoothing-Based Relative Navigation (SPHERES SmoothNav): The crew set up and performed a SPHERES SmoothNav test session. The SPHERES test plan consists of 12 different possible tests that can be performed in order to meet the objectives for the session. SmoothNav uses an estimation algorithm that obtains the most …

The Expedition 58 crew explored how living in space impacts perception and psychology today. The trio also studied satellite navigation and continued reviewing this weekend’s arrival of the first SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. Astronauts Anne McClain and David Saint-Jacques partnered up this morning inside Europe’s Columbus lab module for the Vection space perception experiment. The …

Advanced Combustion via Microgravity Experiments (ACME) Controller Replacement: The crew replaced one of the ACME fuel flow controllers. This was a nominally planned activity and allows different flow conditions to be observed. Following the completion of the activities, the crew photo documented the final configuration of ACME Chamber Insert. The ACME series being performed in …

The Expedition 59-60 crew arrived at the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch site in Kazakhstan today. Commander Alexey Ovchinin and Flight Engineers Nick Hague and Christina Koch are final training before their March 14 liftoff aboard the Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft. They will take a six-hour ride to their new orbital home where they will live and work …

SpaceX Demo-1 Dragon2 Training: The crew utilized a computer based trainer and reviewed procedures to refresh themselves with Dragon2 systems, rendezvous and docking, ingress operations, changes to emergency responses, and vehicle departure. SpaceX Demo-1 mission is the first unmanned demonstration flight to the ISS for the Dragon2 spacecraft. The vehicle is planned to launch from …