NASA has selected Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, California, to provide launch services for the agency’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) mission, which includes four secondary payloads.
ISS Daily Summary Report – 9/24/2020
Payloads Kibo Robot Programming Challenge Rehearsal: The Astrobee satellite performed several maneuvers and tasks as a checkout for the upcoming Robo Pro challenge. Astrobee was able to successfully perform several of the practice tasks for the rehearsal. The Kibo Robot Programming Challenge (Robo-Pro Challenge), also known as Kibo-RPC, allows students to create programs to control …
Station Gearing Up for October Cargo and Crew Missions
October is shaping up to be a busy traffic period as the International Space Station gears up for a space delivery, a crew exchange and a commercial crew mission. Meanwhile, the Expedition 63 crew focused on science, eye exams and leak inspections today. The next U.S. cargo mission to resupply the station is due to …
ISS Daily Summary Report – 9/23/2020
Payloads Astrobee: The crew powered on the Astrobee systems and cleared stowed items from the Astrobee area. Following this, ground teams performed ground commanding to further checkout and prepare Astrobee for support of the upcoming Kibo Robot Programming Challenge. Astrobee is made up of three free-flying, cube-shaped robots which are designed to help scientists and …
Crew Readies for New Space Toilet and Continues Eye Exams
The International Space Station is gearing up for an advanced bathroom set to arrive on a U.S. resupply ship early next month. Meanwhile, the Expedition 63 crew continued this week’s eye checks and more space research and life support maintenance. The orbital lab will get a new space toilet scheduled to be delivered inside Northrop …
Polarstern at the North Pole
The icebreaker made quick progress north owing to warm conditions and thin, fragmented sea ice.
Crew Takes on Eye Doc and Plumber Roles as Station Avoids Debris
It was a busy day aboard the International Space Station as the Expedition 63 crew members traded roles as an eye doctor, orbital plumber and scientist. The station also boosted its orbit out of the way of an unknown piece of space debris today. Once again, the U.S. commander and the two Russian flight engineers …
Station Boosts Orbit to Avoid Space Debris
Using the ISS Progress 75 thrusters and with NASA and Russian flight controllers working in tandem, the International Space Station conducted a 150-second reboost Tuesday afternoon at 5:19 p.m. EDT to avoid a possible conjunction with an unknown piece of space debris. Because of the late notification of the possible conjunction, the three Expedition 63 …
Station Crew Preps for Space Debris Avoidance Maneuver
Flight controllers in Mission Control Houston, with assistance from U.S. Space Command, are tracking an unknown piece of space debris expected to pass within several kilometers of the International Space Station. An avoidance maneuver is scheduled to take place using the Russian Progress resupply spacecraft currently docked to the aft end of the Zvezda service …
ISS Daily Summary Report – 9/22/2020
Payloads Combustion Integrated Rack/Advanced Combustion via Microgravity Experiments (CIR/ACME)/BRE-2: The crew exchanged a 40% oxygen/60% nitrogen bottle at the manifold 2 location for a new bottle with the same composition. They also replaced the ethylene manifold 4 bottle with a methane bottle, but were not able to open the bottle valve. CIR powered ops for …