Expedition 54 Flight Engineers Mark Vande Hei and Scott Tingle of NASA completed the first spacewalk this year at 2:13 p.m. EST, lasting 7 hours, 24 minutes. The two astronauts replaced a Latching End Effector (LEE) on the station’s robotic arm, Canadarm2. There are two redundant end effectors on each end of the arm used to grapple …
Light Microscopy Module (LMM) Petri Plants Plate Operations: Over the weekend, the crew used the light meter in the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) to take light intensity measurements before transporting the plates to the Lab to photograph the plates with and without lids. Plants cultivated in microgravity look mostly normal, but space-grown plants have a …
Vascular Echo: After completing the Cardiolab (CDL) blood pressure measurement earlier this week, today the 53S subject performed the Vascular Echo Exercise Portable Doppler (PDOP) measurement with ground team assistance. Using the CDL PDOP, the crewmember donned the PDOP femoral probe and performed a 1-minute exercise followed by a resting period during which data was …
The International Space Station has been orbiting Earth for 7,000 days as of today Friday, Jan. 19, 2018. The first module, the Russian Zarya cargo module, launched to space in November of 1998. The first crew arrived at the young three-module orbital laboratory in November of 2000. 54 crews and 205 spacewalks later, the current …
NASA’s new deep space exploration systems will send crew 40,000 miles beyond the Moon, and return them safely home. After traveling through space at 25,000 miles per hour, the Orion spacecraft will slow to 300 mph after it passes through the Earth’s atmosphere. The spacecraft then slows down to 20 mph before it safely splashes …
A bright fireball lit up skies over Michigan at 8:08 p.m. EST on Jan. 16, an event that was witnessed and reported by hundreds of observers, many who captured video of the bright flash. Based on the latest data, the extremely bright streak of light in the sky was caused by a six-foot-wide space rock …
Plant Habitat Gaseous Nitrogen (GN2) Hose Connection: Today the crew removed and replaced the acoustic blanket and growth chamber door before retrieving the GN2 filter and connecting it to the EXpedite the PRocessing of Experiments to Space Station (EXPRESS) Rack nitrogen. The other end was connected to the GN2 hose in order to perform a …
A pair of spacewalks are planned for Jan. 23 and 29 to swap and stow external robotics gear. NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei will lead both spacewalks. Flight Engineer Scott Tingle will join him on the first spacewalk with Japanese astronaut Norishige Kanai joining Vande Hei on the second. Vande Hei, Tingle and Kanai checked …
On Wednesday, Jan. 17, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe was lowered into the 40-foot-tall thermal vacuum chamber at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The spacecraft will remain in the chamber for about seven weeks, coming out in mid-March for final tests and packing before heading to Florida. Parker Solar Probe is scheduled to launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on July 31, 2018, on a Delta IV Heavy launch vehicle.
CORRECTIONS TO TODAY’s REPORT: Circadian Rhythms activity was deferred due to conflicts with the OFV tomorrow. It will be performed tomorrow. Added ISS Reboost with SM Main Engines Circadian Rhythms [Deferred]: Today a 53S crewmember instrumented themselves with Thermolab Double Sensors, mounted the Thermolab Unit to their belt, and began 36 hours of monitoring for …
