Blogs

International Space Station officials have postponed Monday’s spacewalk to swap latching end effectors (LEEs) on the Canadarm2 robotic arm. The decision was made after the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and its robotics specialist team developed a diagnostics software patch confirming an anomaly noted in a primary communications string on the spare end effector installed during …

European Modular Cultivation System (EMCS) Preparation for Plant Gravity Perception Operations: To prepare the EMCS for the Plant Gravity Perception investigation, the crew replaced the empty EMCS Air Mix Supply Module located on the lower left side of the EMCS holding structure with a full Air Mix Module and then opened the EMCS Gas Valves …

During a spacewalk on Jan. 23, 2018, Expedition 54 flight engineers Mark Vande Hei and Scott Tingle replaced a Latching End Effector (LEE-B) on the Canadarm2 robotic arm. An issue preventing the LEE from transitioning to an operational state on one of two redundant sets of communications strings was detected. The spacewalking crew demated and …

The United Launch Alliance Atlas V booster and Centaur stage for NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-S (GOES-S) arrived this week at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The Mariner transport ship delivered the components to the Army Wharf at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The Atlas V booster was moved to the …

FemtoSat Assembly and Deployment: Using onboard components printed from the Additive Manufacturing Facility (AMF)-Manufacturing Device, today the crew demonstrated FemtoSat deployment trajectories. This experiment consists of a 3D printed deployer, four FemtoSats and a 0.050” L-wrench. The four FemtoSats will be loaded in the deployer and locked in place with the L-wrench.  When the L-wrench …

Two Expedition 54 astronauts continue preparing for Monday’s upcoming spacewalk to wrap up robotics repair work. The crew is also working on a variety of science gear to ensure the orbital laboratory is in tip-top shape. Flight Engineer Mark Vande Hei is going outside the International Space Station again for this year’s second spacewalk. This …

Arthrospira-B (Batch Culture): Today concluded the incubation of three Arthrospira-B experiment containers (ECs), one that began two weeks ago, and two that began last week. The ECs were removed from the BioLab Incubator and disassembled inside of the BioLab Glovebox, prior to the samples being inserted into the Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS …

One spacewalk down, two more to go before next weekend. A U.S. and a Japanese astronaut will go on the next spacewalk Jan. 29 followed by two cosmonauts on Feb. 2. Flight Engineers Mark Vande Hei and Norishige Kanai will put on their U.S. spacesuits early next week and exit the Quest airlock to wrap …

USOS Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) #47:  Today, Mark Vande Hei (as EV1) and Scott Tingle (as EV2) successfully completed USOS EVA #47 with a Phased Elapsed Time (PET) of 7 hrs 24 min. The primary goal of the EVA was to swap the Latching End Effector (LEE) from the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) …

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 …