Blogs

The Expedition 54 crew aboard the International Space Station is training for this weekend’s departure of the SpaceX Dragon commercial cargo craft. The crew is also exploring regenerative life support systems and how microgravity affects breathing. NASA astronauts Joe Acaba and Scott Tingle began their day training and reviewing for Saturday’s remotely controlled release of …

Robotics controllers are getting ready to uninstall the SpaceX Dragon cargo craft from the International Space Station on Friday before releasing it for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean Saturday. The Expedition 54 crew today is also continuing to study how living in space affects biology and introducing space travel concepts to students on Earth. …

Human Research Program (HRP) Collections (Biochemical Profile, Repository): Over the weekend, a 52S subject completed his Flight Day (FD) 120 urine sample collections to support the Biochemical Profile and Repository experiments. The samples were placed in the Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI). The Biochemical Profile experiment tests blood and urine samples …

Amyloid: Today the crew retrieved the final set of Amyloid samples from the measurement experiment unit on the Cell Biology Experiment Facility (CBEF) and placed them in a Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI) where they will remain until they are returned on SpaceX-13. Amyloid fibrils prepared in the microgravity environment of …

NanoRacks External Platform (NREP)-3 Payload Swap:  Today crewmembers extended the JEM A/L slide table into the JEM Pressurized Module (JPM) and exchanged payloads on NREP by removing the External Platform Module 2 (Charge Injector Device), External Platform Module 4 (Dependable Microprocessor) before installing the External Platform Module 5 (Cavalier) on NREP. The slide table was …

Robotics controllers have completed the science cargo transfers from the rear of the SpaceX Dragon cargo ship, also known as its trunk. Dragon is due to depart the International Space Station Jan. 13 and return to Earth. Over the holidays, the ground robotics teams remotely operated the Canadarm2 to remove a pair of new external …

Circadian Rhythms:  Today a 53S crewmember instrumented himself with Thermolab Double Sensors and mount the Thermolab Unit to their belt, and began 36 hours of monitoring for the Circadian Rhythm investigation.  Circadian Rhythms investigates the role of synchronized circadian rhythms, or the “biological clock,” and how it changes during long-duration spaceflight. Researchers hypothesize that a …

The Expedition 54 crew is starting the New Year studying how humans adapt to living in space for months and years at a time. NASA and its international partners are also learning how to support crews on longer missions with less help from the ground. The astronauts and cosmonauts on the International Space Station orbit …

Amyloid: Over the weekend, the crew retrieved the third set of Amyloid samples from the measurement experiment unit on the Cell Biology Experiment Facility (CBEF) and placed them in a Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI). Amyloid fibrils prepared in the microgravity environment of the ISS will be returned to Earth for …

Synthetic Bone BioCell Operations: The crew completed microscopy operations for Synthetic Bone and then took a sample from each well on the Synthetic Bone Multiwell BioCell and exchanged the fluids with media in each well.  The samples were placed in a Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI).  This experiment uses facilities aboard …