Blogs

The three Expedition 52 crew members practiced evacuating the International Space Station today in the unlikely event of an emergency. The trio also set up an advanced life science study and continued the upkeep of the orbital complex. Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin joined Flight Engineers Peggy Whitson and Jack Fischer for an emergency evacuation drill Monday …

Three new Expedition 52 crew members are in Star City, Russia, this week completing final exams ahead of their July 28 launch to the International Space Station. After launch, they’ll take a six-hour ride inside the Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft before docking to the station’s Rassvet module. The trio from Italy, Russia and the United States …

Fluid Shifts Dilution Measurements: The 49S subject performed the final Fluid Shifts operations with Dilution Measurements activities.  Saliva, blood and urine samples were collected at multiple points during the day and inserted into a Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI).  Fluid Shifts is a joint NASA-Russian experiment divided into Dilution Measurements, Baseline …

By Kevin Matyi On Aug. 21, 2017, a total solar eclipse will cross the full continental United States along a narrow, 70-mile-wide path from Oregon to South Carolina. The last total eclipse in the U.S. was in 1979. And the last total solar eclipse that crossed the entire continental U.S. happened in 1918. But why? …

Group Combustion Module (GCM):  The crew completed closeout operations in the Multi-Purpose Small Payload Rack 1 (MSPR1) for the GCM investigation that was completed this week. The Group Combustion investigation tests combustion changes of fuel sprays as flames spread across a cloud of droplets. In the MSPR fuels are arranged randomly on thin-fiber lattice points …

Expedition 52 continued exploring today how microgravity impacts humans and technology to improve future spaceflight and benefit life on Earth. The trio also conducted an array of maintenance activities including space plumbing. NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson took a look today at how living in space affects her ability to work on interactive tasks. The Fine …

Rodent Research-5 (RR-5) Systemic Therapy of NELL-1 for Osteoporosis:  The crew completed injections of half of the RR-5 mice remaining on the ISS in the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) and performed bone densitometer scans of each of those mice. Because spaceflight has significant and rapid effects on the musculoskeletal system it is important to investigate …

A pair of Expedition 52 astronauts from NASA aboard the International Space Station today explored how microgravity causes bone loss in space. The commander from Roscosmos also worked on life support maintenance tasks throughout Wednesday. NASA astronauts Peggy Whitson and Jack Fischer studied a new drug therapy to determine its potential to prevent bone loss. …

SpaceX (SpX)-11 Departure/Mobile Servicing System (MSS) Operations: On Monday, Robotics Ground Controllers maneuvered the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) to position Dragon for release.  At 1:41am CDT the ISS Crew released Dragon and backed the SSRMS away. Following Dragon departure, Controllers maneuvered the SSRMS to a park position and provided video support of the Node …

Expedition 52 astronauts Jack Fischer and Peggy Whitson of NASA released the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft from the International Space Station’s robotic arm at 2:41 a.m. EDT. Dragon’s thrusters will be fired to move the spacecraft a safe distance from the station before SpaceX flight controllers in Hawthorne, California, command its deorbit burn. The capsule will …