The International Space Station is preparing this week for the departure of two Expedition 51 crew members and the arrival of the SpaceX Dragon. Expedition 52 will begin Friday morning when two Expedition 51 crew members depart the station inside the Soyuz MS-03 spacecraft. Cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy and astronaut Thomas Pesquet will return to Earth …
Human Research Program (HRP): A 49S crewmember collected Return minus 15 days (R-15) blood and urine samples for Vascular Echo, Biochem Profile, and Marrow investigations as well as air samples for Marrow and ultrasound measurements for Vascular Echo. The Vascular Echo investigation examines changes in blood vessels and the heart while crew members are in …
Cardio Ox Ultrasound: A 50S crewmember completed their Flight Day (FD) 180 ultrasound, blood pressure and Electrocardiogram (ECG) measurements for the Cardio Ox investigation. With scanning assistance from a Crew Medical Officer (CMO) and ground remote guidance specialists, the crew donned ECG electrodes and marked the Carotid and Brachial arteries for scanning. By collecting ultrasound …
NanoRack Cubesat Deployer (NRCSD) #12 Cubesat Deploys: The remaining 8 of 17 NRCSD #12 CubeSats were successfully deployed from the ISS today. All are a subset of the QB50 constellation of CubeSats provided by countries from around the world. The constellation studies the upper reaches of the Earth’s atmosphere over a period of 1 to …
More CubeSats were ejected from the International Space Station this week to explore the Earth’s upper atmosphere. Meanwhile, the Expedition 51 crew trained for a crew departure and cargo craft arrival. NanoRacks, a private company with facilities on the space station, deployed a total of 17 CubeSats over two days this week from a satellite …
The Expedition 51 crew trained today for the next SpaceX Dragon mission due early next month. The five crew members also explored how microgravity affects their bodies to help scientists keep astronauts healthy in space. The next Dragon mission, SpaceX CRS-11, is scheduled to launch June 1 to deliver new space science gear to the …
Grasp Commissioning: To complete commissioning for the Grasp investigation hardware, Pesquet performed tasks in a seated position. Grasp is intended to provide insight into how the central nervous system integrates information from different sensory modalities encoded in different reference frames to coordinate movements of the hand with objects in the environment. Performed on the ISS, …
OsteoOmics: The crew fixated BioCells in Biocell Habitat 1 inserted the sample into the Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI). Crewmembers experience bone loss in orbit stemming from the lack of gravity acting on their bones. OsteoOmics investigates the molecular mechanisms that dictate this bone loss by examining osteoblasts, which form bone, …
Two NASA astronauts switched their spacesuits to battery power this morning at 7:20 a.m., EDT aboard the International Space Station to begin a spacewalk planned to last about 2.5 hours. Expedition 51 Commander Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Jack Fischer will replace a critical computer relay box. The relay box, known as a multiplexer-demultiplexer (MDM), …
External (EXT) Multiplexer/Demultiplexer (MDM)-1 R&R Extravehicular Activity (EVA): With IV support from Thomas Pesquet, today Peggy Whitson (EV1) and Jack Fischer (EV2) performed a 2 hour 46 minute EVA to Remove & Replace (R&R) the EXT MDM-1 that failed on Saturday, May 20th. While Whitson performed the EXT MDM R&R, Fischer installed the Lab Nadir …
