Plasma Krystall-4 (PK-4): Today a crewmember initiated three runs for the group 2 of the PK-4 experiment and performed a hard drive change out for data downlink. PK-4 is a scientific collaboration between the ESA and the Roscosmos, performing research in the field of “Complex Plasmas”: low temperature gaseous mixtures composed of ionized gas, neutral …
Vice President Calls Station, Crew Dragon Packed for Friday Return
Vice President Mike Pence and NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine called up to the Expedition 58 crew today. Astronauts Anne McClain and David Saint-Jacques were on hand to talk about their mission success and the arrival of the first Commercial Crew vehicle, the SpaceX Crew Dragon. The Crew Dragon is being packed and readied for its …
ISS Daily Summary Report – 3/05/2019
Life Support Rack (LSR): Today a crewmember removed the Waste Water Filter insert element from the LSR and prepared the element for return. LSR is a Technology Demonstrator for Closed Loop Air Revitalization. It captures carbon dioxide from cabin air and recovers 50% of its oxygen for use by the astronauts. LSR will operate for …
Crew Resumes Normal Ops Before Crew Dragon Leaves Friday
The three Expedition 58 crew members are back to normal operations today with the newest SpaceX Crew Dragon spaceship integrated to the International Space Station. Dragon will leave the station Friday as the next crew prepares to launch on March 14. Astronauts Anne McClain and David Saint-Jacques called down to mission controllers today to discuss …
The Story of Argo Sun
By Tom Bridgman, Ph.D. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio In my nearly 20 years making visualizations at NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio, “Argo Sun”— a simultaneous view of the Sun in various wavelengths of light — is probably one of my favorites. It is not only scientifically useful, but it’s one of the …
Making Space for SpaceX Crew Dragon, Spacewalk Prep and Science
Expedition 58 capped off its busy weekend with additional outfitting for the SpaceX Crew Dragon, which had only completed its hard dock to the International Space Station yesterday morning as part of the Demo-1 uncrewed flight test. After opening the hatch between the two spacecraft, the crewmates configured Crew Dragon for its stay at the …
March Puzzler
Your challenge is to use the comments section to tell us what we are looking at and why it is interesting.
ISS Daily Summary Report – 3/04/2019
The ISS Experience: Today a crewmember replaced the Solid State Drives for the ISS Experience. The ISS Experience creates a virtual reality film documenting daily life aboard the space station. The 8 to 1 10 minute videos created from footage taken during the six-month investigation cover different aspects of crew life, execution of science aboard …
ISS Daily Summary Report – 3/03/2019
SpaceX (SpX) Crew Dragon Demonstration 1: On Saturday, SpX Crew Dragon successfully launched from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) atop a Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket at 1:49 AM CT. On Sunday, the vehicle successfully performed an autonomous rendezvous and docking onto the Node 2 forward International Docking Adapter (IDA). Soft capture occurred at 4:51 AM …
SpaceX Crew Dragon Hatch Open
Aboard the space station, NASA astronaut Anne McClain, David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency, and Russian cosmonaut and Expedition 58 commander Oleg Kononenko opened the hatch between the Crew Dragon and the orbital laboratory at 8:07 a.m. EST. The crew members opened the hatch to Crew Dragon following standard leak checks and pressurization since …