68 Progress (68P) Undock: 68P successfully undocked from the Docking Compartment 1 (DC-1) port this morning at 8:50 AM CDT. This Progress vehicle will conduct Non-ISS free-flight experiments from April 3 to April 24. A series of burns scheduled for Thursday March 29 and April 2 will place the vehicle into the required orbit. The …
A Russian cargo craft departed the International Space Station this morning after completing a six-month stay at the Pirs docking compartment. Meanwhile, the Expedition 55 crew is less than a day away from beginning the fourth spacewalk this the year for orbital lab maintenance. Russia’s Progress 68 (68P) resupply ship flawlessly undocked from Pirs this …
Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Preparations: Today the crew continued preparing for US EVA #49 – Node 3 External Wireless Communications (EWC) installation, planned for Thursday March 29, 2018. They completed additional Airlock and Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) configuration and performed an EMU Water Tank and Liquid Cooling Ventilation Garment (LVCG) Water Fill. Television Camera Interface Converter …
Fourth and Ten (+ One) Fourth: We are currently at the first station to be occupied by the fourth and final NAAMES field campaign. It is a bittersweet experience both scientifically and personally. This station represents the final push of an epic joint exploration of marine and atmospheric sciences made possible by the thoughtful investigators […]
We left out of San Juan Puerto Rico and crossed the Sargasso sea and the abysmal plain to our first station for the last NAAMES cruise. Here the North Atlantic is our mistress and her secrets we will explore. As ships crew we find ourselves in some of the most remote locations on this pale […]
The Expedition 55 crew is ramping up for Thursday’s spacewalk and training for next week’s arrival of the SpaceX Dragon resupply ship. Just four days after moving into their new home NASA astronauts Ricky Arnold and Drew Feustel are getting their suits and gear ready for a spacewalk on Thursday. The duo filled spacesuit tanks …
Lab Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) Status: The Lab MCA 72 hour dryout completed period ended on Friday 23 March. This weekend, telemetry indicated that the water readings were too high to proceed with a successful activation and calibration. As of this morning, the water readings were no longer off-scale high; however they were too high …
Parker Solar Probe has completed its space environment testing at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and was lifted out of the thermal vacuum chamber on March 24, 2018, after just over two months inside.
Like this young pelagic seabird (let’s call it a juvenile gannet) soon to spend its life at sea, taking a short respite on a chance encounter, I find myself fortunate to have found the research vessel Atlantis (as part of the NAAMES IV campaign). We are still on our trek north to our first station, […]
Settling in It is day four aboard the R/V Atlantis where scientists (and wildlife) alike are beginning to settle into our expedition through the vast North Atlantic. Everyone seems to be adjusting to ship life and finding a routine. It didn’t take too long for me to accept this as my new life for 26 […]
