Adios, San Juan! Today, we said goodbye (or rather adios) to the port of San Juan and hello/hola to the Atlantic Ocean. The past few days have been a whirlwind of unpacking, setting up our gear, securing our gear, mounting sensors, stretching cable from one end of the ship to the other, testing instruments, attending […]
ISS Daily Summary Report – 3/20/2018
Mouse Stress Defense: Today the crew continued preparations for the Mouse Stress Defense investigation which will start after the arrival of mice on the SpaceX-14 Dragon vehicle. The crew reconfigured laptop cables and connected the Cell Biology Experiment Facility (CBEF) to a backup power source. Space flight brings an extreme environment with unique stressors. Microgravity …
Crew Ready for Launch as Station Preps for Spacewalk and Dragon Mission
A Soyuz rocket stands at its launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan ready to blast off Wednesday with three Expedition 55-56 crew members to the International Space Station. In the following two weeks the expanded Expedition 55 crew will conduct a spacewalk and welcome a new SpaceX Dragon cargo craft. Today, NASA astronauts …
ISS Daily Summary Report – 3/19/2018
Circadian Rhythms: Today, a crewmember began a three day European Space Agency (ESA) Circadian Rhythms experiment by donning the Thermolab Double sensors, which are to be worn for 36 hours. The objective of the experiment is to get a better understanding of any alterations in circadian rhythms in humans during long-term space flights. Such knowledge …
NAAMES-IV Expedition: March 18, 2018
In 30 days I’ll be a salty veteran. I’m going out to sea for 3 1/2 weeks with a group of scientists I’ve never met, a fellow lab mate, and a professor from Rutgers. We’re traveling to the North Atlantic to cleverly observe the largest assemblage of phytoplankton on our planet. I’ve heard these research […]
Soyuz Rocket Rolls Out at T-Minus Two Days to Launch
A pair of U.S. astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut are just two days away from launching on a 50-hour, 34-orbit flight to the International Space Station. Flight Engineers Ricky Arnold and Drew Feustel will flank Soyuz Commander Oleg Artemyev inside the Soyuz MS-08 spacecraft and blast off Wednesday at 1:44 p.m. EDT from the Baikonur …
ISS Daily Summary Report – 3/16/2018
Veg-03: Today the crew watered the Veg-03 plants and harvested leaves from each plant. The leaves will then be preserved and inserted into cold stowage for later return to the Earth. The remainder of the plants will be left to grow and sprout new leaves. Veg-03 supports the proof-of concept for the Veggie plant growth …
While launch awaits, the science does not
As the International Space Station orbits Earth with three occupants already onboard, on the ground below in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, three more crewmates are engaged in activities leading up to a March 21 liftoff on a Soyuz MS-08 spacecraft to join them. (You can watch this launch live on NASA TV, with coverage beginning at 12:45 …
ISS Daily Summary Report – 3/15/2018
Remote Power Control Modules (RPCM) P14B-G and P13A-G Swap: Ground robotic operations using the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) and Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM) to perform a swap of RPCM P14B-G and P13A-G continue. The installation of the new RPCM P14B-G was successful; however, the ground team was unable to fully seat the …
SAGE III/ISS Science Data Validation Efforts Begin
The Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment III (SAGE III), a NASA Langley Research Center-led mission, was launched on February 19, 2017 and installed on the International Space Station (ISS) during a 10-day robotic operation. Since March 2017, the instrument has been measuring and collecting data on the Earth’s sunscreen, stratospheric ozone, as well as other […]