By Alek Petty My journey up to the ship went smoothly and I even had time to observe the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) in full bloom during our overnight layover in Yellowknife (in the Northwest Territories of Canada). The following day, a Canadian Coast Guard helicopter transferred us from Kugluktuk airport onto the ship, and […]
Multi-Purpose Experiment Platform (MPEP)/Small Fine Arm Attachment Mechanism (SAM) removal: FE-5 retracted the Japanese Experiment Module Airlock (JEMAL) slide table into the module and removed the MPEP and SAM. Tomorrow, the crew will ingress Pressurized Mating Adapter-2 (PMA2) to retrieve the JEM ORU Transfer Interface (JOTI) and install it on the Slide Table to support …
Mission managers are targeting the Oct. 9-13 timeframe for the launch of the sixth Orbital ATK resupply mission to the International Space Station. A pair of astronauts onboard the station are also training for the robotic capture of the Cygnus resupply ship from Orbital ATK when it arrives about two days after launch. Cygnus’ primary …
NanoRack Cubesat Deployer (NRCSD) Removal: FE-5 removed the NanoRack deployer from the Multi-Purpose Experiment Platform (MPEP) Japanese Experiment Module Airlock (JEMAL) Slide Table, following the successful deployments of 8 DoveSat satellites last week. The next use of the JEMAL will be for Robotics External Leak Locator (RELL), which aims to demonstrate that commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) …
Story Time From Space: FE-6 completed the video recording that was started yesterday that demonstrates how a balance scale can be used to exhibit balance in microgravity. Story Time From Space combines science literacy outreach with simple demonstrations recorded aboard the ISS. Crew members read five science, technology, engineering and mathematics-related children’s books in orbit, …
Astronauts Kate Rubins and Takuya Onishi are continuing more eye checks today in the middle of day-long orbital plumbing work. Commander Anatoly Ivanishin packed trash in a resupply ship and researched a variety of Earth and space phenomena. Rubins and Onishi scanned each other’s eyes today using an ultrasound. Doctors on the ground assisted the …
Swoosh! It’s not a sound so much as a feeling. You feel it in your ears and through your whole body. And everyone on the plane — two NASA G-III pilots, two flight engineers and the rest of the Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) crew—feels it at exactly the same time. It has become our inside joke. […]
A group of U.S. Navy divers, Air Force pararescuemen and Coast Guard rescue swimmers are practicing Orion underway recovery techniques this week in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to prepare for the first test flight of an uncrewed Orion spacecraft with the agency’s Space Launch System rocket during …
Multi-Purpose Small Payload Rack (MSPR) Combustion Chamber Adapter Plate Attachment: FE-5 installed the Combustion Chamber adapter plate in the MSPR Work Volume. Next week, the crew will be installing and with ground support, initiating the Group Combustion experiment. The Group Combustion investigation tests a theory that fuel sprays change from partial to group combustion as …
The United States and Russia are working to get a pair of cargo ships ready for a mid-October launch schedule to the International Space Station. While the new shipments are being processed, the Expedition 49 crew conducted eye checks, wore carbon dioxide monitors and prepared for a fuel combustion experiment. The U.S. company Orbital ATK …
