SpX-14 Mission: At 5:40 am CDT this morning, the ISS crew used the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) to capture the Dragon vehicle. This capture marked the first use of Forced Based Capture, a software enhancement to the Latching End Effector (LEE) that reduces loads on the snare cables, during SpaceX operations. Ground specialists …
SpaceX-14 Status: SpaceX has completed the CUCU Broadcast Test and configured CUCU and Dragon UHF for rendezvous. The Dragon vehicle continues to follow the nominal rendezvous profile that supports an ISS capture tomorrow at 6:00 am CDT. Advanced Combustion via Microgravity Experiments (ACME) Electric-Field Effects on Laminar Diffusion (E-Field) Flames: In preparation for the upcoming …
SpaceX-14 Launch: SpX-14 launched nominally today at 3:30:38 pm CDT. In preparation for vehicle arrival, the crew performed an Onboard Training (OBT) session to practice offset grapples. After the crew’s training session, ground specialists relocated the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) to the Dragon Park Position. In addition, all USOS crew participated in a …
Human Research Facility (HRF)-2: This morning the crew connected a 5 meter USB cable and an 8 port serial adapter and spider cable between the HRF-2 and HRF-1 racks in order to support troubleshooting of the Rack Interface Controller (RIC) on HRF-2. Ground teams are evaluating the troubleshooting results. On Sunday, March 25th, approximately one …
USOS Extravehicular Activity (EVA) #49: Today Drew Feustel (as EV-1) and Ricky Arnold (as EV-2) exited the Joint Airlock at 8:30am CDT to perform US EVA #49. Egress was delayed for about 1.5 hours due to issues with suit leak checks that were ultimately cleared. The primary goal of today’s EVA was to install the …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Preparations: Earlier today, the crew performed EVA tool configuration, completed training on use of the Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue (SAFER), reviewed EVA procedures, and had a conference with ground specialists. These activities are all in support of the US EVA #49 – Node 3 External Wireless Communications (EWC) installation scheduled for …
54S Rendezvous and Docking: 54S, carrying Ricky Arnold, Drew Feustel, and Oleg Artimyev to the International Space Station, docked to the Mini-Research Module (MRM) 2 today at 2:40 PM CDT (19:40 GMT). All Soyuz systems performed nominally. After hatch opening at approximately 4:45 PM CDT (21:45 GMT), all crewmembers participated in an ISS Safety Briefing. …
