ISS On-Orbit Status Report

Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) 52 Soyuz (52S) Survey:  Today, ground operators walked the SSRMS off to the Functional Cargo Block (FGB) and conducted a video survey of the exterior 52S prior to return.  52S will return CDR Alexander Misurkin, FE-3 Joe Acaba, FE-2 Mark Vande Hei to Earth early next week.  Carbon Dioxide …

USOS Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) #48: Today, Mark Vande Hei (as EV1) and Norishige Kanai (as EV2) performed USOS EVA #48 with a Phased Elapsed Time (PET) of 5:57. The primary goal of today’s EVA was to remove and replace the Payload ORU Accommodation (POA) Latching End Effector (LEE). The LEE formerly occupying the POA …

69 Progress (69P) Docking:  This morning the 69P vehicle docked to the SM aft port of the ISS.  Rendezvous and docking both completed successfully in the automated mode with a preliminary docking capture time of 4:38:43 AM CST.   Lighting Effects: Upon wakeup, a 53S subject provided a daily sleep log entry to track his sleep …

Lighting Effects: Upon wakeup, a 53S subject provided a daily sleep log entry to track his sleep patterns and wakefulness. The Lighting Effects experiment hopes to better quantify and qualify how lighting can effect habitability of spacecraft. The light bulbs on the ISS are being replaced with a new system designed for improved crew health …

69 Progress (69P) Launch:  69P launched from the Baikonur, Kazakhstan this morning at 2:13am CST and achieved nominal insertion with all antennas and solar arrays deployed.  Due to orbital phasing, this will be a 34-orbit rendezvous profile.  69P docking is scheduled for Thursday morning at 4:43am CST.  Lighting Effects: Upon wakeup, a 53S subject began …

69 Progress (69P) Launch Abort:  Over the weekend, the planned launch of 69P did not occur.  The vehicle issued an abort command shortly before launch and successfully shut down the launch sequence.  The root cause is under investigation, and the forward plan is in work.  The next available launch opportunity is tomorrow morning, Tuesday, February …

Rodent Research 6 (RR-6):  Today the crew performed the fourth day of RR-6 operations where they conducted fixative swaps and processed a series of blood samples from the rodents. The samples from today’s activities were placed in the Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI) for containment. The Rodent Research-6 (RR-6) mission uses …

Communications Issues:  This morning, communication with the ISS on Space to Ground (S/G) became intermittent.  A failed controller card at White Sands prevented the acquisition of the correct Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS).  Nominal communications were restored after the card was replaced.  Rodent Research 6 (RR-6):  Today the crew performed the third day of …

AstroPi Video for Columbus: To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the launch of the Columbus module to the International Space Station (ISS), today the crew recorded a short video of themselves using AstroPi to wish Columbus a happy birthday. Columbus was launched aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis and is a science laboratory that can accommodate …

Common Communications for Visiting Vehicle (C2V2) R2 Upgrade:  Due to issues experienced yesterday while loading the C2V2 R2 upgrade, ground controllers were unable to complete the first day of R2 load operations.  The attempt to load the software today was again unsuccessful.  It was determined that a file mismatch was causing errors in the software …