Payload Maintenance and Relocation, Robotics Session to End Week

NASA astronaut and Expedition 69 Flight Engineer Stephen Bowen installs student-made hardware next to the Destiny laboratory module's Microgravity Science Glovebox to test a platform that improves the stability of cameras used to track targets on the ground or take images and video inside the International Space Station.
NASA astronaut and Expedition 69 Flight Engineer Stephen Bowen installs student-made hardware next to the Destiny laboratory module’s Microgravity Science Glovebox to test a platform that improves the stability of cameras used to track targets on the ground or take images and video inside the International Space Station.

It’s a jam-packed Friday for the Expedition 69 crew aboard the International Space Station. Ahead of their off-duty weekend, the crew moved payloads and stowage and two astronauts completed a second robotics practice session in preparation for next week’s cargo delivery.

NASA astronaut Woody Hoburg started his day collecting additional samples for the Standard Measures investigation. He then moved into the Tranquility module to clean out stowage. Later in the morning, United Arab Emirates (UAE) Flight Engineer Sultan Alneyadi joined Hoburg to assist with unstowing the NanoRacks External Platform from the NanoRacks Bishop Airlock.

Hoburg also fixed some ethernet cables at the Astrobee docking station in the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM). He was later joined by NASA Flight Engineer Frank Rubio in the afternoon to complete a second robotics practice session for the upcoming rendezvous and capture of the Cygnus cargo spacecraft next week. Cygnus is targeted to launch on Tuesday, August 1, marking Northrop Grumman’s 19th commercial resupply mission.

After the NanoRacks External Platform was removed, Rubio captured the payload and moved it to JEM. Additionally, he and NASA astronaut Stephen Bowen removed the Multi-Purpose Experiment Platform from the Kibo airlock to be stowed and Rubio later performed a visual inspection and video survey of the airlock.

Following yesterday’s troubleshooting of the Glovebox Freezer, Bowen inspected and checked connections once more today. He also replaced hardware in the BioFabrication Facility—a 3D printer that investigates the feasibility of printing organ-like tissues in microgravity. Bowen then moved into the Columbus Laboratory Module to set up Kubik 5 and 6 hardware, designed for self-contained, automatic microgravity investigations aboard the orbital lab. Near the end of his day, Bowen troubleshooted the Fluids Integrated Rack—a fluid physics research facility.

Commander Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos ran the 3D printer in the Zvezda service module while Flight Engineer Andrey Fedyaev cleaned smoke detectors in the Zarya module and completed some computer maintenance. Flight Engineer Dmitri Petelin once again donned the sensor-pack cap to practice piloting techniques that explore how spacefarers may react and control spacecraft on future planetary missions.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

Get weekly video highlights at: https://roundupreads.jsc.nasa.gov/videoupdate/

Get the latest from NASA delivered every week. Subscribe here: www.nasa.gov/subscribe



from Space Station https://ift.tt/7dzIj0D

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Station Wraps Busy Week Before Cygnus Cargo Mission Launches

Image
This high exposure photograph from the International Space Station shows Earth’s atmospheric glow and a starry sky as the orbital complex soared above the Pacific Ocean. The Expedition 70 crew is looking ahead to the arrival of a U.S. cargo craft due to arrive at the International Space Station next week. Meanwhile, the Axiom Space 3 (Ax-3) crew finished its first week in orbit with a busy schedule of research, education, and media activities. Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo craft will take its first ride atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket when it lifts off at 12:29 p.m. EST on Monday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The private space freighter will be carrying over 8,200 pounds of science experiments, crew supplies, and lab hardware to the orbiting outpost. NASA Flight Engineer Jasmin Moghbeli is due to capture Cygnus with the Canadarm 2 robotic arm at 3:35 a.m. on Wednesday. She will be on duty that morning along with fellow NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara who will monitor Cygn
Read more

Dream Chaser Undergoes Testing at NASA Test Facility in Ohio

Image
NASA and Sierra Space are making progress on the first flight of the company’s Dream Chaser spacecraft to the International Space Station. The uncrewed cargo spaceplane is planned to launch its demonstration mission in 2024 to the orbital complex as part of NASA’s commercial resupply services. Credit: Sierra Space/Shay Saldana NASA and Sierra Space are preparing for the first flight of the company’s Dream Chaser spacecraft to the International Space Station. Dream Chaser and its companion cargo module, called Shooting Star, arrived at NASA’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio, for environmental testing, scheduled to start in mid-December, ahead of its first flight, scheduled for the first half of 2024. The Neil Armstrong Test Facility, part of NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, is home to multiple test facilities, including the Space Environments Complex and the In-Space Propulsion Facility, both stops for Dream Chaser. The complex is home to the Mechanical Vib
Read more

Russian Port Module is Safely in Orbit Headed for Station

Image
The Russian Prichal Node Module launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Nov. 24th, 2021. Credit: NASA TV. The five-ton Prichal docking module and its modified, uncrewed Russian Progress delivery spacecraft are safely in orbit headed for the International Space Station following launch at 8:06 a.m. (6:06 p.m. Baikonur time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Prichal, named for the Russian word for port or berth, has five available docking ports to accommodate multiple Russian spacecraft and provide fuel transfer capability to the Nauka module. Progress will transport Prichal for an automated docking with the space station’s Nauka multipurpose laboratory module Friday, Nov. 26., at 10:26 a.m. Live coverage on NASA TV of rendezvous and docking will begin at 9:30 a.m. To make room for Prichal, the recently relocated, uncrewed Progress 78 cargo craft will undock from Nauka at 6:21 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 25, and follow a path to burn up upon reentry in the Earth
Read more