Month: September 2023

The Expedition 70 crew members kept busy Friday as they look ahead to an off-duty weekend. The International Space Station is back to seven residents after one NASA astronaut and two Roscosmos cosmonauts departed early Wednesday morning. The seven members spent time today preparing spacesuits for upcoming spacewalks and closing out maintenance procedures they began earlier this week.

Commander Andreas Mogensen of ESA (European Space Agency) and Flight Engineer Loral O’Hara of NASA both worked on spacesuit preparations ahead of a round of spacewalks that will take place in October. Working separately, O’Hara recharged spacesuit water tanks while Mogensen scrubbed water from cooling loops inside the suits.

Flight Engineer Jasmin Moghbeli of NASA spent the majority of this week removing and replacing components of the Cold Atom Lab (CAL), which chills clouds of atoms to temps near absolute zero, allowing crew members to study their fundamental behavior, a task that is much more difficult to probe at higher temps. Today, she wrapped up maintenance work on CAL, completing the installation of the science module and re-mating power and data connections.

After lunch, Moghbeli worked with Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) in the Kibo Laboratory. The duo removed sample carriers on MISSE, which analyzes how exposure to space affects the performance and durability of materials and components such as paints, fabrics, seals, and solar cell technologies. The samples were then stowed for future analysis on Earth. Afterward, Furukawa removed and replaced the filter on the station’s Potable Water Dispenser, a system that provides water for crew consumption and food preparation.

Following yesterday’s off-duty day, the three Roscosmos Flight Engineers were back to orbital tasks today. Konstantin Borisov worked in the Nauka module conducting maintenance, while Nikolai Chub ran the 3D printer in the Zvezda module. He then moved on to work in Nauka with Oleg Kononenko to install and connect cables to a water processing system. Kononenko also spent part of the day preparing for an upcoming experiment that studies transport properties of complex plasmas.

Ahead of the weekend, the space station is orbiting slightly higher after the 85P fired its engines for 6 minutes and 22 seconds Friday morning. The orbital reboost sets up the correct phasing for the ISS Progress 86 resupply mission later this year.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, 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

Expedition 70 is well underway aboard the International Space Station after yesterday’s departure of three long-serving station residents, including NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, who returned to Houston this morning. The seven crew members who are still living and working in microgravity completed an array of maintenance activities today.

NASA Flight Engineer Jasmin Moghbeli, who arrived to the station a month ago, spent her morning in the Columbus Laboratory Module performing maintenance and testing the connectivity functions of power outlets. After lunch, she switched gears, working with the Cold Atom Lab. An ongoing activity for the first-time station resident this week, Moghbeli inspected cables and ports to gear up for tomorrow’s completion of replacing components of the payload. In the evening, she started training for upcoming spacewalks, reviewing spacesuit operations and procedures.

NASA Flight Engineer Loral O’Hara, who arrived to the station two weeks ago, started her day with ISAFE eye exams, as part of a new suite of experiments, called CIPHER. Eye exams of this kind examine changes in an astronaut’s eyes and brain due to fluid shifts in microgravity. CIPHER is an all-encompassing, full-body approach that investigates how multiple systems of the body react to spaceflight before, during and after a mission. O’Hara is the first of up to 30 astronauts to participate.

Following eye exams, O’Hara trained for spacewalk emergencies in the unlikely event they would occur using SAFER, the Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue. Before bed, she reconfigured the Microgravity Science Glovebox.

Expedition 70 Commander Andreas Mogensen of ESA (European Space Agency) spent his day completing some training with Astrobee, the stations free-flying robots that help astronauts conduct daily duties. Afterward, he repaired the docking station the cube-shaped robots use for recharging.

Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) worked in the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or BEAM, most of the day. In the station’s first expandable habitat, Furukawa stowed hardware and reconfigured sensors.

The three Roscosmos Flight Engineers—Konstantin Borisov, Oleg Kononenko, and Nikolai Chub—had a light-duty day, completing their required two hours of exercise that helps combat the effects of bone and muscle loss in microgravity.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, 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

At 12:41 a.m. EDT, the hatch closed between the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft and the International Space Station in preparation for undocking. NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin of Roscosmos are scheduled to undock their Soyuz spacecraft at 3:54 a.m. to begin their journey back home.

Mission coverage will continue live on NASA TV, the agency’s website, and the NASA app at the following times (all EDT):

• 3:30 a.m. – Undocking coverage begins (undocking scheduled at 3:54 a.m.)
• 6 a.m. – Deorbit burn and landing coverage begins (landing scheduled at 7:17 a.m. / 5:17 p.m. Kazakhstan time)

The Soyuz will undock from the Prichal module, heading for a parachute-assisted landing at 7:17 a.m. (5:17 p.m. Kazakhstan time) on the steppe of Kazakhstan, southeast of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, 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

A change of command is underway aboard the International Space Station as three crew members are preparing to depart the orbiting laboratory in the early hours of Sept. 27 after spending 371 days in space.

NASA astronaut Frank Rubio is set to return home on Wednesday, Sept. 27 following a record-breaking mission on orbit. The hatch will close on the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft at 12:20 a.m. EDT with Rubio and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin aboard. Following hatch closure, the spacecraft will undock from the Prichal module at 3:55 a.m., beginning the trio’s short ride back to Earth and starting Expedition 70 for those still aboard the station. Rubio, Prokopyev, and Petelin will take a two-hour ride aboard Soyuz MS-23 before deorbit burn at 6:24 a.m. and landing around 7:17 a.m. in Kazakhstan.

Rubio, now the record-holder for the longest single spaceflight by a U.S. astronaut, launched to the station on Sept. 21, 2022. His year-long mission was comprised of dozens of scientific investigations and technology demonstrations including testing new space gardening techniques, taking on a space-based diet packed with nutrients, 3D printing knee cartilage tissue, and more.

As three crew members are nearing the end of their mission, the other seven orbital residents stayed busy with an array of microgravity tasks. Now Expedition 70 Commander, Andreas Mogensen of ESA (European Space Agency) worked with the food processor he installed last week. Mogensen made another batch of chocolate mousse in the morning, later taste-testing it in the evening.

Two first-time station Flight Engineers Loral O’Hara and Jasmin Moghbeli of NASA worked in tandem to remove and replace the science module and heat exchanger from the Cold Atom Lab that Moghbeli prepped for repairs yesterday. Meanwhile, Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) conducted maintenance in the Japanese Experiment Module.

Flight Engineers Konstantin Borisov and Nikolai Chub of Roscosmos also worked in tandem on Tuesday to take documentary-style photos and videos of life aboard the station, while Flight Engineer Oleg Kononenko, also of Roscosmos, continued crew orientation tasks following his arrival to the station on Sept. 15.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, 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

The ten residents living aboard the International Space Station have a jam-packed Monday as three Expedition 69 crew members are completing their final duties before departure and others complete an array of health exams and repairs to orbital payloads.

NASA astronaut Frank Rubio began his day replacing clogged pumps on the BioFabrication Facility. After lunch, he moved on to collecting biological samples for the Food Physiology investigation, which assesses if an enhanced diet helps astronauts better adapt to spaceflight. Near the end of the day, Rubio continued departure prep ahead of his journey back home to Earth.

Rubio, along with Roscosmos Commander Sergey Prokopyev and Flight Engineer Dmitri Petelin, will undock from the station’s Prichal module at 3:55 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, Sept. 27. The three long-serving crew members will take a short ride home, landing in Kazakhstan at 7:17 a.m. the same day. Following more than a year-long mission, Rubio is now the record-holder for the longest single spaceflight by a U.S. astronaut. He, along with Prokopyev and Petelin, will return after 371 days in space.

ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen spent his morning on the station’s bicycle, CEVIS, partaking in the CARDIOBREATH investigation—a study that assesses the combined effects of cardiovascular and respiratory adaptions on blood pressure during spaceflight. In the evening, he donned virtual reality goggles to train for spacewalk emergencies in the unlikely event they would occur using SAFER, the Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue. Attached to the spacesuits, the device allows astronauts to safely return to the station if they were to become untethered. VR sessions allow astronauts to be “outside” of the orbiting laboratory while tracking movements of their hands and bodies during training.

NASA Flight Engineer Jasmin Moghbeli completed a suite of health activities today. In the morning, she took a cognition test for the ongoing Standard Measures investigation. She was later joined by NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa for ultrasound scans of arteries in the neck, clavicle, shoulder, and behind the knees, which helps doctors on Earth study how astronauts adapt to microcavity.

Moghbeli also took some time midafternoon to begin the uninstallation of the Cold Atom Lab science instrument in preparation for future repairs. Meanwhile, O’Hara conducted microbial research, analyzing surface and air samples that were collected last week, while Furukawa worked in the Kibo Laboratory Module continuing solid combustion research.

The other three cosmonauts aboard the orbiting laboratory split up duties as Flight Engineer Konstantin Borisov ran the Pilot-T experiment to practice piloting techniques and was later joined by Flight Engineer Oleg Kononenko to collect microbial samples around various Russian modules. Flight Engineer Nikolai Chub spent part of his day inventorying cargo then moved on to crew orientation activities.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, 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