Month: October 2023

Astronauts are Go for Wednesday’s Spacewalk

(From left) Astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O'Hara pose for portraits in their spacesuits at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
(From left) Astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara pose for portraits in their spacesuits at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

Final preparations are underway as the Expedition 70 crew gets ready for a maintenance spacewalk on Wednesday. Meanwhile, human research and a manufacturing study continued aboard the International Space Station on Tuesday.

Mission managers have given the go for NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara to conduct a near seven-hour spacewalk beginning at 8:05 a.m. EDT Wednesday. The duo will remove radio communications gear and swap hardware that enables the orbiting lab’s solar arrays to track the Sun. NASA TV will begin its spacewalk coverage at 6:30 a.m. on the agency’s app and website.

The duo was joined today by Commander Andreas Mogensen of ESA (European Space Agency) and Satoshi Furukawa of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration) for the daylong spacewalk preparations. Moghbeli and O’Hara kicked off the day with standard medical exams as Mogensen assisted the pair during the temperature, blood pressure, pulse, and respiratory checks. Furukawa gathered with the three astronauts reviewing the spacewalk procedures and calling down to ground specialists for a final readiness conference.

Moghbeli and O’Hara also readied their tools and spacesuits inside the Quest airlock where they will begin tomorrow’s spacewalk. This will be the first spacewalk for both astronauts and the 12th at the space station this year.

The space station’s three cosmonauts stayed focused on their daily schedule of science and maintenance in the Roscosmos segment of the station. The trio also finalized their clean up tasks following last Wednesday’s spacewalk.

Flight Engineer Oleg Kononenko attached sensors to himself in the morning for a 24-hour session measuring his cardiac and blood pressure activity. Afterward, he swapped samples inside a 3D printer for a study exploring space manufacturing techniques. Flight Engineer Nikolai Chub opened the hatch between the Poisk module and Progress 84 cargo craft and stowed spacewalk tools he and Kononenko used last week. Flight Engineer Konstantin Borisov handed over radiation detectors the astronauts will wear on their spacesuits on Wednesday then spent the rest of the day on life support and maintenance tasks.

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.

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Spacesuits, Science, and Cargo Ops Kick Off Week

This nighttime view from the space station shows the city lights of the northeastern United States and its major urban areas.
This nighttime view from the space station shows the city lights of the northeastern United States and its major urban areas.

Monday was a busy day for the seven Expedition 70 crew members packed with spacesuit work, microgravity research, and cargo operations. Two astronauts are also due to exit the International Space Station on Wednesday for a maintenance spacewalk.

Two astronauts and a cosmonaut joined each other on Monday afternoon practicing powering up spacesuits and suiting up their spacewalking crewmates inside the Quest airlock. The trio of flight engineers, including Jasmin Moghbeli from NASA, Satoshi Furukawa from JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), and Nikolai Chub from Roscosmos, activated suit life support and communications components, checked water and oxygen levels, then performed a suit fit check.

Moghbeli and NASA Flight Engineer Loral O’Hara are scheduled to start a spacewalk on Wednesday at 8:05 a.m. EDT for about seven hours of communications and solar array work. The duo will remove an electronics box called the Radio Frequency Group that was part of a communications antenna system. They also will replace one of 12 trundle bearing assemblies on the station’s port solar alpha rotary joint. The bearings enable the station’s solar arrays to track the Sun.

O’Hara took a day off from spacewalk preparations on Monday and focused on space botany and cargo tasks. She first replaced components inside the Plant Habitat facility to prepare for an experiment investigating how tomato plants defend against disease in the weightless environment. Next, she swapped cargo in and out of the Cygnus space freighter. She finally cleaned up cardiac and neuron cell research hardware to make space for an upcoming SpaceX Dragon cargo mission.

ESA (European Space Agency) Commander Andreas Mogensen worked throughout Monday staging gear that will soon be packed inside the visiting Dragon cargo spacecraft. He also readied hardware that will be used during Wednesday’s spacewalk. At the end of the day, he joined Furukawa and practiced Canadarm2 robotic arm maneuvers on a computer to support the spacewalkers.

Veteran cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko began his day wearing a helmet packed with sensors practicing piloting techniques crew members might use on future planetary missions. Afterward, he worked on Roscosmos Progress 85 cargo craft maintenance then practiced a medical emergency with O’Hara and Chub. Chub also worked on a 3D printing experiment testing manufacturing in space to reduce dependency on supplies from Earth.

First-time space flyer and cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov spent an hour on an Earth photography session during the morning. He would then spend the rest of the day on a variety of life support maintenance tasks throughout the station’s Roscosmos segment.

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.

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Week Ends with More Spacewalk Preps, Human Research

Three spacesuits are pictured inside the space station's Quest airlock in preparation for upcoming spacewalks.
Three spacesuits are pictured inside the space station’s Quest airlock in preparation for upcoming spacewalks.

Spacewalk preparations and ongoing human research kept the Expedition 70 crew busy at the end of the week. Meanwhile, two cosmonauts continued cleaning up after completing a spacewalk at the International Space Station in the middle of the week.

NASA astronauts Loral O’Hara and Jasmin Moghbeli are scheduled to exit the Quest airlock on Nov. 1 for a six-and-half-hour maintenance spacewalk on the orbital lab. The duo will remove an electronics box called the Radio Frequency Group that was part of a communications antenna system. They also will replace one of 12 trundle bearing assemblies on the station’s port solar alpha rotary joint. The bearings enable the station’s solar arrays to track the Sun.

The duo started Friday morning organizing their spacewalking tools in Quest. In the afternoon, both astronauts tested the functionality of their spacesuit helmets, cameras, and other suit components. Moghbeli also printed checklists to be attached to spacesuit cuffs and verified the power capacity of the spacesuit jetpacks.

O’Hara spent the middle of Friday working with doctors on the ground for the CIPHER human research study. She scanned her arteries for the cardiovascular portion of the investigation that is composed of 14 medical studies. The experiment seeks to observe the psychological and physiological changes crew members will go through while living in space and farther away from Earth.

Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) began his day assisting O’Hara and Moghbeli when they were configuring their spacewalk tools. Afterward, he worked in the Kibo laboratory module setting up airlock hardware. He wrapped up his day replacing avionics gear inside the Destiny laboratory module. Commander Andreas Mogensen of ESA (European Space Agency) cleared his schedule on Friday exercising during the morning and relaxing the rest of the day.

Cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub spent Friday on standard post-spacewalk activities. The duo cleaned their Orlan spacesuits and uninstalled their suits’ batteries, lights, and tethers. They also reconfigured the Poisk airlock and called down to Roscosmos mission controllers for a post-spacewalk conference.

Roscosmos Flight Engineer Konstantin Borisov collected air samples from Poisk for analysis then downloaded radiation data collected from sensors on the spacewalkers’ Orlan spacesuits. In the afternoon, he practiced spacecraft and robotic piloting techniques on a computer that may inform how crew members operate on future planetary missions.

Crew Continues Spacewalk Preps Following Date Adjustment

Cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko (suit with red stripes) and Nikolai Chub (suit with blue stripes) are pictured during a spacewalk for maintenance on Oct. 25, 2023.
Cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko (suit with red stripes) and Nikolai Chub (suit with blue stripes) are pictured during a spacewalk for maintenance on Oct. 25, 2023.

The Expedition 70 crew is gearing up for another spacewalk planned at the beginning of November for maintenance on the outside of the International Space Station. The next United States orbital segment spacewalk now is scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 1, to allow the International Space Station crew and flight control team additional time to prepare for the excursion.

NASA astronauts  Loral O’Hara and Jasmin Moghbeli will exit the station’s Quest airlock to remove an electronics box called the Radio Frequency Group that was part of a communications antenna system. They also will replace one of 12 trundle bearing assemblies on the station’s port solar alpha rotary joint. The bearings enable the station’s solar arrays to track the Sun. The spacewalk was previously planned for Monday, Oct. 30.

U.S. Spacewalk 89 will be the first for both Moghbeli and O’Hara. Moghbeli will serve as extravehicular activity crew member 1 and will wear a suit with red stripes. O’Hara will serve as extravehicular crew member 2 and will wear an unmarked suit.

O’Hara and Moghbeli worked throughout Thursday checking tools and readying hardware they will take with them outside the Quest airlock for the maintenance spacewalk. The pair was also joined by astronauts Andreas Mogensen of ESA (European Space Agency) and Satoshi Furukawa of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) reviewing their spacewalk procedures during the afternoon.

O’Hara began her day installing communications hardware to support a laser technology study. Moghbeli spent a few moments on research maintenance removing a failed electronic unit from a science freezer and packing it for stowage. Mogensen analyzed station air samples then transferred data collected from wearable health-monitoring gear.

Furukawa had time throughout the day to focus on a variety of science activities including examining microgravity’s effects on astronauts and setting up a biology microscope. The two-time station visitor first took a cognition test measuring how long-term space missions impact a crew member’s brain structure and function. Next, Furukawa prepared a microscope to observe how cells respond to weightlessness. He later scanned the neck, shoulder, and leg veins of Mogensen using the Ultrasound 2 device with assistance from doctors on the ground.

The orbiting lab’s three cosmonauts slept in Thursday following a seven-hour and 41-minute spacewalk the day before. Flight Engineers Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub, and Konstantin Borisov awoke mid-afternoon and conducted post-spacewalk cleanup activities then held a conference with specialists on the ground. Borisov would later collect air samples for analysis and configure life support gear in the Nauka science module.

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.

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Cosmonauts Finish Spacewalk Following Hardware Installs and Inspections

Cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko (red stripes) and Nikolai Chub (blue stripes) prepare a synthetic radar communications system for installation during their seven-hour spacewalk. Credits: NASA TV
Cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko (red stripes) and Nikolai Chub (blue stripes) prepare a synthetic radar communications system for installation during their seven-hour and 41-minute spacewalk. Credits: NASA TV

Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub concluded their spacewalk Oct. 25 at 9:30 p.m. EDT after 7 hours and 41 minutes.

During the spacewalk, Kononenko and Chub inspected and photographed an external backup radiator on the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module, as well as isolated the radiator from Nauka’s cooling system. During the radiator inspection, a bubble of coolant liberated at the leak site and the crew wiped down their suits prior to continuing the spacewalk.

The two cosmonauts also released a nanosatellite to test solar sail technology; however, the nanosatellite’s solar sail failed to deploy as far as cameras could track its departure from the station. The cosmonauts also installed a synthetic radar communications system. One of four panels on the radar system was not able to be fully deployed during the spacewalk and the work will be deferred to a future date.

At the end of the spacewalk, before reentering the Poisk airlock, the two spacewalking cosmonauts as usual inspected the Roscosmos Orlan spacesuits and the tools used during the spacewalk to look for signs of coolant and wipe off any coolant as necessary. The cosmonauts also wiped down their suits and tools as usual after repressurization to further reduce introduction of trace contaminates into the space station environment. Additional filtration will then be used inside the space station in order to quickly scrub the atmosphere of any remaining traces of contaminant. This was the sixth spacewalk in Kononenko’s career, and the first for Chub. It is the 268th spacewalk for space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.

Up next, NASA astronauts Loral O’Hara and Jasmin Moghbeli will conduct a spacewalk on Monday, Oct. 30. Live coverage of the spacewalk begins at 6:30 a.m. on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website. The spacewalk is scheduled to begin about 8:05 a.m., and last about six-and-a-half hours.

During U.S. spacewalk 89, O’Hara and Moghbeli will exit the station’s Quest airlock to complete the removal of a faulty electronics box from a communications antenna bracket and replace one of twelve Trundle Bearing Assemblies on the port truss Solar Alpha Rotary Joint. It will be the first spacewalk for both astronauts.

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.

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Cosmonauts Begin Spacewalk to Install Scientific Payloads and Inspect Radiator

Roscosmos spacewalker Oleg Kononenko (suit with red stripes) attached to the Strela boom outside the International Space Station about 250 miles above Earth during a spacewalk on Dec. 11, 2018.
Roscosmos spacewalker Oleg Kononenko (suit with red stripes) attached to the Strela boom outside the International Space Station about 250 miles above Earth during a spacewalk on Dec. 11, 2018.

Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub began a spacewalk at 1:49 p.m. EDT to install a synthetic radar communications system, release a nanosatellite to test solar sail technology, and inspect and photograph an external backup radiator on the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module. Coverage of the spacewalk continues on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website.

Kononenko is wearing an Orlan spacesuit with red stripes, while Chub is wearing the suit with blue stripes. This is the sixth spacewalk in Kononenko’s career, and the first for Chub. It is the 268th spacewalk for space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.

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.

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Cosmonauts Exiting Station Soon for Spacewalk Live on NASA TV

Flight Engineers Oleg Kononenko (left) and Nikolai Chub (right) of Roscosmos are pictured in the Orlan spacesuits they will wear during a seven-hour spacewalk.
Flight Engineers Oleg Kononenko (left) and Nikolai Chub (right) of Roscosmos.

NASA Television coverage is underway for today’s spacewalk with Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub. The duo will venture outside of the International Space Station’s Poisk module to install a synthetic radar communications system and release a nanosatellite to test solar sail technology. While outside the station, they also will inspect and photograph an external backup radiator on the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module that experienced a coolant leak on Oct. 9. Coverage of the spacewalk is on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website.

Kononenko and Chub will exit out of the Poisk module at about 1:55 p.m. EDT. Kononenko is wearing the Orlan spacesuit with red stripes, while Chub is wearing the suit with blue stripes. This is the sixth spacewalk in Kononenko’s career, and the first for Chub. It is the 268th spacewalk for space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.

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.

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Spacewalk Procedure Reviews Top Today’s Schedule

Roscosmos spacewalker Oleg Kononenko (suit with red stripes) works outside the International Space Station over 250 miles above Earth on Dec. 11, 2018, during a seven-hour, 45-minute spacewalk.
Roscosmos spacewalker Oleg Kononenko (suit with red stripes) works outside the International Space Station over 250 miles above Earth on Dec. 11, 2018, during a seven-hour, 45-minute spacewalk.

The seven orbital residents kept busy on Tuesday preparing for a round of upcoming spacewalks. While reviewing procedures and prepping tools were at the forefront of today’s tasks, the Expedition 70 crew members also had some time for station maintenance activities and health exams.

Two cosmonauts are gearing up to exit the station’s Poisk module tomorrow at 1:55 p.m. EDT for a planned seven-hour spacewalk. Flight Engineers Nikolai Chub and Oleg Kononenko of Roscosmos had a light duty morning before preparing the Orlan suits they will wear outside of the station to install communications hardware, deploy a nanosatellite, and inspect the external backup radiator that experienced a coolant leak.

As a result of detailed analysis of contamination risk after a coolant loop leak occurred on the backup radiator of the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module, the NASA and Roscosmos teams have agreed to implement post spacewalk procedures to reduce traces of coolant from entering the International Space Station. The analysis, imagery review, and other testing performed has concluded that the quantities of contaminate entering space station and risk to systems is expected to be very low. However, the mitigations were agreed to in an abundance of caution to keep the risk as low as possible for hardware inside the space station. At the end of the Roscosmos spacewalk Wednesday, Oct. 25, before reentering the Poisk airlock, the two spacewalking cosmonauts as usual will inspect the Roscosmos Orlan spacesuits and the tools used during the spacewalk to look for signs of coolant and wipe off any coolant as necessary. The cosmonauts also will wipe down their suits and tools as usual after repressurization to further reduce introduction of trace contaminates into the space station environment. Additional filtration will then be used inside the space station in order to quickly scrub the atmosphere of any remaining traces of contaminant.

Flight Engineer Loral O’Hara of NASA teamed up with Commander Andreas Mogensen of ESA (European Space Agency) in the morning to wrap up the installation of the new Teal CEVIS system, an upgrade to the International Space Station’s bicycle. The two then split up duties, O’Hara moving onto prep for next week’s spacewalk with Flight Engineer Jasmin Moghbeli of NASA.

Both first-time spacewalkers will exit the station on Monday, Oct. 30 at 8:05 a.m. to remove the Radio Frequency Group and replace hardware on a solar array. The duo spent some time reviewing procedures and collecting and configuring tools they’ll use during their six-and-a-half-hour excursion. In the evening, Moghbeli operated tomography hardware and scanned O’Hara’s eyes for the ongoing CIPHER investigation. CIPHER, or Complement of Integrated Protocols for Human Exploration Research, is an all-encompassing, total-body approach that examines how humans adapt to spaceflight.

After breakfast, Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) prepped cargo for return on SpaceX’s 29th cargo mission scheduled for launch no earlier than Nov. 5. Afterwards, Furukawa was joined by Mogensen to review robotics procedures they will use next week when O’Hara and Moghbeli are outside of the orbital lab.

Following this, Flight Engineer Konstantin Borisov of Roscosmos was joined by Chub and Kononenko late afternoon for inspections and assessments of the Nauka module.

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.

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Spacewalk Prep Continues for Crew on Monday

NASA astronaut and Expedition 70 Flight Engineer Loral O'Hara is pictured trying on her spacesuit and testing its components aboard the International Space Station's Quest airlock in preparation for an upcoming spacewalk.
NASA astronaut and Expedition 70 Flight Engineer Loral O’Hara is pictured trying on her spacesuit and testing its components aboard the International Space Station’s Quest airlock in preparation for an upcoming spacewalk.

Spacewalk preparations topped the Expedition 70 crew members’ schedule today as two Roscosmos cosmonauts gear up to exit the station on Wednesday, Oct. 25, and two NASA astronauts look ahead to their first spacewalk next week.

Flight Engineers Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub will venture outside of the International Space Station’s Poisk module at 2:10 p.m. EDT on Wednesday to install communications hardware, deploy a nanosatellite, and inspect the external backup radiator that experienced a coolant leak. The duo worked together today prepping tools they’ll use during their seven-hour excursion and installing lights and video cameras to the helmets of the Orlan suits they will don.

NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara worked in tandem today as they prepare for their first spacewalk next week. The duo will exit the station on Monday at 8:05 a.m. to remove the Radio Frequency Group—an electronics box—and replace bearing assemblies on a solar array rotary joint. Today, their prep was geared towards procedure reviews and will continue to ramp up throughout the rest of the week. Later in the evening, they were joined by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa and ESA (European Space Agency) Commander Andreas Mogensen for a conference with grounds teams.

Last month, the final round of Arabidopsis plants was harvested from Plant Habitat-03, an investigation that aims to help researchers understand how adaptations in one generation of plants could transfer to the next, given the environmental stress of microgravity. Today, Mogensen cleaned the facility and prepped Seed Bags for future return to Earth. Meanwhile, Furukawa removed and replaced the filter assembly on an orbital system that processes wastewater.

While most of the station residents focused on prep and procedure reviews for the upcoming spacewalks, Roscosmos Flight Engineer Konstantin Borisov completed maintenance tasks and conducted an experiment that assesses the glow of Earth’s atmosphere at night in near ultraviolet.

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.

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Crew Continues Spacewalk Preps, Axiom Announces Ax-4 Launch Update

Astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli is suited up testing her spacesuit's components with assistance from astronaut Andreas Mogensen.
Astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli is suited up testing her spacesuit’s components with assistance from astronaut Andreas Mogensen.

The Expedition 70 crew reached the end of the week focusing primarily on a pair of upcoming spacewalks. There was also time aboard the International Space Station for research and cargo operations as Axiom Space announced future private missions dates.

NASA astronauts Loral O’Hara and Jasmin Moghbeli partnered together Friday afternoon organizing the tools they will use on a spacewalk planned for Oct. 30. The pair will exit the Quest airlock and spend about six-and-a-half hours removing electronics gear and replacing solar array hardware on the orbital lab.

Before the spacewalk preparations, O’Hara inspected hardware on the Human Research Facility, documented her daily food and medicine intake, and downlinked medical data to researchers on the ground. Moghbeli began her day collecting blood pressure measurements, moved on to life support maintenance, then swapped a vest and headband packed with sensors to comfortably measure her health as she worked throughout the day.

Astronaut Satoshi Furukawa of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) studied the maneuvers he will use to operate the Canadarm2 robotic arm when O’Hara and Moghbeli go on their maintenance spacewalk at the end of the month. He also packed the Cygnus space freighter with trash and discarded gear before staging cargo for loading and return on the next SpaceX Dragon cargo mission scheduled for launch on Nov. 5.

Commander Andreas Mogensen of ESA (European Space Agency) continued testing a specialized camera that can capture imagery at 100,000 frames per second. He worked in the cupola pointing the camera toward Earth and photographing thunderstorms and their electrical activity to improve atmospheric knowledge and promote future space applications.

Cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub spent all day Friday getting ready for their spacewalk scheduled on Oct. 25. The flight engineers put on their Orlan spacesuits inside the Poisk airlock and practiced the spacewalking tasks they will use next week. During the excursion, the pair from Roscosmos will install science hardware, deploy a nanosatellite, and inspect a backup radiator that leaked coolant. Flight Engineer Konstantin Borisov joined the duo assisting the cosmonauts in and out of their spacesuits and reviewing their spacewalk procedures.

NASA, Axiom Space, and SpaceX teams are targeting no earlier than October 2024 to launch Axiom Mission 4, a private astronaut mission, to the orbiting laboratory. The next private astronaut mission, Axiom Mission 3 with former NASA astronaut and Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria leading again, is scheduled to liftoff from Florida no earlier than January 2024.

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/

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