Blogs

External (EXT) Multiplexer/Demultiplexer (MDM)-1 Failure: On Saturday EXT MDM-1 experienced an anomaly. Attempts to recover the MDM remotely were unsuccessful.  Ground Teams configured EXT MDM-2 as primary and set up systems for the next worse failure per established Flight Rules. An IMMT was held Sunday and directed Team 4 to assess the feasibility of performing …

Astronauts Peggy Whitson and Jack Fischer are getting ready for a contingency spacewalk Tuesday morning. Whitson and Fischer are set to begin the spacewalk at 8 a.m. Tuesday for about two hours of maintenance work. NASA Television coverage will begin at 6:30 a.m. The spacewalkers are gathering their tools and checking their spacesuits today with …

International Space Station Program managers have given the green light for a contingency spacewalk on Tuesday by two Expedition 51 crewmembers to change out a multiplexer-demultiplexer (MDM) data relay box on the S0 truss that failed on Saturday morning. The cause of the MDM failure is not known. After a review of spacewalk preparations and …

International Space Station Program managers met Sunday and gave approval for a contingency spacewalk no earlier than Tuesday by two Expedition 51 crewmembers to change out a multiplexer-demultiplexer (MDM) data relay box on the S0 truss that failed on Saturday morning. The cause of the MDM failure is not known. A final decision on a …

International Space Station managers will meet Sunday morning to discuss a forward plan for dealing with the apparent failure of one of two fully redundant multiplexer-demultiplexer (MDM) data relay boxes on the S0 truss of the complex. External MDM-1 apparently failed at 1:13 p.m. Central time Saturday. Multiple attempts by flight controllers to restore power …

Fluid Shifts: A 50S crewmember performed their Flight Day (FD) 180 Fluid Shifts Chibis operations in the Russian Segment. They donned the Lower Body Negative Pressure (LBNP/Chibis) device while the operator, with ground support in Moscow, assisted in the medical monitoring.  While the subject was in the LBNP and experiencing the negative pressure (pulling the …

In 2012, Arctic sea ice extent was unusually low in September. New research suggests that may have contributed to a bad haze outbreak in China the next winter.

Expedition 51 is wrapping up a week of ongoing research into how living in space affects an astronaut’s brain and vision. The International Space Station also boosted its orbit ahead of crew and cargo missions coming and going in June. NASA astronaut Jack Fischer strapped himself in a device for the NeuroMapping experiment today that …

NanoRack Cubesat Deployer (NRCSD) #11 Deploy: The final six CubeSats for NRCSD #11 were deployed today from the ISS:  Aerosat, Link, CSUNSat, UpSat, SpaceCube and Hoopoe.  CSUNSAT was developed at California State University Northridge (CSUN) in partnership with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).  It is being used to validate in space a new low temperature …