Capillary Flow Experiment (CFE) Interior Corner Flow (ICF)-2 Test: Commander (CDR) Wakata set up hardware on the Maintenance Work Area (MWA) and conducted an ICF test using the ICF2 hardware. CFE ICF studies capillary flow in interior corners of vessels with various geometries. Structured inside tanks providing interior corners are used in the design of fuel …
FLame Extinguishment Experiment (FLEX)-2 Operations: Commander (CDR) Wakata replaced the Combustion Integration Rack (CIR) manifold bottle within the CIR, allowing ground teams to start FLEX-2 operations via commanding. On Friday, March 14th, Wakata replaced a CIR needle that was bent during ground commanding in February. FLEX-2 uses small droplets of fuel to study the special …
Reversible Figures (RF): Commander (CDR) Wakata completed his fifth of six sessions of the RF protocol. RF investigates whether the perception of ambiguous perspective-reversible figures, a figure that can normally be seen to change in perspective or orientation in two different ways, is affected by microgravity. A comparison of the perceived reversals during visualization of …
National Geographic “Live from Space” Event: The ISS crew will participate in the National Geographic “Live from Space” program tonight and again on Sunday. The program is a live, two hour special being broadcast from Johnson Space Center’s Mission Control viewing room. Tonight’s episode, which starts at 7pm CDT, will be broadcast on the National …
From SpaceX: To ensure the highest possible level of mission assurance and allow additional time to resolve remaining open items, SpaceX is now targeting March 30 for the CRS-3 launch, with April 2 as a back-up. These represent the earliest available launch opportunities given existing schedules, and are currently pending approval with the Range. Both Falcon …
SpaceX-3 Launch Delayed: Due to contamination found on the beta cloth shields in the SpaceX-3 unpressurized external trunk, the decision was made to move the launch of SpX-3 to later in the month. The exact day of launch will be assessed by ground teams. Specialists are reviewing options for addressing the contamination issue on the …
The press kit for SpaceX-3 is out now and includes a wealth of details about the company’s Dragon spacecraft, Falcon 9 rocket and the payloads that will be taken to the International Space Station on this resupply mission. You can find the complete press kit here.
Crew Handover Conference: In preparation for 38 Soyuz (38S) arrival scheduled for March 26, Commander (CDR) Wakata and Flight Engineer (FE)-5 Mastracchio participated in a conference to pass on lessons learned to the 38S Crew. The purpose of this activity is to begin the handover process through videocons and data exchanges between the current crew …
The first launch weather forecast ahead of the SpaceX-3 cargo mission to the International Space Station sets out a 70 percent chance of acceptable conditions at launch time, which remains 4:41 a.m. EDT. Thick clouds are seen as a potential obstacle according to the forecast. SpaceX-3 is the third commercial resupply mission to space station for SpaceX. …
36 Soyuz (36S) Departure/Landing: Soyuz 36S undocked from the MRM2 zenith port bringing Commander (CDR) Kotov, Flight Engineer (FE)-2 Ryazanskiy and FE-3 Hopkins back to earth. The undock command, which initiated the opening of the Soyuz vehicle docking hooks was issued at 7:01pm CDT with physical separation occurring a minute and a half later. The …
