A bright meteor occurred around 5:18 am CDT the morning of September 30th. It was first detected 66 miles above Tennessee City, TN by four NASA All Sky Fireball Network cameras (located in Huntsville, AL, Chickamauga, GA, Tullahoma, TN, and Rosman, NC) and moved slightly south of east at a speed of 147,600 mph. It …
Rodent Research: The Crew set up and configured the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) and installed various tools, supplies, and equipment in preparation for future planned Rodent Research activities. Micro-8: Gerst terminated Micro-8 Group Activation Packs (GAPs) C,D,E,F,G. GAP’s D,E,F,G will be returned to Commercial Generic Biologic Apparatus -5 (CGBA-5) to await packing for SpaceX-4 return. …
Micro-8: Over the weekend, Gerst terminated Micro-8 Group Activation Packs (GAPs) A & B. GAP B was returned to Commercial Generic Biologic Apparatus -5 (CGBA-5) and GAP A was inserted into the General Laboratory Active Cryogenic ISS Experiment Refrigerator (GLACIER) frozen cold stowage. Micro is a fundamental biology experiment that will expand our understanding of …
Zebra Fish: With the arrival of 40 Soyuz (40S), Wilmore transferred Zebrafish from the Fish Carrier to Fish fixation Aquariums to start the experiment in the Aquatic Habitat. This experiment investigates if the atrophy of muscles under the condition of microgravity also occurs in zebrafish and why their atrophy occurs in the microgravity. Dosimeter Installation: …
40 Soyuz (40S) Launch and Dock: 40S launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 3:25pm CDT today with Barry Wilmore, Elena Serova, and AlexanderSamokutyaev onboard. After orbital insertion, Mission Control Center Moscow confirmed that the port side solar array had not deployed. However, battery charging was sufficient with only one array (Starboard) deployed and the vehicle …
On Tuesday, Sept. 23, a second fireball occurred about 40 minutes after the fireball in Tennessee. The Michigan fireball is close to the edge of the camera because the meteor was at extreme range, over 200 miles away, for the camera. The Michigan fireball was produced by a piece of a comet over 2 feet across, …
At 8:26:38 pm CDT on Tuesday, Sept. 23, a 2 inch piece of an asteroid entered the atmosphere above the town of Lutts in southern Tennessee. Moving almost due west at a speed of 46,300 miles per hour, it traveled some 52 miles before burning up 25 miles above the Tennessee farmland. At its peak, …
SpaceX-4 Dragon Cargo Operations: The crew began cargo operations today by removing the items located in the vehicle’s center stack. An estimated 55 hours of Crew time is required to complete cargo operations in the coming weeks. MICRO 8: Gerst transferred the Commercial Generic Biologic Apparatus (CGBA), containing Micro-8 Group Activation Packs (GAPs) from Dragon …
SpaceX-4 Dragon Capture, Berth, and Ingress: After a nominal Dragon rendezvous with ISS, the Crew successfully captured Dragon at 5:52am CDT utilizing the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS). The Dragon capsule was subsequently berthed to the Node 2 Nadir Port at 8:15am CDT. Once berthed, the Crew completed pressurization and outfitting of the Node …
SpaceX-4 Launch: Weather prevented SpaceX from launching their Falcon 9 Rocket on Saturday from Cape Canaveral’s Launch Complex 40. After a 24 hour scrub, they were able to launch on Sunday at 12:52am CDT. Once in orbit, the spacecraft’s solar arrays were successfully deployed and its Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) bay door was opened. …
