Countermeasures System (CMS) Periodic Fitness Evaluation (PFE): Flight Engineer (FE)-5 Mastracchio with assistance from FE-3 Hopkins, performed his PFE today. PFEs monitor crewmembers’ overall fitness levels, to ensure that cardiovascular and musculoskeletal health and performance is satisfactory. The activity consists of performing a graded exercise test on the Cycle Ergometer with Vibration Isolation and Stabilization …
Capillary Flow Experiment (CFE) Interior Corner Flow (ICF)-8 Test: Today, Flight Engineer (FE)-6 Wakata set up and initiated a CFE ICF-8 run. CFE ICF studies capillary flow in interior corners of vessels with various geometries. The ICF-8 vessel has vanes aligned along the vertex of a teardrop shaped cylinder. Liquid shifts from the base of …
Ocular Health (OH) Measurements: Flight Engineer (FE)-3 Hopkins completed a series of activities in support of his flight day 60 session of Ocular Health, the 3rd of his 6 planned sessions. FE-6 Wakata performed the vision, tonometry and blood pressure measurements tests, with ground experts providing remote support, on Hopkins. Researchers believe that the measurement …
Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) Small Satellite Orbital Deployer (J-SSOD)-2 Launches: Flight Engineer (FE)-6 Wakata opened the JEM Airlock outer hatch and extended the slide table with the SSOD out to the JEM Exposed Facility (JEF). He released the JEM Remote Manipulator System (JEMRMS) Small Fine Arm (SFA) Attachment Mechanism (SAM) Latching Arm to prepare for …
AnisoTubule Experiment: Today, Flight Engineer (FE)-6 Wakata began activities to support JAXA’s Aniso Tubule experiment. He watered seeds in a sample chamber and then stowed the chamber in a Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI) for a five-day preparation for sprouting, simulating the winter season for plants. The Aniso Tubule experiment investigates …
You can watch the post-launch press conference under way on NASA TV.
"This is the result of the effort of a really tight team that's been working really hard," said NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden as he congratulated the MAVEN launch teams on Monday's liftoff. "I hope this mission serves as a model for those that come after it."
Courtesy United Launch Alliance
Another roar of applause today as MAVEN deployed its twin solar arrays. The gull-wing-shaped arrays are essential to generate electrical power for the spacecraft and recharge the spacecraft's batteries.
