Blogs

The Expedition 63 crew will monitor the departure of an American resupply ship on Monday and welcome a Japanese cargo craft when it arrives two weeks later. Meanwhile, the three International Space Station residents are configuring the orbital lab for the spaceship activities and continuing microgravity science. Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus space freighter is nearing the …

NASA’s International Space Station commander configured robotic assistants today while continuing to get ready for next week’s U.S. cargo craft departure. The two Expedition 63 Flight Engineers from Roscosmos explored advanced space photography techniques and inventoried electronics gear. Three-time space visitor Chris Cassidy is readying a trio of cube-shaped, free-flying robotic assistants for upcoming operations. …

Astrobee battery charge: In preparation for the Kibo Robot Programming Challenge activities which start in the next few weeks, the crew charged several of the batteries used by the Astrobee robots.  The Kibo Robot Programming Challenge (Robo-Pro Challenge), also known as Kibo-RPC, allows students to create programs to control Astrobee, a free-flying robot aboard the …

Payloads Wireless (Local Area Network) LAN Setup: The crew made the appropriate Wireless Adapter connection changes to prepare for a wireless access point (WAP)/camera checkout currently planned for next week.  The checkout will be between a Laptop in the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) and an external WAP which is grappled by the Japanese Experiment Module …

Spacesuits, photo inspections and pilot studies kept the Expedition 63 crew busy aboard the International Space Station today. Meanwhile, the Commercial Crew Program is getting ready to launch its first crewed mission. Commander Chris Cassidy of NASA spent most of Tuesday inside the Quest airlock where spacewalks in U.S. spacesuits are staged. The veteran space …

SlingShot:  To prepare for the Slingshot deployer installation, the crew reviewed the big picture words, then installed the slingshot heater and controller inside the Cygnus vehicle.  The team is still discussing a plan for the cables which could not be connected last week.  SEOPS’ SlingShot is a small satellite deployment system that fits inside the …

A U.S. cargo craft is one week away from completing its mission at the International Space Station. Meanwhile, the three-member Expedition 63 crew focused its attention today on emergency training and orbital maintenance. On Monday May 11, the Cygnus space freighter from Northrop Grumman will complete its mission attached to the station’s Unity module. Cygnus …

Combustion Integrated Rack (CIR): The crew replaced Nitrogen/Oxygen manifold bottles in support of the continuing s-Flames investigation. The CIR includes an optics bench, combustion chamber, fuel and oxidizer control, and five different cameras for performing combustion experiments in microgravity. Japanese Small Satellite Orbital Deployer (J-SSOD)#13: The crew removed the J-SSOD#13 hardware from the JEM Airlock …

Space Fibers: The test run on GMT 118 terminated early when the fiber broke from the spool. The 2nd test on GMT 119 appeared to have a broken fiber on the spool that had occurred sometime prior to the run. Though both runs were not fully completed, science was still acquired with regards to fiber …

Free-flying robots and heart research filled the science schedule aboard the International Space Station today. The Expedition 63 crew also managed cargo activities in a pair of resupply ships and cleaned biology research gear. Astrobee is a robotics investigation that explores the ability of a trio of cube-shaped, free-flying robots to assist crews aboard the …