Blogs

The six-member Expedition 61 crew is relaxing today and enjoying a belated Thanksgiving meal after an intense week of biology research and spacewalk preparations. A Russian resupply ship also departed the International Space Station this morning as two more space freighters are poised to replenish the orbiting lab. The ISS Progress 73 cargo ship, loaded …

Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Preparation: The crew continued preparation for the third AMS repair EVA with procedure reviews.  The AMS-02 repair EVAs are being performed with the goal of recovering a series of cooling pumps within the AMS-02 experiment. The first and second of the AMS EVAs were completed successfully and went …

Critical ground support equipment needed to prepare NASA's Mars 2020 rover for its journey to the Red Planet has arrived at a payload processing facility at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The rover is being manufactured at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and, once complete, will be sent to Kennedy for assembly, …

The Expedition 61 crew is heading into Thanksgiving with more blood and cell research to improve human health. There will also be a harvest on the U.S. holiday as spacewalk preparations continue. Rodents living aboard the International Space Station are being observed this week with their blood and cell samples being collected and stowed in …

Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Preparation: The crew continued preparation for the third AMS repair EVA with procedure reviews.  The AMS-02 repair EVAs are being performed with the goal of recovering a series of cooling pumps within the AMS-02 experiment. The first and second of the AMS EVAs were completed successfully and went …

Two Expedition 61 astronauts are getting up to speed with the fine repair techniques they will use next week during the 11th spacewalk of 2019. The International Space Station is also hosting intense biology work this week to improve the health of humans in space and on Earth. The orbiting lab’s cosmic particle detector, the …

The United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V booster that will launch the Solar Orbiter on its upcoming mission to study the Sun has arrived at the Florida spaceport, while the spacecraft is beginning launch preparations of its own. Meanwhile, the Solar Orbiter spacecraft has been removed from its shipping container for the start of its own prelaunch preparations at the Astrotech Space Operations Facility in Titusville, Florida. The spacecraft was uncrated Nov. 15 and rotated to vertical on Nov. 18, paving the way for upcoming processing and checkouts, including tests of the spacecraft and its suite of science instruments, as well as its propellant pressurization system.

AMS EVA preparation: The crew continued preparation for the third AMS repair EVA with procedure reviews.  The multiple AMS-02 repair EVAs are being performed to recover a series of cooling pumps within the AMS-02 experiment. The first and second of the AMS EVAs were completed successfully and went very well. The third EVA is currently …

Thanksgiving week starts with the Expedition 61 crew exploring the stresses microgravity imposes on organisms at the cellular level. The International Space Station is also ramping up for cargo traffic and another spacewalk in December. The astronauts in the U.S. segment of the orbiting lab focused their attention today on identifying the cellular changes caused …

AMS-02 (Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer) EVA#2: Today, ISS CDR Luca Parmitano (EV-1) and FE-9 Drew Morgan (EV-2) conducted US EVA #60 (AMS EVA #2) to perform the following tasks: Power Cable Preparation Mechanical Attachment Device (MAD) Install Depressurization Cut VSB Tube Rough Cut VSB MLI Closeout Nadir MLI Removal Nadir Tube Rough Cut The multiple AMS-02 …