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The International Space Station’s cabin pressure is holding steady after the Expedition 56 crew conducted repair work on one of two Russian Soyuz spacecraft attached to the complex. The repair was made to address a leak that had caused a minor reduction of station pressure. After a morning of investigations, the crew reported that the …

International Space Station Status 11:20 a.m. EDT Thursday, Aug. 30. 2018 The crew aboard the International Space Station is conducting troubleshooting and repair work today after the discovery of a tiny leak last night traced to the Russian segment of the orbital complex. The leak, which was detected Wednesday night by flight controllers as the …

International Space Station Status 6 a.m. EDT Thursday, Aug. 30. 2018 About 7 p.m. EDT Wednesday, International Space Station flight controllers in Houston and Moscow began seeing signs of a minute pressure leak in the complex. As flight controllers monitored their data, the decision was made to allow the Expedition 56 crew to sleep since …

Biomolecule Extraction and Sequencing Technology (BEST): The crew prepared BEST RNA samples and began 48 hour sequencing on the Biomolecule Sequencer. The BEST investigation studies the use of sequencing for identification of unknown microbial organisms living on the ISS, and how humans, plants and microbes adapt to living on the ISS. SpaceTex-2 and Metabolic Space: …

NASA and Northrop Grumman are now targeting Saturday, Oct. 6, 2018, for the launch of the agency's Ionospheric Connection Explorer, or ICON. The spacecraft will launch aboard a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The launch window is 90 minutes starting at 4:00 a.m. EDT and ICON will be launching off the coast …

The six residents aboard the International Space Station today continued exploring how living in space impacts their bodies. The Expedition 56 crew also worked on science hardware and life support gear to ensure the orbital complex is in tip-top shape. Three astronauts helped doctors understand what is happening to their eyes in the weightless environment …

ExPRESS Rack (ER) 5 Payload Isolation: On August 23rd, the ER5 Subsystem Valve was removed and replaced (R&R’d) after a Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) Moderate Temperature Loop (MTL) leak had been isolated to ER5. Earlier today, the crew disconnected the supply and return lines to the Space Automated Bioproduct Laboratory (SABL) and Plant Habitat facilities …

September is scheduled to be a busy month for the Expedition 56 crew aboard the International Space Station. Japan is preparing to launch its seventh resupply mission and three astronauts are gearing up for two spacewalks next month. Today, a pair of astronauts familiarized themselves with the robotics maneuvers they will use when they capture …

Moon Imagery:  Today the crew took photographs of the full Moon and downlinked them for evaluation on the ground. If a spacecraft loses communication with the ground or with NASA’s Deep Space Network, its crew must navigate just as ancient mariners did, using the moon and stars. The Moon Imagery investigation collects pictures of the …

The Expedition 56 crew members started off the work week with biomedical studies and human research to understand how living in space impacts their bodies. The crew conducted eye and vision tests, tried on a specialized exercise t-shirt and researched gene expression and protein crystals. Five of the six International Space Station residents participated in …