Blogs

Two Expedition 56 cosmonauts are getting ready for a spacewalk set for next week as the rest of the International Space Station crew took the day off. A Russian cargo craft is also poised to take out the trash and depart the orbital lab at the end of the month. Cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Sergey …

SpaceX-15 Dragon Unberth and Release: Early this morning, the crew removed power connections, utility jumpers and completed closeout of the Dragon vehicle prior to depressurization of the Node 2 (N2) Nadir vestibule. Robotics ground controllers used the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) to unberth Dragon at 9:37 AM CDT and the crew released the …

Robotic flight controllers released the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft from the International Space Station’s robotic arm at 12:38 p.m. EDT, and Expedition 56 Serena Auñon-Chancellor of NASA is monitoring its departure. Dragon’s thrusters will be fired to move the spacecraft a safe distance from the station before SpaceX flight controllers in Hawthorne, California, command its deorbit …

Chemical Gardens: Today the crew removed the Chemical Gardens 2 ampoule kit from a Cargo Transfer Bag, broke the seal between the ampoules and mixed the contents of both. In the Chemical Gardens experiment, selected metal salts are added to an aqueous solution of sodium silicate (Na2SiO3), resulting in the formation of inorganic structures that …

The SpaceX Dragon cargo craft is packed with science and hardware ready for return to Earth on Friday. NASA is also introducing a team of astronauts who will soon fly Boeing and SpaceX vehicles to the International Space Station. The Expedition 56 crew has finished loading Dragon with sensitive research results and station gear for …

NASA and its mission partners have analyzed and approved an extended launch window for Parker Solar Probe until Aug. 23, 2018 (previously Aug. 19). The spacecraft is scheduled to launch no earlier than Aug. 11, 2018, at 3:48 a.m. with a window of 45 minutes.

The International Space Station Partners and mission managers polled “go” for tomorrow’s release of the SpaceX Dragon cargo craft for its deorbit and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean to wrap up the CRS-15 mission. With favorable weather conditions forecast in the splashdown zone, Dragon’s hatch will be closed early Friday around 3 a.m. Central time. …

Fluid Shifts: A 55S crewmember performed their Fluid Shifts Dilution Measurements activities today.  They collected saliva, blood and urine at multiple points during the day and inserted them into a Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI).  Fluid Shifts is a joint NASA-Russian experiment divided into Dilution Measurements, Baseline Imaging, and Baseline Imaging …

NASA's Parker Solar Probe, secured inside its payload fairing, was moved July 30, 2018, from nearby Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida, to Space Launch Complex 37 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The following day, the spacecraft was lifted and attached to the top of the United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket in the Vertical Integration Facility.

The Expedition 56 crew has nearly completed loading the SpaceX Dragon resupply ship with cargo for retrieval back on Earth this Friday. The orbital residents are also busy with an intense day of space research and Russian spacewalk preparations. Dragon is due to be released Friday at 12:37 p.m. EDT from the International Space Station …