Blogs

Two NASA astronauts switched their spacesuits to battery power this morning at 7:47 a.m. EDT aboard the International Space Station to begin a spacewalk planned to last about 6.5 hours. Live coverage is available on NASA Television and the agency’s website. Expedition 53 Commander Randy Bresnik and Flight Engineer Joe Acaba of NASA will replace a …

Circadian Rhythms:  Yesterday a crewmember instrumented themselves with Thermolab Double Sensors and mounted the Thermolab Unit to their belt, which began 36 hours of monitoring for the Circadian Rhythm investigation.  Circadian Rhythms investigates the role of synchronized circadian rhythms, or the “biological clock,” and how it changes during long-duration spaceflight. Researchers hypothesize that a non-24-hour …

Four Expedition 53 crewmates huddled together and made final preparations the day before the third and final spacewalk planned for October. Meanwhile, NASA’s commercial partner Orbital ATK has announced Nov. 11 as the new launch date for its Cygnus cargo carrier to the International Space Station. Commander Randy Bresnik and Flight Engineer Joe Acaba are …

The Expedition 53 crew trained for a medical emergency in space today after spending the morning on weekly housecleaning tasks. Afterward, two astronauts reviewed procedures and checked their tools ahead of Friday’s spacewalk. Cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin joined NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba for a routine training session to handle a medical emergency …

Miniature Exercise Device (MED-2):  Today crewmembers set up cameras in Node 3 to capture video from multiple views of the Advanced Resistive Exercise Device (ARED) and MED-2 hardware.  They also applied body markers, and performed exercises before transferring the video for downlink.  The ISS’s exercise equipment is large and bulky, while the MED-2 aims to …

Two NASA astronauts are getting ready to go on their mission’s third spacewalk on Friday. In the midst of those preparations, the Expedition 53 crew also worked on science gear exploring a wide variety of space phenomena. Commander Randy Bresnik is preparing to go on the third spacewalk this month with NASA astronaut Joe Acaba. …

68 Progress (68P) docking:  Saturday morning, 68P launched from Baikonur after a two day delay.  This morning, 68P docked successfully to DC1 nadir, bringing supplies to the ISS. JAXA Protein Crystal Growth (PCG) #13 Installation:  Following the docking of 68P,  a crewmember stowed two canister bags containing protein samples in the JAXA Freezer-Refrigerator Of STirling …

Traveling about 252 miles over eastern China, the unpiloted Russian Progress 68 cargo ship docked at 7:04 a.m. EDT to the Pirs Docking Compartment of the International Space Station. For more information about the current crew and the International Space Station, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station

Carrying almost three tons of food, fuel, and supplies for the International Space Station crew, the unpiloted Russian Progress 68 cargo spacecraft launched at 4:46 a.m. EDT (2:46 p.m. local time in Baikonur) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. At the time of launch, the International Space Station was flying about 250 miles over the …

Advanced Nano Step Troubleshooting: Today the crew successfully completed troubleshooting operations by retrieving the Advanced Nano Step cartridge from the Solution Crystallization Observation Facility (SCOF) to access and adjust the position of the cell stage, due to movement issues during the sample observation.  JAXA’s Advanced Nano Step experiment investigates the relationship between impurity incorporation mechanisms …