The International Space Station’s three newest crew members are beginning their second week familiarizing themselves with the orbital lab’s operations and systems. They and the other three Expedition 54 crew mates are also busy today with cargo operations, space science and station maintenance. Also, a Russian cargo craft is departing the station tonight after a …
Rodent Research 6 (RR-6): In support of the on-going RR-6 investigation, the crew removed the mice and restocked the rodent habitats with new food bars in addition to cleaning the lids and interiors cages of the habitats. The Rodent Research-6 (RR-6) mission uses mice flown aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and maintained on Earth …
Tom and I have been very busy this week, working with our team and with the folks here on station to build the infrastructure associated with our traverse platform. We arrived at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station about a week ago and were extremely pleased to find that the sleds for our traverse were ready for […]
APEX-05 Operations: Over the weekend, the crew photographed all of the APEX-05 petri plates, which includes twenty petri plates in the Veggie facility and four spares secured to the Advanced Biology Research Facility (ABRS) photo-grid on the maintenance work area. Today the crew took additional images of the four spare petri plates. When plants are …
Human Research Program (HRP) Collections – Cell-Free Epigenome: With operator assistance, a 53S subject conducted blood sample collections to support the Cell Free Epigenome investigation. The blood samples were processed in the centrifuge and placed in the Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI). In this study, blood samples are collected from astronauts …
Six Expedition 54 crew members will spend Christmas orbiting Earth sharing a traditional meal and opening goodies delivered on recent cargo missions to the International Space Station. Veteran crew member Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos is spending his third holiday season in space. Meanwhile, advanced space science is taking place seven days a week on the …
Marrow: Upon wakeup a 53S crewmember collected breath and ambient air samples. With operator assistance, the subject collected blood samples to support the Marrow investigation. The blood samples were processed in the centrifuge and placed in the Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI). The Marrow investigation looks at the effect of microgravity …
Zebrafish Muscle 2: Following the fixation and stowing of experiment units (EUs) from Group A earlier this week, today the crew performed fixation on the EUs from Groups B and C and then stowed them in the refrigerator of the Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI). The results from Zebrafish Muscle 2 …
53S Docking: 53 Soyuz launched on Sunday, December 17th, and arrived at the ISS early this morning. The Soyuz brought Anton Shkaplerov, Scott Tingle, and Norishige Kanai, and docked at 2:39 AM CST with hatch opening at 4:55 AM CST. This begins the 54-6 stage, and returns the ISS crew to its nominal complement of …
After a few extra days in the seaside town of McMurdo Station, we flew on a ski-equipped LC-130 for the sunny environs of South Pole Station, where we had a flawless touchdown on the groomed skiway next to the station. This is our last stop before embarking on the traverse in about a week. Our […]
