Blogs

September was a busy month on the International Space Station filled with a wide variety of space research, a spacewalk, a crew departure and a test of the new BEAM module. One science highlight this month includes a new experiment that may improve how medicine works. This week, astronaut Kate Rubins tested the endurance of …

Group Combustion Module (GCM) Installation: FE-5 continued with the third day of installation and preparation for the GCM experiment and was to perform two pressure decay leak checks. After the first check, a leak was detected in the Air/O2 line, thus aborting the second check until specialist can determine the cause and develop a solution. …

BEAM, the new expandable module attached to the International Space Station, was opened up today for tests and equipment checks. The Expedition 49 crew also explored eating right in space, adapting to new technology and studied a variety of other life science and physics research. Flight Engineer Kate Rubins opened up and entered the Bigelow …

Marangoni Experiment (Dynamic Surf 3): Overnight another run of the Marangoni experiment occurred in the Fluid Physics Experiment Facility (FPEF). The Dynamic Surf investigation is part of a series of JAXA experiments studying Marangoni convection driven by the presence of surface tension gradients produced by a temperature difference at a liquid/gas interface. By observing and …

The three Expedition 49 crew members measured noise levels on the International Space Station today and continued exploring how physical and organic phenomena are affected by weightlessness. NASA astronaut Kate Rubins surveyed the acoustic environment inside the station today. She analyzed the sound levels of various life support gear and took standard measurements in the …

Group Combustion Module (GCM) Installation:  Today, FE-5 with the assistance of FE-6, started the first of two days of installation and preparation for the GCM experiment.  The crew began with assembly of the GCM attaching cameras and the Fuel Supply Syringe.  Following GCM setup, the crew then began configuration of the Combustion Chamber attaching the …

Two different studies are under way on the International Space Station – one will observe how fuel burns in space while another is researching how medicine dissolves in water. Results from both experiments could benefit humans on Earth and in space. Astronaut Takuya Onishi is setting up the Group Combustion experiment that will explore how …

Multi-Purpose Experiment Platform (MPEP)/Small Fine Arm Attachment Mechanism (SAM) removal: FE-5 retracted the Japanese Experiment Module Airlock (JEMAL) slide table into the module and removed the MPEP and SAM.  Tomorrow, the crew will ingress Pressurized Mating Adapter-2 (PMA2) to retrieve the JEM ORU Transfer Interface (JOTI) and install it on the Slide Table to support …

Mission managers are targeting the Oct. 9-13 timeframe for the launch of the sixth Orbital ATK resupply mission to the International Space Station. A pair of astronauts onboard the station are also training for the robotic capture of the Cygnus resupply ship from Orbital ATK when it arrives about two days after launch. Cygnus’ primary …

NanoRack Cubesat Deployer (NRCSD) Removal: FE-5 removed the NanoRack deployer from the Multi-Purpose Experiment Platform (MPEP) Japanese Experiment Module Airlock (JEMAL) Slide Table, following the successful deployments of 8 DoveSat satellites last week.  The next use of the JEMAL will be for Robotics External Leak Locator (RELL), which aims to demonstrate that commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) …