Blogs

Story Time From Space: FE-6 completed the video recording that was started yesterday that demonstrates how a balance scale can be used to exhibit balance in microgravity.  Story Time From Space combines science literacy outreach with simple demonstrations recorded aboard the ISS. Crew members read five science, technology, engineering and mathematics-related children’s books in orbit, …

Astronauts Kate Rubins and Takuya Onishi are continuing more eye checks today in the middle of day-long orbital plumbing work. Commander Anatoly Ivanishin packed trash in a resupply ship and researched a variety of Earth and space phenomena. Rubins and Onishi scanned each other’s eyes today using an ultrasound. Doctors on the ground assisted the …

A group of U.S. Navy divers, Air Force pararescuemen and Coast Guard rescue swimmers are practicing Orion underway recovery techniques this week in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to prepare for the first test flight of an uncrewed Orion spacecraft with the agency’s Space Launch System rocket during …

Multi-Purpose Small Payload Rack (MSPR) Combustion Chamber Adapter Plate Attachment: FE-5 installed the Combustion Chamber adapter plate in the MSPR Work Volume.  Next week, the crew will be installing and with ground support, initiating the Group Combustion experiment. The Group Combustion investigation tests a theory that fuel sprays change from partial to group combustion as …

The United States and Russia are working to get a pair of cargo ships ready for a mid-October launch schedule to the International Space Station. While the new shipments are being processed, the Expedition 49 crew conducted eye checks, wore carbon dioxide monitors and prepared for a fuel combustion experiment. The U.S. company Orbital ATK …

Japanese Experiment Module Airlock (JEMAL) Repressurization: This morning, FE-5 initiated a repress of the JEMAL then performed a leak check of the airlock.  Later this week, the crew will remove the NRCSD from the airlock.  Water Monitoring Suite – Microbial Monitoring System (WMS – MMS): FE-6 began operations with the MMS subset of the WMS …

The Expedition 49 crew is helping the pharmaceutical industry improve drug design while also helping researchers understand the properties of materials burning at high temperatures. The International Space Station‘s microgravity environment helps reveal new characteristics of physical and organic processes cloaked by Earth’s gravity. Scientists, doctors and engineers use these observations to design products and …

Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI)-2 Auto-Stop Transition: On Sunday, ground teams received notification that MELFI-2 in the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) transitioned to Auto-stop.  The Brayton Motor powered off, and the rack maintained power and good Low Temperature Loop (LTL) flow.  The Cold Stowage team noted that the way the MELFI …

The three Expedition 49 crew members orbiting Earth right now are moving ahead today with human research and the upkeep of the International Space Station. In the meantime, Roscosmos officials have decided to postpone the Sept. 23 launch of NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko aboard the Soyuz MS-02 …

Roscosmos decided to postpone the planned September 23, 2016 launch of the spacecraft “Soyuz MS – 02” for technical reasons after routine tests at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The launch date of the spacecraft will be announced later. Please visit the Roscosmos website for the latest information.