Blogs

The USOS crewmembers worked a reduced day today as they prepare to sleep shift in preparation for SpaceX-6 departure on Thursday. The crew performed a checkout of the Commercial Orbital Transport Services (COTS) UHF Communication Unit (CUCU) that the crew will use to communicate with the Dragon capsule while it is flying free in the …

Fluid Shifts Before, During and After Prolonged Space Flight and Their Association with Intracranial Pressure and Visual Impairment (Fluid Shifts): Kelly begun his Flight Day (FD) 45 Fluid Shifts Dilution Measurements today.  Upon wakeup he collected baseline saliva, blood and urine and inserted them into Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI) prior …

A reboost of the International Space Station using the Russian Progress 58 cargo craft was completed successfully on Sunday at 7:30 p.m. CDT. A previous attempt on Friday evening was aborted one second into the burn automatically by the Progress vehicle. Russian flight controllers identified an issue with one of the eight thrusters on the …

Fluid Physics Experiment Facility (FPEF) Marangoni Deformation (MD) Removal: Cristoforetti removed the MD10 from the FPEF in preparation for Dynamic Surf-3 scheduled in Increment 45.  Fluid convection observations are performed of a silicone oil liquid bridge that is generated by heating the one disc higher than the other within the FPEF. By observing and understanding …

The six-member Expedition 43 crew ends its work week with a wide variety of science exploring life in space benefiting both crews in space and humans on Earth. Meanwhile, one space freighter is preparing to fire its thrusters to lift the station’s orbit as another is being packed and readied for splashdown. One-Year crew members …

ExHAM Installation: Kelly installed the Handhold Experiment Platform on the JEM Airlock (JEMAL) Slide Table and the Platform Adapter and Exposed Area Dosimeter and covered them with Multi-Layered Insulation (MLI).  He then installed the Handhold Experiment Platform and attached the samples for the various external experiments including the Free Space Dosimeter and ExHAM.  The JEMAL …

Expedition 43 is packing the SpaceX Dragon space freighter readying the vehicle for its return home and splashdown May 21. The docked ISS Progress 58 resupply ship will fire its thrusters Friday night placing the International Space Station at the correct orbit for next month’s Soyuz undocking. The six-member crew also worked a variety of …

Combustion Integration Rack (CIR) Multi-user Droplet Combustion Apparatus (MDCA) Replace: In preparation for the start of FLame Extinguishment Experiment (FLEX)-2J, Virts removed the MDCA Chamber Insert Assembly (CIA) from the CIR Combustion Chamber and replaced the MDCA Needles, fuel reservoirs, MDCA Igniter Tips and the MDCA Fiber Arm. Following the changeouts, he reinstalled the MDCA …

Rodent Research-2 Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (RR-2 CASIS): Kelly performed a fixative flush and swapped the samples collected yesterday which he inserted into MELFI.  The primary objective of this research is to monitor the effects of the space environment on the musculoskeletal and neurological systems of mice as model organisms of …

The return to Earth for NASA’s Terry Virts, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti and Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov now is scheduled for early June. NASA and its international partners set the schedule after hearing the Russian Federal Space Agency’s (Roscosmos) findings on the loss of the Progress 59 cargo craft. The exact date …