Blogs

The SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft was released from the International Space Station’s robotic arm at 9:57 a.m. EDT. The capsule will begin a series of departure burns and maneuvers to move beyond the 656-foot (200-meter) “keep out sphere” around the station and begin its return trip to Earth. The capsule is currently scheduled to splashdown …

NASA Television will provide live coverage of the departure of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft from the International Space Station beginning at 9:30 a.m. EDT. Dragon was detached from the Earth-facing side of the station’s Harmony module earlier this morning. Mission control will maneuver Dragon into place then turn it over to Expedition 41 robotic arm …

SpaceX-4 Departure Preparations:  The Crew performed final cargo loading today. Once loading was complete, they egressed Dragon, closed the hatch, and configured the Node 2 vestibule which included installation of the Common Berthing Mechanism (CBM) Controller Panel Assemblies (CPAs).  SpaceX-4 unberth activities are scheduled to start tomorrow morning at ~7:00am with the Crew releasing Dragon …

Station Crew Readies for Busy Visiting Vehicle Traffic The highway traffic to and from the International Space Station gets busy Saturday and the six crew members of Expedition 41 are working feverishly to manage the traffic flow. Final packing of the commercial Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) Dragon was completed and the hatch closed ahead of …

Muscle Atrophy Resistive Exercise System (MARES): Gerst configured cabling, set up and activated the European Physiology Module (EPM) laptop in support of future MARES activities scheduled for later this year. Ocular Health: Gerst conducted his Return minus 30 day Ocular Health tests. With Wiseman as the Crew Medical Officer (CMO) operator, the ultrasonic eye imaging …

From the earliest days of civilization, humans have always used art as a way to communicate, commemorate, and challenge. As civilization has evolved so has the sophistication of visual arts. From crude drawings on stone and primitive paper, to the masterpieces of the Renaissance, the magic of moving pictures and television, and now video recording …

Spacesuit Checks and Eye Scans for Crew Cosmonauts Max Suraev and Alexander Samokutyaev are working on their Russian Orlan spacesuits after Wednesday’s three-hour, 38-minute spacewalk. Elena Serova, Russia’s first female cosmonaut to live and work aboard the International Space Station, worked maintenance, checked the station’s air and collected radiation readings. Astronauts Reid Wiseman and Alexander …

Russian Segment Extravehicular Activity (RS EVA) 40:  Suraev and Samokutyaev successfully conducted RS EVA 40 today in 3 hours 38 minutes.  Suraev and Samokutyaev accomplished the following objectives: Removal and jettison of Radiometriya [РК 21-8] from SM Plane II Removal of experiment EXPOSE-R protective cover from SM Plane II Take samples for the “Test” Experiment …

Ocular Health: Gerst conducted his return minus 30 day Ocular Health vision test and completed a questionnaire. With Wilmore as the Crew Medical Officer (CMO) operator, the tonometer was used to collect eye pressure measurements on Gerst as well as blood pressure measurements utilizing a blood pressure cuff.  The Ocular Health protocol calls for a …

There was a very bright fireball over middle Tennessee last night, October 20, at 7:57:09 PM CDT. Four NASA all sky cameras, located in Tullahoma, Huntsville, Chickamauga, and North Georgia College, first detected the fireball at an altitude of 54 miles, moving slightly north of west at 47,000 miles per hour. The meteor, estimated to …