Blogs

Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV)-5 Docking:  ATV-5 successfully docked to the ISS Service Module (SM) aft port at 8:30 am CDT.   Hatch opening and air scrubbing are scheduled for tomorrow, with cargo operations beginning on Thursday.  ATV will remain docked to the ISS until early next year. Robonaut Mobility Upgrades: Commander (CDR) Swanson completed Robonaut upgrades …

The annual Perseid meteor shower will peak in the skies over Earth on the night of Aug. 12-13. Despite a bright moon, there should still be a good show from this prolific shower. Projected peak rates are 30-40 meteors/hour. Much of the world can see Perseids any time after full dark, with peak viewing projected …

Resist Tubule: Over the weekend, Commander (CDR) Swanson removed the Resist Tubule samples from the +2 Celsius Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI), inserted the samples into Measurement Experiment Unit B and attached the unit inside the Cell Biology Experiment Facility (CBEF) 1-gravity Incubator Unit (IU). Today, he removed the Resist Tubule …

Robonaut Mobility Upgrades: Commander (CDR) Swanson continued Robonaut mobility upgrades by installing a control board and reinstalled the waist superdriver. On Monday, the crew will continue with the mobility upgrades, which are in preparation for the leg installation activities at a later date. Resist Tubule: Swanson removed Resist Tubule samples from the +2 Celsius Minus …

Binary Colloidal Alloy Test (BCAT)-Canada 1 (C1) Image Transfer: Flight Engineer (FE)-5 Wiseman homogenized cuvette samples and took photos after mixing. He then set up the camera intervalometer. The BCAT-C1 sample contains a more viscous fluid, which requires more mixing on-orbit than previous samples. BCAT-KP provides a platform for material and industrial scientists to investigate …

Robonaut Setup: Commander (CDR) Swanson gathered tools and set up the Robonaut hardware in preparation for mobility upgrades tomorrow. Robonaut is a dexterous humanoid robot designed with the versatility and dexterity to manipulate hardware, exhibit greater endurance than humans and react safely when bumped or interacted with in a way that was not expected. Story …

Circadian Rhythms: Flight Engineer (FE)-6 Gerst removed the Circadian Rhythms hardware to end a 36 hour data take and downloaded the data to the ground for analysis. The main objective of the experiment is to get a better basic understanding of alterations in circadian rhythms in humans during long-term space flights. This data will provide …

We have completed our analyses and here’s what we know: At 10:19 PM Central Daylight Time on August 2 (Saturday night), NASA meteor cameras detected a very bright fireball at an altitude of 57 miles above Hoodoo Road just east of the town of Beechgrove, TN. The meteoroid, which was about 15 inches in diameter …

Binary Colloidal Alloy Test (BCAT)-Canada 1 (C1) Image Transfer: Commander (CDR) Swanson transferred BCAT-C1 images, set the camera intervalometer and verified the camera was set up to take images of the BCAT-C1 samples. The sample contains a more viscous fluid which requires more mixing on-orbit than previous samples. BCAT-KP provides a platform for material and …

Burning and Suppression of Solids (BASS)-II Operations: Flight Engineer (FE)-6 Gerst conducted flame tests for the BASS-II investigation which examines the burning and extinction characteristics of a wide variety of fuel samples in microgravity. The experiment will guide strategies for materials flammability screening for use in spacecraft as well as provide valuable data on solid …