After receiving additional information about a late notification debris event on Monday, NASA determined the orbit of the debris does not pose a risk to a scheduled spacewalk by Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Barron or to International Space Station operations. Delaying the spacewalk provided an opportunity for NASA to evaluate the risk from the debris notification. The spacewalk to replace a faulty antenna system on the station’s truss structure is now planned for Thursday, Dec. 2.
The evening of Monday, Nov. 29, NASA received a debris notification for the International Space Station. Due to the lack of opportunity to properly assess the risk it could pose to the astronauts, teams have decided to delay the spacewalk planned for Tuesday, Nov. 30 until more information is available. The space station schedule and operations are able to easily accommodate the delay of the spacewalk. The latest information and future spacewalk dates will be shared on https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation.
Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.
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NASA astronauts Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Barron are scheduled to exit the International Space Station’s Quest airlock Tuesday for a spacewalk that will focus on replacing an S-band Antenna Subassembly (SASA) with a spare already available on the station’s truss structure.
Live coverage of the spacewalk will air on NASA Television, the agency’s website, and the NASA app beginning Nov. 30 at 5:30 a.m. EST, with the crew members scheduled to set their spacesuits to battery power about 7:10 a.m., signifying the start of their spacewalk.
Marshburn and Barron will work at the Port 1 (P1) truss structure, where the antenna is mounted. The antenna recently lost its ability to send signals to Earth via NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System. Although its degradation has had limited impact on station operations, mission managers decided to install a new antenna to ensure communications redundancy. The space station has additional low-rate S-band systems, as well as the high-rate KU-band communications system that relays video.
During the planned six-and-a-half hour spacewalk, Marshburn will position himself at the end of the Canadarm2 robotic arm, working in tandem with Barron. Astronaut Matthias Maurer of ESA (European Space Agency) will control the robotic arm from inside the space station.
This will be the 245th spacewalk in support of space station assembly. Marshburn will be extravehicular crew member 1 (EV 1), with red stripes on his spacesuit, while Barron will be extravehicular crew member 2 (EV 2), with an unmarked suit.
This will be the fifth spacewalk for Marshburn, the first spacewalk for Barron, and the 13th spacewalk on the space station this year. The pair arrived for a six-month science mission at the space station Nov. 11 with NASA’s SpaceX Crew-3 mission aboard the Crew Dragon Endurance.
Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.
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Two NASA astronauts are preparing for a spacewalk on Tuesday to replace a faulty antenna system on the International Space Station. Flight Engineers Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Barron will exit the orbiting lab tomorrow after setting their U.S. spacesuits to battery power at 7:10 a.m. EST signifying the start of their spacewalk.
The duo was joined on Monday by three of their fellow Expedition 66 flight engineers collecting tools and reviewing procedures planned for the six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk. NASA astronaut Raja Chari partnered with Marshburn and Barron gathering and organizing tethers, cameras, and pistol grip tools. The three astronauts then joined NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Matthias Maurer for a procedures conference with spacewalk specialists on the ground.
Chari and Vande Hei will be on duty throughout Tuesday monitoring the two astronauts during the spacewalk and helping them in and out of their spacesuits. Maurer will be at the controls of the Canadarm2 robotic arm assisting the spacewalkers at the Port-1 truss structure worksite. NASA TV begins its live coverage on Tuesday at 5:30 a.m. on the agency’s website, and the NASA app.
The station’s two cosmonauts, Flight Engineer Pyotr Dubrov and Commander Anton Shkaplerov, spent their day on a variety of space research and maintenance tasks in the orbiting lab’s Russian segment. Dubrov photographed the condition of the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module following the Prichal module’s docking on Friday. Shkaplerov swapped out life support hardware and began unpacking cargo from the newly arrived Prichal docking port.
Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.
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The five-ton Prichal docking module arrived at the International Space Station at 10:19 a.m. EST, propelled by a modified Russian Progress propulsion compartment. They docked to the Nauka module on the Earth-facing side of the Russian segment two days after lifting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Wednesday, Nov. 24 at 8:06 a.m. EST (6:06 p.m. Baikonur time). The spacecraft were flying about 260 miles over Ukraine at the time of docking.
To make room for Prichal, the uncrewed Progress 78 cargo craft undocked from Nauka at 6:23 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 25, and burned up upon reentry in the Earth’s atmosphere later that morning.
Prichal, named for the Russian word for pier, has five available docking ports to accommodate multiple Russian spacecraft and provide fuel transfer capability to the Nauka module. Named for the Russian word for “science,” Nauka launched to the space station in July.
The modified Progress transport spacecraft that guided Prichal to the station will remain in place until late December.
Russia’s newest docking port, the Prichal module, launched today and will arrive on Friday at the International Space Station. Meanwhile, the seven-member Expedition 66 crew is continuing spacewalk preparations while keeping up with ongoing advanced space research.
A Russian Progress spacecraft launched from Kazakhstan at 8:06 a.m. EST (6:06 p.m. Baikonur time) today carrying the five-ton Prichal docking module into Earth orbit. The new module, controlled by the Progress vehicle, will automatically dock to the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module on Friday at 10:26 a.m. Once attached Prichal will provide five additional docking ports and fuel transfer capability to the orbiting lab.
Roscosmos cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov will be on duty Friday monitoring Prichal’s arrival. Friday’s approach and docking will be covered live on NASA TV, the NASA app, and the agency’s website beginning at 9:30 a.m.
Two NASA astronauts have begun focusing on an upcoming spacewalk planned for Nov. 30. Flight Engineers Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Barron checked out spacewalking tools and emergency jetpacks today they would use in the unlikely event they became untethered from the station. The duo is timelined to spend about six-and-a-half hours replacing a faulty antenna system on the Port-1 truss segment.
Flight Engineers Raja Chari of NASA and Matthias Maurer of ESA (European Space Agency) focused on human research strapping sensors to themselves for a pair of exercise studies. Chari performed a fitness test on an exercise cycle to measure his aerobic capacity in space. Maurer then took his turn on the exercise bike wearing a mask and a heart monitor to demonstrate cardio-pulmonary diagnosis aboard the orbiting lab. NASA Flight Engineer Mark Vande Hei serviced the COLBERT treadmill inspecting and cleaning its components.
NASA and SpaceX are targeting Tuesday, Dec. 21, at 5:06 a.m. EST for launch of the company’s 24th commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Dragon will bring food, supplies, and scientific investigations to the orbiting crew, including a protein crystal growth study that could improve the delivery of cancer treatment drugs and a handheld bioprinter that could one day be used to print tissue directly onto wounds to faster healing.
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The five-ton Prichal docking module and its modified, uncrewed Russian Progress delivery spacecraft are safely in orbit headed for the International Space Station following launch at 8:06 a.m. (6:06 p.m. Baikonur time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Prichal, named for the Russian word for port or berth, has five available docking ports to accommodate multiple Russian spacecraft and provide fuel transfer capability to the Nauka module.
Progress will transport Prichal for an automated docking with the space station’s Nauka multipurpose laboratory module Friday, Nov. 26., at 10:26 a.m. Live coverage on NASA TV of rendezvous and docking will begin at 9:30 a.m.
To make room for Prichal, the recently relocated, uncrewed Progress 78 cargo craft will undock from Nauka at 6:21 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 25, and follow a path to burn up upon reentry in the Earth’s atmosphere. NASA TV will not cover the Progress 78 undocking or reentry.
Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.
Two astronauts are checking out their gear today ahead of a spacewalk planned for the end of the month. The duo along with the rest of the Expedition 66 crew also had time set aside for human research, robotics, and physics aboard the International Space Station.
NASA Flight Engineers Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Barron are getting ready for a six-and-a-half hour spacewalk scheduled for Nov. 30. The duo will exit the U.S. Quest airlock, translate over to the Port-1 truss segment, and replace a faulty antenna system. Today, the astronauts checked out spacewalking gear and inspected the tethers that will keep them attached to the station.
Afterward, Barron partnered again with NASA Flight Engineer Raja Chari for the GRASP experiment studying how microgravity affects hand-eye coordination and the vestibular system. The pair took turns wearing a virtual reality headset reaching for virtual objects to understand how the central nervous system adapts to weightlessness.
Marshburn worked throughout Tuesday collecting and stowing his blood samples in a science freezer for later analysis. The three-time station visitor also contributed to the Food Physiology study that explores the effects of diet on astronauts living long-term in space.
Flight Engineer Matthias Maurer of ESA (European Space Agency) studied advanced robotic maneuvers today using the Astrobee robotic free-flyers. NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei set up the Microgravity Science Glovebox to learn how to harness nanoparticles to fabricate and manufacture new materials for the InSPACE-4 physics study.
Cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov had a physical fitness test today on the station’s exercise bicycle. The Roscosmos duo strapped sensors to themselves and measured their cardiovascular function during this morning’s test. The pair split up in the afternoon and worked on life support maintenance and cargo inventory tasks.
The International Space Station is gearing up for a new Russian docking module due to arrive on Friday. In the meantime, the Expedition 66 residents focused on a variety of human research and space physics aboard the orbital lab today.
Russia’s newest docking port, the Prichal module, sits atop a rocket at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan counting down to a launch on Wednesday at 8:06 a.m. EST. It will arrive at the station on Friday where it will automatically dock to the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module at 10:26 a.m.
Cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov started Monday morning training for Prichal’s arrival. The duo from Roscosmos simulated the Russian docking port’s approach, rendezvous and docking on the tele-robotically operated rendezvous unit, or TORU. The TORU, located inside the Zvezda service module, can also be used to manually control and dock an approaching Russian spacecraft if necessary.
Human research continued on Monday as NASA Flight Engineers Raja Chari and Kayla Barron studied how the central nervous system adapts to microgravity. The astronauts took turns wearing a virtual reality headset while seated inside the Columbus laboratory module for the GRASP experiment. The study observes a crew member reaching for virtual objects to compare hand-eye coordination and vestibular changes before, during, and after a spaceflight mission.
NASA Flight Engineer Mark Vande Hei worked on a pair of space physics experiments throughout Monday. Vande Hei first serviced samples inside the Electrostatic Levitation Furnace which enables the safe research of thermophysical properties of high temperature materials in weightlessness. Next, he opened up the Microgravity Science Glovebox and uninstalled hardware supporting research that observes processes involved in semiconductor crystal growth.
Flight Engineers Thomas Marshburn and Matthias Maurer worked throughout the day on a variety of robotics and maintenance activities. Marshburn worked on orbital plumbing tasks, collected station water samples for analysis, and took a robotics test for the Behavioral Core Measures study. Maurer partnered up with Chari practicing Canadarm2 robotic arm maneuvers planned for a spacewalk scheduled on Sept. 30th.
At 11:01 a.m. EST, flight controllers on the ground sent commands to release the Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft from the Canadarm2 robotic arm after earlier detaching Cygnus from the Earth-facing port of the Unity module. At the time of release, the station was flying about 260 miles over the South Pacific Ocean.
The Cygnus spacecraft successfully departed the International Space Station more than three months after arriving at the space station to deliver about 8,000 pounds of scientific investigations and supplies to the orbiting laboratory.
After departure, the Kentucky Re-Entry Probe Experiment (KREPE) stowed inside Cygnus will take measurements to demonstrate a thermal protection system for spacecraft and their contents during re-entry in Earth’s atmosphere, which can be difficult to replicate in ground simulations.
Cygnus will deorbit on Wednesday, Dec. 15, following a deorbit engine firing to set up a destructive re-entry in which the spacecraft, filled with waste the space station crew packed in the spacecraft, will burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.
Cygnus arrived at the space station Aug. 12, following a launch two days prior on Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia. It was the company’s 16th commercial resupply services mission to the space station for NASA. Northrop Grumman named the spacecraft after NASA astronaut Ellison Onizuka, the first Asian American astronaut.
For departure coverage and more information about the mission, visit: https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/. Get space station news, images and features via social media at: @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.
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