ISS – Expedition 56 Mission patch.

August 14, 2018

The Expedition 56 crew is getting ready for a spacewalk Wednesday outside the International Space Station’s Russian segment. Meanwhile, the orbital residents continued apace with space science and preparation for a pair of September spacewalks.

Image above: A Russian Orlan spacesuit is pictured inside the Pirs airlock where Russian spacewalks are staged. Image Credit: Roscosmos.

Two cosmonauts will suit up inside their Orlan spacesuits and exit the Pirs airlock Wednesday at 11:58 a.m. EDT for about six hours of science and maintenance work. Oleg Artemyev and Sergey Prokopyev will toss four tiny satellites into space, install antennas and cables for the Icarus animal-tracking experiment and collect exposed science experiments.

NASA astronauts Drew Feustel, Ricky Arnold and Serena Auñón-Chancellor assisted the cosmonauts throughout Tuesday and reviewed their roles for tomorrow’s spacewalk. NASA TV begins its live spacewalk coverage Wednesday at 11:15 a.m.

Image above: Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka deploys a small ball-shaped science satellite during a spacewalk at the International Space Station Aug. 20, 2012, during Expedition 32. Image Credit: NASA.

Arnold started his morning replacing gear inside the Combustion Integrated Rack then ended his day with plumbing duty on the Water Processing Assembly. Auñón-Chancellor checked on mice being observed for the Rodent Research-7 study that observes how internal microbes impact organisms living in space.

Finally, European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst spent the afternoon working on U.S. spacesuits. He, Feustel and Arnold are gearing up for two spacewalks at the end of September to replace batteries on the Port 4 truss structure’s power channels.

Related article:

NASA Television to Air Russian Spacewalk at International Space Station
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-television-to-air-russian-spacewalk-at-international-space-station

Related links:

NASA Television: https://www.nasa.gov/live

Expedition 56: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition56/index.html

Combustion Integrated Rack: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=317

Rodent Research-7: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7425

Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html

International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch
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Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 15, 2018

The ASTERIA mission has earned the Small Satellite Mission of the Year award from the Small Satellite Technical Committee of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). The award is given to a mission that has “demonstrated a significant improvement in the capability of small satellites,” according to the award description.

The mission is a collaboration between NASA’s J
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Washington DC (SPX) Aug 14, 2018

The detection of “mini-moons” – small asteroids temporarily captured in orbit around Earth – will vastly improve our scientific understanding of asteroids and the Earth-Moon system, says a new review published in Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Science. These small and fast-moving visitors have so-far evaded detection by existing technology, with only one confirmed mini-moon discovery to date.
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Scott Manley: How A Gold Bullet Almost Destroyed A Space Shuttle

Sydney (Sputnik) Aug 14, 2018

The UK is looking to launch its first commercial rocket from its own soil by 2021. According to a report by CNBC, the global security and aerospace company – Lockheed Martin – has received the largest portion of United Kingdom Space Agency’s funding to develop an orbital launch site for small rockets in Scotland.

Sputnik discussed the feasibility of the UK aim to launch commercial rockets
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West Lafayette IN (SPX) Aug 10, 2018

The same way that yeast yields beer and bread can help hospital lab workers better track their daily radiation exposure, enabling a faster assessment of tissue damage that could lead to cancer.

But rather than building portable cellars or ovens, Purdue University researchers have engineered yeast “microbreweries” within disposable badges made of freezer paper, aluminum and tape. Simply add
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Los Angeles AFB CA (SPX) Aug 10, 2018

The Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) Program marked a significant occasion, June 22 when members of the leadership team at the Space and Missile Systems Center, the Aerospace Corporation and Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company all gathered to place their signatures on a thermal space blanket that will travel in space inside the AEHF-4 satellite this coming October.

“We have an op
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ISS – Expedition 56 Mission patch.

August 13, 2018

Two Expedition 56 cosmonauts packed a Russian resupply ship today before preparing for Wednesday’s spacewalk. The other four International Space Station crew members worked on a variety of space science experiments and lab maintenance duties.

Cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Sergey Prokopyev are loading a Progress 69 (69P) cargo craft with trash ahead of its departure next week. The 69P delivered over three tons of food, fuel and supplies in February. The spacecraft will undock on Aug. 22 for a fiery disposal over the Pacific Ocean one week later after a series of engineering tests.

Image above: Expedition 56 Flight Engineer Ricky Arnold inspects U.S. spacesuits and tethers in the Quest airlock ahead of a pair of U.S. spacewalks currently planned for September. Image Credit: NASA.

The cosmonauts then turned their attention to Wednesday’s spacewalk when they will hand-deploy four tiny satellites, install antennas and cables and collect exposed science experiments. They continued setting up their spacewalking gear inside the Pirs airlock today. They will exit Pirs Wednesday at 11:58 a.m. EDT for about six hours of work outside the station’s Russian segment inside their Orlan spacesuits. NASA TV’s live coverage of the spacewalk begins at 11:15 a.m.

Commander Drew Feustel and Flight Engineer Serena Auñón-Chancellor performed the majority of the science work today onboard the orbital complex. Feustel explored how proteins crystallize and grow in microgravity to help scientists develop safer, more advanced drug therapies on Earth. Auñón-Chancellor started her day with a blood draw before researching radio spectrum usage in space which may benefit satellite communications. Finally, she studied the sedimentation of quartz and clay particles possibly assisting future planetary exploration missions and the petroleum industry on Earth.

Image above: Flying over North Atlantic Ocean, seen by EarthCam on ISS, speed: 27’622 Km/h, altitude: 408,08 Km, image captured by Roland Berga (on Earth in Switzerland) from International Space Station (ISS) using ISS-HD Live application with EarthCam’s from ISS on August 13, 2018 at 20:11 UTC. Image Credits: Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.

Flight Engineer Ricky Arnold spent some time inspecting U.S. spacesuit lights and replacing fan filters before assisting Feustel with the protein crystal growth experiment. Alexander Gerst of ESA checked out U.S. spacesuit batteries then moved on to verifying the functionality of fire extinguishers and breathing masks.

Related links:

Expedition 56: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition56/index.html

NASA TV’s live coverage of the spacewalk: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-television-to-air-russian-spacewalk-at-international-space-station

Proteins crystallize and grow in microgravity: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7690

Radio spectrum usage in space: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7752

Sedimentation of quartz and clay particles: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7668

Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html

International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch
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Warwick UK (SPX) Aug 14, 2018

Historic space weather may help us understand what’s coming next, according to new research by the University of Warwick.

Professor Sandra Chapman, from Warwick’s Centre for Fusion, Space and Astrophysics, led a project which charted the space weather in previous solar cycles across the last half century, and discovered an underlying repeatable pattern in how space weather activity changes
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