NASA International Space Station On-Orbit Status 27 October 2016

NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and her crewmates, Anatoly Ivanishin of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency are scheduled to return to Earth on Saturday, Oct. 29 at 11:59 p.m. EDT (9:59 a.m. Oct. 30, Kazakhstan time).
NASA Television will air coverage of the departure and landing activities, beginning with a change of command ceremony at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 28. Expedition 49 Commander Ivanishin will hand over station command to NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough.

On-Orbit Status Report

Cygnus Cargo Operations: The crew was originally scheduled to ingress the Cygnus vehicle this morning, however the crew got ahead of the timeline and ingressed on Sunday, October 23rd. Today the crew performed Cygnus cargo transfer operations off the tasklist during the time that was allocated for ingress.

Airway Monitory Reconfiguration: Following Tuesday’s successful Airway Monitoring session in the Joint Airlock, FE-5 and FE-6 stowed the experiment hardware and reconfigured the Airlock back to its nominal configuration. Airway Monitoring is the first experiment to use the US Airlock as a hypobaric facility for performing science. Utilizing the US Airlock will allow unique opportunities for the study of gravity, ambient pressure interactions, and their effect on the Human Body. This investigation studies the occurrence and indicators of airway inflammation in crewmembers, using ultra-sensitive gas analyzers to analyze exhaled air. This helps to highlight any health impacts and to maintain crewmember well-being on future human spaceflight missions, especially longer-duration missions to the Moon and Mars for example, where crewmembers will have to be more self-sufficient in highlighting and avoiding such conditions.

Simple Solar Neutron Detector Deploy: FE-3 retrieved the Simple Solar Neutron Detector from the Cygnus vehicle and deployed it on the Node 2 Lightbridge. The crew took photos and downlinked them for ground teams to review. Neutrons are difficult to detect because they are electrically neutral particles and pass through most detector systems without detection. The slow neutron Spectrometer University of Lincoln-Nebraska Detector for the Analysis of Solar Neutrons (DANSON) uses a new instrument design that can significantly improve the reliability of identifying neutrons in the mixed radiation field found in deep space. This instrument design uses a moderation and capture technique that slows down the neutrons and then “captures” them in an isotope of boron. The DANSON detector uses special crystals and thin film devices loaded with the boron 10 isotope to absorb the slowed neutrons, leaving a signature in the crystal or the device of the neutron capture process. DANSON uses custom materials with distinct signatures that are easily recognized as a distinct neutron capture signal, which is then processed and analyzed to determine the radiation levels. The objective is to measure the neutron flux and neutron energy on the ISS with DANSON. The ISS provides a valuable testbed for evaluating the instrument performance in a mixed radiation environment that includes sources from galactic cosmic rays, solar energetic particles, trapped radiation belts and albedo neutrons from Earth’s atmosphere. The structure and contents of the ISS serve as a realistic spacecraft for exploration.

Today’s Planned Activities
All activities were completed unless otherwise noted.

???-?-24 Low Noise Headset Audit
EKON-M. Observations and photography
COSMOCARD. Closeout Ops Tagup with specialists
Soyuz 731 GoPro HERO3 Camcorder Battery Pair 1 Recharging, Start
In Flight Maintenance (IFM) Waste and Hygiene Compartment (WHC) Full Fill
Packing Equipment for Return via Soyuz 731
Photo TV High Definition (HD) Cygnus Video Setup
PILOT-T. Preparation for the experiment.
Handover of Increment 49/50 Crew
Water Recovery Management (WRM) Condensate Pumping Initiation
PILOT-T. Experiment Ops.
In Flight Maintenance (IFM) Waste and Hygiene Compartment (WHC) Full Fill
??? maintenance
Water Recovery Managment (WRM) Condensate Pumping Termination
Combustion Integrated Rack Alignment Guide Removal
Crew Departure Preparations for Return to Earth
Node 1 Nadir Common Berthing Mechanism (CBM) Controller Panel Assembly (CPA) Removal [Completed Sunday 23-October]
LBNP Exercise (CLOSEOUT). Tagup with specialists
Transfer Operations – Prepack of US items to be loaded into Soyuz
Node 1 Nadir to Cygnus Vestibule Outfitting Part 2 [Completed Sunday 23-October]
Cygnus Ingress [Completed Sunday 23-October]
Terminating charge of Soyuz 731 GoPro HERO3 Camcorder battery pair 1 and initiating recharge of pair 2
AIRMON Stow
MICROVIR. Photography of Cassetta-M No. 1-3, No.1-4 bottom cells. Closeout Ops
Cygnus Cargo Photo
ISS Medical Accessories Kit (IMAK) Unpack from OA-5
CALCIUM. Experiment Session 11.
Restow Vestibule Outfitting Kit (VOK) [Completed Sunday 23-October]
Sanitary-Hygiene Status Monitoring
Private Medical Conference (PMC)
Sanitary-Hygiene Status Monitoring
BIOPLENKA. Removal of Samples from the Thermostat, fixation of Constanta cassette No.4-5 biofilm.
Photo/TV Airway Monitor Vido Tear down in A/L
Temperature and Humidity Control (THC) Portable Fan Assembly (PFA) Teardown
CALCIUM. Transfer of Calcium-? Kits No.3 and No.4 to Soyuz 731
Teardown the PS-120 Junction Box and stow, and reconfigure A/L UOP.
Flushing Progress 433 (DC1) Rodnik H2O Tank 1 and Tank 2 H2O connectors ?1, B2
Replacement of E-K Pre-treat Container and Hose in ??? System. [???] Activation after Replacement
AQM Sieve Cartridge Remove and Replace
Microbial Sample Collection
Simple Solar Neutron Detector Hardware Setup
Crew Departure Preparations for Return to Earth
Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Airlock Restow
Cleaning Micropurification Unit (???) Fan Screen
Terminating Soyuz 731 GoPro HERO3 Camcorder battery pair 2 Recharge
Public Affairs Office (PAO) High Definition (HD) Config LAB Setup
MOTOCARD. Memory card kits prepack for return
PILOT-T. Experiment Session.
Collecting SM and FGB Air Samples Using ??-1? Sampler
Soyuz 731 Return Stowage
??? Air Sample Collection for Ammonia in SM
PILOT-T. Photography of the Experiment Ops
PAO Preparation
Public Affairs Office (PAO) Event in High Definition (HD) – Lab
PILOT-T. Closeout Ops Tagup with specialists as necessary
ISS Crew Orientation
CONTENT. Experiment Ops
Onboard Training (OBT) Cygnus Debrief Conference
Flight Director/ISS CREW CONFERENCE
OA-5 Cygnus Delta Emergency Response Review Update
On board Training Cygnus Emergency Procedure Review
BIOPLENKA. Removal of Samples from the Thermostat, fixation of Constanta cassette No.4-6 biofilm.

Completed Task List Items
None

Ground Activities
All activities were completed unless otherwise noted.
RapidScat Survey

Three-Day Look Ahead:
Friday, 10/28: Cygnus Cargo Transfer, 47S Prepack, Change of Command
Saturday, 10/29: 47S Undock and Landing
Sunday, 10/30: Crew Off Duty

QUICK ISS Status – Environmental Control Group:
Component – Status
Elektron – On
Vozdukh – Manual
[???] 1 – SM Air Conditioner System (“SKV1”) – Off
[???] 2 – SM Air Conditioner System (“SKV2”) – On
Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Lab – Standby
Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Node 3 – Operate
Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) Lab – Operate
Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) Node 3 – Idle
Oxygen Generation Assembly (OGA) – Standby
Urine Processing Assembly (UPA) – Shutdown
Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Lab – Off
Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Node 3 – Full Up