NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 20 August 2019 – Spacewalk Tomorrow

NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Andrew Morgan, assigned as flight engineers for Expedition 60 aboard the International Space Station, will begin a planned six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk from inside the Quest airlock about 8:20 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 21.
Live NASA Television coverage will begin at 6:30 a.m. The duo will assist in the installation of International Docking Adapter-3 (IDA-3) to Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 on the space-facing side of the station’s Harmony module.

NASA experts provided an overview of the spacewalk activities in a preview briefing Friday, Aug. 16.

IDA-3 will provide a second docking port to the International Space Station to accommodate the future arrivals of Boeing CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX Crew Dragon commercial crew spacecraft. The docking port was launched to the station last month on a SpaceX Dragon on the company’s 18th commercial cargo resupply services mission to the station. IDA-2 was installed to the forward end of the Harmony module in the summer of 2016.

NASA’s commercial crew partnership with Boeing and SpaceX will restore launches of American astronauts from American soil on American rockets and maximize the time U.S. crews can dedicate to scientific research and technological advances aboard the orbiting laboratory to enable the agency’s ambitious goals for the Artemis lunar exploration program and future missions to the Moon and Mars. Regular human space transportation to the space station is a critical step to opening the space station for commercial business to enable the growth of the U.S. commercial space sector and the development of a robust low-Earth orbit economy.

On-Orbit Status Report

Biorock: The crew removed the Biorock container samples from Kubik 5 and 6 and placed them into cold stowage after imagery was taken. The interaction between microbes and rocks in a liquid phase can be affected by reduced gravity in several ways. The reduction of thermal convection in low-gravity, and its absence in microgravity, minimizes the natural stirring in liquids and gases, and may restrict the supply of food and oxygen to the bacteria – leading to a suppression of growth, proliferation and mining performance. The goals of the Biorock investigation is to verify and quantify this assumption, and to find out if morphological and genetic changes occur in the biofilms.

Micro-15: The crew performed Session C of Drug Injection activities for the Micro-15 sample bags. The goal of this investigation is to better understand the effects of gravity on the differentiation of mammalian cells using 3-D cultures of induced pluripotent stem cells. Past flight experiments and ground-based simulations have demonstrated that microgravity influences gene expression, cell proliferation, and differentiation in stem cells but the mechanism behind these observations is not clearly understood. This study investigates how exposure to microgravity fundamentally alters cell regulation and how these changes can affect the timing, progression, and outcomes of cell differentiation.

International Docking Adapter (IDA)3 Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Preparations: The crew completed the following in preparation for tomorrow’s planned EVA:

Conference with ground teams for reminders, emergency briefing, helpful tips and procedures to be used
Equipment Lock preparation
Degassed Liquid Cooling Venting Garment (LCVG) S/N 3270 and Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) 3008
Multimeter setup at Node 2 Zenith IDA Control Panel
Mobile Servicing System (MSS) Operations: Yesterday evening and this morning, Robotics Ground Controllers powered up the MSS then grappled and extracted International Docking Adapter 3 (IDA-3) from the SpaceX-18 trunk. Using the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM) and the Space Station Robotic Manipulator System (SSRMS), they maneuvered IDA-3 to the starting configuration for the EVA tomorrow.

Completed Task List Activities:
AstroPi IR status check

Ground Activities:
All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.
EVA preparation support
Payloads ops support

Look Ahead:
Wednesday, 8/22 (GMT 233)

Payloads:
Micro-15 Sample Fixation (NASA)
HRF Repository Urine (NASA)
Standard Measures Saliva Collect (NASA)

Systems:
IDA3 Install EVA

Thursday, 8/22 (GMT 234)

Payloads:
Vascular Aging Blood Pressure (CSA)
NUTRISS Setup and Measurement (ESA)
MSPR2 cable attachment (JAXA)
RR-17 Habitat Restock and Access Unit Clean (NASA)
NanoRacks MOD-9 Ops 4 (NASA)
LSG Front Glove Swap (NASA)
Goodyear Sample Termination (NASA)
Micro-15 Drug Injection session D (NASA)
HRF Repository Frozen blood setup (NASA)

Systems:
EVA debrief
EMU water ops

Today’s Planned Activities:
All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.

TOCA Water Recovery System (WRS) Sample Analysis
On MCC GO Regeneration of Micropurification Unit (???) ?2 Cartridge, initiate
Periodic Health Status (PHS) Pre EVA Examination – Subject
Unmanned Soyuz 743 rendezvous monitoring OBT
Health Maintenance System (HMS) Periodic Health Status (PHS) Evaluation – Subject
Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Procedure Review
TOCA Sample Data Record
FOTOBIOREACTOR. Activation of Bench Cleaning
International Docking Adapter (IDA) Stowage Removal
FOTOBIOREACTOR. Equipment Reconfig in the Bench
International Docking Adapter (IDA) Multimeter Setup
Equipment Lock (E-LK) Preparation
Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Tool Audit
FOTOBIOREACTOR. Medium replacement in Glovebox-S
Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Procedure Conference
PILOT-T. Experiment Ops
Extravehicular Activity (EVA) iPad Contingency Procedures preparation
International Docking Adapter (IDA) Multimeter Video Setup
PILOT-T. Closeout Ops
VELO, Day 4
On MCC GO Regeneration of Micropurification Unit (???) ?2 Absorption Cartridge (end)