NASA International Space Station On-Orbit Status 25 October 2016

The newly-expanded Expedition 49 crew is getting ready to grow lettuce to learn how to grow fresh food in space. Meanwhile, the International Space Station is getting ready for another crew swap.
New station crew member Shane Kimbrough is installing hardware and plant pillows for the Veg-03 plant growth experiment. The study is a validation of the tools and procedures necessary to grow plants to provide fresh food for astronauts.

He and his Soyuz crewmates Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko are in their first week aboard the station. They are familiarizing themselves with their new home in space where they will live until February.

Astronauts Kate Rubins and Takuya Onishi are researching how living in space affects breathing for the Airway Monitoring experiment. The duo were in the U.S. Quest airlock performing measurements to determine how much nitrogen oxide is exhaled and is diffused in the blood.

Commander Anatoly Ivanishin is packing the Soyuz MS-01 spacecraft that will carry him, Rubins and Onishi back to Earth Saturday night ending their four-month mission. They will be replaced in mid-November when Expedition 50-51 crew members Oleg Novitskiy, Peggy Whitson and Thomas Pesquet arrive inside the Soyuz MS-03 spacecraft.

On-Orbit Status Report

Veg-03 Initiation: FE-3 configured and installed the Vegetable Production System (Veggie) on the Maintenance Work Area (MWA) and then installed six Small Plant Pillows to hold the ‘Outredgeous’ red romaine lettuce plants. Ground teams plan to grow the lettuce plants for two months, with four harvests planned. The overall goal of Veg-03 is to further demonstrate proof-of concept for the Veggie plant growth chamber and the planting pillows. Future long-duration missions into the solar system, finally culminating on Mars, will require a fresh food supply to supplement crew diets, which means growing crops in space. Previous investigations focused on improving productivity in controlled environments, but the limited quarters of the space shuttle and International Space Station made it difficult to conduct large-scale crop production tests. Veg-03 expands on previous validation tests of the new Veggie hardware, which crew members will soon use to grow cabbage, lettuce and other fresh vegetables in space. Tests determine which types of microorganisms are present in space-grown cabbage, providing baseline data for future crop-growing efforts. Behavioral health surveys assess the impact of growing plants on crew morale and mood.

Airway Monitoring Ambient and Reduced Pressure Operations: Today FE-5 and FE-6 began the measurement day of the European Space Agency (ESA) Airway Monitoring experiment. The crew used the Portable Pulmonary Function System (PPFS) to perform a series of measurements for two different protocols: the Fractional Expired Nitric Oxide (FENO) Low Nitric Oxide (NO) Protocol which determines how much NO is exhaled during respiration, and the Diffuse Capacity in Lungs Nitric Oxide (DLNO) High NO Protocol which determines how much NO is diffused in the blood, while the crew was in the US Airlock. Airway Monitoring is the first experiment to use the US Airlock as a hypobaric facility for performing science. Utilizing the US Airlock allows for unique opportunities in 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.

ISS Emergency Hardware Familiarization: The 48S crewmembers participated in a training session intended to familiarize the crew with the locations of equipment and the positions of valves used in the event of an emergency. During the training, the crewmembers translated along the emergency egress path inspecting emergency hardware components. For any questions they will consult with specialists at Mission Control Center-Moscow (MCC-M), Mission Control Center-Houston (MCC-H), Columbus-Control Center (COL-CC), and Space Station Integration and Promotion Center for Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (SSIPC).

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

BIOPLENKA. Removal of Samples from the Thermostat, fixation of Constanta cassette No.4-2 biofilm.
NEUROIMMUNITET. Saliva Sample Psychological Test (morning)
KORREKTSIYA. NEUROIMMUNITET. Blood Collection.
NEUROIMMUNITET. Venous blood sample processing (smear).
KORREKTSIYA. NEUROIMMUNITET. Processing venous blood sample using Plasma-03 centrifuge.
Insertion of Russian experiments blood samples into MELFI
KORREKTSIYA. NEUROIMMUNITET. Handover to USOS for MELFI Insertion
KORREKTSIYA. Closeout Ops
AIRMON Power On
??? Laptops Antivirus software checkout
AIRMON preparation and First Low NO measurement
MICROVIR. Removal of Cassette-M No.1-1 and No.1-2 from ???-? No.04. Photography
Combustion Integrated Rack Alignment Guide Installation
MELFI Ice Brick Insert
AIRMON Calibrations, Low NO and High NO measurements
NEUROIMMUNITET. Psychological Test
VEG-03 MWA Preparation
Soyuz 731 Transfer Ops
Central station atmosphere analysis using CSA-CP unit
VEG-03 Experiment Install
AIRMON High NO measurement
LIOH and PFA Setup
??? maintenance
MICROVIR. Photography of Cassetta-M No.1-1, No.1-2 upper cells. Squeezing out and photography of bottom cells
Preparations for and depressurization
VEG-03 MELFI Insertion #1
AIRMON Low NO measurement at low pressure
COSMOCARD. Setup. Starting 24-hr ECG Recording Tagup with specialists
COSMOCARD. Photography of the Experiment Ops
MICROVIR. Photography of bottom cells
AIRMON Low & High measurements at reduced pressure
BIOPLENKA. Removal of Samples from the Thermostat, fixation of Constanta cassette No.4-2 biofilm.
NEUROIMMUNITET. Hair Samples Collection
ISS Crew Adaptation
AIRMON High NO measurement at reduced pressure
IMS Delta File Prep
MICROVIR. Photography of bottom cells
INTERACTION-2. Experiment Ops
Airlock repressurization
Emergency Mask OBT
Airway Monitoring Private Medical Conference (PMC)
OBT ISS Emergency Hardware Familiarization
ISS Crew Orientation
MICROVIR. Photography of lower cells Start of video recording
CONTENT. Experiment Ops
AIRMON Power Off
Space Headaches – Daily Questionnaire
Private Special Conference (PSC)
MICROVIR. Photography of cell condition. End of video recording
NEUROIMMUNITET. Saliva Sample Psychological test (evening)
NEUROIMMUNITET. End of ECG Recording. Close-out Ops, Data Downlink

Completed Task List Items
JAXA Video Taking Part 8
Biomolecule Sequencer Flow Cell Retrieval

Ground Activities
All activities were completed unless otherwise noted.
Lab MCA Full Cal

Three-Day Look Ahead:
Wednesday, 10/26: Soyuz Drill, Neuromapping, Dosetrack, Meteor, JAXA EPO
Thursday, 10/27: Airway Monitoring, Handover
Friday, 10/28: Cygnus Cargo Transfer, 47S Prepack, Change of Command

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”) – Off
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) – Process
Urine Processing Assembly (UPA) – Shutdown
Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Lab – Off
Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Node 3 – Full Up