NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 1 November 2018 – Soyuz Investigation Concludes

NASA is working closely with its International Space Station partner Roscosmos to move forward on crew launch plans. Roscosmos plans to launch the Progress 71 resupply mission on Nov. 16, and is targeting the launch of the Expedition 58 crew including NASA astronaut Anne McClain for Dec. 3, pending the outcome of the flight readiness review.
Roscosmos completed an investigation into the loss of a Soyuz rocket last month that led to a suspension of Russian rocket launches to the station. One of four first stage rocket engines abnormally separated and hit the second stage rocket that led to the loss of stabilization of the Soyuz on Oct. 11. A statement from Roscosmos describes the cause…

“The reason for the abnormal separation is the non-opening of the nozzle cap of the “D” block oxidizer tank because of the deformation of the stem of the separation contact sensor (bending on 6 ˚ 45 ‘), which was admitted when assembling the “package” at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The cause of the LV accident is of operational nature and extends to the backlog of the “Soyuz” type LV “package”.”

Japan also announced today the release of its H-II Transfer Vehicle-7 (HTV-7) resupply ship, also called the Kounotori, from the station’s Harmony module. Commander Alexander Gerst will command the Canadarm2 robotic arm to release Kounotori Nov. 7 at 10:50 a.m. EDT as Flight Engineer Serena Auñón-Chancellor supports him.

On-Orbit Status Report

Combustion Integration Rack (CIR) Burst Disc Removal: The crew removed the burst discs from the argon and checked gas manifolds in the CIR Gas Chromatography (GC) system. These burst discs are considered redundant with the pressure relief valves in the system and issues with the helium burst disc have occurred in the past. Following this activity, the valves for all three gas bottles were opened. The GC will be used with the future Advanced Combustion via Microgravity Experiment (ACME) investigation entitled Burning Rate Emulator (BRE), which focuses on spacecraft fire prevention.

Gravitational References for Sensimotor Performance: Reaching and Grasping (GRASP): The crew performed three versions of the GRASP seated position science session. GRASP is intended to provide insight into how the central nervous system integrates information from different sensory modalities, encoded in different reference frames, to coordinate movements of the hand with objects in the environment. Performed on the ISS, in conjunction with a series of experiments performed on the ground, GRASP explores the interaction among all of the various sensory cues.

HTV Small Re-entry Capsule (HSRC) Crew Conference and Procedure Review: The crew participated in a crew conference and procedure review in preparation for the HTV-7 release next week. The HTV-7 HSRC will return the JAXA Low Temp Protein Crystal Growth (LT PCG4) samples to the ground. HSRC demonstrates re-entry and retrieval techniques to return experimental samples from ISS research back to Earth. HSRC has navigation, guidance, and control systems, including a Reaction Control System (RCS), and can conduct controlled re-entry to a target point on Earth, while keeping an environment of less than 4G for return.

Veg-03G Plant Thinning and Pillow Prime: The crew thinned the plants as needed so that only one plant per pillow remains. Multiple seeds are germinated in each plan pillow and this activity removes the smallest plants. The ground and crew noted some of the plants were too small to thin today and these will be thinned at a later time. The crew also performed the pillow prime, which involves the addition of 15ml of water to each plant pillow to support continued growth. Veg-03G is currently in a 28 day growth cycle which began on October 25 for the Red Russian Kale and Dragoon Lettuce plants. The primary goal of the Veg-03 G/H/I testing is to demonstrate plant growth in the Veggie hardware using leafy green vegetables as a test crops.

Systems Operations Data File (SODF) Emergency Procedure Update: Today, the crew updated the hard copy Fire Emergency Book with changes to account for which breathing mask to prepare and don per established criteria.

Completed Task List Activities:
None

Ground Activities:
All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.
CIR Burst Disk Removal and Activation
SPDM LEE High Definition Survey

Three Day Look Ahead:

Friday, 11/02:

Payloads:
FIR/LMM configuration for ACE-T7
ESA/Astro-Pi
GRASP
Plant Hab-01 SC2 harvest
GLACIER icebrick ops
PK4 experiment fam

Systems:
HTV General Luminaire Assembly (GLA) Scavenge

Saturday-Sunday, 11/03-04:

Payloads:
None

Systems:
Housekeeping, Crew Off Duty

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

GRASP additional set-up in seated configuration
Plant Habitat-01 Plant Harvest #2 Procedure Review
GRASP Big picture reading
Recharging IRIDIUM Satellite Phone
GRASP science performance in seated position
Countermeasures System (CMS) Advanced Resistive Exercise Device (ARED) Detent Adjustment
IRIDUIUM Phone Charging – charging control
IRIDIUM Phone Charging – End
СОЖ maintenance
Inspection and photo RS windows
DECLIC Removable Hard Disk Drive Exchange
Experiment Session 11
Transfer Operations – Pack and stow items on HTV
Progress 439 (DC1) Transfers and IMS Ops
Moving HV1 and HV3 servers
Food Acceptability Questionnaire
Combustion Integrated Rack Rack Doors Open
Systems Operations Data File (SODF) Print
CIR GC Burst Disk Removal
Combustion Integrated Rack Rack Doors Close
SODF Emergency book review.
HTV Small Re-entry Capsule (HSRC) Procedure Review
ТГК 70P stowage operations with the use of IMS (СИ)
HTV Small Re-entry Capsule (HSRC) Conference (CONF)
VEG-03G Plant Thin
VEG-03G Plant Pillow Prime.
Plant Habitat-01 Harvest #2 Hardware Gather
i-STAT Blood Draw
Public Affairs Office (PAO) High Definition (HD) Config LAB Setup
Inventory Management System (IMS) Conference
Public Affairs Office (PAO) Event in High Definition (HD) – Lab
MERLIN Desiccant Swap
Metal Oxide (METOX) Regeneration Termination
Metal Oxide (METOX) Regeneration Initiation