NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 16 August 2019 – Preparing for the 5th US Spacewalk of the Year

Three NASA astronauts remain focused on preparations for next week’s spacewalk at the International Space Station. The rest of the Expedition 60 focused on biology research and a pair of docked spaceships.
Flight Engineer Christina Koch has been supporting spacewalkers Nick Hague and Andrew Morgan, as they get ready for the fifth spacewalk of the year on Aug. 21. The pair will install the new International Docking Adapter-3 (IDA-3) to the Harmony module’s space-facing port during the six-and-a-half-hour job.

Koch printed out checklists the spacewalkers will wear on their spacesuit cuffs and verified the spacesuits are the correct size. She also joined Hague and Morgan reviewing next week’s spacewalk procedures. The spacewalking duo also set up the Quest airlock where they will collect their tools and suit up ahead of their excursion.

Robotics controllers will remotely command the Canadarm2 to detach the IDA-3 from the rear portion of the SpaceX Dragon on Monday. They will maneuver the new docking port to a pressurized mating adapter on top of Harmony readying it for Wednesday’s spacewalk. Hague and Morgan in their U.S. spacesuits will then route cables and configure hardware readying the IDA-3 for new SpaceX and Boeing crew ships.

Luca Parmitano, a European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut on his second station mission, worked on a biology experiment today with potential benefits for the medicine industry. He tended to stem cell samples growing in a specialized incubator to help researchers understand cell behavior in space.

Cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Alexander Skvortsov checked out two docked Soyuz crew ships today. The duo tested and recharged communications gear in the vehicles and continued packing gear for return to Earth.

On-Orbit Status Report

Bio-Monitor: A crewmember removed and stowed the Garment hardware. Although the ISS is equipped with health and life sciences research tools, the existing instrumentation for continuous and simultaneous recording of several physiological parameters is lacking. To address this issue, the Bio-Monitor Commissioning activity tests the Bio-Monitor facility; a wearable garment capable of monitoring relevant physiological parameters for up to 48 hours in a non-invasive and non-interfering way. The physiological parameters which can be monitored consist of heart rate, respiration rate, ECG (Electrocardiogram), skin temperature, peripheral blood oxygen saturation, etc.

Micro-15: The crew performed the Session A2 of the Drug Injections into Micro-15 Culture bags which were then placed back and incubation facility. 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 (iPS) 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): In preparation for the IDA3 EVA scheduled for next Wednesday, August 21, the completed the following:

EVA procedure conference with ground teams
Equipment Lock preparation
EMU 3008 On-orbit Fit Check Verification (OFV)
Cuff checklist print
Thermal Amine Blower Motor Removal: Following several Thermal Amine blower motor overcurrent failures this year, the crew successfully removed the blower motor today. The unit was then packed and will be returned on SpX-18 for potential refurbishment. Thermal Amine System tests a method to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from air aboard the ISS, using actively heated and cooled amine beds. Carbon Dioxide Removal Assemblies (CDRA) are operating nominally and remain the primary method for removing CO2 from ISS atmosphere.

Completed Task List Activities:
EVA EMU water recharge
EVA loop scrub deconfig
ISS Experience camera swap
Rodent Research access unit cleaning

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

Look Ahead:
Saturday, 8/17 (GMT 229)

Payloads:
Micro-15 Fixation (NASA)
BioMonitor Hardware stow (CSA)

Systems:
Crew off duty; housekeeping

Sunday, 8/18 (GMT 230)

Payloads:
Vascular Aging Glucose Test (CSA)
Goodyear Tire ops Overview (NASA)
Standard Measures Presleep Questions (NASA)
Micro-15 Drug injection B ops (NASA)
HRF repository Blood and saliva setup (NASA)
Universal Battery Charger (NASA

Systems:
Crew off duty

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

Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) Cuff Checklist Print
Team Task Switching Experiment Survey
ISS Experience Hardware Stow
BIOCARD. Experiment Session
Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) Cuff Checklist Incorporation
Channel ?2 ??0501 Sensor Adjustment
IDA Install Gather
Team Task Switching Experiment Survey
Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Procedure Conference
Flush ????-2? Water Conditioning Unit Purification Columns [?? ???] (end)
Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Equipment Lock Preparation Part 1
Soyuz 743 Stowage Ops
Recharging Soyuz 742 IRIDIUM phone, start recharging
Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) On-orbit Fitcheck Verification
Photo/TV High Definition Thermal Amine System In Flight Maintenance (IFM) Downlink (D/L)
In-Flight Maintenance Thermal Amine Blower Removal [Deferred]
Recharging 742 IRIDIUM phone, battery status check
Recharging Soyuz 742 IRIDIUM phone, end recharging, teardown of the setup
MPEG-2 TV Downlink Test via KU-band prior to Soyuz 743 docking to the ISS
Removal of Navigation Module [??-2] and cables from Progress 442 (DC1)
Food Acceptability Questionnaire
Health Maintenance System (HMS) ISS Food Intake Tracker (ISS FIT)
Health Maintenance System (HMS) ISS Food Intake Tracker (ISS FIT)
Pre-pack cargo items for return or disposal via Soyuz 743
FOTOBIOREACTOR. Visual inspection with photography