NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 21 March 2019 – Final Suit Checks Ahead of Spacewalk

Two Expedition 59 astronauts are checking their spacesuits today and reviewing procedures one final time before tomorrow’s spacewalk. The other four residents aboard the International Space Station assisted the spacewalkers, maintained the orbital lab and conducted space science.
NASA Flight Engineers Anne McClain and Nick Hague readied the Quest airlock today where they will begin the first spacewalk of 2019 Friday at 8:05 a.m. EDT. The spacewalkers will work outside for about 6.5 hours of battery upgrade work on the Port-4 truss structure. NASA TV begins its live spacewalk coverage at 6:30 a.m.

VIDEO: NASA experts discuss the upcoming power upgrade spacewalks

The duo also confirmed their U.S. spacesuits are ready for the excursion with all the necessary components, such as helmet lights and communications gear, installed. Afterward, Hague and McClain conducted one more spacewalk timeline review.

They then joined astronauts Christina Koch and David Saint-Jacques for a final conference with spacewalk experts in Mission Control. Both astronauts also charged and set up GoPro cameras before attaching them to the spacewalkers’ suit helmets.

Koch started her day cleaning ventilation screens in the Unity module and installing lights in the Permanent Multi-purpose Module. Saint-Jacques set up the AstroPi science education hardware in the Harmony module’s window then swapped fan cables in the Life Sciences Glovebox.

Commander Oleg Kononenko and fellow cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin spent the majority of their day in the station’s Russian segment. Kononenko and Ovchinin first collected and stowed their blood samples in a science freezer for a Russian metabolism experiment. Ovchinin then unpacked supplies from the recently arrived Soyuz MS-12 crew ship. Kononenko also worked on heart and radiation detection research before assisting the U.S. spacewalkers.

On-Orbit Status Report

AstroPi: Today the crew transferred the AstroPi IR (infrared) unit to the Node 2 window in support of the upcoming European AstroPi Challenge. In this challenge, students and young people are offered the opportunity to conduct scientific investigations in space by writing computer programs that run on Astro Pi’s special Raspberry Pi computers aboard ISS. Students can choose either Life in space or Life on Earth as themes for their experiments.

Payload Network Attached Storage (NAS) Vent Clean: Using the AC vacuum cleaner, the crew performed this routine maintenance to clean vents on the front, back, and left side of the Payload NAS. NAS is a file server with 5 hard drive bays that provide a total of 20 terabytes of raw disk space when used with 4 terabyte hard drives. Among other capabilities, the PL NAS supports user file transfers from their machine via web browser and allows onboard ISS systems to access a shared folder location on the NAS.

Hatch Seal Inspection: The crew completed this scheduled maintenance to clean and inspect the USOS hatch seals (Node 2, Node 3, Permanent Multipurpose Module [PMM], Japanese Experiment Module [JEM] and Columbus), hatch plate sealing surface and hatch handle mechanism for Foreign Object Debris (FOD) and/or damage.

Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Preparations: In preparation for tomorrow’s EVA the crew performed the following:

Equipment Lock prep
Procedures review
GoPro setup

Completed Task List Activities:
None

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

Look Ahead:
Friday, 03/22:

Payloads:
No utilization activities

Systems:
US Battery EVA #1

Saturday, 03/23:

Payloads:
No utilization activities

Systems:
EVA debrief
Housekeeping

Sunday, 03/24:

Payloads:
No utilization activities

Systems:
Crew off duty

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

R PAO event report preparation
ECON-M. Observations and photo (Task list)
Reminder Periodic Health Status (PHS) Evaluation
Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Reminder for EVA In-Suit Light Exercise (ISLE) Preparation
Standard Measures Post-sleep Questionnaire
KORREKTSIYA. Venous blood collection
KORREKTSIYA. Photography
KORREKTSIYA. Venous blood sample processing using Plasma-03 centrifuge
KORREKTSIYA. Handover to USOS for MELFI Insertion
Insertion of Russian experiments blood samples into MELFI
Health Maintenance System (HMS) Periodic Health Status (PHS) Pre EVA Examination Setup
Daily Planning Conference
ISS Crew and ???? (RSA Flight Control Team) weekly conference
Health Maintenance System (HMS) Periodic Health Status (PHS) Pre EVA Examination – Subject
Health Maintenance System (HMS) Periodic Health Status (PHS) Pre EVA Examination – Crew Medical Officer (CMO)
Photo TV EVA Go Pro Battery Charging
Health Maintenance System (HMS) Periodic Health Status (PHS) Pre EVA Examination – Subject
Health Maintenance System (HMS) Periodic Health Status (PHS) Pre EVA Examination – Crew Medical Officer (CMO)
Inventory Management System (IMS) conference
In Flight Maintenance (IFM) Node 1 to Node 3 Intermodule Ventilation (IMV) Cleaning
Health Maintenance System (HMS) Pre-EVA Periodic Health Status Examination – Stow
Scheduled monthly maintenance of Central Post Laptop. Downlink Log-files via OCA. necessary
KORREKTSIYA. Data transfer from Actimeter device to data storage device
Behavioral Core Measures Journals Questionnaire
KORREKTSIYA. Closeout Ops
MORNING PREPARATION WORK
CARDIOVECTOR. Experiment Session.
PMM1SD2 Light Installation
CARDIOVECTOR. Photography of the Experiment Session
Hatch Seal Inspection
PMM1PD3 Light Installation
PILLE Dosimeter Reading
PMM1PD4-LIGHT-INSTALL
Soyuz 742 Transfers and IMS Ops
Equipment Lock (E-LK) Preparation
PILLE sensors gathering and setup prior to USOS EVA
Crew Time for ISS Adaptation and Orientation
AstroPi IR setup in Node 2
Weekly monitoring of video recording equipment performance on the ISS RS
Weekly Health Check of ISS RS Video Recording Equipment (Handover)
Soyuz 742 Transfers and IMS Ops
FGB Gas Analyzer Vacuum Cleaning
Health Maintenance System (HMS) ISS Food Intake Tracker (ISS FIT)
ISS Crew Orientation
Cleaning FGB ??1 Circulation Fan Protective Screen
Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Procedure Review
Life Sciences Glovebox (LSG) Fan E-Box Cable Swap Part 1
EVA Procedure Review
Delta file prep
Payloads Network Attached Storage (NAS) Vent Cleaning
Photo TV GoPro Setup
Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Procedure Conference
???? Reconfiguration in MRM1
SEPARATION. [???-?-??] vacuuming unit [??2-2] and [??1] pump drying.
Extravehicular Activity (EVA) iPad Contingency Procedures preparation
NG11 Stowage Consolidation in JEM
Comm reconfig for nominal ops
Countermeasures System (CMS) VELO Exercise session, Day1
Replacement of urine receptacle (??) and filter-insert (?-?) in ???. Post-Replacement [???] Activation
ISS Crew Orientation
Handover of Increment 59 Crew
??? maintenance
Photography of Plume Impingement and Deposit Monitoring Unit [????] position on MRM2 through SM window No.13 – Preparation
Life Sciences Glovebox (LSG) Fan E-Box Cable Swap Part 2
Photography of Plume Impingement and Deposit Monitoring Unit [????] position on MRM2 through SM window No.13
Photography of Plume Impingement and Deposit Monitoring Unit [????] position on MRM2 through SM window No.13 – – Closeout Ops