NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 29 June, 2020 – Preparing for Wednesday Spacewalk

NASA astronauts Chris Cassidy and Bob Behnken will start their second spacewalk together on July 1. The duo will continue upgrading power systems on the International Space Station.
The veteran spacewalkers wrapped up a spacewalk on Friday after six hours and 7 minutes swapping five aging nickel-hydrogen (NiH2) batteries with two new lithium-ion (Li-Ion) batteries. They will go out again on Wednesday starting at 7:20 a.m. EDT to swap one more NiH2 battery for a Li-Ion battery on the Starboard-6 truss structure worksite. NASA TV will begin its live coverage at 6 a.m.

Flight Engineer Doug Hurley joined his Expedition 63 crewmates today in a review of Wednesday’s spacewalk procedures with ground specialists. Hurley once again will assist Cassidy and Behnken in and out of their spacesuits and monitor the pair during the excursion.

Space station managers also are planning two more spacewalks in July to keep up the battery upgrades. After Cassidy and Behnken complete Wednesday’s spacewalk, mission planners will finalize the future spacewalk tasks along with target dates and times.

Cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner spent Monday working on a variety of Russian communications gear and life support hardware. The duo also worked on a pair of Earth science studies exploring how natural and man-made activities on the surface affect the upper and lower atmosphere.

On-Orbit Status Report

Payloads

MELFI 1/2/3 Nitrogen pressure check: The crew performed a routine pressure check on the 3 MELFI units on board ISS. These checks are performed every 6 months to make sure the expected ~9000-10000 kPa is present in the units. The MELFIs use nitrogen as a working fluid to achieve temperature set points as cold as -95 deg C. The Minus Eighty-Degree Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI) is a cold storage unit that maintains experiment samples at cold temperatures throughout a mission.

Multi-use Variable-g Platform (MVP-1): Following a previous hard drive replacement several weeks ago, the team was not able to command to the unit nominally. Today the crew exchanged another hard drive and the ground team will attempt their commanding again. The commercially developed, owned and operated Techshot MVP includes 2 internal carousels that simultaneously can produce up to 2 g of artificial gravity. MVP is used to conduct research in space with a wide variety of sample types, such as fruit flies, flatworms, plants, fish, cells, protein crystals and many others.

Systems

Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Preparations: The crew performed several activities in preparation for the second S6 Battery EVA currently scheduled for Wednesday, July 1. The crew setup the EVA GoPro batteries for charging and then setup the EVA GoPro cameras. They continued charging operations on the Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) Long Life Batteries (LLB) and also charged the Portable Oxygen Monitor (POM) batteries. A procedure review and procedure conference were also completed by the ISS crew and ground support teams.

Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Dynamic Onboard Ubiquitous Graphic (DOUG) Review: The crew performed a visual review of the EVA using the Dynamic Onboard Ubiquitous Graphic (DOUG) software. This session allows the crew to view the step-by-step sequence of a specific EVA. Entire translation paths can be highlighted and displayed for review by crew members prior to performing an EVA.

Max Cycle Ergometer with Vibration Isolation and Stabilization (CEVIS): The crew completed Max CEVIS today which is used by the medical community to evaluate astronauts’ aerobic fitness. The test is performed every 90 days and upon the crew’s arrival and departure from the ISS.

H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV)9 Cargo Operations: Today, the crew continued to perform HTV9 cargo transfer operations. Ground teams estimate ~3 hours remain to complete available cargo ops.

Completed Task List Activities:

Food Consolidation
Today’s Ground Activities:
All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.

US to RS Audio Config/Deconfig for MRM Ops
A/L LTL Flow Init/Term for Activities in Airlock
OGA Mode Transition
Lab MCA Zero Calibration
Look Ahead Plan

Tuesday, 6/30 (GMT 182)
Payloads:

Plant Hab-02 Latch Evaluation
TangoLab Card & Cube T/S
Systems:

Equipment Lock Prep Pt2
EVA Procedure Review/Conference
EVA Tool Config
EVA Tool Audit
Wednesday, 7/1 (GMT 183)
Payloads:

No Payload Activities
Systems:

S6 1B Battery EVA#2 (Prep and EVA)
Thursday, 7/2 (GMT 184)
Payloads:

Astrobee
FIR/LMM/CDM Change-Out
ELF Software Update
Food Physiology
RADI-N2 Detector Retrieval and Processing
Systems:

HMS Ultrasound
Post-EVA PHS Exams
EMU Water Recharge
Today’s Planned Activities:
All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.

Metal Oxide (METOX) Regeneration Termination
Transfer Operations – Pack and stow items on HTV
Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) Long Life Battery (LLB) Terminate
MATRYOSHKA-R. Tritel Hardware Monitoring
??? ?1 absorption cartridge cycling (start)
Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) Long Life Battery (LLB)/Metal Oxide (METOX) Installation
URAGAN. Observation and photography using the camera
ELEKTRON pre-activation pressurization
Battery Stowage Assembly (BSA) Operation Termination
Photo TV EVA Go Pro Battery Charging
TERMINATOR. Terminator-Limb science hardware install & de-install
Charging EVA Camera D4 Battery
Max Cycle Ergometer w/Vibration Isolation & Stabilization (CEVIS) Portable PFS Subject
SM KURS-P cables reconnect from MRM2 Port Antenna Feeder to DC1 Port Antenna Feeder
Environmental Health System (EHS) – Formaldehyde Monitoring Kit (FMK) Deployment Operations
Public Affairs Office (PAO) Event in High Definition (HD) – COL
Environmental Health System (EHS) Grab Sample Container (GSC) Sampling Operations
ISS ROS available stowage space audit
Station Support Computer 16 and Portable Computer System Data Acquisition System Setup
MELFI 1,2 & 3 Nitrogen Pressure Check
Multi-use Variable-g Platform Hard Drive Replacement & Historical Documentation Photography
Recycler Hardware Stow
Portable Onboard Computers (POC) Dynamic Onboard Ubiquitous Graphics (DOUG) Setup
Photo TV Battery Charge
Packing of PK-4 Hard Drives inside Bubble Wrap Bags for return stowage on Soyuz
SM atmosphere analysis using [???] analyzer at panel 415
Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Procedure Review
Payload Laptop Terminal 4 (PLT4) CMOS battery changeout
Post-recovery RSS2 software upgrade.
Comm Config to Support Tagups from MRM1
SEPARATSIA. [????] test activation
Comm reconfig for nominal ops
PILOT-T. Experiment Ops.
Photo TV Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) Camera Turnaround
Public Affairs Office (PAO) Event in High Definition (HD) – JEM
Checking ??-2 treadmill carriage position and photography
Portable Onboard Computers (POC) Dynamic Onboard Ubiquitous Graphics (DOUG) Software Review
Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Procedure Conference
Photo TV GoPro Setup
UF-ATMOSPHERE. Hardware setup, activation and monitoring