The Expedition 67 crew members are training for this weekend’s arrival of the SpaceX Dragon cargo craft to the International Space Station as it prepares for its launch on Thursday.
Mission managers have given the go for the SpaceX Dragon resupply ship as it counts down to a liftoff toward the space station at 8:44 p.m. EDT on Thursday. Dragon, attached to the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and carrying 5,800 pounds of science experiments and crew supplies, rolled out to the launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday. The U.S. commercial cargo craft will orbit Earth for a day-and-a-half before docking to the Harmony module’s forward port at 11:20 a.m. on Saturday. NASA TV, on the agency’s app and website, will begin its live launch coverage at 8:15 p.m. on Thursday.
NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Bob Hines spent Wednesday afternoon reviewing procedures on a computer for Dragon’s automated rendezvous and docking to Harmony on Saturday. The two flight engineers were also joined by NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren staging cargo that will be returned inside Dragon at the end of its monthlong mission at the orbital lab.
The three astronauts, including ESA (European Space Agency) Flight Engineer Samantha Cristoforetti, also called down to Houston today to begin planning for their return to Earth later this year. The quartet arrived at the station on April 27 aboard the Dragon Freedom as part of the SpaceX Crew-4 commercial crew mission.
Two cosmonauts, Commander Oleg Artemyev and Flight Engineer Sergey Korsakov, took turns on Wednesday participating in a long-running study that explores ways to pilot a spacecraft or operate a robotic rover on future planetary missions. Flight Engineer Denis Matveev inspected and wiped down surfaces for microbes in the Zvezda service module.
On-Orbit Status Report
Payloads:
ISS Ham Radio: Two ISS Ham contacts were made with Il Cielo Itinerante c/o Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI) Center for Space in Matera, Italy and Sayama group Saitama Council Scouts Association of Japan, Saitama, Japan. Since the earliest space station expeditions, ISS Ham Radio has allowed groups of students in schools, camps, museums, and planetariums to hold a conversation with the people living in space. As the ISS passes overhead, students have approximately nine minutes to ask crew members 10 to 20 questions.
Lumina: The Lumina hardware was power-cycled and data was transferred to an iPad for downlink. Fiber-optic Active Dosimeter (Lumina) is an active fiber dosimeter that monitors, in real-time, the received radiation dose by exploiting the capacity of optical fibers to darken when exposed to radiation. The dosimeter provides reliable dose measurements in complex environments such as the ones associated with electrons, protons, gamma-ray or X-ray photons or neutrons.
Wireless Compose-2: A crewmember donned the Wireless Compose-2 SmartTex-2 shirt, executed the Ballistocardiography experiment and completed the questionnaire. The main scientific goal of the Wireless Communication Network (Wireless Compose-2) investigation is to provide a flexible and adaptable wireless network infrastructure to conduct and execute low-power, light-weight, and wireless experiments on the ISS. For this demonstration, Wireless Compose-2 operates several experiments, including an experiment to examine the impact of the space environment on the cardiovascular system. Additionally, Wireless Compose-2 demonstrates the ability of newly developed impulse radio ultra-wide band (IR-UWB) hardware to enable precise localization applications and to analyze the energy harvesting potential on the ISS.
Systems:
Environmental Health System (EHS) Coliform Water Sample Analysis: Today, the crew completed post-processing analysis of the coliform detection bags. The water samples were acquired on GMT 192 and allowed to incubate to check for the presence of Coliform bacteria. Following the incubation period, the crew visually analyzed the coliform detection bags and recorded the results. Visual confirmation must be performed within 40-48 hours of the initial sample collection.
RS Extravehicular Activity (EVA) ESA Preparations: Crewmember Samantha Cristoforetti continued preparation activities for the upcoming RS EVA ESA, beginning with a training session on transfer of two pressurized space suits to ПхО. Russian EVA tools were gathered and US EVA tools were transferred from the USOS to the RS. The Russian EVA is planned for Thursday, July 21.
SpX-25 Arrival Preparations: Several activities were completed by the crew in preparation for the arrival of SpX-25 vehicle to the ISS on July 16th. Crew prepacked bags for SpX-25 return and reviewed the ISS Homepage, Ops Products tab, Controlled Documents, and Motion Control System, Rendezvous and Proximity Operations Program (RPOP), Multipurpose Laboratory Module Terminal Computer (MLMTC) Restart Monitoring for Dragon Docking, and videos of nominal and off-nominal Dragon approaches. These reviews were followed by a debrief and Q&A session with SpX-25 ground team and instructors.
Water Recovery System (WRS) Contingency Water Container (CWC) – Iodine Fill: Water was transferred from the Potable Bus into a CWC – Iodine container using the Potable Water Dispenser (PWD). Iodine was added to purify the water. The crew monitored the offload time as a secondary control to protect the CWC – Iodine from over-pressurization. The CWC is a soft container with an inner bladder that can store a variety of liquids including humidity condensate, wastewater, and other unique fluids such as EVA Mobility Unit (EMU) wastewater.
Completed Task List Activities:
Today’s Ground Activities:
All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.
- PPS High Beta Operations
- JEM Airlock Operations
- EPS ORU Weekly Preemptive Refresh
- Crew Dragon System Checkout
- JEM MAXI File Uplink
Look Ahead Plan
Thursday, July 14 (GMT 195)
Payloads:
- Astrobee Remote Ops (NASA)
- Biofilms Review (ESA)
- KUBIK MPCC Setup (ESA)
Systems:
Friday, July 15 (GMT 196)
Payloads:
- Cold Atom Lab Check (NASA)
- FLARE (SCEM) Insert 2 Exchange (JAXA)
- J-FROST-2 Setting (JAXA)
- RR-22 Habitat Installs (NASA)
- TangoLab CubeLab Sat Checkout (NASA)
- XROOTS Nutrient Mix and Fill, Fluid Recovery, Plant Check (NASA)
Systems:
- RS EVA ESA Prep
- Hygiene Cover Panel Audit
- Hatch Seal Inspection
- Dragon Cargo Operations Review and SpX-25 Vehicle Ops CBT
Saturday, July 16 (GMT 197)
Payloads:
- TangoLab-2 Cardcube Remove (NASA)
Systems:
Today’s Planned Activities:
All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.
- LUMINA device power reboot
- JEM Airlock Slide Table (ST) Extension/Retraction to JPM Side
- Wireless Compose-2 SmartTex-2 Shirt Donning & Experiment Execution
- All Solid State Li-ion Battery and Small PL Multi-purpose Controller Removal
- LUMINA data transfer with EveryWear
- Wireless Compose-2 Questionnaire
- Wireless Compose-2 SmartTex-2 Shirt Doffing
- Health Maintenance System (HMS) Spaceflight Cognitive Assessment Tool for Windows (WinSCAT) Test
- TangoLab Hardware Check
- HRF Facility Supply Kit Resupply
- ISS HAM Columbus Pass Kenwood
- Environmental Health System (EHS) – Coliform Water Sample Analysis
- Crew Handover Conference
- European Physiology Module Troubleshooting Item Gather
- Environmental Health System (EHS) Air Quality Monitor (AQM) Powercycle
- BCR Charging Cable Photo
- Training on transfer of two pressurized space suits to ПхО.
- [in work] Dragon 25 Prepack
- EVA Battery Operations Terminal Terminate/Removal
- In Flight Maintenance Airlock IV Hatch Cleaning
- Public Affairs Office (PAO) Event in JEM
- Water Recovery System CWC-Iodine Fill Initialization/Terminate
- [deferred] SpaceX-25 Dragon Review CBT 1
- SpaceX-25 Dragon Review CBT 2,3
- [from GMT 196] SpaceX-25 Dragon Review CBT MCG Dock
- Russian Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Tool Gather
- On-Board Training (OBT) Conference after Rendezvous CBT review
- Transferring US EVA tools from the USOS to the RS in preparation for use during EVA (ESA)
