Space Stations

NASA Space Station Status Report 13 October, 2022 – New Crew-4 Target Return Time

By SpaceRef Editor

Status Report

SpaceRef

October 13, 2022

Filed under Expedition 67, ISS, ISS On-orbit status, NASA, SpaceX Crew-4

NASA Space Station Status Report 13 October, 2022 – New Crew-4 Target Return Time — Astronaut Kjell Lindgren signs his name on the Harmony module.

NASA

NASA and SpaceX now are targeting no earlier than 11:35 a.m. EDT Friday, Oct. 14, for the agency’s Crew-4 undocking from the International Space Station to begin their return trip to Earth completing a nearly six-month science mission in orbit. Splashdown is targeted several hours later at approximately 4:50 p.m. off the coast of Florida.

Mission teams continue to monitor a cold front passing through Florida on Thursday, Oct. 13, bringing high winds and rainy weather near the splashdown zones off the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Current weather predictions are showing greater forecast certainty Friday due to a high-pressure system behind the cold front, which is expected to bring more favorable conditions for splashdown and recovery. NASA and SpaceX will continue to monitor splashdown and recovery conditions with another weather review around eight hours prior to undocking. Teams also will review multiple options for undocking opportunities Friday and Saturday.

Crew-4’s Dragon undocking depends on a variety of factors, including spacecraft readiness, recovery team readiness, weather, sea states, and other factors. Dragon Freedom remains healthy while currently docked to the space station.

NASA will provide live coverage of the upcoming return activities for the Crew-4 mission with NASA astronauts Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren, and Jessica Watkins, as well as ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti.

Dragon’s hatch closing, undocking, and splashdown coverage will air live on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website. NASA also will host an audio only post-splashdown news teleconference. Follow all live events here.

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4 return coverage is as follows (all times Eastern):

Friday, Oct. 14

9:30 a.m. – Hatch closure coverage begins for the approximately 9:55 a.m. hatch closing

11:15 a.m. – Undocking coverage begins for 11:35 a.m. undocking with a Friday splashdown

4:50 p.m. (approximately) – Splashdown off the coast of Florida

6:30 p.m. – Return to Earth media teleconference call from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston with:

Steve Stich, manager, Commercial Crew Program, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida
Joel Montalbano, manger, International Space Station, NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston
Sarah Walker, director, Dragon Mission Management, SpaceX

On-Orbit Status Report

Crew-4 Freedom Departure: Due to unfavorable weather conditions at the splashdown site, the Crew-4 Freedom spacecraft undock was delayed from the previous departure date of October 13^th. The next undock opportunity is tomorrow, October 14^th at 10:30 am CT. The crew instead had a light duty day in preparation for undock slated tomorrow.

Payloads:

Dynamics of Microbiomes in Space (DynaMoS): DynaMoS Science Bag S/N 004 was retrieved and inserted into MELFI 1. DynaMoS examines how microgravity affects metabolic interactions in communities of soil microbes. On Earth, communities of microorganisms carry out key functions in soil, including cycling of carbon and other nutrients and support of plant growth. This research focuses on the soil microorganism communities that decompose chitin, the second most abundant carbon polymer on Earth. Results could improve understanding of the function of soil microorganisms in space compared to on Earth.

GRIP: GRIP science tasks in the seated and supine positions were performed. The GRIP experiment studies long-duration spaceflight effects on the abilities of human subjects to regulate grip force and upper limbs trajectories when manipulating objects during different kind of movements such as oscillatory movements, rapid discrete movements and tapping gestures.

Systems:

Japanese Excursion Module Remote Manipulator System (JEMRMS) Backup Drive System (BDS) Checkout: The crew connected the BDS Cable 1 to Utility Outlet Panel (UOP) b2 and activated the Backup Controller (BUC). A BDS checkout was performed, after which the BDS Cable 10 was connected to the original position for JEMRMS nominal operations. The JEMRMS BDS provides redundancy for the zero fault tolerant, single-string JEMRMS. This redundancy is essential if the arm becomes stranded due to hardware failure and in some cases a stranded arm could become a collision hazard if it is close enough to structure and subject to certain loads.

Brine Processor Bladder Changeout: As part of regular maintenance, the crew completed a BPA bladder changeout. The BPA utilizes the forced convection of dry spacecraft cabin air coupled with a robust membrane distillation process to recover water from brine. The added water recovery from brine contributes directly to NASA’s goal to achieve an overall water recovery rate of 89% for future water recovery systems.

Completed Task List Activities: