The Expedition 70 crew reached the top of the week focusing totally on a pair of upcoming spacewalks. There was additionally time aboard the International Space Station for analysis and cargo operations as Axiom House introduced future personal missions dates.
NASA astronauts Loral O’Hara and Jasmin Moghbeli partnered collectively Friday afternoon organizing the instruments they are going to use on a spacewalk deliberate for Oct. 30. The pair will exit the Quest airlock and spend about six-and-a-half hours eradicating electronics gear and changing photo voltaic array {hardware} on the orbital lab.
Earlier than the spacewalk preparations, O’Hara inspected {hardware} on the Human Research Facility, documented her each day meals and drugs consumption, and downlinked medical knowledge to researchers on the bottom. Moghbeli started her day accumulating blood strain measurements, moved on to life help upkeep, then swapped a vest and headband packed with sensors to comfortably measure her well being as she labored all through the day.
Astronaut Satoshi Furukawa of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Company) studied the maneuvers he’ll use to function the Canadarm2 robotic arm when O’Hara and Moghbeli go on their upkeep spacewalk on the finish of the month. He additionally packed the Cygnus house freighter with trash and discarded gear earlier than staging cargo for loading and return on the following SpaceX Dragon cargo mission scheduled for launch on Nov. 5.
Commander Andreas Mogensen of ESA (European House Company) continued testing a specialised digital camera that may seize imagery at 100,000 frames per second. He labored within the cupola pointing the digital camera towards Earth and photographing thunderstorms and their electrical activity to enhance atmospheric data and promote future house functions.
Cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub spent all day Friday preparing for his or her spacewalk scheduled on Oct. 25. The flight engineers placed on their Orlan spacesuits contained in the Poisk airlock and practiced the spacewalking duties they are going to use subsequent week. Through the tour, the pair from Roscosmos will set up science {hardware}, deploy a nanosatellite, and examine a backup radiator that leaked coolant. Flight Engineer Konstantin Borisov joined the duo aiding the cosmonauts out and in of their spacesuits and reviewing their spacewalk procedures.
NASA, Axiom House, and SpaceX groups are concentrating on no sooner than October 2024 to launch Axiom Mission 4, a non-public astronaut mission, to the orbiting laboratory. The subsequent personal astronaut mission, Axiom Mission 3 with former NASA astronaut and Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria main once more, is scheduled to liftoff from Florida no sooner than January 2024.
Be taught extra about station actions by following the house station weblog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, in addition to the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.
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