The Expedition 70 crew members will wait another day to welcome the SpaceX Crew-8 mission because of unfavorable climate circumstances forecasted at launch time. In the meantime, the seven International Space Station residents stayed busy Thursday on orbital upkeep duties whereas planning for the upcoming departure of 4 crewmates.
The SpaceX Dragon “Endeavour” spacecraft is now focused to launch at 11:16 p.m. EST Saturday, March 2. Crew-8 Commander Matthew Dominick, Pilot Mike Barratt, and Mission Specialists Jeanette Epps and Alexander Grebenkin will take a brief, automated journey to the station aboard Dragon and dock to the Harmony module’s ahead port at 2:15 p.m. on Sunday.
The Dragon and station hatches will open lower than two hours later and the Crew-8 members will enter the Concord module the place the Expedition 70 septet will greet them. Shortly after that, the 11 astronauts and cosmonauts will name right down to Earth to share welcome remarks with mission officers and members of the family. The Crew-8 foursome will formally change into area station flight engineers starting a six-month analysis mission aboard the orbital lab.
Again on the area station, lab upkeep topped the schedule on Thursday guaranteeing the orbital outpost stays in tip-top form. The station crew additionally had time for some science work whereas additionally coaching to depart aboard the SpaceX Dragon “Endurance” spacecraft.
NASA Flight Engineers Loral O’Hara and Jasmin Moghbeli finalized air-con work contained in the Quest airlock. They accomplished swapping parts on the Frequent Cabin Air Meeting, a life help gadget that circulates, cools, and dehumidifies the station’s air. Afterward, they stowed instruments and packed the out of date gear for return to Earth. O’Hara then moved on and processed fiber optic samples being produced contained in the Microgravity Science Glovebox.
Afterward, Moghbeli joined her Crew-7 crewmates Andreas Mogensen, Satoshi Furukawa, and Konstantin Borisov and ready their return to Earth a couple of week after the Crew-8 mission arrives. The Crew-7 quartet practiced Dragon undocking procedures on laptop tablets contained in the spacecraft. The 4 crewmates additionally tried on a specialised garment that will ease their adjustment to Earth’s gravity after dwelling for six months in weightlessness.
Earlier within the day, Mogensen cleaned his crew quarters inside Concord then known as right down to Earth for a convention with mission managers from ESA (European House Company). Furukawa from JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Company) organized emergency tools to prepare for the Crew-8 mission. Borisov studied spacecraft and robotic piloting methods future crews might use on planetary missions.
Cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub started their morning reviewing procedures for an experiment to measure the aerodynamic forces the station experiences whereas orbiting Earth. The duo from Roscosmos then spent the remainder of the day working contained in the Zarya module persevering with to assemble cargo containers.
