Docked spacecraft operations have been the principle focus on the Worldwide House Station on Thursday with crew departure coaching, cargo packing, and an orbital reboost additionally going down. The Expedition 72 crew additionally labored on science {hardware} activating a free-flying robotic assistant and making ready for a fireplace security experiment.
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 members which incorporates NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore, in addition to Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov joined one another on Wednesday for a refresher session and practiced on a pc the procedures for reentering the Earth’s ambiance aboard the SpaceX Dragon crew spacecraft. The quartet is deliberate to undock from the house station a few week after NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission arrives carrying NASA astronauts Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers, Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Company) Takuya Onishi. Crew-10’s 4 crew members are focused to launch no sooner than March 12 from the Kennedy House Heart in Florida.
Hague and Gorbunov additionally skilled to make use of a brand new device that measures airflow velocity from vents aboard the station. Williams changed ammonia leak emergency response procedures with new security manuals delivered on Aug. 6, 2024 aboard the Cygnus house freighter. Wilmore swapped gas bottles contained in the Combustion Built-in Rack to organize for a spacecraft fireplace security research that explores how flames unfold in microgravity.
NASA Flight Engineer Don Pettit was again on robotics responsibility on Wednesday powering up an Astrobee robotic free-flyer for the Astrobee-Zero Robotics scholar competitors to program the toaster-sized gadget to make quite a lot of maneuvers. Successful college students had their algorithms uploaded to Astrobee testing its capability to autonomously detect and transfer objects inside a time restrict aboard the Kibo laboratory module.
The house station is orbiting larger after the Progress 89 cargo craft, which is docked to the rear port of Zvezda service module, fired its thrusters for over 22 minutes on Wednesday evening. The reboost locations the station on the appropriate altitude to obtain the brand new Progress 91 craft after it launches on Feb. 27 then docks on March 1.
Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner packed the Progress 89 with trash and discarded {hardware} in preparation for cargo craft’s undocking on Feb. 25. Ovchinin additionally ready the Progress 89 for its departure eradicating air ducts and checking its hatch. Vagner moved on and serviced Zvezda’s oxygen generator whereas Gorbunov photographed the situation of stowage areas within the Zarya module. Following the Progress 89’s departure, Zvezda’s rear port might be vacated the place the Progress 91 will dock starting a six-month cargo mission.
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.
Get the newest from NASA delivered each week. Subscribe right here:
