Tag: Expedition 53

NASA AND SPACEX TARGET WEDNESDAY

NASA depicts the SpaceX Dragon resupply ship launches atop a Falcon 9 rocket Aug. 14, 2017, from Kennedy Space Center.

NASA and SpaceX are now targeting this Wednesday for the next Dragon launch to resupply the International Space Station.

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NASA depicts the SpaceX Dragon resupply ship launches atop a Falcon 9 rocket Aug. 14, 2017, from Kennedy Space Center.

NASA and SpaceX are now targeting no earlier than 11:24 a.m. EST Wednesday, Dec. 13th, for the company’s 13th commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station. SpaceX requested additional time for prelaunch ground systems checks.

A media pad photo opportunity scheduled for 11:30 p.m., Dec. 11 has been canceled.

A Dragon spacecraft will launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Dragon is now scheduled to arrive at the space station on Saturday, Dec. 16.

NASA Television coverage for launch is as follows:

Wednesday, Dec. 13

10:45 a.m. – Launch commentary coverage begins
12:30 p.m. – Post-launch news conference with representatives from NASA’s International Space Station Program and SpaceX

Saturday, Dec. 16

4:30 a.m. – Dragon rendezvous at the space station and capture
7:30 a.m. – Installation coverage

Watch live on NASA Television and the agency’s website: www.nasa.gov/live.

Join the conversation online by following @space_station.

Earlier, the crew preparing for return to earth were busy with their test run in the Soyuz spaceship.

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Expedition 52-53 crew members (from left) Paolo Nespoli, Sergey Ryazanskiy and Randy Bresnik are suited up for a test run of their Soyuz undocking and landing.

The Expedition 53 crew is getting ready to split up Thursday morning before another crew begins its mission next week. Soyuz Commander Sergey Ryazanskiy will pilot his crew mates Randy Bresnik of NASA and Paolo Nespoli of the European Space Agency in the Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft back to Earth after 139 days in space. The trio is scheduled to undock from the Rassvet module at 12:14 a.m. Thursday and parachute to a landing in Kazakhstan at 3:38 a.m.

New Expedition 54 Commander Alexander Misurkin will stay onboard the orbital laboratory with Flight Engineers Joe Acaba and Mark Vande Hei of NASA until March. The trio have been onboard the station since Sept. 12 and will welcome a new set of crewmates next week when the Soyuz MS-07 crew ship arrives.

The next space travelers to board the station will be veteran cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos and new astronauts Scott Tingle of NASA and Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. They are the Expedition 54-55 crew and are in Kazakhstan in final training ahead of their launch Sunday at 2:21 a.m. Shkaplerov, flanked by Tingle and Kanai, will take a two-day trip inside the Soyuz to the station before docking Tuesday at 3:43 a.m. for a four-month stay at the station.

Written By: Mark Garcia NASA

UNIVERSAL DIGEST is pleased to be a conduit for some of NASA’s projects and work. This article and some others were written by NASA and are mostly unedited. We do not claim credit, we simply want to make them more available to the general public.

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DRAGON TO LAUNCH CREW WAITS

A near-full moon is seen Dec. 2, 2017, as the space station orbited above north Africa.

Dragon is preparing to launch this week. With few delays in the process Wednesday can be the next timed schedule. Below, enjoy a moon image from space.

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A near-full moon is seen Dec. 2, 2017, as the space station orbited above north Africa.

The SpaceX Dragon resupply ship is at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida counting down to its launch to the International Space Station Tuesday at 11:46 a.m. EST. Meanwhile, the six-member Expedition 53 crew is preparing to split up this week.

Today, Dragon sits atop a Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station filled with nearly 4,800 pounds of crew supplies, station hardware and new research gear. After liftoff Tuesday morning, it will take a near three-day trip to the space station.

Astronauts Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba will be inside the cupola at the robotics controls Friday morning watching Dragon’s approach and rendezvous. When Dragon reaches a point 10 meters away from the orbital lab, the duo will command the Canadarm2 to grapple Dragon at about 6 a.m. Afterward, ground controllers will take over Canadarm2 and install the commercial cargo craft to the Harmony module where it will stay until Jan. 13.

In between Dragon’s launch and capture, three space station crew members will be going home. Crew mates Randy Bresnik of NASA, Sergey Ryazanskiy of Roscosmos and Paolo Nespoli of the European Space Agency are packing up the Soyuz MS-05 spaceship for a return to Earth Thursday at 3:38 a.m. The trio will have accumulated 139 days in space and traveled almost 59 million statute miles when it parachutes to a landing in Kazakhstan. NASA TV will broadcast all the space action this week.

Unfortunately and fortunately, the anticipated launch did not occur due to weather conditions.

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The SpaceX Dragon resupply ship launches atop a Falcon 9 rocket Aug. 14, 2017, from Kennedy Space Center to the International Space Station. Credit: NASA/Tony Gray and Sandra Joseph

Mark Garcia NASA

UNIVERSAL DIGEST is pleased to be a conduit for some of NASA’s projects and work. This article and some others were written by NASA and are mostly unedited. We do not claim credit, we simply want to make them more available to the general public.

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WILDFIRES IN CALIFORNIA FROM ISS

Expedition 53 Commander Randy Bresnik aboard the International Space Station took this photo of the California wildfires in the Los Angeles on Dec. 6, 2017.

Wildfires in California are raging on earth below, as the present crew activity is underway to receive a crew member replacement. The space station is now at the elevated orbit to receive the next spacecraft.

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Expedition 53 Commander Randy Bresnik aboard the International Space Station took this photo of the California wildfires in the Los Angeles on Dec. 6, 2017.

Two International Space Station crews are preparing to swap places at the orbital lab next week. In the midst of the crew swap activities, Commander Randy Bresnik also sent down dramatic photographs of the wildfires in California.

The Expedition 52-53 trio is getting its Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft ready for a three-and-a-half hour ride back to Earth on Dec. 14 after 139 days in space. Sergey Ryazanskiy, the Soyuz Commander, will lead his crewmates Randy Bresnik of NASA and Paolo Nespoli of the European Space Agency to a parachuted landing on the steppe Kazakhstan.

Next, the Expedition 54-55 trio will blast off Dec. 17 aboard the Soyuz MS-07 spacecraft and take a two-day trip to its new home in space. Anton Shkaplerov, a veteran cosmonaut from Roscosmos, will lead the flight to the station flanked by first-time astronauts Scott Tingle of NASA and Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

Back on orbit, Bresnik shared pictures he took on social media of the wildfires threatening the greater Los Angeles area in southern California. He wrote on his Twitter account, “Thank you to all the first responders, firefighters, and citizens willing to help fight these California wildfires.”

More wildfire photos can be viewed on the NASA portal and Flickr.

Written By: Mark Garcia NASA

UNIVERSAL DIGEST is pleased to be a conduit for some of NASA’s projects and work. This article and some others were written by NASA and are mostly unedited. We do not claim credit, we simply want to make them more available to the general public.

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CANADARM2 RELEASES CYGNUS SHIP

Canadarm2 releases the Cygnus supply ship for its return to earth to burn up with over 6,000 lbs of trash over the Pacific ocean. There is a select area pretty much in the middle of the most remote part of this ocean where ships on one-way trips are directed without interaction with any inhabited locations.

Canadarm2 was utilized to detach the Cygnus supply ship from its moorings for its fiery return to earth on December 18th.

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Canadarm2 releases the Cygnus supply ship for its return to earth to burn up with over 6,000 lbs of trash over the Pacific ocean. There is a select area pretty much in the middle of the most remote part of this ocean where ships on one-way trips are directed without interaction with any inhabited locations.

After delivering almost 7,400 pounds of cargo to support dozens of science experiments from around the world, the Orbital ATK Cygnus cargo spacecraft has departed the International Space Station. At 8:11 a.m., Expedition 53 Flight Engineers Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba of NASA gave the command to release Cygnus.

On Tuesday, Dec. 5, ground controllers used the Canadarm2 robotic arm to detach the Cygnus spacecraft from the Earth-facing side of the station’s Unity module. The spacecraft, which arrived at the station Nov. 14, then maneuvered above the Harmony module to gather data overnight that will aid in rendezvous and docking operations for future U.S. commercial crew vehicles arriving for a linkup to Harmony’s international docking adapters.

Experiments delivered on Cygnus supported NASA and other research investigations during Expedition 53, including studies in biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science.

Later today, Cygnus will release 14 CubeSats from an external NanoRacks deployer. Cygnus also is packed with more than 6,200 pounds of trash and other items marked for disposal during its destructive reentry Monday, Dec. 18.

The Cygnus launched Nov. 12 on Orbital ATK’s upgraded Antares 230 rocket from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia for the company’s eighth NASA-contracted commercial resupply mission.

For more information about the International Space Station, visit www.nasa.gov/station.

Written By: Mark Garcia NASA

UNIVERSAL DIGEST is pleased to be a conduit for some of NASA’s projects and work. This article and some others were written by NASA and are mostly unedited. We do not claim credit, we simply want to make them more available to the general public.

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