ISS - Expedition 44 Mission patch.
June 24, 2015
A pair of Expedition 44 crew members are training for next week’s arrival of SpaceX CRS-7. Another crew member is practicing for the rendezvous of an upcoming Russian resupply mission. Meanwhile, science is ongoing aboard the International Space Station.
One-Year crew member Scott Kelly and station Commander Gennady Padalka partnered up for another session of robotics training. Kelly, with assistance from Padalka, will guide the 57.7 foot long Canadarm2 to capture the SpaceX Dragon about 7 a.m. EDT on June 30. Dragon’s launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket is planned for Sunday at 10:21 a.m.
Image above: The SpaceX Dragon craft was pictured May 21, 2015 before it was released from the International Space Station for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. Image Credit: NASA.
Kelly’s fellow One-Year crew member Mikhail Kornienko practiced using the telerobotically-operated rendezvous system which would be used to manually dock an approaching Progress cargo craft in case of an emergency. The next Russian resupply mission, ISS Progress 60, is due for launch early July 3rd and dock to the Pirs docking compartment two days later.
The crew was right back at work again today on the Microbiome study researching microgravity’s effect on an astronaut’s immune system. For the Motocard experiment the crew explored astronaut motion in space to potentially improve physical training. The crew also researched acoustic methods to locate micrometeoroid impacts on the station for the Proboy study.
Related links:
SpaceX CRS-7: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/launch/index.html
One-Year crew: http://www.nasa.gov/oneyear/index.html
Microbiome study: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1010.html
Motocard experiment: http://www.energia.ru/en/iss/researches/human/07.html
Proboy study: http://www.energia.ru/en/iss/researches/develop/17.html
International Space Station (ISS): http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html
Image (mentioned), Text, Credit: NASA.
Cheers, Orbiter.ch
