ISS - Expedition 61 Mission patch.
January 6, 2020
The SpaceX Dragon is due to leave the International Space Station on Tuesday and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean loaded with critical science and station hardware for analysis. The Expedition 61 crew worked over the weekend and into Monday finalizing cargo transfers.
Image above: The SpaceX Dragon resupply ship approaches the International Space Station on Dec. 8, 2019, as both spacecraft were orbiting 257 miles above Egypt and about to cross over the Mediterranean Sea. Image Credit: NASA.
NASA Flight Engineers Jessica Meir, Christina Koch and Andrew Morgan are carefully packing research samples including live mice inside Dragon for retrieval and analysis on Earth. Morgan and Commander Luca Parmitano of ESA (European Space Agency) will close the hatches and conduct leak checks before robotics controllers uninstall Dragon from the Harmony module on Monday night.
Most of the crew will be asleep as Parmitano monitors Dragon’s release from the grip of the Canadarm2 robotic arm on Tuesday at 5:03 a.m. EST. The U.S. space freighter will orbit Earth a few more hours before parachuting to a splash down in the Pacific around 10:41 a.m. NASA TV will be live broadcasting Dragon’s departure starting at 4:45 a.m. Tuesday. Splashdown will not be seen on NASA TV.
Wildfires Near Sydney, Australia Photographed from International Space Station
Image above: Wildfires are pictured surrounding Sydney, Australia, in this Jan. 3, 2020 photo taken by the Expedition 61 astronauts aboard the International Space Station. The space station was orbiting 269 miles above the Tasman Sea. Image Credit: NASA.
The two veteran cosmonauts stayed focused on their Russian task list of space science and systems maintenance today. Flight Engineer Alexander Skvortsov started the day on plumbing duty before cleaning fans and filters. Oleg Skripochka worked on heart research before inventorying station tool kits.
Related links:
Expedition 61: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition61/index.html
SpaceX Dragon: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/spacex-dragon-launches-arrivals-and-departures
NASA Television: https://www.nasa.gov/live/
Live mice: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=8075
Canadarm2: https://cms.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/mobile-servicing-system.html
Heart research: https://www.energia.ru/en/iss/researches/human/11.html
Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html
International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html
Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia/Sarah Loff.
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