ISS - Expedition 63 Mission patch.
June 24, 2020
The Expedition 63 crew lightened up on spacewalk preparations today and focused its attention on a variety of research hardware today. The International Space Station residents also brushed up on their medical emergency skills while tending a pair of resupply ships.
Following a day of spacesuit fit checks, the three NASA astronauts aboard the orbiting lab split up on Wednesday to keep space science moving along. Commander Chris Cassidy started the day servicing a science freezer that stores biological samples for analysis. During the afternoon, Cassidy checked on samples for a physics study with commercial applications taking place in the Fluid Science Laboratory rack.
Image above: NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy is pictured during a spacewalk in July of 2013 when he was an Expedition 36 Flight Engineer. Image Credit: NASA.
Flight Engineer Doug Hurley stowed hardware from a space bubbles study that was exploring new methods to deliver oxygen to spacecraft and medicine to humans. His fellow crewmate, Bob Behnken, was troubleshooting the TangoLab-2 science facility before packing gear inside Japan’s HTV-9 resupply ship.
The duo ended the day conducting a medical emergency drill in space. Hurley and Behnken practiced cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) techniques, located medical equipment and coordinated communications with mission controllers.
Image above: On June 21, 2020, as the International Space Station orbited over Kazakhstan and into China, an external high-definition camera captured this picture of the solar eclipse shadowing a portion of the Asian continent. The eclipse was visible across broad sections of Africa, the Middle East and Asia. In the left foreground, is the H-II Transfer Vehicle-9 from JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Image Credit: NASA.
Hurley also joined cosmonaut Ivan Vagner in the morning and reviewed their responsibilities to assist Cassidy and Behnken during Friday’s spacewalk. Hurley and Vagner will help the astronauts in and out of their spacesuits and monitor the spacewalk scheduled to start about 7:35 a.m. EDT. NASA TV begins its live broadcast at 6 a.m.
NASA TV: https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html
Vagner then partnered up with veteran cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin for cargo operations inside Russia’s Progress 74 cargo craft. Ivanishin spent the rest of the day working on Russian science experiments and life support maintenance.
Related links:
Expedition 63: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition63/index.html
Commercial Crew Program: https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/commercial/crew/index.html
Fluid Science Laboratory: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=258
Space bubbles study: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1939
TangoLab-2: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=7519
HTV-9 resupply ship: https://iss.jaxa.jp/en/htv/mission/htv-9/
Progress 74 cargo craft: https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2019/12/09/russian-space-freighter-docks-automatically-to-station/
Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/overview.html
International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html
Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia.
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