ISS - Expedition 65 Mission patch.
June 17, 2021
International Space Station (ISS). Animation Credit: NASA
The Expedition 65 crew is checking spacesuits and tools following Wednesday’s spacewalk while also getting ready for a second spacewalk on Sunday. There was also time aboard the International Space Station for ongoing research and maintenance.
Astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Thomas Pesquet completed Wednesday’s spacewalk after seven hours and 15 minutes beginning the installation of a pair of new roll out solar arrays. The duo now turns its attention to a Sunday spacewalk to continue more solar array installation work on the orbiting lab’s P-6 truss segment. NASA TV will begin its live coverage at 6:30 a.m. EDT for all the spacewalk activities.
Astronaut Shane Kimbrough on Twitter
The spacewalkers and their assistants NASA Flight Engineers Megan McArthur and Mark Vande Hei began Thursday morning relaxing. The quartet then spent the day checking spacesuit components, organizing spacewalk tools and calling down to the ground for a conference with specialists.
Space science continued today, as Commander Akihiko Hoshide spent some time servicing samples for a study to improve quality and extend the shelf-life of medicines on Earth and in space. Vande Hei also worked a couple of hours on the Oral Biofilms experiment investigating how bacteria is affected by microgravity and ways to counteract harmful changes.
Image above: Astronaut Thomas Pesquet is pictured attached to the end of the Canadarm2 robotic arm during a spacewalk to install new roll out solar arrays. Image Credit: NASA TV.
Cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov began Thursday morning exploring how microgravity impacts the immune system before moving on and studying ways to maximize the effectiveness of space exercise. Fellow Roscosmos Flight Engineer Oleg Novitskiy worked on a variety of Russian station hardware and swapped samples inside the Electromagnetic Levitator for a study observing chill-cooled industrial alloys.
Related links:
Expedition 65: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition65/index.html
P-6 truss segment: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/truss-structure
Medicines on Earth and in space: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=8329
Oral Biofilms: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=8160
Immune system: https://www.energia.ru/en/iss/researches/human/22.html
Space exercise: https://www.energia.ru/en/iss/researches/human/26.html
Electromagnetic Levitator: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=1853%22
Chill-cooled industrial alloys: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=8596
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
Animation (mentioned), Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia.
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