ISS - Expedition 69 Mission patch.
May 16, 2023
Mission managers have given the go for the launch of the second private astronaut mission to the International Space Station on Sunday. The Expedition 69 crew is preparing to meet the new astronauts while also keeping up its human research, maintaining orbital lab systems, and stowing spacewalk tools.
Image above: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Dragon crew spacecraft launched in April 2022 on Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) to the International Space Station. Axiom Mission 2, targeted for launch in May 2023, will carry crew members for the second private astronaut mission to the space station, including Commander Peggy Whitson, Pilot John Shoffner, and Mission Specialists Ali Alqarni and Rayyanah Barnawi. Image Credit: NASA.
Axiom Space, SpaceX, and NASA managers met on Monday and agreed to launch four Axiom Mission-2 (Ax-2) crew members to the space station at 5:37 p.m. EDT on Sunday. Veteran astronaut and commander Peggy Whitson will lead first-time space flyers Pilot John Shoffner and Mission Specialists Ali Alqarni and Rayyanah Barnawi aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and guide it to an automated docking at 9:24 a.m. on Monday. The private astronauts will enter the station through the Harmony module’s space-facing port and begin several days of research, outreach, and commercial activities before returning to Earth.
Four station flight engineers joined each other during Tuesday afternoon and reviewed the Ax -2 mission schedule. NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen, Frank Rubio, and Woody Hoburg, along with UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi familiarized themselves with the upcoming mission activities and reviewed how the crews will coordinate during docked operations.
International Space Station (ISS). Animation Credit: ESA
In the meantime, the seven space station residents continued ongoing microgravity science and kept up the maintenance of the orbital outpost. Spacesuit work and cargo transfers also rounded out the day.
Bowen was back on human research Tuesday morning servicing samples in a centrifuge for a study exploring the immunity systems of astronauts. Rubio powered on the Astrobee free-flying robotic assistants then removed experiment hardware from inside the Kibo laboratory module’s airlock.
Hoburg and Alneyadi spent most of the day working on the Tranquility module’s treadmill. The duo rotated the exercise rack from its stowage position to gain access to its internal electronics components for inspection and cleaning. Alneyadi then spent a few moments testing the operations of the Astrobees for an upcoming student competition to control the robotic devices.
Image above: Cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin work outside the space station to deploy and activate a radiator on the Nauka science module during a spacewalk on May 12, 2023. Image Credit: NASA.
Commander Sergey Prokopyev and Flight Engineer Dmitri Petelin continued cleaning up after last week’s spacewalk. The duo reconfigured the Poisk airlock and stowed the tools and hardware used during the five-hour and 14-minute excursion that saw the deployment of a radiator on the Nauka science module. Prokopyev also partnered with Roscosmos Flight Engineer Andrey Fedyaev unpacking cargo from the ISS Progress 83 cargo craft, while Petelin also explored how weightlessness affects the cardiovascular system.
Related article (NASA):
NASA Sets Coverage for Axiom Mission 2 Briefings, Events, Broadcast
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-sets-coverage-for-axiom-mission-2-briefings-events-broadcast
Related links:
Expedition 69: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition69/index.html
Harmony module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/harmony
Immunity systems: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=8170
Astrobee: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=1891
Kibo laboratory module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=7428
Tranquility module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/tranquility/
Poisk airlock: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/poisk-mini-research-module-2
Nauka multipurpose laboratory module: https://www.roscosmos.ru/tag/nauka/
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), Animation (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia.
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