jeudi 18 mai 2023

Station Preps for Axiom Mission 2 Nearing Sunday Launch

 







ISS - Expedition 69 Mission patch.


May 18, 2023

The Expedition 69 crew members continue preparing the International Space Station for the arrival four private astronauts early next week. Meanwhile, the orbital residents also stayed focused on their life science activities and lab maintenance tasks.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with the Dragon Freedom crew ship attached, rolled out to its launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday morning. It is scheduled to launch four Axiom Mission-2 (Ax-2) astronauts at 5:37 p.m. EDT on Sunday to the orbital outpost. Former NASA astronaut and Ax-2 Commander Peggy Whitson will lead first-time space flyers Pilot John Shoffner and Mission Specialists Ali Alqarni and Rayyanah Barnawi aboard Dragon during its space flight. Dragon will automatically approach and dock to the space-facing port on the Harmony module at 9:24 a.m. on Monday.

Image above: The SpaceX Dragon Endeavour carrying four Axiom Mission 1 astronauts approaches the International Space Station on April 9, 2022, with the first quarter Moon in the background. Image Credit: NASA.

Two station flight engineers spent a portion of Thursday configuring station equipment to support the four Ax-2 crew members during their stay aboard orbital lab. NASA astronaut Stephen Bowen gathered and staged emergency hardware on midday Thursday to accommodate the additional astronauts and their Dragon vehicle. UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi relocated a station computer from the Kibo laboratory module to the Harmony module for Ax-2 crew use.

Bowen would go on and work the rest of the day inside the Destiny laboratory module servicing life support gear that cools station hardware and rejects heat using water loops. Alneyadi charged batteries, removed components, and practiced installing jetpacks on the Extravehicular Mobility Units, or spacesuits, in preparation for upcoming spacewalks.

International Space Station (ISS). Animation Credit: ESA

NASA Flight Engineer Frank Rubio worked inside the Kibo lab installing protein crystal research hardware and a centrifuge supporting life science and physics research. NASA astronaut Woody Hoburg wrapped up the checkout and activation of the Treadmill 2 in the Tranquility module following its inspection and cleaning earlier in the week.

Commander Sergey Prokopyev joined Flight Engineer Dmitri Petelin after breakfast for ultrasound scans of their stomachs to understand microgravity’s affect on the digestion process. Roscosmos Flight Engineer Andrey Fedyaev attached sensors to himself recording his heart activity while pedaling on an exercise cycle for a fitness evaluation. Fedyaev that partnered with Prokopyev at the end of the day transferring cargo from the ISS Progress 83 resupply ship docked to the Zvezda service module’s aft port.

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

Kibo laboratory module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/japan-kibo-laboratory

Destiny laboratory module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/us-destiny-laboratory

Destiny laboratory: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/us-destiny-laboratory

Protein crystal research: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7468

Tranquility module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/tranquility/

Zvezda service module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/zvezda-service-module.html

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

Image (mentioned), Animation (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

NASA’s Perseverance Rover Captures View of Mars’ Belva Crater

 







NASA - Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover logo.


May 18, 2023

(Click on the images for enlarge)

The six-wheeled scientist encountered the crater during its latest science campaign in search of rock samples that could be brought to Earth for deeper investigation.

Image above: The 152 images that make up this mosaic of Belva Crater were taken by the Mastcam-Z instrument aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover on April 22, 2023, the 772nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Belva is a 0.6-mile-wide (0.9-kilometer wide) impact crater within the much larger Jezero Crater. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS.

The Mastcam-Z instrument aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover recently collected 152 images while looking deep into Belva Crater, a large impact crater within the far larger Jezero Crater. Stitched into a dramatic mosaic, the results are not only eye-catching, but also provide the rover’s science team some deep insights into the interior of Jezero.

“Mars rover missions usually end up exploring bedrock in small, flat exposures in the immediate workspace of the rover,” said Katie Stack Morgan, deputy project scientist of Perseverance at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “That’s why our science team was so keen to image and study Belva. Impact craters can offer grand views and vertical cuts that provide important clues to the origin of these rocks with a perspective and at a scale that we don’t usually experience.”

On Earth, geology professors often take their students to visit highway “roadcuts” –places where construction crews have sliced vertically into the rock to make way for roads – that allow them to view rock layers and other geological features not visible at the surface. On Mars, impact craters like Belva can provide a type of natural roadcut.

Image above: This anaglyph of Perseverance’s mosaic of Belva Crater can best be viewed with red-blue 3D glasses. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS.

Signs of Past Water

Perseverance took the images of the basin on April 22 (the 772nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission) while parked just west of Belva Crater’s rim on a light-toned rocky outcrop the mission’s science team calls “Echo Creek.” Created by a meteorite impact eons ago, the approximately 0.6-mile-wide (0.9-kilometer-wide) crater reveals multiple locations of exposed bedrock as well as a region where sedimentary layers angle steeply downward.

These “dipping beds” could indicate the presence of a large Martian sandbar, made of sediment, that billions of years ago was deposited by a river channel flowing into the lake that Jezero Crater once held.

The science team suspects the large boulders in the foreground are either chunks of bedrock exposed by the meteorite impact or that they may have been transported into the crater by the river system. The scientists will search for answers by continuing to compare features found in bedrock near the rover to the larger-scale rock layers visible in the distant crater walls.

To help with those efforts, the mission also created an anaglyph, or 3D version, of the mosaic. “An anaglyph can help us visualize the geologic relationships between the crater wall outcrops,” said Stack. “But it also provides an opportunity to simply enjoy an awesome view. When I look at this mosaic through red-blue 3D glasses, I’m transported to the western rim of Belva, and I wonder what future astronauts would be thinking if they were to stand where Perseverance once stood when it took this shot.”

More About the Mission

A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including caching samples that may contain signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith.

Mars Perseverance Rover. Animation Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA, would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.

The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.

JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.

For more about Perseverance:

https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/ and http://www.nasa.gov/perseverance

Images (mentioned), Animation (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Tony Greicius/Karen Fox/Alana Johnson/JPL/DC Agle.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

mercredi 17 mai 2023

Research, Lab Upkeep Fill Crew Day Before Emergency Training Session

 







ISS - Expedition 69 Mission patch.


May 17, 2023

The Expedition 69 crew spent Wednesday servicing an array of science gear, maintaining orbital lab systems, and readying gear for the next private astronaut mission. The International Space Station crew members also joined each other at the end of the day and practiced responding to a variety of emergency scenarios.

NASA Flight Engineers Frank Rubio and Woody Hoburg worked during the morning on science hardware supporting different space biology experiments. Rubio uninstalled video components inside the Cell Biology Experiment Facility, a research incubator that generates artificial gravity. Hoburg deployed a computer on the Tranquility module’s life support rack before ground controllers loaded network security software into the device.

Image above: Astronaut Woody Hoburg works replaces life support system components inside the International Space Station’s Destiny laboratory module. Image Credit: NASA.

Rubio later joined UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi and returned the station’s Treadmill 2 to its normal configuration inside Tranquility. Alneyadi and Hoburg had worked the day before on the treadmill rotating it out of its stowage position to inspect and clean its electronic components.

NASA Flight Engineer Stephen Bowen swapped out pharmaceutical samples inside the Microgravity Science Glovebox for the Ring Sheared Drop experiment that seeks potential treatments for neuro-degenerative diseases. He also removed a vest and headband he was wearing that recorded his vital signs and prepared the medical data for review by doctors on the ground.

Image above: Known for its many rivers and one of Northern Patagonia’s largest glaciers, Laguna San Rafael National Park was photographed on May 9, 2023 as the space station orbited 268 miles above Chile. Image Credits: NASA/Warren “Woody” Hoburg.

Bowen also prepared computer tablets that will be used during the upcoming Axiom Mission-2 (Ax-2). Bowen configured the devices to allow the Ax-2 crew to access ground resources and connect to the internet. Ax-2 will be commanded by former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson who will lead first-time space flyers Pilot John Shoffner and Mission Specialists Ali Alqarni and Rayyanah Barnawi. The private quartet is scheduled to launch aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft at 5:37 p.m. EDT on Sunday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and automatically dock to the orbiting lab at 9:24 a.m. on Monday.

Commander Sergey Prokopyev and Flight Engineer Dmitri Petelin worked throughout Wednesday on life support maintenance before partnering together and testing ultrasound gear for a human research study. Flight Engineer Andrey Fedyaev spent his day inspecting surfaces inside the Roscosmos station modules.

International Space Station (ISS). Animation Credit: NASA

At the end of the day, all seven crewmates joined each other for a regularly scheduled emergency training session. The orbital residents reviewed how they would coordinate their response to unlikely emergency events such as a fire, an ammonia leak, or a pressure leak. They familiarized themselves with escape routes, safety gear, and communication protocols with mission controllers.

Related links:

Expedition 69: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition69/index.html

Tranquility module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/tranquility/

Treadmill 2: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=752

Ring Sheared Drop: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7383

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.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Our oceans are in hot water

 






ESA - Sentinel-3 Mission logo.


May 17, 2023

Adding to the grim list of record ice losses, record air temperatures and record droughts, which have all hit the headlines recently, the temperature of the surface waters of our oceans is also at an all-time high. With an El Niño looming, concerns are that we will soon be facing even worse extremes. Satellites orbiting overhead are being used to carefully track the patterns that lead up to El Niño to further understand and predict the consequences of this cyclic phenomenon against the backdrop of climate change.

The coupled ocean–atmosphere system of El Niño and La Niña, together known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, are drivers of significant variations in global temperature and precipitation, on top of the warming trend caused by climate change.

El Niño occurs every few years when the trade winds weaken allowing warm water in the western Pacific Ocean to shift eastward, bringing with it changes in wind patterns and ocean dynamics. This can have a significant impact on weather around the world, leading to changes in ecosystems and fisheries, droughts, floods and storms, amongst others.

Climate models suggest that after three years of La Niña, which has a general cooling effect on the planet, in the next few months we will face a return to the more troublesome El Niño.

Sea-surface temperatures May 2022 and May 2023

Climate change is already fuelling the recent extreme temperatures that many of us have had to deal with, so the worrying question is whether this impending El Niño will make matters even worse.

Monitoring changes in the temperature and height of the sea surface, together with the surface wind patterns that result from the interactions between the ocean and the atmosphere, helps us to understand the mechanisms that drive El Niño events.

Moreover, scientists have to take climate change into account, which is likely to amplify the extremes that this El Niño, and future El Niño events, will bring.

Satellites orbiting above are paramount to delivering the data for this kind of research because the Tropical Pacific Ocean, the home of El Niño, is so large it is difficult to monitor.

Sea-surface temperature January to mid-May 2023

ESA’s lead ocean scientist, Craig Donlon, said, “More than 70% of our planet is covered by ocean. It plays an enormous role in the climate system.

“We all know that our climate is warming – but I imagine that most people first think of warmer air temperatures. In fact, our oceans have been soaking up much of this extra heat, keeping the atmosphere relatively cool. This has come at a cost, and we are now seeing the temperature of our oceans at their hottest since records began.”

“Scientists all over the world use Copernicus Sentinel-3 data that provides reference surface-temperature measurements together with sea-surface height data. They also use Copernicus Sentinel-6 which gives us the most accurate measurements of the height of the sea surface. When seawater warms, it expands – one of the biggest causes of sea-level rise. These complementary datasets work together to provide a unique picture of the evolving El Niño.”

El Niño and La Niña

Built by ESA and operated by Eumetsat, the Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission is unique in delivering measurements of global sea-surface temperature as well as sea-surface height from the same satellite platform.

The mission comprises two identical satellites, each carrying the same suite of instruments – one of which is the Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer, which measures global sea-surface temperatures every day to an accuracy of better than 0.3 K.

The other is a radar altimeter that measures sea-surface height, significant wave height and wind speed. In addition, its imager, called the Ocean and Land Colour Imager, allows scientists to study the biological signatures in the ocean that are modified by El Niño.

Sentinel-3’s radiometer is used by the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites within its Sea Surface Temperature Virtual Constellation for a better understanding phenomena like El Niño and La Niña events, and ocean currents and heat exchange between the ocean and atmosphere.


Copernicus Sentinel-3

Sentinel-6 is the reference altimeter used to homogenise other satellite altimeter data to provide measurements of sea-level rise every 10 days.

Importantly, data from both missions are delivered in near-real time.

ESA currently building a further two Sentinel-3 satellites, Sentinel-3C and Sentinel-3D, to ensure continuity of such measurements. Looking to the future, ESA is also developing the follow-on Copernicus Sentinel-3 Next Generation mission.

A second Sentinel-6 satellite is currently in storage and is due for launch in the next few years to maintain the sea-level record.

Since sea-surface temperature is an important essential climate variable, ESA’s Climate Change Initiative also feeds in Sentinel-3 data to its Sea Surface Temperature Project.


Copernicus Sentinel-6 radar altimeter

The future Copernicus Imaging Microwave Radiometer mission is set to provide all-weather high-resolution sea-surface temperature measurements. In addition, the Copernicus Land Surface Temperature Monitoring mission will provide very high-resolution sea-surface temperature data in coastal zones.

In short, the Copernicus programme is well-prepared to continue monitoring our oceans well into the future.

Warming oceans are indeed a worry, and now with an El Niño on the horizon, the world is braced for the impact it will have.

El Niño is likely to affect more than 60 million people, particularly in eastern and southern Africa, the Horn of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Asia-Pacific region.

Severe drought and associated food insecurity, flooding, rains, and temperature rises due to El Niño can cause a wide range of health problems, including disease outbreaks, malnutrition, heat stress and respiratory diseases.

“Satellites orbiting Earth, now and in the future, not only those monitoring our oceans but measuring many different aspects of our planet, are more important than ever. They provide hard evidence for science and for decision making to protect society,” added Dr Donlon.

Related article:

International Sea Level Satellite Spots Early Signs of El Niño
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2023/05/international-sea-level-satellite-spots.html

Related links:

Sentinel-3: https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus/Sentinel-3

Sentinel-6: https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus/Sentinel-6

Eumetsat: https://www.eumetsat.int/

Committee on Earth Observation Satellites within its Sea Surface Temperature Virtual Constellation: https://ceos.org/ourwork/virtual-constellations/sst/

Sea Surface Temperature Project: https://climate.esa.int/en/projects/sea-surface-temperature/

Observing the Earth: https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth

Images, Animation, Video, Text, Credits: ESA/Data source: NOAA.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

CASC - Long March-3B launches the first BeiDou-3 backup satellite

 







CASC - Long March-3B / BeiDou-3 backup satellite patch.


May 17, 2023

Long March-3B carrying first BeiDou-3 backup satellite liftoff

A Long March-3B launch vehicle launched the first backup BeiDou-3 navigation satellite from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, Sichuan Province, southwest China, on 17 May 2023, at 02:49 UTC (10:49 local time). 

Long March-3B launches the first BeiDou-3 backup satellite

The geostationary satellite is the 56th of the BeiDou family and the first to act as a backup satellite for China’s BeiDou-3 Navigation Satellite System (BDS-3).


BeiDou-3 navigation satellite
 
For more information about China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), visit: http://english.spacechina.com/n16421/index.html
 
Images, Video, Text, Credits: China Central Television (CCTV)/China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC)/SciNews/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

NASA’s Spitzer, TESS Find Potentially Volcano-Covered Earth-Size World

 





NASA - Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) patch.


May 17, 2023

Astronomers have discovered an Earth-size exoplanet, or world beyond our solar system, that may be carpeted with volcanoes. Called LP 791-18 d, the planet could undergo volcanic outbursts as often as Jupiter’s moon Io, the most volcanically active body in our solar system.

They found and studied the planet using data from NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) and retired Spitzer Space Telescope, as well as a suite of ground-based observatories.

A paper about the planet – led by Merrin Peterson, a graduate of the Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets (iREx) based at the University of Montreal – appears in the May 17 edition of the scientific journal Nature.

Image above: LP 791-18 d, shown here in an artist's concept, is an Earth-size world about 90 light-years away. The gravitational tug from a more massive planet in the system, shown as a blue disk in the background, may result in internal heating and volcanic eruptions – as much as Jupiter’s moon Io, the most geologically active body in the solar system. Astronomers discovered and studied the planet using data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) along with many other observatories. Image Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (KRBwyle).

“LP 791-18 d is tidally locked, which means the same side constantly faces its star,” said Björn Benneke, a co-author and astronomy professor at iREx who planned and supervised the study. “The day side would probably be too hot for liquid water to exist on the surface. But the amount of volcanic activity we suspect occurs all over the planet could sustain an atmosphere, which may allow water to condense on the night side.”

LP 791-18 d orbits a small red dwarf star about 90 light-years away in the southern constellation Crater. The team estimates it’s only slightly larger and more massive than Earth.

Astronomers already knew about two other worlds in the system before this discovery, called LP 791-18 b and c. The inner planet b is about 20% bigger than Earth. The outer planet c is about 2.5 times Earth’s size and more than seven times its mass.

During each orbit, planets d and c pass very close to each other. Each close pass by the more massive planet c produces a gravitational tug on planet d, making its orbit somewhat elliptical. On this elliptical path, planet d is slightly deformed every time it goes around the star. These deformations can create enough internal friction to substantially heat the planet’s interior and produce volcanic activity at its surface. Jupiter and some of its moons affect Io in a similar way.

Planet d sits on the inner edge of the habitable zone, the traditional range of distances from a star where scientists hypothesize liquid water could exist on a planet’s surface. If the planet is as geologically active as the research team suspects, it could maintain an atmosphere. Temperatures could drop enough on the planet’s night side for water to condense on the surface.

Planet c has already been approved for observing time on the James Webb Space Telescope, and the team thinks planet d is also an exceptional candidate for atmospheric studies by the mission.

Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Animation Credit: NASA

“A big question in astrobiology, the field that broadly studies the origins of life on Earth and beyond, is if tectonic or volcanic activity is necessary for life,” said co-author Jessie Christiansen, a research scientist at NASA’s Exoplanet Science Institute at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. “In addition to potentially providing an atmosphere, these processes could churn up materials that would otherwise sink down and get trapped in the crust, including those we think are important for life, like carbon.”

Spitzer’s observations of the system were among the last the satellite collected before it was decommissioned in January 2020.

“It is incredible to read about the continuation of discoveries and publications years beyond Spitzer’s end of mission,” said Joseph Hunt, Spitzer project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “That really shows the success of our first-class engineers and scientists. Together they built not only a spacecraft but also a data set that continues to be an asset for the astrophysics community.”

TESS is a NASA Astrophysics Explorer mission led and operated by MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Additional partners include Northrop Grumman, based in Falls Church, Virginia; NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley; the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian in Cambridge, Massachusetts; MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory; and the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. More than a dozen universities, research institutes, and observatories worldwide are participants in the mission.

The entire body of scientific data collected by Spitzer during its lifetime is available to the public via the Spitzer data archive, housed at the Infrared Science Archive at IPAC at Caltech in Pasadena, California. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech, managed Spitzer mission operations for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Science operations were conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at IPAC at Caltech. Spacecraft operations were based at Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado.

Related links:

TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite): https://www.nasa.gov/tess-transiting-exoplanet-survey-satellite

Spitzer Space Telescope: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/spitzer/main/index.html

NASA’s Exoplanet Science Institute: https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/astrophysics-data-centers/nasa-exoplanet-science-institute-nexsci

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL): https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC): https://www.nasa.gov/goddard

NASA’s Ames Research Center: https://www.nasa.gov/ames

Image (mentioned), Animation (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/GSFC/By Jeanette Kazmierczak.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

mardi 16 mai 2023

Crew Works Science, Maintenance Ahead of Second Axiom Mission

 







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.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch