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Viewing Posts from December 2022

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    Station Crew Wraps Up a Busy Year as Soyuz Review Continues

    Expedition 68 Flight Engineers (from left) Josh Cassada, Nicole Mann, and Frank Rubio, all from NASA, and Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), pose for a festive portrait on Christmas Day inside the cupola as the International Space Station orbited 270 miles above the southern Atlantic Ocean on Dec. 25, 2022.

    Research and maintenance activities aboard the International Space Station continue into the new year while engineers and managers discuss Soyuz capabilities and potential next steps in response to the Soyuz MS-22’s external cooling loop leak. The Expedition 68 crew remains in good condition, performing a variety of maintenance and research activities and looks forward to some …

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    Crew Goes into Christmas Weekend After Spacewalk and Science Ops

    The official portrait of the Expedition 68 crew with (from left) Frank Rubio, Dmitri Petelin, Koichi Wakata, Josh Cassada, Nicole Mann, Sergey Prokopyev, and Anna Kikina.

    The seven Expedition 68 crew members wrapped up the work week cleaning up after a spacewalk and performing a variety of research operations. The space residents will spend a quiet weekend observing the Christmas holiday orbiting Earth aboard the International Space Station. NASA Flight Engineers Frank Rubio and Josh Cassada worked throughout Friday cleaning up …

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    NASA Spacewalkers Install Station’s Fourth Roll-Out Solar Array

    NASA spacewalker Josh Cassada prepares a roll-out solar array for its deployment on the space station's Port-4 truss segment as the orbiting lab flew above the Atlantic Ocean.

    Expedition 68 Flight Engineers Josh Cassada and Frank Rubio of NASA concluded their spacewalk at 3:27 p.m. EST after 7 hours and 8 minutes. Cassada and Rubio completed their major objectives for today to install an International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Array (iROSA) on the 4A power channel on the port truss. The iROSAs will …

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    NASA Astronauts Begin Spacewalk to Install Solar Array

    Astronaut Frank Rubio is pictured during a spacewalk on Nov. 15, 2022, tethered to the space station's starboard truss structure during an orbital sunset.

    Expedition 68 Flight Engineers Josh Cassada and Frank Rubio of NASA began a spacewalk at 8:19 a.m. EST to install an International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Array (iROSA) to augment power generation for the 4A power channel on the station’s port truss structure. Rubio, designated extravehicular crew member 1 (EV1), is wearing a suit with red stripes. Cassada, designated …

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    Watch Live as NASA Astronauts Prep for Spacewalk to Upgrade Station Power System

    NASA spacewalker Josh Cassada rides the Canadarm2 robotic arm carrying the roll-out solar array to its installation site on the Starboard-4 truss segment. Credit: NASA TV

    NASA Television coverage of today’s spacewalk with NASA astronauts Josh Cassada and Frank Rubio is now underway and is also available on the NASA app, the space station blog and the agency’s website. The crew members of Expedition 68 are preparing to exit the International Space Station‘s Quest airlock for a spacewalk expected to begin about 8:30 …

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    Spacewalk Postponed to Thursday, Managers Discuss Soyuz Leak Inquiry

    NASA astronauts (from left) Frank Rubio and Josh Cassada will conduct their third spacewalk together and install the space station's fourth roll-out solar array.

    NASA astronauts Frank Rubio and Josh Cassada are now scheduled to begin a spacewalk at 8:30 a.m. EST Thursday to augment the International Space Station’s power generation system. Wednesday’s spacewalk was postponed for 24 hours so that the orbiting lab’s ISS Progress 81 cargo craft could fire its engines at 8:42 a.m. to maneuver the …

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    Space Station Maneuvers to Avoid Debris After Conjunction Postpones Spacewalk

    The space station was pictured from the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour during its departure on Nov. 8, 2021.

    The International Space Station conducted a Pre-Determined Debris Avoidance Maneuver (PDAM) today, Dec. 21, at 8:42 a.m. EST. The decision to conduct the maneuver was based on tracking data that showed a close approach to station of a fragment of Russian Fregat-SB upper stage debris. During the manuever, the Roscosmos Progress 81 thrusters fired for …

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    NASA Spacewalk Postponed Due to Debris Avoidance

    Astronaut Josh Cassada is pictured during a spacewalk on Nov. 15, 2022, to ready the space station for future rollout solar array installation work.

    While flight control teams were preparing for today’s U.S. spacewalk, updated tracking data on a fragment of Russian Fregat-SB upper stage debris showed a close approach to station. Based on this new data, flight control teams directed the crew to stop spacewalk preparations as the ground team stepped into procedures to perform a Pre-Determined Debris …

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    Spacewalk Preps Under Way During Multitude of Science Experiments

    Astronauts Nicole Mann and Frank Rubio pose with their mission's insignia inside the cupola as the space station orbited above the Pacific Ocean.

    Two Expedition 68 astronauts are preparing to exit the International Space Station on Wednesday and augment the orbiting lab’s power generation system. The duo from NASA, Frank Rubio and Josh Cassada, will spend about seven hours installing the station’s fourth roll-out solar array on the Port-4 (P4) truss structure. Rubio and Cassada spent Tuesday gathering …

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    Week Begins with Bone Research, Cargo Operations Ahead of Spacewalk

    The Soyuz MS-22 crew ship is pictured docked to the Rassvet module. In the background, the Prichal docking module is attached to the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module.

    Life science and cargo operations kicked off the week for the Expedition 68 crew aboard the International Space Station. Two astronauts are also planning to exit the orbiting lab on Wednesday for a seven-hour spacewalk. NASA Flight Engineers Josh Cassada and Nicole Mann took turns with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Flight Engineer Koichi Wakata …

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