Nikolay Tikhonov @spacetihonhttp://t.co/ickDcT4qNvOur ISS 51/52 crew // Наш экипаж МКС 51/52
Nikolay Tikhonov @spacetihon 14.04 Официальное фото экипажа... и немного веселья //Official crew photo, and a bit fun
Peggy Whitson @AstroPeggyThe Exp. 51 Space Flight Awareness poster was approved today. I am really looking forward to flying with these guys!
Thomas Pesquet @Thom_astro 24.08L-74: whenever there's cake, it's a good day! #Expedition50 #proxima
Angelina Ballerina @LiNa8294Exp. 50/51 crewmembers @Thom_astro, @AstroPeggy & Oleg Novitsky during an cake-cutting ceremony at NASA's JSC
Angelina Ballerina @LiNa8294 Staffs of NASA participated in the cake-cutting ceremony at the Jake Garn Simulation and Training Facility (JSC)
Angelina Ballerina @LiNa8294Custom cakes for Expedition 50/51 crewmembers @Thom_astro, @AstroPeggy & Oleg Novitsky
Alexander Misurkin:Expedition 51 crew: it is a pity that due to the decision to reduce the number of Russian cosmonauts on board the ISS, we can not fly in this lineup.
NASA and its international partners have updated the assignments for several crew rotations to the International Space Station in 2017. The changes reflect a switch in assignments for some NASA astronauts, as well as a reduction in the number of Russian cosmonauts on some missions.Expedition 51/52 crew members NASA astronaut Jack Fischer and cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin of the Russian space agency Roscosmos will launch in March 2017. Yurchikhin will be the Expedition 52 commander.In May 2017, Expedition 52/53 will launch with NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Paolo Nespoli and Russian Cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy. Bresnik will be the Expedition 53 commander.Expedition 53/54 will launch in September 2017. NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin will make up that crew, with Misurkin commanding Expedition 54.Expedition 54/55 will launch with NASA astronaut Scott Tingle, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Norishige Kanai and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov in October 2017. Expedition 55 will be commanded by Skvortsov.The Expedition 50/51 launch of NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, astronaut Thomas Pesquet of ESA and cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy is unchanged and on track to launch Nov. 17 from Baikonur, Kazakhstan. They will join Expedition 50 crew members currently on the station, including astronaut Shane Kimbrough of NASA and cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko of Roscosmos. Kimbrough is the commander of Expedition 50 and Whitson will assume command for Expedition 51.
Surely today's official announcement is already being discussed somewhere here on NSF, but I can't find it, so here goes.Long expected reduction in Russian crew launches, and resultant juggling of non-Russian crew.https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-updates-2017-international-space-station-crew-assignments
QuotePeggy Whitson @AstroPeggyThe Exp. 51 Space Flight Awareness poster was approved today. I am really looking forward to flying with these guys!Draft version (7/20/2016) below:
Footage contains training activities of the International Space Station’s Expedition 51-52 crew, including NASA astronaut Jack Fischer. Fischer and Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin of Roscosmos are scheduled to launch April 20 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in the Soyuz MS-04 spacecraft for a four and a half month mission.
Fedor Yourtchikhin has his new personnal patch-I know for shure!New slogan:"ROADS ARE LEEVING WITH WALKERS"in Latin.The previous one was:"ROADS ARE DONE BY WALKERS"also in Latin.And his First personal patch was with a classic slogan in Latin:"VIAM SUPERVADET VADENS".Does anyone have pictures of these three patches or the art work for these three patches?
Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 51 Commander Peggy Whitson of NASA discussed life and research and the records she is setting in a pair of in-flight interviews April 12 with the CBS Radio Network and CNN. Whitson, who already established the record for most spacewalks and most spacewalking hours by a female, will break the mark for most days in space by a U.S. astronaut. On April 24, she will surpass NASA’s Jeff Williams’ record of 534 days in orbit. Whitson is in the midst of a flight spanning almost 10 months on the station, her third long duration mission on the complex.
ISS Daily Summary Report – 4/11/2017 Posted on April 11, 2017 at 4:00 pm by HQ. Lighting Effects: Upon wakeup, the 49S subject provided a sleep log entry and began the first half of a 48-hour urine collection to support the Sleep Shift and Biochem Profile/Repository portion of the Lighting Effects investigation. Subject conducted four urine collections which are performed within a 24-hour period. Each sample was stowed in the Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI) for freezing for return and analysis. The Lighting Effects experiment hopes to better quantify and qualify how lighting can effect habitability of spacecraft. The light bulbs on the ISS are being replaced with a new system designed for improved crew health and wellness. The Lighting Effects investigation studies the impact of the change from fluorescent light bulbs to solid-state light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with adjustable intensity and color and aims to determine if the new lights can improve crew circadian rhythms, sleep, and cognitive performance. Results from this investigation also have major implications for people on Earth who use electric lights Device for the study of Critical Liquids and Crystallization (DECLIC) Hard Drive Exchange: The crew exchanged hard drives for the DECLIC investigation. DECLIC High Temperature Insert (HTI)-Reflight (R) studies water near its critical point, the point beyond which water loses its distinction between liquid and vapor and begins to behave as a dense gas. Salt tends to precipitate out from water at temperatures and pressures beyond its critical point. Understanding this behavior will assist designers in building extended-life and low-maintenance supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) reactors that will provide more environmentally friendly waste management systems and reduce operating costs of power plants that use supercritical water for its working fluid.Dose Tracker: The crew launched the Dose Tracker app before completing entries for medication tracking on an iPad. This investigation documents the medication usage of crewmembers before and during their missions by capturing data regarding medication use during spaceflight, including side effect qualities, frequencies and severities. The data is expected to either support or counter anecdotal evidence of medication ineffectiveness during flight and unusual side effects experienced during flight. It is also expected that specific, near-real-time questioning about symptom relief and side effects will provide the data required to establish whether spaceflight-associated alterations in pharmacokinetics (PK) or pharmacodynamics (PD) is occurring during missions.Expedite the Processing of Experiments to the Space Station (Express) Rack 6 (ER6) Improved Payload Ethernet Hub Gateway (iPEHG) Installation: The crew removed the Payload Ethernet Hub Bridge (PEHB) from ER6 and installed an Improved Payload Ethernet Hub Gateway (iPEHG) in its place. The iPEHG provides additional payload data band width needed for the TangoLab payload arriving on SpX-11. The iPEHG was checked out and is performing nominally. The PWD was removed and reinstalled back in the same ER6 location, to allow access for installing the iPEHG. While preparing for the iPEHG installation, the crew found damaged threads on one of the Microgravity Rack Barrier Posts and its threaded insert. The plan is to replace the Standoff Bridge Bracket to provide a good installation location for a spare Microgravity Rack Barrier Post.Remote Power Control Module (RPCM) S11A_C Remote Power Controller (RPC) 3 Status: Yesterday, RPCM S11A-C RPC 3 tripped, removing power from the Starboard Thermal Radiator (STR) Multiplexer/Demultiplexer (MDM). Due to unusual temperatures in the RPCM after the trip, specialists suspected that the trip might have been caused by an RPCM failure rather than a true overcurrent. Multiple attempts to reclose RPC 3 were unsuccessful. Teams are reviewing data to attempt to isolate the failure to the RPCM or the STR MDM.Nitrogen Repress from Nitrogen/Oxygen Recharge System (NORS): Today, the crew performed the first nitrogen repress from a NORS N2 tank. The tank is now empty and ready for return on SpX-11.
http://iss.jaxa.jp/kiboexp/news/170414_exham.htmlDoes it be a correct interpretion, that they have installed the ExHAM#2-2 yesterday?
Thomas Pesquet Superheroes The cutest question I've been asked so far: my friends' daughter (who saw me floating in weightlessness) wanted to know at what age my super powers had kicked in! She was clearly worried about why she could not fly herself yet
Quote from: Olaf on 04/14/2017 02:29 pmhttp://iss.jaxa.jp/kiboexp/news/170414_exham.htmlDoes it be a correct interpretion, that they have installed the ExHAM#2-2 yesterday?Seems so according to this, although there is no mention of it in the 4/13 daily status report from NASA.
ISS Daily Summary Report – 4/18/2017 JEM (Japanese Experiment Module) Airlock (JEMAL) Operations: They replaced the Multi-Purpose Experiment Platform (MPEP) on the Slide Table (ST) with the Cyclops to support the EVA contingency tie-down during NREP transfer to and from the ST via the JEM Remote Manipulator System (JEMRMS).
Quote from: jacqmans on 04/19/2017 04:01 pmISS Daily Summary Report – 4/18/2017 JEM (Japanese Experiment Module) Airlock (JEMAL) Operations: They replaced the Multi-Purpose Experiment Platform (MPEP) on the Slide Table (ST) with the Cyclops to support the EVA contingency tie-down during NREP transfer to and from the ST via the JEM Remote Manipulator System (JEMRMS). Is someone able to explain this with plain words for a non-English native speaker?
At 1:27 a.m. ET on April 24, @AstroPeggy has officially broken @Astro_Jeff's record of 534 days in space. Wish her well with #CongratsPeggy!
Main Bus Switching Unit (MBSU) 2 Loss of Communications (LOC): Overnight, MBSU 2 experienced a LOC. The ground is unable to command or get data insight into the MBSU. The unit continues to pass power to the downstream power buses 2A/2B DC-DC Converter Units (DDCU)s. The next worst failure is an MBSU 2 loss of power which would result in the downstream DDCUs losing power. Five of the 7 DDCUs have parallel DDCUs that can be used to manage and provide power to the loads. The other 2 standalone DDCUs can be powered using available contingency jumpers. The signature is similar to the previous MBSU 1 LOC failure requiring it to be replaced. There are two spare MBSUs on orbit. Teams met to discuss a recovery plan via Robotic operations or an EVA.
ISS Daily Summary Report – 4/25/2017 Posted on April 25, 2017 at 4:00 pm by HQ.NanoRacks External Platform (NREP) Operations: The crew pressurized the Japanese Experiment Module Airlock (JEMAL), performed a leak check and extended the JEMAL Slide Table (ST) into the JEM Pressurized Module (JPM). They then removed the Gumstix/Solar Cell payload and attached the NanoRacks-CID and Honeywell-Morehead-DM payloads to the NREP. The ST was then retracted with attached NREP back into the JEMAL and the hatch was closed. The JEMAL will be depressurized tomorrow and the JEMRMS will transfer the NREP to the JEM External Facility (JEM-EF) this Thursday. NREP is the first external commercial research capability for testing of scientific investigations, sensors, and electronic components in space. Dependable Multiprocessor (DM) technology developed for NASA increases the amount of science and autonomy processing for space missions by flying clusters of high performance commercial off the shelf (COTS) processors in space. Honeywell-Morehead-DM-7 includes a system-level radiation experiment to verify DM operation in a space environment. Charge injection Devices (CIDs) read light exposure information in individual pixels. The CID investigation evaluates a camera with image quality enhancements that can capture images of bright objects and extremely faint ones in the same field of view, such as stars and exoplanets. The investigation demonstrates that these cameras can work in the microgravity and high-radiation environment of space.
Bit confused here - when was NREP removed from the EF? Earlier in April?
JEM (Japanese Experiment Module) Airlock (JEMAL) Operations: In preparation for the NanoRacks External Platform (NREP) activities planned for next week, the crew opened the inner hatch in the JEMAL and extended the airlock slide table into the JEM Pressurized Module (JPM). They replaced the Multi-Purpose Experiment Platform (MPEP) on the Slide Table (ST) with the Cyclops to support the EVA contingency tie-down during NREP transfer to and from the ST via the JEM Remote Manipulator System (JEMRMS). The crew then retracted the JEMAL slide table back into the airlock and closed the inner hatch.
THE SSRMS is removing/replacing something on the ISS feed. An RPC?
Looking at the feed myself, it's an RPCM R&R that is in work. The view is from the SPDM looking at the alignment target of the RPCM.
Finally, Controllers maneuvered the SSRMS to the start position for the MBSU2 R&R which is scheduled on May 4.
ISS Robots Replace Critical Power Switching Box Outside Space StationSpaceflight101Published on 6 May 2017Details/Background: http://spaceflight101.com/expedition-51/iss-robots-begin-critical-mbsu-replacement/Time lapse video of the International Space Station's robots working May 4 through 6 to replace a partially failed Main Bus Switching Unit on the Station's S0 truss segment - a critical power distribution hub that conditions two of eight power channels available on ISS.Main Bus Switching Unit #2 (MBSU 2) exhibited a Loss Of Communications (LOC) failure on April 25, 2017 - no longer sending status telemetry and unable to be commanded from the ground, but still passing power to downstream uses. A similar fault occurred on MBSU #1 in 2011 and was believed to be radiation-related damage to the unit's Switchgear Controller Assembly. MBSU #1 was replaced in 2012 by spacewalking astronauts, but through growing confidence in the Station's robots, it was decided to have Dextre attempt the MBSU replacement. Prerequisites for the replacement were completed on May 4 and included the reconfiguration of the Station's power system to allow MBSU #2 to be powered off without affecting any critical systems. The two-armed Dextre, riding on the end of the 18-meter long Canadarm2, picked up the spare MBSU from External Stowage Platform 2 (ESP-2) on Thursday and stowed in on its Enhanced ORU Temporary Platform (EOTP) side 2. Starting Friday afternoon (UTC), Dextre began the actual replacement work, releasing the H1 secondary bolt from MBSU #2 before removing the 99-Kilogram unit by releasing the H2 primary bolt. Dextre then used its other arm to remove the spare from its Flight Releasable Attachment System (FRAM) on the EOTP before moving in position to install the spare. Guide rails helped with placing the spare unit, automatically connecting blind-mate electrical and data interfaces on the back of the MBSU. Two bolts were driven to secure the MBSU followed by dealing with the failed unit - first placing it into the empty FRAM on the EOTP and then moving it to a stowage location on ESP-2.Mission Controllers confirmed good health of the MBSU early on Saturday and began restoring the normal ISS power architecture, informing the crew that all would be back to normal by the end of the day. The video plays at 45x real speed, use YouTube's Speed Controls to further speed it up or slow it down. Views that appear pink in color are due to a faulty camera on the Station's Mobile Servicing System.
This week's #CubeSat deployments have officially begun! @QB50Mission's #SOMP2 #HAVELSAT and #Columbia deployed from #NRCSD at 08:24:59 GMT
Second #NRCSD deployment complete this morning at 11:54:59 GMT for @UniKent #SGSAT, @MoreheadState #CXBN2 and @NASAGoddard #IceCube
We've got three more @QB50Mission #CubeSats in orbit. Welcome to space #PHOENIX @XCubeSat and #QBEE! Deploy time of 01:45:00 GMT
One big deploy early this morning - #MillenniumSpaceSystems #ALTAIR - a 6U #CubeSat - released into low-Earth orbit at 08:12:59 GMT
Another good #NRCSD deploy! #AFRL's 6U #SHARC #CubeSat cruised into orbit from @Space_Station at 12:40:01 GMT
https://twitter.com/cbs_spacenews/status/866059113213677568ISS: No immediate impact & crew in no danger; but contingency spacewalk likely needed soon to replace MDM-1 if troubleshooting can’t fix
ISS: Space station managers met today and approved a contingency spacewalk to replace a failed external avionics box (MDM-1)
ISS: MDM-1, loaded with upgraded software, was installed during a spacewalk March 30; it suffered an apparent hardware failure Saturday
ISS: ISS crew assembled a replacement MDM today; it will be installed during a spacewalk next week, possibly as early as Tuesday
The nSIGHT cubesat from SCS-Space (Cape Town, S Africa) was deployed from ISS in May 2017. It appears to have reentered on Apr 25, although there's no decay date on Space-Track yet.
34 cubesats were released from ISS in the @Nanoracks NRCSD 11 and 12 deployments in May 2017. nSIGHT (red) is the last one to reenter. ISS orbit height vs time in magenta.
