May 7, 2024

Spacewalk Preps and Science Work on Space Station As SpaceX Dragon Counts Down To Launch

UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut and Expedition 69 Flight Engineer Sultan Alneyadi sets up hardware for the Monoclonal Antibodies Protein Crystal Growth-2 (PCG2) experiment on May 30, 2023. PCG2 crystallizes biotherapeutics in microgravity and analyzes the process advancement possibly improving in-space and Earth production techniques that may shorten the development cycle for new drugs. Credit: NASA
The team also continued its ongoing microgravity research study to improve health on Earth and in area. Rubio swapped out protein crystal samples in the Kibo lab module for a research study advancing biochemistry research study in area.
Roscosmos Flight Engineers Dmitri Petelin and Andrey Fedyaev worked together on Friday for a human research study that examines how microgravity affects the food digestion process. Commander Sergey Prokopyev studied how micro-particles such as electrons, ions, and neutral gases, communicate and turn into plasma crystals when exposed to electrical charges.
The SpaceX Dragon freight craft is counting down to release at 12:35 p.m. EDT on Saturday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida with two brand-new roll-out solar arrays loaded inside its unpressurized trunk. Objective supervisors polled the station and Dragon teams on Thursday and reported all systems are opt for launch to the orbiting laboratory. Weather forecasters on Friday announced conditions at the launch pad are 70% no-go with spread thunderstorms forecasted for both Saturday and Sunday launch attempts.
In the meantime, Dragons automated rendezvous and docking to the Harmony modules space-facing port is scheduled for 5:36 a.m. on Monday. Two days after that the Canadarm2 robotic arm will draw out the roll-out solar ranges from Dragons trunk and phase them on a pallet connected to the starboard truss. The two spacewalkers will then be able to retrieve the solar varieties and begin the installation work.

The SpaceX Dragon Freedom spacecraft is envisioned docked to the space-facing port on the International Space Stations Harmony module. Dragon Freedom brought four Axiom Mission-2 astronauts to the orbital laboratory on May 22, 2023, consisting of Commander Peggy Whitson, Pilot John Shoffner, and Mission Specialists Ali Alqarni and Rayyanah Barnawi. The SpaceX Dragon freight craft is counting down to introduce at 12:35 p.m. EDT on Saturday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida with two new roll-out solar ranges loaded inside its unpressurized trunk. Mission supervisors polled the station and Dragon teams on Thursday and reported all systems are go for launch to the orbiting laboratory.

The SpaceX Dragon Freedom spacecraft is visualized docked to the space-facing port on the International Space Stations Harmony module. Dragon Freedom brought 4 Axiom Mission-2 astronauts to the orbital laboratory on May 22, 2023, consisting of Commander Peggy Whitson, Pilot John Shoffner, and Mission Specialists Ali Alqarni and Rayyanah Barnawi. Credit: NASA
NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station are preparing for a June 9 spacewalk to set up new solar arrays, while conducting numerous health and scientific studies. A SpaceX Dragon freight craft, carrying the solar selections, faces a possible weather-related launch delay from Kennedy Space Center.
Spacesuits and science filled the Expedition 69 schedule at the end of the workweek aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Back on Earth, a cargo-filled U.S. resupply ship is counting down to its launch to renew the locals residing on the orbital outpost.
NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg are getting ready for a June 9 spacewalk to set up one of 2 new roll-out solar selections on the area stations starboard-side truss structure. The duo invested Friday early morning setting up Extravehicular Mobility Units (EMUs), or spacesuits, and readying spacewalk tools inside the Quest airlock. Hoburg then signed up with NASA Flight Engineer Frank Rubio in the afternoon for a fit check of his EMU.