Northrop Grummans Cygnus area freighter, with one of its cymbal-shaped UltraFlex solar varieties, is pictured attached to the Unity modules Earth-facing port on the International Space Station. The orbital station was soaring 261 miles above a storm in the Atlantic Ocean at the time of this photo on September 1, 2023. Credit: NASA
Astronaut Satoshi Furukawa of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) studied the maneuvers he will use to run the Canadarm2 robotic arm when OHara and Moghbeli go on their upkeep spacewalk at the end of the month. He also packed the Cygnus space freighter with trash and disposed of equipment before staging freight for packing and return on the next SpaceX Dragon freight objective set up for launch on November 5.
Leader Andreas Mogensen of ESA (European Space Agency) continued testing a specialized cam that can record imagery at 100,000 frames per second. He operated in the cupola pointing the video camera toward Earth and photographing thunderstorms and their electrical activity to enhance climatic knowledge and promote future area applications.
Expedition 70 Commander Andreas Mogensen from ESA (European Space Agency) assists NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli as she attempts on her spacesuit and checks its components aboard the International Space Stations Quest airlock in preparation for an upcoming spacewalk. Credit: NASA
Cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub invested all the time Friday getting all set for their spacewalk arranged on October 25. The flight engineers put on their Orlan spacesuits inside the Poisk airlock and practiced the spacewalking tasks they will use next week. Throughout the trip, the pair from Roscosmos will install science hardware, release a nanosatellite, and inspect a backup radiator that leaked coolant. Flight Engineer Konstantin Borisov joined the duo helping the cosmonauts in and out of their spacesuits and examining their spacewalk procedures.
NASA, Axiom Space, and SpaceX teams are targeting no earlier than October 2024 to introduce Axiom Mission 4, a personal astronaut mission, to the orbiting laboratory. The next private astronaut mission, Axiom Mission 3 with former NASA astronaut and Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria leading again, is scheduled to liftoff from Florida no earlier than January 2024.
The Canadarm2 robotic arm is envisioned extending from the International Space Station while orbiting 260 miles above the Pacific Ocean near the Aleutian Islands. Credit: NASA
The Expedition 70 team reached completion of the week focusing mostly on a set of upcoming spacewalks. There was also time aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for research and freight operations as Axiom Space revealed future private objective dates.
NASA astronauts Loral OHara and Jasmin Moghbeli partnered together Friday afternoon organizing the tools they will utilize on a spacewalk planned for October 30. The set will exit the Quest airlock and spend about six-and-a-half hours removing electronics equipment and replacing solar variety hardware on the orbital laboratory.
Before the spacewalk preparations, OHara inspected hardware on the Human Research Facility, documented her everyday food and medicine intake, and downlinked medical information to researchers on the ground. Moghbeli started her day gathering high blood pressure measurements, carried on to life assistance maintenance, then swapped a vest and headband loaded with sensors to easily measure her health as she worked throughout the day.
Northrop Grummans Cygnus space freighter, with one of its cymbal-shaped UltraFlex solar ranges, is envisioned connected to the Unity modules Earth-facing port on the International Space Station. Credit: NASA
Cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub invested all day Friday getting ready for their spacewalk set up on October 25. Flight Engineer Konstantin Borisov joined the duo assisting the cosmonauts in and out of their spacesuits and evaluating their spacewalk procedures.