ISS – Expedition 55 Mission patch.
April 1, 2018
Update from March 30:
International Space Station (ISS). Image Credit: NASA
The Expedition 55 crew is cleaning up today (March 30) after a spacewalk and getting ready for next week’s cargo delivery aboard the SpaceX Dragon space freighter. The four astronauts and two cosmonauts are also researching life science and reviewing emergency hardware today.
NASA astronauts Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold are checking their spacesuits and cleaning up the Quest airlock today (March 30) after completing a six-hour, 10-minute spacewalk on Thursday. The duo also participated in a routine post-spacewalk health evaluation which consists of checking temperature, blood pressure and respiratory rate.
The next big event at the International Space Station is Wednesday’s planned rendezvous with Dragon carrying over 5,800 pounds of new science experiments, crew supplies and other station hardware. The commercial cargo craft will launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Monday at 4:30 p.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Image above: NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold takes an out of this world “space-selfie” during a brief opportunity while conducting a spacewalk with fellow NASA astronaut Drew Feustel (out of frame) on March 29, 2018. Image Credit: NASA.
Japanese astronaut Norishige Kanai will be inside the cupola operating the Canadarm2 robotic arm when he grapples Dragon around 7 a.m. Wednesday. Flight Engineer Scott Tingle will assist Kanai and monitor the cargo ship’s arrival until it reaches its capture point about 10 meters away from the station. Both astronauts were on a computer today practicing the procedures they will use in the moments before they capture Dragon next week.
The orbital lab residents watered and harvested small crops of leafy vegetables for consumption today. A pair of crew members also documented what a headache in space feels like and how it affects their performance. The entire crew also spent almost two hours today familiarizing themselves with the locations of safety gear and practiced emergency communication with Russian mission controllers.
Related article:
Experienced Spacewalkers Wrap Up Station Maintenance Excursion
http://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.ch/2018/03/experienced-spacewalkers-wrap-up_29.html
Related links:
Leafy vegetables: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1159
Headache in space: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=174
SpaceX Dragon: https://www.nasa.gov/spacex
Expedition 55: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition55/index.html
International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html
Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia.
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