Le module de laboratoire polyvalent Nauka et le module d’amarrage Prichal sont photographiés alors que la station spatiale est en orbite au-dessus de l’Australie. Crédit : NASA
Un vaisseau cargo russe se trouve sur son aire de lancement et son décollage est prévu pour ce soir afin de ravitailler la Station spatiale internationale. Pendant ce temps, les sept membres de l’équipage d’Expedition 66 se concentrent sur diverses activités de recherche tout en se préparant pour une autre mission de fret qui doit arriver au début de la semaine prochaine.
Le vaisseau russe de réapprovisionnement de l’ISS Progress 80 se tient sur son aire de lancement au cosmodrome de Baïkonour au Kazakhstan, chargé de près de trois tonnes de nourriture, de carburant et de fournitures. Le vaisseau 80th mission cargo de Roscosmos doit être lancée ce soir à 23 h 25 HNE et s’amarrer automatiquement à la station spatiale internationale. Module Poisk jeudi à 2 h 06 en direct sur ;” data-gt-translate-attributes=”[{” attribute=””>NASA TV and the agency’s website and the NASA app.
A U.S. cargo mission is also on tap to launch on Saturday at 12:40 p.m. from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The Northrop Grumman Cygnus space freighter will arrive at a point about 10 meters from the space station when the Canadarm2 robotic arm, commanded by NASA Flight Engineer Raja Chari, will capture the vehicle at 4:35 a.m. next Monday. Robotics controllers on the ground will take over shortly afterward and remotely install Cygnus to the Unity module a couple of hours later. Chari and his back up NASA Flight Engineer Kayla Barron are training today on a computer for the upcoming robotics activities.
While two rockets are getting ready to blast off to the orbiting lab this week, the space lab residents stayed busy today with space science and station maintenance activities.
NASA Flight Engineer Mark Vande Hei continued setting up the Combustion Integrated Rack for the upcoming SoFIE, or Solid Fuel Ignition and Extinction, series of fire safety studies. Astronaut Matthias Maurer of ESA (European Space Agency) participated in a vision test then wore a specialized body suit that stimulates muscles for the EasyMotion exercise study. NASA astronaut Thomas Marshburn started the day on computer maintenance before spending the afternoon in the Tranquility module working on the U.S. treadmill.
Commander Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos activated the EarthKAM experiment in the Harmony module for a weeklong session of Earth photography remotely-controlled by students on the ground. Flight Engineer Pyotr Dubrov continued setting up the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module for operations.
