ISS Expedition 50 crew preps for January spacewalks

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ISS Expedition 50 crew preps for January spacewalks

With the Japanese Kounotori 6 cargo craft firmly attached to the International Space Station's Harmony module, the six-person Expedition 50 crew is heading into the holiday weekend with images of spacewalk preparations dancing in their heads.

U.S. Extravehicular Activity 38 will occur Jan 6 and EVA-39 Jan 13. Flight Engineers Peggy Whitson and Thomas Pesquet will be the astronaut duo performing the spacewalk. The goal of the two EVAs is to replace 12 old nickel-hydrogen batteries with six new lithium-ion batteries on the station's Integrated Truss Assembly.

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SpaceX Crew Dragon test flights delayed

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SpaceX Crew Dragon test flights delayed

In a revised schedule released by NASA on Dec. 12, 2016, it was revealed that SpaceX has delayed test flights for its Crew Dragon spacecraft by a number of months. According to Space News, this is, at least in part, due to the Sept. 1 Falcon 9 pad explosion.

The NASA statement gave no reason for the delays other than it reflected a “fourth quarter update” from both SpaceX as well as the Boeing dates that were revised in October 2016.

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Japanese Kounotori 6 arrives at ISS

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Japanese Kounotori 6 arrives at ISS

Japan’s sixth “white stork” arrived at the International Space Station to deliver supplies, experiments, and Christmas gifts for the crew. The Kounotori 6 cargo ship, also called HTV-6, was captured by the outpost’s robotic Canadarm2 at 5:37 a.m. EST (10:37 GMT) Dec. 13, 2016.

Almost three-and-a-half hours later, at 8:57 a.m. EST (13:57 GMT), the cargo ship was berthed to the Earth-facing port of the Harmony module at the forward end of the station.

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Progress MS-04 lost on ascent

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Progress MS-04 lost on ascent

About 383 seconds into a launch that started with a flawless liftoff, Roscosmos lost contact with the Soyuz-U rocket carrying the unpiloted Progress MS-04 cargo spacecraft bound for the International Space Station.

A few hours later, the Russian space agency reported the third stage of the carrier rocket shut down early, preventing the Progress from achieving orbit. The vehicle burned up in the atmosphere on the way back toward Earth.

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Thanksgiving on ISS is 'different'

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Thanksgiving on ISS is 'different'

Thanksgiving is just a normal day on the International Space Station; however, the two NASA astronauts will share the tradition of the American holiday with the rest of the crew during their evening meal time.

Of the six members of the Expedition 50 crew, three countries are represented: the United States, Russia, and France. Only the U.S. celebrates Thanksgiving; however, as an international crew, they celebrate each other’s holidays.

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Cygnus departs ISS, preps for fire experiment

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Cygnus departs ISS, preps for fire experiment

After spending a month attached to the International Space Station, Orbital ATK’s OA-5 Cygnus was detached and released by the robotic Canadarm2 in the morning hours of Nov. 21.

The S.S. Alan Poindexter, as the cargo ship is named, was unberthed from the Earth-facing port of the Unity module and moved to about 10 meters below the outpost. A couple hours later, at 8:22 a.m. EST (13:22 GMT), astronaut Shane Kimbrough commanded Canadarm2 to release the craft.

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ISS crew count returns to 6 with Soyuz docking

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ISS crew count returns to 6 with Soyuz docking

After spending two days catching up to the International Space Station, the crew of Soyuz MS-03 docked their spacecraft with the orbiting complex at 4:58 p.m. EST (21:58 GMT) Nov. 19.

The trio – NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, and European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet – docked with the Rassvet module of the ISS. They joined the ongoing Expedition 50 crew, which includes NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough (current commander of the laboratory) and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrei Borisenko.

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Soyuz MS-03 crew en route to space station

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Soyuz MS-03 crew en route to space station

On a clear and cold Kazakh morning, three space flyers launched atop a Soyuz rocket in their Soyuz MS-03 spacecraft on a two-day flight bound for the International Space Station. The trio will spend about six months in space.

Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet, and NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson launched to space at 2:20 a.m. local Kazakh time Nov. 18 (3:20 p.m. EST / 20:20 GMT Nov. 17) from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

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2017 ISS crew assignments updated

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2017 ISS crew assignments updated

Earlier this year, Roscosmos announced it would be reducing its crew on each International Space Station expedition from three to two. This means only five people will participate in each expedition as opposed to the normal six. As such, NASA has updated the 2017 crew assignments for the outpost.

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