- \n
- Soyuz TMA-15 LIVE Updates<\/li>\n
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\u201cWitnessing this launch is a great moment a moment of accomplishments that opens up new opportunities and projects us all in the full exploitation of the ISS in preparation of new exploration missions to other destinations. I am looking forward to a full 6 crew onboard the ISS for a full exploitation of its scientific potential and to carry out activities in preparation of missions to future destinations,\u201d said Simonetta di Pippo, ESA Director of Human Spaceflight.<\/p>\n
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\u201cLast year Columbus and the Automated Transfer Vehicle Jules Verne have demonstrated the reliability and the capability of the European Space Agency in the International Space Station endeavour. The European scientific laboratories and instruments on board Columbus are now operated on a daily basis, controlled from the Control Center in Oberpfaffenhofen (Germany),\u201d added said ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe crew of six will provide much more resources on board to make scientific and technological progress. The presence of two ESA astronauts on board the ISS this year \u2013 Frank de Winne and Christer Fuglesang \u2013 will bring a European touch to that crew.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven more, for the first time, the five partners of the ISS \u2013 USA, Russia, Canada, Japan and ESA \u2013 are all represented in the crew of six. I wish all of them a successful mission and I am confident that they will give once more proof that space is where international cooperation can express itself at its best, for the benefit of all of us, citizens on the Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n
UPA Latest:<\/p>\n
The efforts to approve a six person crew was a logistical marathon, with consumables being the main factor to take into consideration. One of specific concerns related to water supplies for the six person crew, and the need to have a green light to consume recycled waste water from the recently installed Urine Process Assembly (UPA) \u2013 which finally received a go for crewmembers to use as drinking water.<\/p>\n
\u201cUPA In Flight Maintenance (IFM): This week the crew was successful at removing the malfunctioning check valve from the UPA. After reassembling and reconnecting the system components, a test was run and it appears that the UPA is once again fully functional,\u201d noted May 26\u2019s ISS 8th Floor News (MOD memo) on L2.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis of course is of great interest in terms of supporting the full complement of 6 crew once the 19S Soyuz arrives. Since there is a slight chance of a subsequent failure in the peristaltic pump which could allow backflow of water into the Distillation Assembly, the flight control team will command the system to shutdown between processing cycles which protects the system from this potential backflow.<\/p>\n
\u201cA software patch scheduled for May 28th uplink will relieve the flight control team from taking this manual action. After completion of the first processing cycle, the crew disconnected the EDV-U jumper and connected the Waste and Hygiene Compartment (WHC) urine jumper to the UPA. The crew was then given a Go to use the WHC.<\/p>\n
\u201cLater in the day, Flight Controllers, Specialists from Johnson Space Center (JSC) and Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), ISS Management personnel and the Crew made a toast, via videocon and downlinked via space\/ground, to the new Water Recovery System (WRS) and the GO for the crew to drink the ISS water. Cheers!\u201d<\/p>\n
Dextre Latest:<\/p>\n
De Winne \u2013 who is taking part in the OasISS mission \u2013 will also be the main operator of the Japanese robotic arm and will be one of the two astronauts who will berth the HII-Transfer Vehicle (HTV) to the ISS using the Station\u2019s robotic arm when the Japanese cargo spacecraft arrives at the ISS in September.<\/p>\n
![\"a225\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/a225.jpg\" "\\"a225\\"")
Good news was reported on another key robotic element for the Station, via the Canadian Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM) \u201cDextre\u201d \u2013 who\u2019s role will be vital for the long-term health of the ISS, with his capabilities including the removal and replacement of dexterous compatible Orbit Replaceable Units (ORUs), along with the servicing of scientific payloads.<\/p>\nSupporting EVA-based maintenance is also part of its role, along with the preposition of ORUs or Integrated Assemblies, the provision of lighting and camera support, actuating external mechanisms, performing inspection tasks, and extending the reach of the SSRMS (Space Station Remote Manipulator System).<\/p>\n
\u201cGround Controllers (ROBO) conducted another SPDM On-Orbit Checkout Requirements (OCR) in preparation for the Remote Power Control Module (RPCM) swap operation currently scheduled for Increment 20,\u201d added the 8th Floor. \u201cThe main objective was to perform an automatic grasp operation.<\/p>\n
\u201cGround controllers maneuvered the SPDM body and arm 1, while based on the Mobile Remote Servicer (MRS) Base System (MBS), and positioned the arm1 end-effecter over the Robot Micro Conical Tool (RMCT)-1. After calibrating the arm1 force\/moment sensor, ROBO then maneuvered the arm over the micro fixture, and executed an auto-grasp with Force\/Moment Accommodation (FMA) enabled.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe team then opened the grippers, backed off the fixture, and the SPDM arm1 and body were re-stowed. This was the first time that we have actually grappled hardware with the SPDM so this is considered to be a major step on the road to our first R&R. Congratulations to Sarmad Aziz and the entire team for this significant achievement.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ESA astronaut Frank De Winne, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Robert Thirsk have launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, at 10:34 GMT on Wednesday, with their Soyuz TMA-15 scheduled to dock with the International Space Station (ISS) at 12:36 GMT on Friday 29 May \u2013 marking the start of six crew operations […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[421,8854,246,233,1302],"class_list":["post-41090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-csa","tag-dextre","tag-esa","tag-iss","tag-soyuz"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41090"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41090\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}