mardi 27 décembre 2016

The crew had a good Christmas with Spacewalk Preps











ISS - Expedition 50 Mission patch.

December 27, 2016

The six-member Expedition 50 crew from France, Russia and the U.S. had a good Christmas with spacesuit checks and eye studies. The international crew will share a Christmas meal, enjoy a light-duty weekend and take Dec. 26 off.

Commander Shane Kimbrough scrubbed cooling loops and tested the water in a pair of U.S. spacesuits today. Kimbrough and Flight Engineers Peggy Whitson and Thomas Pesquet are getting ready for a pair of spacewalks on Jan. 6 and 13. The spacewalks, in conjunction with remote robotics work, will complete the replacement of old nickel-hydrogen batteries with new lithium-ion batteries on the station’s truss structure.


Image above: All six members of the Expedition 50 crew aboard the International Space Station celebrated the holidays together with a festive meal. Image Credit: NASA.

Whitson, who is spending her second Christmas in space, and Pesquet drew blood, urine and saliva samples for the Fluid Shifts study. That experiment investigates the upward flow of body fluids in space potentially causing lasting vision changes in astronauts.

In the Russian segment of the International Space Station, the three cosmonauts primarily worked on maintenance tasks and science work. Oleg Novitskiy worked on communications gear and experimented with space photography techniques. Sergey Ryzhikov worked on water transfers and a cardiac study. Andrey Borisenko worked on life support equipment before studying how a crew member learns to orient themselves in microgravity.

Related links:

Fluid Shifts study: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1257.html

Space photography techniques: http://www.energia.ru/en/iss/researches/develop/04.html

Cardiac study: http://www.energia.ru/en/iss/researches/human/10.html

Orient themselves in microgravity: http://www.energia.ru/en/iss/researches/human/07.html

Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html

International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Image (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia.

Best regards, Happy Holidays, Orbiter.ch