Here is the latest episode in NASA’s Space to Ground weekly report on activities related to the International Space Station:
** Nanoracks Bishop Airlock – International Space Station Trash Deployment – View #1 – Nanoracks – YouTube
On July 2, 2022, Nanoracks, powered by Voyager Space, opened the Bishop Airlock to deploy waste from the International Space Station. This was the first time that the Bishop Airlock was opened and closed for a full cycle. Nanoracks deployed approx. 350 lbs of trash.
** Nanoracks Bishop Airlock – International Space Station Trash Deployment – View #2 – Nanoracks – YouTube
** Expedition 67 – Space Station Astronauts Answer Florida Student Questions -July 6, 2022 – NASA Video
Aboard the International Space Station, NASA Expedition 67 Flight Engineers Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins of NASA answered pre-recorded questions about life and work on the orbital laboratory during an in-flight event July 6 with students at the Gifford Youth Achievement Center in Vero Beach, Florida. Hines and Watkins are in the midst of a science mission living and working aboard the microgravity laboratory to advance scientific knowledge and demonstrate new technologies for future human and robotic exploration missions as part of NASA’s Moon and Mars exploration approach, including lunar missions through NASA’s Artemis program.
** Fourth of July in space! Astronauts beam down message – VideoFromSpace
NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren and Robert Hines share a Fourth of July message from the International Space Station. — The Fourth of July night sky: Here’s what you can see on Independence Day: https://www.space.com/fourth-july-202…
** What do you hear, Starbuck? – European Space Agency, ESA on Youtube
FedCon is one of Europe’s largest science fiction conventions, its 2022 edition held earlier this month in Bonn in Germany. Actors from the many incarnations of Star Trek, as well as Star Wars, Doctor Who, and other science fiction shows met with thousands of fans. ESA has been taking part in FedCon since 2015, with talks, panels, and a stand covering our space science, earth observation, and human exploration missions. At this year’s event, scientists and engineers from ESTEC, ESOC, and the EAC gave talks about JWST, Rosetta, mission operations, and careers with ESA.
In addition, to help celebrate FedCon’s 30th anniversary, ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti sent a special message from her current Minerva mission on the ISS. She was dressed in an outfit worn by flight crew in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series (2004–2009) and wearing the dog tags of famed Viper pilot, Kara “Starbuck” Thrace. Samantha previously appeared as a speaker at FedCon in 2018 and also took part in a 2020 episode of the Space Rocks Uplink vodcast with Katee Sackhoff, who played Starbuck in the series. While we may not yet have invented a faster-than-light drive as used in Battlestar Galactica, ESA turns science fiction into science fact every day, exploring and studying the near-Earth environment, the Solar System, and the Universe beyond, to innovate, inform, and inspire. And we’re always happy to share that excitement with our friends around the world, through events like FedCon and much more.
** China’s Shenzhou-14 Crew Completes Several Missions in Orbit – CCTV Video News Agency
China’s Shenzhou-14 crew has stayed in orbit for over a month, completing several missions on board the space station core module Tianhe. On June 5, the Shenzhou-14 manned spacecraft was launched at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The trio became the third batch of astronauts to work in the Chinese space station and are expected to work there for six months. This time around, astronauts need to build the manned space environment after they enter Tianhe, setting the mode of the core module into a manned state and switching on equipment and facilities used for ventilation, purification, regeneration and water treatment. In addition, astronauts have conducted tests on water, air and microorganisms inside Tianhe.
This comes as some microorganisms may lead to health problems of the astronauts and can even be corrosive toward various of facilities. As such, astronauts have also installed and tested the facility used for carbon dioxide reduction in a bid to generate more oxygen in Tianhe. Furthermore, a material management system has been officially set up to assist astronauts in locating specific material in Tianhe for more efficiency. Right now, astronauts are carrying out experiments, covering maglev, non-package materials and aerospace medicine. For a safer travel outside the space station complex, astronauts have checked and tested the function and performance of Feitian spacesuits, which will protect astronauts when they conduct extravehicular activities from Wentian lab module.
While in Tianhe, astronauts also need to go through regular body checkups to monitor their health condition. Apart from body checkups, astronauts also train themselves with medical aid skills even in space to enable themselves to approach any potential emergencies. Working six days per week, the trio enjoys doing exercises with safety belts on, which are totally different from that on Earth, to keep fit and stay healthy. Later on, the Shenzhou-14 crew will deliver a livestream science lecture at China’s space station lab module Wentian, which is scheduled to be launched this month. It will be the first time for the crew to broadcast a live lecture from a space lab module. Previous space classes by the Shenzhou-13 crew were given from the station’s core module Tianhe. The trio will cooperate with the ground team to complete the construction of the country’s space station, developing it from a single-module structure into a national space laboratory with three modules — the core module Tianhe and two lab modules Wentian and Mengtian.
** ISS Live video stream – IBM/ISS HD Earth Viewing Experiment
Currently, live views from the ISS are streaming from an external camera mounted on the ISS module called Node 2. Node 2 is located on the forward part of the ISS. The camera is looking forward at an angle so that the International Docking Adapter 2 (IDA2) is visible. If the Node 2 camera is not available due to operational considerations for a longer period of time, a continuous loop of recorded HDEV imagery will be displayed. The loop will have “Previously Recorded” on the image to distinguish it from the live stream from the Node 2 camera. After HDEV stopped sending any data on July 18, 2019, it was declared, on August 22, 2019, to have reached its end of life. Thank You to all who shared in experiencing and using the HDEV views of Earth from the ISS to make HDEV so much more than a Technology Demonstration Payload!
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Outpost in Orbit:
A Pictorial & Verbal History of the Space Station
