Videos: “Space to Ground” ISS report – July.17.2020

Here is the latest episode in NASA’s Space to Ground weekly report on activities related to the International Space Station:

** Down to Earth – Reach for the Stars – NASA Johnson

In celebration of the upcoming #SpaceStation20th anniversary, Spaceflight Participant Hazzaa Ali Almansoori from the United Arab Emirates, who recently flew in space with other International Astronauts, shares his thoughts on his journey to reach the stars and his perspective on the power of us all working together in space in this episode of Down to Earth – Reach for the Stars.

** Spacewalk Outside the International Space Station – NASA. Summary of the EVA on July 16th by NASA astronauts Chris Cassidy and Robert Behnken: NASA Astronauts Conclude Today’s Spacewalk – Commercial Crew Program/NASA

The two NASA astronauts completed all the work to replace batteries that provide power for the International Space Station’s solar arrays on the starboard truss of the complex. The new batteries provide an improved and more efficient power capacity for operations.

The spacewalkers removed six aging nickel-hydrogen batteries for the second of two power channels for the starboard 6 (S6) truss, installed three new lithium-ion batteries, and installed the three associated adapter plates that are used to complete the power circuit to the new batteries. Mission control reports that all three new batteries are working.

Behnken and Cassidy are scheduled to conduct one more spacewalk Tuesday, July 21, during which they will remove two lifting fixtures used for ground processing of the station’s solar arrays prior to their launch. They’ll also begin preparing the Tranquility module for the installation of a commercial airlock provided by NanoRacks and scheduled to arrive on a SpaceX cargo flight later this year. The airlock will be used to deploy commercial and government-sponsored experiments into space.

** Expedition 63 Inflight with US Ambassador to Russia on Apollo Soyuz 45th Anniversary – July 17, 2020 – NASA

Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 63 Commander Chris Cassidy of NASA and Russian Flight Engineers Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner of Roscosmos marked the 45th anniversary of the historic docking of an Apollo command module and a Soyuz spacecraft during an in-flight conversation July 17 with the U.S. Ambassador to Russia, John J. Sullivan and Vasily Boryak, the Deputy Director of the North American Division of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Apollo command module, with Tom Stafford, Vance Brand and Deke Slayton aboard and the Soyuz spacecraft with Alexey Leonov and Valery Kubasov, linked up on July 17, 1975, two days after their respective launches from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida and the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to mark the beginning of the international cooperation between the United States and Russia that has been recognized as the springboard for the development and assembly of the International Space Station.