The Expedition 38 crew said farewell to an unpiloted Russian cargo craft
Monday morning while making preparations for the arrival of the next
space freighter, which is set to make an expedited 6-hour journey to the
International Space Station Wednesday.
The ISS Progress 52 cargo ship undocked from the Pirs docking
compartment 11:21 a.m. EST, and backed away to a safe distance from the
orbital complex to begin several days of tests to study thermal effects
of space on its attitude control system.
Progress 52 delivered nearly three tons of supplies when it arrived
at the station on July 27. Now filled with trash and other unneeded
items, the Russian resupply ship will be commanded to re-enter the
Earth’s atmosphere Feb. 11 and disintegrate harmlessly over the Pacific
Ocean.
The departure of Progress 52 clears Pirs for the arrival of the next
Russian cargo ship, ISS Progress 54, which rolled out to its launch pad
early Monday morning at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan as
temperatures hovered around 17 below zero F. The vehicle is scheduled
to launch on Wednesday at 11:23 a.m. (10:23 p.m. Baikonur time) on an
accelerated 4-orbit journey to dock to Pirs at 5:25 p.m. The new
Progress is loaded with 1,764 pounds of propellant, 110 pounds of
oxygen, 926 pounds of water and 2,897 pounds of spare parts, experiment
hardware and other supplies for the Expedition 38 crew.
Station Commander Oleg Kotov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin spent
Monday morning conducting a training session with the Telerobotically
Operated Rendezvous Unit, or TORU, which could be used to remotely guide
Progress 54 to its docking port in the event that its Kurs automated
rendezvous system experiences a problem.
Along with Flight Engineer Sergey Ryazanskiy, Kotov also participated
in the Splanh experiment, a Russian study of the effects of
long-duration spaceflight on the digestive system.
Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio, who began his day with a vision
test, spent much of his morning installing and activating a NanoRacks
platform and multi-gas monitor. NanoRacks provides lower-cost
microgravity research facilities for small payloads utilizing a
standardized “plug-and-play” interface. Mastracchio also connected a
keyboard and video monitor for NanoRacks.
Meanwhile, Flight Engineer Koichi Wakata conducted an ultrasound scan
of the calf and thigh of his right leg for the Sprint study. This
experiment is evaluating effectiveness of high-intensity, low-volume
exercise training in minimizing the loss of muscle mass and bone density
that occurs during long-term exposure to weightlessness. Flight
Engineer Mike Hopkins assisted Wakata with the experiment session.
Wakata also participated in a vision check-up, as medical teams on the ground keep a watchful eye on the crew’s health.
Hopkins focused most of his attention on preparing the Multi-user
Droplet Combustion Apparatus within the Combustion Integrated Rack for
more experiments studying how different materials burn in microgravity.
Hopkins replaced the fuel reservoirs, igniter tips and fiber arm inside
the chamber insert assembly of the apparatus.
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