Boeing Starliner Nears Launch As ISS Astronauts Work on Space Botany and Human Research

Boeing Starliner illustration. Credit score: Boeing

The Worldwide Area Station (ISS) is making ready for the focused arrival of Boeing’s Starliner crew ship on the corporate’s Orbital Flight Check-2 (OFT-2) mission. In the meantime, the Expedition 67 crew is continuous its ongoing life science analysis whereas sustaining orbital lab programs.

Climate forecasters anticipate a 70% probability of favorable climate when Boeing’s OFT-2 mission is scheduled to launch at 6:54 p.m. EDT (3:54 p.m. PDT) on Thursday. The Starliner spacecraft will raise off atop the Atlas-V rocket from United Launch Alliance at Cape Canaveral Area Pressure Station in Florida. Starliner will take a 24-hour automated journey to the station the place it is going to dock to the Concord module’s ahead port for 5 to 10 days of cargo and take a look at operations.

NASA Flight Engineers Kjell Lindgren and Bob Hines spent an hour on Tuesday reviewing protocols for Starliner’s method and docking. The duo might be on obligation Friday monitoring Starliner throughout its three-and-a-half hours of automated method maneuvers earlier than docking at 7:10 p.m. EDT (4:10 p.m. PDT) on Friday.

The Moon, with Earth’s shadow draping throughout it throughout a lunar eclipse, is pictured from the Worldwide Area Station. Credit score: NASA

Lindgren later spent the afternoon taking part in a robotics proficiency take a look at earlier than putting in seed cartridges and root modules for the xROOTS house botany examine. Hines labored on U.S. spacesuit upkeep, partnering with astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti of ESA (European Area Company), swapping and stowing parts deliberate for return on an upcoming SpaceX cargo mission.

NASA Flight Engineer Jessica Watkins completed sporting a headscarf and vest after 24 hours for the Bio-Monitor experiment that screens an astronaut’s well being with out interfering with mobility. Watkins additionally checked her blood strain all through the day for the Vascular Echo examine that examines modifications in blood vessels and cardiac exercise in microgravity.

The station’s three cosmonauts from Roscosmos targeted on their checklist of science and upkeep duties within the orbiting lab’s Russian phase. Flight Engineer Sergey Korsakov up to date software program and changed a laptop computer pc then explored methods to enhance communications between station crew members and mission controllers from world wide. Commander Oleg Artemyev and Flight Engineer Denis Matveev joined one another Tuesday morning and serviced train gear. The duo then cut up as much as work on broadband communications gear and stock instruments.