ISS Daily Summary Report – 8/11/2023
Northrup Grumman – 19 (NG-19) Cygnus Reboost: Today, the ISS successfully performed a 1.345 m/s reboost using Cygnus Delta Velocity Engine (DVE) thruster starting at 9:35 CT with a burn duration of 22 minutes and 48 seconds. This reboost sets up phasing for 85P launch and rendezvous on GMT 235, and is one of two reboosts targeting phasing constraints for 70S rendezvous and 69S landing. This Cygnus reboost will also continue the certification process for using Cygnus as a reboost vehicle.
Payloads:
Plant Habitat-03B: The crew gained access to the Plant Habitat facility and installed a seed bag in each of the four quadrants where the plants are growing. The seed bags keep the flowers, stems, and seeds contained in their quadrant. The Arabidopsis thaliana plants began growing in mid-July will continue to develop throughout the 91-day growth cycle. Plants exposed to environmental stress, including spaceflight, undergo epigenetic changes that involve adding extra information to deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) rather than changing existing information. Epigenetic Adaptation to the Spaceflight Environment – Accumulated Genomic Change Induced by Generations in Space (Plant Habitat-03) assesses whether epigenetic adaptations in one generation of plants grown in space can transfer to the next generation. This could help identify genetic elements that increase the adaptability of plants to spaceflight, a first step toward developing cultivars better suited to provide food and air and water purification in life support systems on future space missions.
Space Health (SH): An experiment questionnaire was filled out for the SH 48-hour experiment session. This is the last day of the 48-hour session. The Autonomous Health Monitoring for Adaption Assessment on Long Range Missions Using Big Data Analytic (Space Health) investigation utilizes the Bio-Monitor system for physiological monitoring before, during, and after an ISS mission to assess the effect of space travel on heart health.
Solidification Using Baffles in Sealed Ampoules (SUBSA): The processed Multi-physical Properties of Microgravity-synthesized Graphene Aerogels (ugGA) experiment ampoule was removed, and the second ugGA science ampoule was installed. The ugGA investigation seeks to create a graphene aerogel on the ISS. Microgravity is expected to alleviate effects of Earth’s gravity, such as agglomeration, sedimentation, and thermal convection, and enable production of a superior, uniform material structure. This research could lay the groundwork for the engineering of bulk quantities of graphene aerogel with exceptional physical properties for applications in power storage, environmental protection, and chemical sensing.
Vascular Aging: Blood pressure measurements were performed in support of the multi-day Vascular Aging experiment. Data indicates that aging-like changes are accelerated in many ISS crewmembers, particularly with respect to their arteries. As part of the Space Environment Causes Acceleration of Vascular Aging: Roles of Hypogravity, Nutrition, and Radiation (Vascular Aging) investigation, ultrasounds of the arteries, blood samples, oral glucose tolerance, and wearable sensors from ISS crewmembers are analyzed.
Systems:
In Flight Maintenance (IFM) Common Cabin Air Assembly (CCAA) Heat Exchanger (HX) Remove and Replace (R&R): Today, the crew rotated the NOD3A4 rack in order to replace the degraded CCAA HX located in Node 3. Following the successful R&R, Node 3 was returned to a nominal configuration and the removed HX was wrapped in soft goods and stowed in preparation for return on a future flight. There are five CCAAs, or air conditioners, onboard ISS that provide ventilation within modules by active air circulation in order to help support a habitable atmosphere.
Transfer Cygnus Cargo Operations: The crew continued cargo transfer operations between the ISS and the Cygnus NG-19 cargo vehicle. These operations included offloading crew provisions and hardware from NG-19. NG-19 is planned to remain at the space station until the end of October before it departs the ISS for an eventual destructive re-entry in the Earth’s atmosphere.
Urine Transfer System (UTS) Offload EDV Swap: Today, the crew swapped the EDV in the offload EDV spot of the UTS. The main objective of the UTS is to provide automated control of urine flow from Toilet System and Waste Hygiene Compartment (WHC) or from external storage containers into the Urine Processing Assembly (UPA) Wastewater Storage Tank Assembly (WSTA).
WHC Manual Fill: As part of regularly scheduled preventive maintenance, the crew performed a manual WHC flush tank fill. By using a post-flight analysis bag to capture any pressure relief, also known as a burp, the crew depressurized the flush water tank and the water valve block to protect the dose pump. This pump is critical as it injects pre-treat required to properly recycle waste urine.
Completed Task List Activities:
Today’s Ground Activities:
All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.
Look Ahead Plan
Saturday, August 12 (GMT 224)
Payloads:
Systems:
Sunday, August 13 (GMT 225)
Payloads:
Systems:
Monday, August 14 (GMT 226)
Payloads:
Systems:
Today’s Planned Activities:
All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.