WASHINGTON, July 20, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Fifty years to the
day that astronauts Neil Armstrong
and Buzz Aldrin stepped on the Moon in a giant leap for humanity,
NASA astronaut Andrew
Morgan and two fellow crew members arrived Saturday for
their mission aboard the International Space Station, where humans
have lived and worked continuously for more than 18 years.
The Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft carrying Morgan, Luca Parmitano of
ESA (European Space Agency) and Alexander
Skvortsov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos launched at
12:28 p.m. EDT July 20 (9:28 p.m.
Kazakhstan time) from the Baikonur
Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Their
spacecraft docked to the station's Zvezda service module at
6:48 p.m., after a four-orbit,
six-hour flight, and they are scheduled to open hatches and be
welcomed aboard the orbiting laboratory at approximately
8:50 p.m.
Their arrival restores the station's crew complement to six.
They join NASA astronauts Nick
Hague, Christina Koch and
Expedition 60 Commander Alexey
Ovchinin of Roscosmos.
The Expedition 60 crew will spend more than six months
conducting about 250 science investigations in fields such as
biology, Earth science, human research, physical sciences, and
technology development. Work on the unique microgravity laboratory
advances scientific knowledge and demonstrates new technologies,
making research breakthroughs that will enable long-duration human
and robotic exploration of the Moon and Mars.
One of those key technology developments will be the arrival and
installation of the second docking port for commercial crew
spacecraft – SpaceX's Crew Dragon and Boeing's Starliner.
International Docking Adapter-3 (IDA-3) is set to launch to the
station on SpaceX Dragon's 18th commercial resupply services
mission at 6:24 p.m. Wednesday, July
24. Coverage of the SpaceX launch will air on NASA Television and
the agency's website beginning at 6
p.m.
Once the docking port arrives, flight controllers in
Houston will use the Canadarm2
robotic arm to extract it from Dragon's cargo hold and position it
over Pressurized Mating Adapter-3, on the space-facing side of the
station's Harmony module. Hague and Morgan are scheduled to conduct
a spacewalk no earlier than mid-August to install the docking port,
connect power and data cables, and install a new high-definition
camera as part of ongoing upgrades to the station's external camera
system.
Highlights of upcoming investigations the crew will facilitate
on the orbiting laboratory in the unique microgravity environment
include the growth of moss aboard the station, a platform to
attempt successful printing of biological tissues and bio-mining in
space.
Parmitano and Skvortsov are scheduled to remain aboard the
station with Koch until February
2020, leaving Morgan on station for an extended stay. Hague
and Ovchinin are set to return to Earth on Oct. 3.
A global endeavor, more than 230 people from 18 countries have
visited the International Space Station, which has hosted more than
2,500 research investigations from researchers in 106
countries.
Follow Morgan on his space mission at:
https://twitter.com/astrodrewmorgan
Get breaking news, images and features about
working in space on social media at:
https://instagram.com/iss
https://www.facebook.com/iss
https://www.twitter.com/Space_Station
http://www.twitter.com/ISS_Research
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SOURCE NASA