ISS: Expedition 50

Crew & expedition duration:

Exp 50 crew patch

Complet Exp.50 crew

Backup Crew

Mission details:

• Expedition 50 began at 00:35 UTC Oct 30, 2016 following a change of command ceremony at 1937 UTC Oct 28.
• On November 02, 2016, an ISS reboost was performed using module Zvezda thrusters. This reboost was to set up for Soyuz MS-03 launch on November 17, 2016. The engines started at 03:22 UTC and fired 96 seconds. The orbit was 2.450 kilometers raised and is now at 406.1 kilometers.
• The Soyuz MS-03 carrying Oleg Novitskiy (Roskosmos), Thomas Pesquet (ESA) and Peggy Whitson (NASA), docked with the Rassvet module at 2158 UTC Nov 19, 2016.
• One month after launching, the Cygnus cargo vehicle SS Alan Poindexter (OA-5) was unberthed from the Unity module at about 11:25 UTC Nov 21, and released into space at 13:22 UTC.
  Five hours after departing the station, the Saffire-II experiment will intentionally ignite a fire inside a module aboard the uncrewed spacecraft. The second in a series of three, the experiment allows researchers to study a realistic fire on an exploration spacecraft. Instruments on the Cygnus will measure flame growth, oxygen use and more. Results could determine microgravity flammability limits for several spacecraft materials, validate NASA′s material selection criteria, and help scientists understand how microgravity and limited oxygen affect flame size. The investigation is important for the safety of current and future space missions.
  Cygnus also will release four LEMUR CubeSats from an external deployer on November 25, 2016 sending them to join a remote sensing satellite constellation that provides global ship tracking and weather monitoring. The spacecraft will remain in orbit until November 27, 2016 when its engines will fire twice, pushing it into Earth′s atmosphere, where it will burn up over the Pacific Ocean.
  
  

  Kimbrough inside Cygnus

  Pesquet inside Copule

  
  
• NASA's International Space Station Rapid Scatterometer (ISS-RapidScat) Earth science instrument has ended operations following a successful two-year mission aboard the space station. The mission launched September 21, 2014, and had recently passed its original decommissioning date.
  ISS-RapidScat used the unique vantage point of the space station to provide near-real-time monitoring of ocean winds, which are critical in determining regional weather patterns. Its measurements of wind speed and direction over the ocean surface have been used by agencies worldwide for weather and marine forecasting and tropical cyclone monitoring. Its location on the space station made it the first space-borne scatterometer that could observe how winds evolve throughout the course of a day.
  The agencies that routinely used ISS-RapidScat′s data for forecasting and monitoring operations include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Navy, along with European and Indian weather agencies. It provided more complete coverage of wind patterns far out to sea that could build into dangerous storms. Even if these storms never reach land, they can bring devastating wave impacts to coastal areas far away.
  During its mission, ISS-RapidScat also provided new insights into research questions such as how changing winds over the Pacific drove changes in sea surface temperature during the 2015-2016 El Niño event. Due to its unique ability to sample winds at different times of day, its data will be useful to scientists for years to come. ISS-RapidScat was born out of ingenuity, expertise and a need for speed. It was constructed in less than two years to replace its widely valued predecessor, NASA′s decade-old QuikScat scatterometer satellite, at a fraction of the cost of the original - largely by adapting spare parts from QuikScat.
  On August 19, 2016 a power distribution unit for the space station′s Columbus module failed, resulting in a power loss to ISS-RapidScat. Later that day, as the mission operations team from NASA′s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, attempted to reactivate the instrument, one of the outlets on the power distribution unit experienced an electrical overload. In the following weeks, multiple attempts to restore ISS-RapidScat to normal operations were not successful, including a final attempt on October 17, 2016.
  NASA currently does not plan to launch another scatterometer mission. However, the loss of ISS-RapidScat data will be partially mitigated by the newly launched ScatSat ocean wind sensor, a mission of the Indian Space Research Organization.
  ISS-RapidScat was the first continuous Earth-observing instrument specifically designed and developed to operate on the International Space Station exterior, but it′s no longer the only one. The Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS) joined the space station in January 2015 to provide cost-effective measurements of atmospheric aerosols and clouds in Earth′s atmosphere. Two more instruments are scheduled to launch to the space station in 2017 - one that will allow scientists to monitor the ozone layer′s gradually improving health, and another to observe lightning over Earth′s tropics and mid-latitudes. Following that, two additional Earth science instruments are scheduled for launch in 2018 and 2019.
• The Russian cargo spacecraft Progress MS-04 launched on December 01, 2016 at 14:51:52.474 UTC to deliver more than two and a half tons of food, fuel and supplies to the International Space Station crew. The unpiloted Russian freighter launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Due to a malfunction of the third rocket stage Progress did not reach the planned orbit and was lost.
  Russian mission control said on launch day an unpiloted Progress space station supply ship carrying nearly 5,400 pounds (2,450 kg) of rocket fuel, food, water and a new spacesuit burned up in Earth′s atmosphere shortly after it blasted off from Kazakhstan, and evidence points to a problem with the third stage of the cargo carrier′s Soyuz booster.
  Engineers lost telemetry during the Soyuz rocket′s third stage engine burn, and most of the vehicle′s fragments burned up in the atmosphere, Roscosmos said.
  But Russian mission control lost contact with the rocket and its cargo payload at around T+plus 6 minutes, 22 seconds, according to Roscosmos. That was more than two minutes before the Progress spacecraft was to arrive in orbit.
  If all went according to plan, the Soyuz launcher should have deployed the cargo capsule into a preliminary orbit less than nine minutes into the flight. The Progress MS-04 spacecraft should have extended its power-generating solar panels and navigation antennas almost immediately after separating from the Soyuz upper stage.
  But "ratty" telemetry from the spacecraft left ground controllers struggling to verify the status of the Progress cargo freighter. Rob Navias, a NASA TV commentator covering the launch, reported there was some indication the Soyuz third stage and Progress supply carrier may have prematurely separated. The spacecraft was scheduled to dock to the rear port of the space station′s Zvezda Service Module at 16:43 UTC on December 03, 2016.
• The 16-tonne Japanese HTV-6 (Kounotori-6) cargo ship was launched on Dec 9, 2016. The pressurized module contains 600 kg of water and 2152 kg of dry cargo. This includes two JAXA J-SSOD and one Nanoracks NRCSD-10 cubesat deployers; these will be transferred to the Kibo module.
• On Dec 14, 2016 the Exposed Pallet was grappled by the Canadarm-2, pulled out of HTV-6 and attached to the Mobile Base System on the ISS truss.
  On Dec 15-16 the J-SSOD #5 was moved to the Kibo module's airlock.
  On Dec 19 the Japanese RMS arm took the MPEP platform, with J-SSOD attached, out of the airlock and the STARS-C cubesat was ejected from it at 0855 UTC. On Dec 27 J-SSOD #6 was installed in the airlock with its sats to be deployed in January 2017.
• They replaced old NiH2 batteries on truss segment S4 with new Li-ion ones. The activity used the SSRMS Canadarm-2 and SPDM Dextre robot arms as well as spacewalking astronauts.
  The EP (External Pallet) from HTV-6 (Kounotori-6) is attached to the Mobile Base System on the Truss carrying batteries for the IEAs (integrated electronics assemblies) for the 3A and 1A power channels on the S4 truss segment.
• Details of the replacement operations:
  • On Dec 31, 2016 the SSRMS/SPDM arm moved NiH2 batteries 0043 and 0044 from the 3A IEA slots 5 and 6 to EP slots Z and Y.
  • On Jan 1, 2017 NiH2 battery 0040 was moved from 3A IEA slot 1 to EP slot X.
  • On Jan 1, Li-ion battery 0010 was moved from EP slot B to 3A IEA slot 5.
  • On Jan 2, Li-ion battery 0008 was moved from EP slot A to 3A IEA slot 1.
  • On Jan 2, NiH2 battery 0038 was moved from 3A IEA slot 3 to a temporary location (EOTP arm 3) on Dextre.
  • On Jan 3, Li-ion battery 0006 was moved from EP slot C to 3A IEA slot 3.
• On Jan 6, 2017 astronauts Kimbrough and Whitson, in suits EMU 3008 and 3006, depressurized the Quest airlock at about 1220 UTC for US EVA-38, to perform a complex upgrade to the orbital outpost′s power system (6h 32m). They moved:
  • Adapter plate S/N 0005 from EP slot A to 3A IEA slot 6.
  • NiH2 battery 0039 from 3A IEA slot 4 to on top of the adapter plate on slot 6.
  • Adapter plate S/N 0006 from EP slot B to 3A IEA slot 4.
  • NiH2 battery 0042 from 3A IEA slot 2 to on top of the adapter plate on slot 4.
  • Adapter plate S/N 0007 from EP slot C to 3A IEA slot 2.
  • Also, bundle 1 of the Node 3 axial shields were stored outside Quest.
• Robotics work with the SPDM Dextre arm continued between the two spacewalks, with the 1A power channel on S4:
• On Jan 9, 2017 Li-ion battery 0013 was moved from EP slot E to 1A IEA slot 5.
  • NiH battery 0077 was moved from 1A IEA slot 1 to EP slot C.
  • Li-ion battery 0011 was moved from EP slot D to 1A IEA slot 1.
• On Jan 10, NiH2 battery 0079 was moved froom 1A IEA slot 3 to SPDM Arm 1.
• On Jan 11, Li-ion battery 0012 was moved from EP slot F to 1A IEA slot 3.
• On Jan 12, NiH2 battery 0078 was moved from 1A IEA slot 2 to SPDM Arm 2.
• On Jan 13, astronauts Kimbrough and Pesquet, in suits 3008 and 3006, performed a second spacewalk US EVA-39 (5h 58m) with depressurization about 1120 UTC and repressurization at 1720 UTC. They moved:
  • Adapter plate 0003 from EP slot F to 1A IEA slot 6;
  • NiH2 battery 0080 from 1A IEA slot 4 onto that adapter plate;
  • Adapter plate 0004 from EP slot E to 1A IEA slot 4;
  • Adapter plate 0008 from EP slot D to 1A IEA slot 2.
• They also moved bundle 2 of the Node 3 Axial shields (covers for a soon-to-be-empty docking port) from the airlock area to Node 3, replaced a camera light tilt assembly and adjusted a worksite interface. At the end of this spacewalk, the SPDM was holding three old NiH3 batteries:
  0078 and 0079 on arms 1 and 2, and 0038 on the EOTP (ORU temporary platform). These were to be placed robotically in slots D, E and F on the EP. The EP will be returned to Kounoutori-6, which will eventually be destroyed on re-entry over the South Pacific.
• Three more battery replacement trips using the Japanese HTV-7, 8 and 9 cargo ships are scheduled for the future.
• On Jan 16, 2017 the J-SSOD6 (Japanese Small Satellite Orbital Deployer 6) was removed from the airlock by the JAXA robot arm and its cubesats were deployed.
• Six weeks after delivering more than 4.5 tons of supplies and experiments to the International Space Station, the unpiloted Japanese cargo spacecraft HTV 6 ship separated from ISS on Jan 27, 2017 at 1546 UTC.
  
  
  

  HTV-6 relaise

  Haptics experiment

  
  Ground controllers used the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm to unberth the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA's) H-II Transport Vehicle-6 (HTV-6) several hours (11:00 UTC) before its release. Space station Flight Engineer Thomas Pesquet, with back-up support from Expedition 50 Commander Shane Kimbrough, then commanded the station′s robotic arm to release HTV-6, loaded with station trash, at 15:46 UTC.
  The cargo ship moved to a safe distance below and in front of the station for about a week′s worth of data gathering with a JAXA experiment designed to measure electromagnetic forces using a tether in low-Earth orbit. However, its KITE tether experiment failed to deploy when commanded to do so on Jan 28, 2017.
  HTV 6 was deorbited on Feb 5 at 1442 UTC and entered the atmosphere over the South Pacific at 1506 UTC.
• On Jan 31, 2017 the Progress MS-03 cargo ship undocked at 14:25 UTC and was deorbited at 17:34 UTC with impact in the South Pacific at 18:24 UTC.
• On Feb 19, 2017 Dragon CRS-10 was launched from Kennedy Space Center LC39A aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9.
• On Feb 22, 2017 Dragon aborted its approach to the ISS at a distance of 1.2 km due to a navigation system error. Rendezvous was rescheduled for Feb 23 when Dragon was grappled by the SSRMS at 10:44 UTC, then berthed on the Harmony module.
• On Feb 22, 2017 Progress MS-05 was launched from Baikonur on the final Soyuz-U-PVB rocket. Among other cargo it carried a new Orlan-MKS spacesuit. The ship docked with the Pirs module at 08:30 UTC Feb 24.
• The NanoRacks NRCSD-10 deployer was extracted from the Kibo airlock on Mar 6, 2017.
  Four SpireGlobal Lemur satellites and the TechEdSat-5 satellite were deployed from it the same day. The satellites were launched aboard HTV-6 in December.
  TechEdSat-5 carries an ExoBrake experiment to perform a semi-controlled reentry.
• The Dextre and Canadarm-2 robot arms were used to unload the experiments in the Dragon external cargo trunk on Feb 25-Mar 7 in a rather complicated sequence involving Dextre's two main arms and its EOTP (Enhanced ORU Temp Platform, a storage position). The experiments were installed on the Express Logistics Carriers ELC-1 and ELC-4 on the station truss. Older experiments from ELC-1, ELC-2 and ELC-4 were removed for disposal.
  
  

  Dextre arm

  ITS arm

  
  
• Details of the unload experiments:
  • Feb 25 Dextre Arm 2 removes STP-H5 from Dragon
  • Feb 27 Dextre Arm 1 removes OPALS from ELC-1 F8
  • Feb 28 Dextre Arm 1 installs OPALS on Dextre EOTP
  • Feb 28 STP-H5 transferred from Arm 2 to Arm 1
  • Feb 28 Dextre Arm 1 installs STP-H5 on ELC-1 F8.
  • Mar 2 23:13 Dextre Arm 2 moves SAGE-IP from Dragon to Dextre EOTP
  • Mar 3 15:47 Dextre Arm 1 removes SAGE-NVP from Dragon
  • Mar 3 22:22 Dextre Arm 2 moves OPALS from EOTP to Dragon trunk
  • Mar 5 Dextre Arm 2 removes RRM from ELC-4 F3
  • Mar 5 Dextre Arm 1 installs SAGE-NVP on ELC-4 F3
  • Mar 7 Dextre Arm 1 removes SAGE-IP from EOTP, installs it on SAGE-NVP.
  • Mar 8 Dextre Arm 2 installs RRM on EOTP.
  • Mar 10 Dextre removes DCSU from ELC-2 F2
  • Mar 10 Dextre removes MISSE FSE from ELC-2 F3
  • Mar 10 Dextre reinstalls DCSU on ELC-2 F2
  • Mar 13 Dextre installs MISSE FSE in Dragon trunk.
  • Mar 16 Dextre Arm 1 moves RRM from EOTP to Dragon trunk.
• On March 02, 2017, an ISS reboost was performed using Zvezda thrusters. This reboost was to set up for Soyuz MS-04 launch on April 20, 2017. The engines started at 03:10 UTC and fired 43 seconds. The ISS got 0.65 m / sec more speed. The orbit was raised to 403,23 km x 418,9 km.
• Dragon was unberthed from the Harmony module at 21:45 UTC Mar 18, 2017 and released by Canadarm-2 at 09:11 UTC Mar 19. After a deorbit burn at 13:55 UTC it splashed down in the Pacific near 31 44N 121 15W at 14:46 UTC, carrying 1652 kg of ISS return cargo. This return cargo includes 104 kg of unspecified EVA equipment.
• The OPALS laser comm payload was launched wich Dragon CRS-3 on 18 Apr 2014; the RRM Robotic Refuelling Mission experiment in 2011. The MISSE FSE is an adapter that mounted the MISSE 7 and 8 materials exposure experiments; it was launched with ELC-2 in 2009. These packages, with a total mass of 811 kg, were destroyed on re-entry when the Dragon CRS10 trunk was jettisoned following deorbit burn on 19 Mar 2017.
• On Mar 24, 2017 Shane Kimbrough and Thomas Pesquet, in suits EMU 3008 and 3006, completed spacewalk US EVA-40 from the Quest airlock. The airlock was depressurized below 50 mbar at 11:16 UTC and repressurized at 17:58 UTC. The astronauts replaced the EXT-2 MDM computer (old S/N: MDM-16E-0102; new S/N not known) on the S0 truss, lubricated the LEE end-effector on the Dextre robot arm, replaced cameras on the Kibo Exposed Facility and a light on one of the CETA carts, and disconnected cables joining the PMA-3 docking unit to the Tranquility node. After the EVA, PMA-3 was removed from Node 3 and reinstalled on Node 2 on Mar 26.
  
  

  PMA-3 relocation

  EVA Whitson

  
  
• PMA-3 (Pressurized Mating Adapter 3) is one of the most-relocated and least-used major components of the ISS. PMA-1 joins Unity to Zarya; PMA-2, originally at the other end of Unity, now is on the end of the Harmony module and was used for almost all Shuttle dockings. PMA-3 was used for only two dockings, STS-97 and STS-98 in 2000-2001. It was installed at Unity nadir on 2000 Oct 16 and the Canadarm-2 used to move it to new locations subsequently. In its new location it will be covered with one of the new International Docking Adapters, IDA-3, and used for Dragon-2 and Starliner dockings.
• On Mar 30, Kimbrough and Whitson carried out spacewalk EVA-41. The Quest airlock was depressurized at 11:22 UTC and repressurized at 18:33 UTC. The astronauts, again in suits 3008 and 3006, emerged between 11:36 and 11:44 UTC. The old EXT-1 MDM computer, MDM-16E-0103, was removed from S0 and replaced by a new one. Whitson removed the fabric cover from the relocated PMA-3 docking unit, but needed Kimbrough's help to stuff it into the cover bag needed to take it back to the airlock, which was done by 13:19 UTC. The next tasks was to install debris shields on the newly empty axial port on Node 3. Four shields were taken from near the airlock to Node 3 bundled in pairs. Unfortunately shield 1, being installed by Kimbrough, came loose and floated away at about 13:57 UTC; it was cataloged in orbit as 1998-067LF (SSN 42434). After the remaining shields were installed, the astronauts retrieved the PMA-3 cover bag once more, unpacked the cover and pinned it down to cover the empty quadrant. Finally, additional shields were added to the base of PMA-3 in its new location.
• On Apr 3, the Zvezda main engines were used to reboost the ISS orbit, increasing orbital period by 1.5 seconds.
• On Apr 10, Soyuz MS-02 undocked from Poisk at 07:57 UTC and landed in Kazakhstan at 11:20 UTC, returing Ryzhikov, Borisenko and Kimbrough to Earth. Peggy Whitson became ISS commander of Expedition 51.

External links:

• Wikipedia: Exp. descriptions
• Spacefacts: Exp. description

Astrophilately covers:

Cosmic Mail: Cover with blue ISS boardcancel, Docking & undocking MS03 special blue cancel, signed. Credit: #401

Cosmic Mail: Cover with blue ISS boardcancel, Korolev 110th birthday cancel: 120117 and special cancel, signed.