ISS: Expedition 64

Crew & expedition duration:

Expedition 64 crewmembers

Exp.64 patch.

Backup Crew

EVA data:

Mission details:

• Expedition 63 concluded on Oct 21, 2020 with the undocking of Soyuz MS-16 from the Poisk module at 2332 UTC and landed in Kazakhstan at 0254 UTC Oct 22, returning Anatoliy Ivanishin, Ivan Vagner and Chris Cassidy to Earth.
• Expedition 64 is now underway under the command of Sergey Ryzhikov.
• The Nanoracks NRCSD-19 payloads, delivered to the ISS on Cygnus NG-14, were deployed on Nov 5, 2020 from the Kibo airlock. The payloads are:
  • Bobcat-1, 3U cubesat from Ohio U with a technology payload
  • NEUTRON, 3U cubesat from U of Hawaii with a space physics experiment
  • SPOC, 3U cubesat from U of Georgia with an ocean color imager
  • Lemur-2-v4.7 and Lemur-2-v4.8, 3U cubesats from Spire Global with comms and GNSS-RO weather payloads
  • Djara is a Lemur satellite developed by Spire Global, but it is operated by the Australian Office of National Intelligence to test an FPGA supercomputing chip in space.
  • DESCENT Mother and DESCENT Daughter, two 1U cubesats joined by a 100-metre tether from York University (Canada).
  • SATTLA-1, 1U student and amateur radio payload from Ariel University in the West Bank.
• On November 12, 2020 an ISS reboost was performed using Progress MS-14 thrusters. This reboost was to set up for the launch of manned spacecraft Soyuz MS-18 in spring 2021. The engines started at 19:50 UTC and fired 363.5 seconds. After the corrective maneuver, the average orbit of the ISS increased by 1,100 meters. The actual parameters are 418.42 km x 437.95 km. The ISS needs 92.90 minutes for each orbit.
• The SpaceX Crew-1 mission was launched at 0027 UTC on Nov 16, 2020 from KSC with Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, Soichi Noguchi and Shannon Walker. Crew Dragon capsule C207 ′Resilience′ entered orbit and separated from the Falcon 9 second stage at 0039 UTC, beginning orbit manuevers to rendezvous with the ISS. Resilience docked with the IDA-2 port on ISS at 0401 UTC Nov 17 and the crew boarded ISS at 0602 UTC.
• On Nov 18, 2020 astronauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov carried out the first ever spacewalk from the Poisk module, VKD-47. All previous Russian ISS spacewalks were from Pirs, and in the 11 years since Poisk′s launch its airlock had lain dormant. Now the Pirs module is scheduled to be removed from the ISS, so Poisk′s airlock is being brought into service.
• The hatch was opened at 15:12 UTC a first time for leak tightness check for the exit hatch in Poisk and closed again at 15:20 UTC. The tasks after re-opening at 15:55 UTC were, replacement of the liquid flow regulator′s removable panel on Zarya (aborted because of a "bulky bolt"), work on scientific equipment, commutation of the Tranzit-B antenna on Pirs to the Poisk module (to ensure continuity of communications with the Orlan suits) change the position of sensors for the precipitation and pressure control unit on the Poisk module. The Earth-facing Pirs will be replaced by the new Russian Multipurpose Laboratory Module, named "Nauka", Russian for "science", which is being prepared for launch at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
  
  

  Poisk module

  EVA Ryzhikov on 18 nov.

• Roskosmos counts from first hatch open to last hatch close, and considers VKD-47 as a single `vykhod' (EVA, in NASA jargon).
  The timeline:

    1446 UTC:  Poisk airlock first depressurization begins
    1453 UTC:  Poisk depressurized below 50 mbar, begin VKD-47a (my rule)
    1512 UTC:  Poisk airlock hatch open, begin VKD-47 (Roskosmos rule)
               The astronauts inspected the hatch seals.
    1520 UTC:  Poisk airlock hatch closed
    1523 UTC:  Airlock repressurized above 50 mbar, end VKD-47a (my rule)
    1527 UTC:  Airlock repress stopped at 350 mbar
    1539 UTC:  Poisk airlock second depressurization begins
    1544 UTC:  Airlock below 50 mbar, begin VKD-47 (my rule)
    1555 UTC:  Poisk airlock hatch open again
    1606 UTC:  Kud-Sverchkov egress airlock
    1616 UTC:  Ryzhikov egress airlock with pressurized container for new flow regulator
    1739 UTC   Zarya Flow regulator No. 1 replacement abandoned; could not open container
    1816 UTC   Pressurized container returned to airlock
    1923 UTC   Transit-B antenna cable relocated from Pirs to Poisk.
    2015 UTC   Retrieve old Impakt exterior sample plate on Zvezda
    2030 UTC   Install new  Impakt exterior sample plate on Zvezda
    2054 UTC   Jettison of two decontamination towels
    2134 UTC   Ryzhikov ingress
    2145 UTC   Kud-Sverchkov ingress
    2159 UTC   Poisk airlock hatch closed
    2205 UTC   Airlock repressurization above 50 mbar
  
    VKD-47a depress time:                     30m
    VKD-47a hatch open time:                   8m
    VKD-47  depress time: (JCM rule)        6h21m
    VKD-47  hatch open time:                6h04m
    VKD-47 Ryzhikov time outside:           5h18m
    VKD-47 Kud-Sverchkov time outside:      5h39m
    VKD-47 'official' Roskosmos time        6h47m48s
      (1st hatch open to 2nd hatch close):
  

• On Dec 6, 2020 SpaceX launched Dragon CRS-21 from Kennedy Space Center. The Falcon 9 first stage landed on the OCISLY droneship. CRS-21 is the first cargo mission for Dragon 2. As for Crew Dragon, and unlike the orginal cargo Dragon, Cargo Dragon 2 has no deployable solar arrays, does not jettison its nose cap during launch, and once reaching ISS docks with an IDA docking port (IDA-3) instead of being captured by Canadarm-2. CRS-21 indeed docked with IDA-3 on Node 2 Zenith at 1840 UTC Dec 7.
  
  
  

  ISS 64 diagram

  Nanoracks Bishop Airlock

  
  In the Dragon trunk is the Nanoracks Bishop Airlock. The 1090 kg airlock will be installed on ISS Node 3. In use it will be unberthed from Node 3 by Canadarm-2 and satellites will be ejected from it in that unberthed configuration; it will then be reinstalled on Node 3.
  Among the pressurized cargo was a refurbished spacesuit, EMU 3015. It will replace EMU 3008, which will be returned to Earth aboard CRS-21 when it lands.
• On Dec 19, 2020 at 2344 UTC the Canadarm-2 extracted the Nanoracks Bishop Airlock (NRAL) from the Dragon CRS-21 trunk, and at about 0330 UTC Dec 20 it was berthed to the Tranquility module.
• On Jan 6, 2021 at 1225 UTC the Canadarm-2 unberthed the S.S. Kalpana Chawla cargo ship (mission Cygnus NG-14) from Unity nadir, and at 1511 UTC released it into orbit by SSRMS.
• Cargo Dragon CRS-21 undocked from Harmony PMA 3 / IDA-3 at 1405 UTC Jan 12, 2021. It jettisoned its trunk into orbit probably at about 0030 UTC Jan 14; began its deorbit burn at 0037 UTC; and landed in the Gulf of Mexico at 0126 UTC at about 28.6N 83.9W. It returned spacesuit EMU 3008 to Earth along with a further 1872 kg of cargo.
• On January 21, 2021 an ISS reboost was performed using Progress MS-14 thrusters. This reboost was to set up for the launch of manned spacecraft Soyuz MS-18 in spring 2021. The engines started at 16:14 UTC and fired 417.5 seconds. After the corrective maneuver, the average orbit of the ISS increased by 1,200 meters. The actual parameters are 420.09 km x 436.17 km. The ISS needs 92.91 minutes for each orbit.
  
  

  EVA Glover on Jan 27.

  SpaceX Crew-1 docked to ISS

  
  
• Cygnus NG-14, the S.S. Kalpana Chawla, was deorbited on Jan 26, 2021 with entry over the S Pacific at 2023 UTC. It departed ISS on Jan 6 and spent 20 days in a 475 x 490 km orbit.
• The second spacewalk (ISS U.S. EVA-69) performed Michael Hopkins and Victor Glover on January 27, 2021 (6h 56m), using spacesuits EMU 3006 and 3009. SAFER backpacks 13 and 18 were also used. The Quest airlock was depressurized by about 1118 UTC and the hatch was opened at 1126 UTC, with the astronauts putting the suits on battery power 2 min later. The first major task was to install the ColKa antenna on the outside of ESA′s Columbus module. ColKa, built by MDA/Harwell in England, provides high bandwidth Ka-band science data download. The ColKa package was launched on the Cygnus NG-13 mission in Feb 2020 and has been stored inside ISS since then. The package has a mass of 105 kg plus a 15 kg removable cover.
• Glover mounted the Canadarm-2 at ESP-2 and carried ColKa to Columbus, installing it at 1242 UTC and completing bolting it down by 1316 UTC. Next the astronauts routed cables to ColKa and to the Bartomoleo platform. (Unfortunately, two Bartomoleo cables could not be connected and were left tied down for a future EVA.) The ColKA cover was removed at 1529 UTC and jettisoned into space by Glover at 1600 UTC.
  The astronauts then retrieved equipment from the airlock and moved to the P6 truss to remove two H-fixture bolts from the solar array mast there. The astronauts returned to the airlock, ingressing at 1813 UTC and closing the hatch at 1820 UTC. Quest was repressurized at 1824 UTC.
• On Jan 29, 2021 the Dextre arm removed a spare LiIon battery, attached to a FRAM adapter plate, from the ESP-3 stowage platform. The battery was launched to ISS in the Dragon CRS-19 trunk. Dextre then removed old NiH batteries 72 and 69 from P4 IEA slot 5 and 6. The new battery was then removed from its FRAM and placed in slot 5. One of the old batteries was stowed on the HTV-9 EP-9 external pallet, and the other was attached to the FRAM, which then was put back on ESP-3.
• EVA (ISS US. EVA-70)on February 01, 2021 (5h 20m) Michael Hopkins and Victor Glover completed the battery work. They used the same suits, depressurized Quest by 1248 UTC, opened the hatch at 1255 UTC, and went to battery power at 1256 UTC. They went to the P4 IEA. In slot 2 were two adapter plates, one on top of the other. They removed the top one, AP0009, and installed it in the empty slot 6, and connected it to the battery in slot 5. This marks the near completion of 3 years of battery replacement work at ISS; all that remains is to dispose of the EP-9 pallet with its old batteries.
• The astronauts then removed two more H-fixtures from solar array masts, replaced a EVTCG camera group on the CP3 boom at S1 lower outboard, added a new HD camera to the camera group on the Destiny module′s CP13 boom, and installed a new WVEB (Wrist Vision Equipment Box) camera at the base of the Japanese JRMS robot arm. They returned to airlock with hatch closure at 1812 UTC and repressurization at 1815 UTC.
• The Progress MS-15 cargo ship undocked from SO-1 Pirs at 05:21:30 UTC Feb 9, 2021. It fired its engine for the 3.5-minute deorbit burn at 0830:11 UTC with debris impact in the S Pacific at 09:13:08 UTC. Progress MS-16 was launched on Feb 15 and docked with the Pirs module at 0626 UTC Feb 16.
• Progress MS-16 was launched on Feb 15, 2021 and docked with the Pirs module at 06:26:45 UTC Feb 16.
• On Feb 20, 2021 Northrop Grumman launched the Cygnus NG-15 cargo ship, S.S. Katherine Johnson, on an Antares 230+ rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Virginia. NG-15 will rendezvous with the ISS; the 8050 kg spacecraft includes 3734 kg of pressurized cargo. Aboard Cygnus for later deployment is a JAXA J-SSOD (#16) with seven cubesats: Paraguay's first satellite, GuaraniSat; a Filipino satellite, Maya-2; Kyushu Tech′s Tsuru; Tel Aviv University's TAU-SAT; Moldova's first satellite, the Technical University of Moldova′s TUMnanosat; Osaka OPU's Hirogari; and RymanSat's RSP-01. The S.S. Katherine Johnson was captured by Candarm-2 at 0938 UTC Feb 22 and berthed on the Unity module at 1216 UTC.
• On Feb 28, 2021 astronauts Rubins and Glover carried out spacewalk EVA-71 to begin installing solar array modification kits. They used EMUs 3015 and 3009, with SAFER 13 and 18. The first mod kit was installed on solar array mast canister 2B, on the P6 truss segment. Each 150 kg kit consists of a truss consisting of three lower struts (left, middle, right) and an `upper triangle' with a mounting bracket. The new IROSA solar arrays, to be launched later this year, will be installed on the brackets.
• The work went more slowly than expected. The 2B kit was completed but with some issues with the bolts. The upper triangle for the 4B kit was assembled but not installed; it was tied to the 4B IEA and the work is expected to be completed during the next spacewalk. Airlock depressurization was at 1101 UTC with hatch open at 1111 UTC; hatch was closed at 1811 UTC and the airlock began repressurization at 1816 UTC. Rubins reported she had an ear blockage, so the repress was slower than usual and passed the 50 mbar level to mark EVA at 1818 UTC.
• On Mar 5, 2021 Rubins and Noguchi completed the work with EVA-72, installing the 4B mod kit on the 4B mast canister and tightening the bolts on the 2B kit. The airlock was depressurized from 1133 to 1836 UTC; the hatch was open from 1336 to 1828 UTC.
• External Pallet 9 (EP9) was launched on the Japanese HTV 9 cargo ship in May 2020 and was installed on ISS on Jun 1, 2021. It now has nine old NiH batteries stowed on it. Canadarm-2 unberthed the pallet from the MBS POA LEE mounting point on the mobile transporter on the station truss on Mar 11 around 0200 UTC, and released EP9 into space at 1330 UTC. EP9 with the nine batteries has a mass of around 2600 kg. It will remain in orbit for several years.
• On March 12 19:09 - ISS orbit′s reboost by Progress MS-14 (75P) engines (dt=114.2 s, dH=+0.45 km)
• On Mar 13, 2021 Glover (EMU 3009) and Hopkins (EMU 3006) left the Quest airlock on EVA-73. The airlock was depressurized at 1309 UTC and repressurized at 2003 UTC; the hatch was open from 1314 to 1959 UTC. First the astronauts went to P6 and vented two old ammonia jumper cables that were used for the Early Ammonia Servicer system prior to its 2007 jettison. One was moved to the Quest airlock. The astronauts also installed a stiffener on the airlock thermal cover, and worked on the Bartolomeo connectors that gave trouble on an earlier spacewalk. Cable routing to the CP9 camera position was completed and cable routing to the CP8 position was partially done.
• On Mar 14, 2021 the JRMS arm extracted J-SSOD-16 from the Kibo airlock for cubesat deployements. At 1120 UTC J-SSOD-16 ejected OPUSAT-II (Osaka Prefectural University), GuaraniSat-1 (Paraguay), Maya-2 (Phillipines), Tsuru (Kyushu Tech), RSP-01 (RymanSat club). Later the same day it ejected Nichirin (WARP-01) for WarpSpace Co. Ltd, Tsukuba; TAU-SAT-1 for Tel-Aviv University; and Sanko (STARS-EC) for Shizuoka Univ.
• On Mar 19, 2021 Ryzhikov, Kud-Sverchkov and Rubins entered Soyuz MS-17 and flew it from the Rassvet docking port to the Poisk docking port. Undocking was at 1638 UTC and redocking at 1712 UTC.
• On Mar 22, 2021 around 0830 UTC the 50-kg-class Lawkanat-1 (MMSAT-1) satellite was quietly ejected from the J-SSOD-M2 deployer, with no announcement from JAXA. Lawkanat-1 is a joint Hokkaido-Myanmar Earth imaging satellite whose deployment became controversial following the coup in Myanmar. This satellite was launched to ISS on NG-15 and is similar to the Diwata satellites. The satellite is owned by Myanmar, and the Myanmar Aerospace Engineering University (MAEU) in Meiktila was involved in the project. However, the Hokkaido University group issued a statement making excessively clear that only they controlled the satellite and that they would only give Myanmar data under very limited circumstances.
• On Apr 5, 2021 at 1030 UTC the Dragon spaceship Resilience undocked from the IDA-2/PMA-2 docking port on the ISS Harmony module, backed off 60 metres, and redocked with the IDA-3/PMA-3 port on the same module′s zenith side.
• On Apr 9, 2021 at 0742 UTC the Soyuz MS-18 spaceship was launched from Baykonur carrying Oleg Novitskiy, Pyotr Dubrov and Mark Vande Hei. It docked with the ISS Rassvet module at 1105:06 UTC the same day.
• On Apr 17, 2021 at 0134 UTC Soyuz MS-17 undocked from the Poisk module with astronauts Ryzhikov, Kud-Sverchkov and Rubins. After a deorbit burn at 0401 UTC the descent module landed in Kazakhstan at 0455 UTC.
  Expedition 65, under the command of Shannon Walker, formally began when Soyuz MS-17 undocked.
  
  
• Completed ISS flight events (UTC time): nasaspaceflight.com
  

  February 20  17:36:54.3 - Cygnus (NG-15) launch
  February 22  09:38 / 12:16 - Cygnus (NG-15) capture and berthing (to Unity nadir) by SSRMS
  February 28  11:12-18:16 - spacewalk (ISS U.S. EVA-71) from Quest airlock (IROSA P6 Power Channel 2B preparation) [Rubins, Glover]
  March 5  11:37-18:33 - spacewalk (ISS U.S. EVA-72) from Quest airlock (IROSA P6 Power Channel 4B preparation, Station upgrade III) [Rubins, Noguchi]
  March 11  13:30 - release by SSRMS an external pallet loaded with old nickel-hydrogen batteries from ISS into Earth orbit
  March 12  19:09 - ISS orbit's reboost by Progress MS-14 (75P) engines (dt=114.2 s, dH=+0.45 km)
  March 13  13:14-20:01 - spacewalk (ISS U.S. EVA-73) from Quest airlock (Bartolomeo activation) [Glover, Hopkins]
  March 14  11:20 - release of satellites OPUSAT-II "HIROGARI", GuaraniSat-1 (BIRDS-4), Maya-2 (BIRDS-4), Tsuru (BIRDS-4) and RSP-01 from J-SSOD#16
  March 14  11:50 - release of satellite WARP-01 from J-SSOD#16
  March 14  14:30 - release of satellite TAU-Sat-1 from J-SSOD#16
  March 14  15:00 - release of satellite STARS-EC "??  (Sanko)" from J-SSOD#16
  March 19  16:38:27 / 17:12:35 - Soyuz MS-17 (63S) undocking (from MIM1 Rassvet) and docking (to MIM2 Poisk) [Exp 63/64: Ryzhikov, Kud'-Sverchkov, Rubins]
  March 22  08:30 - release of satellite Lawkanat-1 from J-SSOD#M2
  April 2  12:14 - ISS orbit's reboost by Progress MS-14 (75P) engines (dt=132.8 s, dV=+0.21 m/s, dH=+0.36 km)
  April 5  10:30 / 11:08 - Crew Dragon  Resilience (Crew-1/USCV-1) undocking (from Harmony PMA-2 / IDA 2) and docking (to Harmony PMA-3 / IDA 3) [Exp 64/65: Hopkins, Glover, Walker, Noguchi]
  April 9  07:42:40.496 / 11:05:02 - Soyuz MS-18 (64S) launch and docking (to MIM1 Rassvet) [Exp 65/66: Novitsky, Dubrov, Vande Hei]
  April 17  01:34:04 / 04:01:35 / 04:56:24 - Soyuz MS-17 (63S) undocking (from MIM2 Poisk), deorbit (dt=278 s, dV= 128 m/s) and separation [Exp 63/64: Ryzhikov, Kud'-Sverchkov, Rubins]
  

External links:

• AmericaSpace: 210228-Exp. 64 Spacewalkers Prepare for ISS Power Upgrades
• AmericaSpace: 210225-Artemis Team Duo Prepare for Spacewalk
• AmericaSpace: 210201-Expedition 64 Spacewalkers Complete ISS Upgrades, Battery Tasks
• AmericaSpace: 210128-Spacewalkers Complete Columbus Upgrades
• AmericaSpace: 210125-Astronauts to Conduct Wednesday Spacewalk
• AmericaSpace: 201117-Dragon Docks at Space Station, Expands Exp. 64 to Seven Crew
• Wikipedia: Exp. descriptions
• Spacefacts: Exp. description

Astrophilately covers:

EVA-2 cancel Houston. Credit: #411c

EVA-5 cancel Houston. Credit: #411c