Science and upkeep work continued this week aboard the Worldwide Area Station (ISS), however updates relating to these actions are nonetheless all however halted by the U.S. authorities shutdown. Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui’s social media posts have been the exception…
Orbital remark
“Is not this one of many prime 5 beautiful views amongst all of the pictures taken from the ‘Kibo’ window? Self-praise right here…” wrote Kimiya Yui, an Expedition 73 flight engineer, with amusing from on board the Worldwide Area Station.
“The ISS took on a unique posture than regular, so the view from the window modified as effectively,” defined Yui.
That submit really options two pictures. In each, a band of our galaxy, the Milky Method, is seen above Earth’s horizon, with the house station’s photo voltaic arrays and the Kibo uncovered facility within the foreground. One picture additionally reveals dancing inexperienced and pink auroras, whereas the opposite captures a darker evening sky.
“[It was a] particular view that I wished everybody to see, so I pushed by way of my work early to make time and took this picture,” mentioned Yui.
Astronaut exercise
“I am ready for you! I will catch you gently, so don’t be concerned!” wrote Yui to the resupply ship nonetheless on Earth on Friday (Oct. 17).
Yui will use the house station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm to seize maintain of the HTV-X1 spacecraft as soon as it’s in proximity of the manipulator’s attain.
By the numbers
As of Friday (Oct. 17), there are 7 folks aboard the Worldwide Area Station: Expedition 73 commander Sergey Ryzhikov of the Russian house company Roscosmos; fellow cosmonauts Alexey Zubritsky and Oleg Platonov; Jonny Kim, Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke of NASA; and Kimiya Yui of JAXA, all flight engineers.
There are two docked crew spacecraft: SpaceX‘s Dragon “Endeavour” hooked up to the zenith port of the Concord module and Roscosmos’ Soyuz MS-27 hooked up to the Earth-facing port of the Prichal node.
There are 4 docked cargo spacecraft: Roscosmos’ Progress MS-31 (92P) docked to the space-facing port of the Poisk module and Progress M-32 (93P) docked to the aft port of the Zvezda service module, SpaceX’s CRS-33 Dragon spacecraft docked to the ahead port of Concord Node 2 and Northrop Grumman’s NG-23 Cygnus XL, the “SS William C. ‘Willie’ McCool,” berthed to the Unity node.
As of Friday, the house station has been repeatedly crewed for 24 years, 11 months and 15 days.
