Good morning.
This is Mission Control, Houston.
Welcome and thank you for joining us for today's edition
of ISS Update this Thursday, August 9.
For those of you joining us now, we're coming
to you live inside the International Space Station
flight control room where the team has been monitoring the
systems and the crew's activities aboard the
International Space Station.
This is the crew of Expedition 32.
Leading the Orbit Two team here
in the station flight control room today is Flight Director
Greg Whitney, seen standing here in this...
seen in the blue shirt, and next to him is Capcom Anna Fisher,
who is relaying all ground messages up to the crew.
Meanwhile, the six crew members aboard the station include
Russian cosmonaut and commander of the complex Gennady Padalka
and flight engineers cosmonaut Sergei Revin
and NASA astronaut Joe Acaba,
shown here on the right-hand side.
Padalka, Revin and Acaba had launched
to the orbiting complex aboard their Soyuz spacecraft
as the Expedition 31 crew in May.
Their vehicle docked to the Poisk module
of the space station two days after their launch on May 14,
and today they will complete their 88th consecutive day
in space.
Joining them there
on the left-hand side is cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko,
NASA astronaut Suni Williams and Japanese astronaut Aki Hoshide.
Malenchenko, Williams and Hoshide arrived
at the International Space Station
after docking their Soyuz spacecraft
to the Rassvet module on July 16.
They're now in the middle of their fourth week in space.
The space station with its crew aboard is flying at an altitude
of about 250 statute miles.
The orbiting facility is on an Eastern track.
It had just come across the southern tip of Brazil and is
about to swing a northeastern track
across the South Atlantic Ocean
for an eventual pass over Africa.
The Expedition 32 crew kicked off their day early this morning
at 1 a.m. Central time.
They followed that by the first
of their two daily planning conferences
with ground controllers at mission control centers
around the world to review today's activities.
Today aboard the orbiting complex,
more robotics work takes center stage
as flight engineers Joe Acaba
and Aki Hoshide work together using the Japanese robotic arm,
also known as the Remote Manipulator System,
that is anchored at the Japanese Experiment Module, or Kibo,
to unberth the Multi-mission Consolidated Equipment
from the Exposed Palette and install it
to the Exposed Facility Unit number eight
of the Japanese Experiment Module's Exposed Facility.
Just before today's update hour,
Acaba and Flight Engineer Suni Williams reviewed robotics
procedures in advance of tomorrow's work to return
that Exposed Palette back
into the Japanese HTV3, the cargo vehicle.
Then Williams and Flight Engineers Malenchenko
and Hoshide will have a medical contingency drill a little
after the hour.
Williams also will spend some time with science.
She'll work with the Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus.
This is a small research facility that is used
for biological experiments.
Williams is working with the six YouTube Space Lab Group
Activation Pack experiments.
She will also then work on the Burning
And Suppression of Solids experiment.
This experiment examines the burning
and extinction characteristics of a wide variety fuel samples
in the environment of microgravity.
Acaba, Williams and Hoshide will conduct visual testing prior
to complete eye exams that are scheduled later next week.
Acaba is currently working to clean filters of bacteria
within nodes 1, 2 and 3, also known as the Unity,
Harmony and Tranquility.
And earlier this morning flight engineer Japanese astronaut Aki
Hoshide took some time out to talk
with the Japanese Young Astronauts Club in Tokyo.
And also today marks a special day
for an honorary crew member aboard the space station,
Smokey the Bear, who turns 68 today.
Flight Engineer Joe Acaba brought
up a small plush Smokey Bear, seen here in this picture.
He had served as the zero-g indicator aboard the Soyuz
spacecraft that carried him
up to the International Space Station back in May.
The space station serves as a platform for studying Earth,
natural, and man-made changes, including the devastation
of forest fires or wild land fires.
Smokey also serves as a way to raise awareness
about fire prevention and fire safety.
We'll be talking with Jeff Miller
of the U.S. Forest Service about its partnership with NASA
in a few minutes here in Mission Control, Houston.
And meanwhile aboard the orbiting laboratory,
each crew member will have completed their daily two hours
of exercise to help mitigate the negative effects
of long-duration spaceflight on their bodies
and also maintain their physical health.
They will do some prep work for the next day,
participate in their second daily planning conference before
the evening meals and that pre-sleep period.
The crew is then scheduled go to sleep at 4:30 p.m. Central time.
This is Mission Control, Houston.