Scientific and maintenance work continued this week aboard the International Space Station (ISS), but updates regarding these activities are still virtually interrupted by the US government shutdown. Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui’s social media posts were the exception…
Orbital observation
“Isn’t this one of the top five most breathtaking views of all the photos taken from the ‘Kibo’ window? Praise here…” wrote Kimiya Yui, Expedition 73 flight engineer, laughing from aboard the International Space Station.
“The ISS has adopted a different posture than usual, so the view from the window has also changed,” Yui explained.
This message actually contains two clichés. In both cases, a band of our galaxy, the Milky Wayis seen above Earth’s horizon, with the space station’s solar panels and the exposed Kibo facility in the foreground. One image also shows dancing green and red auroras, while the other captures a darker night sky.
“(It was a) special view that I wanted everyone to see, so I finished my work very early to save time and took this photo,” Yui said.
Astronaut activity
JAXA Astronaut Kimiya Yui spent this week preparing for the arrival and capture of her country’s first next-generation HTV-X cargo vehicle. Takeoff is scheduled for Monday (October 20).
“I’m waiting for you! I’ll catch you gently, so don’t worry!” wrote Yui to the supply ship still on Earth Friday, October 17.
Yui will use the space station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm to grab the HTV-X1 spacecraft once it is near the manipulator.
By the numbers
Since Friday (October 17), there are 7 people on board the International Space Station: Commander of Expedition 73 Sergey Ryzhikov of the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos; other cosmonauts Alexey Zubritsky and Oleg Platonov; Jonny Kim, Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke of NASA; and Kimiya Yui of JAXA, all flight engineers.
There is docked two-crew spacecraft: EspaceXRoscosmos’ Dragon “Endeavour” attached to the zenith port of the Harmony module and Roscosmos’ Soyuz MS-27 attached to the Earth-facing port of the Prichal node.
There is four docked cargo spaceships: Roscosmos’ Progress MS-31 (92P) docked to the space-facing port of the Poisk module and Progress M-32 (93P) docked to the rear port of the Zvezda service module, SpaceX’s CRS-33 Dragon The spacecraft docked at the Harmony 2 node’s forward port and Northrop Grumman’s NG-23 Cygnus XL, the “SS William C. ‘Willie’ McCool,” docked at the Unity node.
As of Friday, the space station has been continuously crewed since 24 years, 11 months and 15 days.