Boeing's orbital flight test-2 (oft-2) mission took off at 6:54 PM EST on May 19, opening a 24-hour trip to the international space station (ISS) It is reported that the crew of the 67th expedition, mainly focusing on human research and cargo operation, is responsible for preparing for the arrival of the oft-2 mission.
Starliner was launched from an unmanned joint launch Alliance (ULA) atlas-v rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida. It will automatically dock at the front port of harmony cabin at 7:10 p.m. on Friday, where it will stay for about five days for cargo and test operation.
On Wednesday, flight controllers informed the space station staff that the space station may be passed close by orbital debris later on Thursday, May 19, and the space station needs to perform debris avoidance maneuvers. Other tracking data received overnight showed that there was no fear of close passage and no need for avoidance exercises.
NASA flight engineer Kjell Lindgren set up hardware and software on Thursday afternoon, which will help monitor the arrival of the Boeing starliner crew ship during the oft-2 mission. A pair of tests he conducted earlier learned about the long-term effects of microgravity on humans.
NASA astronauts Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins conducted cargo operations with ESA astronaut Samantha cristoforetti in the Northrop Grumman Cygnus space cargo spacecraft. The commercial cargo spacecraft arrived at the space station on February 21, carrying 8300 pounds of experiments and hardware. Cygnus will leave the space station in mid June. At that time, it will load garbage and abandoned equipment and finally destroy it in a hot but safe way over the South Pacific.
It is understood that Hines and Watkins collected and stored their blood samples at the beginning for later analysis. Hines later repaired various life support and research hardware. Watkins monitors her glucose levels to understand the cardiovascular risks of living and working in space. Cristoforetti collected air samples to demonstrate the use of anita-2 units for the analysis of trace air pollutants.
Space station commander Oleg artemiyev loaded outdated equipment on the docked ISS progress 79 crew ship and inspected its systems before leaving in early June. Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov, flight engineers of the Russian space agency, carried out the inspection of Russian life support equipment and panels in the Zvezda service module.