Mark Vande Hei – Spaceflight Now

Soyuz spacecraft brings three station fliers home

February 28, 2018

Bidding their crewmates farewell, a Russian cosmonaut and two NASA astronauts boarded their Soyuz ferry craft, undocked from the International Space Station and fell back to Earth Tuesday, landing safely on the snowy steppe of Kazakhstan to close out a 168-day mission.

Live coverage: Three-man station crew lands in Kazakhstan

February 27, 2018

Two American astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut boarded their Soyuz MS-06 landing craft for a homecoming Tuesday night, U.S. time, concluding 168 days in orbit. The trio undocked from the International Space Station at 5:08 p.m. EST (2208 GMT), and landed on the snowy steppe of Kazakhstan at 9:31 p.m. EST (0231 GMT Wednesday).

Spacewalking astronauts complete robot arm work

February 16, 2018

Astronaut Mark Vande Hei and Japanese crewmate Norishige Kanai floated outside the International Space Station Friday, repositioned two robot arm grapple mechanisms following repair work last month and carried out a variety of “get-ahead” tasks before calling it a day.

Software patch fixes station robot arm; Monday spacewalk repair called off

January 28, 2018

A corrective software patch has fixed a problem with a newly installed grapple fixture on one end of the International Space Station robot arm, NASA officials said Sunday. With the mechanism now fully operational, a re-planned spacewalk Monday to re-install a degraded unit has been called off.

Newly installed space station robot arm grapple fixture not operating properly

January 26, 2018

The grapple mechanism installed on one end of the space station’s robot arm during a spacewalk Tuesday is experiencing problems. It will be removed during a re-planned spacewalk Monday and the original fitting will be re-installed, NASA said Friday.

Spacewalkers complete repairs to station robotic arm

January 23, 2018

Two astronauts floated outside the International Space Station early Tuesday and replaced one of the grapple fixtures on the end of the lab’s robot arm, the first of two excursions over the next week to complete a complex overhaul that began with a pair of spacewalks last October.

Station astronauts begin unpacking refurbished SpaceX cargo craft

December 18, 2017

A SpaceX-owned supply ship arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday with 2.4 tons of cargo, including space debris and solar energy monitors mounted in the Dragon spacecraft’s external payload bay and more than 3,400 pounds of gear inside its reused pressurized module.

Video: Dragon capsule arrives at space station

December 18, 2017

Closing out a two-day pursuit following launch from Cape Canaveral, a reused SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule arrived at the International Space Station Sunday with more than 4,800 pounds of supplies and experiments.

Recent snapshots from the International Space Station

December 14, 2017

Recent photos from the International Space Station’s Expedition 53 crew show wildfires burning in Southern California, expansive views of the Himalayas, cities by night and day, and colorful vistas of sites around the world.

Astronauts stage second spacewalk in five days

October 10, 2017

Five days after work to replace the grapple fitting on one end of the space station’s robot arm, commander Randy Bresnik and flight engineer Mark Vande Hei ventured back outside the lab complex Tuesday to lubricate the new arm mechanism, to replace a degraded camera and to carry out a variety of lower-priority chores.