243 DAY IN THE LIFE: VITAL VISITING VEHICLES—KEEPING THE REMOTE OUTPOST CREWED AND OPERATING CHAPTER 14 the crew, providing such things as joint angles, position and orientation, visiting vehicle approach data (e.g., range and speed), and caution and warning statuses. An example of this is shown in Figure 8. Figure 8. An example of using graphics overlay to capture a visiting vehicle—in this case, the first SpaceX Dragon spacecraft to the ISS. This picture shows one of the Robotic Workstation monitors during capture operations for the Dragon vehicle during Expedition 31 (May 25, 2012). The view of the ISS with the robotic arm and the incoming Dragon vehicle are provided by a camera mounted on the truss of the space station. The green lines, numbers, and letters define such things as a safe location for the spacecraft (e.g., the large green rectangle near top center) and the location where the vehicle is expected to be, as indicated by the green outline of the Dragon. These graphics are then overlaid on the video and shown to the crew member who is operating the arm. These overlays provide the crew member with real-time data about the Dragon, such as position and orientation, as well as outlining an imaginary approach corridor that the Dragon needs to maintain as it approaches the space station. Using overlays in this fashion allows the crew member to maintain situational awareness of the incoming vehicle without having to take his or her eyes off of the video showing the actual approaching vehicle. Under the direction of MCC-H, the crew captures the vehicle using the SSRMS. After a point shortly following the capture, the crew turns over the SSRMS operations to MCC-H. Flight controllers in MCC-H will manuever the SSRMS and grappled vehicle to the assigned port—Node 1 or Node 2—and position the vehicle for berthing operations (Figure 9). Figure 9. Flight controllers led by Flight Director Brian T. Smith (standing left of center in the third row from the front), supported the orbital work in the space station flight control room in Johnson Space Center’s Mission Control Center as the Canadarm2 berthed the Orbital ATK Cygnus commercial cargo craft to the Harmony node of the ISS on Jan. 12, 2014. The rendezvous, capture, and berthing operations, which take a number of hours, are conducted within a single crew day. The flight control team needs to stay on schedule to ensure the visiting vehicle is not stuck on the end of the SSRMS during the crew sleep period. The following day—and, in some instances, the same day—the crew will ingress the newly arrived visiting vehicle. Sometimes, a crew care package has been conveniently stowed where crew members have quick and relatively easy access. The care packages will contain some of the crew members’ favorites things. A popular care package item is fresh fruit. Sometimes, notes are included from the flight control team back in Houston, wishing the crew well on the rest of the mission. Crew members will spend anywhere from 1 to several months unloading the cargo and stowing it on the ISS. As they unload the new cargo, they will also start filling the vehicle with