Expedition 70 Underway; Crew Performs Upkeep – Area Station

The Expedition 70 patch is designed across the central yin-yang image representing stability; at first, the stability of our stunning planet Earth that’s encircled by the yin-yang image and which types a part of the Expedition quantity.

Expedition 70 is effectively underway aboard the International Space Station after yesterday’s departure of three long-serving station residents, together with NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, who returned to Houston this morning. The seven crew members who’re nonetheless dwelling and dealing in microgravity accomplished an array of upkeep actions at the moment.

NASA Flight Engineer Jasmin Moghbeli, who arrived to the station a month in the past, spent her morning within the Columbus Laboratory Module performing upkeep and testing the connectivity capabilities of energy shops. After lunch, she switched gears, working with the Cold Atom Lab. An ongoing exercise for the first-time station resident this week, Moghbeli inspected cables and ports to gear up for tomorrow’s completion of changing elements of the payload. Within the night, she began coaching for upcoming spacewalks, reviewing spacesuit operations and procedures.

NASA Flight Engineer Loral O’Hara, who arrived to the station two weeks in the past, began her day with ISAFE eye exams, as a part of a brand new suite of experiments, known as CIPHER. Eye exams of this type study modifications in an astronaut’s eyes and mind resulting from fluid shifts in microgravity. CIPHER is an all-encompassing, full-body strategy that investigates how a number of methods of the physique react to spaceflight earlier than, throughout and after a mission. O’Hara is the primary of as much as 30 astronauts to take part.

Following eye exams, O’Hara skilled for spacewalk emergencies within the unlikely occasion they might happen utilizing SAFER, the Simplified Assist for EVA Rescue. Earlier than mattress, she reconfigured the Microgravity Science Glovebox.

Expedition 70 Commander Andreas Mogensen of ESA (European Area Company) spent his day finishing some coaching with Astrobee, the stations free-flying robots that assist astronauts conduct each day duties. Afterward, he repaired the docking station the cube-shaped robots use for recharging.

Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Company) labored within the Bigelow Expandable Exercise Module, or BEAM, a lot of the day. Within the station’s first expandable habitat, Furukawa stowed {hardware} and reconfigured sensors.

The three Roscosmos Flight Engineers—Konstantin Borisov, Oleg Kononenko, and Nikolai Chub—had a light-duty day, finishing their required two hours of train that helps fight the results of bone and muscle loss in microgravity.

Be taught extra about station actions by following the area station weblog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, in addition to the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.