Three new crewmates joined the International Space Station crew on Wednesday after a three-hour journey that started on the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with a launch aboard the Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft. The brand new trio together with NASA astronaut Don Pettit and Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Wagner will stay and work aboard the orbital outpost till spring 2025.
Following their arrival, the three new house residents entered the Rassvet module’s Earth-facing port and have been greeted by the 9 Expedition 71 crewmates increasing the orbiting lab’s crew to 12. Subsequent, relations and groups on the bottom known as as much as the house station and congratulated Pettit, Ovchinin, and Wagner as their mission bought underway. Lastly, the brand new trio was given a regular station security orientation earlier than deactivating their Soyuz crew ship, unloading cargo, and going to mattress.
On Thursday, their first full day in low-Earth orbit, Pettit, Ovchinin, and Wagner awoke late and labored a half-day. Pettit started his afternoon shift getting aware of house station methods with help from NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick. Pettit was final aboard the house station in 2012 as an Expedition 31 Flight Engineer when the brand new SpaceX Dragon cargo craft visited the orbital outpost for the primary time on a check mission in Could of that yr. Ovchinin and Wagner continued unpacking cargo packed contained in the Soyuz earlier than attaching sensors to themselves monitoring how their circulatory system is adapting to weightlessness.
The six NASA astronauts who’ve been aboard the house station for a couple of months had a full day on Thursday learning how crops develop in microgravity, conducting eye exams, and sustaining orbital plumbing methods.
NASA Flight Engineer Jeanette Epps and Mike Barratt harvested crops rising contained in the Columbus laboratory module’s Veggie house botany facility all through the day. The space-grown samples of two varieties of grasses have been then positioned inside a science freezer for future evaluation again on Earth. Researchers are in search of to know how house impacts photosynthesis and plant metabolism probably supporting the event of bioregenerative life assist methods.
Barratt additionally peered into the eyes of NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams utilizing normal medical imaging gear as floor personnel monitored in real-time. Some astronauts have reported imaginative and prescient points so docs repeatedly monitor the crew’s optic nerve, retina, cornea, and extra to keep up crew well being and guarantee profitable long-term house missions.
Earlier, Williams swapped out combustion analysis {hardware} within the Kibo laboratory module and labored on cargo transfers contained in the Cygnus house freighter that has been connected to the station since Aug. 6. Wilmore checked out energy provide parts in Columbus then visually analyzed incubation baggage containing microbe samples collected for evaluation.
NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson joined Dominick throughout Thursday servicing the house station’s restroom in Tranquility module, often known as the waste and hygiene compartment. The duo eliminated superior plumbing parts to entry and troubleshoot the bathroom’s electrical energy system.
Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub, and Alexander Grebenkin additionally slept in on Thursday following their late-night assist of the Soyuz MS-26 crew arrival. The trio spent the afternoon engaged on electrical and life assist upkeep whereas additionally helping their new crewmates.
Study extra about station actions by following the house station weblog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, in addition to the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.
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