The Expedition 72 crew continued working inside the 2 SpaceX Dragon spacecraft docked to the International Space Station on Friday. The orbital residents additionally saved up stem cell analysis, serviced a pair of spacesuits, and maintained life assist programs on the finish of the week.
Three NASA astronauts and one Roscosmos cosmonaut representing NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 are nearing the tip of a seven-month mission and are ready for NASA and SpaceX to announce their return to Earth time and date, pending climate. Dragon Endeavour Commander Matthew Dominick is poised to guide Pilot Mike Barratt with Mission Specialists Jeanette Epps and Alexander Grebenkin again to Earth inside Dragon with a splashdown off the coast of Florida. The quartet has been packing cargo and private gadgets contained in the spacecraft for a number of days and spent the tip of the day Friday reviewing emergency gear.
The area station’s two latest crew members, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, joined Expedition 72 Commander Suni Williams and Flight Engineer Butch Wilmore inside Dragon Freedom and educated the duo on Dragon operations. Hague additionally labored with Barratt and NASA Flight Engineer Don Pettit inside Freedom configuring its seats for docked operations.
Stem cell research has been underway aboard the orbital outpost this week utilizing the microgravity surroundings to discover ways to produce superior cell-based therapies and deal with sure blood ailments and cancers. Williams and Epps partnered collectively processing stem cell samples and peering at them with by way of a microscope. Researchers are exploring how weightlessness allows stem cells to supply blood and immune cells with superior attributes than these created on Earth.
Wilmore spent his day within the Quest airlock servicing a pair of U.S. spacesuits. The veteran NASA astronaut swapped out elements and cleaned cooling loops contained in the fits as a part of recurrently scheduled upkeep.
Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, who’ve been aboard the orbital lab with Pettit since Sept. 11, cut up their day with laptop upkeep and life assist operations. In addition they joined Gorbunov and recorded a video for educators and college students on Earth. Grebenkin inventoried medical gear and examined energy provide programs within the Nauka science module.
Study 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.
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