Crew departure preparations and cargo unloading topped the schedule for the Expedition 72 crew aboard the Worldwide Area Station on Tuesday. The orbital residents additionally stored up their human analysis actions making certain crews keep wholesome whereas residing in house.
Three NASA astronauts and one Roscosmos cosmonaut joined one another on Tuesday and practiced the procedures they’ll use once they depart the orbital outpost in mid-March. Nick Hague will command the SpaceX Dragon crew spacecraft with Mission Specialists Suni Williams, Butch Wilmore, and Aleksandr Gorbunov through the experience again to Earth. They used Dragon pc tablets and reviewed the steps they’ll use when Dragon backs away from the orbital outpost and reenters Earth’s ambiance for a splashdown off the coast of Florida. Hague and Gorbunov have been on the station since Sept. 29, 2024. Williams and Wilmore arrived on the orbital outpost on June 6.
Williams and Wilmore, together with Hague, known as right down to Mission Management at present and mentioned their upcoming departure with journalists on the bottom. Hague acknowledged in the beginning of the pre-departure news conference, “Right here in a number of quick days Crew-10 goes to reach. And we’re going to hand the baton to Crew-10 and we’re going to return to Earth on the finish of a profitable long-duration mission aboard the house station.”
Their replacements, the SpaceX Crew-10 members, are focused to launch on March 12. The subsequent Dragon spacecraft will carry Commander Anne McClain and Pilot Nichole Ayers, each NASA astronauts, and Mission Specialists Takuya Onishi of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Company) and Kirill Peskov of Roscosmos. The brand new quartet will be a part of Expedition 72 earlier than changing into the Expedition 73 crew in mid-April.
Superior house analysis continued apace because the orbital residents helped scientists on the bottom perceive how weightlessness impacts the human physique. Hague was again on train analysis figuring out on the superior resistive train machine, which mimics free weights on Earth, and pedaling on an train cycle as a sensor-packed vest and headband recorded his well being knowledge. Pettit arrange a microscope and a science laptop computer pc within the Kibo laboratory module to find out how cells sense gravity and probably deal with space-caused muscle atrophy and osteoporosis.
Williams and Wilmore targeted on housekeeping all through Tuesday. Williams packed trash and discarded gear contained in the Cygnus space freighter earlier than organising a digital camera to {photograph} the Moon illuminated by sunshine mirrored from Earth. Wilmore swapped out a water resupply tank within the Future laboratory module then reorganized cargo stowed within the Columbus laboratory module.
Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner continued unloading a number of the almost three tons of meals, gasoline, and provides that arrived contained in the Progress 91 cargo craft on March 1. The duo additionally joined Gorbunov and took part in a take a look at for a research to enhance how worldwide crews talk with mission controllers from world wide.
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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