The Expedition 72 crew will change commanders on Friday as 4 crewmates put together for his or her return to Earth. In the meantime, the Worldwide House Station residents continued their ongoing human analysis actions whereas unpacking provides from a brand new cargo craft.
NASA astronaut and station Commander Suni Williams will hand over management of the orbital outpost to Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin throughout a change of command ceremony at 1:55 p.m. EST on Friday. NASA+ will broadcast the occasion with all seven crew members as Williams and Ovchinin give remarks earlier than turning their consideration to crew swap actions.
Williams will return to Earth aboard the SpaceX Dragon crew spacecraft with NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Butch Wilmore and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov ending the SpaceX Crew-9 mission. The homebound quartet will go away the house station a couple of days after the SpaceX Crew-10 mission launches subsequent week. Ovchinin will keep aboard the station with Flight Engineers Don Pettit of NASA and Ivan Vagner of Roscosmos till mid-April.
The Crew-9 foursome spent the second half of their shift on Thursday persevering with preparations for a return to Earth by practising Dragon undocking and deorbit procedures on a pc. All 4 crewmates additionally referred to as right down to Earth and mentioned return operations with mission controllers. Williams and Wilmore wrapped up their day familiarizing themselves with Dragon techniques.
The SpaceX Crew-10 mission is focused to launch aboard the Dragon crew spacecraft at 7:48 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, March 12, from NASA’s Kennedy House Middle. NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers will command and pilot the Crew-10 mission with Takuya Onishi of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Company) and Kirill Peskov of Roscosmos serving as Mission Specialists. Crew-10 is focused to dock to the Concord module’s ahead port at 10 a.m. on Thursday, March 13.
The orbital residents spent Thursday maintaining their house biology actions filling in researchers with the newest knowledge on how a crew member’s physique adapts to weightlessness. Hague spent the primary half of his shift within the Columbus laboratory module module scanning his chest with an ultrasound gadget as medical doctors on Earth monitored in actual time. The medical doctors had been inspecting potential adjustments in Hague’s arteries and veins to achieve insights into an astronaut’s cardiovascular well being whereas dwelling and dealing in house. Pettit charged science {hardware} that screens space-caused bone loss for a examine observing an astronaut’s bone well being earlier than, throughout, and after an area mission.
Ovchinin and Vagner had been again on cargo obligation unloading extra meals, gasoline, and provides delivered aboard the Progress 91 cargo craft on March 1. Vagner additionally measured his blood stress for an investigation exploring how microgravity impacts a crew member’s blood circulation and blood cells.
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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