The Worldwide Area Station has a brand new commander as three Expedition 72 crew members get able to return to Earth on Saturday. The orbital residents staying behind will quickly welcome a U.S. cargo craft and prepare for his or her increment’s first spacewalk.
Takuya Onishi of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Company) took management of the orbital outpost from Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin throughout a change of command ceremony on Friday afternoon. Onnishi will formally lead the brand new Expedition 73 mission when Ovchinin undocks from the station’s Rassvet module aboard the Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft with NASA astronaut Don Pettit and Roscosmos cosmonaut Ivan Vagner at 5:57 p.m. EDT on Saturday. The Earthbound trio will parachute to a touchdown in Kazakhstan at 9:20 p.m. the identical day (6:20 a.m. on Sunday, April 20, in Kazakhstan) of Pettit’s 70th birthday. NASA+ will broadcast Saturday’s crew farewell, undocking, and landing actions dwell starting at 2 p.m.
Ovchinin and Vagner had one final analysis session on Friday with help from Flight Engineer Kirill Peskov testing the lower body negative pressure suit. The specialised go well with from Roscosmos could forestall space-caused head and eye strain signs and assist a crew member alter to Earth’s gravity faster. Vagner additionally wrapped up handing over his crew tasks to his fellow cosmonauts whereas Pettit completed cleansing out his crew quarters. Ovchinin will full packing the Soyuz crew ship with cargo on Saturday earlier than activating the spacecraft’s techniques.
A day-and-a-half later, NASA’s SpaceX 32nd business resupply mission will elevate off from NASA’s Kennedy Area Heart carrying about 6,700 kilos of latest science experiments and crew provides for the Expedition 73 crew. Dragon will launch at 4:15 a.m. EDT on Monday and dock at 8:20 a.m. on Tuesday to the Concord module’s space-facing port for a month lengthy cargo mission. Onishi and NASA Flight Engineer Jonny Kim will likely be on obligation Tuesday monitoring Dragon’s automated arrival and docking. NASA+ will present dwell launch and docking protection of Dragon’s 32nd cargo mission to the orbiting laboratory.
NASA Flight Engineers Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers are preparing for the primary spacewalk of Expedition 73 deliberate for Could 1. The duo spent Friday organizing the Quest airlock the place their spacewalk will start and checking their spacesuits’ elements and techniques. Subsequent, the duo verified the fits’ helmets, boots, and arm and leg assemblies fittings. McClain and Ayers will spend six-and-a-half hours within the vacuum of house making ready the station for a brand new rollout photo voltaic array and relocating an antenna that communicates with business spacecraft.
Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky have completed transitioning their new crew tasks from their departing crewmates Vagner and Ovchinin. Ryzhikov additionally spent Friday on life science actions amassing samples of mould and micro organism for evaluation whereas Zubritsky arrange and activated Earth statement gear.
Be taught 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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