Expedition 73 continues making ready for the arrival of the Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) crew focused to launch to the Worldwide Area Station on Wednesday. In the meantime, house science operations continued for advancing human well being, selling future missions, and observing Earth landmarks.
The Falcon 9 rocket that’s focused to launch Ax-4 contained in the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft to the station at 8 a.m. EDT on Wednesday stands at its launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy Area Middle. Ax-4 Commander and veteran astronaut Peggy Whitson will lead Pilot Shubhanshu Shukla from India and Mission Specialists Sławosz Uzanański-Wiśniewksi from Poland and Tibor Kapu from Hungary. The 4 personal astronauts will journey inside Dragon to an automatic docking on the Concord Module’s space-facing port deliberate for 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 12. Reside launch protection on NASA+ begins at 7:05 a.m. on Wednesday.
Again on the orbiting lab, NASA Flight Engineers Jonny Kim and Nichole Ayers partnered collectively for eye checks immediately utilizing normal medical imaging gear present in an optometrist’s workplace on Earth. Kim led the attention examination in Concord working the biomedical imaging {hardware} as Ayers peered inside. Docs on the bottom remotely monitored in actual time to watch Ayers’ retinas for any space-caused points.
Kim earlier collected station consuming water samples for evaluation then continued establishing sleep stations for the arrival of Ax-4. Ayers swapped parts on a U.S. spacesuit within the Quest airlock then cleaned and photographed the situation of metallic oxide containers used to take away carbon dioxide from the spacesuits.
Station Commander Takuya Onishi from JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Company) labored on a spacecraft hearth security experiment happening within the Kibo laboratory module. He swapped pattern cartridges inside Kibo’s Strong Combustion Experiment Module that safely observes how solids and fuels burn in weightlessness. Outcomes from the combustion research in weightlessness could enhance the design and security of spacecraft methods and house habitats.
NASA Flight Engineer Anne McClain started her shift draining orbital plumbing tanks which can be a part of the waste and hygiene compartment, often known as the house station’s lavatory, positioned within the Tranquility module. After her lunchtime, McClain gathered emergency {hardware} ready forward of each crew mission to the orbital lab and staged it for Ax-4’s arrival.
Working within the orbital outpost’s Roscosmos phase, cosmonaut and Flight Engineer Kirill Peskov was again on Earth statement duties conducting a pair of ongoing investigations. He arrange specialised cameras to picture landmarks all through Europe and Asia in a wide range of wavelengths. Flight Engineer Alexey Zubritskiy configured analysis {hardware} to grasp how neutron radiation attributable to photo voltaic flares and gamma-ray bursts could have an effect on spacecraft to plan for future missions. Three-time station resident and veteran Flight Engineer Sergey Ryzhikov checked communication and life help methods within the Zvezda and Rassvet modules.
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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