The seven-member Expedition 73 crew is gearing as much as welcome 4 new crewmates on the finish of the week. Shortly after that one other quartet that has been residing and dealing aboard the Worldwide House Station since March will return to Earth.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has rolled out to its launch pad on the Kennedy House Middle and is counting right down to its launch of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission at 12:09 p.m. EDT on Thursday. NASA+ will start its Crew-11 launch coverage starting at 8 a.m. on Thursday.
Commander Zena Cardman and Pilot Mike Fincke, each NASA astronauts, and Mission Specialists Kimiya Yui of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Company) and Oleg Platonov of Roscosmos will experience contained in the Dragon spacecraft atop Falcon 9 for an automatic, day-and-a-half lengthy journey to the orbital outpost’s space-facing port on the Concord module. As soon as there, the 4 Crew-11 members will be a part of Expedition 73 starting a seven-month analysis mission in low Earth orbit.
Following the brand new crew’s arrival, 4 Expedition 73 crew members representing NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission will start handing over their science and upkeep duties in preparation for his or her departure a few week later. The homebound quartet has additionally been ramping up its packing duties loading science, cargo, and private gadgets contained in the Dragon docked to Concord’s ahead port. Anne McClain will lead Nichole Ayers, each NASA astronauts, JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov for reentry into Earth’s environment and a parachuted splashdown inside Dragon.
McClain, Ayers, and Onishi spent Monday within the Concord module cleansing their crew quarters’ air flow techniques and airflow sensors. McClain additionally arrange a sleeping bag inside Dragon that she might be utilizing till her departure early subsequent month. Ayers configured an additional sleep station within the Columbus laboratory module to accommodate the upcoming crew swap interval. Onishi will now be sleeping within the Kibo laboratory module till he departs along with his Crew-10 crewmates.
Peskov has additionally been getting ready for his Dragon departure as he examined the lower body negative pressure suit. Roscosmos scientists are investigating the go well with’s skill to counteract space-caused head and eye stress and assist crews alter faster to the return to Earth’s gravity. He additionally continued gathering his private gadgets and Roscosmos cargo for loading inside Dragon.
Roscosmos Flight Engineer Alexey Zubritsky began his day aiding Peskov with the experimental go well with examine then measured the vibrations the area station experiences whereas jogging on the Zvezda service module’s treadmill. Veteran cosmonaut Sergey Ryzhikov examined new freeze-dried meals packs for his or her ease of use for each consuming and ingesting then arrange Earth commentary gear to {photograph} landmarks within the Pacific Ocean and throughout North America.
Be taught extra about station actions by following the area station weblog, @space_station on X, in addition to the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.
Get the newest from NASA delivered each week. Subscribe here.
