Science and upkeep work continued this week aboard the Worldwide Area Station, however updates concerning these actions have been all however halted by the U.S. authorities shutdown. Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui’s social media posts had been the exception…
Orbital statement
Expedition 73 flight engineer Kimiya Yui of JAXA (the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) saw not one but two typhoons this week from aboard the International Space Station. (Typhoons are the same weather phenomenon as hurricanes: each are tropical cyclones. Such a highly effective storm known as a hurricane within the Atlantic and central and japanese North Pacific areas, and a hurricane within the Northwest Pacific.)
“The attention of Storm 22 has turn into considerably unclear, nevertheless it nonetheless seems to be sustaining its robust depth as earlier than,” wrote Yui on social media on Thursday (Oct. 9). “Storm 23 is a bit distant, however it’s swirling with thick rain clouds on its southern aspect.”
“Keep protected whereas maintaining with the most recent hurricane data!” he mentioned.
Astronaut activity
Yui worked with his Expedition 73 crewmates and ground controllers to check out PROX, a device that will be used when Japan’s next-generation cargo vehicle, the HTV-X, approaches the International Space Station for berthing.
“Preparations to welcome HTV-X to the ISS are steadily progressing,” wrote Yui in a social media post on Oct. 8, 2025. “Here is the information: similar to with Kounotori-kun, I have been assigned to function the arm and grasp it this time as effectively. The duty is critical, however I am going to cooperate with everybody to reliably perform the mission!”
By the numbers
As of Friday (Oct. 10), there are 7 individuals aboard the International Space Station: Expedition 73 commander Sergey Ryzhikov of Roscosmos; fellow cosmonauts Alexey Zubritsky and Oleg Platonov; Jonny Kim, Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke of NASA; and Kimiya Yui of JAXA, all flight engineers.
There are two docked crew spacecraft: SpaceX‘s Dragon “Endeavour” attached to the zenith port of the Harmony module and Roscosmos’ Soyuz MS-27 attached to the Earth-facing port of the Prichal node.
There are four docked cargo spacecraft: Roscosmos’ Progress MS-31 (92P) docked to the space-facing port of the Poisk module and Progress M-32 (93P) docked to the aft port of the Zvezda service module, SpaceX’s CRS-33 Dragon spacecraft docked to the forward port of Harmony Node 2 and Northrop Grumman’s NG-23 Cygnus XL, the “SS William C. ‘Willie’ McCool,” berthed to the Unity node.
As of Friday, the space station has been continuously crewed for 24 years, 11 months and 8 days.
