The Expedition 74 crew kicked off the week with SpaceX Dragon spacecraft preparations and science {hardware} upkeep making certain analysis continues offering pristine outcomes aboard the Worldwide Area Station. The orbital trio is gearing up for a pair of missions focused to reach and depart the station this month whereas maintaining ongoing microgravity science inconceivable to realize in Earth’s gravity surroundings and benefitting people on and off the Earth.
The subsequent mission to the orbital outpost, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12, is focused to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, no sooner than Feb. 11. Two NASA astronauts, commander Jessica Meir and pilot Jack Hathaway, will trip a SpaceX Dragon alongside mission specialists Sophie Adenot of ESA (European Area Company) and Andrey Fedyaev of Roscosmos. After docking to the Concord module’s space-facing port, they’ll be part of Expedition 74 and start a nine-month area analysis mission.
Expedition 74 Flight Engineer Chris Williams studied the monitoring instruments and strategies he’ll use when Crew-12 aboard Dragon begins its strategy and rendezvous maneuvers towards Concord. Williams reviewed the number of computer systems that management the station’s orientation and the procedures he’ll use throughout Dragon’s strategy to Concord.
Later in his shift, Williams centered on cargo operations packing a number of the accomplished experiments and related analysis samples, in addition to used {hardware} and trash, contained in the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft for retrieval and evaluation on the bottom. Dragon delivered a bunch of science experiments, crew provides, and extra on August 25, 2025.
In between the Dragon operations, Williams serviced superior science gear supporting completely different analysis operations aboard the orbiting lab. He first changed energy, management, and stowage parts contained in the TangoLab facility that helps quite a few investigations together with virulent micro organism analysis and early most cancers detection. Subsequent, he swapped a tough drive contained in the Superior Area Experiment Processor-4 that homes and processes analysis samples for an array of microbiology and physics research and will be operated on Dragon and Cygnus cargo spacecraft, in addition to the area station.
Roscosmos Flight Engineer Sergei Mikaev started his shift pedaling on an train cycle whereas hooked up to electrodes and a blood stress cuff. Station Commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov of Roscosmos assisted Mikaev through the health analysis that displays how a crew member’s coronary heart exercise and blood stress are affected by residing in weightlessness. Afterward, Mikaev packed out of date {hardware} and trash for disposal contained in the Progress 92 cargo craft then cleaned the air flow system contained in the Zvezda service module.
Kud-Sverchkov additionally arrange the Plasma Kristall-4 physics examine and switched from neon to argon fuel contained in the Columbus laboratory module. The experiment explores complicated plasmas to advance spacecraft designs, higher perceive planetary formation, and enhance elementary physics analysis. The 2-time area station resident later performed a photographic inspection of home windows inside Zvezda for evaluation.
Study 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 most recent from NASA delivered each week. Subscribe here.
