The hatches are open between Northrop Grumman’s second Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft and the Worldwide Area Station following its robotic seize and set up on Monday. The Expedition 74 crew is now starting to unload a number of the new science and crew provides delivered on Monday.
NASA flight engineers Chris Williams and Jack Hathaway had been the primary crew members to enter Cygnus XL on Tuesday after a collection of stress and leak checks contained in the spacecraft. They had been joined quickly after by flight engineers Jessica Meir of NASA and Sophie Adenot of ESA (European Area Company) transferring time crucial analysis samples stowed in Cygnus’ transportable science freezers for preservation within the station’s MELFI science freezers and the MERLIN incubators.
Among the many a number of tons of cargo Cygnus XL delivered Monday are over 2,300 kilos of latest analysis {hardware} and science experiments. The crew will quickly start exploring blood stem cells to deal with cancers and blood problems, examine methods to guard astronaut intestine well being, observe proteins suspended in water to advance pharmaceutical manufacturing, and set up a quantum physics module to broaden the skills of the Chilly Atom Lab. Different gear delivered aboard Cygnus XL embody a complicated train system from ESA, new eye-imaging {hardware}, oxygen and nitrogen tanks to recharge spacesuits, and extra.
In the meantime, the Roscosmos Progress 93 resupply ship is nearing the top of its keep after seven months docked to the Zvezda service module’s aft port. Cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev, station commander and flight engineer, spent the day packing trash and out of date tools inside Progress earlier than its departure later this month. The duo additionally configured the spacecraft’s docking {hardware} for the upcoming undocking actions.
Roscosmos flight engineer Andrey Fedyaev kicked off his shift amassing air samples inside Cygnus XL shortly after Williams and Hathaway opened the spacecraft’s hatch to guard the station’s atmosphere. Fedyaev then spent the remainder of his shift sustaining the Roscosmos section’s orbital plumbing and air flow techniques.
Be taught extra about station actions by following the house 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.
