Expedition 74 is poised to welcome three new crew members to the Worldwide Area Station who’re counting all the way down to their launch aboard a Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft. The trio, comprised of NASA astronaut Anil Menon and Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina will launch at 10:47 a.m. EDT on Tuesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and dock to the Prichal module at 1:56 p.m. the identical day. About two hours later, the hatches will open and the brand new crew will enter the orbital outpost formally starting an eight-and-a-half-month analysis mission.
Within the meantime, the seven orbiting lab residents kicked off the week full of ongoing upkeep and human analysis. They’ll quickly break up up when three crewmates, who’ve been orbiting Earth since Nov. 27, 2025, depart the area station two weeks after the brand new crew arrives.
NASA flight engineers Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway spent Monday specializing in {hardware} upkeep. Meir swapped batteries on spacewalking gear contained in the Quest airlock then inspected and cleaned the European Enhanced Exploration Train System situated within the Columbus laboratory module. Hathaway serviced {hardware} contained in the Kibo laboratory module’s airlock to allow the upcoming set up of exterior analysis gear.
Flight engineer Sophie Adenot of ESA (European Area Company) additionally labored inside Kibo, establishing Intravenous Fluid Era – Mini analysis gear within the Life Science Glovebox to display how potable water can be utilized to make saline resolution for treating medical circumstances throughout spaceflight. Afterward, she powered up and checked out the anomaly gasoline analyzer that checks the station’s ambiance for dangerous gases.
NASA flight engineer Chris Williams cleaned his crew quarters situated within the Unity module’s port facet. He cleaned its air flow system and airflow sensors then patched up areas the place mud and particles would possibly escape. Williams can be getting ready to return to Earth with Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev quickly after the brand new crew arrives. He spent a portion of his shift on Monday reviewing cargo and private objects he’ll pack contained in the Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft spacecraft for the journey again residence.
Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev additionally started organizing the return objects they are going to take again to Earth contained in the Soyuz MS-28. The cosmonauts began their shift measuring their blood strain for a long-running cardiac examine. Afterward, they continued testing the decrease physique adverse strain swimsuit that will offset the consequences of microgravity and ease the adjustment to Earth’s gravity after a long-term spaceflight.
Roscosmos flight engineer Andrey Fedyaev started his shift servicing life help parts together with the Elektron oxygen generator within the Zvezda service module. Afterward, Fedyaev checked the performance of video gear then wrapped up his shift with Meir, Hathaway, and Adenot, his SpaceX Crew-12 crewmates, and reviewed Dragon spacecraft security procedures.
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.
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