Whereas three new crewmates rise up to hurry with dwelling and dealing aboard the International Space Station one other trio is getting ready for its return to Earth. Within the meantime, biomedicine and science upkeep topped the analysis schedule on the finish of the week because the orbital residents additionally brushed up on their emergency response abilities.
NASA astronaut Don Pettit is starting his fourth mission in area together with his earlier mission occurring over 12 years in the past when he was an Expedition 31 Flight Engineer. He spent Friday persevering with to get conversant in orbital operations and lab programs as he settles in for a six-and-a-half-month mission deliberate to finish in spring 2025.
Roscosmos Flight Engineers Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, who launched to the orbital outpost with Pettit on Sept. 11, began Friday unpacking cargo from the Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft. Afterward, the skilled cosmonaut duo hooked up sensors to themselves monitoring how blood flows all through their physique in weightlessness.
On the identical time, station Commander Oleg Kononenko and Flight Engineers Tracy C. Dyson and Nikolai Chub are getting ready to depart the orbiting lab in lower than two weeks. The homebound trio first joined one another early Friday checking the stress fits they may put on as they descend to a parachuted touchdown on Earth contained in the Soyuz MS-25 crew ship. Kononenko and Chub additionally examined the decrease physique destructive stress go well with which will assist crews counteract the results of dwelling in area and alter faster to the return to Earth’s gravity setting.
Dyson joined fellow NASA astronaut Mike Barratt learning how blood and cerebrospinal fluids journey towards the pinnacle creating eye pressure in microgravity. Dyson later participated in commonplace medical checks measuring her personal temperature, blood stress, coronary heart price, and respiratory price. Barratt additionally partnered with NASA Flight Engineer Matthew Dominick taking turns exercising on an train cycle whereas carrying sensors and respiratory gear measuring their cardiorespiratory price and capability.
Dyson additionally took cost as crew medical officer and scanned the eyes of NASA Flight Engineers Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams with the Ultrasound 2 system. Floor surgeons monitored the ultrasound imaging in actual time to know how microgravity impacts a crew member’s cornea, lens, and optic nerve. Wilmore and Williams additionally known as all the way down to mission managers to familiarize themselves with the upcoming SpaceX Crew-9 mission.
NASA Flight Engineer Jeanette Epps labored all through the day swapping gasoline bottles that provide argon, helium, and carbon dioxide to number of experiment racks within the Kibo laboratory module. Roscosmos Flight Engineer Alexander Grebenkin photographed cell samples throughout his shift for an area biology investigation.
All 12 area station residents joined one another after their lunchtime and reviewed their roles and obligations within the occasion of unlikely emergency situations reminiscent of a hearth, or a chemical or stress leak. The dozen crewmates additionally reviewed procedures to regain management of the orbital outpost throughout an emergency scenario.
Study extra about station actions by following the area station weblog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, in addition to the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.
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