One cargo spacecraft is orbiting Earth towards the Worldwide House Station whereas one other stands at its launch pad counting all the way down to a raise off on Sunday to proceed resupplying the Expedition 73 crew. The orbital residents will likely be getting ready for the twin cargo missions whereas maintaining cardiac and bone analysis over the weekend.
Three tons of meals, gas, and provides are orbiting Earth immediately aboard the Roscosmos Progress 93 cargo craft following its launch on Thursday destined to reach on the orbital outpost on Saturday. It is going to carry out a sequence of automated method and rendezvous maneuvers earlier than docking to the Zvezda service module’s aft port at 1:27 p.m. the place it would keep for six months. Station Commander Sergey Ryzhikov and Flight Engineer Alexey Zubritsky known as all the way down to Roscosmos mission controllers on Friday to debate their readiness for Progress 93’s arrival. The duo will likely be on obligation Saturday monitoring the spacecraft because it nears the orbital outpost then will open Progress 93’s hatch on Sunday to start unpacking the brand new gear. NASA+ will start its reside docking starting at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday.
The expanded Cygnus XL cargo craft from Northrop Grumman has been given the go from mission managers to launch atop a House Falcon 9 rocket at 5:11 p.m. on Sunday from Florida’s Cape Canaveral House Power Station. Cygnus XL will ship its largest load so far, over 11,000 kilos of recent science and provides, at 6:35 a.m. on Wednesday when the Canadarm2 robotic arm captures the spacecraft at some extent about 10 meters away from the orbital outpost. NASA Combat Engineers Jonny Kim and Zena Cardman will likely be on obligation within the cupola on the controls of the robotics workstation monitoring the spacecraft’s arrival.
Cardman took the primary half of her shift off on Friday earlier than spending the remainder of the day contained in the Columbus laboratory module swapping out area radiation monitor cables and inspecting analysis {hardware} supporting the DNA Stability meals manufacturing experiment. Kim spent his total shift with NASA Flight Engineer Mike Fincke monitoring the effectiveness of a thigh cuff which will reverse the space-caused fluid shifts towards an astronaut’s head defending the eyes. Fincke led the investigation working the biomedical gear measuring knowledge collected from chest electrodes and Ultrasound 2 artery scans on Kim’s physique whereas he wore the specialised cuff. Kim and Cardman will even be treating bone stem cell samples on Sunday serving to docs perceive microgravity’s impact on a crew member’s skeletal system.
Flight Engineer Kimiya Yui of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Company) spent a number of moments photographing Kim and Fincke’s biomedical actions for evaluate on the bottom. Yui additionally configured a analysis incubator within the Kibo laboratory module for the Dassai Moon experiment inspecting fermentation and the brewing course of utilizing sake yeast in area. Yui later changed a lightweight bulb on a analysis rack then reviewed objects to be returned to Earth on a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft.
Roscosmos Flight Engineer Oleg Platonov familiarized himself with analysis operations for an area physics experiment that observes complicated plasmas containing ions, electrons, impartial gasoline, and microparticles. Outcomes from the long-running investigation might result in superior spacecraft designs and improved industrial processes on Earth. Platonov later pointed a digicam out an area station window photographing glaciers in South America’s Patagonia area for a examine monitoring the consequences of pure and man-made circumstances on Earth.
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.
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