NASA astronaut Mike Fincke handed over command of the Worldwide Area Station to Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov at 2:35 p.m. EST at this time. The normal Change of Command Ceremony precedes the focused departure of Fincke with Zena Cardman of NASA, Kimiya Yui of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Company), and Oleg Platonov of Roscosmos aboard the SpaceX Dragon crew spacecraft.
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission is focused undock from the Concord module’s space-facing port at 5:05 p.m. EST on Wednesday, Jan. 14. Crew-11 will then full a parachute-assisted touchdown inside Dragon to a splashdown off the coast of California lower than 12 hours later at about 3:40 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 15. NASA and SpaceX help personnel will retrieve Dragon and the crew from the Pacific Ocean and return them to California earlier than the crewmates fly again to their dwelling companies.
Fincke, with help from his three homebound crewmates, packed gear and private objects inside Dragon all through Monday. On the finish of Monday’s shift, the foursome retrieved laptop tablets from inside Dragon and reviewed the steps they may use whereas departing the station and reentering Earth’s environment.
The three crew members remaining aboard the orbital outpost, Kud-Sverchkov with Chris Williams of NASA and Sergey Mikaev of Roscosmos will await the arrival of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 members Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, each from NASA, Sophie Adenot of ESA (European Area Company), and Andrey Fedyaev of Roscosmos. Crew-12 is because of launch to the house station in February and be part of Expedition 74 for a nine-month-long house analysis mission.
There was nonetheless time for science on Monday as Cardman scanned Williams’ arteries with the Ultrasound 2 gadget and picked up his blood stress measurements. Subsequent, Williams assisted Cardman as she peered into medical imaging gear to assist docs assess the situation of her retina, cornea, and lens in microgravity. Afterward, Williams labored with Yui and handled microbe samples within the Kibo laboratory module’s Life Science Glovebox, exploring using ultraviolet gentle to disinfect spacecraft surfaces.
Cosmonauts Kud-Sverchkov and Mikaev targeted on upkeep Monday servicing digital and air flow methods then inventorying {hardware} all through the station’s Roscosmos phase. Platonov assisted the duo amid his departure preparations.
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.
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