The Expedition 74 crew aboard the Worldwide House Station have seen one more busy month of spacewalks, science experiments, and upkeep duties. The CRS-34 mission undocked from ISS on Tuesday, June 16, at 16:25 UTC previous to its profitable splashdown off of southern California the next day.
An upcoming upkeep process for the crew entails the Canadarm2 robotic arm, which is at present not operational as a result of points with an arm joint, and shall be repaired throughout an upcoming spacewalk.
Canada’s key contribution to the Station is the Canadarm2, which is a follow-on to the unique Canadarm that the House Shuttle used as a key development, satellite tv for pc restore, EVA, and deployment device throughout its 30 years of service.
CRS-34 undocking from the ISS on June 16, 2026. (Credit score: NASA TV)
The Canadarm2, initially put in in April 2001 by the crew of Shuttle Endeavour aboard STS-100, marked the twenty fifth anniversary of its set up this spring. Nonetheless, on Might 27, the wrist joint confirmed a excessive energy draw and refused to maneuver as anticipated. The arm has not been used for normal duties since.
Thankfully, the wrist joint and different components of the arm had been designed with restore in thoughts, and a spare joint is saved on an exterior container on the Station’s truss for simply this eventuality. On June 30, two astronauts will conduct an extravehicular exercise (EVA) from the Quest airlock to interchange this joint.
The duty is important as a result of sure cargo resupply ships like Cygnus or HTV-X should be captured by the Canadarm2 to ship cargo to the ISS. A working Canadarm is required to additionally conduct repairs on sure exterior Station techniques and different duties, particularly with the Dextre arm extension additionally inbuilt Canada.
The AxEMU go well with, designed with the assistance of Prada, is proven right here. (Credit score: Axiom House)
Whereas astronauts are making ready for the upcoming restore EVA by engaged on their present fits, the restore job was not the one information involving spacesuits and the ISS. NASA named the Artemis III crew on Tuesday, June 2 and in addition offered an replace on the Artemis program.
Throughout this press convention, NASA Moon to Mars Program Workplace Assistant Deputy Affiliate Administrator Jeremy Parsons introduced that the Axiom House AxEMU, designed to be used on Artemis lunar missions, shall be examined in area aboard the ISS subsequent 12 months. That is an instance of the Station getting used as a testbed previous to human missions to the Moon and Mars.
In different Station happenings, the CRS-34 Cargo Dragon departed the Station’s Concord module ahead port on Tuesday, June 16. The undocking had been scheduled for 16:05 UTC, however was delayed 20 minutes as a result of a steerage and navigation management challenge.
The Polar transportable freezer designed to be used in area. (Credit score: College of Alabama Birmingham)
One of many navigation sensors, an inertial measurement unit, on the spacecraft suffered a radiation hit, however labored once more after controllers energy cycled the system. This step restored full redundancy to the Cargo Dragon’s techniques and the undocking proceeded; if extra troubleshooting had been wanted controllers would have had as much as two hours to resolve the problem.
CRS-34 returned to Earth with a number of Polar transportable science freezers loaded with experiment samples. These freezers had been designed to be put in as a middeck locker aboard the EXPRESS rack on ISS in addition to racks on Cargo Dragon and Cygnus, they usually protect time-critical experiment samples till they are often retrieved.
The Polar freezer retains samples chilly at cryogenic temperatures as much as -80 levels Celsius utilizing a cryocooler, and might transport as much as 12.75 liters of pattern quantity in addition to 20 kilos of pattern assist gear. The models provide 75 watts of energy to experiments.
Expedition 74 astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway within the Future lab module working with analysis cassettes. (Credit score: NASA/Jessica Meir)
The freezers returning to Earth aboard CRS-34 include samples from the InSPA-StemCellEX-H2 and InSPA-Auxilium Bioprinter-Cell Printing experiments in addition to others investigating well being and medical therapies performed aboard the Station during the last month.
InSPA-StemCellEX-H2, often known as the Hematopoietic Stem Cell Enlargement in House: Pathfinder Investigation, makes use of the BICEP bio-reactor aboard ISS to supply medical grade stem cells. Hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) are usually obtained from bone marrow, peripheral blood, or umbilical twine blood (UCB).
Medical professionals now use HSC as the usual of look after varied blood cancers like leukemia, lymphoma, and a number of myeloma, extreme immune ailments, and deadly blood issues.
Astronaut Frank Rubio, not too long ago named to the Artemis III crew, working with stem cells throughout his greater than 12 months lengthy keep on ISS. (Credit score: NASA)
Stem cells from UCB are most well-liked over different sources as a result of their decrease danger of attacking the human host, however the variety of a lot of these cells is often restricted throughout a set. This limitation can pressure rationing of remedy to youngsters solely, or to delay remedy in adults.
Manufacturing of recent stem cells by increasing current ones utilizing cell division could be accomplished on Earth, however is proscribed earlier than the brand new cells lose their optimum efficiency for remedy. It’s hoped that rising HSCs in microgravity can allow extra cell division and manufacturing whereas retaining efficiency for remedy.
The HSC samples aboard CRS-34 shall be examined and in comparison with HSCs created on the bottom, and also will be examined for security, high quality, amount, cell-type distribution, perform, and different options necessary for medical testing and FDA approval.
Astronauts Sophie Adenot, Jack Hathaway, Chris Williams, and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov (L to R) contained in the Station’s Tranquility module. (Credit score: ESA/Sophie Adenot)
The InSPA-Auxilium Bioprinter-Cell Printing experiment, often known as Biomanufacturing in House of Drug-Supply Medical Gadgets, makes use of the Auxilium Microfabrication Platform (AMP-1) 3D bioprinter aboard the Station to print cartilage tissues.
The AMP-1 unit has efficiently printed implantable medical units for peripheral nerve accidents, and demonstrated its functionality for large-scale medical printing with minimal astronaut intervention. Printing cartilage in microgravity can eradicate cell settling and print extra uniform, larger high quality, tissues than on Earth.
The flexibility to print cartilage tissue is necessary as a result of the human physique is proscribed in regenerating its personal cartilage. Over 900,000 knee cartilage accidents happen yearly in the US alone, and as much as 200,000 of those require surgical procedure. Present remedy choices have limitations and points with long run efficacy.
CRS-34 approaching the ISS on Might 17, 2016. (Credit score: ESA/Sophie Adenot)
Cartilage samples had been returned aboard CRS-34, and the spacecraft was filled with one of many largest a great deal of analysis returned to Earth within the historical past of ISS business resupply missions.
CRS-34 additionally returned some Station {hardware} to Earth for examination. An ocular imaging system for monitoring eye well being, a sorbent mattress to filter contaminants from cabin air, and a separator pump from the crew rest room are onboard the returning cargo ship.
The Cargo Dragon splashed down at 5:11 AM PDT (12:11 UTC) on Wednesday, June 17, off of Oceanside, California, north of San Diego. The spacecraft was retrieved by SpaceX’s Dragon restoration ship Shannon, named after Crew-1 astronaut Shannon Walker, and brought to shore.
Present ISS visiting automobile complement. (Credit score: NASA)
After CRS-34’s departure, 5 visiting automobiles are nonetheless connected to the ISS. The Crew Dragon Freedom is docked to the Concord zenith port, Cygnus NG-24 is berthed to the Unity nadir port, and Soyuz MS-28 is docked to the Rassvet module on the Russian phase.
Progress MS-33 is docked to the Poisk module, whereas Progress MS-34 is docked to the Zvezda module’s aft port. This aft docking port’s switch tunnel, often called PrK, has had air leakage points as a result of persistent cracks, and Roscosmos not too long ago put collectively a restore plan to diagnose and repair these cracks.
Roscosmos was prompted to plan the restore by worsening air leakage charges detected throughout Progress MS-34 cargo operations. These charges went as much as two kilos per day whereas controllers recognized new leak areas on the PrK, main Roscosmos to implement the restore plan.
Closeup of a Progress spacecraft docked to the aft port of Zvezda. (Credit score: NASA)
Nonetheless, the plan concerned chopping a bracket to entry a possible leak space, and that work may have elevated danger to the construction. NASA ordered the Crew-12 astronauts and Chris Williams to board Crew Dragon Freedom as a “protected haven.” Roscosmos subsequently paused their restore exercise for extra evaluation, and NASA strongly supported this determination.
The PrK air leaks have been probably the best danger to continued occupancy of ISS within the close to time period, whereas the advanced is slated to deorbit within the 2030-2032 timeframe. Nonetheless, Roscosmos is reportedly planning to decommission the PrK and break up the cargo and refueling roles amongst devoted Progress ships.
Within the meantime, Expedition 74 continues its work, with the following launch to the Station deliberate for July 14. On that date, Soyuz MS-29 will launch with Roscosmos’ Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina in addition to NASA’s Anil Menon, the husband of present astronaut and former Polaris Daybreak crew member Anna Menon. The subsequent cargo ship to launch to ISS shall be Progress MS-35 on Sept. 9.
Huge and @esa, on behalf of the Czech Republic, have signed an settlement for a personal astronaut mission to the Worldwide House Station in partnership with @NASA. @astro_ales is slated to function mission pilot & is anticipated to turn out to be the primary Czech astronaut to go to the… pic.twitter.com/giQBnFdts5
— Huge (@huge) June 8, 2026
Trying additional forward, Huge and the European House Company signed an settlement to fly Czech astronaut Ales Svoboda together with mission commander Thomas Pesquet on a personal Crew Dragon mission to the ISS. The mission, introduced on June 8, will presumably identify two extra crew members at a later date and is scheduled to fly someday in 2027.
(Lead picture: The Canadarm2 and ISS seen with the aurora australis within the background on Earth’s limb. Credit score: NASA/Chris Williams)
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