Crew Conducts Stem Cell Analysis and Coaching as Cargo Craft Nears Launch

A busy week of science and prep for an upcoming cargo supply kicked off aboard the International Space Station on Monday because the Expedition 70 crew set its sights on new stem cell analysis and orbital coaching.

Two cosmonauts, Flight Engineers Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, are gearing as much as be on responsibility monitoring the automated docking of the Progress 87 cargo craft, which is scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 10:25 p.m. EST on Wednesday, Feb. 14. Loaded with practically three tons of meals, gasoline, and provides, Progress will dock to the station round 1:12 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 17. In preparation of the upcoming cargo supply, the cosmonauts skilled on the telerobotically operated rendezvous unit, or TORU, which permits them to remotely management an arriving spacecraft within the unlikely occasion it couldn’t robotically dock.

In the meantime, the Progress 85 cargo craft, which arrived to the station about six months in the past, will undock from the station at 9:09 p.m. Monday, Feb. 12 About three hours later, it will likely be commanded to deorbit earlier than harmlessly burning up over the Pacific Ocean.

Whereas coaching for the upcoming mission was underway, two NASA Flight Engineers, Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara, centered a majority of their day on the Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Microgravity Induced Bone Loss (MABL-A) investigation. MABL-A, which was delivered aboard Northrop Grumman’s 20^th Industrial Resupply Mission practically two weeks in the past, assesses the results of microgravity on bone marrow stem cells. The duo labored individually all through the day to pattern BioCells contained in the habitat with help from JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Company) Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa.

In a while, Moghbeli donned the Bio-Monitor garment and headband, which displays and data important indicators whereas crew members carry out each day actions. Afterward, she was joined by Furukawa, ESA (European Area Company) Commander Andreas Mogensen, and Roscosmos Flight Engineer Konstantin Borisov to finish orbital coaching within the unlikely occasion an emergency had been to happen on station.

Close to the top of the day, Mogensen, with help from Furukawa, unstowed the NanoRacks External Platform then mounted a strain administration machine to it earlier than configuring energy and knowledge cables.

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.