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More Spacewalk Preps, Advanced Research as Cargo Craft Readies for Departure

The Expedition 74 crew continued its spacewalk preparations on Tuesday while keeping up vascular health research and artificial intelligence studies. Mission managers have also given the go for the departure of a U.S. cargo spacecraft from the International Space Station this week.

NASA flight engineer Jessica Meir tried on her spacesuit today with assistance from fellow NASA flight engineer Jack Hathaway inside the Quest airlock. The duo confirmed that the spacesuit is airtight and properly configured and assessed its comfort and mobility. Afterward, flight engineers Chris Williams of NASA and Sophie Adenot of ESA (European Space Agency) joined the pair and called down to mission controllers for a spacewalk procedures review. Earlier, Williams prepared a helmet for installation on a spacesuit while Adenot trained to use the Canadarm2 robotic arm to support the spacewalkers.

Meir and Williams are preparing for an upcoming spacewalk to ready the orbital outpost for a new roll-out solar array. The duo will spend about six-and-a-half-hours in the vacuum of space installing a modification kit and routing cables on the port side of the orbital outpost for the future roll-out solar array. The station’s seventh roll-out solar array will be installed on a later spacewalk to augment the main solar arrays’ power generation capabilities.

Cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev joined each other again on Tuesday and applied sensors to their forehead, fingers, and toes that sent their blood flow data by Bluetooth adaptor to a laptop computer where it was recorded for analysis. Doctors will use the biomedical data to understand how living in space affects vascular health.

Kud-Sverchkov also cleaned and inspected the Zvezda service module’s ventilation system. Mikaev took turns with Roscosmos flight engineer Andrey Fedyaev continuing to test artificial intelligence tools as a way to improve crew operations and communications with mission controllers. Fedyaev earlier spent time inside the Nauka science module replacing orbital plumbing components, inspecting its ventilation system, and measuring the airflow.

Mission managers have approved the departure of Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL spacecraft for 7:05 a.m. EDT on Thursday after nearly six months attached to the Unity module. Robotics controllers will remotely command the Canadarm2 to uninstall Cygnus from Unity then release it into Earth orbit for a fiery, but safe reentry above the South Pacific Ocean two days later.

NASA’s live coverage of undocking and departure begins at 6:45 a.m. on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and the agency’s YouTube channel. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of online platforms, including social media.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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Mark A. Garcia

More Spacewalk Preps, Advanced Research as Cargo Craft Readies for Departure

The Expedition 74 crew continued its spacewalk preparations on Tuesday while keeping up vascular health research and artificial intelligence studies. Mission managers have also given the go for the departure of a U.S. cargo spacecraft from the International Space Station this week.

NASA flight engineer Jessica Meir tried on her spacesuit today with assistance from fellow NASA flight engineer Jack Hathaway inside the Quest airlock. The duo confirmed that the spacesuit is airtight and properly configured and assessed its comfort and mobility. Afterward, flight engineers Chris Williams of NASA and Sophie Adenot of ESA (European Space Agency) joined the pair and called down to mission controllers for a spacewalk procedures review. Earlier, Williams prepared a helmet for installation on a spacesuit while Adenot trained to use the Canadarm2 robotic arm to support the spacewalkers.

Meir and Williams are preparing for an upcoming spacewalk to ready the orbital outpost for a new roll-out solar array. The duo will spend about six-and-a-half-hours in the vacuum of space installing a modification kit and routing cables on the port side of the orbital outpost for the future roll-out solar array. The station’s seventh roll-out solar array will be installed on a later spacewalk to augment the main solar arrays’ power generation capabilities.

Cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev joined each other again on Tuesday and applied sensors to their forehead, fingers, and toes that sent their blood flow data by Bluetooth adaptor to a laptop computer where it was recorded for analysis. Doctors will use the biomedical data to understand how living in space affects vascular health.

Kud-Sverchkov also cleaned and inspected the Zvezda service module’s ventilation system. Mikaev took turns with Roscosmos flight engineer Andrey Fedyaev continuing to test artificial intelligence tools as a way to improve crew operations and communications with mission controllers. Fedyaev earlier spent time inside the Nauka science module replacing orbital plumbing components, inspecting its ventilation system, and measuring the airflow.

Mission managers have approved the departure of Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL spacecraft for 7:05 a.m. EDT on Thursday after nearly six months attached to the Unity module. Robotics controllers will remotely command the Canadarm2 to uninstall Cygnus from Unity then release it into Earth orbit for a fiery, but safe reentry above the South Pacific Ocean two days later.

NASA’s live coverage of undocking and departure begins at 6:45 a.m. on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and the agency’s YouTube channel. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of online platforms, including social media.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

Get the latest from NASA delivered every week. Subscribe here.

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Mark A. Garcia

Spacewalk Preps and Health Checks Using Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence

Spacewalk preparations are underway aboard the International Space Station as two astronauts check their spacesuits and review procedures. The Expedition 74 crew also experimented with augmented reality and artificial intelligence to conduct health checks in space. Meanwhile, a U.S. cargo spacecraft nears it departure this week.

NASA flight engineers Jessica Meir and Chris Williams joined each other on Monday working on a pair of spacesuits and reviewing procedures for a spacewalk targeted for March 18. The duo partnered up in the Quest airlock and cleaned the suit cooling loops that regulate an astronaut’s temperature during a spacewalk. Meir and Williams also refilled suit components with water, inspected a suit helmet, and prepared Quest for the upcoming spacewalk operations.

The astronauts also reviewed the procedures they will use after they exit Quest in their spacesuits for a six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk. Meir and Williams will install a modification kit and route cables on the port side of the orbital outpost for a future roll-out solar array. The seventh roll-out solar array will be installed on a later spacewalk to augment the main solar arrays’ power generation capabilities.

Flight engineers Jack Hathaway of NASA and Sophie Adenot of ESA (European Space Agency) took turns performing augmented‑reality‑guided ultrasound scans using the EchoFinder-2 biomedical device inside the Columbus laboratory module. After each crew member scanned the other’s abdomen and vascular system, artificial intelligence analyzed the ultrasound image and confirmed organ identification. The objective of the human research study is to reduce reliance on ground support for medical procedures as a space crew flies farther away from Earth.

Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev teamed up on a pair of biology experiments Monday both observing the human circulatory system in weightlessness. First, the station commander and flight engineer measured their blood pressure and more while wearing arm, wrist, and finger cuffs. Afterward, the duo applied sensors to their forehead, fingers, and toes that sent their blood flow data by Bluetooth adaptor to a laptop computer where it was recorded for analysis. Doctors will use the biomedical data to understand how living in space affects vascular health.

Flight engineer Andrey Fedyaev primarily spent his day on life support maintenance throughout the orbital outpost’s Roscosmos segment. During the first half of his shift, Fedyaev serviced the Elektron oxygen generator purging the device of nitrogen and repressurizing its components inside the Zvezda service module. After lunchtime, he filtered and transferred water between tanks to ensure the station’s drinking‑water supply chain remains clean and uncontaminated.

Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft is due to depart the station Thursday, March 12, ending a near six-month stay that began on Sept. 18, 2025. The astronauts will finalize packing Cygnus with trash and disposable cargo midweek then configure the spacecraft for its robotic removal from the Unity module. Afterward, robotics controllers will remotely command the Canadarm2 robotic arm to uninstall Cygnus from Unity then release it into Earth orbit for a fiery, but safe reentry above the South Pacific Ocean.

Watch NASA’s live coverage of undocking and departure beginning at 6:45 a.m. EDT on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and the agency’s YouTube channel. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of online platforms, including social media.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

Get the latest from NASA delivered every week. Subscribe here.

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Mark A. Garcia