Expedition 74 Ready for Thursday Spacewalk and Continuing Research
Expedition 74 is making final preparations for the first spacewalk of 2026 that will see two NASA astronauts exit the International Space Station for power upgrade work on Thursday. Science also continued aboard the orbital outpost with Wednesday’s research focusing on physics, microbiology, artificial intelligence, and Earth observations.
Station Commander Mike Fincke and Flight Engineer Zena Cardman are on track to conduct their mission’s first spacewalk set to begin at 8 a.m. EST on Thursday. The duo’s primary task during the six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk will be installing a modification kit and routing cables for a future roll-out solar array. Secondary tasks include installing jumper cables, taking hardware photos, and collecting microorganism samples. NASA will begin its live spacewalk coverage at 6:30 a.m. on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and the agency’s YouTube channel.
Fincke and Cardman began Wednesday organizing their spacewalking tools and supplies inside the Quest airlock where they will exit the orbital outpost on the following day. Next, they finished configuring their spacesuits and the associated life support and emergency components. At the end of their shift, they were joined by Flight Engineers Chris Williams of NASA and Kimiya Yui of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) for a final spacewalk procedures review and a readiness conference with mission controllers on the ground. Williams and Yui will assist the astronauts in and out of their spacesuits, pressurize and depressurize the Quest airlock, and monitor the spacewalkers as they work outside the orbiting lab.
Before wrapping up Wednesday’s spacewalk preparations, Williams and Yui worked on physics and microbiology research. Williams worked in the Destiny laboratory module’s Microgravity Science Glovebox testing ways to preserve cryogenic fluids and maintain tank pressure—research that could lead to improved spacecraft designs and advanced storage systems on Earth. Yui serviced microbe samples in the Kibo laboratory module’s Life Science Glovebox, exploring the use of ultraviolet light to disinfect spacecraft surfaces and protect crew health and hardware.
Roscosmos Flight Engineers Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Oleg Platonov investigated using artificial intelligence to transcribe audio files documenting daily crew activities and improve crew operations aboard spacecraft. Roscosmos Flight Engineer Sergei Mikaev concluded an overnight Earth observation session by uninstalling a camera that photographed landmarks from Australia to South America during the crew’s sleep shift and downlinking the imagery to researchers on the ground. The cosmonaut trio will continue normal research and maintenance operations in the station’s Roscosmos segment during Thursday’s spacewalk.
The three flight engineers will set up another automated overnight Earth observation session photographing islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, inspect and audit tools, emergency gear, and cargo, and maintain life support systems.
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
