Crew Kicks Off Week Prepping for Cygnus Cargo Mission
The Expedition 74 crew continues preparing for the next U.S. cargo mission due to visit the International Space Station. The orbital residents also serviced spacesuits, configured scientific hardware, and studied how microgravity affects blood pressure at the beginning of the week.
NASA Flight Engineers Chris Williams and Jack Hathaway joined each other in the cupola on Monday and practiced maneuvering the Canadarm2 robotic arm to capture the Cygnus XL when it arrives to the space station. After the cargo spacecraft’s capture, ground controllers will remotely command Canadarm2 to install Cygnus XL on the Unity module’s Earth-facing port. Cygnus will be delivering advanced microgravity research gear to study quantum computing technology, test stem cell therapies, promote astronaut health, and more.
Earlier in the day, Williams and Hathway, along with NASA flight engineer Jessica Meir, worked on spacesuit maintenance. Hathway and Meir took turns cleaning and flushing the suit’s water-cooling loops that regulate an astronaut’s body temperature in the extreme environment of space. Williams swapped a pair of lithium-ion batteries that power spacesuits inside the Quest airlock’s battery stowage compartment to maintain optimum battery performance.
Meir began her shift powering up and replacing filters on the KERMIT fluorescence microscope, that supports biological, physical, and material science research in microgravity, inside the Destiny laboratory module. Next, she set up a physics experiment that studies how particles attach to droplets and rearrange in microgravity that used KERMIT to image the phenomena. Results may lead to improved engineering designs for additive manufacturing and optical materials.
Flight engineer Sophie Adenot of ESA (European Space Agency) kicked off her shift inside the Kibo laboratory module powering down the TUSK technology demonstration, a small experimental robotic arm being tested for precise, sub-millimeter manipulation in weightlessness. Afterward, Adenot cleaned portions of Kibo’s ventilation system then tested emergency communications with mission controllers from around the world.
Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev, station commander and flight engineer respectively, took turns wearing a series of arm, wrist, and finger cuffs measuring their blood pressure for an ongoing cardiovascular study. Afterward, Kud-Sverchkov inspected spacecraft docking hardware while Mikaev worked on communications and electronics maintenance.
Roscosmos flight engineer Andrey Fedyaev practiced European robotic arm maneuvers using computer simulation software at the start of his shift on Monday. Fedyaev then moved on to a study using artificial intelligence tools to improve crew operations and communications. Finally, he adjusted the lens setting on Earth observation hardware for a visibility test.
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
