Crew Works Health, Spacesuits, and Cargo Mission Preps on Tuesday
Health monitoring, spacesuit checks, and preparations for an upcoming cargo mission kept the Expedition 74 crew busy on Tuesday. The International Space Station residents rounded out the day with a variety of maintenance on science hardware and life support equipment.
Flight engineer Sophie Adenot of ESA (European Space Agency) began her shift attaching sensors to her forehead, chest, and legs to measure blood flow, breathing rate, and muscle activity for the PhysioTool technology demonstration. Next, she pedaled on the Destiny laboratory module’s exercise cycle as the sensors sent her health data to a wearable recording device. After her workout, she plugged in the device containing her biomedical data into a computer tablet for downlinking to doctors on Earth for analysis.
Afterward, Adenot assisted NASA flight engineers Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway as they swapped and serviced components on a spacesuit inside the Quest airlock. The trio took turns cleaning the suit’s life support gear, checking for water leaks, and verifying the spacesuit’s functionality in advance of a future spacewalk. At the end of their shift, the three astronauts reviewed plans for the upcoming NASA SpaceX CRS-34 cargo mission due to launch on Tuesday, May 12, to resupply the crew. They studied the Dragon spacecraft’s automated approach and docking maneuvers and prepared for cargo operations after the spacecraft delivers several tons of new science experiments and lab hardware.
NASA flight engineer Chris Williams spent the first half of his shift inside the Kibo laboratory module uninstalling botany research gear from an EXPRESS rack with assistance from Hathaway. After lunchtime, Williams configured a sensor-packed Bio-Monitor vest and headband that he wore beginning a 48-hour session measuring his cardiovascular health for the CIPHER suite of 14 human research investigations. The wearable biomedical device, similar to the PhysioTool hardware, comfortably tracks a crew member’s health data as they work throughout the day then transfers it to a computer where doctors can access it for analysis on the ground.
Roscosmos flight engineer Sergey Mikaev was back on Orlan spacesuit duty working throughout his shift installing communications, electronics, and life support hardware on the same suit he had serviced on Monday. Station commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and flight engineer Andrey Fedyaev once again took turns conducting a photographic inspection of windows inside the Zvezda and Rassvet modules. The duo also worked together continuing to unpack supplies delivered aboard the Progress 95 cargo spacecraft on April 27.
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
