Life Science, Space Gardening Top Thursday’s Research Schedule
A new exercise device, artery scans, and space gardening topped the research schedule for the Expedition 74 crew aboard the International Space Station on Thursday. The orbital residents also worked on a spacesuit and continued unpacking the Progress 95 cargo craft.
NASA flight engineer Chris Williams had a busy day inside the Columbus laboratory module trying out new workout gear and watering plants to support ongoing research. Williams first performed rope-pull exercises on the European Enhanced Exploration Exercise Device (E4D) while a computer monitored his pulling speed, power, and heart rate. The E4D was delivered on April 13 inside the Cygnus XL resupply ship to test its ability to support crew workouts on long-term missions farther away from Earth. Afterward, he watered and photographed alfalfa plants growing inside the Veggie facility to investigate how plants and microbes interact in microgravity.
Flight engineers Sophie Adnot of ESA (European Space Agency) and Jack Hathaway of NASA partnered together for blood pressure checks and neck, shoulder, and leg artery scans using the Ultrasound 3 device that was delivered on Sept. 18, 2025. Doctors on the ground constantly monitor a crew member’s heart health to prevent and detect blood clots and other space-caused conditions.
Adenot later joined NASA flight engineer Jessica Meir inside the Quest airlock and swapped out components on a spacesuit. Meir also worked with Hathaway inside the Kibo laboratory module rearranging cargo to optimize space for research activities. Adenot and Hathaway later split up and worked on a pair of different space botany investigations to observe how seeds germinate in microgravity. One experiment is to interest students in space and while to the other is to promote space agriculture.
Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev, station commander and flight engineer respectively, were back inside the Progress 95 continuing to unpack some of the three tons of food, fuel, and supplies it delivered on April 27.
Flight engineer Andrey Fedyaev started his shift inspecting laptop computer batteries then reconfiguring the ventilation system between the orbital outpost’s Roscosmos and U.S. segments. Fedyaev wrapped up his day checking the operation and cable connections of the Roscosmos segment’s video recording system.
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
