Crew Preps for Dragon Departure and Arrival; Keeps Up Space Research
The Expedition 73 crew is readying a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft for return to Earth while a new crew on the ground is preparing to launch aboard another Dragon to the International Space Station. Meanwhile, exercise research, lab maintenance, and Earth observations rounded out the day aboard the orbital outpost.
Station crewmates Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, both from NASA, Takuya Onishi from JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), and Kirill Peskov from Roscosmos continue packing personal items and other cargo inside the Dragon that will return them home in early August. McClain and Ayers, with assistance from NASA Flight Engineer Jonny Kim who is staying in space until December, set up the four seats inside Dragon that NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 members will ride back home in. The trio also transferred emergency gear inside the departing Dragon while preparing emergency air supply components for the next crewed Dragon mission. Peskov tested the lower body negative pressure suit from Roscosmos that reverses the space-caused headward flow of body fluids possibly preventing head and eye pressure and easing the adjustment to Earth’s gravity.
Back on Earth, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission is counting down to its launch no earlier than 12:09 p.m. EDT on Thursday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Crew-11 Commander Zena Cardman and Pilot Mike Fincke, both NASA astronauts, along with Mission Specialists Kimiya Yui from JAXA and Oleg Platonov from Roscosmos will orbit Earth inside Dragon for a day-and-a-half before an automated docking to the Harmony module’s space-facing port. NASA+ will begin its Crew-11 launch coverage beginning at 8 a.m. on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the orbiting residents kept up their daily research and maintenance duties advancing the Earth and space economies while ensuring the International Space Station operates in tip-top shape.
While McClain and Kim spent their shift on Dragon preparations, Ayers and Onishi worked on science investigations and research hardware configurations. Ayers began her shift wearing electrodes on her shoulders and abdomen measuring how blood flows from the brain to the heart. Next, she wore a heart monitor measuring her heart rate as she jogged on the COLBERT treadmill and worked out on the advanced resistive exercise device. Onishi checked cables and tubes inside the BioLab’s life support module located in the Columbus laboratory module where microorganisms, cells, tissues cultures, and more are studied to understand the effects of weightlessness on biology.
Roscosmos Flight Engineer Alexey Zubritsky began his shift assisting Peskov with the experimental suit studies then measured the vibrations the Zvezda service module’s treadmill creates and inspected Zvezda’s windows. Veteran cosmonaut Sergey Ryzhikov photographed the effects of natural and man-made disasters on Earth and tested new freeze-dried food packs for their ease of use for both eating and drinking.
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
