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Cosmonauts Prep for Spacewalk for Science Work Today on NASA+

Live coverage is underway as two Roscosmos cosmonauts prepare for a spacewalk outside the International Space Station. The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at approximately 10:15 a.m. EDT and last roughly five hours.  

Watch NASA’s live coverage on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and the agency’s YouTube channel. Learn how to watch NASA content across a variety of online platforms, including social media. 

Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev will venture outside the orbiting laboratory to collect two completed science experiments and install a new one. They will remove a microorganism study from the exterior of the Poisk module and retrieve a cassette from the Nauka module containing data on how semiconductor materials form in microgravity. The crew also will install a device on the Zvezda service module to measure bursts of solar radiation from solar flares.  

If time allows, the duo will photograph one of the Progress 94 cargo spacecraft’s Kurs rendezvous antennas, which failed to deploy in March following its launch to the space station. 

This Roscosmos spacewalk will be the second for Kud-Sverchkov and the first for Mikaev. Kud-Sverchkov will wear an Orlan spacesuit with red stripes, while Mikaev will wear a suit with blue stripes. Cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev will monitor and operate the European Robotic Arm from inside the station to maneuver the spacewalkers to their worksites. 

This will be the 279th spacewalk supporting space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades. 

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_stationon X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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Mark A. Garcia

Robotics, Science Underway as Cosmonauts Prep for Wednesday Spacewalk

Robotics controllers wrapped up a weekend of swapping scientific hardware packed inside the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft’s trunk for installation on the International Space Station. Meanwhile, the Expedition 74 crew is continuing its biotechnology and botany research while getting ready for a spacewalk scheduled for Wednesday, May 27.

The orbital outpost hosts a new Earth-observing research facility, the CLARREO Pathfinder, designed to improve satellite imagery and research data accuracy. CLARREO was delivered on May 17 inside Dragon’s unpressurized trunk. It was removed with the Canadarm2 robotic arm, remotely controlled by engineers on Earth, over the Memorial Day weekend and installed on the station’s port side truss structure. Early last week, another research payload, the Space Test Program-Houston 11, was robotically removed from Dragon and installed on the outside of the Columbus laboratory module. The multi-experiment facility will test new space technologies, measure the space environment, and support a variety of research.

A multitude of experiments is also underway inside the orbiting lab with Tuesday’s science schedule packed with biotechnology and space botany to improve health on and off the Earth.

NASA flight engineer Jessica Meir opened up the Life Science Glovebox in the Kibo laboratory module and nourished cartilage-forming cells. The cells are growing into tiny pieces of cartilage tissue to help doctors understand how cartilage develops and repairs itself in microgravity. Results may improve astronaut fitness regimens and promote the development of advanced implants on Earth.

NASA flight engineers Chris Williams and Jack Hathaway each had a unique photography session for two different botany investigations on Tuesday. Williams took pictures of white clover seeds that will be returned to Earth so students can plant them for studying. Hathaway watered and photographed alfalfa plants growing inside the Columbus laboratory module’s Veggie facility for the Veg-06 study to help plants thrive in microgravity and promote food production in space.

Flight engineer Sophie Adenot of ESA (European Space Agency) spent her shift servicing a variety of advanced research hardware. Adenot first connected the Echo Finder-2 ultrasound device to a computer tablet then configured the biomedical device’s performance and wi-fi connectivity. Next, she installed experiment containers, or modules that house biological samples, inside the BioLab that enables microbiology research in weightlessness. Afterward, she checked out the functionality of a portable DNA sequencer and updated the device’s software to support an anti-bacterial investigation.

Cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev are ready for a spacewalk to install a solar radiation experiment and remove other scientific hardware on the outside of the space station. The Roscosmos duo will exit the Poisk module’s airlock at 10:15 a.m. EDT on Wednesday in their Orlan spacesuits with live NASA+ coverage beginning at 9:45 a.m. The pair’s main task will be installing a new experiment that will observe the Sun’s terahertz electromagnetic during events such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections. The cosmonaut duo completed a spacewalk task review and finalized the configuration of their spacewalking tools on Tuesday.

Roscosmos flight engineer Andrey Fedyaev will assist his spacewalking crewmates on Wednesday as he controls the European robotic arm (ERA) from inside the Nauka science module. Fedyaev will use the ERA to help retrieve the Biorisk experiment container housing biological samples exposed to the harsh external microgravity environment. Fedyaev readied the ERA for service positioning it in its pre-spacewalk configuration on Tuesday.

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

Cancer Treatment, Cartilage Repair, and Spacesuit Checks Wrap Up Week

Experiments exploring cancer treatments and cartilage repair topped the Expedition 74 crew’s research schedule on Friday. Two cosmonauts are also gearing up for a spacewalk in less than a week.

Doctors are taking advantage of the International Space Station’s weightless environment to develop and test advanced cancer treatments. Two experiments taking place aboard the orbital outpost on Friday are looking at different therapies and exploring how microgravity impacts their effectiveness.

NASA flight engineer Chris Williams continued the Space Cancer Therapeutics investigation by processing samples of fruit flies engineered with a pancreatic‑cancer genetic profile and treated with an anti‑cancer drug. Williams exposed one group of flies to artificial gravity and a second group to microgravity. Both sets will be frozen for preservation and returned to Earth aboard a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft. Researchers will analyze the samples to assess the therapy’s effectiveness, understand its underlying molecular mechanisms, and determine microgravity’s influence on cancer development. Fruit flies are ideal for this research because their physiology is well understood, allowing scientists to track how cancer‑related processes change in different spaceflight conditions.

NASA flight engineer Jack Hathaway worked in the Harmony module observing DNA-mimicking materials for their ability to form stable structures in microgravity and potentially fight cancer. Hathaway pointed a light-measuring device at the manufactured nanoparticles that resemble the natural building blocks of DNA to evaluate the quality of the samples. The biotechnology study is testing the tiny, engineered materials—loaded with a cancer‑fighting drug—for their ability to reach target cancer cells and prevent unwanted side effects possibly leading to the development of a new type of cancer treatment.

NASA flight engineer Jessica Meir spent her shift treating samples of cartilage cells inside the Kibo laboratory module’s Life Science Glovebox to learn how human cartilage builds and repairs itself when gravity is removed. Doctors will use the insights from the biotechnology experiment to learn how to create replacement cartilage, treat arthritis and joint damage, and understand the effects of weightlessness on an astronaut’s joint health.

Flight engineer Sophie Adenot of ESA (European Space Agency) spent her day reorganizing and transferring cargo in and out of the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft docked to the Harmony module’s forward port. Adenot adjusted a variety of science freezers to access cargo pallets and other research hardware installed inside Dragon for stowage aboard the space station.

Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergey Mikaev, station commander and flight engineer respectively, tested a pair of Orlan spacesuits in the Poisk module’s airlock checking the suits for pressure leaks, functionality, and mobility. Flight engineer Andrey Fedyaev assisted the duo with the suit checks then moved on and checked components that support the Elektron oxygen generator in the Roscosmos segment of the orbital outpost.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_stationon X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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Mark A. Garcia

Crew Conducting Advanced Health Research and More Spacewalk Preps

Four Expedition 74 astronauts had a light duty day with an array of advanced research still scheduled for Thursday. The three cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station focused on ongoing spacewalk preparations and robotics training.

NASA flight engineers Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, and Chris Williams, and ESA (European Space Agency) flight engineer Sophie Adenot had a busy week of unloading and activating critical new science experiments delivered aboard a SpaceX Dragon on Sunday, May 17. The quartet relaxed half of the day Thursday after an intense few days that saw the crew kicking off advanced investigations into cancer treatments, growing blood-clotting platelets, and engineering cartilage tissue, all seeking to benefit health on and off the Earth.

When Meir was back on shift Thursday, she photographed microgreens growing to help botanists learn how to provide a healthy diet for astronauts aboard a spacecraft. Next, she nourished stem cell samples inside Kibo’s Life Science Glovebox being incubated to learn how to manufacture space-designed therapies to treat cancer and blood conditions.

Hathaway assisted Meir with the sample nourishing by first setting up the Life Science Glovebox, and retrieving the stem cell samples from a science freezer for thawing, then handing them over to Meir for processing. He also installed lights, batteries, and video cameras on a pair of Orlan spacesuits two cosmonauts will wear on an upcoming spacewalk.

Williams loaded materials research carriers onto a platform that will be placed inside the Kibo laboratory module’s airlock for retrieval. The Japanese robotic arm will grapple the hardware and install it on an external platform where the materials will be exposed to the microgravity environment for analysis. The long-running physics study seeks to assist engineers designing equipment, hardware, fabrics, and more to better withstand the harsh environment of outer space.

Adenot spent most of her on-duty time installing combustion research hardware in one of Kibo’s multi-purpose small payload racks to study how solid materials ignite, burn, propagate flame, and self-extinguish in microgravity.

Station commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and flight engineer Sergei Mikaev, both from Roscosmos, partnered with Hathaway installing electronic and video components on the Orlan spacesuits. The cosmonaut pair later studied the tasks and the associated maneuvers, displayed digitally on a computer screen, planned for an upcoming spacewalk next week.

Roscosmos flight engineer Andrey Fedyaev familiarized himself with the operation of the European robotic arm and the job it will perform in support of next week’s spacewalk. Kud-Sverchkov and Mikaev joined Fedyaev for the robotic reviews then later regrouped for the spacewalk computer training.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_stationon X, as well as the ISS Facebookand ISS Instagram accounts.

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Mark A. Garcia

Cancer, Blood Research Tops Science Schedule as Spacewalk Preps Continue

The Expedition 74 crew continued exploring ways to advance cancer treatments and prevent excessive bleeding aboard the International Space Station on Wednesday. The orbital residents are also unpacking a U.S. cargo spacecraft while preparing spacesuits for an upcoming spacewalk.

NASA flight engineer Chris Williams was back on new cancer research treating samples of fruit flies engineered with the genetic profile of pancreatic cancer inside the Kibo laboratory module’s Saibo research rack. The fruit flies, delivered aboard a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft, will be treated with an anti-cancer drug, frozen for preservation, then returned to Earth so doctors can analyze how the therapy and its molecular mechanisms respond to microgravity. Results may lead to the development of more effective therapies to treat pancreatic cancer both on  Earth and in microgravity.

Another new experiment running onboard the orbital outpost seeks to understand how weightlessness affects a crew member’s blood clotting and immune response.  Blood platelets form clots when a blood vessel is damaged and help stop bleeding. NASA flight engineer Jessica Meir processed blood platelet samples launched aboard Dragon for incubation and growth inside the Kibo’s Life Science Glovebox. Researchers will study the samples to understand how the space environment affects blood platelets at the cellular and genetic level to maintain normal blood clotting, prevent excessive bleeding, and protect astronaut health.

Flight engineers Jack Hathaway of NASA and Sophie Adenot of ESA (European Space Agency) both had a light duty day on Wednesday compensating for their long shift on Sunday, May 17, when they monitored the arrival of Dragon packed with about 6,500 pounds of cargo. Hathaway, however, was back on cargo duty during the second half of his shift on Wednesday continuing to unpack supplies from inside Dragon. Adenot watered and photographed alfalfa plants growing inside the Columbus laboratory module’s Veggie facility for the Veg-06 study. The space agriculture study is exploring plant-microbe interactions to help plants thrive in microgravity and promote food production off the Earth.

Station commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and flight engineer Sergei Mikaev, both from Roscosmos, took turns at the beginning of their day pedaling on an exercise cycle while attached to cardiac sensors for a fitness evaluation. Afterward, the duo moved a pair of pressurized Orlan spacesuits into the Poisk module’s airlock and staged them ahead of a spacewalk planned for later this month. Finally, the two cosmonauts configured spacewalk training software and staged medical kits ahead of the upcoming excursion.

Roscosmos flight engineer Andrey Fedyaev assisted his cosmonaut crewmates with the spacesuit transfers and software configurations throughout Wednesday. Fedyaev also replaced orbital plumbing components inside the Nauka science module then cleaned the Poisk module’s ventilation system.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_stationon X, as well as the ISS Facebookand ISS Instagram accounts.

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Mark A. Garcia