Week Wraps with Health Research and Spacewalk Closeout Procedures
Health research and final spacewalk closeouts wrapped up the week for the Expedition 74 crew members aboard the International Space Station as they gear up to receive a cargo delivery next week.
Understanding how the human body reacts to space is key to ensure crews thrive on future longer-duration missions. Residents aboard the orbital complex often collect biological samples for ground teams to analyze, helping pinpoint microgravity-induced changes in the human body. To facilitate this work, NASA astronauts Jack Hathaway and Jessica Meir collected and analyzed blood samples in the morning for the Venous Flow experiment, which examines how spaceflight affects blood flow. Afterward, Hathaway guided an ultrasound scan on Meir to examine her cardiovascular system.
Later on, the duo was joined by NASA astronaut Chris Williams and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Sophie Adenot to review procedures for a future spacewalk and meet with ground teams once more for another debrief following the conclusion of Wednesday’s seven-hour, two-minute spacewalk.
Williams worked in some time to power on the station’s free-flying robots, Astrobee, for future operations before moving onto spacesuit work, charging the batteries and configuring them for stowage. Adenot removed the impact shields on the suits and completed an array of other tasks throughout the day, including hatch seal inspections and computer battery swaps.
In the Roscosmos segment, flight engineer Andrey Fedyaev enjoyed a day off. His colleagues, Commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and flight engineer Sergei Mikaev conducted maintenance and swapped batteries on a few testing instruments that monitor materials for cracks and corrosion. Afterward, Mikaev moved into the Zvezda Service Module to conduct inspections with the instruments and then completed a round of computer software updates. Kud-Sverchkov moved throughout the orbital complex during the day to photograph and video his crewmates working to document life aboard the space station.
On Sunday, March 22, the unpiloted Progress 94 cargo spacecraft, loaded with nearly three tons of food, fuel, and supplies, will lift off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 7:59 a.m. EDT. After a two-day trip, Progress will dock to the Poisk module’s space-facing port around 9:34 a.m. Tuesday, March 24. NASA will provide live coverage of both launch and docking NASA+, Amazon Prime, and the agency’s YouTube channel.
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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Abby Graf
