![\"NASA](\"https:\/\/images-assets.nasa.gov\/image\/iss073e0008235\/iss073e0008235~large.jpg?w=1920&h=1280&fit=clip&crop=faces%2Cfocalpoint\")
<\/a><\/figure>The Expedition 73<\/a> crew members are kicking off a busy week aboard the International Space Station<\/a>. Technology development, space botany, and clean up following last Thursday\u2019s spacewalk topped Monday\u2019s schedule.<\/p>\n The morning started with NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers<\/a> and current station commander Takuya Onishi of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) teaming up to check out the petri plates housing thale cress plant in the station\u2019s Veggie<\/a> facility. The duo harvested some of the plants as part of the APEX-12<\/a> experiment, which observes how space radiation affects plant genetics.<\/p>\n Following space botany work, Ayers moved onto troubleshooting communications and network hardware before completing her daily two hours of exercise on the station\u2019s treadmill and Advanced Resistive Exercise Device<\/a>.<\/p>\n To wrap up cleanup duties following Ayers\u2019 and NASA Astronaut Anne McClain\u2019s<\/a> 5 hour and 44-minute spacewalk<\/a> last Thursday, Onishi spent the afternoon on spacesuit work, performing a cooling loop scrub. He was later joined by NASA\u2019s Jonny Kim<\/a> as the first-time space resident removed batteries from the spacesuits and the propulsive jetpack system (SAFER<\/a>).<\/p>\n Kim also spent part of his day connecting with students from Verona, Italy, where he answered questions about living and working aboard the orbiting laboratory during a Ham Radio<\/a> call and later performed routine on-orbit plumbing.<\/p>\n McClain set her sights to monitoring an ongoing tech demonstration that looks at capabilities for producing pharmaceutical ingredients in space that could be used to synthesize medications during future deep-space missions. She removed samples in the ADSEP<\/a> cassette carriers then installed new cassettes for future analysis. Midafternoon, she photographed tomato plants for a space agricultural study<\/a> to help researchers better understand if crops can be cultivated in space without photosynthesis. She later collected water samples from the Water Processing Assembly for chemical analysis and reorganized cargo racks in SpaceX\u2019s Dragon cargo spacecraft, which arrived<\/a> to the microgravity lab April 22.<\/p>\n The station\u2019s three cosmonauts had a busy day of cleaning, cargo operations, and experiment prep. Flight Engineers Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky worked together auditing Roscosmos cargo that will be loaded in the Progress 90 spacecraft before its eventual departure from the station. The duo then installed photo and videography hardware for a future experiment that will examine the station\u2019s aerodynamic force. Meanwhile, Flight Engineer Kirill Peskov conducted routine orbital cleaning in the Roscosmos segment and synced up the cameras the trio uses to photograph Earth and its landmarks.<\/p>\n Learn more about station activities by following the <\/em>space station blog<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>@space_station<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>@ISS_Research<\/em><\/a> on X, as well as the <\/em>ISS Facebook<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>ISS Instagram<\/em><\/a> accounts.<\/em><\/p>\n Get the latest from NASA delivered every week. Subscribe here: <\/em>https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/subscribe<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Powered by WPeMatico<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n Get The Details…<\/a><\/p>\n Abby Graf <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Expedition 73 crew members are kicking off a busy week aboard the International Space Station. Technology development, space botany, and clean up following last Thursday\u2019s spacewalk topped Monday\u2019s schedule. Continue reading