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<\/a><\/figure>Expedition 74<\/a> was off duty on Monday following a weekend of crew handover activities, cargo packing, and microbiology research. A SpaceX Dragon spacecraft will also depart the International Space Station<\/a> for return to Earth later this week.<\/p>\n The orbital outpost\u2019s newest residents spent Saturday and Sunday familiarizing themselves with space station systems and procedures following a busy first week of scientific operations. Standard housekeeping duties such as trash collecting, vacuuming modules and vents for dust, and wiping down surfaces with a disinfectant rounded out the weekend activities.<\/p>\n NASA Flight Engineer Chris Williams<\/a>, who has been orbiting Earth since November, assisted the station\u2019s newest crewmates Jessica Meir<\/a> and Jack Hathaway<\/a>, both from NASA, and Sophie Adenot of ESA (European Space Agency) helping them get up to speed with living and working in weightlessness. Williams showed the trio the location of food, drinks, and emergency gear, demonstrated the operation of medical equipment, communications gear, and computer networking hardware, and gave a tour of the modules while describing the operations and systems that take place in each. Williams also joined Meir and Adenot on Saturday and explored using ultraviolet light as a method to disinfect spacecraft inhibiting microbial growth<\/a> to protect crew health and space equipment.<\/p>\n The quartet will also step up the pace of cargo transfers inside the Dragon cargo spacecraft as it nears its departure later this week. Dragon will return to Earth loaded with completed science experiments and station hardware for analysis. The astronauts also continued unloading crew supplies from the Dragon crew spacecraft delivered on Feb. 14<\/a>.<\/p>\n Roscosmos Flight Engineer Andrey Fedyaev, who is beginning his second spaceflight, joined his cosmonaut crewmates over the weekend, Commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev, cleaning ventilation systems and inspecting laptop computers and power supply systems. Fedyaev also continued his respiratory research on Saturday attaching an acoustic sensor to his neck that recorded his rapid exhalation to understand how microgravity affects his breathing.<\/p>\n Learn more about station activities by following the <\/em>space station blog<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>@space_station<\/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. <\/em>Subscribe here<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Powered by WPeMatico<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n Get The Details…<\/a><\/p>\n Mark A. Garcia <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Expedition 74 was off duty on Monday following a weekend of crew handover activities, cargo packing, and microbiology research. A SpaceX Dragon spacecraft will also depart the International Space Station for return to Earth later this week. Continue reading