![\"Expedition](\"https:\/\/blogs.nasa.gov\/spacestation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2018\/04\/blog_iss055e016074.jpg\")
<\/a>The International Space Station is set to raise its orbit Wednesday ahead of upcoming cargo and crew missions. Meanwhile, the six Expedition 55 crew members are staying busy today with medical tests, cargo work and lab maintenance.<\/p>\n
The space station will increase its altitude slightly when a docked Russian cargo craft automatically fires its engines for two minutes and six seconds early Wednesday. The maneuver will establish the correct orbit for the landing of three crew members in June and a two-orbit rendezvous capability for the next Russian Progress resupply craft in July.<\/p>\n
Flight Engineer Scott Tingle<\/a> collected and stowed his own urine sample today for a pair of biomedical studies examining the effects of spaceflight on the human body. The U.S. Navy pilot also continued operations for the Metabolic Tracking (MT)<\/a> experiment that observes how human tissue samples are impacted by a specific drug compound.<\/p>\n Expedition 55-56 crewmates Drew Feustel<\/a> and Ricky Arnold<\/a> checked each other\u2019s eyes today using optical coherence tomography gear inside the Harmony module. Feustel also installed and checked the station\u2019s first updated printer since 2000 before wrapping up his day unloading cargo from the SpaceX Dragon<\/a> cargo craft. Arnold finally collected water samples and changed out a cartridge as part of preventative maintenance on a U.S. oxygen generator.<\/p>\n Astronaut Norishige Kanai<\/a> from Japan continued more upkeep work for the Mouse Stress Defense experiment that is exploring the causes of muscle and bone loss in space. The busy flight engineer later assisted his fellow crew members unloading SpaceX cargo before injecting human tissue samples with a drug compound for the MT study.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Get The Details…<\/a> ISS<\/p>\n Powered by WPeMatico<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The International Space Station is set to raise its orbit Wednesday ahead of upcoming cargo and crew missions. Meanwhile, the six Expedition 55 crew members are staying busy today with medical tests, cargo work and lab maintenance.<\/p>\n The space station will increase its altitude slightly when a docked Russian cargo craft automatically fires its engines for two minutes and six seconds early Wednesday. The maneuver will establish the correct orbit for the landing of three crew members in June and a two-orbit rendezvous capability for the next Russian Progress resupply craft in July.<\/p>\n Flight Engineer Scott Tingle<\/a> collected and stowed his own urine sample today for a pair of biomedical studies examining the effects of spaceflight \u2026 Continue reading
\nMark Garcia <\/p>\nStation Set to Orbit Higher as Crew Performs Biomedical Tests<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
<\/a>Expedition 55 Flight Engineer Drew Feustel of NASA is inside the Japanese Kibo laboratory module talking to dignitaries on Earth, including university officials, musicians and scientists, during an educational event that took place at Queen\u2019s University in Kingston, Ontario. <\/p>\n