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<\/a>The Expedition 65<\/a> astronauts are moving full speed ahead today studying how living in space affects skin processes. The International Space Station<\/a> is also gearing up for a busy period of spaceship activities.<\/p>\n Rodents continue to be observed aboard the orbiting lab today so scientists can identify genes and observe cell functions that are impacted by weightlessness and affect skin processes. The Rodent Research-1 Demonstration<\/a> will take place until next week when the mice are transferred into the SpaceX Cargo Dragon vehicle for return and examination on Earth.<\/p>\n NASA Flight Engineers Megan McArthur<\/a> and Shane Kimbrough<\/a> partnered with ESA (European Space Agency) Flight Engineer Thomas Pesquet<\/a> for the space biology study today taking place inside the Kibo laboratory module<\/a>. NASA Flight Engineer Mark Vande Hei<\/a> is assisting the astronauts with the rodent research, helping them with operations in the Life Science Glovebox<\/a>.<\/p>\n Commander Akihiko Hoshide<\/a> of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) spent Thursday morning exploring how weightlessness affects microbes living on the station. He extracted DNA earlier this week from microbe samples he swabbed from surfaces inside the station. Today, Hoshide prepared the DNA for onboard sequencing to help researchers understand the microbial environment<\/a> of the station and future spacecraft.<\/p>\n In the Russian segment of the orbital lab, Flight Engineers Oleg Novitskiy<\/a> and Pyotr Dubrov<\/a> are familiarizing themselves with the procedures for next week\u2019s relocation<\/a> of their Soyuz MS-18<\/a> crew ship. The duo, along with Vande Hei, will take a short ride in the Soyuz on Tuesday when they undock from the Rassvet module<\/a> at 8:21 a.m. EDT.<\/p>\n They will temporarily maneuver toward the station\u2019s U.S. segment where they will photograph the orbiting lab\u2019s configuration. Shortly after that, they will move back toward the Russian segment and redock to the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module<\/a> module at around 9 a.m.<\/p>\n Get The Details…<\/a><\/p>\n Mark Garcia <\/p>\n Powered by WPeMatico<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Expedition 65 astronauts are moving full speed ahead today studying how living in space affects skin processes. The International Space Station is also gearing up for a busy period of spaceship activities. Rodents continue to be observed aboard the orbiting lab today so scientists can identify genes and observe cell functions that are impacted \u2026 Continue reading