![\"A](\"https:\/\/blogs.nasa.gov\/spacestation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2023\/03\/iss068e045298_blog.jpg\")
<\/a>The\u00a0Expedition 68<\/a> crew members spent their day carrying out biological research, harvesting vegetables, and prepping for a commercial resupply mission delivering more than 6,000 pounds of cargo<\/a> to the International Space Station<\/a>.<\/p>\n The\u00a0SpaceX Dragon<\/a> spacecraft is set to launch at 8:30 p.m. EDT this evening from NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The spacecraft is providing the crew with new science investigations<\/a>, food, fuel, and supplies. Dragon is slated to dock autonomously to the forward-facing port of the station\u2019s Harmony module Thursday morning.<\/p>\n NASA Flight Engineer Woody Hoburg<\/a> is scheduled to monitor Dragon\u2019s automated docking. In the meantime, he completed a session using the Robotics On-board Trainer, which teaches astronauts docking and grappling techniques.<\/p>\n NASA Flight Engineer\u00a0Stephen Bowen<\/a> continued to work on the Immunity Assay<\/a> study. The study aims to monitor how the immune system changes in response to the stresses of space by analyzing biological samples taken before, during, and after flight. Bowen was tasked with uninstalling containers and prepping test tubes for the experiment.<\/p>\n NASA Flight Engineer Frank Rubio<\/a> plucked tomatoes from the Veggie Vegetable Production System (Veggie<\/a>) for the\u00a0Veg-05<\/a>\u00a0space botany study. The investigation seeks to determine the best horticultural practices for growing fresh vegetables in space. Rubio and Bowen both capped the evening with a remotely guided eye exam.<\/p>\n Flight Engineer Sultan Alneyadi from UAE (United Arab Emirates) had a chance to record a video for an educational series focused on demonstrating scientific concepts in space for students and teachers. He later fit in an exercise session on the treadmill.<\/p>\n The cosmonauts aboard the station gathered to shoot a series of video greetings as well. Commander Sergey Prokopyev<\/a> and Flight Engineers Dmitri Petelin<\/a>, and Andrey Fedyaev<\/a> of Roscomsos also reviewed a procedure together for checking the temperature and humidity conditions during the undocking and descent of a Soyuz spacecraft.<\/p>\n At 7:54 a.m. the ISS Progress 83 thrusters performed a 2-minute, 35-second burn to provide extra distance from a fragment of Russian Cosmos 1408 satellite debris. NASA and Russian flight controllers worked together to conduct the maneuver. Without the maneuver, which will have no impact on the rendezvous profile for the Dragon cargo craft or downstream vehicle operations, it is estimated that the fragment could have passed within 1\/10th of a mile of the station. Crew were notified of the conjunction in advance and were never in danger.<\/p>\n Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog<\/a>, @space_station<\/a> and @ISS_Research<\/a> on Twitter, as well as the ISS Facebook<\/a> and ISS Instagram<\/a> accounts.<\/p>\n Get weekly video highlights at: https:\/\/roundupreads.jsc.nasa.gov\/videoupdate\/<\/a><\/p>\n Get the latest from NASA delivered every week. Subscribe here: www.nasa.gov\/subscribe<\/a><\/p>\n Get The Details…<\/a><\/p>\n Heidi Lavelle <\/p>\n Powered by WPeMatico<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The\u00a0Expedition 68 crew members spent their day carrying out biological research, harvesting vegetables, and prepping for a commercial resupply mission delivering more than 6,000 pounds of cargo to the International Space Station. The\u00a0SpaceX Dragon spacecraft is set to launch at 8:30 p.m. EDT this evening from NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The spacecraft is \u2026 Continue reading
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