![\"NASA](\"https:\/\/blogs.nasa.gov\/spacestation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2023\/09\/blog_iss069e084754.jpg\")
<\/a>The Expedition 69<\/a> crew is expected to split up soon when four flight engineers return to Earth aboard the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft. Meanwhile, all crew members on the International Space Station<\/a> spent Friday keeping up their orbital research and maintenance tasks.<\/p>\n Unfavorable weather conditions off the coast of Florida have pushed back Saturday\u2019s planned undocking and splashdown of four station crew members at least 24 hours. Mission managers from SpaceX and NASA are now targeting the undocking of Endeavour with four crewmates inside for no earlier than 7:05 a.m. EDT on Sunday<\/a>.<\/p>\n Endeavour, commanded by Stephen Bowen<\/a> and piloted by Woody Hoburg<\/a>, both NASA astronauts, is targeted to splash down in the waters off Florida\u2019s coast at 12:07 a.m. on Monday. Flanking the NASA duo during the 19-hour ride back to Earth will be UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi<\/a> and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev<\/a>. The quartet will be completing a six-month space research mission that began with a launch from NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center on March 2.<\/p>\n New station flight engineers Jasmin Moghbeli<\/a> of NASA, Andreas Mogensen<\/a> of ESA (European Space Agency), Satoshi Furukawa<\/a> of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), and Konstantin Borisov<\/a> of Roscosmos have been familiarizing themselves with station systems all week. They are turning their attention now to full-time science, cargo, and health activities having been living on the space station since Aug. 27.<\/p>\n Moghbeli transferred research samples to science freezers that will be returned to Earth inside the Endeavour spacecraft with the departing crewmates. Mogensen set up a pair of Kubik<\/a> research incubators that support studies of seeds, cells, and small mammals inside the Columbus laboratory module<\/a>. Furukawa worked in the Kibo laboratory module<\/a> removing a microbiology experiment<\/a> from a research incubator that can generate artificial gravity<\/a>. Finally, Borisov unpacked cargo from the Roscosmos Progress 85<\/a> cargo craft and tested ways future crews might pilot spacecraft and robots on planetary missions.<\/p>\n The space station\u2019s other three crewmates are due to leave the orbital lab at the end of September completing just over one year orbiting Earth. In the meantime, the trio from NASA and Roscosmos has continued its research and lab upkeep tasks. Astronaut and Flight Engineer Frank Rubio<\/a> configured and stowed emergency masks and had his eyes scanned by Mogensen using standard medical imaging hardware. Cosmonaut and Commander Sergey Prokopyev<\/a> partnered with Borisov for the Progress 85 cargo unpacking duties. Flight Engineer Dmitri Petelin<\/a> also participated in the futuristic piloting study, then inspected windows in the Zvezda service module<\/a>, and inventoried cargo in the Poisk module<\/a>.<\/p>\n Learn more about station activities by following the\u00a0space station blog<\/a>,\u00a0@space_station<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0@ISS_Research<\/a>\u00a0on X, as well as the\u00a0ISS Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0ISS Instagram<\/a>\u00a0accounts.<\/p>\n Get weekly video highlights at:\u00a0https:\/\/roundupreads.jsc.nasa.gov\/videoupdate\/<\/a><\/p>\n Get the latest from NASA delivered every week. Subscribe here:\u00a0www.nasa.gov\/subscribe<\/a><\/p>\n Powered by WPeMatico<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n Get The Details…<\/a><\/p>\n Mark Garcia <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Expedition 69 crew is expected to split up soon when four flight engineers return to Earth aboard the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft. Meanwhile, all crew members on the International Space Station spent Friday keeping up their orbital research and maintenance tasks. Unfavorable weather conditions off the coast of Florida have pushed back Saturday\u2019s planned \u2026 Continue reading
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