Space Station

Space medicine, spacesuits, and eye checks filled the schedule aboard the International Space Station on Thursday. Cargo operations and life support maintenance rounded out the day as the Expedition 72 crew awaits the departure of four crewmates.

Scientists are continually using the orbiting lab’s microgravity environment to explore new phenomena not possible on Earth to promote industry and human health. Thursday’s space research explored ways to improve treatments for patients on Earth and keep astronauts healthy on long-term missions.

NASA Flight Engineer Butch Wilmore serviced samples and observed how fluids flow using capillary force to understand how liquid drugs are transported in the lungs. Results may benefit the health care and food industries with improved respiratory therapies and better contamination prevention techniques.

NASA Flight Engineers Matthew Dominick and Don Pettit worked on advanced research gear ensuring it remains operable for high-quality results. Dominick organized the hardware inside the BioServe centrifuge that supports a range of science from DNA studies, to materials research, and more in space. Pettit replaced cables on the Cell Biology Experiment Facility, an incubator with an artificial gravity generator. Pettit also collected and stowed his urine samples in a science freezer for later analysis. He finally joined Flight Engineer Nick Hague for eye exams using medical imaging gear with assistance from doctors on the ground. Hague earlier relocated air sensors from the Destiny laboratory module to the Tranquility module.

Lab maintenance is also key aboard the orbital outpost to ensure ongoing science operations and healthy crews. Commander Suni Williams and Flight Engineer Jeanette Epps, both NASA astronauts, serviced thermal systems and orbital plumbing components, while also organizing food stowed in the Unity module. NASA Flight Engineer Mike Barratt spent his shift in the Quest airlock dumping and filling spacesuit water tanks then  cleaning Quest’s smoke detectors.

Roscosmos Flight Engineer Ivan Vagner completed his 24-hour heart monitoring session on Thursday and handed over the sensors to Flight Engineer Alexey Ovchinin so he could record his heart rate. Vagner also swapped out orbital plumbing gear in the Nauka science module while Ovchinin replaced hydraulic pumps in the Zvezda service module. Flight Engineer Alexander Grebenkin continued photographing crew activities for documentation while Flight Engineer Aleksandr Gorbunov jogged on a treadmill for a regularly schedule fitness evaluation.

NASA and SpaceX mission managers continue monitoring weather conditions off the coast of Florida and are now targeting no earlier than 3:05 a.m. EDT on Sunday for the undocking of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission aboard Dragon Endeavour.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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The Expedition 72 crew members explored how space affects exercise and plant growth on Thursday helping NASA and its international partners plan human missions farther away from Earth. The International Space Station residents are also preparing for the departure of four crewmates and continuing to maintain science and life support systems.

The lack of gravity accelerates the loss of bone and muscle mass in crew members living and working in the weightless environment of space. As a result, astronauts exercise for two hours every day to counter the space-caused physical deconditioning and maintain their health ensuring mission success. Researchers monitored NASA Flight Engineer Nick Hague as he pedaled on an exercise cycle while attached sensors and wearing breathing gear that measured his aerobic capacity. Roscosmos Flight Engineer Ivan Vagner jogged on a treadmill for a regularly scheduled fitness evaluation. Researchers monitor the workout sessions and analyze the data to ensure safe and effective workouts while living in microgravity.

Hague also joined station Commander Suni Williams and Flight Engineer Butch Wilmore, both NASA astronauts, and reviewed emergency hardware and procedures in the SpaceX Dragon Freedom spacecraft. The NASA trio then teamed up with Roscosmos Flight Engineer Aleksandr Gorbunov and called down to Earth for a conference with SpaceX mission controllers. Gorbunov launched to space aboard Freedom with Hague on Sept. 28. Williams and Wilmore will return to Earth with the Freedom  duo in February of 2025.

NASA Flight Engineers Matthew Dominick and Mike Barratt spent all day Thursday studying how to water plants in space. Barratt set up space botany hardware in the Harmony module while Dominick performed research operations for the Plant Water Management 5 experiment. The investigation explores using low-gravity watering methods such as hydroponics and aeroponics to support plant growth in space.

NASA Flight Engineers Don Pettit and Jeanette Epps focused on science maintenance during their shifts on Thursday. Pettit calibrated biology imaging hardware in the Kibo laboratory module that can detect space-caused inflammatory changes in organisms. Epps packed stem cell research hardware for return to Earth then powered down the KERMIT fluorescence microscope used to image the stem cell samples.

Meanwhile, Epps and her fellow SpaceX Crew-8 crewmates Dominick, Barratt, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin called to Mission Control in Houston on Thursday and gave their farewell remarks. The Commercial Crew quartet is targeted to undock from the Harmony’s space-facing port aboard SpaceX Dragon Endeavour no earlier than 3:05 a.m. EDT on Sunday, weather pending. NASA+ will broadcast the crew departure activities and Dragon’s parachute-assisted splashdown the following day at a site to be determined. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.

Watch the farewell remarks on YouTube.

Finally, Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin started his day on a space physics experiment studying how free-flying objects in microgravity move in relation to the speed and trajectory of the space station. Afterward, he spent the rest of his day servicing Roscosmos computers and ventilation systems.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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Space biology topped the research schedule aboard the International Space Station on Wednesday as the Expedition 72 crew explored how weightlessness affects exercising, veins, and plants. Meanwhile, four SpaceX Crew-8 members continue targeting Sunday, Oct. 13, for their departure, weather pending.

Scientists are studying how to work out effectively in microgravity to prevent space-caused accelerated bone and muscle loss. NASA Flight Engineer Don Pettit, with assistance from NASA Flight Engineer Matthew Dominick, set up high-definition video cameras and a motion capture system that monitored him while working out on the advanced resistive exercise device (ARED) in the Tranquility module. The ARED mimics the inertial forces of lifting free weights on Earth to maintain muscle health during long-term space missions. Pettit’s exercise session was for the ARED Kinematics study that compares the results of both Earth and space workouts to improve space exercise programs and counter musculoskeletal deconditioning.

Commander Suni Williams took charge as the crew medical officer on Wednesday and scanned the neck, shoulder, and leg veins of NASA Flight Engineer Nick Hague using the Ultrasound 2 device examining his circulatory health. Williams also configured radio frequency hardware and serviced samples for the Gaucho Lung drug treatment study. Hague installed biology imaging hardware in the Kibo laboratory module that can detect space-caused inflammatory changes in organisms.

NASA Flight Engineer Jeanette Epps spent her day replacing components that remove carbon dioxide and ethylene from inside Kibo’s Plant Habitat to support an upcoming space botany study. NASA Flight Engineers Mike Barratt and Butch Wilmore spent their day on maintenance as Barratt charged spacewalking tool batteries and Wilmore swapped out experimental hardware for an advanced life support system study.

Roscosmos Flight Engineer Alexander Grebenkin continued packing for his return to Earth targeted for no earlier than Sunday. He will return with fellow Crew-8 members Dominick, Barratt, and Epps aboard the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft. The Commercial Crew quartet will call down to Mission Control at 3 p.m. EDT on Thursday for farewell remarks live on NASA+. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.

The orbiting lab’s three other cosmonaut flight engineers Alexey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner, and Aleksandr Gorbunov focused on their complement of Roscosmos science and maintenance. Ovchinin replaced a fire extinguisher in the Nauka science module and jogged on a treadmill for a regularly scheduled fitness evaluation. Vagner installed a hyper spectrometer to obtain Earth imagery in a variety of wavelengths. Finally, Gorbunov set up carbon dioxide monitoring gear, tested Roscosmos laptop computers, and conducted a space physics experiment. Gorbunov also joined Hague at the end of the day and discussed with mission controllers their experience riding to space aboard the SpaceX Dragon Freedom.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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The seven NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station relaxed and took a break on Tuesday before the SpaceX Crew-8 mission leaves. Meanwhile, the four Roscosmos cosmonauts stayed busy focusing on their complement of research and lab maintenance.

Expedition 72 Flight Engineers Matthew Dominick, Mike Barratt, and Jeanette Epps of NASA and Alexander Grebenkin from Roscosmos are now targeting departure from the orbital outpost aboard the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft for no earlier than 3:05 a.m. EDT on Sunday, pending weather. The quartet is scheduled to call down to Mission Control Center in Houston for farewell remarks at 9:15 a.m. on Thursday. Watch live coverage of both events on NASA+. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.

NASA’s three Crew-8 astronauts Dominick, Barratt, and Epps cleared their schedules on Tuesday and relaxed following several days of cargo packing, departure training, and spacecraft configurations inside Dragon Endeavour. Crew-8 cosmonaut Grebenkin stayed busy spending the first half of his day obtaining Earth imagery in the visible and near-infrared spectrum. Afterward, he serviced the ventilation system inside the Nauka science module.

The other four NASA astronauts residing aboard the space station including Commander Suni Williams and Flight Engineers Butch Wilmore, Nick Hague, and Don Pettit also had the day off on Tuesday. Pettit, however, did spend a couple of hours testing a free-flying, robotic camera in the cupola then photographing the deployment of the CySat-1 and DORA (Deployable Optical Receiver Array) CubeSats outside the Kibo laboratory module. The quartet has been assisting the homebound Crew-8 members with their return activities and will soon adjust their sleep schedules to accommodate Endeavour’s undocking from the Harmony module’s space-facing port.

The four cosmonauts aboard the station, including Grebenkin, stayed busy on Tuesday continuing their advanced microgravity science and orbital upkeep tasks for Roscosmos. Flight Engineer Alexey Ovchinin installed Earth imaging hardware in Harmony that can be remotely controlled by students on the ground to photograph Earth landmarks. Flight Engineer Ivan Vagner spent his day replacing gas and water filters in Nauka and cleaning smoke detectors in the Rassvet module. Flight Engineer Aleksandr Gorbunov measured carbon dioxide levels aboard the station then worked on standard orbital plumbing duties.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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Space biology and physics were the main focus of research operations for the Expedition 72 crew aboard the International Space Station on Monday. Meanwhile, four Commercial Crew members are waiting for their final departure date before returning to Earth.

NASA Flight Engineer Nick Hague worked in the Columbus laboratory module swapping filters inside the BioLab’s incubator. BioLab supports the observation of microbes, cells, tissue cultures and more to understand the effects of weightlessness and radiation on organisms. NASA Flight Engineer Don Pettit set up a laptop computer on the Cell Biology Experiment Facility, a research incubator with an artificial gravity generator, located in the Kibo laboratory module.

Station Commander Suni Williams explored space physics on Monday mixing gel samples and observing with a fluorescence microscope how particles of different sizes gel and coarsen. Results are expected to benefit the medicine, food, and cosmetic industries. NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore, who has been aboard the station with Williams since June 6, trained to operate advanced life support gear installed in the Microgravity Science Glovebox for a different space physics experiment then relaxed the rest of the day.

Roscosmos Flight Engineer Aleksandr Gorbunov wore a sensor-packed cap that recorded his responses as he practiced futuristic planetary piloting techniques on computer. Flight Engineer Alexey Ovchinin inspected and cleaned the Electromagnetic Levitator that can levitate samples exposed to high temperatures for thermophysical research. Flight Engineer Ivan Vagner started out his day cleaning smoke detectors and testing batteries before ending his shift imaging Earth’s nighttime atmosphere in near-ultraviolet wavelengths.

NASA Flight Engineers Matthew Dominick and Mike Barratt, both SpaceX Crew-8 members, began the day in the Tranquility module unpacking and transferring cargo stowed in the NanoRacks Bishop airlock. More than just a stowage module, Bishop can also house science experiments that can also be placed in the external microgravity environment.

The two other crewmates representing Crew-8, Flight Engineers Jeanette Epps of NASA and Alexander Grebenkin of Roscosmos, spent their day packing cargo inside the Dragon Endeavour, handing over their mission responsibilities, and relaxing.

The four Crew-8 members will wait a few more days before saying farewell to the Expedition 72 crew aboard the orbital outpost. Mission managers are monitoring weather conditions off the coast of Florida and will announce an undocking and splashdown time and date, weather pending, for the foursome inside Endeavour.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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The Expedition 72 crew continued working inside the two SpaceX Dragon spacecraft docked to the International Space Station on Friday. The orbital residents also kept up stem cell research, serviced a  pair of spacesuits, and maintained life support systems at the end of the week.

Three NASA astronauts and one Roscosmos cosmonaut representing NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 are nearing the end of a seven-month mission and are waiting for NASA and SpaceX to announce their return to Earth time and date, pending weather. Dragon Endeavour Commander Matthew Dominick is poised to lead Pilot Mike Barratt with Mission Specialists Jeanette Epps and Alexander Grebenkin back to Earth inside Dragon with a splashdown off the coast of Florida. The quartet has been packing cargo and personal items inside the spacecraft for several days and spent the end of the day Friday reviewing emergency equipment.

The space station’s two newest crew members, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, joined Expedition 72 Commander Suni Williams and Flight Engineer Butch Wilmore inside Dragon Freedom and trained the duo on Dragon operations. Hague also worked with Barratt and NASA Flight Engineer Don Pettit inside Freedom configuring its seats for docked operations.

Stem cell research has been underway aboard the orbital outpost this week using the microgravity environment to learn how to produce advanced cell-based therapies and treat certain blood diseases and cancers. Williams and Epps partnered together processing stem cell samples and peering at them with through a microscope. Researchers are exploring how weightlessness enables stem cells to produce blood and immune cells with superior attributes than those created on Earth.

Wilmore spent his day in the Quest airlock servicing a pair of U.S. spacesuits. The veteran NASA astronaut swapped out components and cleaned cooling loops inside the suits as part of regularly scheduled maintenance.

Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, who have been aboard the orbital lab with Pettit since Sept. 11, split their day with computer maintenance and life support operations. They also joined Gorbunov and recorded a video for educators and students on Earth. Grebenkin inventoried medical gear and tested power supply systems in the Nauka science module.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

Get weekly video highlights at: https://roundupreads.jsc.nasa.gov/videoupdate/

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