Busy Crew Assists Each Other for Space Science and Lab Upkeep

This nighttime photograph shows the Mediterranean Sea ringed by the coastal city lights of Morocco and Algeria on the African side and Spain on the European side.
This nighttime photograph shows the Mediterranean Sea ringed by the coastal city lights of Morocco and Algeria on the African side and Spain on the European side.

The seven-member Expedition 69 crew conducted a wide variety of experimental work on Tuesday including more life science and physics research and installing new science hardware. The maintenance duties aboard the International Space Station included lab stowage work and orbital plumbing tasks.

The station astronauts split their day assisting each other on a host of space research and lab upkeep on Tuesday. NASA Flight Engineer Woody Hoburg began his day swapping samples inside the Microgravity Science Glovebox for a space manufacturing study with help from UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi.

Afterward, Hoburg moved on to support NASA Flight Engineer Stephen Bowen as he loaded the NanoRacks External Platform inside the Kibo laboratory module’s airlock to place science experiments in the harsh environment of outer space. Alneyadi wrapped up his day in the Tranquility module replacing components in the station’s bathroom, also known as the Waste and Hygiene Compartment.

Hoburg would finally end his day in the Quest airlock installing a new overhead stowage platform. Bowen and Alneyadi started the work first removing and transferring the old stowage platform. The platform replacement work increases the equipment stowage volume inside Quest.

NASA astronaut Frank Rubio also worked in Quest at the beginning of the day installing a battery charger and new components that power the spacesuits to sustain astronauts during spacewalks. Rubio ended his day inside Kibo consolidating and stowing hardware making room for upcoming activities planned inside the lab module from JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency).

Heart research was on the Roscosmos work schedule for Flight Engineer Andrey Fedyaev as he attached sensors to himself for a study measuring his cardiac performance in microgravity. Commander Sergey Prokopyev installed and configured hardware to image Earth’s nighttime atmosphere in the ultraviolet wavelength. Flight Engineer Dmitri Petelin started his day checking for leaks between the ISS Progress 84 cargo craft and the Poisk module. In the afternoon, Petelin swapped cargo between Poisk and the Zarya module to accommodate the next Soyuz crew to visit the station in mid-September.


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

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