Crew-8 Awaits Splashdown; Expedition 72 Stays Focused on Science

The SpaceX Dragon Freedom spacecraft is pictured through the window of the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft with a vivid green and pink aurora below.
The SpaceX Dragon Freedom spacecraft is pictured through the window of the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft with a vivid green and pink aurora below.

Four International Space Station crew members continue waiting for their departure date as mission managers monitor weather conditions off the coast of Florida. The rest of the Expedition 72 crew on Monday stayed focused on space biology and lab maintenance aboard the orbital outpost.

NASA and SpaceX mission managers are watching unfavorable weather conditions off the Florida coast right now for the splashdown of the SpaceX Crew-8 mission with NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Mike Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin. The homebound quartet spent Monday mostly relaxing while also continuing departure preps. In the meantime, mission teams are awaiting the next weather briefing scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 16,  at 11 a.m. EDT, and are currently targeting Dragon Endeavour’s undocking for no earlier than 3:05 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 18. The Crew-8 foursome is in the seventh month of their space research mission that began on March 3.

The other seven orbital residents will stay aboard the orbital outpost until early 2025. NASA astronaut Don Pettit is scheduled to return to Earth first in February with Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner aboard the Soyuz MS-26 crew ship. Next, station Commander Suni Williams and Flight Engineer Butch Wilmore are targeted to return home aboard SpaceX Dragon Freedom with SpaceX Crew-9 Commander Nick Hague, all three NASA astronauts, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.

Williams had a light duty day on Monday disassembling life support gear before working out for a cardio fitness study. Wilmore installed a new oxygen recharge tank and began transferring oxygen into tanks located in the Quest airlock. Hague collected his blood and saliva samples for incubation and cold stowage to learn how microgravity affects cellular immunity. Pettit also had a light duty day servicing biology hardware including the Cell Biology Experiment Facility, a research incubator with an artificial gravity generator, and the BioLab, which supports observations of microbes, cells, tissue cultures and more.

In the Roscosmos segment of the orbital outpost, Flight Engineer Alexey Ovchinin started his day on electronics maintenance before disconnecting and stowing student-controlled Earth observation hardware. Flight Engineers Ivan Vagner and Alexander Grebenkin spent their day cleaning smoke detectors, filling an oxygen generator with condensate water, and servicing ventilation systems. Flight Engineer Aleksander Gorbunov started his day with a computer test measuring his adaptation to weightlessness then spent the rest of his shift photographing crew activities for documentation.

The first flight of Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser to the International Space Station is now scheduled for no earlier than May 2025 to allow for completion of spacecraft testing. Dream Chaser, which will launch atop a ULA (United Launch Alliance) Vulcan rocket and later glide to a runway landing at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, will carry cargo to the orbiting laboratory and stay on board for approximately 45 days on its first mission.

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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Dragon Operations Underway During Advanced Biology Studies

NASA astronauts (from left) Matthew Dominick and Mike Barratt are pictured wearing their SpaceX Crew-8 mission patch inside the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft.
NASA astronauts (from left) Matthew Dominick and Mike Barratt are pictured wearing their SpaceX Crew-8 mission patch inside the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft.

Dragon spacecraft operations were underway aboard the International Space Station on Friday as four crew members prepare to return to Earth and another quartet prepares to swap docking ports. Meanwhile, microgravity science continued apace as the Expedition 72 crew explored how weightlessness affects stem cells, plant growth, and equilibrium.

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission is about to complete a seven-month mission aboard the orbital outpost that began on March 3. The homebound quartet, with NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Mike Barratt, and Jeanette Epps and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, completed final reviews on Friday for their departure aboard the Dragon Endeavour spacecraft targeted for Sunday at 6:05 a.m. EDT.

NASA+ will stream Crew-8’s hatch closing and undocking from the Harmony module’s space-facing port beginning at 4 a.m. on Sunday. NASA+ will also start its live coverage of Crew-8’s return to Earth at 2:30 p.m. on Monday before Dragon splashes down at 3:38 p.m., pending weather. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.

The most recent Dragon spacecraft to visit the orbital outpost, Freedom, will switch docking ports a few days after Endeavour competes its mission. Crew-9 Commander Nick Hague from NASA will lead NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore along with cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov aboard Freedom during the quick ride from Harmony’s forward port to the port vacated by Crew-8. The foursome spent about an hour on Friday training for their relocation activities. NASA+ will cover the relocation activities live when mission managers finalize a time and date for Dragon’s port switch.

The Dragon crew members are still a part of the 11-member Expedition 72 crew and kept up their advanced space research activities on Friday helping NASA and its international partners keep humans healthy on and off the Earth. Williams and Wilmore serviced stem cell samples for microscope operations to learn how to treat blood diseases and cancers. Dominick and Epps were back on space botany research investigating how plants absorb water in space to support self-sufficient missions farther away from Earth. Barratt uninstalled and stowed hardware that enabled observations of how plants grow in the microgravity and radiation environment. Finally, Hague joined NASA Flight Engineer Don Pettit, who arrived at the orbiting lab aboard the Soyuz MS-26 crew ship, for eye scans with the Ultrasound 2 device.

The two cosmonauts who launched to space with Pettit, Flight Engineers Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, took turns exploring how the lack of gravity affects their sense of balance, vision, and other sensory cues. The pair attached sensors near their eyes and ears and wore virtual reality goggles that tracked their eye movements to improve astronaut training and adaptation and promote therapies for patients on Earth.

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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NASA to Provide Live Coverage of Crew-8 Return, Splashdown

Members of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 from right to left, NASA astronauts Jeanette Epps, mission specialist; Matthew Dominick, commander; Michael Barratt, pilot; and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, mission specialist; will splash down off the coast of Florida no earlier than Sunday, Oct. 13. Photo credit: SpaceX

NASA and SpaceX are targeting no earlier than 7:05 a.m. EDT Sunday, Oct. 13, for the agency’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission to undock from the International Space Station. Pending weather conditions, the earliest splashdown time is targeted for 3:38 p.m. Monday, Oct. 14, at one of the multiple zones available off the coast of Florida.

NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, are completing a seven-month science expedition aboard the orbiting laboratory and will return important and time-sensitive research to Earth.

Mission managers continue monitoring weather conditions in the area, as Dragon’s undocking depends on various factors, including spacecraft readiness, recovery team readiness, weather, sea states, and other factors. NASA will select a specific splashdown time and location closer to the Crew-8 spacecraft undocking.

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Station Keeps Up Biology Studies as Crew-8 Nears Departure

The SpaceX Crew-8 members say farewell to the Expedition 72 crew as they prepare for return to Earth. In the front row from left are, Alexander Grebenkin, Mike Barratt, Matthew Dominick, and Jeanette Epps. In the back row are, Butch Wilmore, Nick Hague, Don Pettit, Alexey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner, Aleksandr Gorbunov, and Suni Williams. Credit: NASA TV
The SpaceX Crew-8 members say farewell to the Expedition 72 crew as they prepare for return to Earth. In the front row from left are, Alexander Grebenkin, Mike Barratt, Matthew Dominick, and Jeanette Epps. In the back row are, Butch Wilmore, Nick Hague, Don Pettit, Alexey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner, Aleksandr Gorbunov, and Suni Williams. Credit: NASA TV

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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Crew Studies Exercise, Veins, and Plants Before Quartet’s Farewell

The four SpaceX Crew-8 members are pictured aboard the space station. From top to bottom are, NASA astronauts Jeanette Epps, Mike Barratt, and Matthew Dominick, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin.
The four SpaceX Crew-8 members are pictured aboard the space station. From top to bottom are, NASA astronauts Jeanette Epps, Mike Barratt, and Matthew Dominick, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin.

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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Relaxation, Science, and Maintenance as Crew Departure Preps Continue

The aurora australis blends with Earth's atmospheric glow blanketing the nighttime horizon in this photograph from the space station as it orbited above the Pacific Ocean.
The aurora australis blends with Earth’s atmospheric glow blanketing the nighttime horizon in this photograph from the space station as it orbited above the Pacific Ocean.

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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Biology, Physics Research Fill Schedule as Crew Awaits Departure

Category 5 Hurricane Milton, packing winds of 175 miles per hour, is viewed in the Gulf of Mexico from the space station as it orbited overhead. Credit: NASA TV
Category 5 Hurricane Milton, packing winds of 175 miles per hour, is viewed in the Gulf of Mexico from the space station as it orbited overhead. Credit: NASA TV

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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Dragon Operations Continue During Stem Cell Research on Station

The 11-member Expedition 72 crew poses for a portrait inside Harmony module. In the front (from left) are, Butch Wilmore, Nick Hague, Matthew Dominick, Aleksandr Gorbunov, and Suni Williams. In the back are, Jeanette Epps, Aleksandr Grebenkin, Mike Barratt, Ivan Vagner, Don Pettit, and Alexey Ovchinin.
The 11-member Expedition 72 crew poses for a portrait inside Harmony module. In the front (from left) are, Butch Wilmore, Nick Hague, Matthew Dominick, Aleksandr Gorbunov, and Suni Williams. In the back are, Jeanette Epps, Aleksandr Grebenkin, Mike Barratt, Ivan Vagner, Don Pettit, and Alexey Ovchinin.

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.

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Ongoing Crew Return Preps and Biology, Earth Science Top Crew’s Day

The four SpaceX Crew-8 members are pictured during pre-flight training in January inside the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Credit: SpaceX
The four SpaceX Crew-8 members are pictured during pre-flight training in January inside the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Credit: SpaceX

Dragon configurations topped the schedule once again on Thursday as four Expedition 72 crewmates target a return to Earth next week. Meanwhile, critical space research and lab maintenance filled the rest of the day for the International Space Station’s orbital residents.

The SpaceX Crew-8 mission that began with a launch to the orbital outpost on March 3 is coming to an end and its four crew members will share their farewell message at 9:55 a.m. EDT on Sunday live on NASA+. NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Mike Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin will return to Earth aboard SpaceX Dragon Endeavour next week on a date soon to be announced by NASA and SpaceX officials. The Commercial Crew quartet is completing a six-and-a-month space residency that saw dozens of science investigations promoting advanced therapies, technology demonstrations, and more benefitting humans on and off the Earth.

Dominick spent Thursday inside Dragon Endeavour checking seat configurations and synchronizing computer tablets with SpaceX networks ahead of Earth return. Barratt joined NASA Flight Engineer Nick Hague inside Dragon Freedom, docked adjacent to Endeavour on the Harmony module, and set up the spacecraft with standard emergency hardware.

Hague’s SpaceX Crew-9 crewmate, Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, kicked off his shift setting up hardware to monitor Earth’s nighttime atmosphere in near-ultraviolet wavelengths. Later, the first-time space flyer studied space station systems and procedures then serviced an oxygen generator

Epps and Grebenkin have also been preparing for the ride back to Earth. Epps packed personal items and cargo inside Dragon. Grebenkin completed testing the Roscosmos-designed lower body negative pressure suit that may speed up a crew member’s adjustment to Earth’s gravity.

Expedition 72 Commander Suni Williams, who will be staying in space until February 2025, began her day with a cognition test measuring how microgravity affects characteristics such as memory, attention, reasoning, and more to ensure safe and successful space missions. Afterward, she assembled stem cell research hardware in the Life Science Glovebox then installed new wireless hardware aboard Harmony.

NASA Flight Engineer Butch Wilmore, who will return to Earth with Williams, documented his meals for the day in a nutrition tracker. Afterward, he assisted with cargo packing inside the homebound Dragon Endeavour.

NASA astronaut Don Pettit and his Soyuz MS-26 crewmates, cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner had their day full of science maintenance and health research. Pettit, on his fourth spaceflight, swapped gas bottles inside research hardware that explores how fires spread in weightlessness to improve fire safety in space. Ovchinin and Vagner paired up for blood pressure measurements and hearing exams helping inform doctors how living in microgravity affects humans.

On Friday at 11 a.m., NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson will discuss on NASA+ her recently completed mission aboard the orbiting lab. She launched to the station on March 23 and returned to Earth aboard the Soyuz MS-25 crew ship with cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub on Sept. 23.

Dragon Operations and Space Science Fill Station’s Midweek Schedule

The city lights of central Asia and an aurora crowning Earth's horizon are pictured from the International Space Station as it orbited above western Kazakhstan.
The city lights of central Asia and an aurora crowning Earth’s horizon are pictured from the International Space Station as it orbited above western Kazakhstan.

Dragon spacecraft operations are underway aboard the International Space Station as a new crew gets up to speed with life in microgravity and another crew turns its attention toward returning to Earth. Amid the crew swap activities, advanced space biology research continued apace on Wednesday exploring unique phenomena impossible to achieve in Earth’s gravity environment.

New Expedition 72 Flight Engineer Nick Hague spent his day with fellow flight engineers Matthew Dominick and Mike Barratt readying the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft for its upcoming return to Earth. The three NASA astronauts reconfigured seats inside Dragon setting it up for a four-person crew and transferred standard emergency gear back into the spacecraft.

Dominick and Barratt, SpaceX Crew-8’s commander and pilot respectively, are getting ready to fly back to Earth with Mission Specialists Jeanette Epps of NASA and Alexander Grebenkin of Roscosmos. Officials from NASA and SpaceX will soon announce the date and time of Endeavour’s undocking from the Harmony module’s forward port and its splashdown off the coast of Florida. Before Crew-8 departs, the foursome will provide farewell remarks at 9:55 a.m. EDT on Sunday live on NASA+ and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.

Veteran NASA Flight Engineer Don Pettit, who arrived at the station on Sept. 11, worked in Harmony exploring the genetic risks space travelers face by analyzing and amplifying RNA samples. Observations may help doctors identify mechanisms that lead to a variety of diseases and improve the diagnosis of illnesses both on Earth and in space. Commander Suni Williams cleaned the inside of the Life Science Glovebox following earlier stem cell research promoting therapies for certain blood diseases and cancers. NASA Flight Engineer Butch Wilmore refilled the Columbus laboratory module’s Human Research Facility with medicine, blood kits, and needles.

Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, who docked to the orbital outpost with Hague aboard the SpaceX Dragon Freedom on Sept. 29, partnered with Grebenkin who trained him to use the European robotic arm. Gorbunov also continued familiarizing himself with station operations then installed Earth observation hardware in the Nauka science module to image the atmosphere in ultraviolet wavelengths. Grebenkin installed more Earth monitoring gear to obtain visible and near infrared imagery of landmarks in the Amazon, Portugal, and Germany.

New station flight engineers, Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, who began their mission with Pettit aboard the Soyuz MS-26 crew ship, split their day on Roscosmos research and lab maintenance. Ovchinin joined Grebenkin setting up the Earth monitoring gear and also serviced carbon dioxide removal hardware. Vagner worked on routine upkeep of the Zvezda service module’s 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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