Tag: Commercial Crew

Station Back to Business Following Crew Departure

From left, crewmates Andrey Fedyaev, Woody Hoburg, Stephen Bowen, and Sultan Alneyadi are pictured inside the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft shortly after returning to Earth on Sept. 4, 2023. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky
From left, crewmates Andrey Fedyaev, Woody Hoburg, Stephen Bowen, and Sultan Alneyadi are pictured inside the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft shortly after returning to Earth on Sept. 4, 2023. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

Four new Expedition 69 flight engineers are in their second week aboard the International Space Station spending more time on microgravity research and lab maintenance. Another trio of station crewmates is nearing one year in space and will soon turn its attention to departure at the end of the month.

Two of the station’s newest new flight engineers, Jasmin Moghbeli from NASA and Satoshi Furukawa from JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), worked Tuesday on the NanoRacks Bishop airlock inside the Tranquility module. The duo inspected cameras and installed components on the commercial doorway that enables larger payloads to be moved inside and outside the station. Earlier, mission controllers had spent about a week maneuvering Bishop in the grips of the Canadarm2 robotic arm for an experiment to measure temperature, vibrations, and radiation on external payload sites.

The other two new crewmates, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov, worked on biomedical science and station upkeep tasks throughout the day. Mogensen spun blood samples in a centrifuge then processed them for incubation to study how cellular immune functions are affected by microgravity. Borisov spent his day on battery maintenance and orbital plumbing duties in the orbital lab’s Roscosmos segment.

NASA Flight Engineer Frank Rubio is nearing 365 continuous days in space along with Commander Sergey Prokopyev and Flight Engineer Dmitri Petelin, both from Roscosmos. The trio, which has been on the station since Sept. 21 of last year, is due to leave the orbital lab at the end of the month inside the Soyuz MS-23 crew ship and parachute to a landing in Kazakhstan.

In the meantime, Rubio worked Tuesday removing and replacing components inside the Cold Atom Lab that chills atoms to extremely low temperatures to observe quantum characteristics. Prokopyev inventoried personal items aboard the station and continued transferring cargo from the Roscosmos Progress 85 resupply ship. Petelin attached electrodes to himself and recorded his heart activity for a cardiac investigation.

Five spacecraft are still parked at the orbital outpost following the undocking on Sunday of the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour with four Commercial Crew members aboard. Dragon Endeavour, commanded by Stephen Bowen and piloted by Woody Hoburg, both from NASA, with Mission Specialists Sultan Alneyadi of UAE (United Arab Emirates) and Andrey Fedyaev from Roscosmos splashed down early the next day off the coast of Florida. The quartet split up soon after reaching shore and headed home to their individual countries.

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 Departs Station for Splashdown Off the Coast of Florida

Sept. 3, 2023: International Space Station Configuration. Five spaceships are parked at the space station including the SpaceX Dragon Endurance, Northrop Grumman's Cygnus space freighter, the Soyuz MS-23 crew ship, and the Progress 84 and 85 resupply ships.
Sept. 3, 2023: International Space Station Configuration. Five spaceships are parked at the space station including the SpaceX Dragon Endurance, Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus space freighter, the Soyuz MS-23 crew ship, and the Progress 84 and 85 resupply ships.

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft with NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, along with UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev  inside undocked from the forward-facing port of the International Space Station’s Harmony module at 7:05 a.m. EDT to complete a  six-month science mission.

NASA coverage of Crew-6’s return will continue with audio only, and full coverage will resume at the start of the splashdown broadcast. Real-time audio between Crew-6 and flight controllers at NASA’s Mission Audio stream will remain available and includes conversations with astronauts aboard the space station and a live video feed from the orbiting laboratory.

NASA TV coverage will resume at 11 p.m. Sunday until Endeavour splashes down at approximately 12:17 a.m. EDT Monday, Sept. 4, near Jacksonville off the coast of Florida and Crew-6 members are recovered.

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission launched March 2, 2023, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and docked to the space station the next day.

More details about the mission and NASA’s commercial crew program can be found by following the commercial crew blog, @commercial_crew and commercial crew on Facebook.

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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Hatch Closed, Dragon Leaving Station Soon Live on NASA TV

The four SpaceX Crew-6 members (from left) Andrey Fedyaev, Woody Hoburg, Stephen Bowen, and Sultan Alnedayi, are pictured inside the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour prior to launching in March. Credit: SpaceX
The four SpaceX Crew-6 members (from left) Andrey Fedyaev, Woody Hoburg, Stephen Bowen, and Sultan Alnedayi, are pictured inside the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour prior to launching in March. Credit: SpaceX

At 5:19 a.m. EDT, the hatch closed between the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, named Endeavour, and the International Space Station in preparation for undocking and return to Earth of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission with NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, along with UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.

NASA Television will air live coverage beginning at 6:45 a.m., for undocking scheduled at 7:05 a.m. Following conclusion of undocking coverage, NASA coverage of Crew-6’s return will continue with audio only, and full coverage will resume at the start of the splashdown broadcast at 11 p.m. Sunday. Real-time audio between Crew-6 and flight controllers at NASA’s Mission Audio stream will remain available.

More details about the mission and NASA’s commercial crew program can be found by following the commercial crew blog, @commercial_crew and commercial crew on Facebook.

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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Four Crewmates Prepare to Leave Station in Dragon Live on NASA TV

From left, are SpaceX Crew-6 Mission Specialist Andrey Fedyaev, Commander Stephen Bowen, Pilot Woody Hoburg, and Mission Specialist Sultan Alneyadi. Credit: SpaceX
From left, are SpaceX Crew-6 Mission Specialist Andrey Fedyaev, Commander Stephen Bowen, Pilot Woody Hoburg, and Mission Specialist Sultan Alneyadi. Credit: SpaceX

Watch live coverage now on NASA TV, the NASA app and the agency’s website as hatch closure and undocking preparations are underway for the return of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission.

NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, along with UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev are in the process of boarding the SpaceX Dragon for departure from the International Space Station.

Crew-6 is targeting a return to Earth at about 12:07 a.m. EDT Monday, Sept. 4, with a splashdown off the coast of Florida. The Dragon spacecraft, named Endeavour, is scheduled to undock from the International Space Station at 7:05 a.m. EDT Sunday, Sept. 3 to begin the journey home.

Dragon will autonomously undock, depart the space station, and splash down off the coast of Florida. Endeavour also will return important and time-sensitive research to 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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Station Unloads New Cargo and Waits One Day for Next Crew

The Moon is pictured above the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Dragon Endurance spacecraft on top at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky
The Moon is pictured above the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Dragon Endurance spacecraft on top at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

The International Space Station welcomed a new cargo craft overnight as mission managers postponed the launch of the SpaceX Crew-7 mission for 24 hours. The Expedition 69 crew members have begun unpacking the new cargo while servicing a variety of science equipment aboard the orbital lab.

Cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin went to bed Friday mid-afternoon after monitoring the Roscosmos Progress 85 resupply ship as it docked to the Zvezda service module’s aft port at 11:45 p.m. EDT on Thursday. The duo worked through leak and pressure checks, opened the Progress 85 hatch, then spent the next several hours offloading some of the nearly three tons of food, fuel, and supplies to replenish the lab residents.

As the Roscosmos resupply ship approached the station, four SpaceX Crew-7 crew members in Florida were informed their launch to join the Expedition 69 crew would wait one more day. Liftoff of the SpaceX Dragon Endurance spacecraft atop the company’s Falcon 9 rocket is now scheduled for 3:27 a.m. EDT on Saturday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Mission managers decided to use the extra day to review Dragon’s safety and life support systems.

Crew-7 Commander Jasmin Moghbeli will lead Pilot Andreas Mogensen of ESA (European Space Agency) and Mission Specialists Satoshi Furukawa of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and Konstantin Borisov of Roscosmos, during their flight to the station. The Commercial Crew quartet aboard Endurance will automatically dock to the Harmony module’s space-facing port at 8:39 a.m. on Sunday. Soon after, the foursome will enter the station, greet the Expedition 69 crew, and begin a six-month microgravity research mission.

Meanwhile, the seven station crew members orbiting Earth are all but ready to welcome their four new crewmates. While the two cosmonauts were wrapping up Progress 85 activities and getting ready for bed, the other five lab residents worked on advanced research hardware and investigated ways to treat heart ailments.

NASA Flight Engineers Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg worked in the Tranquility module preparing the NanoRacks Bishop airlock for its upcoming depressurization and demating. The Canadarm2 robotic arm will grapple and remove Bishop from Tranquility early next week for an experiment to measure temperature, vibrations, and radiation on external payload sites.

UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi stowed hardware and reconfigured the Microgravity Science Glovebox following an investigation to manufacture superior material structures in space. Flight Engineer Frank Rubio of NASA worked in the Kibo laboratory module swapping samples of stem-cell derived heart micro-tissues inside the Life Science Glovebox. Rubio’s research work may help doctors discover new therapies for space-caused cardiac abnormalities and Earth-bound heart diseases.

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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Station Preps for New Cargo, Crew and Avoids Space Debris

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company's Dragon spacecraft on top is seen on the launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida as preparations continue for the launch of the Crew-7 mission. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company’s Dragon spacecraft on top is seen on the launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida as preparations continue for the launch of the Crew-7 mission. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

The Expedition 69 crew will receive a space delivery late Thursday night and just a few hours before a new crew will launch to the International Space Station. While the orbital residents are getting ready for both missions there was still some time for gene therapy research and lab maintenance tasks.

Two cosmonauts, Commander Sergey Prokopyev and Flight Engineer Dmitri Petelin, will be on duty monitoring the Roscosmos Progress 85 cargo craft during its automated docking planned for 11:50 p.m. EDT. During the morning, the duo practiced on the telerobotically operated rendezvous unit, or TORU, to remotely control an arriving spacecraft in the unlikely event the vehicle was unable to automatically dock. The Progress 85 is carrying three tons of food, fuel, and supplies the cosmonaut duo will begin unpacking about two hours after its arrival. The space freighter will remain docked to the Zvezda service module’s aft port for six months of cargo activities.

About 4 hours after the resupply ship’s arrival, the SpaceX Crew-7 mission will launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to the orbital lab. Liftoff of the SpaceX Dragon Endurance spacecraft with four Commercial Crew members atop the company’s Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled for 3:50 a.m. Friday.

Endurance, commanded by NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli with Pilot Andreas Mogensen of ESA (European Space Agency) and Mission Specialists Satoshi Furukawa of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and Konstantin Borisov of Roscosmos, will automatically dock to the Harmony module’s space-facing port at 2:02 a.m. on Saturday. About two hours later the foursome will enter the station, greet the Expedition 69 crew, and begin a six-month microgravity research mission.

Flight Engineers Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, both from NASA, and Sultan Alneyadi from UAE (United Arab Emirates) prepared for Saturday’s Crew-7 arrival configuring the station for four new crew members. Bowen staged emergency equipment in the orbital lab’s U.S. segment that is standard procedure before a new crew arrives. Hoburg set up a new crew quarters in the Columbus laboratory module. Alneyadi configured computers inside the cupola that will monitor Dragon Endurance’s arrival on Saturday morning.

While the mission preparations were underway, NASA Flight Engineer Frank Rubio focused his time on biotechnology research. He treated cell samples to seek ways to closely mimic the human central nervous system and brain environment for the Neuronix investigation. Results may provide paths for researchers to discover new therapies treating neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

On Thursday, Aug. 24, the International Space Station’s Zvezda service module engines were fired for 21.5 seconds, beginning at 11 a.m. EDT to maneuver the complex away from the predicted track of an orbital debris fragment. The maneuver will not affect the rendezvous of the Roscosmos Progress 85 cargo vessel or the launch of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 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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Cardiac, Digestion Research Ahead of Space Delivery and New Crew

The seven-member Expedition 69 crew gather for a portrait. Clockwise from left are, Woody Hoburg, Dmitri Petelin, Sergey Prokopyev, Frank Rubio, Stephen Bowen, Sultan Alneyadi and Andrey Fedyaev.
The seven-member Expedition 69 crew gathers for a portrait. Clockwise from left are, Woody Hoburg, Dmitri Petelin, Sergey Prokopyev, Frank Rubio, Stephen Bowen, Sultan Alneyadi and Andrey Fedyaev.

A cargo craft is orbiting Earth today heading toward the International Space Station as the seven Expedition 69 crew members studied how weightlessness affects cardiac tissue and the digestive system. Meanwhile, a new crew counts down to its launch early Friday.

Three tons of space supplies are packed aboard the Roscosmos Progress 85 cargo craft and on the way to the orbital residents for a delivery scheduled at 11:50 p.m. EDT on Thursday. Station commander Sergey Prokopyev and Flight Engineer Dmitri Petelin will be on duty Thursday night monitoring the Progress 85 when it automatically docks to the Zvezda service module’s aft port. The duo will wait about two hours during standard leak and pressure checks before opening the resupply ship’s hatch and begin unpacking the new food, fuel, and other cargo.

While the cargo activities get underway, the SpaceX Crew-7 mission will launch at 3:50 a.m. on Friday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Four Commercial Crew astronauts will be seated inside the SpaceX Dragon Endurance spacecraft atop the company’s Falcon 9 rocket awaiting a 24-hour trip to their new home in space.

NASA astronaut and Crew-7 Commander Jasmin Moghbeli will be leading Pilot Andreas Mogensen of ESA (European Space Agency) and Mission Specialists Satoshi Furukawa of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and Konstantin Borisov of Roscosmos aboard Endurance during the ride to the station. Endurance, with the quartet inside, will automatically dock to the Harmony module’s space-facing port at 2:02 a.m. on Saturday. The foursome will open the hatch about two hours later, enter the station, greet the Expedition 69 crew, and begin a six-month microgravity research mission.

Meanwhile, the crewmates living in space explored how microgravity affects cardiac cells and the digestive system to benefit humans living on and off the Earth. NASA Flight Engineers Frank Rubio and Woody Hoburg treated samples of stem-cell derived heart micro-tissues on Wednesday in the Kibo laboratory module. The Project EAGLE biology study takes place in Kibo’s Life Science Glovebox and may reveal potential therapies for space-caused cardiac abnormalities and Earth-bound heart diseases.

Prokopyev and Petelin started the day with ultrasound scans after breakfast to observe how the digestive system adapts to weightlessness. Prokopyev then partnered with Flight Engineer Andrey Fedyaev in the afternoon for more tests of the lower body negative pressure suit that may help crew members readjust to Earth’s gravity environment.

Fedyaev will be returning to Earth soon with Hoburg and astronauts Stephen Bowen of NASA and Sultan Alneyadi of UAE (United Arab Emirates). The quartet will enter the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft one week after Crew-7 arrives, undock from Harmony’s forward port, and splashdown off the coast of Florida to complete a six-month space mission. During Wednesday afternoon, the four crewmates inspected their SpaceX pressure suits they will wear inside Endeavour when they depart the station for the ride back to 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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Cargo Mission Launches Tonight, SpaceX Crew-7 Lifts Off Friday

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket engines fired for 6 seconds as part of the pre-launch static fire test on Tuesday prior to the launch of the SpaceX Crew-7 mission scheduled for 3:49 a.m. on Friday. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket engines fired for 6 seconds as part of the pre-launch static fire test on Tuesday prior to the launch of the SpaceX Crew-7 mission scheduled for 3:49 a.m. on Friday. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

Two rockets on opposite sides of the world will launch to the International Space Station delivering cargo and a new crew this week. The first spaceship will launch from Kazakhstan Tuesday night hauling supplies to replenish the Expedition 69 crew. The second will launch from Florida sending four new crew members to the orbital lab.

The Roscosmos Progress 85 cargo craft is counting down to a launch at 9:08 p.m. EDT tonight from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It will orbit Earth for two days before docking to the aft port of the Zvezda service module at 11:50 p.m. on Thursday. A few hours later on Friday, cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin will open Progress 85’s hatches and begin unpacking about three tons of food, fuel, and supplies.

Four Commercial Crew astronauts were suited up inside the SpaceX Dragon Endurance spacecraft at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida overnight for their dry dress launch countdown. A few hours later, the Falcon 9 engines fired for 6 seconds as part of the pre-launch static fire test. SpaceX Crew-7 is slated to launch at 3:49 a.m. on Friday.

Crew-7 Commander Jasmin Moghbeli of NASA will lead Pilot Andreas Mogensen of ESA (European Space Agency), and Mission Specialists Satoshi Furukawa of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and Konstantin Borisov of Roscosmos during their ride to the orbital lab. The quartet, inside the Endurance, will dock to the Harmony module’s space-facing port at 2:02 a.m. on Saturday beginning a six-month space research mission.

Back aboard the orbital outpost on Tuesday, the seven crewmates from the U.S., UAE (United Arab Emirates), and Russia stayed focused on microgravity research and lab maintenance.

NASA Flight Engineers Frank Rubio and Stephen Bowen swapped out hardware inside the Fluids Integrated Rack for a boiling and condensation study that may improve thermal systems on Earth and in space. Rubio earlier joined UAE astronaut Sultan Alneyadi organizing cargo inside the Northrop Grumman Cygnus space freighter. Bowen began his day cleaning crew quarters ventilation systems and checking airflow sensors. Flight Engineer Woody Hoburg of NASA also assisted with the Cygnus work before configuring the Tranquility module’s Bishop airlock ahead of its depressurization.

Prokopyev attached sensors to himself for a long-running Roscosmos heart study during the morning. He later joined Petelin for ultrasound scans to observe how the digestive system adapts to weightlessness. Roscosmos Flight Engineer Andrey Fedyaev worked on orbital plumbing tasks inside the Nauka science module.

At the end of the day, Fedyaev joined Bowen, Hoburg, and Alneyadi to prepare for their upcoming departure on Sept. 1 inside the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft and splashdown off the coast of Florida about 24 hours later. The quartet called down to ground specialists and discussed spacecraft operations during their return to 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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Station Kicks Off Week Prepping for Cargo and Crew Missions

The four SpaceX Crew-7 members pose for a portrait in their pressure suits. From left are, Jasmin Moghbeli, Andreas Mogensen, Satoshi Furukawa, and Konstantin Borisov. Credit: SpaceX
The four SpaceX Crew-7 members pose for a portrait in their pressure suits. From left are, Jasmin Moghbeli, Andreas Mogensen, Satoshi Furukawa, and Konstantin Borisov. Credit: SpaceX

The Expedition 69 crew is gearing up for cargo and crew vehicles headed to the International Space Station this week. The seven orbital residents are also continuing critical space research while preparing for September’s crew departure activities.

An extra port on the orbital outpost is open following the departure of the Roscosmos Progress 83 cargo craft on Sunday. It will be replaced by the Roscosmos Progress 85 cargo craft after it launches at 9:08 p.m. EDT on Tuesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Progress 85 will dock at 11:50 p.m. on Thursday to the port left vacant by the Progress 83 on the aft end of the Zvezda service module.

Commander Sergey Prokopyev joined Flight Engineer Dmitri Petelin on Monday training for the 85P’s arrival. The duo from Roscosmos practiced using the telerobotically operated rendezvous unit, or TORU, located in Zvezda. A cosmonaut would use the TORU to remotely control an arriving spacecraft in the unlikely event the approaching vehicle was unable to automatically dock.

Four Commercial Crew members are at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center counting down to their launch to the orbital lab at 3:49 a.m. EDT on Friday. NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli will command SpaceX Crew-7 Pilot Andreas Mogensen of ESA (European Space Agency), and Mission Specialists Satoshi Furukawa of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and Konstantin Borisov of Roscosmos during their ride to the orbital lab. The quartet, inside the SpaceX Dragon Endurance spacecraft, will dock to the Harmony module’s space-facing port at 2:02 a.m. on Saturday.

One week after the arrival of the SpaceX Crew-7 mission, four Expedition 69 crewmates will return to Earth aboard the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft. NASA astronaut Stephen Bowen will lead Woody Hoburg of NASA, Sultan Alneyadi of UAE (United Arab Emirates), and Andrey Fedyaev of Roscosmos when they undock from Harmony’s forward port in Endeavour on Sept. 1 and splash down off the coast of Florida about 24 hours later.

The soon-to-be departing quartet reviewed their departure activities and Dragon deorbit procedures on computer tablets at the end of the day on Monday. Bowen, Hoburg, and Alneyadi also tried on specialized garments, also known as orthostatic intolerance garments, that will help their bodies re-adapt to Earth’s gravity shortly after returning. The foursome launched to the station as the SpaceX Crew-6 mission on March 2, docked the following day, entered the station, and became Expedition 68-69 flight engineers.

Petelin and Fedyaev tested their own version of a suit, called the lower body negative pressure suit, that helps crew members readjust to Earth’s gravity environment. The cosmonauts are evaluating the unique suit for its potential to redistribute fluids that have pooled in the upper body, due to microgravity, toward the lower body.

Even amid the upcoming mission activities, microgravity science was underway aboard the orbital lab. NASA Flight Engineer Frank Rubio worked on science hardware throughout Monday, first reconfiguring the Cell Biology Experiment Facility, a biology research incubator. Afterward, he swapped out more graphene aerogel samples in the Microgravity Science Glovebox for a space manufacturing study. Alneyadi set up the Neuronix gene therapy study in the Life Science Glovebox to begin exploring potential therapies for diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

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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Cargo, Research Work Ongoing as Commercial Crew Missions Announced

UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi poses with a free-flying AstroBee robotic helper inside the space station's Kibo laboratory module.
UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi poses with a free-flying AstroBee robotic helper inside the space station’s Kibo laboratory module.

The Expedition 69 crew members continue unpacking the SpaceX Dragon resupply ship in the midst of human research and pharmaceutical studies aboard the International Space Station. NASA and its commercial crew partners have also announced upcoming missions to the station.

Flight Engineers Frank Rubio of NASA and Sultan Alneyadi of UAE (United Arab Emirates) took turns working inside the SpaceX Dragon cargo craft on Thursday. The duo has been offloading some of the 6,200 pounds new research gear and crew supplies packed inside the Cargo Dragon. The U.S. commercial space freighter will remain docked to the Harmony module’s forward port until mid-April when it will return to Earth filled with completed science experiments and other cargo for retrieval and analysis.

Rubio started his day pedaling on the station’s exercise bike while attached to sensors to measure his aerobic capacity in microgravity. Afterward, he performed research work in the Columbus laboratory module to understand how the different gravity levels of the Moon, Mars, and beyond may affect the biomanufacturing of pharmaceuticals.

Alneyadi’s first task of the day was to install an incubator in the Kibo laboratory module and later activate it in the afternoon. He also collected surface samples throughout the space station for microbial analysis back on Earth.

Station Commander Sergey Prokopyev was joined by Rubio and Roscosmos Flight Engineer Dmitri Petelin during the morning checking their Soyuz launch and entry suits for leaks. Prokopyev and Petelin then tested communications with the ISS Progress 83 cargo craft docked to the Zvezda service module’s rear port. Flight Engineer Andrey Fedyaev worked throughout Thursday on computer maintenance and orbital plumbing tasks.

NASA and Boeing now are targeting no earlier than Friday, July 21, for the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test (CFT) to the International Space Station, pending coordination for the U.S Eastern Range availability. The new target date provides NASA and Boeing the necessary time to complete subsystem verification testing and close out test flight certification products and aligns with the space station manifest and range launch opportunities.

NASA and SpaceX are targeting mid-August for the launch of Crew-7, the next rotational mission to the International Space Station.

Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus space freighter attached to the Unity module’s Earth-facing port fired its engines today for over 15 minutes today boosting the station’s orbit. The orbital reboost is the first of three that is positioning the orbiting lab for the upcoming launch and docking of the ISS Progress 84 cargo craft planned for late May. The maneuver also continues the certification process for using the Cygnus vehicle as an additional reboost capability.

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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