Soyuz – Space Station

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.

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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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.

Williams Leads Station as Crew Swap Operations Continue

NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore make pizza aboard the International Space Station's galley located inside the Unity module. — NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore make pizza aboard the International Space Station’s galley located inside the Unity module.

Expedition 72 is officially underway with NASA astronaut Suni Williams as its commander aboard the International Space Station. Meanwhile, the nine orbital residents are awaiting more visitors while also preparing for the next crew departure.

Williams took command of the orbital outpost when NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson and Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub undocked from the Prichal docking module at 4:36 a.m. EDT on Monday. The trio inside the Soyuz MS-25 crew ship parachuted to a landing in Kazakhstan at 7:59 a.m. EDT (4:59 p.m. Kazakhstan time).

Williams, who arrived at the station with NASA Flight Engineer Butch Wilmore on June 6, will lead orbital outpost operations until February when she and Wilmore are scheduled to return to Earth with the SpaceX Crew-9 members aboard the Dragon spacecraft. Williams was busy Tuesday readying standard emergency equipment ahead of Crew-9’s upcoming arrival. Wilmore explored how specialized substances gel and coarsen possibly leading to advancements in the pharmaceutical, food, and 3D printing industries.

NASA and SpaceX teams have adjusted the next launch opportunity for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission to no earlier than 1:17 p.m. EDT, Saturday, Sept. 28, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida due to expected tropical storm conditions in the area. The change allows teams to complete a rehearsal of launch day activities Tuesday night with the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket, which rolled to Space Launch Complex-40 earlier in the day. Following rehearsal activities, the integrated system will move back to the hangar ahead of any potential storm activity.

Although Tropical Storm Helene is moving through the Gulf of Mexico and expected to impact the Florida panhandle, the storm system is large enough that high winds and heavy rain are expected in the Cape Canaveral and Merritt Island regions on Florida’s east coast.

NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov are to launch aboard the Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station on what will be the ninth crew rotation mission with SpaceX under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. They will conduct research and perform maintenance activities during their five-month mission. The mission is launch from Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

In the meantime, the SpaceX Crew-8 mission, which has been aboard the station since March 5, is getting ready to end its stay in early October. NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick and Mike Barratt, the Commander and Pilot respectively of Crew-8’s Dragon Endeavour, reviewed spacecraft systems and packed personal items and other cargo throughout Tuesday. Dominick also trained for the upcoming rendezvous and docking of the Crew-9 mission.

Also returning with Crew-8 is NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov. However, Epps focused on an advanced life support experiment on Tuesday swapping out hardware on a device that may inform the future design of water and urine processors in different gravity environments. Grebenkin tried on the Roscosmos-designed lower body negative pressure suit with assistance from fellow cosmonaut Ivan Vagner. The suit may alleviate space-caused head and eye pressure symptoms and help crews adjust quicker to the return to Earth’s gravity.

Vagner is continuing to get up to speed with space station systems since his arrival with cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and astronaut Don Pettit on Sept. 11. He and Ovchinin spent some time on Tuesday getting familiar with operations aboard the orbital outpost. Pettit worked out on the advanced resistive exercise device as cameras and a motion capture system monitored his form. Observations may inform unique microgravity workouts to keep astronauts fit and healthy on long-term missions farther away from 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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Soyuz Lands Returning Dyson, Two Crewmates Back to Earth

The Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft lands in Kazakhstan at 7:59 a.m. EDT Monday, Sept. 23. Credit: NASA

At 7:59 a.m. EDT (4:59 p.m. Kazakhstan time), the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft made a parachute-assisted landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan, southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan.

Spanning 184 days in space, NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson’s mission includes covering 2,944 orbits of the Earth and a journey of 78 million miles. The Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft launched March 23, and arrived at the station March 25, with Dyson, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, and spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus. Novitskiy and Vasilevskaya were aboard the station for 12 days before returning home with NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara on April 6.

Roscosmos cosmonauts Nikolai Chub and Oleg Kononenko, who launched with O’Hara to the station on the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft last September, returned after 374 days in space and a trip of 158.6 million miles, spanning 5,984 orbits.

Dyson spent her third spaceflight aboard the station as an Expedition 70 and 71 flight engineer, and returned with Kononenko, completing his fifth flight into space and accruing an all-time record 1,111 days in orbit, and Chub, who completed his first spaceflight.

The three crew members will fly on a helicopter from the landing site to the recovery staging city of Karaganda, Kazakhstan. Dyson will board a NASA plane and return to Houston, while Kononenko and Chub will depart for a training base in Star City, Russia.

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 Astronaut Tracy C. Dyson and Crewmates Returning to Earth Live on NASA+

Individual pre-flight crew portraits of NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson and Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub wearing their Soyuz launch and landing suits.

NASA’s live return coverage is underway on NASA+ and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.

The Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft, with NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson and Roscosmos cosmonauts Nikolai Chub and Oleg Kononenko, will make a parachute-assisted landing at 7:59 a.m. (4:59 p.m. Kazakhstan time) on the steppe of Kazakhstan, southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan. The spacecraft will execute its deorbit burn at 7:05 a.m.

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 updates from NASA Johnson Space Center at: https://roundupreads.jsc.nasa.gov/

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Soyuz Spacecraft Undocks, Three Crew Members Headed Back to Earth

The Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft undocks from the International Space Station's Prichal module. Credit: NASA — The Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft undocks from the International Space Station’s Prichal module. Credit: NASA

At 4:36 a.m. EDT, the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft undocked from the orbiting laboratory’s Prichal module with NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson and Roscosmos cosmonauts Nikolai Chub and Oleg Kononenko.

NASA’s live coverage of deorbit burn, entry, and landing will begin at 6:45 a.m. on NASA+ and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.

The spacecraft will make a parachute-assisted landing at 7:59 a.m. (4:59 p.m. Kazakhstan time) on the steppe of Kazakhstan, southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan.

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 updates from NASA Johnson Space Center at: https://roundupreads.jsc.nasa.gov/

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Trio Departing Space Station Soon Live on NASA+

Expedition 71 crew members (from left) Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, both Roscosmos cosmonauts, and NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson pose for a portrait inside the International Space Station's Rassvet module. — Expedition 71 crew members (from left) Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, both Roscosmos cosmonauts, and NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson pose for a portrait inside the International Space Station’s Rassvet module.

NASA’s live coverage of undocking is now underway on NASA+ and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.

At 1:02 a.m. EDT, hatches between the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft and the International Space Station closed in preparation for undocking and return to Earth of NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson and Roscosmos cosmonauts Nikolai Chub and Oleg Kononenko.

The spacecraft will undock from the orbiting laboratory’s Prichal module at 4:36 a.m., heading for a parachute-assisted landing at 7:59 a.m. (4:59 p.m. Kazakhstan time) on the steppe of Kazakhstan, southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan.

NASA will provide coverage of deorbit burn, entry, and landing at 6:45 a.m. on NASA+ and the agency’s website.

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 updates from NASA Johnson Space Center at: https://roundupreads.jsc.nasa.gov/

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Soyuz Hatch Closed, Trio Prepares to Undock From Station

NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson is pictured inside the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft ahead of hatch closure on Sept. 23. Credit: NASA

At 1:02 a.m. EDT, the hatch closed between the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft and the International Space Station in preparation for undocking and return to Earth.

NASA will provide live undocking coverage at 4 a.m. on NASA+ and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.

NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson, accompanied by Roscosmos cosmonauts Nikolai Chub and Oleg Kononenko, will undock from the orbiting laboratory’s Prichal module at 4:37 a.m., heading for a parachute-assisted landing at 8 a.m. (5 p.m. Kazakhstan time) on the steppe of Kazakhstan, southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan.

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 updates from NASA Johnson Space Center at: https://roundupreads.jsc.nasa.gov/

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Live NASA Coverage Underway of Soyuz Crew Farewell and Hatch Closure

An aurora radiates brightly above the Indian Ocean in this photograph from the International Space Station as it soared 270 miles above the Earth's surface and about 1,280 miles southwest of Perth, Australia. In the foreground, is the Soyuz MS-25 crew ship docked to the Prichal docking module which is itself attached to the Nauka science module. — The Soyuz MS-25 crew ship is pictured docked to the Prichal docking module as an aurora radiates brightly above the Indian Ocean.

NASA’s live departure coverage is underway on NASA+ and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.

NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson and Roscosmos cosmonauts Nikolai Chub and Oleg Kononenko will close the hatch between the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft and the International Space Station at 1:05 a.m. EDT Monday, Sept. 23.

The spacecraft will undock from the orbiting laboratory’s Prichal module at 4:37 a.m. to begin the journey back to Earth, heading for a parachute-assisted landing at 8 a.m. (5 p.m. Kazakhstan time) on the steppe of Kazakhstan, southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan.

NASA will provide live undocking coverage at 4 a.m. on NASA+ and the agency’s website.

Spanning 184 days in space, Dyson’s mission includes covering 2,944 orbits of the Earth and a journey of 78 million miles. The Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft launched March 23, and arrived at the station March 25, with Dyson, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, and spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus. Novitskiy and Vasilevskaya were aboard the station for 12 days before returning home with NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara on April 6.

Kononenko and Chub, who launched with O’Hara to the station on the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft last September, will return after 374 days in space and a trip of 158.6 million miles, spanning 5,984 orbits.

Dyson spent her fourth spaceflight aboard the station as an Expedition 70 and 71 flight engineer, and departs with Kononenko, completing his fifth flight into space and accruing an all-time record 1,111 days in orbit, and Chub, who completed his first spaceflight.

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 updates from NASA Johnson Space Center at: https://roundupreads.jsc.nasa.gov/

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Space Science Advancing Health as Two Crews Near Station Departure

In this photograph from 2009, the sun sets below Earth's horizon illuminating the atmosphere as the space station orbited above the Indian Ocean coast of South Africa. — In this photograph from 2009, the sun sets below Earth’s horizon illuminating the atmosphere as the space station orbited above the Indian Ocean coast of South Africa.

The 12-member Expedition 71 crew aboard the International Space Station spent Tuesday observing how their bodies are adapting to weightlessness, configuring life support systems, and training to use safety hardware.

NASA and its international partners have collected and analyzed decades of health data from hundreds of space crew members. Whether its just a few days or a year or more of living and working in space, researchers take these valuable insights and apply the new knowledge to keep space crews healthier and promote advanced treatments for ailments on Earth.

Four crewmates due to return to Earth in October tried on a unique suit today that may help them adjust more rapidly to the 1G gravity environment after a six-and-a-half-month space mission. The suit, called an orthostatic intolerance garment, may alleviate blood pressure issues and other symptoms some astronauts have experienced in the first few hours and days after landing back on Earth. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 quartet with NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Mike Barratt, and Jeanette Epps and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin began their station mission on March 5 when they docked to the orbital outpost aboard the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft.

However, before the SpaceX crew leaves another trio will depart the space station next week. NASA Flight Engineer Tracy C. Dyson will ride the Soyuz MS-25 crew ship back to Earth with cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub. The threesome stepped up their departure preparations this week packing cargo and personal items inside the Soyuz and reviewing spacecraft descent and landing procedures. Dyson will complete her third mission after six months in space while Kononenko, a veteran of five station missions, and Chub, a first-time space flyer, will have continuously orbited Earth for just over one year.

The station’s two newest cosmonauts, Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, have also been helping doctors understand how space crews adapt to microgravity since they arrived at the space station on Sept. 11 with NASA astronaut Don Pettit. The cosmonauts on Tuesday attached sensors to their foreheads and wore goggles that tracked their eye movements providing details about how a crew member’s sense of balance adapts to the lack of gravity. The mission-experienced pair later studied how space affects the circulatory system and how blood flows to the extremities.

Pettit, who is on his fourth space station visit, started his day exploring ways to maximize the effectiveness of exercising in weightlessness. Later, at the end of his shift, he joined Ovchinin and Vagner and familiarized themselves with safety hardware and equipment locations throughout the orbital lab.

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who have been living on the station since June 6, spent the day primarily on lab maintenance tasks. Wilmore worked in the Permanent Multipurpose Module organizing and stowing food packs then he studied Dragon spacecraft operations. Williams partnered with Dominick throughout the day servicing an oxygen generator and preparing it for upcoming parts replacement.

15 years ago today, the Canadarm2 robotic arm reached out to grapple a visiting cargo craft and install it on the space station for the first time. That spacecraft, Japan’s HII-Transfer Vehicle 1, was also JAXA’s (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) first resupply ship to launch and replenish the space station’s crew at the time, Expedition 20. NASA’s International Space Station Program Manager Dana Weigel remarked about that achievement today on X.

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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