Inside the ISS: Mission Critical Moves and Breakthrough Science

The SpaceX Dragon Freedom spacecraft is pictured from a window on the Dragon Endeavour spacecraft in a photograph taken by NASA astronaut and Expedition 72 Flght Engineer Nick Hague. 258 miles below the International Space Station is the Sunflower State of Kansas. Credit: NASA

The Expedition 72 crew is preparing for a key port relocation maneuver this weekend as they count down to the launch of a new cargo mission to resupply the International Space Station (ISS) next week. Meanwhile, the crew kept busy on Wednesday with essential tasks, including stem cell research, spacesuit checks, and a range of lab maintenance.

Dragon Spacecraft Relocation

NASA Flight Engineer Nick Hague will lead the upcoming maneuver, commanding the SpaceX Dragon Freedom spacecraft as it undocks from the Harmony module’s forward port at 6:35 a.m. EST on Sunday. He will be joined by NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, as they take a brief ride in Freedom to reposition and redock it at Harmony’s space-facing port at 7:18 a.m. This maneuver will free up Harmony’s forward port to receive the incoming Dragon cargo mission.

Night Lights Along the Mediterranean Sea From Space Station — The vibrant night lights of coastal cities on the Mediterranean Sea, from Spain to Italy in Europe and Algeria to Lybia in Africa, are pictured from the International Space Station as it orbited 262 miles above Barcelona. Peeking in at the bottom of the image is Mallorca Island, next to it Minorca. The Italian islands of Corsica, Sardinia, and Sicily are also visible. Above Earth, stars glitter in the night sky. Credit: NASA

Hague and Wilmore took turns on Wednesday preparing for the Dragon cargo mission arriving soon after Sunday’s Dragon Freedom relocation. The duo trained on cargo operations then reviewed rendezvous procedures and monitoring tools for the approaching SpaceX Dragon cargo craft. Hague also downloaded his health data collected from electrodes and the Ultrasound 2 device for analysis by researchers.

Lab Maintenance and Spacewalk Preparations

Science and maintenance rounded out the schedule on Wednesday as Commander Suni Williams serviced stem cells and checked out a spacesuit. She worked with Wilmore inside the Kibo laboratory module inserting stem cell samples into a microscope to image for a blood disease and cancer study. Following that, Williams entered the Quest airlock and resized and configured a spacesuit ahead of spacewalks planned for 2025.

Expedition 71 Commander Oleg Kononenko and Flight Engineer Nikolai Chub — Expedition 71 Commander Oleg Kononenko (foreground) and Flight Engineer Nikolai Chub, both Roscosmos cosmonauts, are pictured inside the International Space Station’s Zvezda service module monitoring the automated rendevous and docking of the Progress 88 cargo craft to the Poisk module. The duo was at the controls of Zvezda’s TORU, or telerobotically-operated rendezvous unit, ready to take remote control of the Progress 88, packed with about three tons of food, fuel, and supplies for the Expedition 71 crew, in the unlikely event the spacecraft would be unable to dock on its own. Credit: NASA

Ongoing Maintenance and Earth Observation Experiments

NASA Flight Engineer Don Pettit, on his fourth spaceflight, spent his morning removing the small satellite deployer from Kibo’s airlock that had earlier deployed several CubeSats into Earth orbit for a series of technology studies. Afterward, Pettit worked on orbital plumbing tasks flushing resupply tanks and transferring water to life support components.

Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner continued maintenance and inspection activities in the aft end of the Zvezda service module. Flight Engineer Aleksandr Gorbunov completed an experiment run and deactivated hardware that imaged the Earth’s nighttime atmosphere in near-ultraviolet wavelengths.

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Inside the ISS: Mission Critical Moves and Breakthrough Science

Dragon Spacecraft Relocation

Lab Maintenance and Spacewalk Preparations

Ongoing Maintenance and Earth Observation Experiments

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