One cargo spacecraft has docked to the International Space Station and one other one is on its strategy to proceed resupplying the Expedition 73 crew. While the orbital residents await their subsequent supply, they continued researching on Monday superior methods to maintain people wholesome and nourished on lengthy period area missions.
Roscosmos’ Progress 93 cargo craft accomplished its journey to the orbital outpost at 1:23 p.m. EDT on Saturday, Sept. 13, when it docked to the Zvezda service module’s rear port delivering over 2.8 tons of meals, gas, and provides. Station Commander Sergey Ryzhikov opened the Progress’ hatch the following day and entered the spacecraft with Flight Engineer Alexey Ovchinin to start unpacking the brand new gear. Progress 93 started its mission after launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Thursday, Sept. 11.
Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL resupply ship, carrying over 11,000 kilos of recent science experiments and station {hardware}, is orbiting Earth immediately after blasting off at 6:11 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 14, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Cygnus XL will catch as much as the orbital outpost on Wednesday as NASA Flight Engineers Jonny Kim and Zena Cardman monitor the spacecraft’s automated strategy and rendezvous. Kim will command the Canadarm2 robotic arm from the cupola’s robotics workstation to achieve out and seize the spacecraft at 6:35 a.m. on Wednesday when it reaches some extent about 10 meters from the station. Ground controllers will then take over and remotely command Canadarm2 to put in Cygnus to the Unity module’s Earth-facing port the place it is going to keep for six months. Listen to mission managers discuss in regards to the Cygnus XL mission throughout Friday’s prelaunch media teleconference on YouTube.
Meanwhile, biotechnology analysis crammed Monday’s crew schedule retaining scientists on the bottom knowledgeable about microgravity’s impact on the human physique. The astronauts not solely examine superior area biology but in addition commonly ship down bodily and psychological information informing medical doctors of crew well being in actual time.
Kim and Cardman joined one another originally of their shift Monday amassing blood strain measurements and ultrasound artery scans. Kim, a Harvard-educated doctor, led the examine working the biomedical gear and inspecting Cardman with help from medical doctors on the bottom. Cardman additionally wore electrodes measuring her cardiac exercise for the portion of the CIPHER human analysis investigation learning coronary heart, mind, and eye perform in area.
Later throughout the second half of his shift, Kim took turns with Flight Engineer Kimiya Yui of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) learning how liver tissues with blood vessels bioprinted on Earth react to weightlessness. They every cut up their shift and used a conveyable glovebag contained in the Destiny laboratory module processing experiment modules containing the tissue samples then inserting the modules inside a synthetic gravity-generating analysis platform. Results could advance the manufacture of high-quality vascularized tissues and organs bettering long run well being for astronauts and high quality of life for sufferers on Earth.
Cardman wrapped up her shift on Monday treating bone stem cell samples within the Kibo laboratory module’s Life Science Glovebox for preservation in a science freezer and later evaluation. Researchers are exploring how microgravity impacts bone tissue to safeguard a crew member’s skeletal system and presumably deal with getting old situations and bone illnesses on Earth.
NASA Flight Engineer Mike Fincke labored contained in the Harmony module exploring methods to supply nutritional vitamins and vitamins on spacecraft serving to provide enough diet for long-term area missions. He handled yeast, yogurt, and fermented milk samples then stowed them in a analysis incubator for the BioNutrients-3 investigation searching for to create a biomanufacturing facility to assist maintain future area crews.
Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky, station Commander and Flight Engineer respectively, spent Monday configuring the brand new Progress 93 for docked operations. The duo started Monday trying out a docking mechanism inside the Zvezda service module’s aft port the place Progress arrived on Saturday. Ryzhikov and Zubritsky then spent the remainder of their shift transferring water and unpacking cargo from contained in the Progress. Flight Engineer Oleg Platonov centered on science photographing landmarks in South America for evaluation and sustaining physics analysis {hardware} that observes complicated plasmas probably advancing spacecraft designs and industrial processes on Earth.
Learn extra about station actions by following the space station blog, @NASASpaceOps and @space_station on X, in addition to the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.