Crews aboard the International Space Station are preparing for significant transitions as Crew-8 readies for Earth return after a seven-month mission, while Crew-9 trains for a docking port switch.
In parallel, extensive microgravity research continues, focusing on health issues like stem cell behavior, plant growth in space, and sensory changes, all aiming to enhance human spaceflight and provide Earth-bound benefits.
Conclusion of Crew-8’s Seven-Month Mission
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission, which began on March 3, is about to complete a seven-month mission aboard the orbital outpost. The returning quartet, comprising NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Mike Barratt, and Jeanette Epps and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, completed final reviews on Friday, gearing up for their departure aboard the Dragon Endeavour spacecraft scheduled 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.
Crew-9 Prepares for Docking Port Switch
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.
Ongoing Research and Health Studies
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.
Sensory Studies in Microgravity
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.