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.
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.
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.