A cargo spacecraft is in orbit catching up to the International Space Station for a docking tomorrow to deliver food and supplies to the Expedition 74 crew. Aboard the orbital lab, the seven residents kicked off the week with science operations prep, routine maintenance, and getting systems ready for a future spacewalk.
In the morning, three NASA astronauts—Jessica Meir, Chris Williams, and Jack Hathaway—split up various duties. Meir conducted routine orbital plumbing and replaced a gas trap plug. Meanwhile, Williams relocated connection cables, set up and inserted canisters in the Cell Biology Experiment Facility, and consolidated food packages. Hathaway set his sights to spacesuit work, stowing batteries and performing a cooling loop scrub on the suits.
Meir and Williams then teamed up to review procedures and checklist items for an upcoming spacewalk. The duo was later joined by Hathaway and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Sophie Adenot to assemble the roll-out solar array mod kit struts, which will be installed to the exterior of the orbital lab during the upcoming spacewalk.
Before teaming up with her crewmates, Adenot completed a questionnaire, donned an actigraphy device, and collected biological samples for the RelaxPro experiment. The study tests relaxation training protocols in flight, which could contribute to the development of measures to reduce stress and behavioral risks for astronauts on future space missions. Adenot then moved into the Kibo module, where she retrieved and swapped in new cartridges to the Electrostatic Levitation Furnace.
In the Roscosmos segment, two cosmonauts are monitoring and gearing up for the arrival of the Progress 94 cargo spacecraft tomorrow. Progress, loaded with nearly three tons of food, fuel, and supplies, launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 7:59 a.m. EDT March 22. The cargo spacecraft is set to dock to the space-facing port of the station’s Poisk module tomorrow, March 24, at 9:34 a.m. NASA’s live rendezvous and docking coverage will begin at 8:45 a.m. on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and the agency’s YouTube channel.
Commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and flight engineer Sergei Mikaev teamed up to configure and complete training on TORU, the Telerobotically Operated Rendezvous System, which is a control panel located in the Zvezda Service Module. One of the two antennas used for an automated rendezvous and docking did not deploy after separation. Progress will arrive 200 meters from the space station autonomously, then transition to manual piloting for its final approach. Kud-Sverchkov will manually pilot the spacecraft through TORU for rendezvous and docking at the space station’s Poisk module.
Mikaev then moved on to audit stowage, equipment, and hardware throughout the Roscosmos segment. Meanwhile, flight engineer Andrey Fedyaev charged camera batteries, conducted orbital plumbing, then backed up and sent exercise data to ground teams for analysis.
Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.
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