The next cargo mission to resupply the International Space Station, SpaceX CRS-34, is slated for launch at 7:16 p.m. on Tuesday, May 12, from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, weather pending. The uncrewed Dragon will launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket carrying about 6,500 pounds of science experiments, crew supplies, and lab hardware for the Expedition 74 crew. Flight engineers Jack Hathaway of NASA and Sophie Adenot of ESA (European Space Agency) will be on duty monitoring Dragon during its automated approach, rendezvous, and docking to the Harmony module’s forward port planned for 9:50 a.m. on Thursday, May 14.
The seven-member crew had an off-duty day on Monday relaxing before beginning a busy week of microgravity research, lab maintenance, and cargo operations. On Tuesday, Hathaway will install new hardware to maintain the orbital outpost’s water recycling system reducing the need to resupply water from Earth. Adenot will water and photograph alfalfa plants growing for the Veg-06 space agriculture study exploring how to help plants thrive in microgravity to promote food production in space during long term missions.
NASA flight engineer Jessica Meir will continue carefully rewiring and reconnecting cables on the Cold Atom Lab’s (CAL) new science module delivered aboard Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft on April 13. The quantum physics module expands the capacity of the CAL to chill atoms to near absolute zero and study atomic wave functions, general relativity, and dark matter. NASA flight engineer Chris Williams will test a small robotic arm for its automated, precision manipulation capabilities inside the Kibo laboratory module.
The four astronauts will join each other midweek and call down to flight controllers for a cargo conference the day before Dragon arrives. The quartet will begin unpacking critical, time-sensitive research samples packed inside Dragon’s portable science freezers about two-and-a-half after hours after the cargo spacecraft arrives.
Station commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and flight engineer Sergey Mikaev will be gathering tools and checking their Orlan spacesuits preparing for a Roscosmos spacewalk planned for later this month. Flight engineer Andrey Fedyaev will have a busy week of human research and maintenance on life support equipment.
Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_stationon X, as well as the ISS Facebookand ISS Instagram accounts.
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