Spacewalk preparations and the undocking of a cargo spacecraft kicked off the week for the Expedition 74 crew aboard the International Space Station.
The unpiloted Progress 92 cargo spacecraft undocked from the Poisk module at 9:24 a.m. EDT today. The spacecraft backed away from the station for a deorbit maneuver and a planned destructive re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere to dispose of trash loaded by the crew.
Aboard the orbital outpost, NASA astronauts Chris Williams and Jessica Meir spent most of their day gearing up for this week’s planned spacewalk. The duo collected vital signs, replaced spacesuit batteries, and worked together in the Quest airlock to continue the configuration of tools they’ll use while in the vacuum of space. Williams and Meir will exit the Quest airlock around 8:00 a.m. Wednesday, March 18, to install a modification kit and route cables on the port side of the station. Their work readies for the next roll-out solar array to be installed during a later spacewalk.
NASA will preview the upcoming spacewalks during a news conference today at 2:00 p.m. Stream on the agency’s YouTube.
In the Tranquility module, NASA astronaut Jack Hathaway spent most of the day conducting maintenance on the station’s water recovery system. He later swapped out some spacesuit helmet lights before moving into the Destiny laboratory module to change out cassettes in ADSEP-2, or the Advanced Space Experiment Processor. The multipurpose facility uses cassettes to house and process various samples for biological and physical science experiments, such as cell and tissue culturing, protein crystal growth, microorganism and bacteria studies, and more.
European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Sophie Adenot measured her cardiovascular health on Monday. Ahead of a cycle session on the orbital complex’s bicycle, CEVIS, she donned the Bio-Monitor, which includes an instrumented garment and headband to track an array of vital signs, including heart activity, blood pressure, physical activity levels, and more. She later logged the data then stowed the hardware for future use before joining Hathaway to assist with maintenance.
The station’s three cosmonauts kept busy Monday with a variety of activities. Commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov started the day photographing payload equipment for documentation and inspected voltage converters. He was later joined by flight engineer Sergei Mikaev to log daily work activities and test communications software. Mikaev also teamed up with flight engineer Andrey Fedyaev to conduct physical fitness assessments, wearing sensors that track their blood pressure and electrical activity in their hearts.
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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