The Expedition 74 crew members continued their spacewalk preparations on Wednesday reviewing robotics activities and configuring tools. The orbital residents also kept up their ongoing biomedical research and advanced technology studies aboard the International Space Station.
NASA flight engineers Chris Williams and Jessica Meir continue gearing up for their second spacewalk together set to begin at 8:35 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, June 30. The duo joined each other inside the Quest airlock and inspected the tethers that will secure the spacewalkers to the outside of the orbital outpost. They also collected and organized the equipment they will carry with them into the vacuum of space including pistol grip tools, cameras, stowage bags, and more. Williams and Meir will spend about six hours and 40 minutes next week replacing a malfunctioned wrist joint on the Canadarm2 robotic arm. NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) officials will preview the upcoming spacewalk tasks during a news conference on NASA’s YouTube channel at 2 p.m. on Thursday, June 25.
Williams and Meir also gathered with flight engineers Jack Hathaway of NASA and Sophie Adenot of ESA (European Space Agency) and called down to mission controllers in Houston, Texas, to talk about the upcoming spacewalk procedures. Afterward, the quartet practiced on a computer the delicate robotic maneuvers required to access and replace the wrist joint on the Canadarm2. Hathaway and Adenot will support the two spacewalkers next week helping them in and out of their spacesuits, monitoring their spacewalking activities, and carefully adjusting the Canadarm2 into position during the repair work.
Eye exams were the final task of the day for Meir as she operated medical imaging hardware inside the Harmony module and examined Williams’ retina, lens, and cornea to check his eye health. Hathaway loaded a CubeSat-packed deployer onto a platform inside the Kibo laboratory module for placement outside of the space station. Adenot wrapped up her shift testing the network connectivity of a computer tablet inside the SpaceX Dragon crew spacecraft.
Cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev, the station’s commander and flight engineer from Roscosmos, also conducted eye checks, this time using the Ultrasound 3 device inside the Columbus laboratory module. Doctors on the ground monitored the ultrasound scans in real time to detect potential space-caused changes to eye pressure and structure. The duo then took turns testing artificial intelligence tools to boost crew efficiency and communications in space. Roscosmos flight engineer Andrey Fedyaev focused on studying how living in space affects the human body throughout Wednesday.
Fedyaev kicked off his shift placing sensors on his chest to measure his heart’s electrical activity. Next, he attached cuffs to his arm, wrist, and fingers measuring his blood pressure. Doctors are exploring how the circulatory system adjusts in microgravity since the human heart doesn’t pump blood as hard as it does on Earth. Finally, the two-time space lab resident wore an acoustic sensor around his neck that recorded his rapid exhalation for insights into his respiratory health.
Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_stationon X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.
Get the latest from NASA delivered every week. Subscribe here.