SpaceX CRS-34, the next cargo mission to resupply the International Space Station, is counting down to its launch at 7:16 p.m. EDT today, weather pending, from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The uncrewed Dragon cargo spacecraft is slated to lift off atop a Falcon 9 rocket packed with about 6,500 pounds of science experiments, crew supplies, and lab hardware destined 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 rendezvous and docking currently scheduled for 9:50 a.m. on Thursday, May 14.
Hathaway and Adenot will join NASA flight engineers Jessica Meir and Chris Williams the day before Dragon arrives and call down to flight controllers for a cargo readiness review. 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.
In the meantime, Hathaway focused on installing new life support hardware inside the Tranquility module on Tuesday. The advanced orbital plumbing work updates the orbital outpost’s water recycling system reducing the need to resupply water from Earth. Adenot watered and photographed alfalfa plants growing for the Veg-06 space agriculture study then reorganized the Quest airlock and Harmony module making space for the new cargo arriving on Dragon.
Meir kicked off her shift swapping sample hardware inside the Destiny laboratory module’s Microgravity Science Glovebox for a physics investigation observing how weightlessness affects tiny particles floating inside a gel-like substance, known as a colloidal solid. Afterward, she completed the installation of the Cold Atom Lab’s (CAL) new science module, a quantum physics research facility, delivered aboard Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft on April 13.
Williams tested a small robotic arm for its automated, precision manipulation capabilities inside the Kibo laboratory module then uninstalled and stowed the hardware after the technology demonstration. He spent the rest of the day on scientific maintenance servicing a research freezer, checking out a centrifuge, then removing a carbon dioxide meter from an incubator.
Station commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and flight engineer Sergey Mikaev worked inside two different resupply ships from Roscosmos on Tuesday. Kud-Sverchkov unpacked new supplies from the Progress 95 cargo spacecraft while Mikaev transferred water from the Progress 94 cargo spacecraft into station tanks. Kud-Sverchkov also began configuring the Poisk airlock where two cosmonauts will exit the space station for an upcoming spacewalk. Mikaev configured computer networking hardware that supports the operations of Earth observation equipment.
Roscosmos flight engineer Andrey Fedyaev began his shift replacing hoses, connectors, and valves that carry water removed from the station’s air by the Zvezda service module’s dehumidifiers. Fedyaev wrapped up his shift cleaning and swapping smoke detectors inside the Rassvet module.
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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