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International Space Station

Crew Packs Dragon with Science and Cleans Spacesuits

NASA astronaut and Expedition 75 flight engineer Anil Menon is pictured during a spacewalk with his spacesuit's helmet lights on to install a new roll-out solar array on the International Space Station's port side truss structure.
NASA astronaut Anil Menon is pictured during a spacewalk on Oct. 29, 2026, with his spacesuit’s helmet lights on to install a new roll-out solar array on the International Space Station’s port side truss structure.
NASA/Luke Delaney

Expedition 75 had a busy shift on Thursday primarily focusing on packing a U.S. cargo craft for its upcoming departure and cleaning a pair of spacesuits. Thursday’s research topics aboard the International Space Station included space agriculture and super intelligence.

A SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft is nearing the end of its stay at the orbital outpost after delivering over 6,300 pounds of science, supplies, and hardware on Oct. 15. A series of experiments that Dragon delivered is concluding and samples such as bacterial DNA and 3D-printed blood vessels are being readied for return and analysis back on Earth. Specialized lighting hardware designed to recreate natural daylight patterns and help regulate crew sleep patterns aboard the station is also being returned following over three years of testing.

Flight engineers Anil Menon and Jessica Watkins of NASA joined each other on Thursday and began loading a variety of payloads inside the SpaceX Dragon. The packing will be finalized the day before Dragon leaves when the crew completes the transfer of critical research samples preserved inside portable freezers and incubators for the ride back to Earth.

Menon also partnered with flight engineer Joshua Kutryk of CSA (Canadian Space Agency) later in the day rearranging and securing cargo inside Dragon. The duo carefully placed the return cargo inside Dragon to ensure its even distribution of mass and balance its center of gravity for a safe Earth reentry and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. 

NASA flight engineer Luke Delaney began his shift inside the Kibo laboratory module and set up the Life Science Glovebox for an upcoming space botany investigation. The MVP-Plant-02 study will explore how plants respond to disease in microgravity to learn how to sustain crews on future exploration missions. Afterward, Delaney moved to the Quest airlock and cleaned cooling and ventilation systems inside a pair of spacesuits Menon and Kutryk wore during spacewalks on Oct. 29 and Nov. 5.

Working in the space station’s Roscosmos segment, station commander Pyotr Dubrov studied how to manufacture high-purity semiconductor crystals in microgravity. Next, he joined flight engineer Anna Kikina and practiced using super intelligence tools to transcribe crew audio reports for review by mission controllers on the ground. Flight engineer Sergey Teteryatnikov began his shift on orbital plumbing before documenting the availability of stowage area and updating the inventory management system.

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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