Suggested Searches

International Space Station

Categories

Also Featured In

Station Gearing Up for New Crew as Another Preps for Return to Earth

An aurora streams across Earth's horizon in this photograph from the International Space Station as it orbited 266 miles above the Bass Strait off the coast of southeast Australia. At left, a set of the orbital outpost's main solar arrays extend across the frame. At bottom, a portion of the station's U.S. segment is illuminated including the SpaceX Dragon crew spacecraft docked to the Harmony module's forward port in this photograph taken from the cupola at approximately 6:56 p.m. local time.
An aurora streams across Earth’s horizon in this photograph from the International Space Station as it orbited off the coast of southeast Australia. At bottom, a portion of the station’s U.S. segment is illuminated including the SpaceX Dragon crew spacecraft docked to the Harmony module’s forward port.
NASA

The seven-member Expedition 73 crew is gearing up to welcome four new crewmates at the end of the week. Shortly after that another quartet that has been living and working aboard the International Space Station since March will return to Earth.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has rolled out to its launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center and is counting down to its launch of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission at 12:09 p.m. EDT on Thursday. NASA+ will begin its Crew-11 launch coverage beginning at 8 a.m. on Thursday.

Commander Zena Cardman and Pilot Mike Fincke, both NASA astronauts, and Mission Specialists Kimiya Yui of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and Oleg Platonov of Roscosmos will ride inside the Dragon spacecraft atop Falcon 9 for an automated, day-and-a-half long trip to the orbital outpost’s space-facing port on the Harmony module. Once there, the four Crew-11 members will join Expedition 73 beginning a seven-month research mission in low Earth orbit.

Following the new crew’s arrival, four Expedition 73 crew members representing NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission will begin handing over their science and maintenance responsibilities in preparation for their departure about a week later. The homebound quartet has also been ramping up its packing duties loading science, cargo, and personal items inside the Dragon docked to Harmony’s forward port. Anne McClain will lead Nichole Ayers, both NASA astronauts, JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov for reentry into Earth’s atmosphere and a parachuted splashdown inside Dragon.

McClain, Ayers, and Onishi spent Monday in the Harmony module cleaning their crew quarters’ ventilation systems and airflow sensors. McClain also set up a sleeping bag inside Dragon that she will be using until her departure early next month. Ayers configured an extra sleep station in the Columbus laboratory module to accommodate the upcoming crew swap period. Onishi will now be sleeping in the Kibo laboratory module until he departs with his Crew-10 crewmates.

Peskov has also been preparing for his Dragon departure as he tested the lower body negative pressure suit. Roscosmos scientists are investigating the suit’s ability to counteract space-caused head and eye pressure and help crews adjust quicker to the return to Earth’s gravity. He also continued gathering his personal items and Roscosmos cargo for loading inside Dragon.

Roscosmos Flight Engineer Alexey Zubritsky started his day assisting Peskov with the experimental suit study then measured the vibrations the space station experiences while jogging on the Zvezda service module’s treadmill. Veteran cosmonaut Sergey Ryzhikov tested new freeze-dried food packs for their ease of use for both eating and drinking then set up Earth observation gear to photograph landmarks in the Pacific Ocean and across North America.

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.

Get the latest from NASA delivered every week. Subscribe here.