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Crew Preps for Fourth Axiom Private Mission, Keeps up Human Research

NASA astronaut and Expedition 73 Flight Engineer Jonny Kim works inside the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft completing cargo operations before it undocked from the International Space Station's Harmony module several hours later.
NASA astronaut Jonny Kim works inside the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft completing cargo operations before it undocked from the International Space Station’s Harmony module on May 23, 2025.
NASA

The Expedition 73 crew members are turning their attention to the upcoming fourth private mission from Axiom Space. While the International Space Station crewmates prepare for the Ax-4 quartet’s arrival aboard a SpaceX Dragon they also continued studying how their bodies are adapting to weightlessness in the midst of ongoing lab maintenance duties.

Axiom Mission-4 (Ax-4) is preparing for its launch to the orbital outpost this month carrying experienced astronaut Peggy Whitson as commander and three first-time space flyers including Pilot Shubhanshu Shukla from India and Mission Specialists Sławosz Uzanański-Wiśniewksi from Poland and Tibor Kapu from Hungary to the orbital outpost. NASA Flight Engineers Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers spent a portion of their shift on Monday reviewing procedures they will use from inside the space station when the Ax-4 crew aboard the Dragon approaches the space station to begin a two-week space research mission.

Earlier during her shift, McClain opened up the Destiny laboratory module’s Combustion Integrated Rack and replaced experiment samples and research components inside the sealed chamber that allows exploration of how fuels and flames behave in weightlessness. Ayers relocated and inspected hardware that monitors airborne particles in the station’s atmosphere then staged hardware that will soon be stowed inside BEAM, or the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module.

NASA Flight Engineer Jonny Kim began a 48-hour session wearing a biomedical vest and headband being tested for their ability to comfortably measure a crew member’s health data during daily activities. Next, he wrapped up his shift stowing bags and cleaning up packing materials following the departure of the SpaceX Dragon cargo craft on May 23.

Station Commander Takuya Onishi of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) worked on standard human research duties Monday collecting his blood, saliva, and urine samples for stowage in a science freezer and later analysis. He also swapped a memory card inside radio frequency identification hardware, downloaded station acoustic data, and serviced the water storage system.

Veteran cosmonaut Sergey Ryzhikov assisted fellow Roscosmos Flight Engineer Alexey Zubritskiy who wore virtual reality glasses for an investigation of how a crew member’s sense of balance and visual tracking adjust to microgravity. Cosmonaut Kirill Peskov pointed a camera outside a window on the orbital outpost’s Roscosmos segment and photographed landmarks including the Amazon delta, the Volga River delta, the Aral Sea, and more.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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