Light Duty Day Aboard Station as Crew Awaits Axiom Mission 4
The Expedition 73 crew members lightened their schedule on Wednesday following several days of Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) preparations including readying International Space Station systems, tablet computers, and temporary crew quarters. The orbital residents relaxed throughout the day while setting aside some time to continue ongoing human research and orbital maintenance.
NASA, Axiom Space, and SpaceX have postponed the launch opportunity on Wednesday, June 11, of Ax-4 to the orbital outpost to allow additional time for SpaceX teams to repair a liquid oxygen leak identified during post-static fire Falcon 9 rocket inspections. A new launch date for the fourth private astronaut mission will be provided once repair work is complete, pending range availability.
Four astronauts, three from NASA and one from JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, moderated their shifts on Wednesday opening up time to relax after focusing on the upcoming arrival of the Ax-4 mission. The quartet still kept up some space science duties while maintaining the upkeep of the orbital outpost.
Station Commander Takuya Onishi from JAXA, during the middle of his short day, opened up the Microgravity Science Glovebox and installed samples into research hardware to study how proteins behave in a liquid in microgravity. Results may lead to a better understanding and newer treatments for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and promote space commercialization opportunities.
The three NASA Flight Engineers Jonny Kim, Anne McClain, and Nichole Ayers worked on a variety of life support maintenance tasks during their light duty day ensuring the orbital outpost operates in tip-top shape.
Kim calibrated and checked the functionality of the total organic carbon analyzer, one of several on-orbit tools that measure the quality of the station’s water. McClain activated audio hardware and measured the station’s acoustic environment, with its continuously running science racks and ventilation systems, to learn how it affects a crew member’s hearing. Finally, Ayers inspected and cleaned fans inside the Destiny laboratory module.
The three cosmonauts had a full shift on Wednesday studying space biology and maintaining life support systems in the Roscosmos segment of the space station. Flight Engineers Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritskiy joined each other at the beginning of their day and studied how microgravity affects the exchange of blood between the bloodstream and surrounding tissues. Ryzhikov then pumped water from the Progress 90 spacecraft into station tanks and serviced the Elektron oxygen generator located in the Zvezda service module. Zubritsky photographed the condition of windows inside Zvezda and also partnered with Flight Engineer Kirill Peskov documenting and organizing cargo space inside the Nauka science module.
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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