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International Space Station

Station Crew Cleans Up, Relaxes After Busy Month of Spacewalks

Expedition 75 commander Jessica Meir of NASA rides the Canadarm2 robotic arm during a spacewalk for navigation and science maintenance outside the International Space Station. Meir was attached to an articulating portable foot restraint installed on Canadarm2’s latching end effector. The orbital outpost was soaring 259 miles above the Pacific Ocean southwest of Mexico when this photograph was taken.
Expedition 75 commander Jessica Meir of NASA rides the Canadarm2 robotic arm during a spacewalk for navigation and science maintenance outside the International Space Station on Sept. 1, 2026.
NASA

The Expedition 75 crew members are coming off a busy period that saw four spacewalks take place in one month outside of the International Space Station. The orbital septet cleaned spacesuits, conducted cargo operations, and relaxed throughout Wednesday.

Astronauts Sophie Adenot of ESA (European Space Agency) and Jessica Meir of NASA completed the last of four spacewalks during a monthlong period on Tuesday, Sept. 1. Adenot and Meir spent six hours and 49 minutes installing a spacecraft navigation aid, swabbing the station’s exterior for microorganisms, and preparing a cosmic particle detector for future upgrades. The duo spent Wednesday mostly relaxing taking time out for exercise and joining NASA flight engineers Anil Menon and Jack Hathaway for a post-spacewalk conference with mission controllers on the ground.

Menon worked throughout Wednesday refilling spacesuit tanks with water, photographing suit gloves for inspection, and downlinking video captured from cameras attached to the spacewalkers’ helmets. He also transferred cargo in and out of the Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft berthed to the Unity module since April 13. Hathaway swapped out orbital plumbing components in the Tranquility module and uninstalled gear from inside a research incubator. The duo also spent a portion of Wednesday relaxing following their daylong support of Tuesday’s spacewalking activities.

During August, three spacewalks were performed with the first taking place on Aug. 6 when Meir and Menon installed a modification kit on the station’s starboard truss structure preparing it for a future roll-out solar array. The next two spacewalks saw Menon and Adenot disconnect a failed space-to-ground antenna from the Z1 truss segment on Aug. 18, then install a spare antenna on Z1 on Aug. 25.

The station’s three cosmonauts from Roscosmos stayed busy throughout Wednesday with a variety of research, cargo, and inspection duties. Flight engineer Andrey Fedyaev turned off a camera that automatically photographed wildfires on Earth in multiple wavelengths during the crew’s sleep shift. Next, he photographed the condition of light fixtures in the Zarya module for analysis. Flight engineer Pyotr Dubrov packed items for disposal inside the Progress 94 resupply ship then photographed the condition of windows inside the Zvezda and Nauka modules. Flight engineer Anna Kikina checked the operation of scientific equipment, deployed carbon dioxide monitoring hardware, then cleaned Roscosmos ventilation systems.

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 mission now is targeted to launch no earlier than late September to the International Space Station. A new target launch date will be shared once confirmed.

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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