The International Space Station has a new commander as three Expedition 72 crew members get ready to return to Earth on Saturday. The orbital residents staying behind will soon welcome a U.S. cargo craft and get ready for their increment’s first spacewalk.
Expedition 72 will come to an end and segue into the Expedition 73 mission after three veteran crewmembers depart the International Space Station on Saturday. Meanwhile, the orbital residents stayed busy on Thursday with cargo mission preparations, spacesuit checks, and microgravity research.
Three International Space Station residents will return to Earth this weekend just a couple of days before the expected arrival of the next SpaceX Dragon cargo mission. Soon after that, two NASA astronauts will exit the orbital outpost for a solar array maintenance spacewalk.
Two NASA astronauts are preparing their spacesuits for a spacewalk planned for the beginning of May to ready the International Space Station for a new rollout solar array. In the meantime, the rest of the Expedition 72 crew on Tuesday kept up its ongoing vision, respiratory, and circulatory system research ahead of this weekend’s crew departure.
The Expedition 72 crew began the week exploring what happens to a crew member’s eyes after living in space for months or years at a time. The International Space Station residents also kept up a host of other microgravity research, continued servicing spacesuits, and prepared for the departure of three crewmates.
Spacesuit checks and breath and blood circulation studies wrapped up the week for the Expedition 72 crew aboard the International Space Station. Meanwhile, three new crewmates are getting used to life in space while another trio is preparing to return to Earth.
Preventing space-caused head and eye pressure and observing how blood flows in weightlessness were the top research objectives aboard the International Space Station on Thursday. The Expedition 72 crew is also preparing to split up while getting ready for the next U.S. cargo mission this month.
Ten residents are living aboard the International Space Station today following the arrival of a NASA astronaut and two Roscosmos cosmonauts on Tuesday. The new Expedition 72 crewmates are beginning an eight-month research mission in low Earth orbit and getting used to life in microgravity.
At 7:28 a.m. EDT, the hatch opened between the International Space Station and the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft.
NASA’s live hatch opening coverage is underway on NASA+. Hatch opening is scheduled to begin at 7:20 a.m. EDT.
