From left are, NASA astronaut Frank Rubio; Roscosmos cosmonaut Dmitri Petelin; Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata; NASA astronauts Josh Cassada and Nicole Mann; and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Anna Kikina. Credit: NASA
SpaceX Crew-5 Commander Nicole Mann and Pilot Josh Cassada, both from NASA, with Mission Specialists Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Anna Kikina of Roscosmos, are due to arrive at the station one day after introducing aboard the Dragon Endurance.
The seven-member Expedition 68 crew postures for an official picture. From left are, NASA astronaut Frank Rubio; Roscosmos cosmonaut Dmitri Petelin; Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata; NASA astronauts Josh Cassada and Nicole Mann; and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Anna Kikina. Credit: NASA
The Expedition 68 objective is officially in progress aboard the International Space Station (ISS) with seven astronauts and cosmonauts living and working together. The team swaps arent completed yet as four SpaceX Crew-5 members count down to their upcoming launch to the orbiting laboratory.
Leader Samantha Cristoforetti of ESA (European Space Agency) will lead station operations for about the next 2 weeks, up until she and fellow crewmates Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, and Jessica Watkins return to Earth aboard the SpaceX Dragon Freedom team ship. The foursome has actually been aboard the space station because April 27. They invested the day on Friday inspecting their Dragon pressure suits, loading individual items, and evaluating departure and landing procedures.
Expedition 67 Flight Engineers (from left) Jessica Watkins, Bob Hines, and Frank Rubio, all 3 NASA astronauts, position for a picture together inside the cupola, the International Space Stations “window to the world.” Credit: NASA
SpaceX Crew-5 Commander Nicole Mann and Pilot Josh Cassada, both from NASA, with Mission Specialists Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Anna Kikina of Roscosmos, are due to arrive at the station one day after releasing aboard the Dragon Endurance. They will invest a few days getting used to life on orbit before Cristoforetti and her 3 Freedom crewmates end their objective, undock, and parachute to Earth inside the Freedom team ship.
In the meantime, newbie space-flyer Frank Rubio of NASA is in his second week as a flight engineer onboard the orbiting laboratory. He reached the area station with fellow flight engineers Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitriy Petelin, both cosmonauts from Roscosmos, on September 21 inside the Soyuz MS-22 crew ship.
Rubio spent the end of the week dealing with the Intelligent Glass Optics research study, exploring how to utilize expert system to adapt materials manufacturing, such as optical fiber, to the vacuum of area for. He observed and switched glass fiber samples being pulled inside the Microgravity Science Glovebox. Petelin and Prokopyev and Petelin partnered together for a study checking out how microgravity affects the heart and capillary.