The SpaceX Dragon Endurance team ship is pictured from a window aboard the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour crew ship. Endurance is docked to the Harmony modules forward-facing port while Endeavour is docked to Harmonys space-facing port on the International Space Station. Credit: NASA
4 Expedition 68 crew members are nearing completion of their stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS) this weekend. Their replacements are finishing their first week aboard the orbital station and getting up to speed with life in space.
The SpaceX Crew Dragon Endurance with 4 crewmates is targeted to depart the spaceport station at 2:05 a.m. EST on Saturday and go back to Earth less than 24 hours later on. NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada will command and pilot Endurance respectively flanked by Koichi Wakata of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and Anna Kikina of Roscosmos. The foursome is due to splashdown off the coast of Florida at 9:19 p.m. on Saturday.
From left, are Expedition 68 Flight Engineers Anna Kikina of Roscosmos, Josh Cassada and Nicole Mann from NASA, and Koichi Wakata of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) presenting for a fun portrait inside the International Space Stations Kibo laboratory module. Credit: NASA
The quartet launched toward the orbiting laboratory as the SpaceX Crew-5 objective on October 5, 2022, and docked to the Harmony modules forward port on October 6. A variety of team ships and space trucks arrived and left, many spacewalks were conducted, and a wide variety of advanced space research study took location throughout Crew-5s five-month-long remain in space.
Stamina is docked to the Harmony modules forward-facing port while Endeavour is docked to Harmonys space-facing port on the International Space Station. The SpaceX Crew Dragon Endurance with four crewmates is targeted to depart the area station at 2:05 a.m. EST on Saturday and return to Earth less than 24 hours later on. At top right, is the Northrop Grumman Cygnus area freighter berthed to the International Space Stations Unity module. 3 other area station locals, Commander Sergey Prokopyev, Flight Engineer Dmitri Petelin, both from Roscosmos, and NASA Flight Engineer Frank Rubio, have been living in area because September 21.
The stations most recent team members are a number of days into their orbital residency after their arrival on March 3, as the SpaceX Crew-6 mission. The brand-new flight engineers, Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg of NASA, Sultan Alneyadi of UAE (United Arab Emirates), and Andrey Fedyaev of Roscosmos, have actually already started a variety of space research study and laboratory maintenance activities.
At top right, is the Northrop Grumman Cygnus area freighter berthed to the International Space Stations Unity module. The orbital outpost was soaring 262 miles above the English Channel off the coast of France in this nighttime photograph caught on February 28, 2023, from an external high-definition camera. Credit: NASA
The four new station homeowners have started exploring how microgravity affects the human body and selected a little tomato crop growing for an area farming study. They likewise invested Thursday afternoon acquainting themselves with space station hardware and emergency situation devices situated throughout the space laboratory.
Three other space station locals, Commander Sergey Prokopyev, Flight Engineer Dmitri Petelin, both from Roscosmos, and NASA Flight Engineer Frank Rubio, have been living in area since September 21. The trio invested the day stowing biological samples in a science freezer, loading cargo inside the Soyuz MS-22 spaceship, and life span support elements. They will continue their station objective till later this year and return house inside the Soyuz MS-23 team ship.