The SpaceX Freedom Dragon team ship with 4 Axiom Mission-2 personal astronauts aboard is imagined approaching the International Space Station on May 22, 2023. Liberty, commanded by previous NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, with Pilot John Shoffner and Mission Specialists Ala Alqarni and Rayyanah Barnawi, docked to the Harmony modules space-facing port at 9:12 a.m. EDT on Monday starting 8 days of docked operations with the seven-member Expedition 69 team.
The International Space Station, presently housing 11 crew members with 4 docked spaceships, welcomes a personal quartet from Axiom Mission-2 (Ax-2) while anticipating a 5th cargo-bearing spaceship. The private and existing crews are busy with both modification activities and ongoing area science, as they await an extra cargo delivery from Roscosmos.
11 team members are living aboard the International Space Station (ISS) with 4 spaceships now docked to the orbiting lab. A fifth spaceship is because of introduce on Wednesday, May 24, and get here a few hours later on with cargo to renew the Expedition 69 team.
2 SpaceX Dragon crew ships are docked surrounding to each other on the stations Harmony module after the arrival of Axiom Mission-2 (Ax-2) aboard Dragon Freedom on Monday at 9:12 a.m. EDT. The 4 personal astronauts from Axiom Space opened Freedoms hatch at 11 a.m. and got in the station beginning eight days of docked operations.
The personal quartet consisting of Commander Peggy Whitson, Pilot John Shoffner, and Mission Specialists Al Alqarni and Rayyanah Barnawi spent Tuesday getting familiar with station operations. They practiced preparing food and beverages, carrying out hygiene practices, carrying out security procedures, and operating lab devices while getting utilized to living in area.
Four spaceships are docked at the spaceport station including the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour and Freedom team ships and Roscosmos Soyuz MS-23 crew ship and Progress 83 resupply ship. Credit: NASA
At the end of the day, the foursome signed up with the seven-member Expedition 69 team and examined functions and obligations in the unlikely event of an emergency situation. The worldwide team of 11 located safety gear such as fire extinguishers and portable breathing gear, followed escape routes, and coordinated interactions with objective controllers in action to fire, ammonia leakage, or pressure leak events.
In the middle of the brand-new crew adjustment activities, there was still time for continuous space science and laboratory maintenance activities. NASA Flight Engineer Frank Rubio serviced a variety of components and swapped samples inside a research furnace and a fluorescence microscope. NASA Flight Engineer Woody Hoburg configured gear supporting a pharmaceutical research study, while UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi established the Stellar Stem Cells experiment, an Ax-2 investigation, that will check out regenerative medication treatments.
NASA Flight Engineer Stephen Bowen spent his day with the Ax-2 team and joined Commander Whitson moving emergency gear and setting up safety hardware between Dragon Freedom and the space station. Bowen and former NASA astronaut Whitson are both Dragon team ship leaders with Bowen leading the SpaceX Crew-6 mission aboard the Dragon Endeavour spacecraft.
The next mission to introduce to the orbital station is an uncrewed cargo objective from Roscosmos counting down to its liftoff at 8:56 a.m. EDT on Wednesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The ISS Progress 84 (84P) cargo craft will dock to the Poisk module simply under three-and-a-half hours later on at 12:20 p.m. delivering about 3 loads of food, fuel, and products to the orbital homeowners. Expedition 69 Commander Sergey Prokopyev and Flight Engineer Dmitri Petelin will be on duty monitoring 84Ps arrival then open its hatch numerous hours later to start unloading the new freight.
In the middle of the new team adjustment activities, there was still time for continuous space science and laboratory upkeep activities. NASA Flight Engineer Woody Hoburg set up gear supporting a pharmaceutical study, while UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi set up the Stellar Stem Cells experiment, an Ax-2 examination, that will check out regenerative medicine therapies.
The next mission to release to the orbital outpost is an uncrewed freight objective from Roscosmos counting down to its liftoff at 8:56 a.m. EDT on Wednesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The ISS Progress 84 (84P) cargo craft will dock to the Poisk module simply under three-and-a-half hours later on at 12:20 p.m. providing about three lots of food, fuel, and products to the orbital homeowners.