Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, left, NASA astronaut Warren “Woody” Hoburg, second from left, NASA astronaut Stephen Bowen, second from right, and UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, right, are seen inside the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft onboard the SpaceX recovery ship MEGAN quickly after having actually landed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, Monday, September 4, 2023. Bowen, Hoburg, Alneyadi, and Fedyaev are returning after almost six months in space as part of Expedition 69 aboard the International Space Station. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky
4 new Expedition 69 flight engineers are in their 2nd week aboard the International Space Station (ISS) investing more time on microgravity research and laboratory upkeep. Another trio of station crewmates is nearing one year in space and will soon turn its attention to departure at the end of the month.
Recent Activities and Experiments
2 of the stations most recent flight engineers, Jasmin Moghbeli from NASA and Satoshi Furukawa from JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), worked Tuesday on the NanoRacks Bishop airlock inside the Tranquility module. The duo checked video cameras and installed elements on the commercial entrance that allows bigger payloads to be moved within and outside the station. Previously, objective controllers had spent about a week maneuvering Bishop in the grips of the Canadarm2 robotic arm for an experiment to determine temperature, vibrations, and radiation on external payload websites.
The other 2 new crewmates, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov, worked on biomedical science and station upkeep jobs throughout the day. Mogensen spun blood samples in a centrifuge and after that processed them for incubation to study how cellular immune functions are affected by microgravity. Borisov invested his day on battery maintenance and orbital plumbing tasks in the orbital laboratorys Roscosmos segment.
NASA astronaut Frank Rubio (center) is welcomed by fellow NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Bob Hines quickly after he came to the International Space Station on September 21, 2022. Rubio docked to the orbiting laboratorys Rassvet module earlier with Roscosmos cosmonauts (out of frame) Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin aboard the Soyuz MS-22 team ship. Credit: NASA
Long-Term Crews Activities and Upcoming Departure
NASA Flight Engineer Frank Rubio is nearing 365 continuous days in area together with Commander Sergey Prokopyev and Flight Engineer Dmitri Petelin, both from Roscosmos. The trio, which has actually been on the station considering that September 21 of last year, is because of leave the orbital laboratory at the end of the month inside the Soyuz MS-23 team ship and parachute to a landing in Kazakhstan.
In the meantime, Rubio worked Tuesday getting rid of and changing components inside the Cold Atom Lab that chills atoms to extremely low temperature levels to observe quantum qualities. Prokopyev inventoried individual items aboard the station and continued moving cargo from the Roscosmos Progress 85 resupply ship. Petelin attached electrodes to himself and tape-recorded his heart activity for a heart investigation.
International Space Station Configuration on September 3, 2023. 5 spaceships are parked at the area station consisting of the SpaceX Dragon Endurance, Northrop Grummans Cygnus space freighter, the Soyuz MS-23 team ship, and the Progress 84 and 85 resupply ships. Credit: NASA
Recent Departure and the Current Status of Spacecraft
Five spacecraft are still parked at the orbital outpost following the undocking on Sunday of the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour with four Commercial Crew members aboard. Dragon Endeavour, commanded by Stephen Bowen and piloted by Woody Hoburg, both from NASA, with Mission Specialists Sultan Alneyadi of UAE (United Arab Emirates) and Andrey Fedyaev from Roscosmos crashed early the next day off the coast of Florida. The quartet divided up soon after reaching coast and headed home to their specific nations.
Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, left, NASA astronaut Warren “Woody” Hoburg, second from left, NASA astronaut Stephen Bowen, second from right, and UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, right, are seen inside the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft onboard the SpaceX recovery ship MEGAN quickly after having actually landed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, Monday, September 4, 2023. Bowen, Hoburg, Alneyadi, and Fedyaev are returning after nearly 6 months in area as part of Expedition 69 aboard the International Space Station. The other two new crewmates, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov, worked on biomedical science and station upkeep tasks throughout the day. NASA astronaut Frank Rubio (center) is welcomed by fellow NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Bob Hines soon after he arrived at the International Space Station on September 21, 2022. 5 spaceships are parked at the area station including the SpaceX Dragon Endurance, Northrop Grummans Cygnus space freighter, the Soyuz MS-23 crew ship, and the Progress 84 and 85 resupply ships.