The 11 team members representing the Expedition 70 (red t-shirts) and Axiom Space 3 (dark blue matches) crews collect for a goodbye event calling down to objective controllers in the world. Credit: NASA TVThe Expedition 70 and Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3) teams called down to Mission Control on Friday for a goodbye ceremony as the four personal astronauts target their departure for Saturday morning. (Subsequently, the undocking has actually been delayed up until Monday, February 5, due to climate condition off the coast of Florida.) The orbital residents aboard the International Space Station worked simply half a day loading the SpaceX Dragon Freedom spacecraft before going to bed early to prepare for the spacecrafts undocking.Final Day and Splashdown PlansThe Ax-3 personal astronauts thought they were on their final day aboard the orbital station following 2 weeks of science and academic activities. The foursome, led by Commander Michael López-Alegría, was targeted to undock inside Dragon from the Harmony modules forward port at 6:05 a.m. EST on Saturday. However, due to weather off the coast of Florida, NASA, Axiom Space, and SpaceX are now targeting no earlier than Monday, February 5, for the undocking of Axiom Mission 3. The SpaceX Dragon Freedom spacecraft bring the four-member Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3) crew is envisioned on January 20 approaching the International Space Station 260 miles above southern India. Credit: NASAAfter undocking, López-Alegría, together with Pilot Walter Villadei and Mission Specialists Alper Gezeravcı and Marcus Wandt, will then parachute inside Dragon to the splashdown site where assistance personnel from Axiom Space and SpaceX await their arrival. Objective managers will receive a final weather report before providing the Ax-3 quartet the final go for a splashdown off the coast of Florida.Mission Wrap-Up and Crew ContributionsSpace station Commander Andreas Mogensen from ESA (European Space Agency) assisted the Ax-3 crewmates finish up their mission activities helping reconfigure the orbital laboratory for standard team operations. NASA Flight Engineers Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral OHara participated in and recovered station emergency situation equipment from Dragon and stowed science hardware inside the returning spacecraft.Northrop Grummans Cygnus area freighter approaches the International Space Station to provide more than 8,200 pounds of science experiments, crew products, and station hardware for the Expedition 70 team. Both spacecraft were orbiting 262 miles above the Middle East at the time of this photograph. Credit: NASAEarlier, OHara partnered with astronaut Satoshi Furukawa from JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and transferred research study samples from the recently gotten here Cygnus cargo craft into science freezers aboard the station. Furukawa later on swapped out research hardware that supports botany and biology experiments with a minimum of astronaut intervention inside the Columbus laboratory module.Station Maintenance and Research ActivitiesCosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub loaded the Progress 85 resupply ship, docked to the Zvezda service modules rear port, with trash and disposed of items before it ends its cargo mission and undocks later on this month. Flight Engineer Konstantin Borisov invested his shift setting up a variety of experiment hardware. Borisov serviced a cam that observes Earths environment in ultraviolet wavelengths, charged hardware that documents crew interactions with objective controllers from worldwide, then shut down medical equipment that constantly keeps track of a crew members high blood pressure.
