The Expedition 73 crew on the Worldwide Area Station (ISS) started their week with the delayed arrival of an extra-large cargo supply, which, along with bringing new science and provides, additionally included care packages from dwelling.
Orbital commentary
Alongside the tons of provides and science gear that have been delivered to the ISS by Northrop Grumman’s first Cygnus XL cargo craft this week have been candy treats for the Expedition 73 crew.
“Greatest a part of cargo automobiles docking to the Worldwide Area Station is the care packages our family members ship,” wrote NASA astronaut Jonny Kim on social media.”
Kim, who’s seen within the picture beneath holding kimchi and Korean BBQ pork, was joined by his crew mates Mike Fincke (holding gummy bears and Mike & Ike candies), Zena Cardman and Kimiya Yui (with Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Hershey candies).
“Due to [everyone] at NASA who ensures these are packaged with love,” wrote Kim.
Science standing
Among the many analysis that was carried out by the Expedition 73 crew aboard the house station this week was:
MVP Cell-07 and Multi-use Variable-g Platform — Jonny Kim of NASA and Kimiya Yui of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Company) contributed to the research of bioprinted liver tissues, observing how their blood vessels responded to being in microgravity. “Outcomes could advance the manufacture of high-quality vascularized tissues and organs bettering long-term well being for astronauts and high quality of life for sufferers on Earth,” stated NASA.
Microgravity Related Bone Loss-B — NASA astronaut Zena Cardman ready bone stem cell samples to be held in storage for his or her later return to Earth. The analysis is geared toward defending astronauts’ skeletal techniques and “probably deal with getting old circumstances and bone ailments on Earth.”
BioNutrients-3 — Mike Fincke of NASA continued a research begun final week that concerned yeast, yogurt and fermented milk samples as a supply of manufacturing nutritional vitamins and vitamins for future long-duration house missions.
Plasma Kristall-4 — Oleg Platonov, a cosmonaut with the Russian house company Roscosmos, ready the {hardware} wanted to watch complicated plasmas and photographed glaciers and mountains all through South America and Africa to file pure and human-made circumstances on Earth.
Station maintaining
The Expedition 73 crewmates additionally took half in actions to keep up the house station’s techniques and put together for future analysis.
Progress M-32 (93P) — Cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky devoted a part of their week to unloading and transferring fluids to and from the newly arrived Russian Progress 93 resupply ship.
Cygnus XL “SS William C. ‘Willie’ McCool” — Jonny Kim and Zena Cardman of NASA captured Northrop Grumman’s first “extra-large” cargo car utilizing the Worldwide Area Station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm. Floor controllers then took over management of the arm to put in the resupply ship on the facet of the Unity node.
Astronaut exercise
Jonny Kim and Zena Cardman mentioned life and work aboard the Worldwide Area Station throughout an interview with attendees of the Quick Firm Innovation Pageant in New York.
“It is a dream come true to be right here,” stated Cardman. “It takes years of preparation, a whole lot of groups of instructors and classmates instructing us and making ready us on the bottom. It’s such an honor to lastly be up right here, finishing up this mission, that we spent so lengthy dreaming about.”
“It has been an extra-special deal with to be up right here with a classmate. Jonny and I have been employed on the similar time,” Cardman added. “It’s actually superb to have a good friend up right here with me.”
By the numbers
As of Friday (Sep. 19), there are 7 folks aboard the Worldwide Area Station: Expedition 73 commander Sergey Ryzhikov of Roscosmos; fellow cosmonauts Alexey Zubritsky and Oleg Platonov; Jonny Kim, Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke of NASA; and Kimiya Yui of JAXA, all flight engineers.
There are two docked crew spacecraft: SpaceX‘s Dragon “Endeavour” connected to the zenith port of the Concord module and Roscosmos’ Soyuz MS-27 connected to the Earth-facing port of the Prichal node.
There are 4 docked cargo spacecraft: Roscosmos’ Progress MS-31 (92P) docked to the space-facing port of the Poisk module and Progress M-32 (93P) docked to the aft port of the Zvezda service module, SpaceX’s CRS-33 Dragon spacecraft docked to the ahead port of Concord Node 2 and Northrop Grumman’s NG-23 Cygnus XL, the “SS William C. ‘Willie’ McCool,” berthed to the Unity node.
As of Friday, the house station has been repeatedly crewed for 24 years, 10 months and 17 days.
