Expedition 73 actions continued this week with bone loss and cardio research, in addition to a first-of-its-type reboost operation for the orbital complicated.
Orbital statement
College students from the Laptop College in New York had an opportunity to file questions for Expedition 73 crewmates Jonny Kim of NASA and Kimiya Yui of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Company) to reply throughout a reside broadcast from the Worldwide House Station (ISS) on Friday (Sept. 5). Among the many matters that the center college college students requested about was why we discover.
“Personally I believe humankind is all the time in want of a frontier so as to reside fortunately, in order that’s why you retain doing exploration,” mentioned Yui.
“I believe exploring that frontier is so vital to inspiring the following era,” added Kim.
One other scholar requested if, given a selection between residing in house or on Earth, which might they select?
“I’ve plenty of enjoyable up right here in house,” mentioned Kim. “We benefit from the views of Earth collectively, sharing tales over dinner, and the work we do may be very rewarding. However Earth remains to be my favourite place to be. It is my house, and it is the place everybody I like remains to be there. And so after all for me, I would reasonably reside on Earth.”
You’ll be able to watch the whole Q&A under.
Science standing
Among the many analysis that was carried out by the Expedition 73 crew aboard the house station this week was:
Cardiobreath — Flight engineer Mike Fincke helped accumulate information to enhance future crews’ train regimes by carrying a scarf and vest related to sensors whereas he rode a stationary bike within the U.S. Future laboratory.
Microgravity Related Bone Loss-B — Jonny Kim ready bone stem cell samples that had been being handled with a therapeutic agent. The examine might enhance our understanding why astronauts’ skeletal programs bear adjustments over the course of their missions.
Station maintaining
The Expedition 73 crewmates additionally took half in actions to take care of the house station’s programs and put together for future analysis.
Multi-use Variable-g Platform — Kimiya Yui of JAXA swapped out the moisture-absorbing cassettes for this microwave-size machine that can be utilized to spin up scientific samples to as much as twice the pressure of Earth’s gravity.
European Enhanced Exploration Train System — Yui additionally gave a the 34D look over for its potential to assist bicycling, rowing and resistive capabilities, in addition to practice with rope pulling and climbing.
CRS-33 — Jonny Kim and Zena Cardman labored on unloading science and logistical provides from the Dragon cargo spacecraft that arrived on the house station final week.
Floor controllers additionally reoriented the station and examined the brand new Dragon reboost package to extend the orbiting complicated’s altitude above Earth. This was the one of many first occasions a SpaceX spacecraft had been used to reboost the station.
Astronaut exercise
How will we translate giant heavy objects in house? Fastidiously and with the slightest of inputs. pic.twitter.com/crMMKcrZDkSeptember 3, 2025
NASA astronaut Jonny Kim used a spacesuit to display the distinction between being weightless and having mass within the microgravity atmosphere of house.
“How will we translate giant heavy objects in house? Fastidiously and with the slightest of inputs,” he posted on his social media accounts.
By the numbers
As of Friday (Aug. 15), there are 7 folks aboard the Worldwide House Station: Expedition 73 commander Sergey Ryzhikov of the Russian house company 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 three docked cargo spacecraft: Roscosmos’ Progress MS-30 (91P) connected to the aft port of the Zvezda service module, and Progress MS-31 (92P) docked to the space-facing port of the Poisk module. SpaceX’s CRS-33 Dragon spacecraft is docked to the ahead port of Concord Node 2.
As of Friday, the house station has been repeatedly crewed for 24 years and 10 months and three days.