With this week’s (June 9 through June 13) expected arrival of a visiting crew delayed just before their launch, science and maintenance work on board the International Space Station was lighter than usual. The Expedition 73 crew had time to reflect on their maintenance work and mark personal and national milestones during their seventh week in orbit.
Orbital observation
“Space is one of the most humbling environments I’ve operated in,” said Expedition 73 flight engineer Jonny Kim, who before becoming a NASA astronaut was a U.S. Navy SEAL and a medical doctor.
Kim on Thursday (June 12) wrote on social media about his experience working behind the International Space Station’s refrigerator-size science racks to clean air filters, examine seals and swap out chipsets for the laboratory’s network servers. Even with the help of Mission Control keeping an eye on his work through live video views, it can be difficult to keep track of all of the parts, Kim found.
“One thing I’ve come to appreciate with maintenance in space is how much gravity helps keep things where they belong. For example, on the ground, I can simply set my pliers down and I know they won’t disappear. But in space, we have to think before every action, because setting pliers down is a recipe for losing them,” he wrote.
Science status
Among the research that was conducted aboard the space station this week was:
Ultrasound 2 — Anne McClain and Nichole Myers with NASA joined Expedition 73 commander Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to use this biomedical device to undergo their first set of eye exams. Working with a doctor on the ground, the scans were to determine if the astronauts’ time in space has affected the structure of their eyes.
Solid Combustion Experiment Module — Onishi also replaced the sample cartridges for an ongoing fire experiment in Japan’s Kibo laboratory, which is aimed at improving the safety of spacecraft and anywhere else astronauts may live when off Earth.
Flight engineer Kirill Peskov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos continued setting up cameras to capture landmarks across Asia and Europe while fellow cosmonaut Alexey Zubritskiy set up equipment to measure neutron radiation caused by solar flares and gamma-ray bursts in an effort to learn if there is an affect on spacecraft.
Station keeping
In addition to Kim’s work on swapping out air filters and chipsets, the crew also devoted time to maintaining the space station’s systems, including:
Enhanced European Exploration Exercise Device (E4D) — Onishi and Kim added grease to the apparatus that is being assessed for its possible use on future missions to the moon. The E4D provides crew members with the same type of exercises as if they were bicycling, rowing and using resistive devices, such as rope pulling and climbing.
Waste and Hygiene Compartment — Working in the Tranquility Node 3 module, McClain drained the tanks for the U.S. segment’s bathroom.
Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) — Inside the Quest airlock, Ayers serviced one of the U.S. spacesuits. She then cleaned and documented the metal oxide containers that are used to scrub carbon dioxide from the extravehicular mobility unit (EMU) during spacewalks.
Other work included monitoring the station’s decibel levels, checking the station’s water quality and clearing the vents of floating debris.
Astronaut activity
Expedition 73 flight engineer and NASA astronaut Anne McClain marked two birthdays this week.
First, on Saturday (June 7) she celebrated her own 46th revolution around the sun. Here she displays cards, gifts and a cake presented to her by her crewmates. Happy birthday, Anne!!
Then on Thursday (June 12), she spoke with Dan Driscoll. Secretary of the U.S. Army, to mark the 250th anniversary of the Army‘s founding. McClain is an active colonel in the service.
“Thank you for your service to the Army and for all our soldiers out there celebrating our 250th birthday of our incredible United States Army, thank you for your service,” she said. “I am proud to represent the Army, which is really an army of innovators, leaders and problem solvers.”
Waylaid visitors
Ryzhikov began the week inspecting hatch seals in the space station’s Russian segment. That work further informed an ongoing concern about air leaks emanating from Roscosmos’ Zvezda service module.
While the leak has been halted, NASA and Axiom Space decided on Thursday (June 12) to stand down from the launch of the Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) crew to give more time to consider additional fixes aboard the station.
A new launch date for former astronaut Peggy Whitson with a crew of three astronauts from India, Hungary and Poland is still to be determined.
By the numbers
As of Friday (June 13), there are 7 people aboard the International Space Station: commander Takuya Onishi of JAXA, Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers and Jonny Kim of NASA and Kirill Peskov, Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky of Roscosmos, all flight engineers.
There are two docked crew spacecraft: SpaceX‘s Dragon “Endurance” attached to the forward port of the Harmony module, and Roscosmos’ Soyuz MS-27 attached to the Earth-facing port of the Prichal node.
There are also two docked cargo spacecraft: Roscosmos’ Progess MS-29 (90P) attached to the space-facing port of the Poisk module and Progress MS-30 (91P) attached to the aft port of the Zvezda service module.
As of Friday, the space station has been continuously crewed for 24 years, 7 months and 12 days.