The full moon is pictured by the International Space Station as it orbits 261 miles above the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida on April 9, 2022.
The crew of Expedition 67 is preparing for the departure of the first private mission of astronauts and another spacewalk on the International Space Station. On board the orbital laboratory on Friday, there was still time for biomedical science to understand how the human body adapts to microgravity.
NASA Station Commander Tom Marshburn spent some time Friday helping the four departing members of the Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) crew. The first private space quartet is preparing to end a two-week stay at the station this weekend. Ax-1 Commander Michael Lopez-Allegria will board the SpaceX Dragon Endeavor with pilot Larry Connor and mission specialists Mark Patti and Eitan Stibe and close the hatch at 4.30pm EDT on Saturday. The four Ax-1 astronauts will then disembark at 6:35 p.m. from the space-facing Harmony port for landing off the coast of Florida on Sunday.
The next mission event planned at the station is the fifth spacewalk of the year for more maintenance and improvements to the station. Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Artemiev and Denis Matveev will partner again on April 28 to continue activating the European Robotic Arm (ERA) attached to the multifunctional laboratory module Science.
The duo joined fellow cosmonaut Sergei Korsakov on Friday morning and reviewed the tasks planned for the upcoming spacewalk. This tour will see the ERA’s first move to tune the manipulator for future robotic activities in the Russian segment of the station. The trio then spent the rest of Friday in various inspection and maintenance tasks.
NASA flight engineer Kayla Barron and ESA (European Space Agency) flight engineer Matthias Maurer processed blood and urine samples in the morning for later analysis. NASA flight engineer Raja Chari is working on life support equipment, then joined Marshburn for activities before leaving for the Dragon Endurance crew.
Learn more about the station’s activities by following the space station’s blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter, as well as ISS accounts on Facebook and Instagram.
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