The science-packed SpaceX Dragon spacecraft will wait another week before departing the International Space Station as mission managers monitor weather conditions at the splashdown sites. Meanwhile, the Expedition 72 crew geared up for a spacewalk planned later in December and serviced an array of science hardware and exercise equipment.
Mission managers waved off the planned return of the Dragon resupply spacecraft on Friday, Dec. 6, due to forecasted unfavorable weather conditions at the splashdown site off the coast of Florida. NASA and SpaceX now are targeting Thursday, Dec. 12, for the next return opportunity due to an extended period of high sun exposure at the space station over the next week. NASA’s live coverage of Dragon’s undocking and departure begins at 10:50 a.m. EST on NASA+ as the spacecraft autonomously undocks from the Harmony module’s forward port around 11:05 a.m. on Thursday. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.
NASA astronauts completed installing science freezers packed with research samples and powered lockers with completed experiments inside Dragon. The crewmates also loaded a host of station hardware inside the spacecraft and secured it for the return to Earth. NASA and SpaceX support personnel will retrieve Dragon after its return to Earth and send the preserved scientific specimens and orbital gear to labs for analysis and maintenance.
Meanwhile, research continued on the space station as NASA astronauts and flight engineers Don Pettit and Butch Wilmore split their day working on a pair of space physics experiments. Wilmore first opened up the Microgravity Science Glovebox and removed research components for a study that explored ways to separate viruses from biological fluids and improve disease detection methods. Pettit followed and then installed new hardware in the glovebox that will support an investigation that may enable bulk crystal growth and large-scale semiconductor manufacturing in space.
NASA astronaut and station commander Suni Williams spent a second day in the Quest airlock for more spacesuit work ahead of a series of spacewalk planned for early next year. Williams, a three-time space station resident, first swapped a data recorder box from one suit to another. Afterward, she inspected and serviced the spacesuit’s life support gear following the previous day’s suit resizing and configuration work.
NASA astronaut and flight engineer Nick Hague began his shift in the Tranquility module performing a six-month inspection on the COLBERT treadmill’s hardware and components. Hague then wrapped up his day inspecting tethers and gathering tools for a pair of cosmonauts who preparing for a spacewalk planned before Christmas.
Roscosmos cosmonauts and flight engineers Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner spent most of Thursday studying for the year’s last spacewalk planned for Thursday, Dec. 19. The duo collected tools from Hague and reviewed procedures that would see the spacewalkers spend about six-and-a-half hours in space removing external science experiments and relocating European robotic arm hardware on the station’s Roscosmos segment.
Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov completed an Earth observation session imaging in different wavelengths the effects of natural and human-caused impacts on the landscape below. The first-time space flyer moved on and inspected power supply units in the Zarya module and filled an oxygen generator in the Zvezda service module.
Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.
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