Expedition 73 thread

[Yellowstone10]

Dextre has moved MSC 8 (probably - possibly 9) from MISSE-FF slot Z2 to slot T8 on the transfer tray.

[Yellowstone10]

Dextre has wrapped up for the day - but we did get some views of the fully-occupied Columbus EPF as well as CRS-32 before the SSRMS arm camera tucked itself away.

[ddspaceman]

A few photos from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/54483292216/in/photostream/

Astronaut Takuya Onishi processes research samples for the Cell Gravisensing investigation

iss073e0000725 (April 23, 2025) --- JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut and Expedition 73 Commander Takuya Onishi, whose image is reflected in a station mirror, processes research samples for the Cell Gravisensing investigation observing the mechanism that enables cells to sense the effects of gravity. The biotechnology experiment takes place inside the International Space Station's Kibo laboratory module and may lead to therapies treating space-caused and Earthbound muscle and bone conditions.

Astronaut Nichole Ayers prepares for a midday meal aboard the Unity module

iss073e0000877 (April 21, 2025) --- NASA astronaut and Expedition 73 Flight Engineer Nichole Ayers prepares for a midday meal aboard the Unity module where the International Space Station's galley is located.

Astronaut Takuya Onishi processes biological fluid samples

iss073e0002477_alt (April 28, 2025) --- JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut and Expedition 73 Commander Takuya Onishi processes cassettes containing biological fluid samples for installation inside the Advanced Space Experiment Processor-4, a research facility that can be shipped back and forth from Earth to space, for a biotechnology study.

Astronaut Takuya Onishi processes biological fluid samples

iss073e0002477_alt (April 28, 2025) --- JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut and Expedition 73 Commander Takuya Onishi processes cassettes containing biological fluid samples for installation inside the Advanced Space Experiment Processor-4, a research facility that can be shipped back and forth from Earth to space, for a biotechnology study.

[ddspaceman]

Jonny Kim
@JonnyKimUSA
M+16: If you’ve lived on MREs, you’ve probably tried some creative field recipes.

Here is a twist on the ranger burger, one of my favorites: beef steak, wheat snack bread, cheese spread as both topping and glue, potatoes au gratin layered in the middle, and a generous slather of gochujang red pepper paste from a care package on the SpX-32 Cargo Dragon.

I miss cooking for my family, but this hits the spot in its own way.

https://twitter.com/JonnyKimUSA/status/1917437837395272115

[ddspaceman]

ISS Research
@ISS_Research
Expedition 73 studies how microgravity affects the protein yields of Chlorella microalgae, a potential nutrient-rich food source that can be turned into protein powder to add to food. Results could support improved and sustainable plant-based food production on and off Earth. http://go.nasa.gov/4cWFaLZ

https://twitter.com/ISS_Research/status/1917591327283306996

[ddspaceman]

Astronauts Ready for Thursday Spacewalk as Biology, Earth Science Continues

Mark A. Garcia
April 30, 2025

Two NASA astronauts spent Wednesday finalizing preparations for a spacewalk to upgrade the International Space Station’s power generation capabilities and relocate a communications antenna. Expedition 73 Flight Engineers Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers began their shift staging their spacesuits and organizing their spacewalking tools inside the Quest airlock.

After a midday meal, McClain and Ayers teamed up with station Commander Takuya Onishi of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and NASA Flight Engineer Jonny Kim and called down to mission controllers to discuss their spacewalk readiness. Onishi and Kim will be on duty Thursday helping the spacewalkers in and out of their spacesuits and monitoring their activities from inside the orbital outpost. The quartet also conducted a final review of the procedures necessary to ready the orbital outpost for a new rollout solar array and relocate an antenna that communicates with visiting vehicles. The planned six-hour and 35-minute spacewalk is set to begin at 8 a.m. EDT on Thursday and will be broadcast live on NASA+ beginning at 6:30 a.m.

McClain and Ayers also had a standard pre-spacewalk health checkout just before their lunch on Wednesday. Kim, a trained medical doctor, led the exams measuring the astronauts’ vital signs including temperature, blood pressure, pulse, and breathing rate.

Kim also had time to photograph tomato plants growing for a space agriculture experiment studying if crops can grow without photosynthesis in microgravity possibly increasing plant cultivation on Earth and in space. Onishi began his shift processing biological fluid samples for a biotechnology investigation that may lead to expanded research and commercial opportunities in space.

The station’s three cosmonauts from Roscosmos had a research-packed day studying the human cardiovascular system and photographing landmarks on Earth.

Flight Engineers Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky took turns measuring each other’s blood pressure as electrodes monitored their circulation. The data will give doctors insight into how weightlessness affects blood flowing back and forth from the heart. The two crewmates later wrapped up their shift pointing their cameras toward Earth and photographing glaciers in the Patagonia region of South America.

Roscosmos Flight Engineer Kirill Peskov was also on Earth observation duties on Wednesday. He first powered down a camera used for photographing natural and manmade disasters across the planet. Afterward, he set up a specialized camera and pictured regions throughout North and South America in the visible and near-infrared wavelengths.

https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/spacestation/2025/04/30/astronauts-ready-for-thursday-spacewalk-as-biology-earth-science-continues/

Expedition 73 Commander Takuya Onishi processes cassettes containing biological fluid samples for installation inside the Advanced Space Experiment Processor-4, a research facility that can be shipped back and forth from Earth to space, for a biotechnology study.

[Targeteer]

Debris conjunction PDAM in work for tonight at 0029z TIG 2209.  No info on debris.  Crew instructed to close all window shutters before going to sleep.

[Yellowstone10]

Debris conjunction PDAM in work for tonight at 0029z TIG 2209.  No info on debris.  Crew instructed to close all window shutters before going to sleep.

The burn occurred just after orbital sunset, and was visible on the YouTube stream.

[Targeteer]

https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/spacestation/2025/04/30/station-maneuvers-to-avoid-orbital-debris/

Station Maneuvers to Avoid Orbital Debris

The Progress 91 thrusters were fired at 6:10 p.m. EDT Wednesday for 3 minutes, 33 seconds, to raise the orbit of the International Space Station to provide an extra margin of distance from a piece of orbital debris from a fragment of a Chinese Long March rocket launched in 2005. The pre-planned Debris Avoidance Maneuver was coordinated by NASA, Roscosmos, and other space station partners.

Without the maneuver, NASA estimated the fragment could have come within around .4 miles of the station.

There is no impact to operations aboard the space station and it will not affect U.S. spacewalk 93 on Thursday, May 1, with NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers.

[ddspaceman]

Jonny Kim
@JonnyKimUSA
M+22: Tomorrow, @AstroAnnimal and @Astro_Ayers will be performing a spacewalk on the outside of the @Space_Station to set up a solar array upgrade and move an antenna in preparation for Japan’s future HTV-X spacecraft.

Today is a more relaxed day, giving us time to inventory all of our equipment and study our roles. Tak and I will be the suit IVs, meaning it is our responsibility to ensure that Anne and Vapor are properly suited up and pass all safety checks.

Their lives are in our hands, so we’ll be triple checking each other and methodically going through our procedures and checklists.

Once we button them up, it’s up to Anne, Vapor and the Houston ground team to execute the mission. Tak and I will be ready to receive them in the airlock when they are complete.

https://twitter.com/JonnyKimUSA/status/1917683065381609943

[ddspaceman]

大西卓哉 （JAXA宇宙飛行士）Takuya Onishi
@Astro_Onishi
GT:
With Anne and Nichole's spacewalk scheduled for tomorrow, today we made final checks on the configuration and procedures inside the airlock.
A human being will go outside the spacecraft wearing only a space suit. In order to accomplish this safely, it is necessary to gather the strength of many people. I am one of those people, so I will do my best tomorrow. 💪

https://twitter.com/Astro_Onishi/status/1917681656644735097

[ddspaceman]

NASA's Johnson Space Center
@NASA_Johnson
'Twas the night before a spacewalk. 🧑‍🚀

Watch @AstroAnnimal and @Astro_Ayers venture outside the @Space_Station to relocate a communications antennae and install a mounting bracket ahead of the installation of an additional set of Rollout Solar Arrays: http://go.nasa.gov/3ETnDHV

The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. EDT tomorrow, May 1, and last about six and a half hours. @NASA will provide live coverage beginning at 6:30 a.m. on NASA+!

COL Anne McClain
@AstroAnnimal
The night before EVA on @Space_Station…

Our suit IV @Astro_Onishi, along with suit IV-assist @JonnyKimUSA, are going over tomorrow’s procedures one more time. The IVs are the unsung heroes of EVA (spacewalk) day – they are up before we are preparing the airlock, and they run the 5-hour long suit-up and pre-breathe procedure. After the EVA, while we relax, they spend another couple of hours deconfiguring the suits. It's their airlock – we take their guidance on when to be where so that we can preserve our energy for the EVA. We start our oxygen mask pre-breathe at 6:50 a.m., and we don’t start the EVA for about another 5 hours. It’s a long morning!

The IV’s role is critical – they keep us on time, ensure our safety, and are the eyes and ears of Mission Control. We are lucky to have these two as IVs – they have spent as much time preparing for tomorrow as we have.

https://twitter.com/NASA_Johnson/status/1917682771809468589

[Targeteer]

https://x.com/katlinegrey/status/1917708736518410697

The #ISS orbit correction was performed today at 22:10 UTC due to the space debris alert. The engines of #ProgressMS30 fired for 212.79 seconds with ab impulse of 0.3 m/sec, increasing the station's orbit altitude for 540 m.

[jacqmans]

MEDIA ADVISORY M25-052

APRIL 30, 2025


NASA, International Astronauts to Connect with Students in Texas

NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi will answer prerecorded questions about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics from students in Mansfield, Texas, while aboard the International Space Station.

The 20-minute space-to-Earth call will take place at 10:40 a.m. EDT on Monday, May 5, and can be watched on the NASA STEM YouTube Channel.

Media interested in covering the event must RSVP no later than 5 p.m., Friday, May 2 by contacting Laura Jobe at [email protected] or 817-299-6300.

The event, hosted by Mansfield Independent School District, also will have students present from Brenda Norwood Elementary, Alma Martinez Intermediate, Charlene McKinzey Middle, Jerry Knight and Frontier STEM Academies in Mansfield. This opportunity will allow the students to relate what they have learned about space travel to personal experiences.

For more than 24 years, astronauts have continuously lived and worked aboard the space station, testing technologies, performing science, and developing skills needed to explore farther from Earth. Astronauts aboard the orbiting laboratory communicate with NASA’s Mission Control Center in Houston 24 hours a day through SCaN’s (Space Communications and Navigation) Near Space Network.

Important research and technology investigations taking place aboard the space station benefit people on Earth and lays the groundwork for other agency missions. As part of NASA’s Artemis campaign, the agency will send astronauts to the Moon to prepare for future human exploration of Mars; inspiring Artemis Generation explorers and ensuring the United States continues to lead in space exploration and discovery.

See videos of astronauts aboard the space station at:
https://www.nasa.gov/stemonstation

[ddspaceman]

NASA
@NASA
LIVE: We're going on a spacewalk! @AstroAnnimal and @Astro_Ayers are scheduled to head out around 8am ET (1200 UTC) on a six-and-a-half hour spacewalk to upgrade the @Space_Station.

https://twitter.com/NASA/status/1917889344628457840

[ddspaceman]

NASA Astronauts Begin Spacewalk to Prep Station for Future Solar Array

Mark A. Garcia
May 1, 2025

NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers began a spacewalk at approximately 9:05 a.m. EDT to install a mounting bracket to prepare for the future installation of an additional set of International Space Station Rollout Solar Arrays. The astronauts also will relocate a space station communications antenna. 

NASA’s coverage continues on NASA+. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms.

McClain is crew member 1, wearing the suit with red stripes. Ayers is spacewalk crew member 2, wearing the unmarked suit.

https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/spacestation/2025/05/01/nasa-astronauts-begin-spacewalk-to-prep-station-for-future-solar-array/

Astronaut Anne McClain works outside the Quest airlock where she exited shortly after beginning a spacewalk to upgrade the International Space Station’s power storage capacity on March 22, 2019.
NASA

[ddspaceman]

International Space Station
@Space_Station
Spacewalkers @AstroAnnimal and @Astro_Ayers are at the station's P4, or Port-4, truss structure installing a modification kit readying the orbital outpost for its seventh rollout solar array to be delivered later this year. Watch now on @NASA+... https://go.nasa.gov/3ETnDHV

https://twitter.com/Space_Station/status/1917947980050501682

[ddspaceman]

International Space Station
@Space_Station
Astronauts Takuya Onishi and Jonny Kim are inside the space station monitoring today's spacewalk with @AstroAnnimal and @Astro_Ayers. Watch now on @NASA+... https://go.nasa.gov/3ETnDHV

https://twitter.com/Space_Station/status/1917995942214816114

[ddspaceman]

International Space Station
@Space_Station
Spacewalkers @AstroAnnimal and @Astro_Ayers have installed a mod kit for a future rollout solar array and relocated a communications antenna. They are now cleaning up their worksites and are heading back inside the station soon.  Watch now on @NASA+... https://go.nasa.gov/3ETnDHV

https://twitter.com/Space_Station/status/1918006603187454190

[ddspaceman]

NASA Astronauts McClain and Ayers Reenter Station and Complete Spacewalk

Mark A. Garcia
May 1, 2025

NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers concluded their spacewalk at 2:49 p.m. EDT. The total time was 5 hours and 44 minutes. It was the third spacewalk for McClain and the first for Ayers, and the 275th spacewalk in support of space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.

McClain and Ayers completed their primary objectives, including relocating a space station communications antenna and the initial mounting bracket installation steps for an IROSA that will arrive on a future SpaceX commercial resupply services mission. Additionally, the astronaut pair completed a pair of get ahead tasks, including installing a jumper cable to provide power from the P6 truss to the International Space Station’s Russian segment and another to remove bolts from a micrometeoroid cover.

https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/spacestation/2025/05/01/nasa-astronauts-mcclain-and-ayers-reenter-station-and-complete-spacewalk/

NASA spacewalkers (from left) Nichole Ayers and Anne McClain work together at the International Space Station’s Port-4 truss structure to install a modification kit readying the orbital outpost for a future rollout solar array.