The Expedition 70 Crew Prepares for Dragon's Depature

Friday - December 22 2023, 12:07 UTC - 11 months ago

The Expedition 70 crew packed the U.S. cargo craft, Dragon, on Wednesday before its 5:05 p.m. EST departure on Thursday, December 21. The four astronauts coordinated final cargo transfers and the seven orbital residents collaborated on research studies and lab maintenance. Blood and saliva samples were collected and stowed away into Dragon for retrieval and analysis on Earth, as well as medical data collected from monitoring vests. The crew also conducted 3D printing to demonstrate microgravity manufacturing.

The Expedition 70 crew finished packing a U.S. cargo craft on Wednesday before it departs the International Space Station. The seven orbital residents also collaborated on a variety of human research studies to learn how to keep humans healthy in space.

Four astronauts worked together on Wednesday to coordinate final cargo transfers inside the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft. Dragon, which has been docked to the station since November 11,  was slated to undock at 9:05 p.m. EST on Wednesday from the orbital outpost’s forward port on the Harmony module. Due to weather, it is now scheduled to depart at 5:05 p.m. EST on Thursday, December 21.

The agency will provide live coverage of Dragon’s undocking and departure starting at 8:45 p.m. on the NASA+ streaming service via the web or the NASA app. Coverage also will air live on NASA Television, YouTube, and on the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms including social media.

Astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Andreas Mogensen began the science return work in the morning transferring frozen research samples from station science freezers and into insulated Dragon science transport bags. Astronauts Loral O’Hara and Satoshi Furukawa continued the sample handovers inside the Destiny, Kibo, and Columbus laboratory modules and packed them aboard Dragon. NASA flight engineers O’Hara and Moghbeli wrapped up the research by stowing fresh astronaut blood samples inside Dragon for retrieval and analysis on Earth. Moghbeli will be the last crew member inside Dragon before exiting and closing its hatch a few hours before its departure.

All four crewmates started their shifts collecting blood and saliva samples for the CIPHER suite of 14 experiments examining how living in weightlessness affects the human body. O’Hara also took a cognition test to understand how the brain functions in space. Moghbeli downloaded medical data stored on a health-monitoring vest and headband. At the end of the day, Furukawa and Mogensen, from JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and ESA (European Space Agency) respectively, used the Ultrasound 2 device and scanned each other’s neck, shoulder, and leg veins.

The three cosmonauts living and working aboard the station stayed focused on their contingent of Roscosmos-based science experiments and lab maintenance. Flight Engineers Konstantin Borisov and Nikolai Chub took part in a pair of different fitness evaluations. Borisov started first pedaling on an exercise cycle before Chub jogged on a treadmill while both were attached to sensors measuring their aerobic output. Flight Engineer Oleg Kononenko conducted another 3D printing session to demonstrate manufacturing tools and supplies in microgravity.