Flight Engineers Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers have been assigned by mission managers to exit the orbital outpost’s Quest airlock on May 1 for a spacewalk and work six-and-half hours in the vacuum of space. The NASA duo will install a modification kit on the port side of the station’s truss structure enabling the future installation of the orbiting lab’s seventh rollout solar array. They will also relocate an antenna that communicates with approaching and departing commercial crew and cargo spacecraft. McClain will be going on her third spacewalk and Ayers will be conducting her first spacewalk.
McClain and Ayers spent Tuesday inside Quest adjusting the spacesuits ensuring the helmets, boots, and arm and leg assemblies they will wear fit together. Next, the pair powered up and checked the functionality of suit components such as glove heaters, data recorders, cameras, and helmet lights. Finally, McClain and Ayers began collecting and configuring the tools they will use during the upcoming maintenance spacewalk.
Ayers earlier assisted NASA Flight Engineer Jonny Kim during the CIPHER investigation on Tuesday checking his blood pressure and performing an ultrasound scan. Kim wore electrodes as Ayers measured his blood pressure and scanned his chest using the Ultrasound 2 device. Doctors will use the data to determine if longer spaceflights lead to changes in vascular structure and function that may affect an astronaut’s eyes and vision. Ayers, Onishi, and McClain later took a vision test reading characters off a standard eye chart.
Kim also took turns with JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi and trained for the arrival of the SpaceX Dragon cargo craft next week. The duo reviewed the different approach and rendezvous profiles Dragon may use based on the station’s position in space and the techniques used to monitor the spacecraft before it docks to the orbital outpost. Dragon is scheduled to launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 4:15 a.m. EDT on Monday, April 21, and dock to the station’s space-facing port on the Harmony module at 8:20 a.m. the next day.
Roscosmos Flight Engineers Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexander Zubritsky continued their human research studies first measuring their exhalation rate for a respiratory study then observing how blood flows back and forth from the head to the limbs. Doctors will use the insights to understand how microgravity affects the human body and learn how to keep crews healthy on long duration spaceflights. Flight Engineer Kirill Peskov started Tuesday with orbital plumbing work then checked the station’s Roscosmos segment for stowage space and inspected batteries and electronics components.
NASA astronaut Don Pettit and Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner continue preparing for their return to Earth planned for 9:20 p.m. on Saturday, April 19 (6:20 a.m. on Sunday, April 20, Kazakh time). The trio is cleaning crew quarters, packing personal items, and handing over responsibilities to the crewmates staying behind. Ovchinin will also turn his station command over to Onishi the day before he leaves. Expedition 72 will end and Expedition 73 will officially begin when Pettit, Ovchinin, and Vagner undock from the Rassvet module inside the Soyuz MS-26 crew ship at 5:57 p.m. on Saturday.
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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Source: NASA
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